Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 7
1837-12-01
The weather continues mild. I hung over my coins longer than was quite proper, then to the Office where I found time to finish the sketch of my Mother’s biography, notwithstanding a visit from Russel Freeman who is possessed with a kind of monomania about the Collectorship of New Bedford. About as likely to get it as the man in the moon.
Home to continue Herodotus. Afternoon at work upon the coins which prove an unexpectedly good purchase. Also writing.
Evening with my Wife to the Play, Miss Tree as Letitia Hardy and Albertine for her benefit.1 Very well. Barry and his Wife as Flutter and Mrs. Rackett inappropriately cast. The second piece is a French comédie Larmoyante,2 very well suited to show her acting. Home late.
The plays were The Belle’s Stratagem and Albertine, or The Heart’s Three Trials, adapted from the French (Daily Advertiser, 1 Dec., p. 3, col. 4).
On CFA’s understanding of the comédie larmoyante as derived from the lectures of Prof. George Ticknor at Harvard, see vol. 1:394.