Miss Felicia and Master Betty, a New Discovery in the Morning Post

A newly discovered poem in the Morning Post, 1 February 1805, by “Felicia, aged Eleven Years” from Denbighshire, Wales, and addressed to the celebrity child actor William Henry West Betty, dubbed “The Young Roscius,” establishes this as the first publication of the poet later known as Felicia Hemans. This article discusses the circumstances of celebrity culture that solicited this publication, a 16-line ode “To the Young Roscius,” and contemplates the circumstances behind its erasure from the census and canon of her poetic works—until now.