Theatre Royal Covent Garden: The Slave (playbill)

The Slave by Thomas Morton concerned itself with the slave trade in Surinam. The Covent Garden company was a strong one as the names of Macready, Emery and Liston attest. Macready had been hired in 1816 in an effort to counter the attractiveness of Edmund Kean playing at Drury Lane. John Liston was employed at Covent Garden as its principal low comedian 1805-22 although he was often in competition with John Emery who specialised in rustic roles and was employed at Covent Garden from 1798 until his death in 1822. Joseph Grimaldi (1778-1837) was the most famous Clown of his day.