THEATRE

Two pages, quarto. Very good, with a little wear and light creasing. 'I often think of those days, & how timid & shy & stupid I was! Yet I enjoyed myself too, & shall never forget your great kindness, & the help you gave me. Since then I've had many adventures & experiences. I am not the thing I was!' She has been in London for the winter, and hopes they will be able to meet. 'We're so glad you like "Yellow Sands" - & I'm very pleased you like "Tomek". She has 'just finished another novel & play'. Asks what has become of a number of common acquaintances.

English actress (1892-1977), daughter of actor Fred Terry (1864-1932) and his wife the actress Julia Emilie Neilson (1868-1957). One page, 4to. "Thank you very much indeed for your charming letter of welcome. / I sincerely hope that you will enjoy "Trilby". I have had great success with it elsewhere, and I only hope that Manchester will love the old play also. / thankyou for your inquiries regarding my mother and Father, they are both well."

English actress (1868-1957), the wife of Fred Terry. 2 pp, 12mo. Written in a bold hand. "[...] if they will come & see me as they used to when I lived in Devonshire Street - With again many thanks / Sincerely yours / Julia Neilson-Terry / My husband is also rehearsing.

American actress. Very brief note saying "Feb. 8th 1928/ With pleasure. Here is the autograph/ Mary Anderson de Navarro". Laid down on card.

English actress (1868-1957), the wife of Fred Terry (1864-1932). 2 pp, 12mo. On the recto: "Dear Sir / Herewith I am sending portrait of myself [not present] All my pictures". Lengthwise on the reverse, in a bold hand, "Truly yours / Julia Neilson=Terry".

Actress, singer and dancer (1797?-1867), a great beauty whose amours were the subject of a number of pamphlets. "Thursday 2 o'clock", 3 pp, 12mo. She sent him a dinner invitation that morning but he had gone. "Thank Ferdinand for his Book which I return - and for the apple - which I shall cut up with some curiosity". In a postscript she thanks him for "I cannot sing". Signed "M H", so dating from after her marriage to Harrington in 1831. In good overall condition, despite negligible water staining, tears and traces of mount.

English actress (1868-1957), the wife of Fred Terry (1864-1932). 2 pp, 8vo, on blue paper. Intimate letter written in a large hand. "Darling - Yes the book arrived I do congratulate the way you've written & arranged the book. Delighted with it & everything about it: splendid / You would have heard before this only I've been rather ill with day & night nurses = even now I'm finding it difficult to recover my strength / I shall hope to see you in the new year & here is my love & good wishes from / your affectionate old / Julia".

English actress (1868-1957), the wife of Fred Terry (1864-1932). 4pp, on two identical 12mo cards, both with the letterhead. "My dear Mrs Davis / I am so grieved to hear about the poor . I hope & trust it is not very serious & that they will get well very quickly what an anxiety for you all I am quite well thank you but am awfully sorry I I shall not be able to help you on the 22nd as I am dining out. With best love to you all / Yours sincerely / Julia Neilson" Both cards bear traces of previous mounting.

Actress (1894-1978). Card, on one side of which is printed, "30 CONDUIT ST / BOND STREET / W / TELEPHONE / 1923 / MAYFAIR / INSTEAD thanks / .... / for .... letter, and order for Photographs which are being proceeded with. / .... 192 ...." Over this, lengthwise and upwards, is the signature "Fay Compton", and above it an attempt at forgery, with the "Compton" reasonably convincing, but with "Fey" for "Fay". On the blank reverse another signature by Compton. The actress would appear to have provided these examples of her signature for copying onto her publicity photographs.

Actress (1839-1921), wife of the actor-manager Squire Bancroft. 2 pp, 12mo. "Send me the lines & I will see what I can do. I am so sorry to give you all this trouble for I know how busy you are / yrs very sincerely / M. E. Bancroft".

One page, 12mo. She has just returned from the theatre at 11 o'clock and is "delighted to have been able to obtain a ticket". Signed "May". Stuck to the foot of the page is a newspaper cutting describing Sarah Bernhardt's performance in Emile Moreau's play on Queen Elizabeth. This ends, "A word is fairly due to the work of M. Lou Teilegen and Madame May Agathe, and to the excellence of the stage management." Creased and with traces of mount on reverse.

English actress (1868-1957), the wife of Fred Terry (1864-1932). 4 pp, 8vo. She thanks her for her kind invitation, which she cannot accept as they are going back to London on the Sunday. "We are only giving a matinee at Wolverhampton & have to return to Birmingham to play at night / It was very sweet of you to ask us." Minor traces of previous mounting.

English actress (1855-96), sister of Ellen Terry and member of celebrated theatrical dynasty. 2 pp, 12mo. "You really must think me a pig for not having written to you all this time - but now I send these few lines to thank you first for your good wishes and congratulations on my engagement to Mr Morris & for kind remembrance of my birthday - The card was a very pretty one - I hope to be home after the 4th of next month - so I shall hope to see you before long now: It must be delightful on the Thames: With love and thanks to you & Alice Lewis for all your good wishes".

One page, 4to, minor defects, text clear and complete. "'Tis now a month since I took the liberty of requesting you wou'd mention me to the Gentemen of the Committee respecting the renewal of an Engagement in the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, and I have not as yet received any answer. I hope Sir you will admit that a state of suspense is rather unpleasant, and if you will have the goodness to favor me with your opinion upon the business, I shall consider myself very much obliged to you." Note: no example of Penson's hand appears in NRA, NUCMC, Pettingell, tec.

English actress (1868-1957), the wife of Fred Terry (1864-1932). 2 pp, 12mo. "Dear Mrs Lewis / My mother & I will be delighted to accept your kind invitation on Friday afternoon / With kind regards / very truly yours / Julia Neilson". With traces of paper and glue from previous mounting on blank recto of second leaf.

Four pages, 12mo. Very good, with unobtrusive remains of stub along one edge. In interesting letter discussing the state of the English stage. Her tardy response is due to 'pressure of work". 'What you say about the present condition of the stage is only too true.

Actress (1839-1921), wife of the actor-manager Squire Bancroft. One page, 12mo. She declines an invitation. "Dear Mrs. Moscelles / I am going out of town tomorrow for some days or I shd. have been delighted / Yrs very sincerely / Marie Bancroft". Removal from a mount has resulted to loss at the top of the leaf, and there are traces of glue and paper on the reverse.

One page, 12mo. Very good, if a tad grubby. Thanks Draper for his 'amiable but unconvincing' note. 'Do you not know that I was irritated into bad language by being accused of "d - d impertinence? This, too, before I said a discourteous word. - Goodman [the writer Edward John Goodman], of course, rules the Committee [of the Savage Club] and even you have listened to the voice of that Israelitish charmer.' Concludes 'Mais n'importe. Either this evening or tomorrow I send in my resignation. I will neither apologize, nor renew the matter in cold blood.' Signed 'Henry S. Leigh'.

One page, 12mo. Good, though aged and foxed. 'My best thanks & gratitude for your noble notice | Were you ever in low spirits If so sympathise with me I feel as if I would never wish to be acted again . . Chastelard the first night my god almighty ! ! ! - | Your sincere friend | W G Wills'. Chastelard is a character in Wills's play 'Marie Stuart' (1874).

One page, small octavo. Very good, though with a little offsetting of ink from folding of letter, and a small closed tear at head. A reply to a request for an autograph - in a close, neat, hand - reading 'Dear Sir | With much pleasure as I assure you that I am | Sincerely yours | Alfred Sutro'.

Northern Irish Author and drama critic, see DNB. Three substantial and characteristic letters, total 8pp., 4to. She has submitted some of her plays for his critical appraisal and he has been plain-spoken. In the first letter, he comments on "The Long Duel" that he appreciates its literary rather than its dramatic qualities, but likes it. He finds two "grave faults" "one of which is common to dramatists who are primarily novelists.

British stage designer (died 1971), painter, writer and lecturer. Both items one page, octavo, and very good, though lightly creased. Both signed 'Maxwell Armfield'. LETTER ONE (docketed and bearing R.S.A. stamp): He has read the lecture by 'Mr. Davis', 'with great interest [...] our opinions on the subject seem to be identical! I should like to meet him some time if he is an accessible sort of person. [...] a series of such lectures issued as pamphlets with attractive titles would do a great deal towards a better understanding of the problem'.

The Dictionary of National Biography states that T. J. Dibdin (1771-1841, closely associated with Sadler's Wells, Drury Lane and the Surrey Theatre) wrote 'nearly two thousand songs and about two hundred operas and plays'. This list, which covers the whole of his life from his earliest known work in 1789 to his death in 1841, is compiled with considerable care on the rectos and some of the versos of 79 bound and numbered leaves (most being the letterhead of the North-East Coast Exhibition, of which E. Rimbault Dibdin was the Director).

Edward Stirling (Boase), dramatist and theatre manager, mainly discussing the dramatisation and prospective performance of Hewlett's Peter Priggins - as a farce. Originally from a larger archive, the residue of which is described in #3157 (Hewlett's papers), this and other items appear in my ABE inventory in book id#s 3124-3156.

Playwright (1855-1934), knighted in 1909. One page, 8vo. "19th May, 1900. / Dear Mr Burton, / Many thanks. / Yours very truly / Arthur W. Pinero". In bad condition, with tear through signature and paper and glue from mount stuck to reverse.

English art critic and dramatist (1849-1916). One page, octavo. Very good. On grey Truslove, Hanson & Comba paper. Entitled 'Sailor's Chorus', the piece consists of two stanzas of eight lines each. It begins 'Above the mast one single star, | Still loiters in the dawn!' and ends 'Ere the swallows keel shall touch the shore | Yeo Ho! Hearts Ho! Yeo Ho! Haul away!' Signed 'J. Comyns Carr' in bottom left-hand corner.

"Ancien auteur dramatique". One page, c.7 x 12", good condition. He requests charity from them again, being ill and unable to work, about to lose his "domicile", debts, etc. In the substantial margin [?] Taylor (poss. I-J-S- Taylor, patron of literature[?]) has supported Rozet's application (3 December 1847) in a note to the Commission.

Theatrical manager (1796?-1860) and poet, manager of Drury Lane and Covent Garden theatres, 1833-48. One page, quarto. Good, but somewhat grubby on lightly-creased, discoloured paper. Reads 'My dear Sir | I do not remember at this moment any point, beyond those we discussed yesterday, that requires adjustment, except the return of £63-4-8 overpaid on the rent account up to July 5th. and the four weeks salaries to your watchmen & firemen from that day up to last Saturday, amounting to £27 - | The balance of the "Warwick Box" is still unpaid.' Signed 'A Bunn'.

Actor and theatre manager (DNB). One page, some damage marginally affecting the text. He thanks him for his gift of the poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade".

English comedian (1848-1907), grandson of the actor Charles Kemble. Two pages, 12mo. On grubby, spotted and stained paper. 'I was so sorry to have been prevented coming to you on Sunday last, and also that my absence from town has precluded the possibility of my leaving Cards. I hope I may be more fortunate another time.'