The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To PETER FRASER,1 [?7 APRIL 1854]

Text from facsimile on eBay, Nov 2015.
Address: Favored by Samuel Phelps2 Esquire3 | P. Fraser Esquire | Insurance Office | Edinburgh
Date: Two other letters of 7 Apr 1854 carry the phrase "Favored by Samuel Phelps. Esquire", who was coming to Edinburgh to fulfil a theatrical engagement at the Theatre Royal.

• 1. Peter S. Fraser, publisher, bookseller (of Fraser & Co.) and agent for the UK Life Assurance Co., of 45 North Hanover St, Edinburgh; later of 15 Queen St. Incorrectly identified as Patrick Fraser in Pilgrim Letters 6, p. 665. John Forster names "Peter Fraser with his enchanting Scotch songs" as one of CD's Edinburgh friends (along with Sheriff Gordon) who "made him regular visits in the spring time" (The Life of Charles Dickens, ed. J.W.T Ley [London: Cecil Palmer, 1928], p. 531)
• 2. Samuel Phelps (1804-78; Dictionary of National Biography), actor and theatre manager. First appeared in London in 1837 at the Haymarket as Shylock; acted with CD's friend William Charles Macready 1839-40 and 1842-3, alternating with him as Othello and Iago. In May 1844 opened Sadler's Wells Theatre jointly with Mary Warner and Thomas Greenwood, after the privileges of the patent theatres ended; played most of the major Shakespearean parts, tragic and comic, his Othello being regarded by many as finer than Macready's. By 1862, when his management ended, had produced 34 of Shakespeare's plays. Referred to by Macready in his speech at his Farewell Dinner, 1 Mar 1851, as the "one best qualified" to continue his own "faithful ministry" to Shakespeare's genius (Macready's Reminiscences, and Selections from His Diaries and Letters, ed. Frederick Pollock [London: John Murray, 1875] vol. 2, pp. 381-2). For CD's admiration for the reforms Phelps had achieved as Manager of Sadler's Wells Theatre, since 1844, see "Shakespeare and Newgate", by CD and R.H. Horne, Household Words 4 (4 Oct 1851): 25-7. Phelps acted at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, 10-22 Apr 1854, playing Byron's Werner, Hamlet, Othello, Bulwer Lytton's Richelieu, and Sir Pertinax Macsycophant in Charles Macklin's comedy, The Man of the World. For a benefit on his final night he played Cardinal Wolsey and Shylock.
• 3. The same form of words occurs on the envelopes of letters sent to two other contacts of CD in Edinburgh: see To W.S. Alison, 7 Apr 1854 and To Robert Chambers, 7 Apr 1854, in Pilgrim Letters 7, pp. 305, 306; see also To J.G.M. Burt, To J.T. Gordon, and To Lady Murray, all 7 Apr 1854, which feature introductions on behalf of Phelps.