Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to John Howard Payne, 13 November 1822
Wednesday, 13 November, ’22.
DEAR P.—Owing
to the inconvenience of having two lodgings, I did not get your letter quite so
soon as I should. The India House is my proper address, where I am sure for the
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of every day. The instant I got it, I
addressed a letter, for Kemble to see,
to my friend Henry Robertson, the
Treasurer of Covent Garden Theatre. He had a conference with
Kemble, and the result is, that
Robertson, in the name of the management, recognized
to me the full ratifying of your bargain: £250 for Ali, the Slaves, and another piece which they had not
received. He assures me the whole will be paid you, or the proportion for the
two former, as soon as ever the Treasury will permit it. He offered to write
the same to you, if I pleased. He thinks in a month or so they will be able to
liquidate it. He is positive no trick could be meant you, as Mr. Planché’s alterations, which were
trifling, were not at all considered as affecting your bargain. With respect to
the copyright of Ali, he was of opinion no money
would be given for it, as Ali is quite laid aside.
This explanation being given, you would not think of printing the two copies
together by way of recrimination. He told me the secret of the two Galley Slaves at Drury Lane. Elliston, if he is informed right, engaged
Poole to translate it, but before
Poole’s translation arrived, finding it coming
out at Cov. Gar., he procured copies of two several translations of it in
London. So you see here are four translations, reckoning yours. I fear no
copyright would be got for it, for anybody may print it and anybody has.
Your’s has run seven nights, and R. is of opinion it
will not exceed in number of nights the nights of Ali,—about thirteen. But your full right to your bargain with the
management is in the fullest manner recognized by him officially. He gave me
every hope the money will be spared as soon as they can spare it. He said a month or two, but seemed to me to mean about a month. A
new lady is coming out in Juliet, to whom
they look very confidently for replenishing their treasury.
Robertson is a very good fellow and I can rely upon
his statement. Should you have any more pieces, and want to get a copyright for
them, I am the worst person to negotiate with any bookseller, having been
cheated by all I have had to do with (except Taylor and Hessey,—but
they do not publish theatrical pieces), and I know not how to go about it, or
who to apply to. But if you had no better negotiator, I should know the minimum
you expect, for I should not like to make a bargain out of my own head, being
(after the Duke of Wellington) the worst of
all negotiators. I find from Robertson you have written to
Bishop on the subject. Have you
named anything of the copyright of the Slaves.
R. thinks no publisher would pay for it, and you would
not risque it on your own account. This is a mere business letter, so I will
just send my love to my little wife at
Versailles, to her dear mother, etc.
Believe me, yours truly,
Sir Henry Rowley Bishop (1786-1855)
Musical director at Vauxhall Gardens (1830-33) and professor at the Royal Academy of
Music; he produced operatic settings of texts by Shakespeare and Walter Scott.
James Augustus Hessey (1785-1870)
London publisher in partnership with John Taylor; they published the London Magazine from
1821 to 1825.
Sophie Jeaffreson [née Kenney] (1857 fl)
The daughter of the playwright James Kenney and his wife Louisa, formerly Holcroft; she
married the physician Samuel John Jeaffreson (d. 1870) and was the mother of the music
critic Rosa Newmarch.
Charles Kemble (1775-1854)
English comic actor, the younger brother of John Philip Kemble and Sarah Siddons.
Louisa Kenney [née Mercier] (1780 c.-1853)
The daughter of the French writer Louis-Sébastien Mercier and former (fourth) wife of
Thomas Holcroft; in 1812 she married the Irish playwright James Kenney.
John Howard Payne (1791-1852)
American dramatist and friend of Washington Irving who worked in England and France from
1813 to 1832; he was author of
Brutus, or, the Fall of Tarquin: an
Historical Tragedy, in Five Acts (1818).
James Robinson Planché (1796-1880)
Antiquary, herald, and playwright; he was manager at Vauxhall Gardens (1826-27) and the
Adelphi (1830); he wrote for the
Literary Gazette and published
History of British Costumes (1834).
John Poole (1786-1872)
English comic writer and playwright; he contributed to the
London
Magazine and scored a great theatrical success with
Paul
Pry (1825). He spent his later years living impoverished in Paris.
Henry Robertson (1849 fl.)
Treasurer of Covent Garden; he was an amateur singer and a personal friend of Leigh Hunt,
Charles Lamb, and Vincent Novello.
John Taylor (1781-1864)
Publisher of the
London Magazine and poems of John Keats, and a
prolific writer in his own right.
