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Shorter, Clement King, 1857-1926

"ë and Her Circle"

It was he who adapted 'The
Queen's Motto' and 'Lady Audley's Secret,' and he collaborated with Dion
Boucicault in 'London Assurance.' In 1849 he seems to have been managing
Niblo's Garden in New York, and in the following year the Lyceum Theatre
in Broadway. Miss Wemyss took the title role in _Jane Eyre_, J. Gilbert
was Rochester, and Mrs. J. Gilbert was Lady Ingram; and though the play
proved only moderately successful, it was revived in 1856 at Laura
Keene's Varieties at New York, with Laura Keene as Jane Eyre. This
version has been published by Samuel French, and is also in Dick's _Penny
Plays_. Divided into five Acts and twelve scenes, Brougham starts the
story at Lowood Academy. The second Act introduces us to Rochester's
house, and the curtain descends in the fourth as Jane announces that the
house is in flames. At the end of the fifth, Brougham reproduced
_verbatim_ much of the conversation of the dialogue between Rochester and
Jane. Perhaps the best-known dramatisation of the novel was that by the
late W. G. Wills, who divided the story into four Acts. His play was
produced on Saturday, December 23, 1882, at the Globe Theatre, by Mrs.
Bernard-Beere, with the following cast:--
_Jane Eyre_ Mrs. Bernard-Beere
_Lady Ingram_ Miss Carlotta Leclercq
_Blanche Ingram_ Miss Kate Bishop
_Mary Ingram_ Miss Maggie Hunt
_Miss Beechey_ Miss Nellie Jordan
_Mrs.


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