eless, to your observations, of which I admit the
force, and am so far from having determined to abide by any theoretical
convictions of my own upon the subject that I shall be guided entirely
by Mr. Mitchell's opinion about the best manner of giving my readings;
for, as I do it for money, I shall do it in the way most likely to be
profitable. At the same time, I shall certainly use my best endeavor to
have the business so arranged as to desecrate as little as possible the
great works of the master, in the exposition and illustration of which I
look for infinite pleasure and profit of the highest order, whatever my
meaner gain by it may be....

[I am afraid my excellent and zealous manager, Mr. Mitchell, was
often far from satisfied with the views I took of the duty imposed
upon me by reading Shakespeare. My entire unwillingness to exhaust
myself and make my work laborious instead of pleasant to me, by
reading more than three, or at the utmost four, times a week, when
very often we could have commanded very full rooms for the six; my
pertinacious determination to read as many of the plays (and I read
twenty-five) as could be so given to an audience in regular
rotation, so as to avoid becoming hackneyed, in my feeling or
delivery of them, appeared to him vexatious particularities highly
inimical to my own best interests, which he thought would have been
better served by reading "Hamlet," "Romeo and Juliet," and the
"Merchant of Venice," three times as often as I did, and "Richard
II.," "Measure for Measure," and one or two others, three times as
seldom, or not at all. But though Mr. Mitchell could calculate the
money value of my readings to me, their inestimable value he knew
nothing of.]

Pray now, my dearest friend, consider that you too often challenge with
affectionate anxiety for me that future which I may never live to see;
and yet do not imagine that I consider your apprehensions and
suggestions, were they a thousand times more numerous and more
ridiculous, if that were possible, as in any way unsatisfactory; but
highly the contrary, as testifying to that most comfortable fact that
you, my beloved Hal, are the very same you ever have been to me, an
excellent, precious, devoted, wise, most absurd, and every way
invaluable friend. God bless you.

Ever yours,