Papers by and relating to Shakespearian actor Johnston Forbes-Robertson, from a family archive [mixed material].

20 groupings, inluding prints, letters and photos.

This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
From dealer’s description: Group 1: Printed grey-card wallet, titled ’Souvenir of Forbes-Robertson’s Farewell at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane’. Dated ’London, Spring, 1913’. The front cover of the wallet carries a list of sixteen ’pictures of some of his most famous parts’, nine of them taken from productions of Shakespeare plays. The wallet contains fifteen reproductions of photographs, drawings and paintings of JFR, each mounted on an 8vo piece of grey card on which a caption is printed. The list of pictures on the wallet is as follows (the captions to the photographs themselves giving more information, regarding photographer, production, and son on): ’Buckingham in “Henry VIII.” / Claudio in “Much Ado About Nothing” / Lancelot in “King Arthur” [this last picture lacking] / Constantine in “For the Crown” / Othello / Hamlet (From a Drawing by J. Giulick) / Macbeth / Orlando in “As You Like It” / Leontes in “The Winter’s Tale” / Romeo / Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice” / Caesar in “Caesar and Cleopatra” / Dick Heldar in “The Light that Failed” / Forbes-Robertson (From a Marble Bust by Emil Füchs) / Forbes- Robertson (From a Painting by George Harcourt, 1912) / and / Gertrude Elliott’.
From dealer’s description: Group 2: TWO: Eleven Autograph Letters Signed from JFR to EFR. Totalling 24pp. Dating from between 1899 and 1925. Five on letterheads of JFR’s London address, 22 Bedford Square, WC; others on letterheads of The Alexandra Hotel, Glasgow; Hartsbourne Manor, Bushey Heath, Herts (two); Bloms, St Margarets-at-Cliffe, S.O., Kent; Wychden, Southcliffe Parade, Broadstairs; and ’Mr. Forbes Robertson’s Autumn Tour’ of 1900. Nine in envelopes, eight of them stamped and postmarked. All signed ’Johnston’, six to ’My dear Eric’, one to ’My dear old Eric’, and the other similarly addressed. In addition to family and theatrical matters topics include: EFR’s uneasiness at ’the change at [JFR’s London address] 22 [Bedford Square]’ (’there will I am sure be advantages in some ways for you & the father we do not see now’); EFR’s enlisting for war in 1914 (’I hope the leggings will be long enough. - I noticed you stepped off when in column with too long a stride.’) and a gift in 1916 of field glasses; his reception at Harvard in 1916 (’I had a beautiful farewell of the stage at Harvard University. I gave 3 performances of “Hamlet,” & had to make a speech each time. The whole audiences stood up while I spoke, was not that a beautiful compliment? Professors, & all sorts of swells in various walks of life were of the crowded house.’); the death in 1922 of EFR’s wife the Polish artist Janina Flamm (’Such a good mother, a good wife was poor Janina’); ’dear Cecilia’s work’ (’what power she had’); the publication in 1925 of his autobiography ’A Player under Three Reigns’ (’already there are some kind notices. I expected to get hell!’) The earliest three letters date from 1899 (two) and 1900, and are addressed to ’Monsieur Eric Forbes Robertson / 153 Avenue de Neuilly / Neuilly-sur-Seine / Paris’ (while EFR was an art student in Paris). In the first he asks to be sent ’a sketch of the common room of an old Breton farm’, quoting from the directions of the French play for which the sketch is required as a design for the set, and giving a floor plan in pencil. In the second he encloses ’four pounds, which please look upon as extra payment for your drawings for the play. We produced it last Monday with great success. Craven carried out your drawings exactly’. The third letter discusses the beginning of the second Boer War: ’Yes it is dreadful about the war, but we must be patient. - I am sorry the French people are still so cross. It is a pity. Wonderful enthusiasm is the solution & Yeomanry. Fifty of our old corps “The artist” are to go to the front. Lots of my friends are enlisting in the Yeomanry.’ In 1900 JFR takes advantage of EFR’s French experience, writing from his autumn tour to request a ’rough sketch of a country servant girl’s dress, as she would appear on taking her new place. Also tell me if a prosperous farmer in a small way would have a wife who would wear a bonnet – what sort of head gear would she have on a short trip to church on a week-day? - I am going to do “Poil de Carrotte” after all.’
From dealer’s description: Group 3: Two Autograph Cards Signed (both ’Johnston’) and one telegram from JFR to EFR. One of the cards, to EFR in Paris in 1900, the other dated by EFR January 1935, and thanking him ’and Idzia’ for their birthday wishes to him. The telegram dated 1897, to St Helier, Jersey, congratulating EFR on his marriage.
From dealer’s description: Group 4: Autograph Letter Signed from JFR to his ’dear Sister’ (i.e. EFR’s wife Janina) from her ’affectionate brother / Johnston’. From the Hôtel Victoria Biarritz, 27 December 1900. He writes on the occasion of his marriage: ’I wish you & Eric could have been at the wedding, it was pretty I think though very quiet. Frankie will tell you all about it. - On our way out to this lovely place we stayed a night at Folkestone & also in Paris. We shall see dear Daisy on our way home. - There are several people here I know, & they all want to be introduced to Mrs. Forbes Robertson!’
From dealer’s description: Group 5: Joint letter to EFR from his sister ’Ida’ and father ’John Forbes Robertson’, on the occasion of EFR’s marriage. From 22 Bedford Square, on 15 July [1897]. Written on a 12mo bifolium, with the first 3pp by Ida and the last page by John Forbes-Robertson. Ida begins ’Here’s Leonard. He is all we can send you to represent the family. Johnston came to the conclusion he was best to go – it will give him a change of air as well as a very great deal of pleasure. He intended coming himself, but in the last day or two his affairs have begun to develop, and while in that state he cannot be out of London a single day. We have all been very depressed lately for nothing seemed going right, but now we do hope things have started in the right diretion. […] Trouble keeps me back – want of money and strength. Ian is needed by Johnston – and Norman is acting.’ John Forbes-Robertson’s message, sending his blessing to the couple, is written in a shaky hand.
From dealer’s description: Group 6: Nine Autograph Letters Signed to EFR from his father John Forbes-Robertson. Totalling 36pp. Between 1877 and 1897. Six from London addresses, and three from Scottish ones. Five in envelopes with stamps and postmarks. The correspondence begins in a close hand, and ends with three letters from 1897 and 1898 which are difficult to decipher. The first two letters date from 1877, the first (7 September), written while he is preparing his ’lecture for the Social Sciences Congress’, beginning ’Johnston & I are very anxious that you should go on with your swimming, & we hope you will not allow Frankie to beat you. It would be truly ridiculous for a strong healthy boy like you to allow your younger Sister to beat you in swimming’; the second (3 October) concerns EFR’s entry into University College School, with his father urging him to overcome his ’timidity’, and warning him about ’the bullying of the snobbish & cowardly ones among the boys. The best course to pursue with them is to bear with tolerable patience their impertinences till you get a little better acquainted […] &, if they continue to misbehave, to give them a good thrashing […] In the drawing class I hope you will beat them all’. Two letters are written to EFR while studying in Paris in 1885 and 1886. In the second he urges him to ’[c]ut all Bohemian companions – especially English ones - & address yourself to your art & the acquisition of the French language, so as to make your family proud of you instead of being ashamed. / The continued neglect of your opportunities will cause a bitterness of remorse which will last your life-time.’ In September 1887 he gives a description of Belfast, ’the Irish counterpart of Glasgow’, following ’a lengthened sojourn in the North of Ireland’. On 28 April 1888 he sends family news: ’Daisy has been busy all the week till very late always with her exams. Norman has been with Stephen Coleridge the last few days, & Frankie is busy at his studio with Beatrice for model & sometimes I have sat. / Mamma is at Rouen with Ian, both will, doubtless, be at the Salon on the 1st. Today is the Private View at the Grosvenor.
From dealer’s description: Group 7: ’Programme of Theatrical Performance by Their Majesties’ Servants’ at Windsor Castle, 16 November 1905. 3pp., 8vo. Nicely-printed card bifolium. The verso of the first leaf gives the cast of ’Scenes from Shakespeare’s Play The Merchant of Venice’. Includes ’Norman Forbes’ - i.e. JFR’s brother Norman Forbes-Robertson (1858-1932) – in the role of Shylock’s servant Launcelot Gobbo. The recto of the second leaf carries information relating to the performance’s conclusion, Alfred Sutro’s play ’A Marriage Has Been Arranged’.
From dealer’s description: Group 8: Handbill from the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, beginning ’Mr. Arthur Collins regrets to announce the last few weeks of the Farewell Season of Forbes-Robertson (Positively his last appearance in London) / (under his own management) with Gertrude Elliott and his company at Drury Lane Theatre / Programme for Week commencing May 12 [year not given]’. 1p., 8vo. Printed in red and black.
From dealer’s description: Group 9: 9 x 11.5 cm grey card advertising a performance at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh: ’Mr. Forbes-Robertson / Miss Gertrude Elliott / And Company will appear in a repertoire of plays’ (’The Light That Failed’, ’Othello’, ’The High Bid’ and ’Hamlet’). Undated. Identical text, in green ink, on both sides.
From dealer’s description: Group 10: : Copy of the playbill of the ’Clan Matinée In Aid of the Sadler’s Wells Fund At the St. James’s Theatre King Street, S.W.1’: ’Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson presents Himself, His Family, Relations and Friends in Shakespeare’s Comedy “Twelfth Night”’. 17 and 20 May [no year]. Including a cast list including ’John Kelt’ (EFR) and Daphne du Maurier, whose father Sir Gerald du Maurier ’will say a few words’
From dealer’s description: Group 11: Photograph of JFR. Black and white, 29 x 23 cm., mounted on card. Depicts him, in the costume of a medieval king, relaxing on a sofa (in the green room?), eyes shut, arms fanned out with thumbs touching forefingers.
From dealer’s description: Group 12: Two copies of a 19 x 22 cm. reproduction of a painting [by EFR?], one on shiny paper and the other on matt, the latter with the following on the reverse: ’Photo from the picture of Romeo & Juliet painted by Johnston Forbes-Robertson about 1880 exposed at Grosvenor Gallery & bought by a America [sic] a man in the U.Ss [sic] of [ends here]’.
From dealer’s description: Group 13: Photographic copy of the ’last Will and Testament of Gertrude Forbes- Robertson Widow of Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson at present residing at Attcliffe St. Margarets-at-Cliffe Kent’, 16 September 1950. 3pp., 8vo.
From dealer’s description: Group 14: Copy of the magazine ’Everyman’, edited by Charles Sarolea. London, 10 October 1913. 32pp., 4to, paginated 801-832. Front cover portrait of ’Sir J. Forbes-Robertson, Natus 1853’, reproducing a sketch by W. H. Caffyn. Meant to accompany a ’Character Sketch’ which has been ’unavoidably held over until next week’s issue’.
From dealer’s description: Group 15: Copy of the magazine ’The Play-Pictorial’. No. 9. Date not given. Devoted to the 1903 production of ’The Light that Failed’ at the New Theatre, London, with numerous photographs of JFR and the rest of the cast, and portrait of JFR on front cover.
From dealer’s description: Group 16: Copy of the magazine ’The Play Pictorial’. No. 73, Vol. XII. Date not given. Devoted to the 1908 production of Jerome K. Jerome’s play ’The Passing of the Third Floor Back’, with numerous photographs of JFR and the rest of the cast, and JFR and Gertrude Elliott in character on front cover. Front cover detached, and lacking back cover.
From dealer’s description: Group 17: Copy of the magazine ’The Play Pictorial’. No. 129, vol. XXI. Date not given (1913). A ’Forbes-Robertson Souvenir’, devoted to JFR, with numerous illustrations, and with the first article by B. W. Findon titled ’Farewell of Forbes-Robertson 1913 Drury Lane Theatre’. Also including a two-page letter on JFR by G. Bernard Shaw, headed ’Bernard Shaw and the Heroic Actor’.
From dealer’s description: Group 18: Envelope containing five newspaper cuttings on JFR. One from 1912, one from 1913, and the other three without date. Headings: ’A new Shylock at Drury Lane / Forbes-Robertson’s fine work / Thunders of applause at every curtain’; ’Great actor’s Hamlet. A critical study. (By George Bernard Shaw.); ’Return of Forbes Robertson. Sir Johnston’s Experiences in America. Not likely to appear again in London.’; ’Buying a voice. Mr. Forbes Robertson’s “Molten Golden Notes.”’; ’Forty years on the stage. Mr. Forbes Robertson interviewed.’ With leaf taken from ’The Sketch’, 22 August 1894, carrying full-page article on ’Theatrical Families. 1. - The Forbes-Robertsons’, with photographs of JFR and ’Mr. Ian Robertson’.
From dealer’s description: Group 19: First part of a letter addressed to ’My dear Eric Forbes-Robertson’, dated from Cheltenham, 18 October 1902. Author not named. Closely written
From dealer’s description: Group 20: ’Sketch of the Life of Shakespeare. By Alexander Chalmers, A.M.’ Extracted from an edition of Chalmers’ edition of ’The Complete Works of Shakespeare’ (Edinburgh: Fraser and Crawford, 1838). On four leaves, with title leaf and two engravings. In brown- paper wraps, with ’Shakespear’ in pencil on cover.

FAST ACC 271748 (flat)

Housed in 11 folders. From dealer’s description: The present collection of 52 items derives from the papers of Eric Forbes-Robertson, and casts interesting light on this at once close and peculiar family, and in particular on JFR and his father, letters from whom to EFR feature as Items Two and Six. It is in fair overall condition, aged and worn, with slight damage to the periodicals. In the following description [quoted as Notes in this preliminary record] it is divided into twenty groups. Ordered from Richard Ford D9072, 2017-03-02

271748