... CHRISTMAS ENTERTAINMENTS. DRURY LANE THEATRE. A TRULY magnificent pantomime is the one which Mr. Augustus Harris has this year presented at Drury Lane, nor is it easy to imagine any further development of the splendours of this form of stage production. Good taste, novelty of effect, and lavish expenditure have all at one time or another been employed upon the Christmas entertainments at this ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. BOXING NIGHT AT DRURY LANE. I NEVER sat in the gallery of Drury Lane Theatre. I had my opportunities of doing so five-and-twenty years ago, but I regret to say that I neglected to avail myself of them. Otherwise, I might perchance have risen to the proud distinction of hearing a banner on the classic boards erst trodden by the sandals of Macready and the wild beasts of Van ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIO. CO VENT GARDEN CIRQUERIES. A FEW days before the open ing of Covent Garden Theatre as a circus I happened to look in. I found matters in that transitional state so sweetly diverting to the disinterested spectator, and so intensely aggravating to all more directly concerned. Carpenters were busy in the erection of barriers and partitions. Up holsterers were unfurling and ...

... From Tost to Finish. A Novel. By Hawley Sir art. London Chapman and Hall, Limited. IT is the fashion of the day to give books titles which render it impossible to guess what they are about. The freak is rather senseless, and is naturally scorned by so straightforward a writer as Captain Hawley Smart. suggests a story of the turf, and that is precisely what it is. Need it be said that the ...

... . By George Dolby. London Published by T. Fisher Unwin. To all who have read the great novelist's works (it would hardly he worth while to recommend it to those who have not), this book, recording the history of his reading tours in the United Kingdom and America, will he found thoroughly enjoyable. Mr. Dolby says, in the preface, that he does not claim lor his book that it is an artistic ...

... MUSIC. HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE. THE Promenade Concerts now being given at Her Majesty's Theatre are conducted with considerable spirit, and the band-- amongst whom are several eminent instrumentalists-- now plays with the homogeneity which can only be acquired by combined to conciliate the lovers of classical music, or high class music of any kind. The management, in the exercise of its ...

... DRAMA. IMPERIAL THEATRE. ONCE more is fortune tempted at the theatre attached to the Royal Aquarium, Westminster, and tempted with success, if we may judge from the extent of the audience there on the occasion of our visit. Audiences are of course not to be tested by numbers alone, and it must be admitted that the crowds which filled every part of the house hardly bore the aspect of paying ...

... Peter Penniless. Gamckccvcr and Gentleman. . By G. Christopher Davies, Author of Norfolk Broads, Sea. With original Davies, Author of Norfolk Broads, &c. With original Illustrations. London Erederiek Warne and Co., Bedford- street, Strand. This is described as A Book for Boys, and all hoys who know anything or care anything for country sport will read it with pleasure and satisfaction. Our ...

... . There is little of musical interest taking place just now in the metropolis. During the past week we have had the Monday Popular Concert at St. James's Hall the Popular Ballad Concert Committee's Concert at the Bermondsey Town Hall the Creation performed at the Albert Hall by the R. A. PI. Choral Society, on Wednesday last and Mr. John Boosey's London Ballad Concert on the same evening at St ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. RULE BRITANNIA. I FELT a great many more years younger than I now care to acknowledge as I watched the progress of Mr. Frederick Bowyer's pantomime, entitled King Kookoo; or, Harleyquin Bonbon and the Golden Serpent, at the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton. For there before me were all the hearty fun, the rough-and- tumble drolleries, the lavish dis tribution of kicks and cuffs ...

... . Leaves from the Life of a Special Correspondent. By John AUGUSTUS O'SHEA. London: Ward and Downey. 1885. THE life of a special correspondent must almost of necessity be interesting. He must be able to write with a certain amount of graphic force, or he would not be a special, and the nature of his duties oblige him to meet famous men in odd places. In addition to other good qualities, Mr. ...

... KOYALTY THEATEE. THERE can be no doubt that in Le Maître de Forges of M. Ohnet M. Mayer has played the trump card of his enterprising season at the Royalty. The drama itself has easily recognisable features of popularity, and although we confess that to our taste its great scene at the end of the second act still lacks delicacy of motive, it is certain that in the French original Claire de ...