[E. S. Dallas], from a review of Doctor Marigold's Prescriptions, The Times

Dallas (see No. 121) had reviewed the Mrs Lirriper stories enthusiastically in The Times (3 December 1863, 12; 2 December 1864, 12). Doctor Marigold was immediately turned into a public reading. First performed on 10 April 1866 (after over 200 rehearsals), it proved very popular, and the episode of the Cheap Jack at work with his daughter dying in his arms was one of the most celebrated moments of pathos in Dickens’s repertoire.