BIB_ID
104391
Accession number
MA 9558.5
Creator
Kean, Charles John, 1811?-1868.
Display Date
[1854-1855?]
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 18.6 x 11.5 cm
Notes
Part of a small collection of letters by Charles Kean to various recipients some of which were removed from an extra-illustrated volume of Forster's Life of Dickens. The collection includes two letters from Sir Charles Beaumont Phipps, Equerry to Queen Victoria, to Kean requesting an extra theatre box for Queen Victoria. Items in the collection have been described in individual records; see collection-level record for more information (MA 9558.1-6).
John William Calcraft was the stage name of John William Cole.
John Pritt Harley was an actor, a member of Charles Kean's company and master and treasurer of the Drury Lane Theatrical Fund.
The date of writing is simply given as "Tuesday evening", however it appears to refer to his wife's illness; Ellen Tree Kean did not appear on stage from January 1854 - May 1855 due to illness.
John William Calcraft was the stage name of John William Cole.
John Pritt Harley was an actor, a member of Charles Kean's company and master and treasurer of the Drury Lane Theatrical Fund.
The date of writing is simply given as "Tuesday evening", however it appears to refer to his wife's illness; Ellen Tree Kean did not appear on stage from January 1854 - May 1855 due to illness.
Provenance
From the Ford collection.
Summary
Discussing his wife's recovery, theater ticket prices, and upcoming productions; saying "Ellen was in the Drawing Room today for several hours and there is no appearance whatever of fatigue in consequence. Tomorrow I shall be occupied all day but on Thursday I will take her out in the carriage for a drive. Miss Kemble I hear had a crowded concert room yesterday morning in the Town Hall;" commenting on the rise in evening theatre prices and his specific revenue and expenses; relating details of upcoming performances; adding, in a postscript, that he received "...a letter of sympathy & inquiry from Calcraft of Dublin."
Catalog link
Department