![WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900). Autograph letter signed ('Oscar -- I mean, Fabien de Franchi!') to the Polish actress Helena Modjeska, Keats House, Tite Street, n.d. [?19 December 1880], 3 pages, 8vo (traces of paste to inner margins, short split to centre fold of f.1).](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2006/CKS/2006_CKS_07275_0073_000(010411).jpg?w=1)
Details
WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900). Autograph letter signed ('Oscar -- I mean, Fabien de Franchi!') to the Polish actress Helena Modjeska, Keats House, Tite Street, n.d. [?19 December 1880], 3 pages, 8vo (traces of paste to inner margins, short split to centre fold of f.1).
PAYING TRIBUTE TO A GREAT ACTRESS: Wilde's letter proposes to bring two actors from the famous Balliol College production of Aeschylus's Agamemnon to pay tribute to Modjeska, emphasising that 'Mr [Frank] Benson who acted Clytaemnestra ... went the two nights before he acted to get inspiration from you at the Court', and adding that 'No one in town talks of anything but Adrienne Lecouvreur! I am so glad'. The signature as 'Fabien de Franchi' is a reference to Wilde's sonnet of that title addressed to Henry Irving and paying tribute to Irving's role in his dramatisation of Dumas's The Corsican Brothers.
The Balliol production of Agamemnon to which Wilde refers, largely the creation of Frank Benson, was the first modern production of the play in the original Greek, with costumes partly designed by Edward Burne-Jones: it was a sensational success, set a fashion for similar productions, and was the springboard for Benson's later theatrical career. Wilde's flattery of Modjeska is consistent with his cultivation of other leading actresses at this time, notably Lillie Langtry, Ellen Terry and Sarah Bernhardt.
PAYING TRIBUTE TO A GREAT ACTRESS: Wilde's letter proposes to bring two actors from the famous Balliol College production of Aeschylus's Agamemnon to pay tribute to Modjeska, emphasising that 'Mr [Frank] Benson who acted Clytaemnestra ... went the two nights before he acted to get inspiration from you at the Court', and adding that 'No one in town talks of anything but Adrienne Lecouvreur! I am so glad'. The signature as 'Fabien de Franchi' is a reference to Wilde's sonnet of that title addressed to Henry Irving and paying tribute to Irving's role in his dramatisation of Dumas's The Corsican Brothers.
The Balliol production of Agamemnon to which Wilde refers, largely the creation of Frank Benson, was the first modern production of the play in the original Greek, with costumes partly designed by Edward Burne-Jones: it was a sensational success, set a fashion for similar productions, and was the springboard for Benson's later theatrical career. Wilde's flattery of Modjeska is consistent with his cultivation of other leading actresses at this time, notably Lillie Langtry, Ellen Terry and Sarah Bernhardt.
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