BIB_ID
130602
Accession number
MA 9441
Creator
Bartley, George, 1782-1858.
Display Date
[1850].
Credit line
Purchased, 1891.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 18.1 x 11.2 cm
Notes
There is no date on the letter. However, Bartley played Falstaff for the Queen at Windsor Castle in 1850, in a performance organized by Charles Kean. The Queen Dowager died on December 2, 1849. Based on the timeline given in the letter, Bartley appears to have been writing early in 1850.
Removed from an extra-illustrated volume from the series Dramatic Memoirs (PML 9505-9528).
Removed from an extra-illustrated volume from the series Dramatic Memoirs (PML 9505-9528).
Provenance
Purchased from Henry Sotheran & Co., London, 1891.
Summary
Referring to a letter from Mr. Kean (probably Charles Kean); saying that the recent death of the Queen Dowager (Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, wife of William IV) has thrown everything into confusion and "there are to be only two performances instead of five"; telling him that "Julius Caesar" has been rescheduled for Friday, February 1st, and that "the Friday following, the 8th, I am to resume my duties as Falstaff -- after a pause of nearly seven years -- during which time, so many and so severe have been my domestic afflictions, that I have only twice entered a Theatre! So that I look forward to my performance before Her Majesty with no small solicitude"; saying that he unfortunately does not know Mrs. Glover's address (probably the actress Julia Glover), but that Westmacott should write her at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, regarding something he has to return to her; adding that he would offer to negotiate between them but "the interference of a third person had, in such matters, better be avoided."
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