[159] A dog, referred to elsewhere as Flossie, junior.
[161] It was sent to Mr. Williams on six half-sheets of note-paper and was preserved by him.
[163] Although Jane Eyre has been dramatised by several hands, the play has never been as popular as one might suppose from a story of such thrilling incident. I can find no trace of the particular version which is referred to in this letter, but in the next year the novel was dramatised by John Brougham, the actor and dramatist, and produced in New York on March 26, 1849. Brougham is rather an interesting figure. An Irishman by birth, he had a chequered experience of every phase of theatrical life both in London and New York. It was he who adapted ‘The Queen’s Motto’ and ‘Lady Audley’s Secret,’ and he collaborated with Dion Boucicault in ‘London Assurance.’ In 1849 he seems to have been managing Niblo’s Garden in New York, and in the following year the Lyceum Theatre in Broadway. Miss Wemyss took the title role in Jane Eyre, J. Gilbert was Rochester, and Mrs. J. Gilbert was Lady Ingram; and though the play proved only moderately successful, it was revived in 1856 at Laura Keene’s Varieties at New York, with Laura Keene as Jane Eyre. This version has been published by Samuel French, and is also in Dick’s Penny Plays. Divided into five Acts and twelve scenes, Brougham starts the story at Lowood Academy. The second Act introduces us to Rochester’s house, and the curtain descends in the fourth as Jane announces that the house is in flames. At the end of the fifth, Brougham reproduced verbatim much of the conversation of the dialogue between Rochester and Jane. Perhaps the best-known dramatisation of the novel was that by the late W. G. Wills, who divided the story into four Acts. His play was produced on Saturday, December 23, 1882, at the Globe Theatre, by Mrs. Bernard-Beere, with the following cast:—
| Jane Eyre | Mrs. Bernard-Beere |
| Lady Ingram | Miss Carlotta Leclercq |
| Blanche Ingram | Miss Kate Bishop |
| Mary Ingram | Miss Maggie Hunt |
| Miss Beechey | Miss Nellie Jordan |
| Mrs. Fairfax | Miss Alexes Leighton |
| Grace Poole | Miss Masson |
| Bertha | Miss D’Almaine |
| Adele | Mdlle. Clemente Colle |
| Mr. Rochester | Mr. Charles Kelly |
| Lord Desmond | Mr. A. M. Denison |
| Rev. Mr. Price | Mr. H. E. Russel |
| Nat Lee | Mr. H. H. Cameron |
| James | Mr. C. Stevens |
Mr. Wills confined the story to Thornfield Hall. One critic described the drama at the time as ‘not so much a play as a long conversation.’ A few years ago James Willing made a melodrama of Jane Eyre under the title of Poor Relations. This piece was performed at the Standard, Surrey, and Park Theatres. A version of the story, dramatised by Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer, called Die Waise von Lowood, has been rather popular in Germany.
[168a] Alexander Harris wrote A Converted Atheist’s Testimony to the Truth of Christianity, and other now forgotten works.
[168b] Julia Kavanagh (1824-1877). Her father, M. P. Kavanagh, wrote The Wanderings of Lucan and Dinah, a poetical romance, and other works. Miss Kavanagh was born at Thurles and died at Nice. Her first book, The Three Paths, a tale for children, was published in 1847. Madeline, a story founded on the life of a peasant girl of Auvergne, in 1848. Women in France during the Eighteenth Century appeared in 1850, Nathalie the same year. In the succeeding years she wrote innumerable stories and biographical sketches.
[173] It runs thus:—
‘December 9th, 1848.
‘The patient, respecting whose case Dr. Epps is consulted, and for whom his opinion and advice are requested, is a female in her 29th year. A peculiar reserve of character renders it difficult to draw from her all the symptoms of her malady, but as far as they can be ascertained they are as follows:—
Her appetite failed; she evinced a continual thirst, with a craving for acids, and required a constant change of beverage. In appearance she grew rapidly emaciated; her pulse—the only time she allowed it to be felt—was found to be 115 per minute. The patient usually appeared worse in the forenoon, she was then frequently exhausted and drowsy; toward evening she often seemed better.