William Henry West Betty (1791-1874) started his career aged 11 and was such a sensation in theatres outside London that by the time the 13-year old actor first appeared in the capital at Drury Lane Theatre on 1st December 1804, guards had to be stationed in the streets to calm the queuing crowds. According to a contemporary commentator, when people were eventually allowed in, there were: 'Shrieks and screams of choking, trampled people were terrible. Fights for places grew; Constables were beaten back, the boxes were invaded. The heat was so fearful that men all but lifeless were lifted and dragged through the boxes into the lobbies which had windows.'

The part of Young Norval, in the Scottish playwight John Home's tragedy Douglas, was one of the roles that had already made Master Betty's name on tour. He first played it at Drury Lane on the 10th December 1804, and this engraving was printed in Volume I of Thomas Holcroft's monthly magazine The Theatrical Recorder, 1805, in which Holcroft added plates such as this more for their interest in the costumes that the likenesses of the actors.