I have had one letter from her since
her departure--it gives an appalling account of her duties. Hard labour
from six in the morning until near eleven at night, with only one
half-hour of exercise between. This is slavery. I fear she will never
stand it.'--Mrs. Gaskell's _Life_.

{145b} _Haworth Churchyard_, _April_ 1855, by Matthew Arnold. Macmillan
& Co.

{158} See chap. xiii., page 346.

{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_ Mi