Ever affectionately.
1862.
The same.
Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent,
Friday, Twenty-fourth January, 1862.
My dear Bulwer Lytton,
I have considered your questions, and here follow my replies.
1. I think you undoubtedly have the right to forbid the turning of your play into an opera.
2. I do not think the production of such an opera in the slightest degree likely to injure the play or to render it a less valuable property than it is now. If it could have any effect on so standard and popular a work as "The Lady of Lyons," the effect would, in my judgment, be beneficial. But I believe the play to be high above any such influence.
3. Assuming you do consent to the adaptation, in a desire to oblige Oxenford, I would not recommend your asking any pecuniary compensation. This for two reasons: firstly, because the compensation could only be small at the best; secondly, because your taking it would associate you (unreasonably, but not the less assuredly) with the opera.