Event Comment: Benefit for Harley. 1st piece: In Three Acts. Morning Herald, 7 May: Tickets to be had of Harley, No. 51, Great Queen-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields. Receipts: #308 14s. 6d. (104.2.0; 6.13.6; tickets: 197.19.0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Clendining. The Poetry of the additional Songs [in 1st piece] by Peter Pindar, Esq. [pseud. for John Wolcot]. Morning Herald, 27 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Clendining, No. 19, Martlett-court, Bow-street, Covent-garden. "Mrs Clendining's endeavours to entertain were successful, and Fitzroy by Incledon gave a rich feast to the musical amateur. The air beginning, 'Dear Tom, this brown jug,' had a fine effect by the music being omitted" (Diary, 18 May). Receipts: #273 17s

Event Comment: Benefit for Mme Mara. Public Advertiser 22 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mme Mara, No. 25, Queen Anne-street, East. Receipts: #216 4s. 6d. (114.17.6; 28.11.0; 2.18.0; tickets: 69.18.0) (charge: #163 17s. 6d.)

Event Comment: [The playbill announces the performances for this evening as by command of Their Majesties, but "The melancholy tidings of the death of the Queen of France prevented the royal visit" (Thespian Magazine, Dec. 1793, p. 357).) Receipts: #392 13s. (383/11; 9/2)

Event Comment: Directors of the Oratorios: Linley and Storace. Among the Principal Instrumental Performers are Ashe, W. Parke, Parkinson, Mason, Flack, Ashbridge, &c. Boxes 6s. Pit 3s. 6d. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. No Money to be returned. Books of the performance to be had at the Theatre. [This was the 1st performance held in the new DL theatre]. Under the Management of Mr Kemble. The Box Office, for the present, is in Little Russell-Street, opposite to the Theatre, where Boxes and Places are to be taken of Fosbrook. The Box Doors are in Little Russell Street and Woburn Street. The whole of the Avenues [into the theatre], and the New Street ["which is intended to be called Woburn-street" (Carlton House Magazine, Apr. 1794, p. 136); see next paragraph] not being yet complete, Ladies and Gentlemen are particularly requested to direct their Coachmen to set down in Little Russell Street (where alone the Carriage Box Doors are at present) with the Horses heads toward Covent Garden, which is the only line in which Carriages can be permitted to pass. Carriages wanting to draw up after the performance should be headed to range in Drury Lane, toward Long Acre and Great Queen Street. The Chair Doors and Footway are in the Court in Woburn Street, where for the accomodation of those who may wish to have their Carriages wait out of the Croud, Chairs belonging to the Theatre and under proper regulations will attend. In order to keep the Colonnades quite clear no Servants can be permitted to wait there, but those belonging to the Carriages actually drawn up before the Pillars, and no Servants whatever can be permitted to pass the Doors of the Lower Saloon. Pit Door. The Temporary Pit Passage is in the center of the Theatre, in Bridges Street, which leads to a Spacious Saloon, which will be opened One Hour before the opening of the Pit Doors. All Carriages for the Pit Door are to wait in Catherine Street, or York-Street, to take up with the Horses heads towards Little Russel Street, and to pass through Great Russel-Street. Gallery Doors. The Gallery Doors, for Admittance, are in Little Russell-Street, and Woburn-Street, but, after the commencement of the Performance, the Gallery Doors, for the present can be only in Woburn Street. Every proper precaution is taken to prevent Croud and Inconvenience at the several Passages. The Doors to be opened at 5:15. To begin at 6:30 [same throughout oratorio season]. "The Orchestra represented the inside of a Gothic Cathedral [designed by Capon], and the Chorus Singers paid that attention to their attire that rendered the stage respectable. The house is so constructed that every note was distinctly heard at the remotest part of the theatre . . . The audience are so near the performers that the movement of every muscle is seen; a matter essentially necessary, particularly to the exhibition of an English Drama." [This opinion is greatly at variance with that of other commentators on the construction, the acoustics, &c. of the new theatre.] (European Magazine, Mar. 1794, p. 236). "The stage for the oratorios resembles a Gothic Cathedral, with illuminated stained glass windows, &c. The flies . . . [are] carved like the fretted roof of an antique pile, and the wings to the side scenes are removed for a complete screen, like those in use at the foreign theatres." (Thespian Magazine, Mar. 1794, p. 127). Account-Book, 12 Mar.: Paid Cabanel building Stage, on Acct. #130; Capon, painter, on Acct. #61 12s. Receipts: #358 6s. (281/2; 243 tickets sold by Fosbrook: 72/18; 4/6)

Event Comment: Account-Book, 29 Mar.: Received from Ashley Oratorio Rent #52 10s. [this amount paid for each of the 11 nights of the oratorio season, being a total of #577 10s.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: In Act I The Cardinal's Banquet. In Act II The Court for the Trial of Queen Katharine. In Act V a Grand Procession to the Christening of Princess Elizabeth. Paid Charles Smith on Acct. of Upholders Work at Drury Lane Theatre #400. Powell: Henry VIII rehearsed at 10 (for Packer, lame, and Mrs Siddons); Siege of Belgrade music at 12 (for Storace, Bannister Jun., Crouch, Davis, Danby). The Iron Curtain being finish'd was this Evening exhibited for the first Time with the Epilogue [and see 21 Apr.]. "On the 24th February, 1809, this theatre was burnt down . . . Every care had been taken to guard against such a calamity. Two large reservoirs for water, on the top of the house, happened, unfortunately, at this crisis to be empty; and an iron curtain, intended to separate the auditory from the stage, for the purpose of saving a part of the edifice in case of conflagration, was, with its machinery, so much out of order as to be useless; it was, in fact, utterly immoveable" (Brayley, p. 8). Receipts: #451 8s. 6d. (389/4/0; 56/5/0; 4/6/6; tickets not come in: 1/13/0)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for the Gentleman who performs the Part of Zanga [in THE REVENGE], and Mr and Mrs Simpson. Mainpiece: Written by the celebrated Dr Young, Author of the Night Thoughts, &c. Afterpiece: As an After-piece [i.e. reduced from 5 to 3 (?) acts]. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30. Tickets to be had of Longman and Broderip, Cheapside and Haymarket; Pass, No. 53, High Holborn; Bland's Music Warehouse, No. 45, High Holborn; Strutt, Bookseller, No. 20, Little Queen-street, Lincoln's Inn Fields; Ellwick, Musical Instrument Maker, No. 55, Long Acre, comer of Phoenix O>urt; Padbury, Coal Merchant, No. 24, Henrietta-street, Covent Garden; Evan, Bookseller, No. 351, near the Pantheon, Oxford Road; and of Simpson, at No. 33, St. Martin's-street, Leicester-square

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; BALL. P 2, by James Byrn. Synopsis of action, somewhat enlarged from that on playbill (H. Macleish, 1794)]: The Music partly new by Shield, and partly selected from Haydn, Mazzinghi, Gluck, Baumgarten, Gretry, Martin? y Soler, Dezede, Eley. With a new Overture for a Double Orchestra composed by Reeve. The Scenery, Machinery, Dresses and Decorations are entirely New. The Scenery painted by Hodgins, Walmsley, Phillips and Lupino Jun., assisted by Hollogan, Byrn, &c. The Dresses chiefly designed by Lupino Sen., and executed under the direction of Dick. "This ballet [is] the most magnificent exhibited on the English stage for many years" (Universal Magazine, Nov. 1794, p. 378). Receipts: #136 13s. 6d. (123.12.6; 13.1.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Pope. [Mainpiece: Epilogue by Richard Brinsley Sheridan.]Afterpiece: Not acted these 2 years. Morning Chronicle, 17 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Miss Pope, No. 9, Great Queen-street, Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. Receipts: #402 2s. (144.16.0; 76.3.6; 1.12.6; tickets: 179.10.0) (charge: #211 1s. 8d.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by William Henry Ireland; incidental music by William Linley. Prologue by Sir James Bland Burges; Epilogue by Robert Merry (see text)]: With new Scenes, Dresses & Decorations. The Scenes designed and excuted by Greenwood and Capon. The Dresses by Johnston, Gay & Miss Rein. Printed slip attached to Kemble playbill: A malevolent and impotent attack on the Shakspeare MSS. [i.e. those forged by W. H. Ireland, of which this play was one] having appeared, on the Eve of representation of Vortigern, evidently intended to injure the interest of the Proprietor of the MSS., Mr Samuel? Ireland [W. H. Ireland's father] feels it impossible, within the short space of time that intervenes between the publishing and the representation, to produce an answer to the most illiberal and unfounded assertions in Mr Malone's enquiry [i.e. Edmond Malone, An Inquiry into the Authenticity of certain Papers attributed to Shakspeare, Queen Elizabeth, and Henry, Earl of Southampton, 1796]. He is therefore induced to request that Vortigern may be heard With that Candour that has ever distinguished a British Audience. The Play is now at the Press, and will in a very few days be laid before the Public. [But it was not issued until 1799 (see below). See also Bernard Grebanier, The Great Shakespeare Forgery, London, 1966.] 4 Apr., states that the first three acts were listened to with patience, but beginning with the fourth act the play was damned, when "one tremendous yell of indignation from the pit burst simultaneously." "At four o'clock the doors of the theatre were besieged; and, a few minutes after they were opened, the pit was crowded solely with gentlemen. Before six not a place was to be found in the boxes, and the passages were filled...The audience betrayed symptoms of impatience early in the representation; but, finding its taste insulted by bloated terms, which heightened the general insipidity, its reason puzzled by discordant images, false ornaments, and abortive efforts to elevate and astonish, pronounced its sentence of condemnation at the conclusion of the play" (Gentleman's Magazine, Apr. 1795, pp. 346-47). "Irelands play of Vortigern I went to. Prologue spoken at 35 minutes past 6 [see 29 Mar.]: Play over at 10. A strong party was evidently made to support it, which clapped without opposition frequently through near 3 acts, when some ridiculous passages caused a laugh, mixed with groans-Kemble requested the audience t o hear the play out abt. the end of 4th act and prevailed.-The Epilogue was spoken by Mrs Jordan who skipped over some lines which claimed the play as Shakespeares. Barrymore attempted to give the Play out for Monday next but was hooted off the stage. Kemble then came on, & after some time, was permitted to say that "School for Scandal would be given," which the House approved by clapping. Sturt of Dorsetshire was in a Stage Box drunk, & exposed himself indecently to support the Play, and when one of the stage attendants attempted to take up the green cloth [i.e. a carpet which, by custom, was laid on the stage during the concluding scene of a tragedy], Sturt seized him roughly by the head. He was slightly pelted with oranges" (Joseph Farington, Diary, 1922, I, 145). Account-Book, 4 Apr.: Paid Ireland his share for the 1st Night of Vortigern #102 13s. 3d. Morning Chronicle, 29 Mar. 1799: This Day is published Vortigern and Henry the Second (4s.). Receipts: #555 6s. 6d. (528.6.0; 26.9.6; 0.11.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Pope. 2nd piece: Written by David Garrick, Esq. Morning Herald, 23 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Miss Pope, No. 63, Great Queen-street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. Receipts: #367 8s. 6d. (127.15.0; 62.1.0; 9.17.6; tickets: 167.8.0; odd money: 0.7.0) (charge: #210 16s.)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of Mary Queen of Scots, advertised on playbill of 27 Dec.] Receipts: #210 16s. (163.12; 44.13; 2.11)