Of course, my task being finished, I have nothing more to do with
it; nor do I care whether it is published first or after, provided
only it may be acted: though I dare say that process may not prove
entirely satisfactory to me either; for though Mr. Young and my
father would thoroughly embody my conception of the parts intended
for them, yet there is a woman's part which, considering the
materials history has furnished, ought to be a very fine
one--Louisa of Savoy; and it must be cut down to the capacity of a
second-rate actress. The character would have been the sort of one
for Mrs. Siddons; how I wish she was yet in a situation to afford
it the high preferment of her acceptance!
My father has obtained a most unequivocal success in Paris, the
more flattering as it was rather doubtful, and the excellent
Parisians not only received him very well, but forthwith threw
themselves into a headlong _furor_ for Shakespeare and Charles
Kemble, which, although they might not improbably do the same
to-morrow for two dancing dogs, _we_ are quite willing to attribute
to the merits of the poet and his interpreter. The French papers
have been profuse in their praises of both, and some of our own
have quoted their commendations. My mother is, I think, recovering,
though slowly, from her long illness. She is less deaf, and rather
less blind; but for the general state of her health, time, and time
alone, will, I am sure, restore it entirely. I have just seen the
dress that my father had made abroad for his part in my play: a
bright amber-colored _velours epingle_, with a border of rich
silver embroidery; this, together with a cloak of violet velvet
trimmed with imitation sable. The fashion is what you see in all
the pictures and prints of Francis I. My father is very anxious, I
think, to act the play; my mother, to have it published before it
is acted; and I sit and hear it discussed and praised and
criticised, only longing (like a "silly wench," as my mother calls
me when I confess as much to her) to see my father in his lovely
dress and hear the _alarums of my fifth act_.
I am a little mad, I suppose, and my letter a little tipsy, I dare
say, but I am ever your most affectionate
FANNY.
16 ST. JAMES STREET, BUCKINGHAM GATE, WESTMINSTER,
October 21, 1827.
MY DEAR H----,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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