146

Street" was not to her liking or convenience.,

Mrs. Shaw had been with the theatrical troop of
Wignell and Reinagle since 1794; she must have been a
good character actress to have played such parts as
Lady Waitford in the Dramatist (her first recorded
role), Betty Pry in the Lying Valet, Mrs. Candour in
School for Scandal, Mrs. Malaprop in the Rivals, the
Queen, in Hamlet, and the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet.¹⁹
She must have been successful, too, judging by the
appraisal which the director, Thomas Wignell made of
his actresses in 1797: he graded them numerically
upon an ideal score of 15, stating that he based his
judgment more upon public than private opinion. He
gave Mrs. Shaw 10 - not bad, considering that only two
of his troop received more, Mrs. Ann Brunton Merry a
perfect score of 15, and Mrs. Whitlock 13.²⁰

"Mr. Shaw" (there seems no reason to believe that
he was not Ralph Shaw, the music publisher) was like-
wise of the theatrical profession; in 1794 he was
designated as "R. Shaw of the Theatre Charlestown";²¹

he occasionally appeared as a singer in the New Theatre

of Baltimore,²² but as far as can be asccrta5ned, did

19 Pollock, T.C. The Philadelphia theatre in the
eighteenth century. p. 202-217*

20 Ibid, p. 60.

21 Horton, M.D.H. Haydn in America (before 1820).
p. 333.

22 e.g. Federal gazette. November 20, 1795.