Dear Sir [letter response to request for an autograph]

The format is approximately 8.75 inches by 7 inches, folded in half, with writing on one side only. Printed on the actor's personal stationery with home address. Pencil notation at the top of pages. The text reads Nov/4/77 Sir, I send you my autograph. I dare say with three copies. [unclear] would let you have some photographs for the purpose in view because my inability to do more for you as well as the brevity of this note. I have no time for more. Yours H. Vezin. On the next panel are three signed quotations: "Thou nature are my goddess" King Lear Hermann Vezin; "Corruption wins not more than honesty" Henry VIII Hermann Vezin; "Take the instant way" Troilus & Cressda. Hermann Vezin. Sir J. Forbes-Robertson described Vezin in the London Post as a "bright and dapper little man, who was both "learned and dictatorial on the art of acting." The Illustrated London News review of Vezin in the title role of Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith noted that "Mr. Vezin is probably the most intellectual of our actors, and is the very man for creating an original part, such as that of Dan'l Druce" and described one scene as "an acting hit by Mr. Hermann Vezin which literally electrified the house." He was one of W. S. Gilbert's favorite actors. and, besides the aforementioned Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith, he also starred in Gilbert's Randall's Thumb, (1871), and played Mousta in an 1882 revival of Broken Hearts alongside Gilbert himself as Florian (due to an accident incapacitating Kyrle Bellew). Hermann Vezin (March 2, 1829 June 12, 1910) was an American actor, teacher of elocution and writer. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Vezin graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with an A.B. in 1847 and later a master's degree in 1850. Vezin was determined to work as an actor and departed America for the UK shortly after graduation. He made his first appearance at the York Theatre Royal in St Leonard's Place, York, England. After playing minor roles in several provincial engagements, he began performing leading characters as Cardinal Richelieu, Sir Edward Mortimer, Claude Melnotte, and Young Norval. He made his London début in 1852 at the Princess's Theatre. On February 21, 1863, at St Peter's Church, Eaton Square, he married the former child actress, English-born Jane Elizabeth Thompson who, appearing as an adult under the name Mrs. Charles Young, had made a reputation as an actress both in Australia and in England. They appeared in many plays with together until her death in 1902. Together they had a son, the silent film actor, Arthur Vezin. Apart from a brief professional tour of the United States in 185758, the majority of Vezin's acting career took place on the English stage. Though primarily an actor, in 1866 he collaborated with the playwrights W. G. Wills and James Albery to write the vaudeville inspired play Doctor Davey based on the 1842 play Le Docteur Robin by French writer Jules de Prémaray in which he also played the title role. The following year he starred as a troubled Scottish poet James Harebell in Wills' Man o' Airlie (1867) to overwhelmingly positive reviews. Vezin followed up with other successful showings, such as The Turn of the Tide by F. C. Burnand (1869), Son of the Soil (1872); As You Like It (1875); and W. S. Gilbert's Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith, which ran for one hundred and nineteen performances at the Haymarket Theatre (1876, also a revival in 1884); He acted alongside actress Ellen Terry in Wills' Olivia, Vicar of Wakefield (1878), a highly successful adaptation of Oliver Goldsmith's novel, The Vicar of Wakefield (1766). A benefit matinee was held for Vezin at the Haymarket Theatre on March 19, 1896. For this, George Grossmith gave a sketch, and play scenes featured Gerald du Maurier, Herbert Beerbohm Tree and Cyril Maude, among others. Vezin continued to act, appearing in The Happy Life in 1897 and as Rowley in The School for Scandal opposite Herbert Beerbohm Tree in 1909. In his declining years, Vezin appear inf.…