Much Ado About Nothing: Mrs. Abington as Beatrice, London, Drury Lane Theatre, 1775

She at first sold flowers and was known as "Nosegay Fan." Then singing in the streets or reciting at tavern doors, she was sometimes carried within the Bedford and Piazza coffee-houses, to amuse the company with the delivery of select passages from the poets. At Drury Lane Mrs. Abington advanced but slowly and she left England for Ireland where her success was very great. Hitchcock, historian of the Irish stage, writes: "So rapidly did this charming actress rise, so early did she discover a taste in dress and a talent that ladies' most fashionable ornaments were distinguished by her name." She returned to Drury Lane and for some eighteen years was the most admired of the queens of comedy: as Beatrice, Lady Townley, Lady Betty Modish, and Millamant. Picture and some data courtesy of the Yorck Project, under Creative Commons Attribution-Share- Alike License (Wikipedia)