The Charles Dickens Letters Project
To WILLIAM CULLENFORD,1 12 DECEMBER 1846
MS W. Hugh Peal Collection, University of Kentucky Libraries.
Paris. 48 Rue de Courcelles, St. Honoré.2
Saturday Night Twelfth December 1846.
Dear Sir
In consequence of your letter having been addressed Poste Restante, where I seldom send, and not having been forwarded here by the authorities (as it should have been) with my general correspondence,3 your letter has remained unanswered longer than I – or you, I have no doubt – could have wished. I regret to say that I cannot make so sure of my arrangements, as to pledge myself to be in London to preside at a dinner of the General Theatrical Fund,4 in Passion week.5 If the dinner had been contemplated for any day in May,6 I should have been delighted to engage myself to occupy the chair. But as the Fund is necessarily tied, for such a purpose, to a particular Season, I fear I must, this year, most reluctantly decline the honor the Directors offer me. In case I should return to England in time, I will attend the dinner, certainly.7 And pray assure the Directors, if such an assurance be necessary, that my interest in their success, and my desire to promote it by any means in my power, continue unchecked. I may mention to you, in conclusion, that I have already returned an answer similar to this, to the Printers’ Pension Society, who begged me to preside at their Dinner in April.8
William Cullenford Esquire.
I am Dear Sir / Faithfully Yours
CHARLES DICKENS
- 1. William Cullenford (1797-1874), actor. First appeared in London, 1836; acted until his retirement in 1864. A founder of the General (later Royal) Theatrical Fund, 1839, and its secretary from 1839 until his death: see further Pilgrim Letters 4, p. 467n.
- 2. After leaving Switzerland, where he had been living since June, CD arrived in Paris, 20 Nov. He stayed at the Hotel Brighton while looking for a house and took 48 Rue de Courcelles from 26 Nov.
- 3. Presumably CD had informed the Poste Restante service of his address from 26 Nov and expected post to be redirected to him.
- 4. CD, a trustee of the Theatrical Fund, had presided at the Fund’s dinner, 6 Apr 46: see The Speeches of CD, ed. K. J. Fielding, 1960, pp. 73-7.
- 5. CD uses the then standard name for what is now generally called Holy Week, beginning on Palm Sunday, which commemorates Christ’s passion. All theatres were closed in the week beginning on Palm Sunday: actors used this week to arrange contracts with provincial managers and for evening functions – hence CD’s reference below to the Fund’s dinner being tied “to a particular Season”.
- 6. The date proposed was Monday, 29 Mar 47; CD in fact returned to England at the end of Feb.
- 7. CD attended and proposed the health of the evening’s chairman, W. C. Macready: see Speeches, ed. Fielding, pp. 77-9.
- 8. CD presided at the Printers’ Pension Society annual dinner in 1843 and 1864: see Speeches, ed. Fielding, pp. 36-40 & 323-5.