ABSTRACT
Hester Booth’s decision to sell her share in the patent and retire was not surprising. She had never been associated with the management of the theatre, and she must have felt very vulnerable without her husband’s support and guidance. She cannot have enjoyed the personal attack in The Theatric Squabble, published in July 1733. The anonymous author aimed most of his satire at Highmore and Ellys, but he did not spare Mrs Booth and Mrs Wilks:
The footnote identification of Mrs Booth by her maiden name, which had not appeared in the bills since 1719, is puzzling, and the writer does not repeat it when he later softens his tone:
In his earlier lines, he seems to be alluding to Hester Booth’s youthful notoriety, as the mistress of James Craggs and the mother of his child.
