... . WE rear tnat Jur. bmne will not do very much good with Blue Ribbons, the farcical comedy by Messrs. Walter Browne and J. E. Soden, tried by him at a recent Gaiety matinee. The piece has one very funny character, that of the proprietor of a temperance paper, The Blue Ribbon Banner, Mr. Drinkwater Dewlap, a gentleman forced by the drift of circumstances to figure as a waiter in a Putney public ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIO. NORDISA AT DRURY LANE THEATRE. THE due criticism of a new opera is, I have every reason to believe, a work requiring time, thought, and care. The writer of it should be in a position both to estimate and to recall. He should be able to Bet about his task analytically and re flectively, to weigh the merits of every number, and gauge the strength of every bit of composition ...

... The Badminton library. Cycling. By Viscount Bury, K.C.M.G., and G. Lacy Hilliei:. With Numerous Illustra tions by Viscount Bury and Joseph Pennell. London Longman?, Green and Co 1887. IN the whole history of sports perhaps none has been taken up so rapidly and widely as cycling. How it happens that the popularity of the sport grew so suddenly we cannot ex plain, even after reading the full ...

... REVIEWS. Charles Reade Dramatist, Novelist, Journalist. A Memoir. Compiled chiefly from his Literary Remains. By Charles L. Reade and the Rev. Compton Reade. London Chap man and Hall (Limited). 1887. IMPARTIAL biography is almost unknown. As a rule memoirs are written by friends or relatives of the personage under dis- cussion, and their views are powerfully biassed. The man has been a great ...

... . Among the Colonels and Cowboys. Narrative of a journey across the Prairie and over the Black Hills of Dakota. By WILLIAM CONN. London: Griffith, Farran, Okeden, and Walsh, St. Paul's Churchyard. 1887. A book in which cowboys are prominent personages comes aonositely at the present time, when Buffalo Bill and his attendants are to the fore, and so many people have either seen the personages ...

... . COVENT GARDEN, THEATRE newly furnished and renovated at great expense, presented a cheerful aspect on Tuesday last, when a large audience assembled to witness the opening per formance of the season. For this occasion Donizetti's master piece, La Favorita, was chosen, and the cast was in almost all respects a strong one. In the character of Fernando a triumphant rentrée was made by Signor ...

... . UNDER the joint management of MM. Carl Rosa and Augustus Harris, Drury Lane Theatre reopened last Saturday, when the English opera season commenced with a performance of Carmen, conducted by Mr. Rosa, who was enthusiastically applauded when he entered the orchestra, and at the close of the opera. The fine quality and numerical strength of the chorus were evidenced in the National Anthem, ...

... . THE English Comedy Company began its season at the Strand Theatre on Monday last with a satisfactory per formance of a very interesting play. We are not quite sure whether, as a matter of fact, London playgoers have not of late had a little more old comedy than they want; and this may perhaps prevent Messrs. Conway and Farren from obtain ing the full encouragement that they deserve. But ...

... AMARYLLIS AT THE FAIR (1 vol.: Sampson Low and Co.), is one of those idyllic pictures of country life with which its author, Mr. Richard Jefferies, of The Gamekeeper At Home, has become identified ...

... OUT OF TUNE, by Lewis Armytage (2 vols.: Swan Son nenschein), deals with the life of a wonderful violinist, named Romanelli, who, we are told in the preface, is the prototype of Paganini. We shoul ...

... GREAT interest is felt in Mr. Irving's appearance in Macready's famous part of Werner, at the LYCEUM, on Wednesday afternoon next. Lord Byron's tragedy has no very remarkable elements of popularity, a ...

... ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.-- Signor Lago opened Covent Garden for the season on Tuesday night with La Favorita, Signor Gayarre once more playing Fernando. The Leonora was a new comer, Mdlle. Medea Mei, a la ...