The Two Gentlemen of Verona has not been a favourite in the theatre. Meres mentions it in Palladis Tamia (1598); but the earliest performance of which record remains is that presented by Garrick at Drury Lane on December 22, 1762; and this, according to Genest, was the first time the play had been given in that theatre. Garrick acted no character in the play; and the production was not Shakespeare's play, but a clumsy alteration of it by Benjamin Victor, Treasurer of Drury Lane Theatre, who made confusion of the plot by altering the arrangement of certain scenes, and wrote additional matter for the last act in order to bring the comic characters, Launce and Speed, on the stage again. The sixth repetition of this play, on January 25, 1763, saw the outbreak of the ‘Half-Price Riots.’ On this and the following evening Drury Lane Theatre was wrecked by a gang headed by ‘Thady’ Fitzpatrick; and John Moody, who was acting the Host, only saved the scenery from being set on fire by dragging the incendiary forcibly away. The first recorded performance of the play at Covent Garden took place on April 13, 1784; the production appears to have been Shakespeare's play, with some slight alterations; and three representations of Shakespeare's play were given by John Philip Kemble at Drury Lane in January, 1790.