ABSTRACT

First published in The News, I, 18 August 1805, p. 110. William Dowton’s benefit revival (on benefit performances, see below, p. 343, n. 8) of The Tailors at the Haymarket and the ensuing riot described here by Hunt took place on 15 August 1805. The Tailors, a satire on the fraternity of tailors, was first staged by prominent actor and dramatist Samuel Foote (1720–77; DNB) at the Haymarket in 1767. Questions persist about the possibility of Foote’s authorship, but Allardyce Nicoll lists the play under unknown authorship (A History of English Drama 1660–1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1955), vol. iii, p. 405). Although the play’s satire on the foppishness, impertinence, and high rates associated with the sartorial profession was more applicable to the time of its original production than to 1805, Hunt’s slighting remarks on the trade confirm the persistence of such stereotypes.