M.P. (also known as The Blue Stocking) is an 1811 comedy play by Thomas Moore first staged at the Lyceum Theatre by Samuel James Arnold. The plot concerns a Member of Parliament Sir Charles Canvas who has cheated his elder brother, a naval officer Captain Canvas, out of his inheritance. Canvas becomes mixed up with a bluestocking named Lady Bab Blue and a series of mistaken identities follow.[1]
Moore was dissatisfied with the work and was reluctant about staging it at all. He refused to attend the first two performances before finally attending the third. He believed that many of the references would be too Highbrow for the audience. He tried to alter this by adding some more populist additions, but he feared this sacrificed the integrity of the work.[2]
It was only the second play Moore wrote after The Gypsy Prince, although he had performed in numerous amateur productions, and he decided it would be his last in spite of later tempting offers to write for the stage.[3] In spite of Moore’s misgivings the play received generally good reviews and had a respectable run of performances and was later revived for productions in Bath and Dublin.[4]