3162. Helena Faucit Martin [1] to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 18, 317–318.
24 James St. Buckingham Gate.
London.
Jany 22/53.
My dear Sir,
Have you forgotten,—it is very likely—the permission you gave me some years back to make use of your “Colombe’s Birthday” for the stage? An opportunity of availing myself of your kindness is likely to present itself at the Haymarket, under the new lessee Mr Buckstone’s Management, [2] where I have accepted a short engagement in April next. [3] The permission is of so old a date that I do not feel at liberty to act upon it unless renewed. May I therefore ask you to tell me frankly what your feeling is on the subject? If you still have no objection I confess I shall be delighted to have an opportunity of realising my idea of Colombe, who has always been a great pet with me. So far as I can gather from the information Mr Buckstone has given me I should think the play would be very fairly supported. He tells me it would be necessary to present the piece in three acts;—I hope you would not object to this. [4]
Immediately after my marriage in August 1851 I was taken for the first time to Italy. In October I found myself in lovely Florence, & our very first steps were directed towards the Casa Guidi windows. I had talked to Mr Martin so much about you that I think his disappointment was almost as great as mine when we learnt from the old porter that you had gone to England. The old man, too, dwelt with visible regret on the departure of the donna, & the dear bambino, in whom the Casa Guidi windows have made us all feel a deep interest.
On our return to England we heard you were in Paris, & now I am told you are again in Florence. Attractive as Florence is I hope it is not to keep you altogether, and that when you return to England you will give me an opportunity of introducing Mr Martin to you, & renewing our former acquaintance, which is always remembered with pleasure by
yours dear Sir,
very truly,
Helen Martin.
or “Helen Faucit”
as you knew her.
Address: Robert Browning Esq / Firenze. / Italy.
Publication: BBIS-2, p. 9.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Helena Faucit Martin (née Saville, 1814-98), actress, made her stage debut in Richmond in 1833 as Juliet. She subsequently became one of the lights of the London stage, playing leading roles opposite Charles Kemble and William Charles Macready. In 1837 she was Lady Carlisle in RB’s Strafford, and in 1843, Lady Tresham in A Blot in the ’Scutcheon. She married Theodore Martin (1816-1909), writer and solicitor, on 25 August 1851.
2. John Baldwin Buckstone (1802–79), comic actor and, according to the ODNB, “principal low comedian” of the Haymarket. “In March 1853 he took over from Benjamin Webster as manager … a position he retained until three years before his death.”
3. Colombe’s Birthday opened at the Haymarket on 25 April 1853 and closed after seven performances.
4. Colombe’s Birthday is a five-act play. According to the acting copy submitted to the Lord Chamberlain for approval in 1852, the play was staged in five acts (see the facsimile published in James Hogg, Robert Browning and the Victorian Theatre: Acting Versions of Strafford … and Colombe’s Birthday, Salzburg, 1977, pp. 201–268).
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