I also attended a levee later in the month. These were the only occasions when my sovereign and I came face to face. She had however seen me act at an earlier date, in private theatricals. I like to think that many contemporary writers were my friends. Among them were Harrison Ainsworth, Bulwer Lytton, Thomas Carlyle, John Forster, Thackeray, Wilkie Collins, and many, alas now little remembered, whose names I suspect would mean nothing to you.
Nothing's fair but everything counts.