On June 27, 1852, almost three months after Aldridge's appearances at the Britannia Saloon in London and a month after he concluded a two-week run at Edinburgh's Adelphi Theatre, Reynolds's Newspaper in London reported that “Mr. Ira Aldridge, the African Roscius, is making up a company, with which he is about proceeding to Paris, where he will give a series of Shaksperian [sic] and other representations. The Porte St. Martin is the arena fixed upon, and the time of opening July 12th.” This was not the first time such a notice had appeared. More than a year earlier, Aldridge, on being called before the curtain after a benefit performance at the Princess's Theatre in Leeds, had “delivered an address, and announced his intention of appearing at Paris.” And a year before that, a London theater journal had declared that “The Roscius, we believe, goes with an English company to Paris.” So Aldridge apparently had been considering a Continental visit for some time, and, while still touring England, he may have been trying to secure a contract and recruit a number of experienced actors and actresses to accompany him.

Even earlier, during his years in Ireland, there had been rumors of his “having had repeated urgent offers of engagement from the Continental Theatres” and his intention of “visiting Paris, and afterwards the principal towns in Germany. In the latter kingdom so great is the anxiety to see him, that the manager of the Hamburgh [sic] Theatre has repeatedly written to him, offering him very heavy terms to play his favorite characters in English, and the other performers in the German language, with translations of the different plays in the hands of the audience.”3 But Aldridge had never pursued such opportunities.