Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 1

207 Friday Decr. 5th. 1783. JQA Friday Decr. 5th. 1783. Adams, John Quincy
Friday Decr. 5th. 1783.

In the evening I went to the Covent Garden Theatre, and saw the Merchant of Venice, with Love a la Mode;1 a young Lady appeared for the first Time she play'd upon any Stage in the part of Portia.

1.

Love à la Mode, London, 1793, by Charles Macklin, first produced in 1760 ( Biographia Dramatica ; Hogan, ed., London Stage, 1660–1800 ).

Saturday. Decr. 6th. 1783. JQA Saturday. Decr. 6th. 1783. Adams, John Quincy
Saturday. Decr. 6th. 1783.

Dined at Mr. W. Vassal's1 at Clapham.

1.

William Vassall, once a prominent Bostonian, now a loyalist refugee, whom JA later described as “one of my old friends and clients ... a man of letters and virtues, without one vice that I ever knew or suspected, except garrulity” (Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates , 9:349–359; JA, Works , 10:214–215).