BIB_ID
127495
Accession number
MA 9674
Creator
Richardson, Joseph, 1755-1803.
Display Date
[circa 1792].
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 22.9 x 18.9 cm
Notes
Richardson gives only "Monday 7 o clock" for the date of writing. However, his play "The Fugitive" was first performed at King's Theatre, Haymarket on April 20, 1792, making it likely that this letter was written during that year.
Richardson addresses his correspondent as "Sheridan." Based on internal evidence, this is probably Richard Brinsley Sheridan, with whom Richardson managed the Drury Lane Theatre for many years.
Richardson addresses his correspondent as "Sheridan." Based on internal evidence, this is probably Richard Brinsley Sheridan, with whom Richardson managed the Drury Lane Theatre for many years.
Summary
Telling Sheridan about a catastrophe which has beset the production of his play "The Fugitive": "To consummate the disappointments I have undergone about the ill-omened Fugitive, I had a Letter today from Palmer [probably the actor John Palmer], to inform me he had been arrested, that a hundred Pounds which had been detained at the Treasury from his Benefit would be sufficient to accomplish his Release, & that he trusted to the generosity he had always experienced from you, that you would remit him this sum for the present, to be paid by Installments"; saying that he does not like to make hyperbolic statements, "but the fact is at present, that it is now or never with me -- so that if Palmer cannot be liberated so as to enable him to perform on Wednesday, I must exhibit the Fugitive in my own Person -- I won't argue these sort of Points with any body I have known so long"; saying that the play must be performed on Wednesday, "because I have neither Character enough to reconcile the Public to this sort of dallying nor the Play sufficient Merit to justify it"; begging Sheridan to tell him by tomorrow morning what can be done; saying that Kemble (probably John Philip Kemble) might be able to substitute for Palmer, but he hesitates to ask him until he is sure that Palmer cannot play the part; turning to the subject of Elizabeth Sheridan: "You will see how like an interested Man I feel, when I have written two Pages without a Word of Reference to an Event so important & so unexpected in your Family as the [Accession] to it which has happened -- I am truly rejoiced to hear that Mrs. Sheridan is so well under her Circumstances & hope this cruel Interdict from her Society, which her Situation imposes will very very soon be taken off"; reiterating his appeal for help with "The Fugitive": "Pray don't omit some attention to the affair of Palmer -- This is the last Time of [illegible word] asking -- You are so indifferent to me [or one?], that a proper Mind feels too proud to press you."
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