The Charles Dickens Letters Project
To BENJAMIN WEBSTER,1 18 DECEMBER 1848
Extracts in Walter M. Hill catalogue No. 16 (Dec 1905); MS 3 pp.; dated Adelphi Theatre, 18 Dec 48; MS (undated fragment ending and signature), R & R Enterprises, Aug 2005. Date: handwriting and content support placing of fragment with original extract.
Dear Sir,
I have attended the rehearsal of the Haunted Man2 this morning and am quite persuaded and convinced that if you bring the piece out tomorrow night, it will not succeed…slovenly and imperfect state in which this version is… will disappoint the public and you too … I think it right to send you this opinion and to urge you to reconsider the matter3….But if you will let me know tonight, at what hour you begin tomorrow, I will come with pleasure.
Benjamin Webster Esquire.
Faithfully Yours
CHARLES DICKENS
- 1. Benjamin Webster (1798-1882; Dictionary of National Biography), actor and theatre manager; lessee of the Adelphi Theatre from 1844: see Pilgrim Letters 3, p. 510n.
- 2. The first stage adaptation of The Haunted Man, by Mark Lemon from advance proof sheets provided by CD: see To Lemon, 28 Nov, and To Hogarth, 15 Dec (Pilgrim Letters 5, pp. 449-50, 457-8). The Adelphi paid £100 for permission to stage the drama: see Pilgrim Letters 5, p. 470.
- 3. CD was at the Adelphi all day, 19 Dec, advising Webster (To Miss Coutts, 19 Dec, Pilgrim Letters 5, p. 460). The first performance was 20 Dec, the postponement being agreed on 18 Dec, since the Adelphi’s advertisement in The Times (19 Dec) announces: “To-morrow will be positively produced an entirely new drama”; a full programme for 19 Dec, excluding The Haunted Man, is also advertised. Despite CD’s concerns, the actors were widely praised: see Pilgrim Letters 5, p. 459n. It ran, with some interruptions, until 7 Feb 49.