Charles took an emendated copy of his farce to Mr. Wroughton, the Manager, yesterday.  Mr. Wroughton was very friendly to him, and expressed high approbation of the farce; but there are two, he tells him, to come out before it....  We are pretty well, and in fresh hopes about this farce.

Lamb tells Manning about it, on December 5, adding after an outline of the plot:—­“That’s the idea—­how flat it is here—­but how whimsical in the farce!” Later he says:  “I shall get L200 from the theatre if ’Mr. H——­’ has a good run, and, I hope, L100 for the copyright.  Nothing if it fails; and there never was a more ticklish thing.  The whole depends on the manner in which the name is brought out, which I value myself on, as a chef-d’oeuvre.”  And a little later still:  “N.B.  If my little thing don’t succeed, I shall easily survive.”

“Mr. H——­” was produced on December 10, 1806.  The play-bill for the night ran thus:—­

Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane
This present Wednesday, December 10, 1806
Their Majesties Servants will act the Operatic Drama of
The Travellers;
Or, Music’s Fascination
[&c. &c.]
After which will be produced (Never Acted) a new Farce, in Two acts,
called,
Mr. H——­
The Characters by
Mr. Elliston
Mr. Wewitzer, Mr. Hartley, Mr. Penley, Mr. Purser
Mr. Carles, Mr. Cooke, Mr. Fisher, Mr. Placide, Mr. Webb
Miss Mellon, Mrs. Sparks
Miss Tidswell, Mrs. Harlowe
Mrs. Scott, Mrs. Maddocks, Miss Sanders
The Prologue to be spoken by Mr. Elliston
[&c., &c.]

According to Mrs. Baron-Wilson’s Memoirs of (Miss Mellon) Harriet, Duchess of St. Albans, Lamb was allowed to cast “Mr. H——­” himself.  Miss Mellon played the heroine.

The Lambs sat near the orchestra with Hazlitt and Crabb Robinson, and the house was well salted with friendly clerks from the East India House and the South-Sea House.  The prologue went capitally; and all was well with the play until the name of Hogsflesh was pronounced.  Then disapproval set in in a storm of hisses, in which, Crabb Robinson tells us, Lamb joined heartily, standing on his seat to do so.

In a report of the first night of “Mr. H——­” in Monthly Literary Recreations for December, 1806, we read that on the secret of the name being made public “all interest vanished, the audience were disgusted, and the farce went on to its very conclusion almost unheard, amidst the contending clamours of ‘Silence,’ ‘Hear! hear!’ and ‘Off! off! off!’”

Writing to Wordsworth on the next day Lamb told the story:—­“Mr. H——­ came out last night and failed.  I had many fears; the subject was not substantial enough.  John Bull must have solider fare than a Letter.  We are pretty stout about it, have had plenty of condoling friends, but after all, we had rather it should have succeeded.  You will see the Prologue in most of the Morning Papers.  It was received with such