which she replied, "Oh yes; that she knew that, _for she
was present_." Can you conceive, after such a spectacle, trying similar
experiments upon one's ignorant self? Is it not very brave? or is it
only idiotical?...

I have been making a desperate struggle, _giving my reasons_ (four pages
of them--think of it!) to the committee of the Liverpool Institution, to
induce them to let me read Shakespeare _straight through_ to them; at
least, each play I read, divided into two readings, and with only the
omissions required by modern manners: but I fear they will not let me. I
shall be grievously disappointed....

Was there ever such a to-do as that woman Lola Montez is kicking up?
Everybody is turning Catholic as fast as possible, and the good
Churchwomen are every way in despair. They already see their sons all
circumcised, and their daughters refusing to eat ham, and their brothers
and husbands confessing the Real Presence. The lady members of the
Established Church, especially the more serious ones, are in great
tribulation at all that is going on. Lady Ellesmere is desperate at the
Jews coming into Parliament, and Lord Ellesmere has voted against them.
He, poor man, has been, within the last few days, all but at death's
door with the gout, and perhaps near finding out how different, or
_in_different, these differences _really_ are. It is wonderful to hear
everybody talk.

Good-bye. I am yours and Dorothy's

Most respectfully,
FANNY.

[My first intention in undertaking my readings from Shakespeare was
to make, as far as possible, of each play a thorough study in its
entireness; such as a stage representation cannot, for obvious
reasons, be. The dramatic effect, which of course suffers in the
mere delivery from a reading-desk, would, I hoped, be in some
measure compensated for by the possibility of retaining the whole
beauty of the plays as poetical compositions. I very soon, however,
found my project of making my readings "studies of Shakespeare" for
the public quite illusory.

To do so would have required that I should take two, and sometimes
three, evenings to the delivery of one play; a circumstance which
would have rendered it necessary for the same audience, if they
wished to hear it, to attend two and three consecutive readings; and
in many other respects I fo