Abstract
On 3 January 1879, Edward Dowden, Professor of English Literature at Trinity College Dublin, wrote to his friend Bram Stoker congratulating him on his appointment as the Lyceum’s acting manager and on his recent marriage to Florence Balcombe:
I was rejoiced to hear of your bringing 1878 to such fortunate issues – of which I had expected one, & the other was a good surprise. I am sorry to lose the pleasure of knowing your wife now, but when you come to Ireland – for you are not to be cut off from Ireland – you must let us hear of the fact & then we shall hope to see her & you.
Your appointment under Irving must be, I think, most satisfactory to both him & you. It will give you abundant matter for shaping an interesting life. There was no possibility of my getting to London for the opening of the Lyceum, & so taking advantage of the kindness of the Lessee & Acting Manager. But I have seen in the London papers how entire a success it was.
You will be pleased to hear that all your friends are engaged in writing drama which through your influence are to be acted immediately at the Lyceum. I am myself at work on three tragedies, two melodramas, & a farce.
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Notes
Stoker also corresponded with Dowden’s brother, John Dowden, the Archbishop of Edinburgh, for advice on Scottish marriage laws for The Mysteryof the Sea (1902). See Stoker Correspondence. With thanks to the Brotherton Library, Special Collections, for use of the Stoker material.
For a discussion of Irving and Sullivan, see Wynne (2012, vol. 1: xxvi–xxxi).
Marshall also connects Lucy and Lady Macbeth (1998: 156).
Alan Hughes notes that in Irving’s 1895 revival of Macbeth, blue limelight was used to indicate the presence of the ghost of Banquo (1981: 107).
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© 2013 Catherine Wynne
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Wynne, C. (2013). The Lyceum’s Macbeth and Stoker’s Dracula . In: Bram Stoker, Dracula and the Victorian Gothic Stage. The Palgrave Gothic Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137298997_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137298997_6
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