The ocean to the river of his thoughts." As indicated by these citations, the picture represents Byron in his early youth, sixteen or seventeen years of age, with the lady of his love, the beautiful Miss Chaworth, on the hill in Annesley Park, which is so vividly described in the second section of the poem ཐ་མ་ད་དང། ས་བ "A gentle hill. Green, and of mild declivity, the last, As 'twere the cape, of a long ridge of such; Save that there was no sea to lave its base, But a most living landscape, and the wave Of woods and cornfields, and the abodes of men Scattered at intervals, and wreathing smoke Arising from such rustic roofs. The hill Was crowned with a peculiar diadem Of trees in circular array-so fixed, Not by the sport of Nature, but of man." In the distance is seen the tower of HucknallTorkard Church, where the great poet now lies buried. Miss Chaworth, a little older than Byron, entertained for him, as he gives us to know in this very poem, a quiet sisterly liking; while he already felt for her a passion the most ardent and absorbing, though as yet barely realized to his own mind. The painter has presented the youthful couple as seated on the hill (a slight and fully permissible departure from the poem, which speaks of them as standing). Miss Chaworth has rich auburn-tinged hair, which falls over her shoulders: her grey straw hat is dangled by its pink ribbons from her right hand. She is looking out for her lover, the Mr. Musters who married her about a year afterwards, and who is perceptible at a considerable distance below, galloping towards her; he is in hunting-costume, and waves his handkerchief as he nears the hill. The left hand of Miss Chaworth is lightly touched by Byron's left: she makes no motion to withdraw it, but her mind and heart are elsewhere. Byron, with parted lips, contemplates fixedly her straining half-averted face; if there is intentness in her gaze, there is intensity in his. His head, with its closely curling bright-brown hair, is uncovered; the straw hat lies on the ground, along with a dog-whip; and some characteristic details of dress, such as the turn-down collar, and a plaid partially covering the left foot, have been heedfully introduced. The Your glord's celebrated Newfoundland dog, Boatswain, black and white, is couched at his feet; he also looks out, attracted by the sound of the approaching horse's hoofs. The expression of the picture is strikingly concentrated in the eyes of the two personages. Mary Chaworth gazes onward for her lover so that the pupils of her eyes are turned entirely away; those of Byron's eyes, riveted upon her countenance, are but just visible. The character of the varied and extensive landscape, studied on the spot, corresponds of course with the description given in the poem; the sky is rather grey than blue, broken with a few gentlymoving white clouds. The composition is mainly the same as in a vignette of the same subject executed by Mr. Madox-Brown for an edition of Byron published in 1870. Combined with great depth of feeling, the picture has general amenity of treatment; the colour, rich and delicate, is, along with the tone, markedly direct and natural. This is a painting worthy of the poem and the poet that it commemorates.-We may here add that the same artist's picture of Cromwell on his Farm (of which we spoke in the ACADEMY several months ago), and his portrait-group of Professor and Mrs. Fawcett, are at present among the works exhibited at Manchester Institution, where they have excited a very lively sensation, and continue to form the topic of much debate, spoken and printed. Towards the middle of the current month he delivered two lectures on subjects of Fine Art at the same Institution; these are to be repeated at the Philosophical Institution in Edinburgh, in January, although the painter, as we understand, has no intention of appearing with any sort of frequency as a lecturer. AMONG the prints recently acquired by the British Museum from the Howard Collection is a large and curious early woodcut of a man-of-war of the time of Queen Elizabeth. This print is interesting from its being probably the work of an English engraver. No other impression of it is known. It is printed with three blocks, and gives a broadside view of a ship full-rigged, with aftermast, foresail, and mainsail, and, hanging over the side, a large standard quartered with the arms of the Howard family. This makes it probable that the ship represented was the Ark Royal, the largest ship in Queen Elizabeth's fleet at the time of the Armada, and the flag-ship of Lord Howard of Effingham. THERE is to be seen among the classical curiosities in the British Museum, a terra-cotta imitation of a foot wearing a hob-nailed boot, which is remarkable for the manner in which the nails are arranged in the sole, viz., in the form of A at the toe, which is pointed, and in the form of on the heel. Had the work been Byzantine, or of the earliest Christian period, it would have been at once decided that we have here an ex ample of the use of Alpha and Omega to indicate the beginning and the end, or, as one perhaps ought to say in the case of a boot, the first and the last. But the work has no trace of the degradation which is usually found on common objects of this kind in Christian times. One would call it even earlier than the Alexandrine period. PROFESSOR CONZE, of Vienna, announces that his annual series of Vorlegeblätter, or illustrations for archaeological discussions, will next consist chiefly of engravings from Greek vases painted by Duris, whose style is characterised in a remarkable degree by the length of limb and muscular development of the torso in the human figure, a propensity for very bold foreshortenings, and a choice of subjects which present excited movement. Among them will be figured the three vases by this painter in the collection of the British Museum. Of these only one had been before engraved (see Archaeologia, xxxii. pl. 8, 9, 11). As regards Duris there is a question at issue among archaeologists which Professor Conze hopes to present in a clearer light by thus collecting together all the known works of the painter. It has been noticed that, side by side with his singular freedom and boldness in drawing the human figure, there is also in the faces, in the draperies, and in other details, a stiffness such as is expected to be found only on very early vases, where, of course, freedom of drawing like that of Duris would be the last thing to look for. He signs his vases ΔΟΡΙΣ ΕΓΡΑΦΣΕΝ,” where, as in Archaic Greek, the o stands for Or and E for . But this, again, is not consistent with the boldness of drawing just spoken of; and so it is argued that Duris, like a modern imitator of the Preraphaelite painters, is correct enough in his details, but otherwise cannot conceal the influence of the later times in which he lived. Still, Duris may have signed his vases in the archaic manner without any more thought of otherwise imitating the older vase-painters than our artists have of copying the ancient masters when they add fecit, del., sculp., &c. 66 A CORRESPONDENT of the Japan Herald states that the long vaunted supremacy of Japanese lacquer is now threatened by the discovery in South America of a tree named Urari, the juice of which has hitherto been used by the natives to poison their arrows, and in the course of recent experiments it has been proved to yield a varnish equal to that produced from the sap of the Urushi. Incautious handling of the Urari sap produces, as in the case of lacquer, external eruptions on the body, face, &c., but the antidote lies in the bane itself, as the juice, taken inwardly, cures the disease. children, which M. Cadart, of 56 Boulevard M. LALAUZE has etched ten little pictures of Haussmann, has published under the title of Le Petit Monde. The publication makes a handsome little present for Christmas or the New Year, though the prints differ much in artistic merit. They pourtray the common little episodes of childlife among the comfortable classes. Here the little girl says good night to petit frère; here she is allowed to give him his soup; here she is brushing her lap-dog's hair; here, to imitate her father, she has made an easel of the back of a chair, and has set up an easel-picture thereon, and here she sits sprawling on a seat too big for her while her awkward irresolute fingers fumble on the keyboard of the piano. One notices the general predominance of accessories: the child's face is lost in the prominence of these; her character is not much individualized. Thus there are two or three charming interiors, but little revelation of anything in child life or character that lies below the surface. The Renaissance cabinet in La Soupe à Bébé is delicately etched; it is a far more interesting thing than the faces of the two children. There is then little invention, but much agreeable composition and execution. The Leçon de Musique is the cleverest, though not the prettiest of the etchings. As etching the work is unequal; there is some freedom and frankness of line, lights and shades fairly balanced and arranged, but the modelling is often deficient, especially where it deals with the bare figure-face, arms, and hands -the firm roundness of leg, or strength of clumpy little boot, is better given. As for the genuine spirit, the humour of the thing, that is no better ally; for in some of the most popular of them— and no worse than in pictures of child-life generFrölich's Lily's Day, for instance-you have to make believe a good deal as to the fun or fancy in them. In this very Frölich the only really humorous things are the sketches of papa receiving a difficult message from mamma through the child, and papa's relief when at last he understands the message-and in these the humour is less in the child's helplessness than in the perplexed endeavour of papa. THE French engraver M. Gustave Lévy, well known for his excellent renderings of Raphael's works, is preparing a plate after M. Couture's Damocles which, it is affirmed, will make a great sensation at the next Salon. By a singular coincidence, the Buonarroti Villa, near Settignano, the house of Michael Angelo's father, and the one in which the great artist passed his childhood, is now inhabited by a gentleman named Bandinelli, a lineal descendant of Michael Angelo's old enemy, Baccio Bandinelli. A correspondent in Florence, who has lately visited the villa, tells us that of the drawing of the so-called satyr, attributed by tradition to Michael Angelo, only the upper portion of the figure now remains. The legs, if ever drawn, are quite obliterated. The figure, which is of life size, is situated at the top of the stair leading to the kitchen. It is now carefully preserved, and has shutters in front of it to protect it from injury. Besides the satyr, there are two chimney-pieces in the villa that are said to have been sculptured by Michael Angelo in his youth, but these are decidedly of later date. Some clever heads in fresco upon tiles (a mode of painting that consists in laying a thin lime intonaco upon the flat tile, and painting on it while it is wet), although they do not pretend to be by the great master himself, are of interest. They are, no doubt rightly, attributed to Giovanni da San Giovanni. As this villa is frequently mentioned by Michael Angelo's biographers, though none of them have apparently examined it for themselves, and as it will no doubt assume some importance at the time of the Michael Angelo celebration, these details may perhaps have some interest. It seems a pity that such a memento of the grand old Titan's youth should not, like the Palazzo Buonarroti in Florence, belong to the State. If we are rightly informed, it is not even, at the present time, in the hands of the Buonarroti family. It is a good-sized house, beautifully situated on the olive-clad slopes of the range of hills stretching east from Fiesole, and commands a noble view over the Val d'Arno and Florence. We noticed a short time ago (ACADEMY, November 28, 1874) a French invention by means of which plaster casts might be made more durable and of greater excellence; we are now informed of a German discovery of a new plastic material that will, it is said, supersede the use of plaster altogether. The constituents employed are entirely of a mineral nature, and yield, when mixed together, a smooth hard white mass capable of a high degree of polish. The material is especially adapted for taking casts of such objects as are required to withstand the influence of the weather, and the finest and most delicate work can be reproduced in it quite as well or better than in plaster. It is also spoken of as affording an excellent ground for stereo-chromic pictures on account of its great hardness and strength. As it is fire-proof as well as water-proof, a coating of it may be used to protect wood carvings and other inflammable decorations of a building, even light gauze stuffs and muslin hangings are rendered quite fire-proof by it. This latter quality was tested recently at the Munich Court Theatre, and it was found that stuffs or wood treated with it were rendered absolutely incombustible. The invention has been patented by Herr Walz, a merchant of Pforzheim, and Herr Kreittmayr, the Curator of the Royal National Museum of Munich. IN a recent article in the Augsbürger Allgemeine Zeitung, Dr. O. Eisenmann makes known a discovery that he considers he has made respecting the early German master who has hitherto been known, from his principal picture in the Munich Gallery, as "The Master of the Death of the Virgin." This remarkable work reveals an artist of very high attainments, one who possessed all the power and colour of Rogier van der Weyden, with a touch of the grace and ideality of Meister Stephan, but hitherto the name of this accomplished master has eluded the researches of savants. Dr. Eisenmann, however, during a visit to Calcar this autumn, occupied himself with studying the high altar in the church of St. Nicolas in that town, and his study led him to the conclusion that the wings of this great altar-piece, which is described by Förster, Hotho, and several other writers on German art, were painted by the same hand as the Death of the Virgin of the Munich Gallery. His further researches elicited the information that the original documents relating to this altar-piece were still preserved, and that in these it was stated that the painter's name was Jan Joest, and that the wings were begun by him in 1505, and finished in 1508. There was nothing in these dates to contradict the supposition of Dr. Eisenmaun, for the repetition of the Death of the Virgin in the Wallraf Museum at Cologne was not painted until 1515, and even allowing that the Munich example was painted some years previously, as is supposed, it would still allow time for a settlement in Cologne between the finishing of the one altar-piece and the beginning of the other. It is principally, however, from strong internal evidence such, for instance, as the likeness of the woman of Samaria in the Calcar picture to the St. Gudula of the Death of the Virgin, that Dr. Eisenmann has come to the conclusion that in Jan Joest we have the long-sought-for master of the Death of the Virgin. The painting in our National Gallery on the same subject-attributed, but evidently wrongly, to Martin Schongauerresembles in so many respects the work of this master, that it would perhaps be desirable to have it critically examined in the light of this new information. By a recent decree the French School of Art at Athens is placed under the authority of the Minister of Public Instruction, and the scientific direction of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Its Director, it is further decreed, must be a member of the Institute, or an officer of public instruction, who is to be appointed for a term of six years. Candidates for membership must be thirty years of age, and have the degree of Doctor of Letters, or Bachelor of Letters, Grammar, Philosophy, or History. They will be required to pass an examination in Ancient and Modern Greek, and the elements of epigraphy, palaeography, archaeology, history, and the ancient and modern geography of Greece and Italy. The number of members is limited to six, and the duration of their mission to three years, including the first year of their membership, spent in Rome. At the annual meetings, subjects for research and for memoirs will be announced, such as the commission think most likely to prove fruitful. Each member will be required to submit every year a personal work for the inspection of the Academy that will be judged by a special commission. Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and old members of the School at Athens, become by right corresponding associates, and the same title may be conferred without distinction of nationality on any one proposed by the Académie des Inscriptions and the Director of the School of Athens. THE STAGE. a for children, and not for those who are glad of the Ir pantomimes are really written and produced opportunity to go with them, children would naturally be their most competent critics, and the division of literary labour being now what it is, an article from a specialist" of seven years old, with liberal views and a nursery education, with deep learning in fairy tales, and a wholesome indifference to sorry themes which agitate the mind of the Lord Chamberlain, would no doubt be welcome contribution to the columns of any wellregulated print. But as no such contribution seems to be forthcoming, we must fall back on the judgments of adult incapacity, and adult incapacity seems to say that of all the pantomimes produced in London that at Drury Lane is the best. Mr. Blanchard, it opines, has been the genial friend of childhood for five-and-twenty years or thereabouts, and he has written Aladdin with his common grace. Mr. Beverly's scenery is good again, so that the praise of many years has still to be repeated. The resources of a vast establishment have all been brought to bear in the production of stage wonders. The Vokes family-most popular of pantomimists-have come back from America, with new grace, new antics, and the old good spirits. The young women entrusted with the delivery of the author's lines have followed the stage-manager's instructions to the players-though hardly Hamlet's, perhaps they have learned at last, after countless rehearsals, to "ladle it out" deliberately, as the Daily Telegraph on Christmas Day informed us they were instructed to do. Mr. Chatterton's theatres all boast their pantomimes. Besides Aladdin at Drury Lane, there is The Children in the Wood at the Adelphi, with little Kate Logan, fresh from the compliments of the Under-Sheriff. At the Princess's there is Beauty and the Beast. The Beast is-we forget who, but it doesn't really matter the Beauty being Miss Kate Vaughan. Mr. Rice has opened Covent Garden with the Babes in the Wood: a gorgeous spectacle, they say, worthy of the stage which gave birth to Babil and Bijou. Mr. Holland, at the Surrey, has produced the Forty Thieves. Here are the Payne family, the vigorous Miss Moon, and Mdlle. Scasi, who has come from the Alhambra. Sindbad the Sailor is at the Holborn, with an actress of some talent-Miss Maggie Bren nan island. -in the principal part. At the Standard, you may follow Robinson Crusoe from the day when he leaves Wapping to the day of his dream on the Of Cinderella at the Holborn Amphitheatre, under Mr. Hollingshead's direction, we have already spoken. The smaller, or less-known theatres, to north, south, east, and west-the Britannia, Victoria, the Pavilion, the Marylebone -are all provided with their pantomimes, and with holiday-folks to see them. THREE or four West-end playhouses find their old attractions sufficient. The Lyceum with Hamlet and Mr. Irving naturally ignores Christ At mas. The Vaudeville finds that Two Roses and Romulus and Remus will suffice for the holidays, and Mr. Byron's comedy is therefore still in the background. At the Prince of Wales's people who go to see the Sweethearts of Mr. Gilbert stay to see the Owl's Roost in Mr. Robertson's Society. At the Criterion the Prés Saint Gervais is firmly lodged. At the Strand, holiday people wax merry at Old Sailors and Mr. Farnie's bouffonnerie. the Court, Brighton still attracts, and Ixion is at the Opera Comique. Miss Lydia Thompson has gone to the Globe, from the Charing Cross Theatre, and the little house in King William Street is tenanted for a few days by a company playing pantomime, ere Miss Cavendish returns to town with the New Magdalen. The Gaiety performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor was duly discussed in these columns last week, and here may close Our chronicle of the theatrical events of Christmastide. THIS afternoon there will be a performance of Lord Lytton's Money at the Gaiety Theatre. With the exception of Mr. Phelps the principal representation. And this day week there will be a artists now at the theatre will take part in the performance of The Lady of Lyons, Mr. Kendal playing Claude Melnotte, and Mrs. Kendal Pauline. THE Royalty Theatre will open at the end of January, we understand, under the management of Miss Dolaro, our best actress and singer in opera-bouffe. MISS FARREN is acting at Manchester during the Christmas holidays. Mr. GEORGE RIGNOLD sails for New York, where he is engaged to act Henry V., in the revival of Shakspere's plays at Booth's Theatre. MR. EDWARD RUSSELL, now editor, we understand, of the Liverpool Daily Post, and sometime dramatic critic of the Morning Star, has written a long and careful and eloquent pamphlet on the Hamlet of Mr. Irving. It is published by Messrs. Henry S. King and Co., and we can at least say of it more than can be said for most productions in the unpopular pamphlet form-it was worth upblishing. As a matter of taste we think on the drama as it is disfigured by the frequent half contemptuous allusions to contemporary writers "dramatic reporters." But, taste apart, as a matter of fact no actor of any genuine ability has any reason to complain of the absence of recognition on the part of the critics. The critics, probably, are too happy to find a new light to cherish any desire of hiding it under a bushel. Undoubtedly a good deal of longaccepted experience does still block the way to new talent at the theatres, but the Stage is not the only profession where this phenomenon may be observed, and certainly new ability is recognised by the critics directly the manager allows it an opportunity to be heard. In the particular of. Opinions must of course differ, but in the case of Mr. Irving there is not much to complain main we suppose Mr. Irving has now been pretty generally accepted as the leading actor of his time, and his honours have been promptly won and not grudgingly bestowed. To come to the matter of Mr. Edward Russell's pamphlet, the author's endeavour is to show what new features the new Hamlet possesses. He takes as his motto the "Now I am alone" of the second scene of the second act. Mr. Irving, he says, has noticed that Hamlet "is not merely simpleminded, frankly susceptible, and naturally selfcontemplative, but has a trick-not at all uncommon in most persons whose real life is an inner one-of fostering and aggravating his own excitements." And he further adds: "The vivid, flashing, half-foolish, half-inspired, hysterical power of Irving in the passages where it is developed, is a triumph of idiosyncrasy, which, even with the help of the traditions he is founding, is not very likely to be achieved by any other actor." It is not so much, however, in throwing new light on the performance to those who know the performance well, or in throwing new light on the character to the many who know the character well, that Mr. Russell excels. It is in seizing the individuality of the actor, and sketching very vividly for all readers the outline and manner of his representation. The following passage, for instance, contains several true and penetrating observations: 66 While believing that Hamlet may be successfully played with almost any physique which is not obnoxiously unromantic, we avow the opinion that such a physique as Irving's-nervous, excitable, and pliant, suggestive of much thought and dreamy intellect, yet agile and natural and individual in its movementscomes nearer the normal English preconception of such a character than one more characterised by physical beauty and gesticulatory and elocutionary grace. In moments of high excitement Irving rapidly plods across and across the stage with a gait peculiar to him -a walk somewhat resembling that of a fretful man trying to get very quickly over a ploughed field. In certain passages his voice has a querulous, piping impatience which cannot be reconciled with stage elegance. But there is no reason why Hamlet should not have had these peculiarities; and if we are to see him really living in the midst of what has come upon him, the genius of the actor who accomplishes this all-important feat as only genius can, will be distinctly helped by any little ineffaceable peculiarities which, while not inconsistent with the character, give the representation of it a stamp of personal individuality. This, though a minor characteristic, has greatly distinguished Irving's acting in all his noted parts. In each case-in Digby Grant, Mathias, Eugene Aram, Philip, even in the necessarily stilted King Charles, and, in spite of too young-looking a countenance, most pre-eminently in Richelieu-play-goers have felt that they have come to know a new and distinet and actual person, just as really and with just as true a sensation of novelty and kindled curiosity as when an interesting acquaintance is made at a dinnertable or in travelling. The secret lies in a bold combination of tragedy with character acting, which Irving has been the first to essay." Mr. Russell is not quite satisfied with Irving in the opening of the scene between Hamlet and his Mother. He does not, he says, give the usual force to the question, " Is it the King?" in which Charles Kean was, and Sullivan is, great. The idea that Hamlet is startled into the most vehement excitement by the thought that he has done upon hazard the deed for which he has been trying to nerve and prepare himself, does not appear to have been so overpoweringly present to the new Hamlet as to his predecessors." But it may be rejoined, when Hamlet makes the pass through the arras, he naturally thinks the King the most likely person to be in his mother's chamber; hence the quietness of the question "Is it the King? Mr. Russell having traced the whole course of the Lyceum performance, and commended, by-the-bye, that gesture of the lifted hand to the sky in the last moment, which the Spectator pronounced against and which the actor has we believe now abandoned, concludes in the following terms an eloquent and thoughtful eulogium: So dies Hamlet-but lives immortal; henceforth more than ever a pathetic ideal of refined humanity, torn and wrecked upon cruel and coarse troubles; of young philosophy; of peering irresolution; of awed yet venturesome imagination; of wayward tricksiness; tered; of religion faintly clouded with doubt, yet clear in tenderness of conscience and purity of sweet counsel; of love, domestic and sexual, embittered and shatof a heart riven by the sorrow most trying to it; of powers coping with problems horrible either to be mastered by or to master; of thoughts teeming with imagery and conjecture, on which the world never tires of meditating; of a fate, fitfully shunned, recklessly challenged, and at last encountered by mere chance medley; of many other things, also, which even Shakspeare can barely express, and about which lesser men can only wrangle. "To present this matchless figure worthily and vividly to the men of his time has been the highest ambition of every great actor, and that ambition Henry Irving has abundantly attained. To prove it, we have dwelt not on his general philosophical sublimity or tragic grandeur, in which he could but rank with noble predecessors, but on the features of Hamlet's being he has especially revealed and illuminated. In this character a thousand undying beauties and significances of art have been piously cherished from age to age. To Irving belongs the merit of snatching with a hand feverish, perhaps, but suregraces which were not, and can hardly become, in a stage sense, traditional. He has made Hamlet much more, and something more ethereal, than a type of feeble doubt, of tragic struggle, or even of fine philosophy. The immortality of his Hamlet is immortal youth, immortal enthusiasm, immortal tender ness, immortal nature." AN anonymous contributor to Macmillan's Magazine has an article on "The New Hamlet and The contributor's great charge his Critics." against Mr. Irving's critics is that they have praised him over much, and his great charge against Mr. Irving is that his performance is melodramatic. That is what many people expected it to be; that is what it proved, we think, not to be. The contributor to Macmillan writes of the play like a scholar, but of the acting like a novice. It boots not, therefore, to discuss with him the grounds of an opinion generally adverse. Common premisses would be wanting to the discussion, for the Macmillan critic is continually blaming Mr. Irving for having failed to convey to him just those impressions which to most of us the actor did convey so distinctly. OFFENBACH's long-expected piece, called Whittington, has been produced at the Alhambra. It all Alhambra pieces are. is a long spectacle, with choruses and ballets, as DEJAZET, profiting by the temporary enthusiasm got up on her behalf some months ago on the occasion of her benefit-when half the actors and actresses in Paris appeared before half the people of the great world-has engaged to give a series of representations at the Paris Vaudeville, and these performances have now begun. Born in the last century, Dejazet carries into our day some of the stage traditions that she alone can possess. Her delivery of a couplet and her exact and formal and very clear pronunciation are things to be remarked on now as curiosities. She plays an old woman of sixty-five-being herself a dozen years older-and it is, perhaps, only goodnatured fiction and not history which reports that she has to paint wrinkles every night, for her part, so that she may manage to look old enough to fill it. ONLY two or three weeks ago we told the story of Sardou's La Haine-the great drama at the Paris Gaité, which, though it could not be well reported of on the whole, still, in consequence of some dramatic qualities and much splendour of mounting, bade fair to be performed for several months to come. It has suddenly been withdrawn. Offenbach informed Sardou that it was no longer paying its nightly expenses, and Sardou forthwith requested that it should be played no Orphée aux Enfers is now played instead of it, and the Gaité will not in future venture on any drama of an ambitious kind. more. Philiberte, a charming little comedy by Emile Augier, has been revived at the Français, for the " 'La grâce, plus belle encore que la beauté" might have been expressly written. PHEDRE, which was performed at the Français on the anniversary of Racine's birth, was repeated on Tuesday before the Tuesday subscribers to the theatre, Mdlle. Sarah Bernhardt having, in the difficult laborious part of the heroine, almost surpassed expectations sure originally to have been high. The fourth act was too much for the actress's physical force, but her conception was good throughout, and her execution good and striking at most points. One says at once, writes M. Caraguel, "avec quel soin elle avait étudié et composé ce personnage de Phèdre, qui était le triomphe de Rachel, et qui a été depuis l'écueil de plus d'une tragédienne. Le succès a été très grand et aussi complet qu'il pouvait l'être; je veux dire que Mdlle. Sarah Bernhardt a pleinement répondu à l'attente du public. On était sûr d'avance"--and here M. Caraguel describes with more happiness than usual the characteristics of the artist" qu'elle apporterait dans ce rôle nouveau pour elle les qualités éminentes qui la distinguent: un grand sentiment poétique, une diction harmonieuse, le goût et la mesure, et cet art savant du geste noble et des attitudes sculpturales par où elle rappelle quelquefois Rachel." Mdlle. Bernhardt will be seen in London in due time-when some of her great qualities are gone, probably. MUSIC. NEW MUSICAL PUBLICATIONS. "THE Rose's Pilgrimage;" a fairy tale taken Schumann, Op. 112. Vocal Score. The English from a poem by Moritz Horn; composed by Robert translation by Constance Bache. (Stanley Lucas, Weber & Co.) Schumann's most poetic and charming cantata Der Rose Pilgerfahrt, deserves a far more detailed notice than is possible in these columns. The exquisite little poem by Moritz Horn supplied him with a subject which exactly suited the peculiar vein of his genius. The argument may be given in a few lines. A rose desiring to know what love is, prays to the Queen of the Fairies that she may be changed into a mortal maiden. Her prayer is heard, and the Queen gives her a magic rose-bud, which will ensure her earth's greatest pleasures so long as she retains possession of it. If once she loses it, however, she must die, and become once more a mere flower. The Rose-maiden passes through various adventures, loves, marries, and becomes a mother. She then places the magic rose-bud in the hands of her infant, dies, and becomes, not (as foretold) once more a rose, but an angel to watch over her little one. The music to which Schumann has set this pretty fairy-tale differs in several important respects from that of most of his other large works. Its general character can be most exactly described by the German adjective "volksthümlich "-not merely "popular" music in the ordinary sense of that term, but music written in the spirit, and to some extent also in the form, of the "Volkslied." There are but few largely developed movements, the most important being the Hunting Chorus (No. 15), the two Wedding Choruses (Nos. 21 and 22), and the scene between the Rose and the Queen of the Fairies, with the Charming Fairy Chorus alternating with the solo parts. The greater part of the music consists of short and comparatively simple solos and duets. That the character of the whole is thereby rendered somewhat fragmentary cannot be denied; but the grace and beauty of the individual portions is such, that in spite of this defect the interest is well sustained. The whole work is comparatively so easy of execution that it has only to be known to become a favourite with amateur musical societies, who will find it quite within their reach. It is at the same time of sufficient importance to be worthy of production at important concerts-such, for instance, as those at the Crystal Palace. The English version of the words is very good. The Songs of Wales. Edited by John Thomas. (Cramer and Co.) This handsome octavo volume of nearly 400 pages contains, as stated in the preface, "a larger amount of the National Music of the Principality than any other work." Here are reproduced, not only the entire contents of the three volumes edited by the late John Parry, and of the three edited by Mr. George Thomson, of Edinburgh, but also a certain number of Welsh melodies added by the present editor, and not comprised in either of the works named above. Those who are acquainted with Welsh music will not need to be told of the peculiar and wild charm of many of the melodies; those to whom they are unknown cannot do better than procure this work, in which they will find very much worthy of their attention. A special feature of this volume, and one which will render it particularly interesting to musicians, is, that of many of the airs two or three arrangements are given by various composers, affording an opportunity of comparing the treatment of the same melody by different hands. There are eighteen airs harmonised by Beethoven, and forty-one by Haydn, the other principal arrangers being Kozeluch, John Parry, C. H. Purday, and the present editor, Mr. John Thomas. Many of the songs are also given not merely as solos, but as part-songs. The whole work is preceded by an interesting historical introduction by Mr. C. H. Purday. The "Songs of Wales" forms a valuable addition to the existing collections of national music. Praise the Lord. A Sacred Cantata, composed by Jacob Bradford, Mus. Bac. Oxon. (J. Mac Dowell & Co.) This cantata was composed as Mr. Bradford's exercise for his Bachelor's degree. Its object was therefore to show the extent of his knowledge and technical acquirements rather than of his inventive talent. As a general rule works written to order, or for special occasions, afford no fair indication of the abilities of their writers; nor would it be just to judge of Mr. Bradford from the present cantata, except in so far as it gives proof of the thoroughness of his studies. The ten numbers of which the work consists are for the most part amply (sometimes too amply) developed; they contain much good writing, especially in the stricter styles of composition, but show comparatively little individuality, and are in places somewhat dry. The cantata as a whole does credit to the musical education of the composer, who is (as appears from the dedication) a pupil of Sir John Goss; in other respects it is only right to reserve an opinion as to his powers. A Manual of the Elements of Vocal Music, for School Use, by F. Leslie Jones (Longmans, Green & Co.), is a very excellent and practical little treatise. Mr. Jones evidently understands his subject, and knows how to teach. He adopts the system of singing by key-relationship, which is undoubtedly the easiest as well as the best method of learning to sing at sight. Within the compass of some eighty pages a large quantity of matter is contained, by no means the least valuable part of which will be found the hints to teachers as to the best methods of imparting instruction. little book can be heartily recommended. This It is impossible in a paper the musical department of which forms a comparatively unimportant portion of the whole, to keep pace with the activity of the periodical press. We cannot therefore notice in detail the contents of the recent numbers of the Musical Monthly (Enoch & Sons), and the Organist's Quarterly Journal (Novello, Ewer & Co), which lie before us. It must suffice to say that an examination of them shows them to be fully up to their average of excellence, and that those who are in search of novelties, whether for the organ, piano, or voice, will find in these publications pieces adapted to the most varied tastes. He must be hard to please who does not meet with anything to his liking. [JAN. 2, 1875. MESSRS. CASSELL, PETTER, & GALPIN'S ANNOUNCEMENTS. DR. FARRAR'S LIFE OF CHRIST. THE LIFE OF CHRIST. BY THE Rev. F. W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S., Master of Marlborough College, and Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen. Also in Morocco Binding, suitable for presentation. From the TIMES. "No thoughtful mind will rise from the perusal of this book without feeling that it reveals a beautiful and a harmonious conception. It will serve to raise the mind from mere objections in detail to a comprehensive view of the whole subject, and it will at the least assist candid objectors to do justice to the Christian tradition." From the INQUIRER. From among an accumulation of songs and piano pieces awaiting notice, may be selected for special mention the song Why didst thou ever leave me?" by Charles Salaman (Lamborn Cock), a very graceful and elegant little piece, in the somewhat unusual form of a recitative and air; the song, "Thy Spirit's low replies," by Rosetta O'Leary Vinning (same publisher), a very good and by no means commonplace song; "Sunshine," by Berthold Tours, and "The Coming Year," by Gabriel Davis (Wilkie, Wood & Co.); also two very pleasing part-songs, by Charles Salaman (Novello, Ewer & Co.), one of which, "There is an hour," is written for mixed voices, while the other, "Fair is the swan," is for an alto, tenor, and two basses. In piano music can be recommended No. 4 of Wayside Sketches, by Arthur O'Leary (Novello, Ewer & Co.), which, though only a "sketch," is a very interesting little piece; a well-written" Impromptu" by Westley Richards (Lamborn Cock); a set of variations by the same on "Drink to me only," somewhat old-fashioned The TRANSFORMATIONS of INSECTS. in form, but clever and brilliant; and, lastly, a "Concert Study" by J. Baptiste Calkin (Ashdown & Parry), which is an excellent exercise on double EBENEZER PROUT. notes. A LAW-CASE of some interest to singers is recently reported from Breslau. Frau Robinson, a well-known opera-singer of that town, had a clause in her agreement with Herr Schwemer, the manager of the theatre there, that certain rôles of her répertoire were to be reserved for her exclusively. Toward the close of her engagement disputes arose between her and the manager, one cause being that Herr Schwemer had at various times given her parts to other singers. As the agreement provided that he should in such case pay a penalty of 3,000 thalers, the lady brought damages at 6,000 thalers. In the result, the an action for two breaches of contract, laying the Court ordered the manager to pay 3,000 thalers (4501.) "The volumes proceed from a mind of a ripe, erudite scholarthoughtful, earnest, truthful, and sincere. An honourable and graceful peculiarity of these volumes is the utter absence of an uncharitable spirit. The work is admirable in tone and temper throughout. He is a man of very considerable attainments and extensive reading, an elegant writer, and a Christian gentleman of refined feelings. Our readers, we hope, will procure the work, and judge of it for themselves." POPULAR SCIENTIFIC WORKS. NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION. Demy 8vo. 78. 6d. By Prof. P. MARTIN DUNCAN, M.D., F.R.S. Being an Adaptation. for English Readers, of M. Emile Blanchard's " Metamorphoses, Moeurs, et Instinctes des Insectes," and a Compilation from the Works of Newport, Charles Darwin, Spence Bate, Fritz Müller, Packard, and others. Illustrated with 40 Full-Page and 200 other highly-finished Engravings. "So many new lights have been shed upon the natural history of this great and varied group of animals, that it was quite time for our lovers of entomology to be provided with a new and trustworthy account of insect life. Dr. Duncan has well supplied this want....A beautiful illustrated work. It will make an admirable gift-book for old or young naturalists."-Athenæum. NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION. The WORLD of the SEA. Translated from the French of MOQUIN TANDON by the Rev. H. MARTIN HART, M.A. Demy 8vo. 448 pp. with numerous Wood Engravings. "A volume of deep interest, full of knowledge and interest." "It is a book of rare merit."-Guardian. Art Journal. "One of the most popular books on the subject."-Land and Water. THE NEW AND CHEAPER EDITIONS OF LOUIS FIGUIER'S POPULAR SCIENTIFIC WORKS. Containing all the original Illustrations, the Text revised and corrected, price 78. 6d. each, comprise The WORLD before the DELUGE. With 233 Illustrations. Fourth Edition. Revised and Corrected by W. II. BRISTOW, F.R.S. "We find in The World before the Deluge' a book worth a thousand gilt Christmas volumes, and one most suitable as a gift to intellectual and earnestly inquiring students."-Athenæum. RICHARD WAGNER has recently visited Leipzig, and attended a performance of Spohr's Jessonda at the opera there; the object of his visit being The OCEAN WORLD. to find more singers for his Bayreuth performances. How far he has been successful we have yet to learn. THE Italian Opera at Brussels is to open during the present month with three of Mozart's operas, Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Cosi fan tutte. that the bazaar in aid of the Bayreuth celebraIr is stated by the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik tioned in last week's ACADEMY), realised nearly tion, which was lately held at Berlin (as men11,000 thalers (1,6507.) With 427 Illustrations. Third Edition. Revised and Corrected by Professor E. PERCIVAL WRIGHT, M.D. "A fine copy of a noble book.”—Birmingham Post. The INSECT WORLD. With 576 Illustrations. Third Edition. Revised by Professor DUNCAN, M.D. F.R.S. "The book is an excellent one, and admirably got up." Educational Times. The VEGETABLE WORLD. With 470 illustrations. Third Edition. Revised and Corrected by an Eminent Botanist. "The present is the best edition of the work that has appeared, as far as botanical value is concerned."-Garden. REPTILES and BIRDS. With 300 Illustrations. Second Edition. Revised and Corrected by Captain PARKER GILLMORE. PUBLISHED by CASSELL, PETTER & GALPIN, Comprise : LECOCO's comic opera Giroflé-Girofla achieved THE DORÉ FINE-ART VOLUMES. a great success last week at Berlin, when it was produced at the "Friedrich-Wilhelmstädtische Theater." The same opera is in rehearsal at the Carl-Theater in Vienna, where La Fille de Madame Angot has been performed nearly 150 times since last January. DR. OSKAR BERGGRÜN, the director of the Vienna Branch of the International Mozart Institution at Salzburg and of the Vienna Wagner Society, has come to London in the interest of those two societies. We hear that a branch of the "Mozarteum" is being founded in London under distinguished patronage, and we shall shortly be able to give full particulars. The DORE SCRIPTURE GALLERY DANTE'S INFERNO LA FONTAINE'S FABLES The WANDERING JEW £5 10 0 550 800 2 10 0 2.10 0 210 0 110 0 1 10 0 110 0 15 0 0106 010 6 060 The above are the prices in cloth; the Volumes are also kept in various styles of morocco. CASSELL, PETTER & GALPIN, Ludgate Hill, London. SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1875. No. 140, 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. Speeches of Lord Lytton, now first collected, with some of his Political Writings hitherto unpublished. And a Prefatory Memoir by his Son. In Two Volumes. (Edinburgh and London: Wm. Blackwood & Sons, 1874.) NOTWITHSTANDING the eminence attained by the late Lord Lytton in so many different branches of literature, in poetry, in the drama, and in fiction, it is nevertheless strictly true that he was by no means a good English scholar. We have been struck in reading these volumes with the frequent occurrence of wrong words, clumsy constructions, and slipshod grammar; and we think that in some instances his editor would have done well to correct them. For example, "The ministers to whom we owe these guarantees of order and prosperity, so long as they remain sensible of their true position, the position of a mediating government between perilous extremes, must continue to represent the only administration worthy of public confidence." Ministers do not represent an administration. They are an administration. Again, Throughout all the Germanic nations I know not one in which we are not viewed with resentful mistrust, or which does not hear with a scornful smile of our own preparations against the danger for ourselves in which we have declined all sympathy with the fears of others." What is "in which"? Or, again, "Time is on the side of every agency which resolves into their ancient conflict that union of every element which informs states and nations with individual vitality "Their conflict" should be "its conflict;" and even then the English would be very queer. It is a pity, we think, that Lord Lytton did not take more pains to make his diction worthy of his eloquence, the ablest specimens of which are occasionally spoiled by this laxity, the last quoted sentence in particular occurring in one of his finest perorations containing one of the happiest retorts on record. and soul." We learn from the " Prefatory Memoir " that Mr. Bulwer entered Parliament in 1831, for the borough of St. Ives; and that in the first reformed Parliament he sat for Lincoln. At this time he was a Liberal, but a strong Protectionist; and one reason why he selected Lincoln was that the electors of that town were all in favour of the Corn Laws. retained his seat through the general elections of 1835 and 1837, but lost in the Conservative reaction of 1841. And from He that date he remained out of Parliament till helpless gesticulation in dumb show, they retired 1852. to the back of the booth, and my father advanced to the front of it, the storm of yells and execrations broke out with redoubled fury. Under the hustings, and on a level with the crowd, was a small balcony erected for accommodation of the reporters of the London Press; and in it those gentlemen, having nothing to report but inarticulate noise, were seated like the gods of Epicurus, During the ten years in which he had sat in Parliament on the Liberal side of the House, he had spoken and voted against the still tolerated property in slaves. He had, both by his speeches and his writings in the New Monthly (which he then edited), energetically opposed the Coercion Bill for Ireland, and the coercion policy in Canada. He had obtained an Act conferring copyrights on dramatic authors, and had originated what ultimately led to international copyright. taxation of newspapers, and prepared the He had obtained important ameliorations in the way for the complete abolition of all imposts upon public information. He had by his contributions to political literature suggested many of those reforms which have since been effected in the Poor laws. He had supported the amendment of the Factory Act of 1833, and had urged the removal of the site of the Royal Academy from the National Gallery a change which was effected thirty years the principle of an Established Church, but also later. He had spoken and written in defence of as an ardent advocate of justice to Dissenters on the question of Church Rates." He had also obtained the appointment of a Parliamentary committee to enquire into the monopoly then enjoyed by the two Royal Theatres, an enquiry which unfortunately has not answered the purpose for which it was suggested. The present Lord Lytton complains that during the eleven years of his father's absence from the House of Commons the local agents and political leaders of the Whig party "consistently endeavoured to prevent his return to Parliament," though he had contributed largely to Lord Melbourne's recovery of power in 1835. His Letter to a late Cabinet Minister, pubLetter to a late Cabinet Minister, published in the autumn of 1834, had, according to the present Lord, a prodigious effect upon the public. Fourteen editions of it were sold in a fortnight; and it reached twenty editions at the price of 3s. 6d. Lord Melbourne himself is said to have assured the author that his pamphlet had done a great deal to turn the scale at the general election, and to prevent a Conservative majority. This is a very interesting statement, and makes us curious to see this production of Lord Lytton's pen; since we scarcely should have thought that his style was suitable to the treatment of popular politics. That it proved effective in this case, however, seems beyond a doubt; and certainly if the Whig party showed their gratitude in the way we have described, they deserved no more support from literature. As late, however, as 1846, Sir Bulwer Lytton seems still to have been a Liberal, as in that year he addressed a series of letters to Lord John Russell, on his return to power, in which he spoke like an adherent. He remained a Protectionist, however, to the last,. and in 1852 he was returned for Hertfordshire as an avowed supporter of Lord Derby. On this occasion the following scene took place at Hertford : "The farmers who supported those candidates had ridden into Hertford early on the nomination day, and endeavoured to occupy the ground in front of the hustings. But this heavy cavalry was ignominiously routed by a severe fire of stones and brickbats, and the field of battle remained in possession of a body of roughs from Ware-the foot-soldiers of the Liberal army. "The attempts of the two senior Conservative audience falled lamentably; but when, after some candidates to obtain a hearing from this hostile who 666 Smile, and find a music centred in a doleful song, Like a tale of little meaning, though the words are strong.' "Suddenly there broke from the crowd a cry of surprise, succeeded by a silence of curiosity. On had leapt down from the hustings above it, upto the reporters' table in this balcony my father supplied to record his discomfiture. He was desetting the ink-bottles, and scattering the pens termined to be heard, and he was heard. He had gained all he needed-a moment's silence. Wisely refraining from any attempt at a set speech, he entered into conversation with the noisiest of the hostile ringleaders, mollified the man by a goodhumoured joke, shook hands with him, drew him into a humourous argument, and then slid imperceptibly from personal conversation into public speech. He spoke, I think, for an hour or more; and was listened to in the most respectful silence, interrupted only by the most cordial cheers." We have always understood that the late Lord Lytton was a very successful canvasser, and knew how to make himself popular with the farmers and tradespeople. In 1858 Sir Bulwer Lytton was Colonial Secretary, and distinguished his brief tenure of office by the creation of a new colony, British Columbia. At this time he wrote a letter to Mr. George Bowen on the duties of a colonial governor, which is here republished, and is certainly a very able paper. Lord Lytton was prevented by his health from joining the third Cabinet of Lord Derby, and for the same reason never spoke in the House of Lords, though he once moved the adjournment of the debate, and prepared a speech for the occasion. But when the time arrived he was unable to deliver it. They The oratory of Lord Lytton was of a highly ornate character, abounding in classical allusions, and gemmed with richlywrought periods. But his diction lacked purity; and his constructions are sometimes more inelegant than can be excused even by the heat of debate. His speeches, moreover, were generally prepared beforehand, so that he had not even that apology to offer. had not a great deal of power, nor a great deal of nature. But they were dignified, and eloquent with that kind of eloquence which most professed men of letters are able to summon up at times. Some of his most highly finished passages rise to a considerable height, and one from which we have already quoted is perhaps as good of its kind as anything which living men have ever heard within the House of Commons. Mr. Gladstone had said (1866) that "time was upon his side." "Yes," said Sir Bulwer Lytton, “" it is so "Time is on the side of all destroyers. Time is on the side of every agency which resolves into their ancient conflict that union of every element which informs states and nations with individual vitality and soul. Time, while we speak, is, no doubt, at his silent work upon this old Commonwealth of ours. Even at the moment when it will seem to posterity an act of madness on our part to hazard by experiments fatal to every an |