to resume her interrupted stage career. In America Arriving in New York in March 1793, Melmoth (advertised as 'From the Theatres Royal of London and Dublin') gave a series of recitations and Shakespearian monologues, held at Corre's Hotel throughout that April. The London Register reported that the event "afforded infinite delight to every rational mind". Later that year she joined Hodgkinson's 'American Company' at the John Street Theatre, New York, making her debut on 20 November 1793 as Euphrasia in Arthur Murphy's The Grecian Daughter. Over the next five years she was to play many leading tragic roles for that company, including her most famous role as Lady Macbeth, becoming a 'universal favourite' for the excellence of her acting. She was acclaimed by leading American impresario, William Dunlap, as "the best tragic actress the inhabitants of New York, then living, had ever seen," and William Wood wrote of her "To a fine face and powerful voice she added an exquisite feeling of the pathetic which...left an impression which years fail to efface." In 1794 she refused to speak the epilogue of a new opera, "Tammanay" by Ann Hatton, apparently disapproving of its patriotic sentiments. The New York Journal demanded a boycott of Melmoth's performances and called for her not to be "suffered to go on the New York stage again." Nevertheless, her popularity was undiminished and when the Park Theatre, New York, opened in 1798 Melmoth became one of its leading actresses. Unfortunately, Melmoth, still playing youthful parts in her late-40s, was no longer in the prime of life, and her figure had grown bulky: "far beyond the sphere of embonpoint" as Dunlap commented. She had grown so large that, playing Euphrasia one night she invited another character to stab her, crying, as per the script, "Strike here! Here's blood enough!" at which the audience burst out laughing. She cut the line from all further performances. Finally becoming aware of the limitations of her size, she took to playing older "matron" parts instead, at which she apparently excelled. She stayed with the Park Theatre until 1805, when she moved to the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. In 1811 she was travelling to fulfil an engagement at the Olympic Theatre, New York, when she was involved in a carriage accident, resulting in a severe fracture to her arm. Rumours that she had been killed circulated in the press. The fracture failed