In October 1838 Edward Bulwer-Lytton started to compose his play entitled Richelieu, in which William Charles Macready was destined to play the leading role. In his introduction to the Letters of Bulwer-Lytton to Macready, Brander Mathews states that “Macready was almost a collaborator in the composition of ‘Richelieu’ and ‘Money’,” and an examination of Macready's Diaries verifies this judgment. On 15 November 1838 Macready had read part of Bulwer-Lytton's new play and noted his dissatisfaction with it: it lacked “continuity of interest” and the character of Richelieu was “not servatus ad imum”; the play would “not do” and could not “be made effective” (p. 476). Two days later he discussed the play with its author, who at first combated his objections, and acceded to them “as his judgment swayed him,” but who, when Macready “developed the object of the whole plan of alterations,… was in ecstasies.” The actor had never seen him so excited. Bulwer-Lytton exclaimed several times that “he was ‘enchanted’ with the plan” and “observed, in high spirits, ‘What a fellow you are!‘” Macready found him “indeed delightful” and “a wonderful man” (p. 477). The Diaries contain many subsequent notations of Macready's reading, marking, cutting and punctuating the play (pp. 477–492). If not an actual collaborator, Macready acted at least as an adviser in the composition of Richelieu.