Event Comment: 1st piece: Not acted these 5 years [not acted, in summer season, since 28 Aug. 1789; see 8 Feb. 1794]

Event Comment: Benefit for Johnstone. 1st piece: The Overture, Chorusses and new Musick by Dr Arnold. The new Scenery by Rooker, Marinari, &c. 2nd [1st time; MF 1, author unknown. Not in Larpent MS; not published]: Overture and new Music by Reeve, and selected Songs by Dibdin. [3rd piece in place of The Prize, advertised on playbill of 31 Aug. C. Kemble had 1st appeared as Zorinski at the hay on 31 Aug. and 7 Sept. 1795.] Morning Herald, 27 Aug.: Tickets to be had of Johnstone, No. 19, Piazza, Covent-Garden

Event Comment: [Halpin is identified in MS list in Kemble playbills of new performers for this season. This was not his first appearance; he had acted previously in Dublin (Monthly Mirror, Nov. 1796, p. 437; Hibernian Journal (Dublin), 16 Dec. 1789, 20 Jan. 1790). For the naming of the characters in mainpiece, as they were called originally, see 23 Feb. 1792.] Receipts: #255 (193.11.6; 58.4.6; 3.4.0)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Horatio to Kemble, but "The publick is respectfully informed that on account of the sudden indisposition of Kemble the part of Horatio will be performed by Whitfield" (printed slip attached to Kemble playbill).] Receipts: #238 5s. (156.12; 78.9; 3.4)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: The Overture, Chorusses and new Musick by Dr Arnold. Receipts: #162 12s. 6d. (103.17.0; 56.7.6; 2.8.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. 1st piece: Never acted in this Theatre. [Prologue by George Colman, elder. Monologue by Hester Lynch Piozzi (European Magazine, May 1797, p. 343).] True Briton, 12 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Siddons, No. 49, Great Marlborough-street. "The scenery destroyed much of the effect of the tragedy; for the characters are supposed to be 'steeped in poverty to the very lips;' and yet their apartments would have become a family in the meridian of wealth and prosperity. Mrs Siddons was also too well dressed for Mrs Wilmot" (Monthly Mirror, May 1797, p. 308). "In the scene in which [Mrs Siddons's] son having put into her hands a casket to keep, and she having touched a spring it opens and she sees jewels, her husband (Kemble) enters, and in despair exclaims, 'Where shall we get bread?' With her eyes fixed on the jewels, she runs to him, knocks the casket against her breast and exclaims, 'Here! Here!' In Mrs Siddons's tone and in her look there was an anticipation of the murder which was to take place" (Robinson, I, 39). Receipts: #618 2s. (386.8.6; 43.19.0; 2.4.0; tickets: 185.10.6) (charge: #211 1s.)

Event Comment: Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. 2nd Gallery 1s. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00 [same throughout season.] Places for the Boxes to be had of Rice, at the Theatre. Printed by T. Woodfall, No. 104, Drury Lane [this first on playbill of 26 June, and thereafter]

Event Comment: Afterpiece: Altered from the Comedy of The Committee; or, The Faithful Irishman [by Sir Robert Howard]. Never acted here

Event Comment: "In the scene with Salanio and Solarino after the discovery of Jessica's flight, Elliston was more noisy than impressive; and the speech "hath not a Jew eyes?" &c. was delivered with such a dreadful rant as to destroy all the beauty of the poet, as well as the effect which this part always produces when judiciously delivered...Miss DeCamp's Portia was beyond what we could possibly have expected from a person of her line of acting. It was frequently above, but never below mediocrity" (Monthly Visitor, Sept. 1797, p. 257)

Event Comment: [Mrs Walcot's 1st appearance in London was at the hay, 26 Apr. 1785.] Account-Book: Paid Soldiers 17s. 6d. [this paid nightly]. Receipts: #316 2s. 6d. (201.17.6; 112.18.0; 1.7.0)

Event Comment: [2nd piece in place of The Citizen, advertised on playbill of 20 Nov.] Receipts: #232 3s. (161.3.6; 64.12.0; 6.7.6)