Event Comment: [As afterpiece
Public Advertiser announces
The Rival Candidates, but see
Hopkins Diary, 12 Oct.]
The Managers met again to-day, but nothing settled.
Hamlet was given out. I saw
Mr Sheridan, he told me that
Mr Lacy and he had agreed that no Play should be given out, nor any Bills put up, till
they had settled this Affair, which was to be done to-Morrow at
Mr Wallis's (
the Attorney's) where
they were all to dine. I waited on Mr Lacy, who agreed to
the same, and no Bills or Paragraph were sent to
the Papers. All
the Business of
the Theatre is at a Stand, and no Rehearsal called. Wed. 16th--Mr Sheridan,
Dr Ford and
Mr Linley dined today by Appointment with Mr Wallis where Mr Lacy was to have met
them; about four o'clock he sent a verbal Message that he could not come to Dinner, but would wait upon
them in
the Evening, and about nine o'clock he came, and everything was settled to
the Satisfaction (of
them all) and a Paragraph sent to
the Papers, and
the Hypocrite and
Christmas Tale was advertised for Friday, but no Play was to be done on Thursday--
Covent Garden did not play on Friday (
Hopkins Diary).
Public Advertiser, 16 Oct., summarizes
the proprietors' dispute:
the Drury Lane patent had been purchased [in 1747] by
David Garrick and
James Lacy. On his death Lacy had devised his half-share to his son,
Willoughby Lacy; on his retirement from
the stage Garrick had sold his half-share to Sheridan, Ford and Linley.
The original agreement between Garrick and Lacy, as recited in a document retained by
the attorney
Albany Wallis was that, in case of
the sale of ei
ther share of
the patent, or any part of ei
ther share,
the seller was obligated to offer
the first refusal to purchase to
the o
ther partner, and that this was to be done only when
the theatre was closed for
the summer. In selling one half of his share to
Robert Langford and to
Edward Thompson, Willoughby Lacy was--so argued his three partners--acting illegally: he had not offered to
them
the first refusal, and he was negotiating
the sale at a time when
the theatre was open.
Public Advertiser, 17 Oct.. prints a statement from Lacy saying that he did not feel himself bound by
the original agreement between his fa
ther and Garrick, but that, in
the interest of
the business of
the theatre, he had asked Langford and Thompson to withdraw
their claim to partnership, to which request
they had acceded. Receipts: #130 9s. 6d