[Charles Haddon Chambers, Australian dramatist in England, lover of Dame Nellie Melba.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘B. C.’, on subects including his performance with Herbert Beerbohm Tree before Queen Victoria at Balmoral.

Chambers is not mentioned in Dame Nellie Melba’s entry in the Oxford DNB. She met him in London in 1895, and their affair ended for unknown reasons in 1904. It is clearly the ‘notorious’ affair in whose fame Chambers ‘rejoiced to the last’, according to Somerset Maugham’s devastating assessment of the man in ‘A Writer’s Notebook’ (1946). Harry de Windt gives a markedly kinder account of Chambers in his ‘My Note-Book at Home and Abroad’ (1923). The recipient would appear to be Chambers’s agent. Regarding the content of this letter, see ‘The Theatre’, 1 November 1894: ‘Mr. Beerbohm Tree and the Haymarket company gave special performances of “The Red Lamp” and “The Balladmonger” at Balmoral on the 24th of September.’ 4pp, 12mo. Thirty-five lines of text. Bifolium. Letterhead with large and impressive illustration of the frontage of the hotel. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Signed ‘C Haddon Chambers’. Begins: ‘My dear B. C. / I understood from your letter that you had written to the Adelphi Management in the spirit which you suggested to me & which I imitated re the new Contract - but the [Gatte’s?] told me before I left town that it was not so. There must be some mistake - I am quite sure any way that you wouldn’t willingly place me in an invideous [sic] position.’ With reference to Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree performing to the Queen he continues: ‘I’m out here till Sunday - Tree appears in Red Lamp before Her Majesty at Balmoral Monday. I then make my first appearance on any stage as “a Russian nobleman” (deaf, of course) in Act I. It will be fun & anyway worth being present.’ He hopes to return to London shortly, and asks him to ‘write me to Westgate’.