XTHEATRE

Autograph Letter Signed ('R. H. Horne') from the poet Richard Hengist Horne asking the playwright James Robinson Planché to pass on his play 'Gregory VII' to Charles Kemble, and stating that he has sent another play to George Bartley.

Author: 
Richard Hengist Horne [Richard Henry Horne] (1802-1884) [James Robinson Planché, (1796-1880), playwright and herald; Charles Kemble (1775-1854), actor; George Bartley (1782?-1858), comedian]
Publication details: 
36 New Broad Street; 3 May 1842.
£120.00

3pp., 16mo. Bifolium. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with traces of previous mounting to the reverse of the last leaf. Horne writes that he is enclosing a copy of his play 'Gregory VII' for 'Mr Chas Kemble'. 'I have not written his name in it, because as you were so kind as to interest yourself in the matter, I thought I would leave it in your hands so you may give it him; or say you asked me for a copy for the purpose, or say nothing - or anything. Isn't this a fine mode of expressing my confidence in your judgment?

Autograph Letter Signed ('T. Dibdin') from the playwright Thomas John Dibdin to G. B. Davidge, containing 'a List of the Patrons' who attending 'T. Dibdins Anniversary Dinner at Evans's Hotel | March 21st. 1838.'

Author: 
Thomas John Dibdin (1771-1841), playwright, illegitimate son of dramatist Charles Dibdin (1745-1814), brother of songwriter Charles Dibdin (1768-1833) [George Bolwell Davidge (1793-1842)]
Publication details: 
Dramatic Author's [sic] Society, 42 King Street, Covent Garden; 5 March 1838.
£220.00

2pp., 12mo. The letter is on the recto of the first leaf of the bifolium, with the list, in three columns, on the recto of the second. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. Dibdin reminds Davidge that at his 'first Anniversary Dinner' he expressed a great wish to serve Dibdin by his patronage, but that 'absence from Town' prevented him. 'The Company were so well pleas'd that each present sign'd a Paper to come again - it is now fix'd for my Birthday (the 21st. Inst) and I take the freedom of enclosing you a List of the Patrons in the Hope I may be allow'd to add yours and enclose you a Ticket'.

Manuscript of humorous poem 'The Chapter of Fashions | Written by T Dibdin' [Thomas John Dibdin], on the history of clothing and Regency dress, with variations from the printed versions, including an extra stanza.

Author: 
Thomas John Dibdin (1771-1841), playwright, illegitimate son of dramatist Charles Dibdin (1745-1814), brother of songwriter Charles Dibdin (1768-1833) [Regency dress; Georgian clothing; fashion]
Publication details: 
Undated [circa 1802?].
£350.00

2pp., 4to. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Divided into eight four-line stanzas, each with the same two-line refrain. The first stanza: 'Fashion was formed when the World began, | And Adam I am told was a very smart man, | As for Eve I shall say nothing more or less. | |But that Ladies of Fashion now copy her dress. | Yet barring all pother of this that & tother we all bow to Fashion in turn'. Containing witty references to the fashion for hunting boots and crops, New Bond Street, Tudor and Stuart clothing, Whigs and Tories.

Autograph Letter Signed ('T: Cooke') from the Irish actor Thomas Simpson Cooke to the English actor Thomas Potter Cooke, complaining that 'Mr. Chilvers music copyist to the Coburg Theatre' has 'seriously injured' him professionally. With portrait.

Author: 
Thomas Simpson Cooke (1782–1848), Irish singer and composer [Thomas Potter Cooke (1786–1864), English actor]
Publication details: 
2 Leicester Place, Leicester Square; 17 November 1819.
£120.00

4pp., 4to. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed on the reverse of the second leaf to 'T: P: Cooke Esqre | Royal Coburg Theatre', with two postmarks. The two men do not appear to have been related. TSC requests TPC's 'friendly interference to endeavour at getting from Mr.

Autograph synopsis and notes by the dramatist and editor of 'Punch' Tom Taylor of part of Act III of his 1866 play 'A Sister's Penance', written with Augustus W. Dubourg.

Author: 
Tom Taylor (1817-1880), playwright and comic writer, author of 'The Ticket of Leave Man' (1863) and editor of 'Punch [Augustus W. Dubourg]
Publication details: 
On government letterhead; undated [c.1866].
£750.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The first page headed 'Act III', and the whole tightly-written and filled with deletions, interpolations and marginal notes, providing a valuable insight into the creative process of one of Victorian England's most successful dramatists. The last page breaks off: 'Handeside confesses his own desperate attachment. Markham <...>'. 'A Sister's Penance' was a great success, with 83 performances at the Adelphi between 26 November 1866 and 2 March 1867.

Autograph Letter Signed from the dramatist and editor of 'Punch' Tom Taylor, to the actor 'Charles Neville' [Charles Sugden], praising his performance as King WIlliam III in Taylor's play 'Clancarty' and giving advice on 'modulation of the voice'.

Author: 
Tom Taylor (1817-1880), playwright and comic writer, author of 'The Ticket of Leave Man' (1863) and editor of 'Punch' [Charles Sugden ['Charles Neville'] (1850-1921), actor]
Publication details: 
Lavender Sweep, Wandsworth; 18 March 1874.
£150.00

4pp., 12mo. On aged paper, with minor traces of gum from mount. Taylor begins: 'My dear Charles Neville | I was glad to receive your letter, for it showed that the seed I had taken pains to sow had not fallen, as most seed so sown in the theatre does fall, upon an ungrateful soil.

Autograph Letter Signed from the dramatist and editor of 'Punch' Tom Taylor to Francis Mewburn of Darlington, announcing his retirement from the Northern Circuit, and describing his appointment as Assistant Secretary of the Board of Health.

Author: 
Tom Taylor (1817-1880), playwright and comic writer, author of 'The Ticket of Leave Man' (1863) and editor of 'Punch' [Francis Mewburn (c.1785-1867) of Larch Field, Darlington, 'railway solicitor']
Publication details: 
near Thirsk; 23 March [1850].
£80.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on aged paper, with remains of stub along one edge. Written in a difficult hand. Taylor begins: 'Dear Mr Mewburn, I shall not be at Sessions [as a barrister on the northern circuit] any more. I have just accepted an appointment as legal Assistant Secretary to the Board of Health, and I enter on the duties of the place on Monday. The salary is £500 per: an: to begin with, with the prospect of increase.

Autograph Letter Signed ('E. L. Blanchard') from the dramatist Edward Litt Laman Blanchard to Frederick Burgess.

Author: 
E. L. Blanchard [Edward Litt Laman Blanchard] (1820-1889), English dramatist [Drury Lane; pantomime]
Publication details: 
6 Adelphi Terrace, Strand, WC [London]; 26 July 1878.
£80.00

3pp., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Blanchard and his wife 'very seldom go out of a Sunday but should the weather be at all favourable' they will 'make a vigorous effort to avail ourselves of the strong temptation you have so kindly thrown in our way'. They will be 'quite content with an afternoon ramble in your beautiful garden and a chat with dear Mrs. Keeley'. He is sending 'impromptu lines written by my father nearly a Century ago' (not present) that he believes ought to be in Burgess's possession 'as a double ancestral inheritance'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Laman Blanchard') from the dramatist E. L. Blanchard [Edward Litt Laman Blanchard] to 'Carpenter'.

Author: 
E. L. Blanchard [Edward Litt Laman Blanchard] (1820-1889), English dramatist, writer of numerous pantomimes for the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£90.00

2pp., 12mo. Good, on aged paper. He writes to decline Carpenter's 'flattering' offer: 'I now find my acceptance of an office in your Society though purely honorary, would be apt to be misinterpreted [...] I have another reason - that I am taking some part in endeavouring to form a great Author's Society of another kind, and it would look rather <?> and impudent to be playing the fiddle in all parts of the orchestra.'

[Printed programme.] 'Mr. George Riddle will give a course of six afternoon readings' [at the Brooklyn homes of Mrs N.W.T. Hatch, Mrs S.B. Chittenden, Mrs J.S.T. Stranahan, Mrs D.C. Robbins, Mrs John Buckingham and Miss Gilbert].

Author: 
George Riddle [George Peabody Riddle] (1851-1910), American elocutionist and actor [Mrs N.W.T. Hatch, Mrs S.B. Chittenden, Mrs J.S.T. Stranahan, Mrs D.C. Robbins, Mrs John Buckingham, Miss Gilbert]
Publication details: 
'A. S. SEER'S Engraving and Printing Establishment, 26 & 28 Union Sq., N. Y.' [Between 5 and 29 March [c.1891]].
£220.00

3pp., 16mo. Bifolium. Fair, on aged paper with fold lines. The front page carries the printer's slug, and gives the price of $6 for 'Course Tickets', 'For sale at the houses where the readings are to be given, on and after FEBRUARY 19th.' The middle two pages give the addresses, with owner's names, of the houses at which the six readings are to take place.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Jn B Buckstone') from the actor John Baldwin Buckstone [to the playwright Thomas John Dibdin] regarding a meeting 'of all the dramatic authors' to make arrangements following 'the new act' [Bulwer Lytton's copyright reforms.

Author: 
John Baldwin Buckstone (1802-1879), actor, playwright, and manager of the Haymarket Theatre [Thomas John Dibdin (1771-1841), playwright and actor]
Publication details: 
29 Walcot Place, Kennington; 14 June 1833.
£320.00

1p., 4to. 15 lines. On aged and worn paper. The letter reads 'Dear Sir/ | A general meeting of all the Dramatic Authors will take place at the Garricks head in Bow Street on Monday nexxt at One o'Clock.

Manuscript reminder from the Lord Chamberlain [Marquess of Breadalbane] to the Manager of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden [Frederick Gye the younger], that 15 November 1849 is a Public Day of Thanksgiving, to be 'reverently and devoutly observed'.

Author: 
John Campbell (1796-1862), 2nd Marquess of Breadalbane, Lord Chamberlain from 1848 to 1852) [Frederick Gye (1810-1878), manager of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden [now the Royal Opera House]
Publication details: 
Lord Chambelain's Office [London]; 10 November 1849.
£180.00

1p., folio. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with slight staining to blank reverse. Fairly written out on a piece of Britannia laid paper. 'Lord Chamberlain's Office | 10th. November 1849. | The Lord Chamberlain thinks it right to draw the attention of the Manager of the Theatre Royal Covent Garden to The Queen's Proclamation of the 6th. Instant, in which Her Majesty, for the Reasons therein stated, earnestly exhorts that the Public Day of Thanksgiving, the 15th. Instant be reverently and devoutly observed'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('A Bunn') from the theatre manager Alfred Bunn to the widow of the actor Charles Mathews, praising her husband while defending an accusation of inconsistency on his part. With two notes by Mrs Mathews.

Author: 
Alfred Bunn (1796-1860), theatre manager, lessee of Drury Lane and Covent Garden Theatres [Anne Mathews [nee Jackson] (d.1869), second wife of the actor Charles Mathews (1776-1835)]
Publication details: 
6 Maddox Street, Bond Street; 11 August 1840.
£280.00

3pp., 12mo. Fair, on aged paper. Mathews begins by quoting contradictory passages from letters of Charles Mathews, one from Mrs Mathews' 'Memoirs of Charles Mathews, Comedian' (1839) and the other from Bunn's 'The Stage: Both before and behind the Curtain' (1840).

Autograph Letter Signed from the actor Charles Kean, informing an unnamed correspondent that it is not his intention 'to close the Princess's Theatre during any portion of Lent'.

Author: 
Charles Kean [Charles John Kean] (1811-1868), Irish-born actor-manager, best remembered for his Shakespeare revivals at the Princess's Theatre, Oxford Street, London, son of Edmund Kean (1789-1833)
Publication details: 
Place not stated; 1 February 1852.
£90.00

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with negligible glue from previous mounting to the corners of the blank reverse. The letter reads: 'Sir, In reply to your note, I write to say that as it is not my intention to close the Princess's Theatre during any portion of Lent, it will not be in my power to avail myself of your offer.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('C: M: Young') from the actor Charles Mayne Young to his rival William Charles Macready, recommending an actor named Simpson for a position at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and wishing Macready success as manager there.

Author: 
Charles Mayne Young (1777-1856), actor [William Charles Macready (1793-1873); Theatre Royal, Drury Lane]
Publication details: 
Ashbourne Hall, Ashbourne, Derbyshire; 16 November 1841.
£220.00

3pp., 12mo. 37 lines. Fair, on worn and discoloured paper. An interesting letter, casting light on the relationship between two great actors who, according to the Oxford DNB, 'disliked but respected each other'. Macready is not named, but Young ends by sending his 'Kind Comts to Mrs Macready'. Macready had taken over at Drury Lane on 4 October 1841, but the season would not begin until 27 December. The letter begins 'My dear Sir!

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