[Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd, dramatist, judge, and friend of Charles Lamb, dedicatee of Pickwick Papers.] Autograph Letter in the third person to ‘Mrs Walter’, presenting a copy of ‘a little dramatic poem’ (i.e. his celebrated play ‘Ion’).

It is hard to overestimate the impact of ‘Ion’ on Victorian audiences in Britain and America. According to Talfourd’s entry in the Oxford DNB, the play was ‘first performed at Covent Garden Theatre, London, on his birthday, 26 May 1836. He had circulated the play privately to influential individuals, including Wordsworth, Robert Southey, and Gladstone, which ensured that the theatre was packed with the most distinguished audience contemporary reviewers could remember, including Dickens, Robert Browning, Walter Savage Landor, Pitt, Melbourne, Lord Chief Justice Denman, Lord Grey, and Lady Blessington. Ion caused a sensation and remained popular for many years. [...] The political impact of Ion was increased by the known republican sympathies of the actor in the leading role, William Charles Macready. [...] Ion was seen as a stage play of lasting stature. It was performed continuously for over a year and consistently revived in London until at least 1861. It was even more popular in the United States, where the transvestite actress Ellen Tree performed in it repeatedly. ’ 1p, 12mo. Aged and spotted with a small lengthened hole causing loss to three words of text. Folded twice. Reads: ‘Mr. Sergt. Talfourd presents his compliments to Mrs. Walter and takes the liberty of sending her a copy of a little dramatic [p]oem which is not published but pr[in]ted for private circulation among tho[s]e whose kindness may induce them to look indulgently on its slender claims to their attention. / Reading / 21 October 1835’. See image.