Shuter, Edward

1728?

1776

The low comedian Edward Shuter may have been born in 1728 or a few years later. In response to a notice in “Theatrical Biography” in 1772 the wag himself claimed: ‘my Mother sold Oysters in the Winter, and Cucumbers in the Summer, yet I do solemnly aver, that I was not born in a Cellar [as the biographer had said], but in a front room up two pairs of stairs, at one Mr. Merit’s, an eminent Chimney-Sweeper, in Vere-street, St. Gile’s.’ He may or may not have been a potboy at age 12, a footboy for the acting Lampes in Preston, a tapster and who knows what and what not, but he certainly was an apprentice to the theatre manager Thomas Chapman at Richmond. He acted the Cook in “Chrononhotonthologos” there on 8 September 1744, and at Covent Garden on 15 April 1745, for Chapman’s benefit, Master Shuter played Johnny in “The Schoolboy”. Then he repeated that character at Drury Lane for Morgan’s benefit, and on 13 June 1746 Ned, as he was usually called, appeared as Osric in “Hamlet”, with Garrick in the title role. Next came a Witch in “Macbeth” on 27 June. That was a strong beginning for a youngster, even if the roles were small. Shuter went back to Richmond and Twickenham to act for Chapman and in 1746-47 was in the Hallam troupe (operating illegally at the Gooman’s Fields Theatre), playing such secondary roles as Trapland in “Love for Love”, Perriwinkle in “A Bold Stroke for a Wife”, Filch in “The Beggar’s Opera”, Syringe in “The Relapse” and Polonius in “Hamlet”. In the summer of 1747 Shuter acted with Samuel Foote at the Haymarket and then Garrick hired him for Drury Lane in the autumn; Ned finally settled in at Covent Garden beginning with the 1753-54 season. Garrick thus lost a promising actor and graciously admitted it. On 21 May 1753 while playing Bayes in “The Rehearsal”, he said to Shuter, who was in some unspecified role, ‘you are a good Actor and I am sorry you have left me’ – which got ‘a Clap’ from the audience, according to the prompter Cross. Though Shuter acted occasionally at other venues in and out of London over the years between then and 1775-76, Londoners found him regularly in the winters at Covent Garden under the management of John Rich. That manager’s taste ran to pantomimes and comedy and was probably Shuter’s main reason for changing companies. Who knows how he would have fared had he stayed under Garrick’s tutelage; he clearly needed discipline at Covent Garden, and Rich seems not to have given it. Among Shuter’s popular roles with Rich’s troupe were Falstaff in “The Merry Wives of Windsor”, Touchstone in “As You Like It”, Scapin in “The Cheats of Scapin”, Justice Woodcock in “Love in a Village”, Mercutio in “Romeo and Juliet”, Kate Matchlock in “The Funeral”, Statira in “The Rival Queens”, Sir Callaghan O’Brallaghan in “Love à la Mode”, and three of his most notable characters: Scrub in “The Beaux’ Stratagem”, the original Hardcastle in “She Stoops to Conquer” and the original Sir Anthony Absolute in “The Rivals”. He had a repertoire of over 200 roles and several related lines: farcical servants, country boobies, aged beaux and squires, eccentrics, highwaymen (and also comical magistrates), burlesque female roles, and comic Irishmen – many of which he augmented with ad libs and buffoonery and some of which he spoiled with drunkenness. His loyal spectators usually forgave his behaviour, unless he was too inebriated to perform, but onstage and off as the years wore on Ned Shuter became his own worst enemy, gross and insensitive, too eager for the approval of the gallery, indiscreet – ‘a deplorable object!,’ the comedian John Moody called him, referring to some of Shuter’s actions in 1775 that were apparently too dreadful for his friends to describe. ‘He is very profligate and wicked,’ Moody said; ‘he has been but once on the stage these six weeks.’ More’s the pity, for Shuter was truly talented, a natural comedian who played not just farcical characters in plays of little consequence but roles of substanc