bably be reckoned one of Mr. Prinsep's most complete and satisfactory performances. The Minuet de la Cour is within a very little of being finished; The Gleaners, a painting of a totally different class, is full of fine suggestions not yet worked out. Four women bearing their sheaves with them are passing along the edge of a cliff, beyond the dip of which spreads the sea. The moon is in the sky above them, the end of the day's long labour is approaching. The first moves forward bowed beneath her burden; she is followed by another who walks erect, poising her bundle of corn upon her head; two others follow side by side, one wearily tugging at her sheaf as she bears it before her. Here again, as in the Minuet de la Cour, the suggestion of the continuous movement of the group is extremely attractive; the figures are all walking together. The tone throughout is rich in suggestions of subdued harmonies; everything is there ready to be wrought out. It will, however, be scarcely possible for Mr. Prinsep, rapidly as he works, to accomplish all that the Gleaners would seem to demand in the short space yet before him; more especially as he has much to do to a work of great size-a canvas containing three full-length portraits still unfinished. Amongst other and minor work by him may be specially noticed a little figure in a Normandy cap standing with folded hands before her stool in church—a pleasant exercise in many tints of grey and stone, amongst which just a touch of red breaks out brightly. E. F. S. PATTISON.

MR. J. BIRNIE PHILIP.

means

THE decease of this sculptor was briefly announced by us last week. The work by which he is at present best known, and will perhaps be always best remembered and esteemed, is the moiety which he executed of the podium to the Albert Monument in Hyde Park. He pourtrayed the architects and sculptors, while the painters, poets, and musicians fell to the share of Mr. Armstead. Both sculptors have worked well in this very extensive and arduous undertaking; and many of the figures by Mr. Philip might be selected for individual commendation, whether for natural expression, or for general artistic spiritedness and success. Some critics, indeed, think Mr. Philip the abler worker of the two; but in this opinion we can by no share. Mr. Armstead has shown such very exceptional capacity, gift, and accomplishment, that to be second to him is no discredit. To our eyes, the difference between the work of Mr. Armstead and Mr. Philip is something like that between a high-strung nervous organisation, and one of the lymphatic type: throughout there is, in the latter, less intuition, less energy, a less varied and less keenly receptive mode of life. Still, we may look with much satisfaction upon the portion of the work done by Mr. Philip; and may truly say that, had he executed in the same style the whole of the podium, unconfronted by the perilous rivalry of Mr. Armstead, we should have been justified in showing it to foreigners with no stinted amount of national self-complacency. W. M. ROSSETTI.

ART SALES.

On the 27th ult. was sold at the Hôtel Drouot a

collection of tapestries of the first order. Five tapestries, worked with gold, of the Beauvais manufacture, period Louis XIV., with allegorical figures of Justice, Fortune, the Seasons, &c., in medallions enclosed in wreaths, 17,000 fr.; Aubusson tapestry, attributed to Picon, director of the manufactory under Louis XV., with a number of figures of persons about to embark on the sea, 2,265 fr.; series of twelve Brussels tapestries, by F. Raes, seventeenth century, after designs by Rubens, representing the principal events in the life of Alexander the Great, each piece averaged from 800 to 900 fr. The sale produced 44,590 fr. (1,7831. 128.).

THE collection of paintings of the late M. Auguiot took place on March 1 and 2. For twentyfive years he had been attached to the Administration of the Louvre, and from his extensive knowledge was a great authority on painting. His pictures sold as follows:-A. Cuyp, Portrait of a Youth, 5,200 fr., and of A Young Girl, 2,720 fr., | both of brilliant colouring; Hubert Van Eyck, attributed to, The Virgin, Infant Jesus, and St. Anne, a curious specimen of art in the fourteenth century, 2,050 fr.; J. de Heem, Flowers and Fruit, 1,720 fr.; Van der Helst, Meeting of Savants, 5,100 fr., and Dutch Family, 1,180 fr. (two fine pictures with numerous figures-the first is attributed by many connoisseurs to Lenain, as the style resembles that of his well-known fulllength portrait of Cinq Mars, at Versailles); P. de Hooge, Soldiers Playing Cards, fine effect of candle-light, described in Smith's catalogue, 9,400 fr.; A. Duan, triptych, The Annunciation and Adoration of the Shepherds, 4,000 fr.; Cornelius Huysmans, of Mechlin, Large Landscape, 1,400 fr.; Fr. Mieris, full-length Portrait of the Baronne de Cortenac, 2,550 fr.; Mieris, Lot and his Daughters, 1,200 fr.; A. Ostade, The Concert, | 2,100 fr.; Porbus, Portrait of Marie de Médicis, from the collection of the Duchesse de Berry, 2,850 fr.; Rubens, Portrait of an Infanta, of brilliant execution, 1,680 fr.; Ruysdael, The Castle, signed, from the Galitzin collection, 7,650 fr.; D. Teniers, Rustic Interior, 8,000 fr., and Reading the Gazette, 23,000 fr.; Ad. Vander Velde, Pasturage, 11,700 fr.; Weininx, Landscape with Ruins, 2,500 fr., and Dog and Game, 4,000 fr. ; Ph. Wouverman, The Stag Hunt, 1,020 fr.; Alonso Cano, Magdalene, 2,000 fr.; A. del Sarto, Charity, a repetition of the painting in the Louvre, with changes in the colours of the draperies, 1,250 fr.; Lorenzo Lotto, Holy Family, a graceful composition, 2,250 fr.; Pordenone, Venetian Family, 1,000 fr.; Raffaelle (so ascribed by Ingres, P. Delaroche, Aug. Scheffer, and others), Sleep of the Infant Jesus, 5,000 fr.; Paul Veronese, Judith and Holofernes, 900 fr.; Zurbaran, St. Marina, 2,000 fr.; Danloux, supposed Portrait of Malle. Duthé, 2,850 fr.; N. Poussin, Adoration of the Shepherds, 2,340 fr.; Prudhon, Venus and Adonis, one of the most important works of the master, 67,000 fr.; R. Fleury, Luther in Meditation, 1,500 fr. The paintings produced 213,215 fr. (8,5287. 128.).

LAST week Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge had a sale of some interest to purchasers of Turner's Liber Studiorum. They sold four of the plates, known as "unpublished" plates; and several impressions of these subjects struck off before the sale of the plate. They also sold one or two impressions of the published plates; among them, an example of the Tenth Plague of Egypt, which happened to be good. Of the four coppers sold, that of the Premium Landscape fetched the highest price, it being knocked down to Huish for 511. The mezzotint engraving of this was executed by William Say. The next highest price obtained for a copper was that realised by The Stork and Aqueduct (or The Heron's Pool)-the subject Mr. Ruskin has pronounced to be, in some respects, the finest of the series. It was purchased by Huish for 421. All the work upon it is Turner's own-mezzotint as well as drawing and etching. Mr. Dobell purchased the plate of Sheep Washing (Windsor Castle) for 25l. 48. This, like so many others of the simple pastoral subjects, was engraved by Charles Turner. Lastly, Stonehenge at Daybreak-drawn, etched, and engraved by J. M W. Turner was sold for 101. to Mr. Huish. Had the coppers been sold before all the proofs sold at the time in the room had been struck off, the

colour drawings sold as follows:-Bonnefoy, An Italian Coast Scene, 15 gs., and the companion, 9 gs.; Cooper, Coast Scene, with Cattle, 124 gs.; Absolon, The Wayfarers, 10 gs., and Agincourt, 93 gs.; Whymper, Near Streatley, 24 gs.; Hayes, Off Scarborough, 28 gs.; Duncan, The Ballad Singer, 40 gs.; D. Cox, Going to Work, 40 gs.. and Llanberis, 75 gs.; Copley Fielding, A Sof Breeze, 69 gs., and Scarboro Castle, 67 gs.; E. Johnson, My Model, 35 gs.; Vicat Cole, Landscape, Winter, 90 gs.: Lundgren, The Domino, 62 s.; Bennett, Bolton Abbey, 25 gs.; Goodall, A Wayside Cross in Brittany, 99 gs.; Skell, Brittany, Const Scene, 84 gs.; Goodwin, The Convent of Assisi, 127 gs.; Prout, The Frauenkirche, 145 gs.; Sir J. Gilbert, The Challenge, 95 gs.; Holland, Genoa, 200 gs.; Venice, 102 gs.; Hine, Durlstone Bay, 180 gs. The pictures sold:-Noerr, Meeting of Generals, 100 gs.; Holland, Rotterdam, 98 5, The Grand Canal, 5264 gs.; Nittis, A River Scene, 135 gs.; Agrasot, The Connoisseurs, 121 gs. Corot, Jouville-sur-Marne, 73 gs.; D. Cox, Calais Pier, 295 gs.; Nasmyth, Landscape and Figures, 100 gs.; Hunter, After the Gale, 150 gs.; Pickersgill, Arrest of Carrara, 195 gs.; Boughton, The Syren, 141 gs.; De Nittis, Rotten Row. 300 gs.; Pettie, The Doctor's Visit, 250 gs.: Gisbert, Faust and Marguerite, 115 gs.; Mouchot, Entering a Gondola on the Grand Canal, 80 58.

NOTES AND NEWS.

In the list of deaths we notice that of Mr. R. Among his principal pictures is Soliciting a Vote, W. Buss, a painter well-known a few years ago. which was pirated by a large manufacturer and Others have been engraved, such as The Musical issued as an engraving on a pockethandkerchief. Bore, Time and Tide wait for no Man, The First of September, Satisfaction, The Introduction of Tobacco, The Frosty Morning, &c. In Mr. Cam

berland's Collection of British Dramatists there are portraits of the celebrated actors of the day, He also executed a series painted by Mr. Buss. of paintings for Captain Duncombe illustrating the Signs of the Zodiac, and two large pictures for the late Earl of Hardwicke, now in the concert room at Wimpole. He was engaged by Charles Knight, the publisher, who attention was directed to him by a picture of Christmas in the Olden Time, to make a series of drawings illustrative of Chaucer, and we believe that many of the illustrations of Knight's edition of Shakspere, and Old London, are by him alse. He illustrated, also, the works of Mrs. Trollope and Captain Marryat. His last engagement of this kind was, we believe, with Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, for his novel of The Court of James lectures on "The Beautiful and Picturesque," II. He became well known in the provinces by "Fresco," and on "Comic Art."

THE church of Notre Dame at Walcourt, in the province of Namur, is being restored. Some tine mural paintings of the fifteenth century have beer discovered beneath the whitewash; the most re markable are a series of life-size figures of saints in the arcading beneath the windows of the choir-ambulatory.

with

Academy, 1875) illustrates the difference between PROFESSOR BRUNN (Transactions of Munich the archaeological and philological methods of interpreting the subjects on ancient works of art. choosing for his purpose (1) a silver cup design from the myth of Triptolemus in the Vienna Cabinet (Mon. d. Inst. iii. 4); and (2) the sarcophagus in Wilton House, with a rep sentation from the same myth (Müller, Denkme ii. 10, 117.) By the philological method it is course necessary to identify each and all of the rectly connected in the traditions with the myth of figures in these compositions with persons di Triptolemus. To meet the demand recourse was collection of Mr. Mariano de Murietta, the while Perhad to such out-of-the-way persons as Baubo and

prices would, of course, have been much higher. The prices fetched by the separate impressions it is not necessary to cite, save that we may mention

that an outline etching of the Premium Landscape

sold for 51. 2s. 6d.

AT the sale on the 6th inst. at Christie's of the

sephone had to be identified with a figure entirely wanting in the dignity elsewhere attaching to her. By the archaeological method, on the other hand, the literary version of the myth is accepted so far as possible consistently with the known conditions of art at the particular period when the work was executed. It is the Roman period here, and the philological goddesses and relations of Triptolemus become representatives of the seasons and the course of the year. Brann's explanation seems to be particularly happy, and as a vindication of the archaeological method very opportune, inasmuch as its opponents have of late been persistent in their attacks, Sometimes descending even to ridicule, as in the memorable passage of Fleckeisen's, Neue Jahrbucker (1872, p. 171), where Schubert draws a picture of a young Hyperborean archaeologist arriving at Rome, discovering a fragment of marble in the shape of a lion's claw. To his great jy it is "unedited," and he resolves to fill up this bark in knowledge. For the sake of accuracy the engraving must be made in Rome. There is no debt about its being a lion's claw and ex ungue Potem. But while reconstructing the entire lion paper he hears of a marble lion's tail in the Muum of St. Petersburg, which, since no other lion claims it, obviously must belong to the same animal, as indeed the style of work would alone prove. The whole lion is then reconstructed, the missing parts being, in the interests of truth, indicated by dotted lines. Then begins criticism proper. Have we here an original work, or only a late copy of some well-known masterpiece? If the former, it must be fathered on some sculptor famous for his animals. If a copy, it must next be shown whether from an original in marble or bronze. In the end

he is convinced that both claw and tail are remains

of an ancient marble copy of the bronze lion mentioned by Pausanias, x., 18. 2, and so on. THE sixth (annual) series of Vorlegeblätter, by Professor Conze, of Vienna, have come to hand, and, as before noted, consist chiefly of illustrations from the works of the Greek vase painter, Duris, one of those who have been charged as imitators of the early style of vase painting. The object of a collection like this is to put such a charge to its everest test, and to furnish students of archaeology with an exercise for their discrimination. Apart from this, the excellence of the engravings entitles them to commendation for a wider circle of students.

Two fine works of sculpture have recently been executed in Rome by English artists. One is a roup by Mr. Charles Summers, representing Hypermnestra moved with love and pity for her husband Lynceus; and the other other, a marble statue of The Falconer, of life size, by Mr. George Simonds. Both works, it is stated, are intended for exhibition at the Royal Academy next May. THE birthday of Raphael will be celebrated On April 6 by the Royal Raffaello Academy at rbino, when a eulogistic discourse written for the occasion will be delivered in the morning by the Professor Commendatore Augusto Conti, and in the evening a grand concert given, and the Casa Raffaello and its neighbourhood illuminated. Two nobly conceived works in Corot's studio, the Dante, and Hagar in the Wilderness, have long been well known to the loved master's friends and admirers. No offer could tempt him to part from these cherished productions, and it is now found that he has bequeathed them to the Louvre. THE Commission appointed last year by the French Government to prepare an official catalogue of all the artistic treasures of France (see ACADEMY, May 30, 1874), has nearly done its work, it is stated, so far as Paris is concerned. The Commission will visit successively every town in France, and report upon its works of art. The idea of this catalogue originated, it appears, with the late Emile Galichon, a writer to whom many art measures in France have owed their

origin.

IN a letter addressed to the Director of Fine

Arts, M. de Cumont, the Minister of Public Instruction in France, calls attention to the state of decay into which the tombs of Molière and La Fontaine, in the cemetery of Père la Chaise, have fallen, and proposes, instead of simply repairing them, that monuments shall be erected to these two poets.

AN exhibition of ancient and modern works of art will be held in the old château of Blois, and will open on May 1.

M. JACOTOT has left to the Louvre two portraits of Henry IV. and Marie de Médicis, attributed to Porbus.

THE Art Universel of Brussels announces that a magnificent silver cup, Renaissance style, the gift of Albert and Isabella to the Guild of St. George, has been sold by the Society of St. George to the Baron de Rothschild for the sum of 1,000l.

THE Louvre purchased, for a sum of 4,000 francs, five splendid specimens of Persian faïence at the recent Séchan sale. The Cluny and Sèvres museums likewise made some valuable acquisitions of the same beautiful ware.

M. PAUL BAUDRY has been promoted to the rank of Commander of the Légion d'Honneur; and M. Harpignies to that of Chevalier of the Order. French artists, it is stated, were unanimous in their suffrages for these two nominations.

The art thieves in Spain are still, it appears, pursuing their particular branch of industry without discovery. Their last achievement is the carrying off a miraculous image of the Virgin from some church in Spain and getting it safe to France, where, according to a statement in the Chronique, it has been recognised by M. Haro, and placed by him as a deposit with the bankers MM. André and Marcuard. The figure, which is small, is of gilded and painted wood, and dates from the end of the seventeenth century.

THE stolen St. Anthony of Murillo has been restored to its own special chapel in the cathedral at Seville, where its re-installation was recently commemorated by solemn processions and religious services. The foot and hands of the Saint have escaped mutilation, but the face and some portions of the robe have undoubtedly sustained considerable damage.

THE Gazzetta di Ferrara states that the Empress of Russia, who already possesses the so-called Vierge au Livre, which ranks as one of Raphael's most precious chefs-d'œuvre, has offered a large sum for the picture known as La Madonna della Rovere, in the Palazzo Garbarino at San Remo, where she has been spending the winter. It is reported that the owner, Dr. Periano, of Genoa, has declined to part with the picture on account of the special historic interest attaching to it, as Raphael is believed to have painted it expressly for Feltria della Rovere, Duchess of Urbino, who had recommended him while still a youth to the patronage of Piero Soderini, Gonfaloniere of Florence.

THE Giornale Ufficiale states that Signor Buzzatti, the fortunate discoverer of the silver basins of Gelimar, King of the Vandals, described in the ACADEMY of February 6, carried them last week to Venice to be examined by archaeological experts. Their report was most conclusive, confirming the opinion previously formed of their being pieces of great historic interest, and the smaller basin has also great claims to notice in an artistic point of view.

Some other objects referring to the Vandal period were found with the basins. Signor Buzzatti promises to continue his excavations without delay.

THE Society of Artists at Vienna has announced that it will open an exhibition in the present month of Admiral Obermüller's copies of the Polar sketches taken by Julius Payer.

THE German engraver Eduard Mandel is at present devoting all his energies to an engraving of the Sistine Madonna. The splendid drawing that he has made of the picture gives reason to hope that his engraving of it will even rival that of Müller. It is a great undertaking for such an old man, but his strength is as yet undiminished, and it is hoped that he will be able to bring it to a successful end.

HERR DONNDORF, of Dresden, has been entrusted with the execution of the statue of Cornelius, to be erected at Düsseldorf.

OWING to the clearing away of some old houses that entirely hid it in some positions from view, the magnificent old Gothic church of St. Gereon, in Cologne, is now revealed in all its architectural beauty. An enthusiastic writer in the Kölnische Zeitung says "that the sight of it will bring delight not only to every connoisseur, but to every heart gifted with a feeling for beauty." It is to be hoped that the view thus gained will not be blocked up again by any modern erections.

THE restoration of the Cathedral of Naumburg, which was begun last autumn, is now almost completed.

A NEW edition of Schnaase's monumental work, Die Geschichte der Bildenden Künste, has been prepared by the author with the assistance of Dr. C. Dobbert, of Berlin. It is expected that the venerable author will add to this edition an eighth volume on the Renaissance.

The

IN the Portfolio this month there is a fine etching, by Rajon, of Giorgione's study of a knight in armour in the National Gallery. brilliancy of the armour, so effective in the painting, is well rendered. The excellence also of some photographs from Greek coins, illustrating Mr. Virtue Tebbs' valuable contribution to our knowledge of this subject, deserves remark. It is very seldom that photographs of such subjects can be gained at once so clear and so soft in outline. Bouguereau is the French painter under consideration in the number, and Mr. Holman Hunt's process is described in Mr. Hamerton's "Technical Notes." "Mr. Hunt feels," we are told, "that there is the greatest possible need for a thorough investigation of the nature of pigments and materials used." This is a matter of chemistry, and it is to be regretted that modern painters do not more often avail themselves of that science for ascertaining the purity of their colours and other materials, and for judging of their probable durability. Such a practice would to a great extent check that evil which Mr. Hunt so much laments. The old masters system of "blind confidence" in the colourman mostly prepared their colours themselves, or had them prepared under their own supervision; but now, when every painter must be quite at the take every precaution against adulteration. mercy of his colourman," it is surely necessary to

THE Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst opens this month with a long article by Mr. Beavington Atkinson on Sir Edwin Landseer. A portrait of Landseer, engraved by F. W. Bader, stands at the head of the article, but we are not treated to any illustrations from his works. The other articles of the number are--a continuation of Robert Vischer's interesting "Studies in Siena," giving a description of the Capellina del Martirio di S. Ansano, with outline woodcuts of several of Pietro Lorenzetti's paintings that will be new to the art student; an account, to be continued, of the New Opera House in Paris, and a technical criticism of the sixteenth century master, Jacob Seisenegger, court painter to the Emperor Ferdinand I., whose recently discovered portrait of Charles V. was mentioned in the ACADEMY Some months ago. This portrait has been attributed to Titian or one of his nearest followers for more than a century; its restoration to this once celebrated but long forgotten master will no doubt lead to other paintings by him being identified. The etching in the Zeitschrift is not as good as usual this month.

THE STAGE.

La Fille de Roland. Drame en quatre actes en vers. Par le Vicomte Henri de Bornier. (Paris: Dentu, 1875.)

THIS most admirable of recent poems for

the theatre comes in confirmation of some people's theory that the place of a work, with comedy or with poetical drama, depends more on its treatment than on its subject. It depends also, we should say, on the date of the story and the spot where the action passes. But these themselves may be held to belong to its "treatment," and certainly it is very true that high comedy and serious or poetical drama may often be founded indiscriminately on a like motive. Certain action, either outward or inward-the conflict of certain emotions-takes place in the ninth century, in the dominions of Charlemagne, and the record of it we call "poetical drama," or even, if need be, tragedy. The same action-the same conflict of emotions -takes place in the nineteenth century, in Wimpole Street, in Manchester Square, in the Rue de Morny, and the record of it we call a comedy.

The theme which M. de Bornier has chosen for his "drame en vers"-La Fille de Roland-is practically that on which are founded M. Emile Augier's comedies, Les Effrontés and Ceinture Dorée. Each work has much of its source of interest in the feelings of a man who, having in early life been surprised into an act criminal or disgraceful, is continually burdened with remorse because of it, and finds his worst punishment not in the common punishment which the Society of his day would award him, but in the lasting shame that parentage like his brings on the child he loves. When M. de Bornier's drama begins, Ganelon has long ago, in a fit of jealousy, betrayed Roland into the hands of the Saracens at Roncevaux. For punishment, he was bound to the back of a wild horse and sent to his strange death in a forest. But, unknown to Charlemagne and all the world, some monks rescued him; and one of them, Radbert, had found his son for him, and had counselled forgetfulness of what was gone by, and amendment for the future. The son, Gérald —now a young man-knows nothing of his father's history, and his father has taken a new name. No one has recognised him, and he hears everywhere Ganelon execrated. To all these people Ganelon is a new Judas.

The niece of Charlemagne-the daughter of Roland-making a pilgrimage to a shrine. near Amaury's (or Ganelon's) castle of Montblois, is threatened by a troop of Saracens, and saved from danger by Gérald, the son of her father's betrayer. He is taken with the love of her; she, with the love of him. Nothing comes between them but Ganelon's fear of being recognised. Once and again Gérald establishes his claim, strangely denied by his father. At last, fighting victoriously with a Saracen for the sword Durandal-Roland's sword-his claim must be allowed even by old Ganelon himself. So much honour should have wiped out the dishonour. So all is ready for the marriage. At last, the hour foreseen and dreaded for so many years, comes. Ganelon is recognised and denounced. Borne down

with shame that his son should know him to be the betrayer of Roland, he yet pleads for the son, and Charlemagne and his lords see good cause to forget the young man's parentage, in his deeds of prowess, and Berthe's love for him is unchanged.

But these are the times of chivalry, and Gérald is the soul of honour. It is for himself to decide, and with fine instinct-true, whatever may be said, to the time and the character has the writer caused him to decide to go away. He will leave Berthe. He will follow his father. Nor is there anything Quixotic in his decision. The Emperor gives him Berthe, and he is bound to refuse her.

"Oui, sire, ce bienfait, cette faveur insigne,

C'est en les refusant que j'en puis être digne!

Sans cela l'on dirait, en citant mon exemple,
Que l'expiation ne fût point assez ample,
Et j'aime mieux briser mon cœur en ce moment
Que d'être un jour témoin de votre étonnement!
Oui, vous-mêmes, vous tous qui plaignez mes souf-
frances,

Vous qui me consolez dans mes horribles transes,
Peut-être cet élan de vos cœurs généreux
S'arrêterait bientôt à me voir plus heureux!
Mon père s'exilait: nous partirons ensemble;
Il sied que le destin jusqu'au bout nous rassemble.
-Que mon malheur du moins serve à tous de
leçon :

Pour mieux vaincre à jamais l'esprit de trahison,
Songez à vos enfants!

Charlemagne.

Vous

Barons, princes, inclinez

Devant celui qui part. Il est plus grand que

nous!"

That is enough to show, at all events, the purity and elevation of tone by which the work is marked. It is not enough to show the admirable art and ingenuity of the plot and many of the incidents: plot and incidents never relied on as the main source of interest, but used adroitly and finely to aid in developing the characters to reader or spectator. One scene that in which Charlemagne and Berthe watch at a window the conflict between Gérald and the redoubtable Saracen, who thus far, in conflict with thirty knights, has retained the sword Durandalrecalls a scene in Ivanhoe, and something in earlier literature. But almost every scene, whether invented or derived, is so treated that the reader feels it to be in its proper place; and many scenes are models of careful construction and subtle execution.

In

The execution, but never the conception, flags towards the end. The highest interest is reached in the third act. There is not matter enough with which to fill a fourth. The dénouement halts, and is waited for. the earlier acts there is more power, more play of various motive, more subtlety in the fashioning of sayings which suggest this to one, and this to another-carry hope here and fear there, among the persons of the drama-so that the interest is at every moment keenly alive. For what is done most strongly is the character of Ganelon, and his changing emotions, as over and over again recognition seems certain, and is once more delayed. His remorse is constant, but is not suffered to be monotonous, and much of genuine art was needed to avoid monotony. Gérald is a simpler character, firm in execution, as in conception high and true. Berthe is simplest of all, and as true as any. No modern ingénue

this, but a character formed by the manners and training of that time: silent, constant, tranquilly heroic. And Radbert the monk, and Charlemagne, in his old age-these two are firmly and sharply outlined.

And lastly, the piece is written in full and sonorous verse, and abounds in picturesque details, and in local colour, used rightly enough with the dramatist's freedom, for it is not the imaginative writer's business to do the work of the antiquary, but to put life into bones which would be dry for ever without his imaginative power. And as a detail of exquisite workmanship—a song to be sung-we will quote, last, certain verses which tell their own story, and should send the reader to the book that holds them :

"La France, dans ce siècle, eut deux grandes épées,
Deux glaives, l'un royal et l'autre féodal,
Dont les lames d'un flot divin furent trempées;
L'une a pour nom Joyeuse, et l'autre Durandal.
Roland eut Durandal, Charlemagne a Joyeuse,
Sœurs jumelles de gloire, héroines d'acier,
En qui vivait du fer l'âme mystérieuse,
Que pour son œuvre Dieu voulut s'associer."
And then their deeds are sung :-

"Durandal a conquis l'Espagne;
Joyouse a dompté le Lombard;
Chacune à sa noble compagne
Pouvait dire: Voici ma part!"

"Hélas! La même fin ne leur est pas donnée;
Joyeuse est fière et libre après tant de combats,
Et quand Roland périt dans la sombre journée,
Durandal des païens fut captive là-bas!
Elle est captive encore, et la France la pleure;
Mais le sort différent laisse l'honneur égal.
Et la France, attendant quelque chance meilleure,
Aime du même amour Joyeuse et Duranda!."
FREDERICK Wedmore.

STAGE NOTES.

Ir is said that a series of French performances are to be given at the Opera Comique Theatre, Strand.

MR. HOLLINGSHEAD's season at the Opera Comique terminated last night. The Lady of Lyons, with Mr. and Mrs. Kendal in the principal parts, has been acted during the week. The Bengal Tiger has also been performed.

Othello has been acted at the Holborn Amphitheatre, with Mr. Creswick in a principal ch

racter.

Round the World in Eighty Days was to be produced on Thursday night, at the Princess's, with one or two performers of note, but with scenery and accessories more likely to engage attention.

Two Orphans-Mr. Oxenford's successful adap tation of the French melodrama-has reached its 150th night at the Olympic Theatre. Mr. Albery's comedy is still announced, but no date has yet been fixed for its production.

A Regular Fir, with Mr. Thomas Thorne in the prominent character, is now played nightly at the Vaudeville, after Our Boys. It takes the place of the burlesque.

MDLLE. DELAPORTE, the great French actress of the Théâtre Michel, St. Petersburg, took her benefit there on February 15. Malle. Delaporte will in a short time return to France, and will probably join the company of the Gymnase Theatre, which possesses in Malle. Pierson its only actress of first-rate ability.

THE Comédie Française, when it does not take its recruits straight from the lessons of the Con

servatoire, is apt to take them from the Odéon. Not only did M. Pierre Berton, who is shortly going to the Vaudeville, come from the Odéon, but Malle. Bernhardt and Mdlle. Emilie Broisat came from the same theatre. And now the Français takes from the Odéon two actors and two actresses: MM. Baillet and Truffier, and Mdmes. Fassy and Blanche Baretta. Mdlle. Alice Lody, the promising ingénue at the Gymrase, will take Mdlle. Baretta's place at the Odéon.

THE Théâtre des Variétés has given with great success its Revue à la Vapeur, writted by Siraudin and his comrades. It is remarkable as affording Mille. Berthe Legrand the opportunity of imitating at once the art and the mannerism of Mdme. Chaumont. Baron and Deschamps also

appear in the piece.

THE Gymnase Theatre has begun to give metinées, following the example of the Gaieté and one or two other Paris theatres.

Ar the Palais Royal, the Boule, by Meilhac and Halévy, has reached its hundredth night, and the Maitresse Légitime at the Odéon has attained the same age. It is still very successful, but is to be withdrawn before long to make way for Un Drame sous Philippe II., by M. Georges PortoRiche, in which Mdlle. Rousseil will have an important part.

M. VILLIERS DE L'ISLE ADAM has just written for the Théâtre des Arts (which is about to be enlarged and re-arranged) a four-act drama called Le Prétendant. The piece is well spoken of, but difficulties will probably be met with in the distribution of the characters.

Ar the Théâtre Français the second and third row of seats in the pit are almost entirely devoted to the paid claque, who are thus often in the way of paying spectators, and these of the most intellirent kind, for the pit at the Théâtre Français is exceedingly well frequented, by playgoers who know more about the piece and the art than most of the people who sit in the fauteuils. A movement is on foot for removing the claque to the very back of the theatre, and if M. Perrin, the manager, consents to this, it may be the beginning of the humiliation of the paid enthusiasts at many another Parisian theatre.

PARISIAN dramatic criticism is often very frank. Here is an example from Monday's issue of the paper most influential in matters of art. The critic is speaking of an actress at the Théâtre des Familles. He says, "Unfortunately the theatre demands of those who make it their career, certain physical advantages which stingy nature has refused to give this débutante. Nature has here lodged, by a great mistake, the mind of an artist in an envelope by no means fit for it. That is a pity."

M. BALLANDE is about to give, at his matinées, the translation of a famous Russian tragedy-Ivan le Terrible, by the Count Tolstoi. It is said to recall to recollection the Louis Onze of Casimir Delavigne.

THE interpretation of La Fille de Roland M. Henri Bornier's poetic drama, reviewed in another column-is now even better, it is stated, than on the night of its first production, a fortnight ago. Barring an appearance and manner a little needlessly Byronic and exaggerated, M. Mounet Sully is generally approved as the hero, while of Mdlle. Bernhardt's performance as Berthe, a most competent critic writes:- "She is much applauded for a certain cry in the third act, but I avow that I don't attach much importance to these momentary effects, which a second-rate actress can compass if she have the right temperament and healthy lungs. What connoisseurs value in the talent of Malle. Bernhardt is her marvellous élégance d'allures, the charm of her diction, the sense of delicate poetry that is somehow always about her.

The first night, looking at the whole performance as a picture, I said her role was in the middle distance. Since then, she has brought it well into the foreground."

MUSIC.

CRYSTAL PALACE-BENNETT CONCERT.

THERE are but very few composers of sufficient greatness and versatility of genius to be able to furnish the entire programme of a concert, and at the same time to sustain throughout the interest of the hearers. In making this remark, reference is of course not intended to such large works as oratorios or operas, but to such miscellaneous concerts as those of the Crystal Palace. A Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, or Schubert concert would be, endurable but enjoyable; to these names might if its numbers were judiciously selected, not only probably be added those of Mendelssohn and Schumann; but who could sit out two hours of Romberg or Hummel, or even (with all respect be it said) of Cherubini? So, too, with living composers. We admire and enjoy the works of Brahms and Raff; but an entire concert of the

former would involve severe mental exertion on

the part of the audience; while Raff's genius, marked and distinctive as it is, is of too small calibre to sustain the attention throughout a whole evening.

In making these remarks, I do not for a moment intend to cast any reflection on Mr. Manns and the Crystal Palace authorities for giving us last Saturday a concert selected entirely from the works of the late Sterndale Bennett. On the contrary, the idea was a most laudable one, and a well-merited tribute to the memory of one of the most genuine artists whom this country has produced. If the result, from a musical point of view, was scarcely entirely satisfactory, it had certainly one advantage-that it has given an opportunity of a much more extended view of the range of the composer's powers than could have been obtained in any other way.

I have just now said that the musical result was not entirely satisfactory. This is simply equivalent to saying that Bennett was a composer of the second, not of the first, rank. He may be classed with such men as Gade, Reinecke, or Hiller, not with Mendelssohn or Mozart. His style was distinctly founded upon that of Mendelsreflection. It was impossible not to feel this in sohn, of which it is at times little more than a the first overture played on Saturday-that to the Wood-Nymph. Here not merely were the subjects type, but the triplet figure for the violins which of the allegro of an unmistakeably Mendelssohnian the first movement of the "Italian" symphony. so largely predominates reminds one forcibly of In his pianoforte and vocal music the resemblance to his model is less marked; but it may safely be said that, but for Mendelssohn, Bennett would never have been what he was.

The great merit of Bennett's music is its exquisite artistic finish. Every note is in its right place, the ideas are always full of grace and elegance, and their treatment shows not merely mastery of technical resources but that true feeling for the beautiful which enables the composer to select the right one of the many things which it was possible to say on his subject. And yet with all this there is something lacking, something which just makes the music with all its beauty fall short of greatness. Its one failing is want of breadth. The details are charming, there is unity of design, too, about the work, but it is the unity of a miniature, not of a large painting, of a sonnet, not of an epic. There is no "grasp" about it; and if it always interests, it seldom warms and never excites.

The selection given on Saturday presented Bennett from three points of view-as a writer for the orchestra, for the piano, and for the voice. In the first of these departments it would have

been well, if practicable, to have given one of his symphonies, but the only one at present available (that in G minor) had been performed too recently at these concerts to render its repetition advisable. The orchestral selection was therefore confined to three overtures-those to the Wood Nymph, Parisina, and Paradise and the Peri. Of these works the first named, composed in 1838, when the writer was twenty-two years of age, is the most reminiscent of Mendelssohn. In grace and charm it is a worthy pendent to the individuality of style there is but little trace. In better known overture to the Naiads, but of this respect the overture to Parisina, while inferior in the mere beauty of its themes, is its superior. Best of all, however, is the overture to Paradise and the Peri, one of Bennett's later works, composed for the Philharmonic Society in compositions Bennett "had written himself out.” 1862. This charming piece furnishes a decisive answer to those who maintain that in his earlier It would be more correct to say that he wrote less in the later years of his life simply from want of time. England is no country for composers who wish to live by composing, at least not if, like Bennett, they write for their art, and not for the music-shops. We have here no snug sician can live a quiet untroubled life, secure Capellmeisterships, as in Germany, where a mufrom want, and with plenty of leisure to devote himself to his art. In London, on the contrary, the life of the professor is one continual round of hard work; and if (as has been stated) Bennett was in the habit of giving ten hours' lessons a day, how was it possible for him to compose? Had Beethoven been a fashionable teacher in London, and Principal of the Royal Academy of Music, it is more than doubtful whether we should ever have had the Choral Symphony.

As a writer for the piano, Bennett was represented on Saturday by his Concerto in C minor (No. 3) for piano and orchestra, and his elegant "Rondo Piacevole," Op. 25, for piano alone. His pianoforte music is mostly of high excellence, distinguished by the general features spoken of above, and with considerable invention in the matter of " passage writing." The concerto in C minor, though less frequently heard than that in F minor, is little if at all inferior to it in merit. It is written strictly in the orthodox form which appears to have been first fixed by Mozart, and which modern composers frequently modifynot always with advantage; in its ideas it is very pleasing; and its treatment, both as regards form and the display of the solo instrument, is admirable. It received a most excellent interpretation at the hands of Miss Agnes Zimmermann, a lady whose refined and tasteful playing is always to be heard with genuine pleasure, and than whom there is no more conscientious artist now before

the public. The fair pianist was no less successful in her unaccompanied solo.

It would occupy too much space to enter into details of the seven vocal numbers which furnished the remainder of the programme. They comprised songs by Miss Antoinette Sterling and Mr. Vernon Rigby-both of whom are too well known to need more than a word of mention-the trio "The Hawthorn in the Glade," from the May Queen, sung by three students of the Royal Academy, Miss Jessie Jones and Messrs. II. Guy and Wadmore; the quartett, "God is a Spirit," from the Woman of Samaria, and two four-part songs given by the same vocalists, with the addition of Miss Thekla Fischer. These ladies and gentlemen are, I understand, pupils of Signor Randegger, and, both as regards management of the voice and the finish of their ensemble singing, do great credit to their instructor. As a whole the vocal music was less interesting than the instrumental, and it was in these numbers more especially that the want of sustaining interest in the programme was to be felt.

The concert commenced with an "Elegy" for orchestra, written in commemoration of Bennett'