How this company were collected, or where they originally came from,
it is probably now no longer possible to ascertain. As they were
announced, upon their first appearance in New York, as a company
of comedians who had come from Philadelphia, it is highly probable
that they had played before in the Southern cities, and that they
came originally from the West Indies, where, especially in Jamaica,
theatrical companies from England had been in the habit of performing
for some years previously. During the two seasons of the company in
New York the following plays were given: “Richard III.”; Otway’s
“Orphan”; Dryden’s “Spanish Friar”; Farquhar’s “Sir Harry Wildair,”
being the sequel to the “Trip to the Jubilee”; “Recruiting Officer”
and “Beaux’ Stratagem”; “George Barnwell”; “The Beggar’s Opera”; “The
Distressed Mother”; Congreve’s “Love for Love” and the “Bold Stroke
for a Wife”; with the following farces: “The Beau in the Suds,” “The
Mock Doctor,” “The Devil to Pay,” “The Walking Statue,” “The Old Man
Taught Wisdom,” “Damon and Phillida,” “Hob in the Well,” and “Miss in
Her Teens.” The names of the _dramatis personæ_ were not printed in
the play-bills, for the reason, probably, that the same actor had to
play different parts in the same piece, but from references made to
individual performers, the following persons are known to have been
members of the company: Kean and Murray, the joint managers; Messrs.
Taylor, Woodham, Tremaine, Jago, Scott, Moore, Marks, and Master Dickey
Murray, the manager’s son; Miss Nancy George, Miss Osborne, Mrs.
Taylor, Mrs. Davis, and Mrs. Osborne. Kean, Tremaine, and Jago played
in tragic parts. Murray and Taylor were comedians. Miss Nancy George
and Miss Osborne were the chief ladies in comedy and tragedy. Woodham
and Mrs. Taylor were comedians and vocalists, and Kean, like his more
distinguished namesake, Edmund Kean, appears to have possessed some
musical talent, for on the occasion of his first benefit he announces
that he will sing “an oratorio.” Master Dickey Murray would seem to
have been a favorite of the public. The other actors performed in
subordinate parts.
[Decorative Illustration]