William Macready the Elder

[2] Macready appeared at Covent Garden Theatre, 18 September 1786, as Flutter in the Belle's Stratagem, and remained there ten years, playing parts such as Gratiano, Paris, Young Marlow, Figaro, Fag, and Tattle in Love for Love, and producing two plays by himself.

[6] At that time he owed money on the Newcastle lease, and was trying to manage a group of theatres in locations also including Birmingham, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield.

The Irishman in London, 1793 and 1799, performed 21 April 1792, was an adaptation of a farce called The Intriguing Footman, attributed to James Whiteley, manager at Nottingham.

[21][22] Its use of blackface acting is considered an influence into the 19th century;[23] it featured a contrast of the stage Irish and African servant.

[24] The censor John Larpent applied the blue pencil to some of the language of the play directed at a black female character, Cubba.

[1] The Village Lawyer, a farce, 1795, Haymarket, 28 August 1787, is ascribed to Macready, but probably in error, in a pirated edition.

[1] It is an adaptation of L'Avocat Pathelin by David-Augustin de Brueys; there is reason to believe that George Colman the Elder translated it.

[27] Macready married, 18 June 1786 in Manchester, Christina Ann Birch, an actress, the daughter of a surgeon in Lincolnshire.