Event Comment: Afterpiece: Not acted
these 4 years. Full prices. [See 10 March 1750.]
Mr Maddox ye Ballance Master perform'd [on
the rope] in it. Great Expectations not answer'd (
Cross). [See ridicule of this afterpiece at
dl 6 Nov. and
the summary account of
the disturbance it produced, as recorded in
the Gentleman's Magazine (Nov. 1752, p. 535):
The Town had been allured to
Covent Garden by a wire dancer and some strange animals, which
the manager brought toge
ther from
Sadler's Wells and
the Fair.
Mr Garrick ridiculed this perversion of
theatrical entertainment, by exhibiting a mock entertainment of
the same kind. At this
the town was offened, and a party went one evening determind to damn it; a person of some distinction [
Fitzpatrick] who was very busy in this laudable attempt threw an apple at
Woodward and hit him. Woodward resented
the blow by some words, which, by
the gentleman's account, implied a challenge, but by Woodward's no such thing. Woodward's account is confirm'd by
the affidavits of many; that of
the gentleman only by his own, though
the box in which he sat was full.
The Inspector espoused
the cause of
the Gentleman; and
the Covent Garden Journalist of
the comedian.'