Black-ey'd Susan

Thomas Potter Cooke (1786-1864) was famous for his robust acting in roles ranging from heroes in nautical drama to the domestic or demonic. Cooke had gone to sea as a boy and served, like Douglas Jerrold, in the Napoleonic wars, seeing action at the blockade of Toulon and surviving the shipwreck of the Raven off Cuxhaven. He made his first stage appearance in 1804. Black-ey'd Susan was celebrated for its realistic nautical language reinforced by authentic music, dancing and scenery, which included a correctly rigged ship on stage. It earned its author around £60 and garnered a small fortune for R.W. Elliston, proprietor of the Surrey Theatre.