who are as it happens very indifferent to criticism -but in order to point out the danger of leaving the general direction of a school to a self-recruiting body!

The grande peinture, to use an administrative expression which the grande critique has at last made the public swallow, is also in great peril of death. Grand thoughts are expected of it, spectacles by which the heart is to be lifted up and the mind stirred, and which will appeal to all classes to exalt the grand sentiments. Instead of this, the pupils of the School of Rome think they have reached the desired end when they have laboriously covered their large canvases with meaningless colour and given extravagant gestures to heroes who are innocent of brains.

Our painters are surely off their guard! Study and progress are going on all around them. The whole people, the young, both women and men, are forming new opinions on every subject. On whom are we to count for the adornment of the public buildings where our large assemblies will be held, buildings which will serve as frames to the great fêtes, if our young artists do not learn to think and feel, as well as to paint? Last year the Salon medal, as it is called the foundation of which, though useful in itself, exasperated the Institute, who looked upon it as a competitor of the prize of Rome was awarded to a young man of the name of Lehoux, not by the jury, who refused to sanction the award, but by the Minister who would not yield to their ill-will. The deplorable idea was then conceived of sending him to Rome like the others, and thence he now sends a Samson rompant ses liens, strained, mannered, violent, and as ridiculous as the Hercules of a fair who wants to play the bully. To make use of a noted expression, this young man is suffering from an indigestion de Michel Ange. Let him cure himself as quickly as possible. No medal of honour will be awarded for painting this year. The medal of honour for sculpture will be awarded either to M. Chapu for La Jeunesse, a decorative figure for Régnault's funeral monument, which I have already described, or to M. Delaplanche for his Instruction Maternelle, a touching and beautiful group, as masterly as it is simple, which has won the sympathy of independent criticism generally.

The Salon prize will probably be awarded to an immense canvas of M. Becker's (a pupil of the Gérôme studio), conceived in the theatrical and superficial style of Paul Delaroche. The bodies of eight young men are hanging by their wrists on a gibbet, and seem to have died without convulsions. Rizpah, their mother, the concubine of Saul, is standing by, scaring away with a stick a vulture that has come to prey on the beloved bodies. The painter certainly deserves credit for undertaking such a vast subject, and for the manner in which he has acquitted himself of the task. But the absolute qualities are wanting which make a work live independently of the choice of subject, and render it impressive irrespective of all combinations for effect. They are purely pieces of workmanship which reflect honour on a pupil, or even on a school, but in whose production the generating functions of art have had no share. The old world is crumbling. away!

I shall treat of subject-pictures, portraits, and PH. BURTY. landscapes in my next letter.

ART SALES.

THE drawings were not included in the report last week of the Galichon collection:-F. dell' Abbate (Messer Nicolo), Eight Angels carrying the Instruments of the Passion, 820 fr.; Fra Bartolommeo, Holy Family (bought for the British Museum), 800 fr.; Berghem, The Ford, 800 fr.; Both, The Stone Bridge, 305 fr.; Botticelli, Studies of Men, 910 fr. (British Museum); Michael Angelo, Fall of Phaeton, 5,000 fr., and sketch for the Last Judgment, 5,000 fr.; Michael Angelo and

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Rubens, Ganymede, 875 fr.; J. and D. Cam pagnola, St. John the Baptist, 2,500 fr.; A. Cano, Holy Family in Repose, 170 fr.; Cimabue, Three Studies for a Martyr, 850 fr.; L. di Credi, Head of an Old Man, 255 fr. (British Museum); A. Dürer, Holy Family, 525 fr., Two Heads, 2,650 fr.; Van Dyck, Christ with the Crown of Thorns, 4,400 fr., Adrian Stalbent, 4,000 fr.; J. van Eyck, Philip the Good, 6,000 fr.; B. Franco, Dispute between Minerva and Arachne, 700 fr.; Claude Lorraine, Sunset upon the Sea, 920 fr.; The Punte Molle, 1,305 fr.; Giotto, The Judgment of Joseph, 1,000 fr.; E. de Laulne, Triumph of Faith, 550 fr.; Fra F. Lippi, Study for the Archangel Michael, 1,650 fr.; A Kneeling Angel, 2,100 fr.; A. Mantegna, Triumph of Caesar, 1,600 fr. (British Museum); N. da Modena, eighteen designs for Borders, 780 fr.; P. Perugino, Four Children, 2,300 fr.; Rembrandt, Judas restoring to the Priests the Price of his Betrayal, 760 fr., Cornelius Ansloo, 7,300 fr.; Rosselli, three designs for the Coronation of the Virgin, 2,000 fr. (British Museum); Rosso, The Three Fates Weaving the Life of Man, 2,700 fr.; Rubens, Drunkenness, 2,300 fr.; Ruysdael, Fishing, 1,000 fr.; Entrance to a Wood, 1,110 fr.; Raffaello, Flight of Lot with his Daughters, 5,500 fr.; Coronation of the Virgin, 5,000 fr.; Van de Velde, Sea Fight, 160 fr, Foul Weather, 820 fr. L. da Vinci, first sketch for The Adoration of the Magi of Florence, 12,900 fr.; study for the picture of St. Anne and the Virgin (British Museum), 13,000 fr.; Studies of Drapery, 1,000 fr.; Courier mounted on Horseback, 5,500 fr.; Three Studies for a Victory, 2,025 fr.; Beatrice d'Este Verocchio, and Ludovico Sforza, 3,600 fr. Seven Studies for a Child (British Museum), 1,000 fr.; Three Studies for a Child sitting, 2,100 fr. Watteau, Two Women sitting, 1,420 fr. realised magnificent collection above 510,000 fr. (20,4007.).

This

On the 22nd ult. were sold at the Salle Drouot the water-colour drawings of Gustave Doré :Christ carrying His Cross, 1,900 fr.; The Neophyte, 1,500 fr.; The Elevation of the Cross, 1,900 fr.; Roland, 189 fr.; The Circle of Fire, 800 fr.; The Agony, 1,400 fr.; and The Casemate, 1,300 fr.: all these souvenirs of the war of 1870. The Fortress of Hautes-Bruyères, 1,100 fr.; Sheep grazing in the Bois de Boulogne, 1,380 fr.; Encampment in the Bois de Boulogne, 810 fr.; A Relay of Artillery, 1,100 fr.; The Marseillaise, 1,850 fr.; Alsace, 1,060 fr.; The Fairies, 1,880 fr.; The Troubadours, 900 fr.; Entrance of Gargantua into Paris, 930 fr.; La Puerta de Sarmental at Burgos, 1,140 fr.; Las Pobres de la Solemnidad at Burgos, 780 fr.; The Derby Stakes, 1,800 fr.; Return from the Derby, 1,860 fr. The sale produced 60,000 fr. (2,4001.).

NOTES AND NEWS.

H.R.H. PRINCE LEOPOLD recently visited the studio of Mr. W. Britten, and Mr. Britten received a commission to carry out two paintings for his The subject of one is a single Royal Highness. figure-a Greek Girl feeding Pigeons; the other, a group of two, is from a design made by Mr. Britten a little while back, called The Lesson of Love. The painting of the girl feeding pigeons is now completed. The figure is seated on the brink of a fountain; in the background, buried in green woods, rises the grotto out of which the waters pour. A gleam of sunlight falls on the graceful figure in the foreground, lights up the pink-lilac draperies in which she is shrouded, and gives the attractive charm of warmth, and light penetrating within the recesses of cool green shades. Every part of the little composition has been studied with serious care, and worked out with infinite pains. It is precisely these qualities of conscientious labour and grave intention which distinguish Mr. Britten's work from that of most of the clever young men of his own age.

A HIGHLY interesting exhibition of works by Thomas Girtin has been held for some weeks past

in the premises of the Burlington Fine Arts Club, 17 Savile Row. Girtin deservedly bears a great name among connoisseurs; not only because he was an artist of quite exceptional mark in simple and forcible dignity of perception and composition, and in truthful decisive execution, but because he was the prime leader in the change which took place in water-colour painting "from mere tinting with light washes to the employment of local colour." In this change Turner co-operated with him, although the chief credit of the innovation is assigned to Girtin; at the present day, beyond the range of the connoisseur class, Girtin is himself chiefly remembered as an early friend of Turner. The two youths came together in a humble capacity in the studio of Raphael Smith, the engraver and printseller; they studied and progressed in concert. Girtin was born in 1773; he began to exhibit in 1794; painted in 1801 an oil-picture, with the view of competing for the Associateship of the Royal Academy, not bestowable upon painters in water-colour only; and in November, 1802, he died of consumption. The present collection contains three portraits of him by Opie, Dance, and Edridge: the last-named gives the most agreeable version of his face. Among the 136 works by Girtin here assembled, we may mention as specially noticeable-Snowdon Range; Lincoln Cathedral (7), very powerful; Harewood Bridge, extremely fine; Distant View of Harewood; Harewood Castle; The Rocking-stone, Cornwall; Guisborough, Yorkshire; Durham (30); Turner's Farm, Wimbish, sex, with a good deal of clear colour; The Stepping-stones, Bolton Abbey; Chepstow Castle, grand; Paris, from above Notre Dame; Kirkstall Abbey (91); Beddgellert; Mill at Stanstead, Essex; The White House, Chelsea Reach, 1800 (to which the catalogue appends the note, "It is said that Turner declared this drawing to be finer than any painted by himself; and indeed the work is so excellent as to palliate even this excess of friendly zeal in over-statement); Morpeth Bridge, reputed to be the artist's last drawing; Dartford, pen and ink; Knaresborough.

We hear it rumoured that pictorial decorations on an extensive scale are to be undertaken in the Manchester Town Hall, one of the vastest buildings in the United Kingdom; and that the execution of these works is to be entrusted to Mr. Marks, A.R.A. Whether these statements are true or not we cannot take upon us to affirm; if true, the first statement is good news, and the second bad. Mr. Marks is undoubtedly a man of very considerable talent, and he is a proficient, and in some respects even a markedly clever painter: but why such a commission as this should smuggle itself into his single pocket, or go a-begging to Mr. Marks, of all men in the world, passes our comprehension. It is a commission of sufficient magnitude to be divided among several painters, and those the very best. If it is assigned to any one individual, the work will necessarily drag on for a vexatious length of time; and, if it is assigned to one or more of those artists who are not the best, the paintings, when executed, will be exasperating. Bottom the Weaver was not the finest possible actor for Pyramus; but, if the desire which he manifested in an early scene of the Midsummer Night's Dream had been humoured, and the whole dramatis personae had been allotted to him, the result would have been a good deal more disastrous and more ludicrous even than it proved. We trust that the Manchester men will show that they are not quite so ignorant of art-matters as this rumour represents them to be.

WE regret to hear that Mr. Richard Burchett, the Head Master at the National Art Training May 27. His age may have been about fiftySchool, South Kensington, died in Dublin on eight. Mr. Burchett was a painter by profession,

and he has exhibited a not inconsiderable number of works from time to time, although his official and educational duties engrossed the greater part of his energies for many years past. Three of his

principal works, painted on a large scale, with nu-animals, and of genre pictures in which animal merous figures, and much vigour of expression, life formed the principal subject; but although a action, foreshortening, &c., were-Edward IV. careful and correct draughtsman, and an induswithheld by the Ecclesiastics from pursuing Lan- trious artist, he is best known by his numerous castrian Fugitives into a Church; the Final Scene etchings, some of which might be favourably in Measure for Measure; and the Expulsion of compared with those of the best Dutch engravers. Peasants by William the Conqueror, in laying out It is understood that he has left a complete collecthe New Forest. The first-named picture contains tion of his own plates, and these will, it is to be a head studied from Cardinal Manning (Mr. Bur- hoped, be secured for the National Museum before chett was a zealous Roman Catholic); the last- the set gets broken up and separated. named was in the International Exhibition of 1874. A PORTRAIT of Handel, by Sir James Thornhill, from the collection of the late John Lodge Ellerton, Esq., has recently been presented to the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge by Adam Lodge, Esq., of Woburn Lodge, Gilston Road, The Boltons, London.

WE earnestly hope that the town council of Liverpool will not let slip the opportunity that has now occurred to them of making a great experiment in mural painting for the adornment of their Council Chamber. At the suggestion of some influential lovers of art in the town, a design for a great fresco of "The Triumph of Commerce over the Elements of Barbarism" has been prepared by Mr. W. B. Richmond. opinion speaks in the highest terms of the excellence of the design, and we cannot doubt that if the Council decide to have it put in execution, the decision will not only attest the growing culture of the community, but secure for the building in question an ornament of high and permanent value.

THE statue of Mirabeau, which was to be placed in the Salle des Pas Perdus of the Palais de Justice at Aix, will be erected in a gallery of the museum of the town according to the original plan, when that statue was offered to Aix by the Imperial Government.

A LOTTERY has been projected at Vienna for the purpose of gaining funds for the erection of a monument to Schiller. A committee of ladies has been formed for carrying out the scheme with the Princess of Hohenlohe as their president.

THE Germanic Museum at Nürnberg has lately received another important addition, by the transference to it of the town collection of mediaeval works of art. Competent This collection, which has hitherto been preserved in the old Rathhaus, consists of valuable examples of the old Nürnberg goldsmiths' work, especially a beautiful goblet formerly attributed to Wenzel Jamitzer, but now supposed to be by Paul Flynt, a fine collection of copper-plates, including an almost perfect set of Dürer's engravings, remarkably fine impressions, carvings in wood and ivory, glass paintings, several original models for the famous works of the Nürnberg workers in metal, and wood carvings by Veit Stoss and Peter Flotner. Truly if the Nürnberg Museum increases at the rate it has done lately, South Kensington will soon have a rival. We mentioned a few months ago the peculiar circumstances under which the Merkel family collection passed into its keeping.

THE Diritto states that the Pope has resolved on carrying out his long projected plan of placing twelve statues round the cupola of St. Peter's, conformably to the designs of Michael Angelo. Twelve sculptors will each have a statue assigned to him, and the selection of artists will be carefully made to the exclusion of those who were not domiciled in Rome before 1870, and who have manifested any opposition to the cause of the Holy See. Pius IX. possesses all the resources necessary for the undertaking.

THE Municipal Council of Château Thierry have voted unanimously 4,000 fr. for the purchase of the house of La Fontaine, which is No. 13 in the street that bears his name.

THE jury of the Salon for 1875 has awarded the medal of honour for sculpture to M. Chapu, and none in the department of painting. The Prix du Salon falls to M. Cormon, for his picture entitled La Mort de Ravana. The other awards

M. BARBET DE JOUY, the conservator of the mediaeval collections of the Louvre, has been appointed to represent France at the Michelangelo centenary celebration in September. France has been extremely liberal in contributing reproductions of all the master's works in her possession, and her art authorities have done their The same utmost to promote the objects of the commission. can scarcely be said of those in

England.

THE German landscape painter, Karl Reichardt, recently discovered in Venice six large tapestries of Gobelins manufacture, copied from Rubens's celebrated paintings in the gallery of the Prince of Liechtenstein in Vienna, representing events in the life of Decius Mus.

It was known that

these paintings were designed for the purpose of being worked in tapestry, but the tapestries themselves have never been known until now. They were bought by the Prince Solms, a nephew of the Prince of Liechtenstein.

are as follows: (1) Painting: first-class medals MM. Goupil, Jacquet, Courtat; second classMM. Bastien Lepage, Silvestre, Eugène Leroux, Defaux, Sautai, Fantin-la-Tour, Wauters, Falguière, Bellanger, Weerts, Delobbe, Vuillefroy; third class MM. Rapin, Delort, B. Constant, Poirson, Butin, de Penne, Carolus Duran, Herpin, E. Adan, Mdme. Lavillette, Dupain, Cogen, Paul Colin, Torrents, Simon Durand, Yon, Denneulin, Bergeret, Zuber, Roll, Commère, Sain, Vayson, Weisz. (2) Sculpture: first class-MM. Lenoir, Degeorge; second class-MM. Morice, Moreau, Vauthier, Michel, Damé, Guilbert, Roubaud; 3rd class-MM. Laforesterie, Pallez, Devignes, Lefeuvre, Desbois, Geoffroy, Lançon, Cordonnier, Hux, Itasse, Louis Martin, Valton. (3) Architecture first class-M. Dutert; 2nd class-MM. Baillargé, Louvier; 3rd class-MM. Bruyère, Formigé, Louis Sauvageot. (4) Engraving: 1st class-M. Huot; 2nd class-MM. Courtry, Jac-patra on the Nile holds the place of honour and quet; 3rd class-MM. Gilbert, Froment, Lerat Ernest Boetzel.

THE German papers announce the death, on May 21, of the steel engraver and painter, Adam Klein, at the advanced age of eighty-three. Klein, who was a native of Nürnberg, received his professional education at Vienna, where he entered the Imperial Academy of Arts as a student in 1811, and continued to make the Austrian capital his home till 1837, when he finally settled at Munich. He was best known as a painter of

THE annual picture exhibition in the Künstlerhaus at Vienna is now open, and is said to be a very good one, although it does not quite come up to the expectations that were formed about it. The numbers are small (not more than 460), only 200 artists having exhibited, but the quality makes up for the quantity, for only artists of established fame seem to have been admitted. Makart's great composition of Antony and Cleoattracts great attention, but does not quite satisfy German criticism. Lenbach is represented by seven excellent portraits; L. Mayer, by a subject that he calls an Allegory-two life-size female figures placed opposite each other with no apparent connection between them; Professor Griepenkerl, by a Leda; Andreas Müller, by four small pictures of the various ages of history - The Golden, the Hellenic, the Mediaeval, and the Medicean; and the sculptor Victor Tilgner, by a series of ten portrait busts. This year is the first

that medals have been awarded by the Künstlerhaus. A jury of artists has now been formed, and medals are to be bestowed for the three best works of art of the year. It is tolerably certain

that the first will fall to Makart, who exhibits five pictures beside his great Cleopatra, the second to Lenbach, and probably, the third to Victor Tilgner. Our Royal Academy and other picture exhibitions might take a hint from the decoration of the Künstlerhaus on the openingday of the exhibition. The works of art were rendered still more attractive by being placed, as it were, in a setting of nature. Beautiful floral decorations vied with the colours on the canvas and the sculpture was arranged in perfect arbours of foliage.

A VERY fine Etruscan vase in an admirable state of preservation has recently been bought at Angers by the Conservation des Antiques. It is seventy centimètres high, of black earthenware, with red designs representing the combat of the giants against the gods.

A COMMITTEE has been formed at Augsburg for the purpose of erecting a monument to Hans Holbein. The King of Bavaria is one of the largest subscribers. A design for it by Professor Widmann is at present being exhibited at the Augsburg Art Union, but it is not as yet chosen.

A LARGE panel painting by Rubens, representing the Virgin appearing to St. Francis, has, it is reported, been discovered in the church of Notre Dame, at Cassel. The circumstance that led to its discovery is thus related in the Chronique. It having been judged necessary that some of the pictures that ornamented the church of Cassel should be restored, the work was confided to a young artist of the town, who, on cleaning the picture of St. Francis, found to his astonishment that, as the thick coating of dirt that covered the picture gradually disappeared, a work by Rubens came to light.

THE first part of an important contribution to the history of engraving has just been published by M. Emmanuel Bocher, under the title Les gravures françaises au XVIIIe siècle, ou Catalogue raisonné des estampes, eaux-fortes, pièces en couleur, au bistre, et au lavis, de 1700 à 1800, avec un portrait a l'eau-forte, par M. Lemaire. This work can scarcely fail to be of great interest to

connoisseurs and collectors, for, as the author says in his preface, there is a great gap in the history of art in the eighteenth century. This gap it has been his endeavour in some degree to fill up by gathering together "pour en former un ensemble, toutes les œuvres gravées par les artistes qui, de 1700 à 1800, ont occupé la France soit de leurs pinceaux, soit de leurs crayons."

M. REISET, the director of the National Museums in France, has recently addressed a note to the members of the National Assembly on the subject of certain ameliorations that might be effected in the administration of the French museums. The principal points and suggestions of this note have been published in the French daily papers and the Chronique of May 22. They are too long to enter upon here, but the principal end to which they all point is an augmentation of the budget, which, as every one interested in art complains, has been miserably insufficient during the last few years to fulfil the wants of a great art-loving nation.

THE Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst opens this month with an historical and descriptive account of Schönbrunn, the Versailles of Vienna. A monograph has lately been written upon this favourite imperial castle by the Count de Crenneville, at the command of his royal master, the Emperor of Austria, and many interesting particulars about it have been made known. Robert Vischer finishes his valuable studies in Siena by 8 consideration of Soddoma's works in Mont' Oliveto Maggiore. Soddoma is a master who has lately received a good deal of notice from art critics, but Herr Vischer's detailed description and criticism of his frescoes from the life of St. Benedict con

THE Comédie Française is to produce On ne badine pas avec l'Amour, in order that M. Thiron and Malle. Croizette may appear for the first time as the Baron and Camille respectively.

M. SARDOU's next play will be called Le Remords.

THE Polish theatre at Posen is a fait accompli. Polish art, says a correspondent, had till now no dwelling-place of its own in the province. It continued to exist by favour of the German manager of the town theatre, who gave up that building to the Polish company on certain days of the week. These actors, who arrived in Posen every autumn, also made use of the wooden summer theatre, which was, of course, but illfitted for winter performances. So things went on, till it became evident to the Poles that these expedients would not answer as a permanent arrangement. About three years since, the idea which had been long entertained in Posen of building a new German theatre began to acquire a definite shape. This decided the matter. The Poles see that the Germanisation of the province is the aim of the authorities, and perceive danger to their own language in the regulation requiring the use of German in schools. They therefore determined to provide a home wherein the Polish tongue may

be heard without let or hindrance. The undertaking was immediately set on foot and pursued with great vigour, ground being bought in the Berliner Strasse, one of the principal thoroughfares of the town, until the original funds failed. An appeal was then made to the national feeling, which elicited a hearty response. Lotteries, private theatricals, and all the most approved methods of taxing the public were brought into play, collections for this object being even made at balls. Thus the work went on, and the theatre, which is to be opened in the autumn, is now finished, with the exception of the internal decorations, and remains a monument to the earnestness and perseverance of the Poles.

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MUSIC.

FRENCH COMIC OPERA AT THE GAIETY.

A STRONGER contrast than that existing between such performances as those to which we are accustomed at the two Italian operas and those given by the very excellent French company at present engaged at Mr. Hollingshead's theatre in the Strand, can hardly be imagined. At both the opera houses the star system is in the ascendant. One or two parts will probably be admirably sustained by leading favourites, while the rest will be given to indifferent performers, and the " in general seem to have about as much supers" idea of acting as a cat has of cube-root. In the Gaiety company, on the other hand, there is no Titiens or Patti among the singers; but, as a compensation, there are no mere layfigures, no animated walking-dolls. Of them, as of the children of Israel, it may be said "There was not one feeble person among their tribes." Hence the performances, taken as a whole, are eminently satisfactory; and to those who wish for a sound evening's amusement not making (like Lohengrin) great demands upon the attention, but good throughout, no better advice can be given than to attend one of the operas at the Gaiety.

On Tuesday last, the evening when I had the pleasure (and it was a real pleasure) of being present, the performance commenced with M. Victor Masse's one-act opera Les Noces de Jeannette. In this unpretending little work the whole interest rests in the two characters of Jeannette and her betrothed Jean. Both were most admirably sustained, the former by Mdme. Naddi, an excellent singer, and the latter by M. Martin. The music, if nowhere very great, is always pleasing and tasteful, and, moreover, charmingly scored for the orchestra. The work, moreover, is not only ex

tremely well sung, but most admirably acted; even the smallest parts being just as carefully worked out as the principal characters. It is in this perfection of the general ensemble that the great merit of the performance consists.

To M. Masse's opera succeeded La Fille du Régiment, in which a most successful first appearance was made by Mdlle. Priola, who undertook the part of Marie. This young lady has not only a very pleasing voice and good execution, but she is also a most excellent actress; nothing could have been more natural than her pourtrayal of the warm-hearted daughter of the regiment,

while her farewell to the soldiers at the close of the first act, where she leaves her regiment to follow her newly-found relative, was perfect in the expression of pathos, without being too sentimental or exaggerated. No less excellent was M. Dauphin, as the bluff Sergeant Sulpice, while M. Laurent as Tonio, M. Sujol as the old steward Hortensius, and Mdme. Henault as La Marquise, also deserve a word of special praise. But after all, it is not the merit of the principal performers, excellent though they are, that produces the greatest impression; it is the uniform finish of the whole rendering, which in this respect is truly unique. It is something new to see an operatic chorus which can really act, instead of standing about the stage like so many dummies. The orchestra, too, under the direction of M. Hasselmans, though small, is complete, and if not faultless, is more than satisfactory, and the whole entertainment is likely to give an amount of pleasure to those who care more to hear music uniformly well done than to hear a few popular favourites that can hardly be imagined by those who have not attended one of the performances. May Mr. Hollingshead's experiment in the naturalisation of one of the most pleasing, though not one of the greatest, classes of modern music-the light French opera-in this country meet with the success it most richly deserves!

EBENEZER PROUT.

THE last concert for the present season of the British Orchestral Society took place at St. James's Hall on Tuesday afternoon last, instead of in the evening, as usual. In consequence of the change in the time of performance our reporter was unable to attend; we can therefore only record the fact that the programme announced as the principal items Schubert's unfinished symphony in B minor, the overture to the Freischütz, a new concert-overture written for the society by Mr. T. Wingham, Sullivan's music to the Masque in the Merchant of Venice, and Mendelssohn's violin concerto, played by Mr. Carrodus.

THE second subscription concert of the Welsh Choral Union took place on Monday at St. James's Hall, when the chief works performed were Mendelssohn's Athalie, and the same composer's eightpart Psalm, "Judge me, O God."

MDLLE. KREBS's second recital at St. James's Hall on Wednesday afternoon was, in its programme, fully equal in interest to the first. It comprised Chopin's Fantasia in F minor, Op. 49, Beethoven's sonata in D, Op. 28, the Fugue from Handel's fourth Suite, and the whole of the fifth -the one containing the well-known "Harmonious Blacksmith "-three Impromptus by Bennett, two short pieces by Moscheles, and Reinecke's variations on a theme by Handel.

MDLLE. DELPHINE LE BRUN gave a Matinée at Dudley House, Park Lane, on Thursday, the chief features of which were Schumann's Pianoforte Quintett, a duet for two pianos by Otto Goldschmidt (played by Mdlle. Le Brun and the composer), solos for piano by Chopin and Liszt, and violin solos by Herr Wilhelmj.

A GRAND Amateur Concert for charitable objects took place at St. James's Hall on Wednesday evening, with a most excellent programme, including Gade's symphony in B flat, No. 4, Men

delssohn's "Vintager's Chorus" from Loreley, Brahms's "Song of Destiny," and Schumann's "Pilgrimage of the Rose."

A NEW Operetta Le Manoir de Pictordu, by M. Serpette, the composer of La Branche Cassée, has been produced at the Théâtre des Variétés, Paris. M. H. Lavoix, in the Revue et Gazette Musicale, speaks on the whole favourably of the music, but says that the right word to describe the performance is to say that the work was cuted," as all the singers were persistently out of tune.

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exe

Ar Niort the annual meetings of the Association Musicale de l'Ouest will take place on the 18th, 19th, and 20th inst. The chief works to be given are Spohr's "God, thou art great," for the first time in France; an unaccompanied chorus "Ovos omnes," by Vittoria; Mendelssohn's St. Paul; the second act of Méhul's Joseph; the overture to Beethoven's symphony in A; trio and finale from Guillaume Tell; and the march and chorus from the Ruins of Athens.

THE recent concert at Hanover in aid of the funds of the Bach monument at Eisenach, in which Liszt took part, has realised the sum of above 6,000 marks (3007.).

Lohengrin is at length definitely promised for this day week at Drury Lane. The comparison of the performance at the two operas will be full of interest.

SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1875.

No. 162, 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.

Poetical and Dramatic Works of Thomas Randolph. Edited by W. Carew Hazlitt. (London: Reeves & Turner, 1875.) A FEW months before John Milton was admitted a pensioner of Christ's College, Cambridge, Thomas Randolph was matriculated in the same rank at Trinity College. By 1630 both were known as poets, and as young men of promise. Randolph, the older of the two, had been indeed the more precocious; at ten years of age he is said to have written in verse a History of the Incarnation of our Saviour: "He lisped wit worth the press, as if that he Had us'd his cradle as a library."

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But in 1630 it was Randolph's " Aristippus " of which Cambridge graduates were talking, a jocular piece-made up of scholarly chaff and animal spirits-in which are discussed the rival merits of beer and of sack. Milton's first noteworthy poem had just been written, the ode "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity." No two men less resembled one another. Milton, the "lady" of his college, presenting a firm and virginal front, was passing by "the ambush of young days,"

Either not assailed, or victor being charged." We know that Milton could, in fitting season, lend himself to recreation, and would even, when called upon, perform his duty of general merry-maker-as in the "Vacation Exercise "with painful diligence. But who can conceive the possibility of Milton's being at any time clapped upon the back and shouted for as Jack? Randolph, when M.A. and a Fellow, was Tom Randolph, and after his death Tom he still remained. Mr. Hazlitt supplies us with a portrait of the poet re-engraved from the original print attached to the edition of 1640. It presents a face, of somewhat diminutive features, gay, vivacious, and mean-the lips about to let loose a jest, for the effect of which the eyes are already on the watch.

Tom Randolph's time at Cambridge was not one of unalloyed pleasure. His bright, quick intellect no doubt readily mastered the classical and logical eruditions of the place; and then he would hasten to complete his studies at the Mitre or the Dolphin tavern. There he would fain have piped in peace, like other learned shepherds of that pastoral time; but his purse was a poet's empty purse, which piping would not fill:— "The reapers, that with whetted sickles stand, Gathering the falling ears i' the other hand, Though they endure the scorching summer's heat, Have yet some wages to allay their sweat; The lopper that doth fell the sturdy oak, Labours, yet has good pay for every stroke; The ploughman is rewarded; only we That sing are paid with our own melody."

Such is the sorrow-no mere sentimental grievance that besets him; creditors are on the watch, and "hexameter's no sterling;" the nine Muses are not held sufficient bail for a debtor; his doors are qualified to take an action of battery against innumerable duns; letters are thrust upon him neither in the style of Tully nor of Seneca. And, therefore, he must recompense himself by a laugh at his persecutors and at himself; it is his duty to teach them repentance; he must for their sakes refuse to pay :

"You trouble me in vain whate'er you say;
I cannot, will not, nay, I ought not pay;
You are extortioners; I was not sent
Tincrease your sins, but make you all repent
That e'er you trusted me; we're even here,

I bought too cheap because you sold too dear." But the misery is, these tradespeople are dull-too dull to understand his delicate vein of joking; their comprehension reaches no farther than "imprimis, item, and the total sum." Thus Randolph extracts amusement out of his distress, which is a goodhumoured habit of his. Having, while quarrelsome, and probably drunk, lost a finger, he must have his joke about this misfortune also; he will henceforth be unable to scan his verses truly, lacking this instrument of his art (and accordingly a line one foot too short is introduced). More unlucky is he than the trees, which sprout again when lopped; he must only-and here Randolph grows one-half or one-third serious-hope for the resurrection, when he shall at last shake hands with his finger in heaven!

Randolph does not seem to have suffered from any greater troubles than the leanness of his purse; we do not find record of any conflict with his growing habits of ill-living; we do not read any rueful poems written on mornings after a carouse, and we do not regret their absence. Nor is it discoverable that Randolph was afflicted by any grievous sorrow of love. He was not the man to abandon himself to the tyranny of any great joy, or hope, or grief. He liked particularly to write an epithalamium for a friend, but had no desire to furnish any friend with the occasion of writing such a congratulatory poem on his behalf. For Randolph, as for other poets of that time, a woman was an animated surface to be travelled over in detail by the eye: cherry lips, pearly teeth, cheeks like roses, and the entire catalogue of feminine items are set out, in the accustomed fashion, as delectable wares to solicit the imagination; of true perception of beauty there is little. Such cool sensuality endeavouring to stimulate itself is a spectacle easy to endure; it is when a Fletcher, a Carew, or a Randolph affects the fervours of pure passion, and professes "Platonic" love, that we feel outraged. Schlegel described "The Faithful Shepherdess" as "an immodest eulogy of chastity." Randolph's "Platonic Elegy" is an animal indulgence in things spiritual. It were well if town and court poets had left the sage and serious doctrine of virginity to the writer of Comus.

some

Beside his jokes, Randolph had more solid satisfaction to set over against the affliction of debts and duns; he had his of "inestimable content in the Muses;" it was a pleasure to write so easily

seasons

and so well, and the great master of his craft, Ben Jonson, had named him his son. There is a certain family likeness between father and son in other points than the common relish for sack. Randolph has a portion of the intellectual vigour, he knows the secret of that firm verse and that steady power of progressing, which are characteristic of Jonson. He acknowledged his spiritual parentage and was proud of it. On the great occasion of his adoption he writes a gratulatory poem :

"I am akin to heroes being thine, And part of my alliance is divine." Phoebus henceforth is his grandsire; the Nine Muses are, every one of them, his aunts; all that is in him of poetic fire is inherited from his father. May Phoebus cure the old bard of his palsy; but if Heaven take immortal Ben, it is surely to write anthems for an angels' quire! Elsewhere;. "Tityrus" is represented as bequeathing "Damon" his pipe. Damon, who is Ran-dolph, nobly opposes Jonson's bequest:

"And do you think I durst presume to play

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Where Tityrus had worn his lip away?" Jonson survived his poetical son, who died in March 1631-35, in his thirtieth year;. a victim to loose living and sherris-sack.

The dramatic writings of Randolph exhibit in a striking manner Jonson's influence upon the younger poet. The piece which is best known, "The Muses' LookingGlass," carries to the extreme limit Jonson's mode of characterisation,-that of constructing a person out of a quality. The ethical theory of Aristotle had been turned to the purposes of allegorical epic poetry by Spenser; Medina, the golden mean, with her two sisters, Elissa and Perissa, the extremes of defect and excess, moralise the second Legend of the Faery Queene. It was a singular feat to set in motion among the knights and ladies, the fauns and satyrs, the graces and the virtues, these lay-figures carved from the philosophy of Aristotle. But Randolph attempts something more extraordinary. Bird, the Puritan featherman, and Mrs. Flowerdew (also of the sanctified fraternity), a supplier of small wares to Blackfriars Theatre, become the spectators of a series of moral scenes in which the Nicomachean Ethics are trans-ferred bodily to the stage. Plot there is none; and each scene repeats with mono-tonous uniformity the plan of its predecessors. The two extremes, bearing their Greek names, Deilus and Aphobus, Acolastus and Anaisthetus, Orgylus and Aorgus, appear, deliver speeches at one another, are each in turn commended by the flatterer Colax, and having done nothing retire to view themselves and note their own deformity in the Muses' Looking-Glass. Finally, Mediocrity advances and declaims; the Puritan featherman and the haberdasher's wife, who have been witnesses of this spectacle, confess that they had erred, and will henceforth believe that the stage is a pulpit, and comedies are pious exercises. Vigorous writing there is in this piece, but neither plot, person, nor poetry.

Jonson wrote pastoral masques or dramas, and Randolph writes his " Amyntas, or the Impossible Dowry;" but the son had been two years dead before the father, in