panied by an older attendant, and the bright luxury of her dress and air is prettily contrasted by the severely black robes and white turban of a third figure in the near distance. This picture is sure to obtain the same happy popularity with which the two Eastern scenes exhibited by Mr. Leighton in last year's Academy were greeted. His other work is of a wholly different class. It will not please so many people, but it will be the more deeply valued by a few. This second picture is The Slingers. The motive of this second picture is furnished by a custom of long tradition in the East. Mr. Leighton himself had seen it practised in Nubia at Philae. In the wide fields of standing corn detached scaffolds are raised; on these the slingers stand. At their feet a heap of clay, from which they form the balls which they cast at the birds preying on the grain, shouting at the same time loudly as they fling. In Mr. Leighton's composition the edge of this scaffolding is seen running ht along at the base of the picture. On it the tremendous form of the furious slinger rears itself in definite outline, sharply detached against the fast-darkening evening sky. This figure is the bject of the whole picture. Above the broken lines of the heap of clay, lying on the boards beneath his feet, we see the broad waves of the fields of ripe grain, over their edge on the right the great disk of the eastern sun settling slowly down, the circle line just infringed fther still to the right by the far distant form & woman, she also a slinger, standing too on her Separate scaffold. The woman is clad in a thin ong striped robe, and the cords of the sling from hich she has just discharged her missile, recoiling, wine themselves, closely knotted, round her limbs. But this second figure, though in itself interesting, merely a detail which breaks the level line, that se might carry itself too evenly along, repeating he straight stroke of the scaffold planks in the foreound. The mighty bronzed figure which fills e canvas absorbs the attention completely: at st we see nothing else. He is in the very act f throwing: his head is thrown back, the backard thrust of the left arm helps the action, the plifted right hand grips the strings which pass Behind the head, and to the right we see the ball till retained, but on the point of parting. It must not be felt that this is a mere painting of meident, the figure of a man shouting and slingng. It is a work the carrying out of which has ren in accord with the conditions of a definite ntellectual conception, every line of which is laid with serious calculation and effort; so that finally those who will give the necessary sustained attention, who will look in something of the same spirit as that in which the artist has worked; who will endeavour to receive and feel, instead of attempting to adjust his work to the quality of their own previous conceptions, may receive something of the highest pleasure which our nature affords, the pleasure which comes of apprehending the relations of lines noble in themselves, and combining (governed by a ruling intention) to issue in a preordained and definitely conceived harmony. The action of Mr. Leighton's slinger carries the lines of the composition from the right at the base upwards towards the left, but this direction is subtly corrected by the suggestion of a strong perpendicular line which is obtained, partly by the movement of the left arm, and by the position of the ball suspended directly above the left shoulder. At the present moment the picture is by no means finished; but both as to the carrying out of the whole design, and as to tone, it is quite sufficiently advanced for us to be able to realise completely Mr. Leighton's ultimate intention. The extreme simplicity of the treatment, the moment selected-the solemn close of the long day, gradually darkening about the solitary figure to whom it has as yet brought no rest-renders the general aspect of the subject very grave and impressive. It is quite different from anything else which we have had from Mr. Leighton, and yet

we at once recognise it as peculiarly his. I shall hope next week to give some further account of the works in progress at several of the other studios. E. F. S. PATTISON.

ART SALES.

THE Chintreuil sale of the 4th inst. produced 139,000 fr. Pictures for which, in his lifetime, amateurs refused to give the artist 200 or 300 fr., sold for as many thousands. The Fonds d'Igny, in the Spring, 4,000 fr.; The Potatoe Field, 2,950 fr.; Autumn Evening, 2,700 fr.; Path in the Wood of" Bruly," 3,100 fr.; Close of a Fine Summer's Day, 1,200 fr.; Evening Vapours, 4,900 fr.; The Sun drinks the Dew of the Morning, 5,600 fr.; Valley of Courgent, Setting Sun, 3,000 fr.; Apple Trees in Flower, 1,240 fr.; The Pond of Millemont, 2,225 fr.; Entrance to the Village of Courgent, effect of Snow, 3,300 fr.; The "Route blanche," 4,680 fr.; Row of Poplars in a Meadow, 2,400 fr., and Chintreuil's painting, The Fields on the First Dawn, rejected from the Salon of 1863, sold for 9,800 fr.

THE collection of the late Baron Thibon was

sold at the Hôtel Drouot on the 9th and following days. Its most remarkable features were the five magnificent groups by Clodion in terra cotta, of exceptional beauty :-Lot 1. Three Nymphs Standing, sold for 14,100 fr.; A Bacchante and Child, 10,500 fr.; A Sleeping Bacchante, 2,700 fr.; a bas-relief, A Bacchante surrounded by Children, 2,120 fr. Of the other objects, a snuff-box, ornamented with eight miniatures by De Gault, sold for 2,120 fr.; Boucher, Cupid practising drawing his Bow, and Sleeping Cupids, the two, 14,600 fr.; another, Cupids playing in the Clouds, 4,100 fr.; De Heem, Fruits, a Ham, and Silver Vases, 3,300 fr.; the same, Breakfast, 1,180 fr.; Fragonard, Danae, 1,200 fr.; Heilmann, The Young Housekeeper, 2,805 fr.; Lagrenée, Nymphs Bathing, 2,950 fr.; Joseph Vernet, Seaport, 3,060 fr. The three days' sale produced 225,106 fr. (9,0047.).

THERE is now exhibiting at Messrs. Phillips and Son's rooms in Bond Street, the Virgin of the Rosary, an important work of Murillo, which is to be sold on the 26th. It has been brought from Seville, where it has been for many years in the possession of Don Antonio Ruiz Tagle. The picture represents the Holy Virgin seated, holding on her knee the Infant Saviour; she has in her hand a chaplet or rosary. The head of the Virgin is surrounded by a glory of cherubs, above which is a choir of angels; below, a number of child-angels bearing lilies and other flowers. There are above eighty heads and figures in the composition, which is painted with great feeling and delicacy. The subject has been often painted by Murillo, but little it known of the history of the present picture. It is 8 feet high by 6 feet 9 inches

wide.

THE Dusty Road, one of Linnell's masterpieces, was sold at Christie's on the 6th, in Mr. Earl's sale, for 950 guineas.

NOTES AND NEWS.

AN interesting discovery has been made at Pisa. The noble family of Pesciolini possessed in Pisa one of the handsomest palaces in the city. It contained some interesting works of art, among others a statue of St. John given to Donatello. This palace, long uninhabited and neglected, was sold to the Count Rosselmini, when the statues were submitted to the judgment of the sculptor Signor Salvini. He pronounced the supposed Donatello to be a statue by Michel Angelo, and in all probability that St. John which, as Vasari relates, was sculptured by the great master for the Duke of Urbino, that is, Lorenzo de' Medici, father of Catherine of France. A number of sculptors and other artists have seen it, and there is not a

dissentient voice among them: all are agreed that it is a work of Buonarroti. The Count Rosselmini liberally allows it to be seen; in this resembling his countrymen generally, who have so much pleasure in allowing natives and strangers to see the works of art which they possess.

Ir is with deep regret that we record the death of M. Emile Galichon, the well-known critic and writer on art. M. Galichon was one of the earliest contributors to the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, and his editorship of that journal marks its period of highest merit. No one perhaps did more than he to revive the art of etching in France. His studies were principally directed to the elucidation of disputed points in art-history, more especially to those connected with the history of engraving, and his various articles in the Gazette, on the Italian engravers and their works, are most important contributions to our knowledge of the subject. In 1861 he published a work on Albrecht Dürer

Albert Durer, sa Vie et ses Euvres-but he is chiefly known by his periodical writings. Beside being a writer on art, M. Galichon was also a great collector, and has left a number of valuable engravings and drawings, principally of the early Italian schools, though Rembrandt and Dürer also came within the range of his sympathies. His death took place last week at Cannes, after a long period of illness.

M. BARYE, the great sculptor, is seriously ill. GERMANY has within the last few days lost two painters of more than ordinary merit, namely, Baron Arthur von Ramberg and August von Bayer, the former of whom was born in 1819, and the latter in 1804. Professor von Ramberg, who had received his training in the Munich schools, after holding a chair in the Academy of Art at Weimar returned to the Bavarian capital, where till the close of his life he continued to teach in the halls of the Munich Academy, and to paint the large historical frescoes and smaller genre pictures which have secured for him a well-earned reputation. One of his best known works is his large painting in the gallery of the Maximilianeum at Munich of the Emperor Frederick II. holding his Court at Palermo. August von Bayer, although a Swiss by birth, was by education a thorough German, and during the last twenty years of his life his post of "Conservator" of the Antiquities of the Grand Duchy of Baden, had led to his continued absence from his own country, and induced him to choose Carlsruhe as his residence. His paintings, although partly belonging to the historical and genre branches of his art, are all architectural in character. Among the best-known of his works is the view of the Minster at Freiburg, and his little genre picture of the Organ-Player, which has been copied and reproduced in various forms.

THE Académie des Beaux-Arts, in its sitting of the 6th inst., elected MM. Dewinne and Engesch corresponding members in the section of painting, as successors to Baron Wappers and M. Fortuny.

THE proposed exhibition in Paris of the best paintings from the provincial museums, with the view of raising a fund for establishing schools for drawing, has, as stated in our letter from M.

Burty, fallen to the ground. The application made to twenty-five of the principal museums of the departments has been favourably received on y by Tours, Angers, Rennes, Le Mans, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Besançon, Avignon, and Narbonne. All the rest have refused to join the enterprise. The project has, therefore, been abandoned by the Administration.

THE Journal Officiel announces that there is now on exhibition in the municipal palace at Angers, for the benefit of the poor of that city, the Danae of Titian, one of his masterpieces, former y belonging to the Buoncompagni of Bologna, bat now purchased by the Emperor of Russia for 630,000 fr. (25,2007.).

THE Norwegian painter, Professor Gude, has been called to Berlin to be Director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, which since the death of Schadow, in 1850, has been in a very confused condition, and which has now been completely reorganised. The fact that a foreigner rather than any of the native artists of Germany has been selected to fill this honourable and responsible post is no small tribute to Gude's acknowledged genius.

THE German papers announce that the clay model of the Schiller monument, to be erected at Marbach, the poet's birthplace, by Herr Rau, of Stuttgart, is now complete, and has been sent to the foundry of the Messrs. Pelargus, where it is to be cast in bronze, and is to be ready for removal before the beginning of May, 1876, in the course of which month it is to be unveiled with an appropriate ceremonial. Schiller is represented at about the age of twenty-six, when he had written Don Carlos; and all who have seen Herr Rau's model are agreed in considering that both as a portrait, and a work of art it is highly satisfactory, and does great credit to the young artist, who has succeeded in reproducing a likeness of Dannecker's well-known bust without marring the general originality of his conception. The poet, who is represented standing, is dressed after the fashion of a century ago, and the artist, it would appear, has been especially successful in his manner of arranging the dress, and by his mastery over the plastic details of his work has given a freedom and grace to the drapery, not often observable in such adaptations of a costume essentially devoid of beauty in itself.

Ar the last meeting of the Archaeological Institute, at their rooms in New Burlington Street, on February 5th, a very interesting paper was read by Mr. C. Drury Fortnum, F.S.A., upon the number and probable authenticity of the usually recognised portraits of Michel Angelo Buonarroti. Considering the period of the artist's death, the abundant opportunities then existing for preserving undoubted likenesses of the great men of their age, and the high reverence in which the recognised master of the fine arts was held, it is remarkable to find how small a number of the likenesses can lay claim to be thoroughly credited. Of the eight or nine now existing, several appear to be replicas, or copies with slight variations, of the bust in the Capitol at Rome, ascribed to either Giacomo della Porta or Daniele di Volterra. Another to which all confidence can be attached is the bust by Lorenzi upon the tomb, which is known to have been modelled from a mask taken after death. But the knowledge we possess of the great artist's features is probably mainly due to the excellent medal made from life by his personal friend Leoni Aretino, who by the way (as the lecturer reminded us) was not of Arezzo, notwithstanding that his name implies as much, but was born at Menaggio, on the Lake of Como. It

was therefore with great pleasure that his audience saw exhibited by Mr. Fortnum a wax medallion, slightly smaller than the well-known bronze (of which many good impressions exist in various collections) in a small oval gilt frame. This interesting object had been discovered by the lecturer himself in the possession of a lady lately deceased. Upon examining the frame, Mr. Fortnum found that it was backed by a piece of stout paper, on which was inscribed--we render it in English-Portrait of Michel Angelo Buonarroti, taken from life by his friend Leo Leoni Aretino. Such a trouvaille, to use a lawyer's phrase, almost "proves too much," and certainly if produced by some dubious dealer with a heavy price attached to it, very careful scrutiny of paper, ink, and other circumstantial evidence would be exercised before the claims of the new-comer to rank as an original could be deemed admissible. But, after all, these accessory arguments, even when, as in the present instance, they are satisfactory, are comparatively unimportant. If a work do not bear in itself its

own credentials, all external evidence may be fairly set down as, if not erroneous, certainly unimportant. It would be difficult, we think, for any one to examine carefully the life-like features of the worn, intelligent face here modelled, more life-like than the medal itself in so much as wax even to the hand of a medallist is more tractable than metal, without believing that we have before us the very wax, taken from life by his friend, as the inscription informs us, to which we owe our Angelo. Mr. Fortnum mentioned in his interestclearest impression of the features of Michel ing lecture that he had learnt from Mr. Hibbert, the late owner of the portrait, that it had been often an object of admiration to Signor Pistrucci, the celebrated artist of the St. George group of our crown and sovereign pieces, and of the Waterloo medal.

M. GARNIER'S successful application of mosaic in the decoration of the new Opera-house in Paris has led to the idea of establishing a school for artists in mosaic in France, where they may be taught the art that Ghirlandajo was wont to declare "was eternal, while that of painting was fleeting." Schools of this kind already exist in Italy and Germany, and South Kensington has many students who work in mosaic; still the art is comparatively very little practised at the present day. Its revival would open out a new and effective means of decoration. It is proposed that the school shall be erected at Sèvres, and that, at first, some of the Italian artisans who have been working under the direction of Signor Facchina in the Opera-house shall be employed as teachers.

THE Portfolio this month is distinguished by a very effective photo-engraving, as it is called, of a picture by Pierre Billet, an artist who has lately attracted much attention at the Salon exhibitions. René Ménard points him out as an artist of whom familiar, will become celebrated." The Portfolio one may foresee the day when his name, already does good service in making known such artists to the English public. An article on "Greek Coins, as illustrating History and Art," being the subOctober, is contributed by Mr. Virtue Tebbs, and stance of a paper read at the Burlington Club last a review of the "Winter Art Season," by Mr. Comyns Carr.

THE fourth number of L'Art contains some clever studies of animals by Aug. Lançon; a vigorous sketch by Gavarni of a Scotch beggar boy drawn from nature, and an etching by Greux from a painting by Diaz-a landscape with

horses.

THE STAGE.

THE MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM AT THE GAIETY. THERE can be no doubt that the revival of a taste for Shakspere is a good thing. The substitution of poetry for the senseless rhymes of burlesque, of the highest for the degraded forms of the drama, ought to be matter of rejoicing to playgoers. When a play which is the essence of grace and poetry is divested of all beauty and interest, when scenes instinct with life and tenderness are delivered that they might as well be rude and dull, when it becomes possible to understand why Pepys set down in his diary that the Midsummer Night's Dream was the most insipid, ridiculous play he ever saw in his life, one may regret that the performance of the play has been attempted. It is true that the stage representation of the Midsummer Night's Dream is a task of singular difficulty. The delicate fanciful scenes of fairyland run from their very nature a great risk of losing their spiritual beauty by being transferred from the immortal freshness of the poet's mind to the gross and palpable aspect of mortality. To translate the court of Titania and Oberon to the reality of human life, to interpret its moonlight fantasies by the aid of stage appliances, and yet lose no touch of its beauty, would be as diflicult as to hold a butterfly in the hand and

brush no bloom from its wings. The glimpse of the fairy domain is indeed as Bottom describes it, "a rare vision," and to catch such a vision and hold it before men's eyes is a hazardous attempt. Still it should be easy to give some more airy reflection of its beauty than that which has been produced at the Gaiety. The assemblage of girls in curiously devised dresses which may pass well enough for a court in a burlesque or a pantomime, can hardly be accepted as the image of delssohn and some of our best English composers Titania's following. The music to which Menhave set the scenes of fairyland should enhance the beauty of a poem in itself full of music. Unfortunately the vocal execution is, with rare exceptions, so bad, that the introduction of music increases rather than diminishes the displeasing effect of the performance.

It is not so difficult to represent a mortal as a fairy court upon the stage: the failure in both cases is, at the Gaiety, remarkable. It is painful to hear the words of Theseus so spoken that they lose all dignity and melody, and to find Hippolyta presented in the likeness of a queen of burlesque, As all majesty and grace is taken away from the Athenian Court, so is all feeling and interest from the Athenian lovers.

Under these conditions the humours of Bottom and his fellows, which should be an episode in the Mr. Phelps's play, become its only attraction. performance of Bottom is that of a careful and intelligent actor. His presence on the stage is a relief, inasmuch as he speaks the words of Shakspere with distinctness and with proper emphasis. But his humour is somewhat dry. There seems to be a want of sympathy between him and his part. He makes one feel not that Bottom does not appreciate the comedy of his situation, which would be right, but that the actor representing Bottom has little consciousness of it, which is not of his words is, moreover, marred by a trick of so right. The pleasure derived from the delivery repetition and hesitation for which there seems no reason, and which is undoubtedly tiresome. This is carried to excess in the scene when Bottom wakes from his dream. Here the actor makes him re

peat the words "they left me asleep," four or five times after intervals of attempted reflection and silent explanation to himself. The execution of the conceit is clever, but hardly warranted. The rebuke of Hamlet to those players who speak more than is set down for then is well known. The offence is only less in degree when the actor repeats many times the words which the author has set down to be spoken once. There is another curious point in Mr. Phelps's personation. One would think that Bottom would have sense enough to attempt a softening of his voice when he shows his companions in what a "monstrous little voice he would speak if he might play Thisbe. Mr. Phelps, however, makes no change in his intonation when he speaks the words, "Thisne! Thisne! O Pyramus my lover dear! Thy Thisby dear! and lady dear!". The small part of Flute is well played by Mr. Righton.

Of the rest of the performance there is little to be said. Whether the Lysander of Mr. Robertson or the Demetrius of Mr. Charles Creswick is the worse performance, it would be difficult to deter mine. Good intentions are displayed by Miss West, who plays Puck in a dress which, among many hideous dresses, is remarkable for hideousness. But a part cannot be played by intentions alone. Oberon is represented by Miss Loseby. The actress sings fairly, speaks well, and her performance is clever throughout. By contrast to its surroundings it appears sublime. Altogether, it is not too much to say that "the eye of man hath hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive. not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's nor his heart to report," a worse performance than the present one of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

WALTER HERRIES POLLOCK.

She Stoops to Conquer is now given nightly at the Opera Comique by a company in the main the same as that which played it once or twice in the morning at the Gaiety. Mrs. Kendal is Miss Hardcastle, and Mr. Kendal young Marlowe-one of his best performances. No better young Marlowe is on the stage.

MR. HOLLINGSHEAD deserves credit for reviving The Maid's Tragedy of Beaumont and Fletcherplayed a few days since at his third theatre, the Amphitheatre in Holborn-but though the experiment is a curious one, and interesting just because it is curious, it would have been made with greater chance of success if a stronger cast had been engaged. Mr. Ryder, of course, is exceedingly efficient in any piece of the kind, but on the first night Mr. Ryder was ill and Mr. Pennington took his place. Nor did he take it badly, though his taking it left a gap elsewhere. Miss Leighton as the heroine was distinctly overweighted. These are not parts which can be satisfactorily played by aspiring scholars in art, even when naturally much gifted. Mr. Hollingshead reminds playgoers, in his programme, that it is not so very many years ago since The Maid's Tragedy was performed night after night at Sadler's Wells. But Mr. Phelps was then in the great part; and though the years are not very many, the taste has changed considerably. We may continue to read the Maid's Tragedy, but it is doubtful whether it will long be represented.

Ay adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby, made for

Mr. Chatterton by Mr. Andrew Halliday, is to be the next piece at the Adelphi. Mr. J. Clarke will perform in it. It will necessarily be interesting; and may, as one hopes, be successful. But Nicholas Nickleby would not seem to lend itself specially well to stage representation. It has not the pathos of The Old Curiosity Shop, nor the great dramatic qualities of the later books, written at a time when Dickens bestowed more thought than at first on construction, and had, too, more experience of it; and dealt with a freer hand with what is really tragical in life.

MDME. DOLARO has recovered from her indisposition, and again gives life to the performance of La Périchole at the Royalty Theatre.

MR. T. H. FRIEND, of the Crystal Palace, was to have a benefit at the Crystal Palace Theatre on Thursday morning, when Mr. Creswick and Miss Ada Cavendish and some other well-known players were to appear in Richard III.

THEY have revived Uncle Tom's Cabin at the

Adelphi, with a cast which reads as tolerably strong for a melodramatic piece, and which is actually, perhaps, stronger than it seems to be, because at least two of the representatives of important parts seem very specially suited to the characters they play. One of them-Miss Marie Henderson-illustrates with a good deal of art the way in which the Cassy of the story was the one person whom Legree feared a little. She had for him, as it will be remembered, a peculiar and compelling fascination, which his brutal strength could never shake off. Again, Miss Edith Stuart is seen quite at her best in the gentle pathos of the character of Eliza, by the performance of which she in some degree recalls her much earlier performance of the Scotch poet's wife, in Mr. Wills's Men o' Airlie. Mr. Sinclair plays George Harris with his usual force, and Mr. McIntyre is not wanting in the kind of vigour necessary for the representation of Legree. Miss Hudspeth is Topsy, and Mr. Howard Russell Uncle Tom. Uncle Tom is to be pitied, but he cannot expect to interest us. What interests the public at the Adelphi are the two or three strong scenes which a novel full of adventure has been able to furnish. Mr. Lloyd's scenery is good, and the appointments are careful. There is no reason why Uncle Tom's Cabin should fail to draw, during a few weeks, the class of playgoers for whom it is designed.

AT Drury Lane too, there has this week been a revival-the revival of Mr. Halliday's Rebecca: his setting of Sir Walter's Ivanhoe. This performance is not of a kind to satisfy those who know the story well, and care for it much; but it may give some pleasure, and render some service,

MUSIC.

CRYSTAL PALACE CONCERTS.

THE special novelty at last Saturday's Crystal Palace Concert was Franz Lachner's Suite for

Dietz.

MR. BARRY SULLIVAN has just been acting Hamlet at Glasgow, finding graceful though not powerful support in the Ophelia of Miss Coghlan.

MR. JOSEPH ELDRED's excellent burlesque com

pany-one of the strongest now anywhere to be met with-has this week been at Edinburgh, and will next week be at Plymouth. Mr. Frank Weston is its acting manager, and it includes, in addition to Mr. Eldred and some less well-known

names, Mr. Edwin Danvers and Miss Rose Temple. Mr. Eldred's quaint humour is the subject of favourable criticism in the North. Mr. Danvers, who plays his original part in Black-Eyed Susan, plays it as well as when he was in part the cause of the great run of that funny little piece at the Dolly Mayflower with unflagging vivacity, and Royalty in Soho; and Miss Rose Temple acts sings "Within a mile o' Edinboro' Town" 'in a way that procures an encore for the old ballad in the place where the ballad is known the best and sung the best. The company plays one or other old burlesques of Mr. Burnand's, which are brighter than anything he has lately done.

THE presentation of standard English plays at the Crystal Palace, under the direction of Mr. Charles Wyndham, will be resumed on Tuesday, February 23, and continued on successive Thursdays and Tuesdays till March 16. During the series, the following plays will be performed :Lord Lytton's Money, and Lady of Lyons; Holcroft's Road to Ruin; J. Mortimer's School for Intrique; Shakspere's Romeo and Juliet, and Merchant of Venice. We understand that the services of the following artists have been secured :Miss Madge Robertson, Mrs. Stirling, Miss Carlotta Addison, Miss Fowler, Miss M. Oliver, Miss Geneviève Ward, Miss Rachel Sanger, Miss E. Duncan, Miss Carlisle, Miss Rorke, Miss Power, and Miss Ada Cavendish; Messrs. W. Creswick, Henry Neville, Herman Vezin, David James, Arthur Cecil, John Ryder, W. Kendal, Charles Warner, Charles Sugden, Charles Collette, R. H. Teesdale, R. Cathcart, H. Standing, E. F. Edgar, W. Rignold, and Charles Wyndham.

:

Orchestra in C major (No. 6), which was produced for the first time in this country. The composer, esteemed on the continent, though but little who is now in his seventy-first year, is highly writers who possess every requisite except genius. known here. He is one of the large number of The present, however, cannot be considered one of his most successful works. It consists of four movements—an introduction and fugue, exceedwell written, and full of ingenious counterLachner calls a "gavotte," but which in reality point; a graceful andante; a movement which is not a gavotte at all, but a scherzo; and a long finale, "Funeral Music and Festival March." Of these four numbers the third is decidedly the best; it is very spirited, and excellently scored for the band. It made its mark at once, and was warmly encored and repeated. The rest of the work is of inferior interest. The fugue is very Handelian in style, its subject recalling that of the overture to Samson; the andante is pleasing, but by no means striking; and the finale was really an infliction the Funeral Music being tedious, and the Festival March vulgar. The whole composition shows the hand of a thoship is excellent; but there is not a spark of roughly experienced musician, and the workmanthe "divine fire;" while there is no plagiarism, there is also little or no individuality of style; and in spite of a very excellent performance by Mr. Manns's band, the Suite as a whole failed to make a great impression. It was curious to hear Dr. Bülow in a work so different from the school to which he is most partial as Moscheles' concerto (No. 3), in G minor. One is almost inclined to suspect that the great pianist selected this piece as a proof of his versatility, and of his mastery of all styles. Dr. Bülow is pre-eminently an exponent of the modern music of Liszt and Chopin, though, it need hardly be added, he is equally great in Bach and Beethoven. But the style of Moscheles is founded upon that of Cramer and Hummel, authors with whom it might have been expected à priori that the worthy Doctor would have little is generally considered the finest of the eight The concerto selected last Saturday sympathy. which Moscheles wrote; it is at all events the one which is most frequently performed both here and on the Continent. It is a very interesting without being a very great work: written strictly in the orthodox form first adopted by Mozart, it reminds one of that composer in the character of its themes, though the brilliant passages for the solo instrument are more suggestive of Hummel. The last movement is especially effective in the character of its difficulties. Bülow played the whole work with that fire and enthusiasm which invariably characterise his performances. The other orchestral pieces of the concert were the overtures to Egmont and Melusina, both too well known to need comment. The vocalists were Mdlle. Johanna Levier, of whom favourable mention has more than once been made in these columns, who sang (in German) "With verdure clad," from the Creation, and songs by Mendelssohn and Schubert, and Mr. H. Walsham, a tenor singer, who made on this occasion his first appearance. Mr. Walsham has a very agreeable voice, and his intonation is very good; so far as can be judged from one hearing, he seems likely to be a useful addition to the ranks of our tenors.

Dr.

This afternoon Mdlle. Krebs will play Brahms's Concerto in D minor, and a Festival Overture by her father will be performed for the first time in this country. EBENEZER PROUT.

THE first part of the programme of the last Monday Popular Concert was selected from the works of the late Sterndale Bennett. It opened

with his Chamber Trio in A major, Op. 26, a very pleasing and highly finished work, in which the influence of Mendelssohn is clearly to be seen, especially in the first movement, which reminds one in places of the quintett in A played a few weeks since at these concerts. A more perfect performance of the trio than that given on Monday by Mdlle. Krebs, Herr Joachim, and Signor Piatti cannot be imagined. To this trio succeeded the quartett "God is a Spirit," from the Woman of Samaria. This piece, as our readers will remember, was sung in Westminster Abbey at the composer's funeral. It was on the present occasion exquisitely sung by Miss Nessie Goode, Miss Bolingbroke, Mr. H. Guy, and Mr. H. Pope. An unaccompanied quartett of voices always seems to exercise a special charm over our audiences, and if well rendered is almost certain of an encore. Such was the case in the present instance; but, as not infrequently happens, it scarcely went so perfectly the second time as the first. The Bennett selection concluded with his pianoforte sonata "The Maid of Orleans." This, one of his latest, is also one of the composer's finest works, and certainly goes to disprove the assertion sometimes made that Bennett has exhausted his creative powers with his earlier compositions. It had been played only once before (by Dr. Bülow) at these concerts, on December 1, 1873. Its performance by Mdlle. Krebs last Monday was in all respects admirable; whether as regards technical perfection or intellectual appreciation of the spirit of the music, it left absolutely nothing to desire. The instrumental features of the second part were Tartini's "Trillo del Diavolo," played by Herr Joachim, and Beethoven's Quartett, in F, Op. 18, No. 1, both of which works are very familiar to the frequenters of these concerts, the former being a seventeenth, and the latter a seventh performance. Special thanks must be given to Mr. Santley for bringing forward Schubert's very beautiful song, "The Knight of Toggenburg," one of the several long ballads which the composer has set to music, not one of which, we believe, had previously been heard in this country. It is to be hoped that others, which are even finer, such as the "Erwartung," the "Viola," or the "Elysium," may ere long find their way into our concert programmes. Next Monday Brahms's great Sextett for strings, in B flat, is included in the programme, and Schumann's "Fantasiestücke" for piano, violin, and violoncello are to be performed for the first time.

The special feature of the Albert Hall Concerts has been the performances of Wilhelmj, who has fully justified his claim to rank among the greatest of modern virtuosos on his instrument. He has as yet been heard only as a soloist; it would be interesting were an opportunity afforded at the Monday Popular Concerts of judging of him also as a quartett player.

THOSE of our musical readers who reside in London will thank us for calling their attention We to one of the special events of the season. refer to Mr. Walter Bache's concert, which takes place at St. James's Hall next Thursday evening. Mr. Bache always takes care to provide some novelties at his annual concert, and gives such an opportunity as is seldom if ever met with elsewhere of hearing the works of the modern German school, especially those of Liszt. The present concert will be no exception; the programme will include Liszt's 13th Psalm, his Second Concerto, his Symphonic Poem "Festklänge," and three of his smaller pieces, beside works by Schubert, Weber, and Wagner. A full orchestra and chorus of about 220 performers will be engaged, and additional interest will be given to the

concert by the fact that it will be conducted by

Dr. Hans von Bülow.

THE prospectus of the forthcoming series of concerts of the British Orchestral Society has just been issued. The novelties promised are-a Symphony in C minor by Mr. Alfred Holmes, an Andante and Scherzo by Mr. Henry Gadsby, a

Notturno for orchestra by Mrs. Marshall, a scena "Saffo" by Signor Randegger, and overtures by Messrs. J. L. Hatton and T. Wingham. The first concert is to be given on March 10, and the programme will consist entirely of works by the late Sir Sterndale Bennett.

THE annual Musical Festival at Edinburgh in connexion with the Chair of Music in the Univer

sity founded by General Reid took place on the 13th and 15th inst. Professor Oakeley had, as in previous years, engaged Mr. Charles Hallé and his excellent orchestra from Manchester. The programmes of the three concerts, which have been forwarded to us, are most admirable, but too long to quote entire: the following summary will, however, prove how excellently Professor Oakeley performed are:-Symphonies-Mozart in D, Beetcaters for his public. Among the chief works tures-Der Freischütz, Athalie, Leonora No. 1, hoven in D, No. 2, Schubert in C, No. 9; OverMedea, Genoveva, Vestale (Spontini), Richard III. Volkmann), Hamlet (Gade), Rienzi (Wagner), pianoforte concertos and solos by Mr. Hallé, violin solos by Mdme. Norman-Néruda, various miscellaneous orchestral pieces, among others Liszt's "Les Préludes," and two of Brahms's "Hungarian Dances," and vocal music by Miss Edith Wynne and Mr. Edward Lloyd.

AN interesting discovery has just been made in Germany of a specimen of a now obsolete instrument, the oboe d'amore, which Sebastian Bach so frequently uses in his compositions. The instrument is now in the possession of a collector, M. Mahillon, at Brussels, and is in excellent tion, only slight repairs being needed to render it playable.

preserva

A NEW history of ancient music, by F. A. Gevaert, is about to be published by the firm of

Messrs. Schott in Brussels. The work will be in

French, and in two volumes, the first of which is announced to appear during the present month.

RUBINSTEIN is at present in Berlin, and announces a concert to take place to-morrow (the 21st) at which his new symphony and his new pianoforte concerto are to be produced.

THE sale by auction of the stock of music plates and copyrights of Messrs. Hopwood and Crew, just concluded by Messrs. Puttick and Simpson, of Leicester Square, is remarkable for the large prices obtained. Among the more prominent Angels, 631. 168. (Brewer); (61), the same commay be cited:-Lots (44), Blamphin's Dreaming of poser's Just touch the Harp gently, 1137. 158. (ditto); (81), Pretty Swallow, also by Blamphin, 691. (J. Williams); (168), Signor Campana's Speak to me, 1107. (Chappell); (175), The Scout, by the same composer-this song (rendered famous by the singing of Mr. Santley), after a spirited competition, fell to Mr. Morley, Jun., at the large sum of 3121. Lot (201), Clifton (II.), As welcome as the flowers in May, 721. (Metzler); (224), ditto, It's really very singular, 821. 108. (ditto); (258), Coote (C.), Archery Galop, 967. (Ashdown & Parry); (260), ditto, Awfully Jolly Waltz, 947. 10s. (ditto); (271), ditto, Burlesque Valse, 1757. 10s. (ditto); 288, The Cornflower Valse, 1327. (ditto); (361), Clifton (H.), Pulling hard against the Stream, 671. 10s. (J. Williams); (364), ditto, Robinson Crusoe 1327. (ditto); (398), (ditto), Where there's a Will there's a Way, 617. 10s. (J. Williams); (407), Wait for the Turn of the Tide, 751. (ditto); (509), Hobson's Come sing to me, 831. 158. (ditto); (510), Complaints, or the Ills of Life, by the same composer, 851. 108. (ditto); (527), Howard (R.), You'll never miss the Water till the Well runs dry, 1651.

(B. Williams); (579), Coote's Just Out Galop, 731. 128. (Chappell); (625), ditto, Pretty Bird Valse, 667. 6s. (ditto); (631), Ditto, Prince Imperial Galop. This lot was knocked down to Mr. J. Williams for 9901., the largest price we believe ever obtained for a single piece of dance music. Lot (655), Coote's Sweetly Pretty Valse, 2451.

(Chappell); (660), Hobson's Popular Favourites for the Pianoforte, 412. 108. (ditto); (682), Buckley's Come where the Moonbeams linger, 1577. 10s. (ditto); (684), Clifton (H.), Very Suspicious, 3301. (J. Williams); (953), The Snowdrift Galop, 5617., purchased by Mr. Coote; (974), Coote and Tinney's Ball-Room Album, 110 (Chappell); (1,152), Thomas (J. I.), The Birds will Come again, 1537. (J. Williams); (1,325), Robert Coote's Ball-Room Guide, 1501. (Willey). Total, nearly 15,0007.

POSTSCRIPT.

THE Annual Report of the Director of the National Gallery for 1874 has just been issued. The only additions by purchase during the year were fourteen pictures from the Barker collection, Madonna and Infant Christ, by Antonio Vivarini; the cost of which was 10,3951. They include: Madonna in Prayer, by Cosimo Tura; The Madonna in Ecstasy, St. Catherine, and Mary Mag dalene, by Carlo Crivelli; The Nativity, by Piero della Francesca; Madonna and Child, by Benvenuto da Siena; The Triumph of Chastity, by Luca Signorelli; The Return of Ulysses to Penelope, and The Story of Griselda, in three compositions, by Bernardino Pinturicchio; Mars and Venus, and Venus Reclining, by Sandro Botticelli. A portrait of Cardinal Fleury, the great Minister of Louis XV., by Hyacinthe Rigaud (sometimes called the Vandyke of France), has been Three pictures presented by Mrs. Charles Fox. by the late Thomas Sword Good, of Berwickon-Tweed, entitled No News, A Fisherman with a Gun, and A Study of a Boy, were bequeathed by his widow; and Roelandt Savery's Orpheus charming Birds and Beasts with the Music of his Lyre, was bequeathed by Mr. S. James Ainslie. The most foreign or old masters, Rubens's Chapeau de Paille favourite subjects for copyists were, among the and Cuyp's Ruined Castle, each of which was copied six times; while Landseer was by far the most highly honoured in that way among the moderns, King Charles's Spaniels having been copied no fewer than twenty times, and several others by the same artist from ten to twelve times. The daily average attendance at Trafalgar Square was 4,291; in 1873 it was 4,410.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1875. No. 147, New Series.

THE EDITOR cannot undertake to return, or

to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscript.

It is particularly requested that all business letters regarding the supply of the paper, &c., may be addressed to the PUBLISHER,

and not to the EDITOR.

LITERATURE.

Isaac Casaubon. By Mark Pattison, Rector of Lincoln College. (London: Longmans & Co., 1875.)

THE name upon the title-page of this book is sufficient warranty for its excellence in all that concerns accuracy, scholarlike finish of style, and sound judgment. Mr. Pattison has chosen for his hero a student whose biography offers little that is superficially interesting, but whose prominent place in the history of learning, whose relations with the universities of Geneva and Montpellier, when these were still centres of European culture, and whose sojourn at the courts of Henri IV. and James I. supply innumerable topics for minute and learned illustration. English students have not unfrequently been attracted by the lives of the great scholars of the Renaissance; but neither Greswell's Memoirs of Politian, nor Shepherd's Life of Poggio, nor indeed any of the numerous biographies of Erasmus, offers a history so copious in details and so masterly in treatment as this monograph upon the life and times of Isaac Casaubon. Casaubon is brought before us not merely as the successful professor and the patient student, who was wont to complain of his friends as "amici studiorum meorum inimici," and who would write, after a day of sixteen hours' continual reading, "hodie vixi ;" he also appears as a Huguenot, subject to the persecutions of the French Catholics and to the wily blandishments of the Parisian Jesuits, at a critical moment of the Reformation period, when a man of his enormous erudition was regarded as a tower of strength, and fought for accordingly by each of the great parties who then divided the religious and political world. Mr. Pattison has successfully defended his character from the charge of "wavering," which even the judicious Hallam brought against him and not the least interesting chapter of the biography is that devoted to the ten years spent by Casaubon in Paris, a Huguenot staunch to his conviction, holding office as King's reader and librarian at a Catholic court, and tempted by all that a scholar holds dear to abjure his faith. The contrast between Casaubon, abiding by his Protestant belief, in spite of discomfort and cajolement, and Winckelmann, who made himself an abbé in order that he might see Rome and live among Greek statues, occurs to our mind. But want of consistency, pardonable in Winckelmann during the careless eighteenth century, would have been a crime in Casaubon, whose parents had suffered for their creed, and whose youth at

Geneva had been passed amid the miseries of religious warfare. Besides, Winckelmann was, through and through, an artist: this justified him in obeying an aesthetic law of life; whereas Casaubon, as Mr. Pattison has shown with much acuteness, was essentially a man of double soul. The one half of him was a Humanist, bent on absorbing the whole of Greek and Latin erudition, so as to reconstitute the form of classic culture. The other half was a Theologian, absorbed in patristic studies, whose spiritual life depended on a close personal relation to the God of his worship. One-third of his voluminous diary, continued without intermission eight, to the year 1614, when he died, confrom the year 1597, when he was thirtysists, says Mr. Pattison, of pious ejaculations and petitions. The rest contains, for the most part, the record of his daily reading, interspersed with lamentations over the shortness of life, the waste of time in frivolous engagements, and the numerous interruptions to his studies. On the public events which were taking place around him, he made but brief comments in his diary, which seems to contain little that is valuable or characteristic for the illustration of the agitated period in which he lived. It is, indeed, difficult to avoid reflecting that the bookworm existence of this great scholar was exceeding dreary. He rose early and retired late to rest; and through the long hours of the day he did nothing to his own satisfaction but read. Physical weaknesses of various sorts oppressed him. The cares of his family for he was twice married, and his second wife had eighteen children, most of whom were sickly-reduced him to nerveless despondency. His friends were tedious, for they took him from his books. The duties of a courtier provoked from his pen prayers which have almost the force of curses. In the King's presence he was always thinking of his library; and that "last page of the Observations upon Athenaeus " kept haunting him in the pauses of agreeable conversation. A dreadful sense of the shortness of time pursued Casaubon like a nightmare. We might imagine him pale-faced and sorrowful (as he appears in his Bodleian portrait) bending for ever over an open folio, with Death shaking an hour-glass above his shoulder. The legend that he used to pour vinegar into his eyes to keep himself from sleeping, is, like many legends, only a picturesque exaggeration of the truth. To make the biography of such a student really vivid or seductive to the general reader would have been impossible; yet Mr. Pattison has done as much as could be hoped for in this direction. His not unfrequent indulgence in caustic and drily humorous remarks gives pungency and flavour to the record of an existence itself deficient in any kind of brilliant quality. At the same time, the amount of original information respecting the universities of Geneva, Montpellier, and Paris, the state of the book market, eminent men of letters and the world, and the whole relation of the European races to culture in the sixteenth century, which is lavished in this volume, gives it a value quite irrespective of its delineation of the character of its hero.

The life of Isaac Casaubon divides itself into four clearly marked periods. He was born at Geneva in 1559; and the first period, which extends from that date until 1596, embraces his education at the Genevese Academy, and his subsequent professorship in the same university. Here he married his two wives, the second of whom was Florence, daughter of the great printer and Greek scholar, Henricus Stephanus, second of that name. From 1596 to 1599 Casaubon resided at Montpellier, where he professed the humanities, lecturing to large classes, chiefly upon Latin authors. This portion of his life has been admirably illustrated by Mr. Pattison with observations upon the state of culture in Europe during the period. The contempt entertained by the high nobility of France for classic. study, the merely theological and practical bias of the English, and the suspicion with which the Roman court regarded learning, are contrasted with the zeal for scholarship in Casaubon, the brilliant accomplishments of Scaliger, and the refined cultivation of De Thou's society in Paris. It was at Montpellier in 1597 that Casaubon began to write his Animadversions on Athenaeus, a work which with singular contrariety of temper he always regarded as slavery, "catenati in ergastulo labores," but which remains as the chief monument of his scholarship. In 1600 he removed to Paris, on the invitation of Henry IV., who indulged a dream of rehabilitating the University. The competition of the Jesuits, the incompetence of the professorial staff, and the religious difficulties of the moment, rendered this scheme incapable of realization. Casaubon found his position at Court so uncomfortable that in 1610 he abandoned Paris for London, where he entered at once into favour with King James. The prevalent tone of theological polemic in England distracted the Greek scholar from his true work of criticism; and he spent his last years in the useless refutation of the errors of Baronius. One of the most valuable chapters in Mr. Pattison's volume is devoted to the life and writings of that Catholic charlatan.

66

In one interesting paragraph (pp. 122-3) Mr. Pattison discusses the relation of Casaubon to the history of scholarship. He remarks that the spring-time of the Renaissance, when students were men of genius, creators, prophets, and when the scholar 'gambolled in the free air of classical poetry as in an atmosphere of joy," was over. "The creative period is past, the While there is accumulative is set in." acuteness in this observation, it may be remarked that Mr. Pattison seems to forget how far more truly the fifteenth century, the age of Poggio and Aurispa and Filelfo, was one of accumulation and compilation. Into the labours of those men Casaubon had the

privilege of entering. The real point about the sixteenth century is that it was the age of nascent criticism. Erasmus, Casaubon, and Scaliger were called upon to compare and weigh in balances and pronounce opinions, not merely to collect. For this, the higher work of scholarship, Casaubon was hardly qualified by nature; in the same way he was by nature unfitted to imitate Poliziano. He had neither the worldly buoy