The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To MISS FANNY KELLY,1 13 MAY 1848

MS Huntington Library.

Address (envelope): Miss Kelly.

Devonshire Terrace. | Thirteenth May 1848.

My Dear Miss Kelly.

I have read the two letters. They make the matter,2 I confess, no clearer to me than it was before. But I shall be glad to be enlightened, and will appoint 12 O’Clock on Friday next, if you please.

Ever Yours

CD.

• 1. Frances Maria Kelly (1790-1882; Dictionary of National Biography), actress. Retired from Drury Lane 1835 and opened her own theatre at 73 Dean Street, Soho Square 1840. See further Pilgrim Letters 4, p. 348n.
• 2. Not certainly identified. Most likely to do with Miss Kelly’s proposed readings “for getting a livelihood through the provincial Literary Societies and Mechanics’ Institutes” (To Coutts, 24 May 48; Pilgrim Letters 5, pp.316-17). Miss Kelly was in financial difficulties and CD was concerned to help, though shortly growing impatient with her (To Talfourd, 23 July 48; Pilgrim Letters 5, pp. 375-6).