[6] Fitzgerald’s Lives of the Kembles was reviewed in the Athenæum, 12th August 1871, and the ‘Memoirs of Mr. Harness,’ 28th October.
[7] Macbeth, ii. 2, 21.
[9] In writing to Sir Frederick Pollock on November 17th, 1871, FitzGerald says:—
‘The Game-dealer here telling me that he has some very good Pheasants, I have told him to send you a Brace—to go in company with Braces to Carlyle, and Mrs. Kemble. This will, you may think, necessitate your writing a Reply of Thanks before your usual time of writing: but don’t do that:—only write to me now in case the Pheasants don’t reach you; I know you will thank me for them, whether they reach you or not; and so you can defer writing so much till you happen next upon an idle moment which you may think as well devoted to me; you being the only man, except Donne, who cares to trouble himself with a gratuitous letter to one who really does not deserve it.
‘Donne, you know, is pleased with Everybody, and with Everything that Anybody does for him. You must take his Praises of Woodbridge with this grain of Salt to season them. It may seem odd to you at first—but not perhaps on reflection—that I feel more—nervous, I may say—at the prospect of meeting with an old Friend, after all these years, than of any indifferent Acquaintance. I feel it the less with Donne, for the reason aforesaid—why should I not feel it with you who have given so many tokens since our last meeting that you are well willing to take me as I am? If one is, indeed, by Letter what one is in person.—I always tell Donne not to come out of his way here—he says he takes me in the course of a Visit to some East-Anglian kinsmen. Have you ever any such reason?—Well; if you have no better reason than that of really wishing to see me, for better or worse, in my home, come—some Spring or Summer day, when my Home at any rate is pleasant. This all sounds mock-modesty; but it is not; as I can’t read Books, Plays, Pictures, etc. and don’t see People, I feel, when a Man comes, that I have all to ask and nothing to tell; and one doesn’t like to make a Pump of a Friend.’
[10a] At the Royal Institution, on ‘The Theatre in Shakespeare’s Time.’ The series consisted of six lectures, which were delivered from 20th January to 24th February 1872. On 18th February 1872, Mrs. Kemble wrote: ‘My dear old friend Donne is lecturing on Shakespeare, and I have heard him these last two times. He is looking ill and feeble, and I should like to carry him off too, out of the reach of his too many and too heavy cares.’—‘Further Records,’ ii. 253.
[10b] 27th February, 1872, for the recovery of the Prince of Wales.
[10c] Mr. Jenney, the owner of Bredfield House, where FitzGerald was born. See ‘Letters,’ i. 64.
[11] H. F. Chorley died 16th February 1872.
[13a] Perhaps Widmore, near Bromley. See ‘Further Records,’ ii. 253.
[13b] ‘Old Kensington,’ the first number of which appeared in the Cornhill Magazine for April 1872.