Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent Confusion Ladies are desired to send their Servants by half past Four o'clock. Morning Herald, 1 May: Tickets to be had of Mrs Siddons, Gower-street, Bedford-square. "In the apparent assumption of madness [and] the express'd weakness and melancholy of the character Kemble is not equalled by any of his predecessors . . . Till [Mrs Siddons] there never was, in sensible discrimination, as there ought to be, the real madness of Ophelia from the feigned distraction of Hamlet. Till then the dignity, the love, even the pathos of the part [were] but poorly, if at all administered" (Public Advertiser, 17 May). Receipts: #326 14s. 6d. (137/3/0; 7/3/6; 0/4/0; tickets: 182/4/0)(charge: #109 16s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Booth. 1st piece: In Act II the Grand Triumphal Entry of Alexander into Babylon. 3rd piece: Never performed there. Morning Chronicle, 2 May: Tickets to be had of Booth, No. 18, Broad Court, Long Acre. Receipts: #105 12s. 6d. (99/8/6; 6/4/0; tickets: none listed) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Tickets delivered by the Band, Helme, Ledger, Painter, Bates, Newton, Atkins, Mrs Davenett, Rowson, Gray will be admitted. Receipts: #278 11s. (51/13; 5/18; tickets: 221/0)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. [Mainpiece in place of Fontainbleau; afterpiece of The Drummer, both announced on playbill of 18 May.] Receipts: #305 4s. (304/12; 0/12)

Event Comment: The Duenna [announced on playbill of 27 May] is obliged to be deferred, on account of Mrs Billington's violent Hoarseness. Receipts: #63 14s. 6d. (59/19/6; 3/15/0)

Event Comment: [Mathews was from the Royal Circus. Prologue by George Colman the elder (Colman, Prose, ui, 269).] Places for the Boxes to be taken of Rice, at the Theatre. Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00 [same throughout season]. Hunt the Slipper is unavoidably postponed. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. 2nd Gallery 1s

Event Comment: Benefit for Bannister Jun. In consequence of Edwin's Indisposition, Bannister Jun. is obliged to undertake the character of Mrs Cole. Morning Chronicle, 19 July: Tickets to be had of Bannister Jun., No. 29, Bow-street, Covent Garden. 1st piece [1st time; F I, author unknown, altered from The Walking Statue; or, The Devil in the Wine Cellar, by Aaron Hill. MS: Larpent 741; not published].3rd piece: Not acted these 7 years [acted 8 Sept. 1780]

Event Comment: Benefit for the Author [of mainpiece]

Event Comment: [A detailed account of all three pieces appears in Sophie v. la Roche, Sophie in London, 1933, pp. 93-95. The theatre is described as seeming "exceptionally small, but it is very prettily painted in blue and white; the boxes, as in Paris, are open and everything is well lit." In 3rd piece "A twelve-year-old girl dressed as a poor boy who walks around with a bundle of rushes, straw and reeds to patch up old chairs, then really sits down to work on one, sang and played unusually well; indeed, was obliged to give two encores; the third time, however, announced with dignity and candour that it would not be possible, and that she feared she might be unable to take her part the next day; which would grieve her excessively, as she liked having her modest talents appreciated and applauded. Everyone clapped and praised her aloud. She is beuatiful, and deserves to be the nation's darling, and will certainly become a great actress, competent to keep her voice, gesture and features in complete control, never using her talents wrongly or producing exaggerated effects."]