Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years. With a Procession and Sacrificev. [These were included in both subsequent performances.] Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by Thomas Sheridan. Not in Larpent MS; not published; synopsis of plot in London Chronicle, 21 Dec.]: Taken from the comedy of that name by Sir John Vanburghi [sic]. Receipts: #151 2s. 6d. (115.4.0; 35.16.0; 0.2.6)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; P 2, attributed to Richard Brinsley Sheridan (see G. W. Williams in Studies in Philology, XLVII, 1950, 619-28). Synopsis of action (W. Randall, 1779) lists no parts]: The Overture and Music entirely new. With new Scenes, Machines, Dresses and Decorations. All the Scenery, Machinery, &c. designed by DeLoutherbourg and executed under his direction. Nothing under Full Price will be taken. [For a discussion of this pantomime see Theatre Survey, II, 54-66.] Public Advertiser, 24 Feb. 1779: This Day is published an Account of The Wonders of Derbyshire and the Songs (6d.). Receipts: #225 19s. (223.18.0; 2.1.0)

Event Comment: The Discovery [announced on playbill of 23 Jan.] is obliged to be deferred on account of King's Indisposition. Receipts: #174 17s. (171.11; 3.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Walpole. Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. Public Advertiser, 26 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Miss Walpole, No. 15, Henrietta-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #203 19s. 6d. (100.2.0; 15.10.0; 3.15.6; tickets: 84.12.0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 6 years. Receipts: #92 17s. 6d. (90.14.0; 2.3.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Dodd. Mainpiece: Not acted these 20 years. Public Advertiser, 18 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Dodd, New Ormond-street. Receipts: #192 11s. 6d. (65.11.0; 21.13.6; 0.7.0; tickets: 105.0.0) (charge: #78 4s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Gardner. In order to render the Entertainment perfectly agreeable the Performance will be accompanied with a Band of Horns and Clarinets

Event Comment: Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. No Persons admitted behind the Scenes, nor any Money returned after the Curtain is drawn up. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Brandon (only) at the Stage-Door. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin exactly at 6:30 [see 23 Oct.]. Receipts: #144 1s. 6d. (142.0.6; 2.1.0)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Mainpiece: Written by Farquhar, with Alterations. Not acted these 80 years [acted 24 Oct. 1735]. A great Demand being made for Places, Ladies and Gentlemen are requested to send their Servants by Five o'Clock

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Cargill. Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years [not acted since 24 Apr. 1776]. Receipts: #195 13s. 6d. (71.11.0; 29.17.0; 1.1.6; tickets: 93.4.0) (charge: none listed)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Mrs Greville and Williams. Mainpiece: Not acted these 5 years. Tickets delivered for the 17th of December will be admitted. Tickets and places to be had of Williams at Mr Spoke's, Tottenham Court; Mr White, Auctioneer, Queen street, Westminster; Messrs Ellis and Scott, Old Bond-street; Mr Hewitt, New Bond-street; Mr Cowcieroy, Great Russell-street, Bloomsbury; and at the Excise Office Coffee-House, Old Bond-street

Event Comment: Benefit for Henderson. Mainpiece: Written by Congreve; and now carefully revised and corrected, by expunging the exceptionable passages. [The playbill assigns Lord Touchwood to Clarke, but on the Kemble playbill his name is deleted; the substitute name has been cut by the binder.] Afterpiece: Contracted into 3 acts. With a Grand Dance, and a Reinforcement of Bayes's Troops [for which, and for a list of the other parts, see DL, 13 Dec. 1777. In the Dancing Banti is announced as making his 5th appearance (see 25 Feb., 5 Mar.)]. Public Advertiser, 2 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Henderson, Buckingham-street, York Buildings. Receipts: #238 9s. 6d. (144/9/6; tickets: 94/0/0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Benefit for Rolles, Brereton, Longley & Colley. Tickets delivered by Robson (pit door-keeper), Stephenson, Robinson, Varley, W. Ansell, Smallwood, Shuter, Pillbrow, Turtle, Haliburton, Jennings will be admitted this Evening. [Afterpiece in place of The Citizen, announced on playbill of 28 May.] The last Time of the Company's performing this Season. Receipts: #240 8s. 6d. (27/13/6; 1/14/0; tickets: 211/1/0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 5 years. [Bonnor and Miss Scrase were from the Bath theatre; Mrs Chalmers from the York theatre.] Receipts: #201 18s. (200/5; 1/13)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by Henry Mackenzie; Prologue by the author (Knapp, p. 274)]: Altered from Lillo's Fatal Curiosity. Gazetteer, 29 Apr. 1784: This Day is published The Shipwreck (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #180 17s. 6d. (166/12/0; 14/5/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Quick. Public Advertiser, 5 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Quick, No. 99, High Holbourn. Mainpiece: Not acted these 20 years [not acted since 15 Apr. 1763]. Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by Frederick Pilon]: Altered from [The Comical History of Don Quixote, Part II, by Thomas] D'Urfey. In Act I A Grand Baratarian Procession of Sancho to his Government. The Characters all dressed in the Habits of the Times

Event Comment: Benefit for Dignum and Mrs Wilson. Public Advertiser, 2 May: Tickets to be had of Dignum, Little Wild-street, Drury-lane; of Mrs Wilson, No. 2, Catherine-street, Strand. Mainpiece: Not acted these 4 years. Receipts: #301 19s. 6d. (33/5/0; 15/19/0; 1/2/6; tickets: 251/13/0) (charge: #108 15s.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Acted but once these 20 [recte 22] years [on 29 Mar. 1785]. Afterpiece: Contracted into 3 acts; not acted these 7 years [acted 19 Mar. 1782]. Receipts: #204 17s. (200/2/6; 4/14/6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 5 years [acted 2 Nov. 1781]. Paid Wardrobe #6 2s. 6d.; Guard [master carpenter] for Scenemen #17 15s. 11d. Receipts: #178 9s. (171/19; 6/10)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Stockwell to Aickin, but "Fearon, in consequence of Aickin's illness, took the part of Stockwell at a short notice and upon the whole acquitted himself respectably" (Morning Chronicle, 6 Oct.).] "There is an infinite combination in Mrs Abington, a power of making everything new yet conformable to the character (Public Advertiser, 14 Oct.). Receipts: #328 11s. 6d. (326/11/0; 2/0/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Abington. Pit and Boxes will be laid together. Ladies and Gentlemen are most earnestly requested to come early, to prevent Inconvenience in getting to their Places, and to send their Servants to keep them by Four o'clock. "At the close of the entertainment Mrs Abington came forward, and delivered a short poetical address to her fashionable auditory [written by Maurice Morgann (Monthly Mirror, Nov. 1797, p. 263)], apposite to her feelings on the present occasion" (Morning Herald, 11 Feb.). "The character [of Scrub] throughout was well conceived, and executed with a sprightliness and degree of humour that kept the house in a continual roar of laughter" (Public Advertiser, 11 Feb.) "Mrs Abington's voice was in its usual tone; her manners and deportment were inattentive and torpid, rather than active and interesting" (Morning Post, 11 Feb.). "With all her endeavours to give new points to the character, she entirely failed. Her appearance en culottes, so preposterously padded, exceeded nature. Her gestures to look comical could not get the least hold of the audience, though they had seen her before in men's clothes, when playing Portia in The Merchant of Venice, where her figure, dressed as a lawyer in his gown, gave effect to her excellent delivery on mercy, and the audience had been always delighted. But this leu de benefice, comparatively speaking, was disgusting and absurd as she dressed the character ... However, I have heard it originated in a bet she had previously made" (Henry Angelo, Reminiscenes, 11, 281-82). Receipts: #406 13s. 6d. (249/9/6; 1/9/0; tickets: 155/15/0) (charge: free)