was pursuing my ethnological researches with aims wide apart from the incidents of modern history, when my attention was attracted by a skull which puzzled me to guess its possible ethnical classification. I accordingly appealed to the catalogue, in which I found the following entry: "No. 5897 B., purchased by Mr. Belt at the sale by Messrs. Sotheby & Co. (March 2nd, 1865) of a collection of fossils and minerals, &c, formed during the last century by the Hon. Archd. Fraser of Lovat, and described in the catalogue as, - 'Skull and thigh-bone of Lord Darnley.' Presented to the R. C. S. by G. J. Belt, Esq., 1869." If the skull may be assumed to be actually that of the second husband and the sharer of the Scottish throne of Queen Mary, it is replete with historical interest. I made careful notes of its characteristics, and they furnished materials for much curious discussion with my old friend John Hill Burton.

The skull is stained dark brown. The frontal bone is depressed almost like that of a flat-head Indian. It is broad in the frontal region, but

extremely low and receding. The face is broad. The hollows of the eyes are unusually large, with no superciliary ridge or projection of the eyebrows, but rather in this respect like a female skull. Only there is a projection above the nasal suture. The occipital region extends far behind the ears, broad and large. So far it accords with the historical Darnley, low-browed, unintellectual, possibly with large goggle eyes, and with an overmastering preponderance of the animal passions. But what is further noteworthy is the condition of the skull. The right side is full of caries - holes, single and in groups, affecting the outer plate of the skull-which I surmised at the time to be syphilitic. The circumstances preceding the assassination of Darnley are well known. He was seized with a violent cutaneous disease, which at first led to a suspicion of poison, but was finally pronounced to be smallpox. It was possibly the more formidable aspect of the loathsome disease in the virulent form in

which it made its appearance in the fifteenth century. If so this may well account for the disinclination to have Darnley lodged in Holyrood Palace. Craigmillar Castle was first named; but he appears to have dreaded the prison-like aspect of the old stronghold, and so was transferred to the lodging of the Provost in the garden of the Kirk of Field, where he was visited by Queen Mary on the night of the 9th of February, 1567, and before dawn the lodging was blown up with gunpowder, and Darnley's life was at an end.

In judging of the conduct of the queen subsequent to her marriage with Darnley we have to think of a woman of brilliant intellect and high culture, wedded, under exigencies of state, to this low-browed, coarse libertine; and if he was really, by his own vicious courses, reduced to such a loathsome condition, he must have been no less repulsive by his vice than by his unquestionable folly.

The evidence necessary to absolutely substantiate that the skull is that of Lord Darnley is probably no longer recoverable; but assuming the credibility of the assumption, a report from some expert on the pathological indications which it furnishes may even now throw some light on the mysterious circumstances attendant

Proof Sixpence, 1728, 12l. 5s. George III., Pattern Two-Guinea Piece, 1768, by Tanner, 25l.; Pattern Sovereign, 1813, by T. Wyon, 30l.; another of a different type, 18l. 5s.; Pattern Five-Pound Piece, by Pistrucci, 1820, 81l.; Pattern Two Sovereign, by Pistrucci, 1820, 14l. 10s.; Pattern Crown, by W. Wyon, 1817, 35l. 10s.; another of a different type, 13l. 5s.; Pattern Crown in copper, 1820, 111.; Pattern Penny and Halfpenny, by Pingo, 1788, 10l. George IV., Pattern Crown, by Mills, generally known as "Whiteave's Crown," 15l. 15s. William IV., Proof of the Pattern Groat, 1836, 15l.; Pattern Crown, by Wyon, 1831, 20l. 10s. Victoria, Five-Pound Piece, 1839, 15l. 10s.; Pattern for an International Coinage Double Florin, 1868, 15l. 12s. 6d.; Pattern Crown, 1845, 15l. 10s.; Pattern "Gothic" Crown, 1846, 26l. The sale realized 1,3371. 18s.

Fine-Art Gossip.

A GENERAL meeting of the Hellenic Society will be held at 22, Albemarle Street on Monday afternoon. Miss Jane Harrison will read a paper on certain vase fragments, one depicting Euphronios; others illustrating passages in the a Thracian woman slaying Orpheus, probably by mythology of Iphitos and of Leto; and two depicting exploits of Theseus.

THE second general meeting of the Society for Preserving Memorials of the Dead for the session 1888-9 will be held in the rooms of the Royal Archæological Institute next Wednesday afternoon. The Earl of Northesk will be in the chair, and a discussion will take place on the subject of legislation in aid of the society's

objects, and, if time permit, a paper will be read, Notes upon Monuments in Lambeth Parish Church,' by Mrs. A. E. Danvers Taylor. THE Hon. Harold Dillon, F.S.A., has made a valuable collection of the names and stamps of armour makers, a new and important subject, not hitherto noticed by the writers on medieval armour and weapons. He proposes to print it in the pages of the Reliquary.

MESSRS. T. AGNEW & Co. have issued invitations for to-day (Saturday) to a private view of their exhibition of water-colour drawings, which will be opened to the public on Monday next. Of the Fine-Art Society's exhibition of Dutch water-colour drawings the same should be said.

THE Annual Exhibition of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts was opened to the public on Wednesday last, the private view having taken place on the previous day. Sir F. Leighton's Captive Andromache' has been sent to the Manchester Art Gallery, where it is now on view. THE death is announced of Prof. F. Muller, Director of the Academy of Painting of Cassel, an historical painter and art critic well known in Germany, at the age of eighty-seven. He obtained the Legion of Honour in 1867 for a

picture of 'The Death of St. Elizabeth, shown

at the International Exhibition in Paris in that

year.

AMONG the latest additions to the list of

heroes our neighbours of France are delighting

Mary Stuart.

SALE.

DANIEL WILSON.

In a sale of English coins and medals last week at the rooms of Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge the following pieces sold well :Elizabeth, Ryal, 25l. 10s. James I., FifteenShilling Piece, 171. 10s. Charles I., Pattern for a Sovereign or Shilling in silver, obv. crowned bust of the king to left, rev. crowned and garnished shield between C. R., dated 1630, 17l. Cromwell, Pattern Sixpence, 1658, 15l. 15s. Anne, Five-Guinea Piece, 1706, 18l. 10s. George II., Pattern Two-Guinea Piece, 1733, 18l. 5s.;

to honour are Flaubert, whose statue by M. entrances of the Musée de Rouen, and M. Victor Noir, a journalist who was shot by Prince Pierre Napoleon at Auteuil. The monument of the latter is by M. Dalou.

THE highly picturesque and interesting monument of Philippe Pot, the acquisition of which by the French Government we have already recorded, is to form the centre-piece of a new arrangement in a hall of the Louvre which will be appropriated to many additions of the same kind, in collecting which from "half-abandoned" churches and elsewhere some excess of zeal is shown, as if such relics had no historic connexion with the sites they have

In the history of modern music Frederick Chopin occupies a place of his own, primarily, though not exclusively, as a composer for the piano. There is probably no musician whose individuality of character and temperament is more clearly displayed in his works. Gifted with a highly pronounced personality, Chopin moved through the musical world as being in it rather than of it; and while exerting unmistakable influence on his comtemporaries

and successors, he seems himself to have been very little, if at all, influenced by those around him. Excepting, perhaps, an occasional suggestion in a few of his earliest works of the passage-writing of Hummel, to whose compositions he was very partial, we seek in vain for anything in his music which can be called a reminiscence. Of all composers since Beethoven Chopin is unquestionably one of the most original; the study of his life therefore, closely connected as it is with his music, cannot but be of the highest interest.

The biographical notices of Chopin accessible to English readers have hitherto been confined to Liszt's 'Frédéric Chopin,' originally written in French, and published in 1877 by William Reeves, the English translation being by M. W. Cook; and Moritz Karasowski's larger biography, also published in English by Reeves, the translation by E. Hill (1879). Mr. Dannreuther's article on Chopin in Sir G. Grove's 'Dictionary' is merely a short critical estimate of his works, and gives few particulars of his life. Mr. Joseph Bennett's 'Frederick Chopin,' published as one of Novello's "Primers of Musical Biography," is chiefly founded on the works of Liszt and Karasowski. Neither of these, however, can be pronounced wholly satisfactory. Liszt's most interesting book is not a biography, but, as Mr. Niecks says in his preface, "a psychological study of Chopin, and an æsthetical study of his works, which it is impossible to overestimate." Karasowski's volume, valuable as containing a great number of previously unpublished letters by the composer, is marred by the author's "unchecked partiality for and boundless admiration of his hero; his uncritical acceptance and fanciful embellishments of anecdotes and hearsays; and the extreme paucity of his information concerning the period of Chopin's life which begins with his settlement in Paris." It has been reserved for Mr. Niecks to produce a monograph really worthy of his subject, which it is hardly too much to rank by the side of Jahn's 'Mozart,' Spitta's 'Bach,' or Pohl's (alas! uncompleted) 'Haydn.'

To the students of current musical literature the name of Frederick Niecks will be perfectly familiar from his contributions to

the columns of the Musical Times, Monthly Musical Record, and other journals. For the task which he has set himself in the present work he possesses no mean qualifications. Foremost among these is characteristic Teutonic thoroughness. We learn from the preface that Mr. Niecks has been engaged for more than ten years in compiling the materials for these volumes, and from the research they display and the evidence to be found on every page of careful investigation we can well believe it. The writer is, moreover, a man of large sympathies and of judicial impartiality. As will be seen presently, he makes no idol of Chopin; he is not blind either to his faults as a man or to his shortcomings as a composer; but neither is he insensible to his genius. We do not necessarily endorse all his opinions, though they are not hastily formed, and we are bound to respect them, even where we differ from them.

The introductory chapter of the first volume is a sketch of Poland and the Poles at the commencement of the present century. The strongly marked national character of Chopin's music is, of course, the raison d'être of this introduction. The history of the composer's father, Nicholas Chopin, a native of Nancy, in Lorraine, who came to Warsaw about 1787, and spent the rest of his life in Poland, is given with an amount of detail which well exemplifies the labour which Mr. Niecks must have expended in collecting his facts. At Zelazowa Wola, a village about twenty-eight English miles from Warsaw, Frederick Chopin was born on March 1st, 1809. He received comparatively but little instruction in music; his only teachers were Adalbert Zywny for the piano and Josef Elsner for harmony and composition. Though little known out of Poland, both these musicians appear from contemporary testimony to have been excellent teachers. Chopin's own opinion of them is quoted by Mr. Niecks as having been given to a Viennese gentleman, who told him that people were astonished at his having learnt all he knew at Warsaw: "From Messrs. Zywny and Elsner even the greatest ass must learn something."

,

After completing his school education the composer became in 1824 a student at the Warsaw Lyceum. According to Liszt, his expenses were paid by Prince Radziwill; but this is denied by the members of Chopin's family. His Opus 1 (the Rondeau in c minor) was published in 1825; but the Variations sur un Air National Allemand, which were not published till after the composer's death, were probably written even earlier in the preceding year. These works, though showing but little of the composer's later individuality of style, are remarkable for their freedom and the total absence of the signs of inexperience that might naturally be looked for in such early efforts. It is in the 'Rondeau à la Mazur' (Op. 5), which seems to have been written some two years later, that, in Mr. Niecks's words,

"the individuality of Chopin, and with it his nationality, begin to reveal themselves unmistakably. Who could fail to recognize him in the peculiar sweet and persuasive flows of sound, and the serpent-like winding of the melodic outline, the wide-spread chords, the chromatic progressions, the dissolving of the harmonies, and the linking of their constituent parts!"

Space will not allow us to follow in detail Chopin's artistic career-his first visits to Berlin, Vienna, and Prague; his successful public appearances at Warsaw; we must pass on to his arrival at Paris in 1831. In the French capital, which, with occasional absences, was his abode for the remainder of his life, he made those acquaintances who exerted the greatest influence upon him. Foremost among these was, of course, George Sand. Into the relations of the novelist with the musician Mr. Niecks naturally enters at great length. His judgment is distinctly unfavourable to the lady, though, as he tells us in his preface, he "entered upon the study of her character with the impression that she had suffered much undeserved abuse, and that it would be incumbent upon a Chopin biographer to defend her against his predecessors and the friends of the composer." Everybody knows Liszt's remark that George Sand's method of procedure was to catch her butterfly and tame it in her box by giving it grass and flowers; then she stuck her pin into it when it struggled; and afterwards vivisected it, stuffed it, and added it to her collection of heroes for novels. A more merciless yet not unfair judgment of her character than that which Mr. Niecks gives in the last chapter of his first volume can hardly be found in modern biography.

From the author's delineation of the character of Chopin himself we may give

a few extracts:

"Chopin's predilection for the fashionable salon society led him to neglect the society of artists. That he carried the odi profanum vulgus et arceo too far cannot for a moment be doubted. For many of those who sought to have intercourse with him were men of no less nobility of sentiment and striving than himself...... Musi cians, with a few exceptions, Chopin seems always to have been careful to keep at a distance, at least after the first years of his arrival in Paris. This is regrettable especially in the case of the young men who looked up to him with veneration and enthusiasm, and whose feelings were cruelly hurt by the polite but un

sympathetic reception he gave them."

"I venture to make the sweeping assertion that Chopin had among his non-Polish friends none who could be called intimate in the fullest sense of the word...... Of all his connection with non-Poles there seems to be only one which really deserves the name of friendship, and that is his connection with Franchomine. Even here, howdeed, we may say-speaking generally, and not ever, he gave much less than he received. Inonly with a view to Franchomme-that Chopin how to conceal his deficiencies in this respect under the blandness of his manners and the coaxing affectionateness of his language. There is something really tragic, and comic too, in the fact that every friend of Chopin's thought that he had more of the composer's love and confidence in friendship much may be learned from his than any other friend...... Of Chopin's procedures letters; in them is to be seen something of his insinuating, cajoling ways, and of his habit of speaking not only ungenerously and unlovingly, but even unjustly of other persons with whom he was apparently on cordial terms. In fact, it is only too clear that Chopin spoke differently before the faces and behind the backs of people. ...... Taking a general view of the letters written by him during the last twelve years of his life, one is struck by the absence of generous judgments and the extreme rareness of sympathetic sentiments concerning third persons. As this was not the case in his earlier letters, ill health

was more loved than loving. But he knew well

In dealing with Chopin as a composer, Mr. Niecks, it is almost superfluous to say, shows much critical insight, and his opinions are likely to meet with general acceptance. Even more interesting, because more novel, are the chapters treating of Chopin as a pianist and as a teacher. The author has collected a large mass of contemporary evidence on these subjects. Especially valuable

are the remarks on the much discussed

tempo rubato in Chopin's music. To these, however, we can merely direct the reader's attention; for if quotation is once commenced it will be impossible to stop. We would have gladly referred to the admirable dissertations on Chopin's relations to the Romantic school and on the history of

Polish music. But we must confine our

selves now to recommending the work to the attention of all musicians. We ought to add that it is provided with an excellent and complete index, an advantage not always to be found in similar works.

THE WEEK.

CRYSTAL PALACE.-Mr. Hamish MacCunn's Cantata, 'The Lay of the Last Minstrel.'

ST. JAMES'S HALL.-London Symphony Concerts.
ROYAL CHORAL SOCIETY.-Mancinelli's 'Isaias,' &c.

THE performance of Mr. Hamish MacCunn's cantata, 'The Lay of the Last Minstrel,' at the Crystal Palace last Saturday must be regarded as one of the most important events of the season, as it proved that a young composer who has evinced striking originality in vocal and instrumental works of comparatively small proportions is already equal to the task of creating a more important work, in which the highest qualities of musicianship are called for. In all his previous efforts Mr. MacCunn has evinced a strong leaning towards Scottish subjects for illustration, and an equally strong tendency to utilize the peculiarities of Scottish music in setting them. As the cantata now under consideration was composed expressly for the Glasgow Choral Union, by whom it was produced on December 18th, Mr. MacCunn naturally selected theme from the literature of his

native land, and he would have been unwise to have gone further afield. The advice now liberally bestowed upon him that he should discard national proclivities in his future efforts is, of course, well meant, but he should receive it with caution. If the bent of his genius leads him into wider regions of thought, well and good; but it is egregious folly for a composer to force himself out of the element in which he feels most at home. If he does so he may produce music unimpeachable in every respect save the only one of real value-namely, inspiration. It is the presence of this inestimable quality that has hitherto rendered Mr. MacCunn's efforts acceptable, despite the faults inseparable from youth and inexperience, and we find it setting of 'The Lay of the Last Minstrel." Scott's poem presented formidable difficulties

in full measure in his

former, Mr. James MacCunn, deserves thanks for having put together a fairly consistent and intelligible book without the interpolation of a single line. It is, of course, entirely unnecessary in this place to recapitulate the incidents related in the poem, and it will, therefore, suffice to say that the most important of them are included in the libretto.

Turning to the music, a few general remarks will be more serviceable than an analysis of the score number by number. It may be said, in the first place, that Mr. MacCunn has not availed himself in the slightest degree of the rich stores of Scottish traditional melody. His music is his own, although much of it is more or less tinged with national colouring in the harmonies and the melodic progressions. This distinctiveness of style is observable in the principal choral numbers, in the declamatory music allotted to Lady Buccleuch, and most strikingly in the scene in Melrose Abbey, when Deloraine takes the Mighty Book from the tomb of the wizard Michael Scott. Here the composer puts forth his full strength, and equals the finest efforts of the great masters where they have endeavoured to illustrate supernatural terrors. Only a musician of genius could follow a scene so full of weirdness and horror by the tender and seductive tenor solo describing the stolen meeting between Margaret and Cranston. There are many pages in the score in which the effect is won by pure energy and spirit; but besides the one named there are episodes where Mr. MacCunn gains his end by employing melody of a most simple kind. The most conspicuous of these is the illustration of the lines,

No kind influence deign they shower

Till pride be quell'd, and love be free. Here we have a tune of the most unpretending pattern, but very charming, and the appropriateness of which it is impossible to call in question. Mr. MacCunn has been taken to task, with insufficient reason, for the boldness of some of his harmonic progressions; but most of the apparently strange transitions are explainable by the aid of enharmonic modulation. After all, the only valid excuse for every deviation from ordinary procedure is the effect produced, and in this respect the present score may be considered almost immaculate, for the composer rarely strays from the paths of orthodoxy without affording ample reason for so doing. Structurally his music leaves absolutely nothing to be desired. Though the lines are closely followed there is no sense of vagueness, the strong, firm rhythm and the constant presence of well-accentuated melody preventing the hearer's attention from flagging for an instant until the final chorus, which is far below the level of all the rest in freshness and interest.

How Mr. MacCunn failed to be inspired by such patriotic lines as "O Caledonia, stern and wild," &c., it is difficult to perceive, and the anticlimax is so unfortunate that he would do well to write another finale, more elaborate and altogether more worthy of the rest of the work. It only remains to speak in general terms of the orchestration, which is in the highest degree masterly and picturesque. The scoring is frequently very full, but it is nearly always well balanced, and mere noise is carefully avoided. To

sum up, 'The Lay of the Last Minstrel' is a remarkable work, and as the creation of a composer only in his twenty-first year has few equals in music. The performance last Saturday suffered to some extent owing to the shortcomings of the choir and the weakness of the contralto and tenor soloists. Madame Nordica in the soprano and Mr. Andrew Black in the baritone music were more successful. As a matter of course the audience received the work with favour, and it should be heard again at the earliest convenient opportunity.

THE duet for soprano and baritone from Wagner's early opera 'Die Feen,' which was introduced by Mr. and Mrs. Henschel at their recital at the Princes' Hall on Friday last week, is a piece of a semi-buffo character, sung by two bright and tuneful, and contains touches of Weber and Mozart, but not a trace of Wagner's true style. The programme generally was very interesting, and its interpretation absolutely perfect.

coquettish lovers. The

The overture to Wagner's early opera 'Die Feen,' which Mr. Henschel brought forward at the Symphony Concert on Tuesday, is a somewhat pretentious piece, and the introduction, at any rate, contains some of the germs of the composer's later manner. principal movement is bright and joyous, and the themes are tuneful, but the orchestration is of a commonplace kind. According to a note on the score, Wagner wrote the overture between the 2nd and the 6th of January, 1834. Mr. Johann Kruse did not confirm by his rendering of Beethoven's Violin Concerto even the moderately favourable opinion previously formed of him. The work is manifestly beyond his present powers, and the scratchy tone and false intonation were extremely unpleasant. He was especially unwise to attempt Herr Joachim's most difficult cadenza to the first movement. The audience seemed extremely pleased with Haydn's Symphony in B flat, No. 9 of the Salomon set, though the rendering was somewhat coarse, and it is a pity the old master's symphonies are not more frequently drawn upon, as they would always be welcome as a relief to the more serious music of the present time. The rest of the programme does not call for remark. As already announced, an extra concert will be given on Wednesday afternoon next week, when Mr. Alfred Broughton's Leeds choir will take part in Mendelssohn's 'Walpurgis Night'and Beethoven's 'Choral' Symphony. The Royal Choral Society deserves thanks for bringing Signor Mancinelli's 'Isaias' to a hearing in London, albeit somewhat late. The work is a strange compound of beauty and ugliness, but on the whole the former element prevails, and as a typical example of the new Italian school it merits atten

It is

AT Otto Hegner's second recital on Monday afternoon the youthful artist introduced Beethoven's Sonata in E flat, Op. 31, No. 3, for the first time. With the exception of the minuet, which was taken too quickly, his rendering was admirable alike in conception and execution. Bach's 'Suite Anglaise'in A minor, No. 2; Chopin's Nocturne in D flat; and Weber's 'Rondo Brillant' in E flat were also extremely well played.

THE concerted works at the Popular Concert last Saturday were Mendelssohn's Quartet in E flat, Op. 44, No. 3, and Schumann's Pianoforte Quartet in E flat, Op. 47. Miss Zimmermann gave a sound and scholarly reading of Beethoven's 'Waldstein' Sonata, Op. 53, and Madame Neruda played three of Dr. Mackenzie's recently published violin pieces. Mrs. Henschel introduced a charming song, "O sun, that wakenest," by Mr. F. Corder, with words by Tennyson.

MONDAY's programme opened with Schumann's Quartet in F, Op. 41, No. 2, the least frequently played of the series, and closed with Beethoven's Sonata in G for piano and violin, Op. 30, No. 3.

Signor Piatti's new Piano and Violoncello Sonata in F was repeated, and Miss Fanny Davies gave a technically admirable rendering of Chopin's Andante Spianato and Polonaise in E flat, though there is nothing in the work for the display of her higher qualities as an artist. The frequenters of these concerts would be grateful to Mr. Santley if he would enlarge his repertory. Handel's 'Nasce al Bosco' and Gounod's 'Maid of Athens' are heard somewhat too frequently.

A NEW Sonata in D for piano and violin, by Dr. Hubert Parry, was performed for the first time at Mr. Dannreuther's Musical Evening on

tion it has not hitherto received. It is note-
worthy also that the composer inclines more
to the methods of modern French writers
than to those of Germany. The influence of
Berlioz and Gounod is far more apparent
than that of Wagner or Brahms. The
cantata is, therefore, utterly unlike what we
are accustomed to regard as sacred music in
this country, and this is, perhaps, the reason
why choral societies have not received it
with favour. The peculiarities of the work
were fully described at the time of its pro-
duction (Atheneum, No. 3130), and it is only
necessary to say that the music proved on
the whole more effective in the Albert Hall
on Wednesday than it did at Norwich. The
noise and tawdriness of some of the scoring
were less unpleasant, and the massive
unisonal passages - of which there are
many-of course came out exceedingly well.
Probably, however, Mr. Barnby had not
heard the work under the composer, as he
missed some of the effects gained at the first
performance by strong emphasis, employ-Armida' and 'Iphigénie en Tauride.'

Thursday last week. The work is in three very
brief, closely written movements, perfectly as to form, and melodious. Once or twice we
are reminded of Schumann and also of Grieg,
but as a whole the sonata left a most favourable
impression. The programme likewise included
Brahms's Trio in c minor, Op. 101; Beethoven's
in E flat, Op. 70, No. 2; and Bach's Chromatic
Fantasia and Fugue.

MR. WALTER MACFARREN gave a lecture on 'Pianoforte Music, Ancient and Modern,' with illustrations, in connexion with the Westminster Orchestral Society on Saturday last.

RUBINSTEIN's oratorio 'Paradise Lost' was

announced for performance at Sir Charles Halle's Manchester concerts on Thursday this week, with Miss Annie Marriott, Miss Jessie Moorhouse, Mr. E. Lloyd, and Mr. Henschel as the principal vocalists.

THE Success of Gluck's 'Orfeo' at Rome has been so great that it is in contemplation to revive another of the composer's works at the Costanzi Theatre. The choice lies between AMONG the musical celebrations in connexion with the Paris Exhibition will be five orchestral concerts at the Trocadéro by the five principal orchestras of the French capital, namely, the Conservatoire, the Chatelet, the Opéra, the Opéra Comique, and that of M. Lamoureux. Foreign orchestras will also be invited to appear. SIGNOR MAZZUCATO has completed his Italian translation of 'Die Meistersinger' for the forthcoming production at Covent Garden.

THE two leading theatres of Naples, the San Carlo and the Mercadante, which have hitherto been under state control, are about to be ceded to the municipal authorities.

CONCERTS, &c., FOR NEXT WEEK.

MON. Otto Hegner's Last Recital, 3, St. James's Hall.

Borough of Hackney Choral Association, 'St. Paul,' 8, Shoreditch Town Hall.

Popular Concert, 8.30, St. James's Hall.

TUES. Novello's Oratorio Concert, The Dream of Jubal,' &c., 8, St James's Hall,

Signor Ragner Grevillius's Concert, 8, Steinway Hall.

WED. London Symphony Concert, 3, St. James's Hall.

Miss Dora Bright's Pianoforte Recital, 3, Princes' Hall.
Welsh Concert, 7.45, Princes' Hall.

London Ballad Concert, 8 St. James's Hall.
Mr. Isidore de Lara's Vocal Recital, 8 30, Steinway Hall.

THURS. Royal College of Music, 730, Alexandra House.

FRI.

SAT.

Patti Concert, 8. Albert Hail.

Miss Hope Temple's Concert, 3. Steinway Hall.
Miss Henrietta Lascelles's Soirée Musicale, 8, Steinway Hall.
Warwick Street Orphanage Concert, 8, St. James's Hall.

Mr. Dannreuther's Last Musical Evening, 8 30.

Mr. W. Carter's Welsh Concert. 8. Albert Hall.

Misses L. Davies and M. Robertson's Concert, 8, Steinway Hall.

Popular Concert, 3, St. James s Hall.

Crystal Palace Concert, 3.

DRAMA

Plays and Tales. By J. M. (Pickering & Chatto.)-'The Princess Isola,' a fairy play for young players, is the first of the plays, and also the best. Though too long for its purpose, it is rather pretty, rather well written, and shows that J. M. has read part of Shakspeare. The remainder of the book calls for little notice. A 'Confession,' in double rhyming quatrains, allows the author to make the most of the bathetic opportunities in which this form of verse is so rich. Two of the tales, 'Through the Grave to Salvation' and 'Euphrosyne,' have some stylistic interest; they are intended to recall Poe's manner in 'The Cask of Amontillado'

or

'The Lady Ligeia.' An occasional happy epithet, here and there phrases that are harmonious, do not lessen our feeling that J. M. would do well to avoid this style. In the 'Rings,' in which a scion of the house of Merivale presents baubles to his affianced, and is parted from her for ever by a villain with a look of olden wickedness on his face, the author takes a less ambitious flight. We are too unfamiliar with the school to which it belongs, the school of Bow Bells and the Family Herald, to say if it is up to the average of its rivals.

MESSRS. WARNE & Co. have sent us a neat little pocket edition of Shakspeare's Works, twelve volumes in a cloth case. The type is clear-a thing not always considered in pocket editions and the red lines add to the appear ance of the pages. This edition, which is likely to be popular, is called "The Bedford."

We have received from Messrs. Virtue two more volumes of their reissue of Knight's Pictorial Shakspere the one containing the biography, the other the doubtful plays. Among the latter Knight included 'Titus Andronicus cus and 'Pericles,' as well as 'The Two Noble Kins

men.'

Jules Lemaître: Impressions de Théâtre. Première Série. Troisième Série. (Paris, Lecène & Oudin.)-Following the example set by Théophile Gautier and Jules Janin, and in later days by many other dramatic critics, M Jules Lemaître is reprinting in volume the feuilletons he has contributed to the Journal des Débats. He, however, classifies them under heads, "Molière," "A. Dumas fils," "Shakespeare," " Halévy," &c., instead of following the chronological order. Something may be urged in favour of both principles. His criticisms are erudite and sometimes brilliant. They are occasionally diffuse,

the fault of most work in which there is a necessity to fill a given space.

GYP has never written anything more amusing than her little revue, or Christmas pantomime, of Tout à l'Égout, as recently played at Paris by the marionettes, and now published by M. Calmann Lévy. The list of the personages represented on the stage is in itself humorous. The first and chief is Claude Larcher, which means, of course, M. Paul Bourget; then we have M. Floquet, General Boulanger, Moses, M. Henri Rochefort, Stendhal, Venus, France, and M. Drumont, who, of course, spends his time in hunting Moses. Gy Gyp has always shown a detestation of M. Bourget's work, and in the little skit before us she, as our grandfathers would have said, roasts that writer for his contributions to the Vie Parisienne, of which we spoke recently. Gyp's new volume is hardly so well suited to the British taste as 'Petit

Bleu.'

M. OCTAVE FEUILLET has never written anything better in style than the volume which has just reached us from M. Calmann Lévy, and which is called Le Divorce de Juliette, from the longer of two comedies which, with a little story about the Court of the Second Empire at Fontainebleau, make up this volume. The story is unimportant, but the comedies are pleasant reading of the lightest kind.

Bramatic Gossip.

THERE are few dramatic libraries more extensive than Mr. Mansfield Mackenzie's, which Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge are going to sell next month. Judging by the interest evinced by the public in the

sale of Mr. J. D. Stewart's collection last year, there should be some exciting contests in this sale, which will last eight days. Almost all the books appear from the catalogue to be in the finest condition and bound by the most eminent modern binders. Evidently Mr. Mackenzie had a correct fear and dislike of the paring knife, for most of the rarer volumes are described as "uncut." The lots under the heading of Cruikshank number 147, and comprise complete sets in the earliest states of many of his works, including the india-proof illustrations to 'Punch and Judy," "Fairy Library," Hood's 'Epping Hunt,' 'Sketches by Boz,' and 'Memoirs of Grimaldi, taken off on separate paper independently of the text. Dickens's works make 139 lots, and are all original editions. Thirty-nine lots, uniformly bound by Rivière, include all the Thackerays. The most remarkable series in the library is, perhaps, the set of Lever's works, which, with one exception, 'A Day's Ride,' comprises a copy of the first edition of every known writing of this novelist; all the volumes have the advertisements and original paper or cloth covers bound in with them-a great desideratum to presentday "first edition" collectors. One hundred and fifty volumes, divided into twenty-four lots, dispose of the playbills, which are mostly connected with Edinburgh, Covent Garden, and Drury Lane. The lives of actors and books connected with their fortunes are numerous, and mostly extra illustrated with engravings and drawings. The quantity of plays and dramatic poems is immense.

DR. C. CREIGHTON is going to contribute to the next number of Blackwood's Magazine a paper on the death of Falstaff in 'Henry V.,' in which he will try to show that Shakspeare was following Hippocrates as reproduced in the medical text-books of the time. In following up this line of argument Dr. Creighton falls foul of Theobald's famous emendation.

ALTHOUGH the name of Henrik Ibsen, the Norwegian poet and dramatist, is becoming widely known in England, no adequate attempt has as yet been made to present any of his dramas upon the English stage, and as it is not

'THE LOVE STORY,' a four-act drama by Mr. Pierre Leclercq, first produced in May last at an afternoon performance at the Strand, was revived on Monday afternoon at the Vaudeville, and given on the four following days. Miss Achurch and Mr. Charrington, who played the principal characters in the first production, resume those parts, and are responsible for the experiment. Miss Achurch played the heroine in effective style, and in one or two scenes exhibited her old, and, as it at one time seemed, forfeited, grace and sweetness. Mr. Charrington made the villain realistically repellent. Mr. Laurence Cautley replaced Mr. Fuller Mellish as the lover; and Mr. Frederick Thorne, Miss Dolores Drummond, and other actors took part in a fairly successful representation. Though weak in dialogue, improbable in story, and unsatisfactory in termination, 'The Love Story' displays displays ingenuity and offers good opportunity to an actress. It is, indeed, one of the pieces that are almost, but not quite, good enough to justify a management in producing them with a view to a run.

MR. THOMAS MEAD, who died in London on Sunday in his seventieth year, was long known as a stock actor at the transpontine ine theatres. He also played for some considerable time at Edinburgh. Mr. Irving engaged him for the Lyceum, of the company of which theatre he remained a member until his death. He belonged to an old-fashioned school. Mr. Mead is said to have adopted the theatrical profession in 1841; and 'The Coquette,' an adaptation from the French, in which Miss Amy Sedgwick appeared at the Haymarket, July 8th, 1867, is by him.

An adaptation, by Mr. Robert Buchanan, of 'Roger la Honte,' a five-act drama produced at the Ambigu-Comique in September last, will be given next autumn at the Haymarket by Mr. Beerbohm Tree, who will play in it a double part of the Dubosc and Lesurques type.

THIS day Mr. Toole revives for a limited number of afternoon representations Artful Cards, Mr. Burnand's adaptation of 'La Clé.'

MRS. LANGTRY is credited with an intention of appearing in London during the coming

season.

'THE ARMADA,' with the Drury Lane company, scenery, and effects, replaced on Monday the pantomime at the Grand Theatre.

'MASKS AND FACES' has been revived at the Haymarket for the afternoon performances. Mr. Tree, not unnaturally, finds two performances of Falstaff in one day too exhausting.

On July 7th and 8th, the twelve hundredth anniversary of the martyrdom of the apostle of the Eastern Franks, St. Kilian, a "Volksschauspiel" on a large scale is to be performed at Würzburg. The drama has been composed by the Bavarian Reichsarchivrath, Dr. Schäffler. There will be 275 performers and sixty musicians. The Neumünster, originally a Romanesque building, is supposed to be built upon the spot where the saint was killed.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.-W. A. G.-D. F. H.-H. L. R.F. H.-H. M.-received.

No notice can be taken of anonymous communications.

By J. MORAY BROWN, Author of 'Shikar Sketches.' With Illustrations by G. D. Giles and Edgar Giberne from Sketches by the Author.

Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d.

Thousand. Crown 8vo. 28. 6d.