Beschreibung:

DICKENS, CHARLES. Autograph letter signed ("CD") to his good friend, the celebrated actor William Charles Macready, London, 27 February 1851, 5 pages, 8vo, usual fold creases , touching on the arrangements for the actor's Farewell Dinner on his retirement on 1 March, describing the effect on him of Macready's last appearance on the stage at Drury Lane the previous night (26 February), and giving a short account of his early devotion to Macready and of the importance of Macready's example to his own career: "...I cannot forbear a word about last night. I think I have told you sometimes, my much-loved friend, how when I was a mere boy, I was one of your faithful and devoted adherents in the Pit...As I improved myself and was improved by favouring circumstance in mind and fortune, I only became the more earnest...in my study of you. No light portion of my life arose before me when the great vision to which I am beholden, in I don't know how great a degree, or for how much -- who does? -- faded so nobly from my bodily eyes last night... (Suzannet sale, lot 266); DICKENS. Autograph letter signed ("Charles Dickens," with paraph) to the famous soprano Pauline Viardot, Paris, 20 November 1862, 1 page, 8vo, on blue paper, embossed marginal stamps of Collection Viardot , praising her performance in Gluck's Orfeo : "I cannot help it. I must thank you for that wonderful performance of last night. When Monsieur Viardot come upon me by accident, I was holding forth about the first act, to my daughter and sister-in-law, with tears rolling down my face. I came to you in hardly a better condition...Nothing can be more magnificent, more true, more tender, more beautiful, more profound!..."; together 2 letters . (2)