Poe's Life in Boston

MASSACHUSETTS MERCURY
A theatre advertisement for "Mrs. ARNOLD'S Night" and daughter Eliza's debut
April 15, 1796

A newspaper announcement in the January 5, 1796, issue of the Massachusetts Mercury announced the arrival two days earlier at Boston's Long Wharf of "Mrs. Arnold and Daughter from the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden" aboard the 150-ton sailing brig Outram after a 56-day voyage from England. The accomplished English singer and actress, Elizabeth Arnold, had been hired in London by the manager of Boston's new Federal Street Theatre. Her daughter, nine-year-old child actress Eliza-the future mother of Edgar Allan Poe-would also soon make her American debut on the Boston stage. On April 15, 1796, Elizabeth played the leading roles in a Gothic melodrama Mysteries of the Castle, and in the short comic opera Rosina. Between the two performances, Eliza made her American stage debut at the Federal Street Theatre singing a new song, The Market Lass, by English theatre composer William Reeve.

Courtesy of America's Historical Newspapers