[THEATRE PLAYBILL] For the Benefit of Mr & Mrs Liston. Theatre Royal, Covent-Garden, this present Wednesday, June 15, 1814.

Will be performed [for the first time] a New Comick Extravaganza called Broad but not Long: Or, How to Damn a New Piece … the New Grand Serio-Comick Melo-Dramatick Romance called The Black Princess … After which, the Comedy of Who Wants a Guinea? … To which will be added (2d time) the musical Entertainment of Catch Him Who Can …. [London] : Broadside, 300 x 200 mm, printed recto only on rag paper; toning, horizontal fold, creasing and edge wear (loss of last line of text – most likely the imprint – at foot).

John Liston (c.1776-1846) was one of London’s leading comic actors during the Regency period. A brilliant caricaturist who specialised in Cockney parts, he was the first comedian to command a salary greater than that of a tragedian. In 1807 he had married Sarah Tyrer (d.1854), a singer and actress.

Liston performed in three of the four pieces in this benefit staged in honour of himself and Mrs. Liston at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, on June 15, 1814. The names of some of the greatest English actors and singers of the time also appear on this playbill, including Charles Mathews, William Blanchard, Jacob Hamerton, Charles Incledon, Daniel Terry, John Emery, Abraham Slader, Samuel Simmons, and Miss Anna Maria Leserve.