Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; P 2, by John O'Keeffe. MS: Larpent 608; not published. CG playbill of 16 Nov. 1795 has a detailed synopsis of the action]: Intermixed with Songs and Dialogue. With new Music, Scenes, Dresses, Machinery, and Decorations. The new Music composed by Shield. The new Scenes designed by Richards, and executed by Richards, Hodgins, and assistants. To conclude with a Representation of the Lord Mayor's Show on the Water. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Nothing under Full Price will be taken. "As to the Pantomime it wanted nothing on the first Night but Abbreviations . . . [which should be] omission of the Doctors, the two Women of the Town, and the whole of Edwin's Character" (Public Advertiser, 27 Nov.). Gentleman's Magazine, Jan. 1783, pp. 29-31, contains a detailed synopsis of the procession, and adds, "The personages of this procession were all dressed in the characters of the time in which they lived, and before each of them a label, a scroll, or a pageant was carried, bearing their name, or some allusion of the poets to their occupation. The figures in transparency were all painted as large as the life, and had a most grand and beautiful effect . . . The idea of the paintings was furnished by Mr Richards and Mr Smirk [sic], and all of them executed by the latter in a style of so much taste and excellence that it is a matter of some wonder to us, where an artist of Mr Smirk's abilities has been so long concealed . . . The glee introduced with so much applause is the composition of the late Dr Rogers (who lived in 1600); the other airs in the pantomime and procession arc by Handel, Lord Kelly, Abel, Stamitz and Shield, and have very great merit. The expense of preparing this splendid spectacle must have been very great, and the cost of continuing its representation cannot be inconsiderable, since more than 200 supernumeraries are employed to walk in the procession." Receipts: #215 3s. (206/3; 9/0)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Gardner. Afterpiece: From The Devil upon Two Sticks, written by the late Samuel Foote, Esq. [Mrs Mills is identified in Morning Chronicle, 1 Jan. 1783. For remarks on this night's performance, including references to Dunstan by Charles Lamb, see Theatre Notebook, VIII, 5.] Gardner having unavoidably been obliged to postpone his night from the 26th to the 30th, he thinks it his duty to inform his friends that tickets delivered for the 26th will be taken

Event Comment: Tickets delivered by Darley, Jones, Painter, Besford, Mrs Davenett, Mrs Sharpe, the Widow of the late Dr Arne, and Mrs Dalrymple will be admitted. Tickets delivered for The Maid of the Mill will be taken. [Afterpiece in place of THE Devil upon Two Sticks, announced on playbill of 27 May.] Receipts: #286 14s. 6d.(93/6/6; 3/1/0; tickets: 190/7/0)

Event Comment: "The appearance of Mrs Abington in the two characters of the Capricious Lady and Lady Bab Lardoon cannot fail of being considered as a high Treat ... as the first exhibits the coy, formal Manners of the last Age, and the latter the free degagee Breeding of the present" (Public Advertiser, 13 Feb.). Receipts: #227 12s. 6d. (211/10/0; 16/2/6)

Event Comment: [3rd piece in place of The Devil upon Two Sticks, announced on playbill of 13 Feb.] Receipts: #126 3s. 6d. (122/12/0; 3/11/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Pacchierotti. Opera: A Serious Opera; the Music by several eminent Masters. Pit tickets will admit two persons to the 1st, and three to the 2nd Gallery; but no money to be returned. Tickets to be had of Pacchierotti, No. 7, Great Marylebone-street, near Cavendish-square

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. Public Advertiser, 6 Mar.: In 1st piece Love in her Eyes was sung by Norris; O ruddier than the cherry by Reinhold; Consider, fond shepherd by Mrs Kennedy; Heart, thou seat of soft delight by Miss George. The concerto consisted of "two Movements made up of common Ballads."

Event Comment: Benefit for Johnstone. Tickets for The Two Gentlemen of Verona will be admitted. Public Advertiser, 21 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Johnstone, No. 23, Pall Mall. Receipts: #195 16s. 6d. (125/8/6; tickets: 70/8/0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of Two to One; afterpiece of The Agreeable Surprise, both announced on playbill of 14 Sept.] The last Night this Season

Event Comment: [Afterpiece in place of The Devil upon Two Sticks, announced on playbill of 6 Dec.]

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of Fontainbleau; afterpiece of The Devil upon Two Sticks, both announced on playbill of 9 Dec.]

Event Comment: There are two Kemble playbills for this night, one announcing Douglas, and a second, which reads: "On Account of the sudden and severe Indisposition of a Principal Performer . . . Douglas is unavoidably postponed, and This Evening will be presented . . . Macbeth. Macbeth-Holman; Lady Macbeth-Mrs Bates. The rest of the Characters, with the Vocal Parts, all as usual [see 4 Oct.]."

Event Comment: [By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain (but this notice does not appear on the playbill)]. Benefit for Miss Llewellin. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00. Tickets delivered for Monday the 24th, and Thursday the 7th of April will be admitted. Miss Llewellin is the daughter of a late eminent and respectable Merchant in one of our neighbouring islands, whose family have been great sufferers by the late war, and is left with two sisters, orphans. She solicits the patronage of a generous publick for that night only. Tickets to be had of Miss Llewellin, No. 204, Piccadilly

Event Comment: Benefit for the two Miss Kembles [who are named in the Account-Book, but not on the playbill]. Receipts: #199 10s. 6d. (180/7/0; 18/6/6; 0/17/0; tickets: none listed) (charge: #109 18s. 10d.)

Event Comment: [2nd piece in place of Two to One, announced on playbill of 30 July.]

Event Comment: [Afterpiece in place of The Devil upon Two Sticks, announced on playbill of 17 Nov.] Receipts: #139 12s. 6d. (134/6/0; 5/6/6)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Mrs Wells, but she "was so ill last night that she could not perform the part of Jane Shore. It was undertaken by Mrs T. Kennedy" (Public Advertiser, 21 Dec.).] Afterpiece [1st time; P 2, by John O'Keeffe]: The Pantomime, and the whole of the Scenery, Machinery, Dresses, &c. designed and invented by Loutherbourg, and executed under his superintendance and direction by Richards, Carver, Hodgins, Catton Jun., Turner, assisted by two other celebrated artists [all subsequent playbills have "a celebrated artist"; he was the Rev. Matthew William Peters (Public Advertiser, 16 Dec.)]. The Music entirely new, composed by Shield. Books containing a short account of the Pantomime, as well as the Recitatives, Airs, Duets, Trios and Chorusses, and a Description of the Procession, to be had at the Theatre. Nothing under Full Price will be taken. [This was the last theatrical piece for which De Loutherbourg designed the scenery. For a detailed account of it see "De Loutherbourg and Captain Cook", by Ralph G. Allen, Theatre Research, IV, 195-211.] Account-Book, 17 Oct.: Paid De Loutherbourg on acct. #120; 20 Dec.: Paid Goodwin for copying Music #10 14s.; 14 Feb. 1786: Paid O'Keeffe in full for Omai #40. Receipts: #309 19s. (302/7; 7/12)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 7 years [acted 18 Jan. 1782]. [In afterpiece the playbill retains Edwin, but "At the conclusion of the play an apology was made for Edwin's non-appearance, owing to indisposition, and Palmer and Meadows announced as his substitutes in the two songs in Omai" (Morning Post, 6 Feb.).] Receipts: #231 15s. (229/7; 2/8)

Event Comment: A Serious Opera, altered [by Carlo Francesco Badini] from Metastasio; the Music by Anfossi [a pasticcio, with additions by Sacchini, Piccinni, Gazzaniga, Schuster, Mortellari]. [This was Mme Mara's 1st appearance on the English operatic stage. She had 1st sung in London, in concerts at the Pantheon, in 1784.] "It is with the utmost astonishment we remarked that she unites the talents of an excellent actress with the merit of the most enchanting singer that ever perhaps came forth on any stage" (Morning Herald, 15 Feb.). "Mme Mara delivered the recitatives with a force of expression that produced the strongest interest of character, and the woes of Dido as powerfully engaged the sympathy, as the rich and varied melody of the airs, the admiration of the audience" (Morning Chronicle, 16 Feb.). "The [second] opera was Didone, a pasticcio, for which Mara had made a very judicious selection of songs, introducing four of very different characters, by Sacchini, Piccinni, and other composers, all of which were so much and so equally admired, that two were encored every night, each of them receiving that mark of approbation in its turn. Mara's talents as a singer (for she was no actress and had a bad person for the stage) were of the very first order. Her voice, clear, sweet, distinct, was sufficiently powerful, though rather thin, and its agility and flexibility rendered her a most excellent bravura singer, in which style she was unrivalled" (Mount-Edgcumbe, 59)