house could look as if it had a broken heart, it is surely that which is called Harvington Hall. Yet it is worth studying, and could not be made more cheerful; but if architects want to see it, or pedestrians care to muse in its ricketty, rat-haunted chambers, they must go there soon, for it is rapidly falling to decay,-nothing is "done to render it weather proof." Our author says that it belongs to the "Throgmorton family." Westwood House is illustrated in three plates, and is worthy of them, for it has many interesting features-a curious wooden canopy over a gateway, and a charming portico with Corinthian columns. One of the most excellent studies here is that which represents the old gallery at Stanford Court, with its rich panelled decorations, comprising ten bays or shallow compartments, divided by Corinthian pilasters, with carved entablatures and dados, and between each pair of pilasters, on the one side, a life-sized portrait of a lady, and, on the other side, a similar picture of a gentleman of the family of the present owner, Sir Francis Winnington.

As a sort of supplement to Mr. Habershon's 'Ancient Half-Timbered Houses,' with additional features not within the purpose of that capital publication, we commend Mr. Niven's unpretending volume to the student.

SALES.

MESSRS. CHRISTIE, MANSON & WOODS sold, on Saturday last, the under-named pictures, the property of Mr. J. Grabam: Signor Baldini, Hours of Idleness, 4351.-M. J. Breton, A Peasant in a Wood, 1891.-M. C. Chaplin, Innocence, 1201.M. Collart, Gathering Wild Flowers, 1261.-M. J. Coomans, The Toilet, 741.; The Reverie, 731.—P. Delaroche, Portrait of Napoleon I., 4301.-M. De Nitis, A View in the South of France, €91.-A. De Dreux, Napoleon III., 1687.-M. J. Dupré, Early Morning at Sea, 1897.; "Out on the Sea," 1897.; A Sea-piece, with boats, 1267.-W. Etty, Venus, 531. Mr. T. Faed, The Fisherman's Daughter, 2621.-M. E. Frère, The Seamstress, 891.-M. Gierymski, The Meet in the Olden Time, 3201.-Granet, The Monastery, 2201.-M. Heilbuth, Il Dolce far Niente, 241l.-M. A. Lecadre, The Boudoir, 70l. M. E. V. Lecomte, An Egyptian Girl going to Market, 141.-M. E. Levy, The Call, 781.; The Farewell, 74l.-M. Madou, Reading the Gazette, 8921. — M. R. Madrazo, The Music Lesson, 651.-M. F. Musin, A River Scene, with boats, 2151.-M. C. Ponion, Napoleon III., 115.-M. E. Richter, "Is it broken?" 571.-M. L. Rossi, The Toast, 1781.— M. R. Sorbi, A Street Scene in Pompeii, 138.M. A. Stevens, A Souvenir cf the Opera, 173l.Mr. Alma Tadema, In the Temple, 7981.-M. Toulemouche, A Sweet Temptation, 1737.; "Will Papa consent?" 173l.-C. Troyon, The Storm, 7351.; Returning from Market, 4047.-R. M'Innes, The Diversion of the Moccoletti, 110.-Mr. A. Brennan, Via della Vita, 2101.-Mr. W. Fyfe, The Page, 1051.-Mr. W. F. Yeames, Arming the Young Knight, 1057.-T. Creswick, On the Thames at Battersea, 1261.-G. S. Newton, The Forsaken, 534.-J. W. Whittaker, At Towyn, North Wales, 641.-Mr. J. Sant, Contemplation, 991.-Mr. P. R. Morris, The Last of the Armada, 141.-D. Roberts, Edinburgh and Holyrood Palace from the Burns Monument, 1417.-C. Müller, The Bouquet, 791.

On the 18th instant, the under-named pictures were, with others, sold at the Hôtel Drouet: Fragonard, Jupiter séduit la Nymphe Calisto, and Flore et Zéphire, 9,300 francs-J. Van Goyen, Canal de Hollande, 5,000 f.-Platzer, La Nativité, 4,680 f.; Descente de Croix, 4,900 f.

Fine-Art Gossip.

THE Council of the Royal Academy consists of the following gentlemen: Messrs. Armitage, Cooke, Cousins, Dobson, Faed, Herbert, Horsley, Lewis, Millais, Stocks, Street, and Ward. The hangers of the pictures in the approaching exhibition will be Messrs. Armitage, Herbert, Horsley, and Ward. Mr. C. Marshall will arrange the sculptures, Mr. Smirke will take charge of architectural works, and Mr. Cousins of the engravings.

EVERY one who has profited by the courtesy and good offices of Mr. Fahey, will regret to learn that, after holding office as Secretary to the Institute of Painters in Water Colours for nearly forty years, he has resigned the post which he has held with great benefit to the Society.

THE subject of Mr. E. M. Ward's largest picture intended for the next Academy Exhibition, is 'Lady Rachel Russell interceding unsuccessfully with Charles the Second for a reprieve to be granted to her Husband, after his Condemnation to Death. Another subject is 'Marie Antoinette reposing before her Execution,' the last, as some series of illustrations of the life of that queen. A of our readers will regret to learn, of the painter's third work shows 'William and Mary receiving the Lords and Commons,' the original design for the wall-painting executed by Mr. Ward in the Houses of Parliament, an elaborately-executed water-colour drawing.

MRS. E. M. WARD has in hand a picture depicting an episode in the siege of Latham House. The Countess of Derby and her two little daughters are seated at dinner, and are undismayed by the explosion of a shell in the apartment.

THE appointment of Mr. F. W. Burton, the distinguished artist, to fill the post vacated at the National Gallery on the resignation of Mr. Boxall is likely to prove a satisfactory one. Mr. Burton's fine taste and many accomplishments will supply all that is wanted in this office; the misfortune is that we shall have fewer pictures than ever from his hands.

A CORRESPONDENT writes :-"In the notice of the pictures belonging to the Earl of Lonsdale, published in the Athenæum of the 21st February, in describing the circular painting of a female holding a book, by Gerard Dou, Dr. Waagen's opinion of its being a portrait of the artist's sister is referred to, and apparently assented to, as being correct. I venture to suggest that upon considera

tion it will be found to have a still closer connexion

with the painter, and that it gives the features of his wife. The same face frequently occurs in his compositions. It may be seen in that of the young woman in the fine painting by him in the National Gallery from the Peel Collection; in that of the Quack Doctor,' engraved by Hess; and, still more similar in appearance, in that engraved by Wille, under the title of 'La Menagère.' And what confirms me in the view I take, is the fact that I have in my possession a small work of his, on panel 7 inches high by 5 wide, representing a mother seated, nursing her child, who is going to sleep with the nipple in his mouth, where the resemblance in the features with the Lonsdale picture is identical, as a comparison with Captain Baillie's engraving of the latter work enables me to declare. "J. O'CONNELL."

HERE is a curious note from The Daily Journal, as quoted in The Grub-street Journal, October 10, 1734, p. 2, cols. 3-4:-"This week the statue of King de Hemme, in lead, and the figures of 40 kings' heads, whom he had killed, were shipped off to Africa." These works of art were probably converted, on their arrival, with all convenient dispatch into bullets.

MUSIO

ROYAL ALBERT HALL CHORAL SOCIETY.-Conductor, Mr.

Barnby. Mendelssohn's ST. PAUL, on THURSDAY March 5, at Eight o'clock. Madame Otto-Alvsleben, Miss Antoinette Sterling.

Mr. Sims Reeves, and Mr. Lewis Thomas. Organist, Dr. Stainer.Tickets, 78. 6d., 58., 38. (Admission, 18.); at Novello's, 1, Berners Street, and 35, Poultry; the usual Agents; and at the Royal Albert Hall.

CONCERTS.

THE mode of presenting new works by young and aspiring English composers at the Crystal Palace Concerts is not to be commended. We do not complain of the execution, for of the conscientious feeling which actuates Herr Manns there can be no doubt; but, really, to place an overture which avowedly treats an elevated subject, like the 'Cid' of Corneille, at the fag end of a programme containing one of the lightest of Beethoven's overtures, that to 'King Stephen,' so essentially Auberish, and the music to Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream,' so brilliant, sparkling, melodious, and fanciful, was giving Mr. Alfred Holmes the poorest chance in the world. No surprise can be felt that a miscellaneous audience, the majority of which had no notion of the mingled sentiments of high honour, of intense love, of chivalry, and of romanticism to be found in the French play, which the musician sought to set in his score, was not in a mood to judge fairly and to appreciate rightly the intentions of Mr. A. Holmes, especially as he endeavoured to realize more of Corneille's ideas than could be really compassed yet the general tone pervading the composition within the limits of an orchestral prelude. And was dignified; it was outside the precincts of commonplace; there was poetry in the conception, if tediousness in the development, and points of such a nature as to make us agree with the opinion of Herr Manns, who wrote the analysis, that it will not be the last work of Mr. Holmes's which will be submitted to the notice of his countrymen, and that the high opinion Berlioz had of his artistic attainments was not ill founded. We may repeat that choral pieces do not go smoothly at these instrumental concerts, and praise the happy orchestration of Herr Manns in Schubert's setting of the Twenty-third Psalm, but beyond this, the scheme of the 21st calls for no special remark. The solo singers were Mesdames Otto-Alvsleben and Patey.

The second performance of the incidental music to 'Jeanne d'Arc,' at M. Gounod's concert on the 21st inst., in St. James's Hall, fully confirmed the highly favourable impression formed of it. But the composer was quite right to restore the 'Funeral March of the Marionettes,' which he introduced so happily in the ballet music at the Gaité in Paris. This piece was rapturously re-demanded; it is a gem of the scherzo répertoire, which alone would make M. Gounod's fame as an orchestral writer of fancy and imagination. The additions he has made to the "SS. angeli custodes " the found equal favour with the connoisseurs; Communion March at the close was encored, and the lovely Sanctus would also have been repeated if the conductor had consented to give the time.

It is to be hoped that Mr. Leslie will adhere rigidly to the speciality which has rendered his concerts famous, namely, the retention of pieces for his well-trained choir, as the leading feature of his schemes, the first of which was quite to the purpose.

He gave four of Mendelssohn's partsongs as novelties. Can he do better than this? In the second part he afforded British composers their chance of hearing in compositions by Pearsall, J. F. Barnett, J. C. Ward, and by himself, besides one by Blumenthal. To Miss Edith Wynne and Mr. Lloyd the vocal displays were assigned, and to Miss J. Lawrence some pianoforte pieces.

Mr. W. Coenen is a pianist from Holland, who seeks in his Chamber Concerts to strike out a new line in his schemes. Thus, at his opening one on the 20th inst., he had Herr Rheinberger's piano and string Quartet in E flat, Op. 38; Herr Brahm's string Quartet in c minor, Op. 51; Rubinstein's Fantasia in F minor, Op. 73; a Suite in D, Op. 19, for piano, violin and violoncello, by Miss Agnes Zimmermann; a Suite in D minor, Op. 16, for piano and violoncello, and a string Ottetto, by Herr J. Svendsen. Mr. Coenen is an able artist, and he had clever coadjutors in Herr Schloosser, piano, and Messrs. Weiner, Amor, Eayres and Jung, violins; Zerbini and Stehling, violas, and Pettit and Daubert, violoncellos. The

solo singers were the Misses Ferrari, Sterling and Dones, who sang pieces by Bach, Liszt, Rubinstein, Schumann, Sullivan, and Coenen.

As Madame Schumann will not visit London this season, the Director had to find a substitute at the Monday Popular Concerts on the 23rd inst., when the lady was to have appeared. In Mr. Franklin Taylor a safe and conscientious player was found, and as Herr Joachim had Tartini's 'Trillo del Diavolo' to execute, there was no lack of interest in the 24th concert. Mr. H. Guy was the vocalist. Mr. Edward Dannreuther will be the pianist next Monday, and Mr. Bentham, the tenor, will make his first appearance since his return from his tour in Italy.

Musical Gossip. HAYDN'S 'Creation' seems still to be an attractive oratorio, for it has been given twice this weekfirst, at the Royal Albert Hall, with Mr. W. Carter's choir; and next, at Exeter Hall, by the Sacred Harmonic Society, conducted by Sir Michael Costa.

MR. MAPLESON's Prospectus for the season at Drury Lane Theatre of Her Majesty's Opera, which will be commenced, as the Athenæum has already announced, on Tuesday, the 17th of next month, will be issued this day (the 28th). The Covent Garden Royal Italian Opera will begin on the 31st of March.

THE sixty-second season of the Philharmonic Society will be commenced on the 25th of March,

with Mr. Cusins as conductor.

MENDELSSOHN'S 'St. Paul' is announced to be the next oratorio to be performed by the Royal Albert Hall Choral Society on the 5th of March, under Mr. Barnby's direction.

THE London Ballad Concerts were resumed last Wednesday, under Mr. J. Boosey's direction, with Messrs. Hatton and Meyer Lütz as conductors. THE next concert of M. Gounod's Society will be on the 7th of March.

A NEW pianist, Miss E. Barnett, sister of Mr. J. F. Barnett, the composer, and niece of Mr. John Barnett, the composer of the Mountain Sylph,' will make her debut at the Crystal Palace Concerts this afternoon. A new MS. Symphony by Mr. E. Prout is also in the programme.

THOSE standard but hackneyed works, Spohr's symphony, 'The Consecration of Sound,' and the two overtures, 'Der Freischütz' and 'Fidelio,' were in the scheme of the third concert of the British Orchestral Society, on the 26th inst. Mr. Franklin Taylor selected Beethoven's Pianoforte Concerto in G for his solo display. There was one novelty; an overture, 'Iñez de Castro,' by Mr. Alfred Holmes, of which our notice must be deferred.

Miss Rose Hersee was the vocalist announced.

MR. MANVERS, the tenor, died on the 22nd inst. He was a leading artist at Covent Garden and Drury Lane Theatres when Bunn was manager, whose leading artists have nearly all passed away: Miss Romer, Miss Inverarity, Malibran, Schroeder Devrient, Harrison, Wilson, Travers, Leffler, Weiss, Giubilei, Templeton, &c. Mr. Manvers, whose real name was Charles Ward Marshall, was born and educated at Oxford, and sang first in Christ Church, where his brother was organist. He studied in Italy, and travelled as leading tenor for some time in America. He was engaged for some years at the Ancient Concerts, the Philharmonic Society, Sacred Harmonic Society, and other principal concerts, besides singing on the lyric stage, and at our leading provincial festivals. He left the profession owing to an attack of chronic asthma. Had he been a better actor than he was, he might have taken a more prominent position, for he was a good musician, and had a sympathetic if not powerful organ.

MR. KUHE'S Brighton Musical Festival ended last Monday, with a performance of the 'Messiah,' with the Misses E. Wynne and Enriquez, Messrs. Lloyd and Lewis Thomas, as chief singers.

THE Athenæum has before stated that the profits of the late Birmingham Festival were the largest ever known; the precise sum handed over to the General Hospital, it is now announced, was 6,5771. 11s. 9d. Continental patrons of art will be astounded to learn that this large amount was obtained from eight concerts, in one week.

Two English adaptations of 'La Fille de Madame Angot' are now being played in Liverpool, one at the Theatre Royal, the other at the Prince of Wales's Theatre.

THE pianoforte recitals of Madame Arabella Goddard, according to the Calcutta Englishman of the 24th of January, are meeting with great success in India.

THE production of Cimarosa's Astuzie Femminili,' in Paris, has led to the discovery that the incidents of the entire first act were appropriated without acknowledgment by Signor F. Ricci, in his opera, 'Une Folie à Rome,' brought out at the Athénée. This act was, perhaps, in retaliation for that of Balfe, who took the libretto of the 'Siege of Rochelle' from Louis Ricci's 'Chiara de Rosemberg.' The Italian poet derived the story from the romance by Madame de Genlis, 'Le Siége de la Rochelle. Frederic and Louis Ricci, the brothers, were highly successful composers in Italy some thirty or forty years since. Louis is dead.

MUCH to the credit of M. Offenbach, who shows that he has not forgotten his early classical musical education in Germany, Shakspeare's 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' translated in verse by M. Paul Meurice, will be produced at the Gaîté Theatre in Paris, with the whole of Mendelssohn's incidental music. The fairy spectacle will be on the grandest scale, and the play will be brought out after the run of Orphée aux Enfers. It is pleasant to learn that M. Meurice, in his version of Le Songe d'une Nuit d'Été,' will not follow the example of MM. Rosier et De Leaven, the two librettists who supplied M. Ambroise Thomas, in 1850, with his text. These writers made Falstaff "Garde Général du Parc Royal de Richmont," and Shakspeare the lover of Queen Elizabeth, who reciprocated his affection, but reminds him that it is "d'une amie mais qui est en même temps une reine." The poet courts his sovereign when

he is "à moitié gris," and the queen, too, seemingly,

when she tells him, in a tavern, that he was born in "Strafford, dans le comté de Warwick."

THE Budget Committee of the Legislative Assembly have reported in favour of voting the money required for the completion of the new Grand Opera-house in Paris, so that it may be

opened carly in 1875.

THE revival of Signor Verdi's 'Macbeth' has proved a great success at the Scala, in Milan, with Madame Fricci-Baraldi as Lady Macbeth, and Signor Pandolfini as Macbeth. The composer has re-touched the score, and made some additions to it another air for Lady Macbeth in the second act, the recitatives of Macbeth in the scene of the ghosts of the kings, the ballet music, a chorus of fugitives in the fourth act, and in the finale. There was at one time a question of doing the Italian setting of 'Macbeth' at Covent Garden, with Grisi and Ronconi; but the late Mr. Frederick Beale, the Director in 1847 and 1848, was apprehensive that the "Brindisi" or Drinking-Song of Lady Macbeth in the banquet scene with Banquo, "Si colmi il calice de vino," would shock admirers of Shakspeare. Macduff is allotted to a tenor, who has an air "Ah! la paterna mano," descriptive of his horror at leaving his children to be murdered.

DRAMA

THE WEEK. PRINCESS'S.-Mary Queen o' Scots,' an Original Historical Play, in Five Acts. By W. G. Wills. GAIETY. Too Clever by Half,' an Extravagant Comedy. By John Oxenford and Joseph Hatton.

Few lives are so fruitful in romantic incident as the life of Mary of Scots, and few

have proved equally attractive to the poet and the dramatist. From the moment when, according to Brantôme, "Estant aux mamelles tettant, les Anglois vinrent assaillir l'Escosse, et fallut que sa mère l'allast cachant, pour crainte de cette furie, de terre en terre d'Escosse," to that when the head so long worshipped rolled upon the scaffold, the career of Mary is one long scene of sadness and terror. Scarcely an episode in her life on which fiction has not seized, or with which art in some form has not concerned itself. Montchrestien, one of the earliest of French tragic writers, made Mary the heroine of a tragedy, entitled 'L'Ecossoise,' which compares favourably with the writings of Jodelle and Garnier, and other contemporary authors, and which contains two lines, at least-put into the mouth of Mary-worthy of preservation :

Comme si dès ce temps la fortune inhumaine
Eût voulu m'allaiter de tristesse et de peine.

Schiller, Alfieri, and Lebrun have tragedies on the subject of her life; and a dozen English authors, from the Duke of Wharton to Mr. Swinburne, have given dramatic exposition of her sorrows or her loves. Like Mr. Swinburne, Mr. Wills has chosen for dramatic treatment

the love of Chastelard. No episode in the life of Mary is more striking or more poetical than this. What amount of encouragement led to the mad freak for the repetition of which Chastelard died will never be known. It is likely, however, that Mary, contrasting the grace and beauty of the young Frenchman with the gloom and austerity of her Scotch nobles, found his homage acceptable. It is at least certain she pardoned his first escapade, and took him again into her favour after he had shown of what madness he was capable. Of the family of Bayard, Pierre de Boscobel de Chastelard was, as he boasted, as brave as his ancestor. When imprisoned in the Tolbooth, he said, "Si je ne suis pas sans reproche, comme mon aïeul, comme lui du moins je suis sans peur." He was a poet, also the pupil and friend of Ronsard; and could ". festival terms." Add to this, that he was brave, handsome, and high in estimation at the

woo in

French court, and but three-and-twenty years of age when he died, and there is no reason to doubt that the Queen was proud of his worship, even though his extravagance at times might compromise or dismay her.

Chastelard is the true hero of Mr. Wills's

play of 'Marie Stuart.' An effort is made to exalt John Knox to a rivalry of interest. So far as this succeeds it is detrimental to the plot. It is fortunate, accordingly, that the attempt breaks down. The work Mr. Wills has written may compare in point of poetry with anything that has come from his pen, and with most that has been written on the subject. Commencing with the life of Mary in France, it shows the poet addressing fervent verses to his royal mistress, and venturing, emboldened by her smiles, to make plain his meaning and incur her just rebuke. For this offence he is banished Mary's court and preWhen, however, the Queen receives the command of Catherine de Medicis to depart forthwith for Scotland, she recalls the sentence passed upon the poet, and bids him prepare to accompany her on her journey to a country in which she will need the support and companionship of all who love her. The act ends with the farewell of Mary to France.

sence.

In this are many poetical lines, among which the following are, perhaps, the best:

Bright town, kind people, farewell; oh, farewell!

Beloved France! before I leave thy strand
I'll kiss thy shingle, and add my salt tears
To the white surf that lippeth thee all day
With endless kisses.

I'll sit upon the deck all noon-all night—
And strain mine eyes to see thy fading cliffs,-
With such a look as the poor orphan casts
On her dead mother's face

Before the coffin lid be closed on it;
And the last murmur on my lips shall be,
Beautiful France, farewell!

In the second act Knox appears. He bars Mary's entrance into the city, bidding her remove from her breast the cross she wears. Though urged by Murray and others to consent to this demand, Mary refuses. In the end her dignity triumphs over all obstacles, and she passes in front of the reformer, who has not before met with such an antagonist. The third act shows the young Queen powerless among the grim nobles, whose tumults and demands appal her. Knox enters boldly her presence, rebuking her attendants, reprimanding herself, and insisting upon the demolition of the chapel she has used for the celebration of Catholic worship. His demands are refused, and in the next act he returns with an armed mob to commence the work of destruction, and to force the Queen to dismiss Chastelard, whose name is now currently coupled with hers in the mouths of men. Unable to resist the storm, Mary bows to it. At the instigation of Rizzio she coaxes Knox, who in her hands, and under this altered treatment, becomes pliable as wax. The dismissal of Chastelard is, however, the one point upon which Mary can obtain no concession. In flying at Mary's bidding from those who clamour for his blood, Chastelard finds his way into her bed-room, in which he hides himself, bringing thus about the famous scene which was the cause of his condemnation. The finest poetry in the play is found in the address of Chastelard to the sanctities around him :Baited, despised, broken-hearted, hopeless, I fly to thy sweet nest to see thee once, And kiss thine hand, even at the price of life. The floor is wove with light where fell her steps, Hither and thither. Her eye daily lit Upon the figures in this tapestry; Methinks there is a basking happiness In the rude faces. This sweet perfumed air Clung amber-close about her loveliness, But could not keep the matchless mould of it. Her bed! She told me once she dreamed of me, That armed cap-à-pie in inlaid steel,

I was her champion knight in some sad cause
Which touch'd her life and honour. There,-where
lay

That sleeping face no Raphael could create-
That dream of me took shape; here in the darkness
She saw the gleam of my bold panoply
The lightning of my succour.

Her crucifix! she said she prayed for me.
Here wafted up the sweet Queen's prayer for me,
And her lips formed my name. Oh, priceless prayer,
Thou hast not come to me again in blessings,
For I am banished.

The purity of this scene is not less to be commended than its poetry. In the short dialogue between Mary and Chastelard which follows, the language remains equally elevated. Mary's cry when Chastelard approaches her has been heard, and Murray, with Knox and others, comes to the chamber. Quite vain is the attempt of Mary to secure a milder doom than death for her too venturous lover. Murray denies and braves her, and proves deaf to the intercessions even of Knox, whom

the sight of the Queen's grief overcomes. Before Chastelard retires, under escort, to immediate execution, Mary, outraged and broken, turns to this one servant she has found faithful and loving, and, avowing her inability to save him, tells him she loves him. Chastelard replies in a single line,

I thought that Paradise came after death. With the doomed man issue the retainers and waiting-women, leaving Mary alone with Knox, who contemplates her agony as she

listens for the sound of her lover's execution.

But half-relenting, in spite of his sympathy, Knox tells her there is no comfort for her while the cross remains in her room. "No comfort?" asks the despairing Queen. Knox answers, "What hast thou?""This," she replies, clutching the cross, at the foot of which she falls.

It may be seen from this that Mr. Wills has departed widely from history. His right to do this it would be futile to contest. He has produced a play with little absolute action, but with a chain of singularly delightful poetry running through it. The weakest portion is that which deals with Knox, whose character remains ineffective, and whose part in the action is unnecessary. It is difficult to resist a conviction that the author has raised into importance a character at first intended to be subordinate. The pageantry of the second act interferes with the action without bringing any adequate compensation. There are other crudities in the treatment, moreover, which go far to mar the beauty of the general workmanship. What, however, detracted most from the effect was the acting, which, except in one part, was painfully inadequate. Mr. Wills, as may be seen from the extracts we have given, is an innovator in versification. Though irregular in metre, to an extent altogether indefensible, his verses are rhythmical. An ear accustomed to blank verse is sorely offended when a line like

Spare him, my lord, or lead me forth to death, is delivered by a principal actor, Spare him, my lord, or let them lead me forth to death. In justice to the author, we have quoted a few of the verses which, thanks to the interpretation, failed to produce any effect. Of the lines spoken by Mrs. Rousby scarcely a tithe reached the audience. Those which were heard were spoken without emphasis, and almost without expression. A few graceful movements, and a beautiful appearance, were all that Mrs. Rousby brought to a part that any actress might court. Not for one moment was she queenly or passionate. Mr. Rousby made Knox a very comic gentleman indeed, a hopelessly incorrect pronunciation of Scotch. adding to the drollery. It would be better, indeed, to cut out the Scotch dialect altogether; it is certainly not needed. Mr. Harcourt is quite unsuited to the part of Chastelard, which demands an actor of the Fechter stamp, as Knox demands one of the stamp of Mr. Phelps. Mr. Darley gave an acceptable portraiture of Rizzio, which stood out from the canvas with much boldness and effect. A complete re-consideration of the play on the part of the actors, with some change in the cast, is necessary, if a work of high quality is not, in spite of merits rare now on the stage, to be doomed. In the play-bill, the drama is called Mary Queen o' Scots; or, the Catholic

Queen and the Protestant Reformer.' In the printed version the simpler and preferable title of Marie Stuart' is assigned it.

'Too Clever by Half' is the title bestowed by Messrs. Oxenford and Hatton upon an adaptation of 'Une Corneille qui abat des Noix,' which has been produced at the Gaiety. The English version follows closely the original, the only important change being the transference of the scene to a villa in Richmond. One act, comprising two scenes, serves for the entire action. Mr. Toole gives a comic presentation of the too discerning and too meddlesome friend, whose short visit throws a peaceful household into complete confusion.

Mr. Maclean, Mr. Soutar, Mr. Lionel Brough, Miss Loseby, and Miss Farren, support the remaining characters. The piece thus presented may claim to be an French amusing specimen of broad farce. language, however, and French acting give a piece of this stamp a cachet it never obtains in England, and the performance has a coarseness quite unlike anything in the original.

Dramatic Gossip.

MISS MARRIOTT has re-appeared at Sadler's Wells, as Juliet, in 'Romeo and Juliet,' and Julia, in the 'Hunchback.'

'LE VOYAGE DE M. PERRICHON' has been produced at the Holborn Theatre, with M. Didier in the role of M. Perrichon. This amusing comedy James's in 1872, during the engagement of M. of MM. Labiche and Martin was given at the St. Ravel. M. Didier's performance of the bourgeois hero, a part first played by M. Geffroy, was very spirited. The general cast was competent.

MISS BRADDON has a new drama, entitled 'The

Missing Witness,' in rehearsal at the Alexandra Theatre, Liverpool. The principal characters will be sustained by the lessee, Mr. Saker, and by Miss O'Beirne, late of the Court Theatre. The new piece will be produced on Easter Monday.

vallet has been revived at the Ambigu-Comique, 'LE SACRILEGE' of MM. Barrière and Beauthe scene of its first production. It owes its title to the action of a young lover, who, for the purpose of seeing his mistress once more, breaks open the coffin in which she lies, and discovers she is still living, having been enclosed with indecent haste by relatives too anxious to enter into possession of her property.

M. OFFENBACH has dissolved the treaty by which he undertook, in conjunction with M. Hostein, to re-open the Théâtre de la Renaissance. He will withdraw his répertoire, and the theatre, under the sole management of M. Hostein, will open shortly with 'Les Bibelots du Diable.'

M. ARMAND BARTHET has died in Paris, in his fifty-sixth year. He was known as the author of a few dramas, one of which, 'Le Moineau de Lesbie,' given by Rachel at the Théâtre Français, obtained a high reputation. He published also a collection of short tales, and a volume of poems, entitled 'La Fleur du Panier.'

THE Théâtre Cluny has given a new four-act drama, by M. Georges Petit, entitled 'L'Aveu.' The story of this is original rather than pleasing.

Madame Ramel has for lover the clerk of her husband, a young, ambitious, and tolerably unscrupulous man, who does not hesitate, in spite of his relations with the mother, to ask for the hand of the daughter. Anxiety for the welfare of her child prevails over every consideration, and Madaine Ramel, finding no other means available, confesses to her husband the shameful truth that forbids such nuptials. Mdlle. Périga obtained a distinct success as Madame Ramel.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.-T. L. W.-J. C.-J. L. M.-A. S. N. -H. E. C.-R. S.-E. F.-J. B. B.-F. F. S.-J. M.-W. J. A. -C. S.-received.

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