ehow found its way back upon my head for the last scene. At the
end of the play, which has now been acted ten nights, some people
began hissing the pinching incident. It was always considered the
dangerous passage of the piece, but a reasonable public should know
that a play must be damned on its first night, or not at all.

_Saturday, 11th._-- ... A long walk with my mother, and a long talk
about Shakespeare, especially about the beauty of his songs....

_Tuesday, 14th._-- ... Read the family my prologue. My mother did
not like it at all; my father said it would do very well. John
asked why there need be any prologue to the play, which is
precisely what I do not understand. However, I was told to write
one and I did, and they may use it or not just as they please. I am
determined to say not another word about the whole vexatious
business, and so peace be with them.... In the evening a charming
little dinner-party at Mr. Harness's. The G----s, Arthur K----,
Procter (Barry Cornwall), who is delightful, Sir William Millman,
and ourselves.... Dear Mr. Harness has spoken to Murray about
John's book, and has settled it all for him. On my return home, I
told John of the book being accepted, at which he was greatly
pleased. [The book in question was my brother's history of the
Anglo-Saxons, of which Lord Macaulay once spoke to me in terms of
the highest enthusiasm, deploring that John had not followed up
that line of literature to a much greater extent.]

_Wednesday, 15th._-- ... My father went to the opening dinner of
the Garrick Club.... After tea I read Daru, and copied fair a
speech I had been writing for an imaginary member of the House of
Peers, on the Reform Bill. John Mason called, and they sat down to
a rubber, and I came to my own room and read "King Lear." ...

_Thursday, 16th._-- ... While I was at the Fitzhughs' Miss Sturges
Bourne came in, and she and Emily had a very interesting
conversation about books for the poor. Among other things Emily
said that Lady Macdonald had written up to her from the country, to
say that she wanted some more books of sentiment, for that by the
way in which these were thumbed it was evident that they alone
would "go down." Upon inquiry, I found that these "sentimental"
books were religious tracts, highly flavo