... J}, ins and Masters. A Story of School Life. By A. H. Gilkes, m A Master of Duiwion uoiiege. Lionaon Jjongmans, Green and Co. 1887. Mr Gilkes declares that he publishes his story with many o'eivings. He need not have felt any, for it is a very good mrv indeed. His boys act and talk like boys they are Unite natural and not at all priggish, which is precisely the verse of what one usually finds ...

... . THE Covent Garden repertory has been enlarged by the ad- dition of four operas. In La Sonnambula, Mlle. Ella Russell, as Amina, added another to her long list of successes. The music is perfectly suited to her beautiful voice, and she won enthusiastic applause in the opening solo, Come per me sereno, in the finale of Act 2, and still more notably in the finale of Act 3, in which she sang, ...

... . Lohengrin, was produced last week at Drury Lane, with complete success. A splendid mise en scène testified to the good taste and liberality of Mr. Augustus Harris, and the part of Lohengrin exhibited in the most favourable light the ad mirable qualities of M. Jean De Reszke; decidedly the best Lohengrin we have seen in London. His brother Edouard, as King Harry, showed how much may be made ...

... . At the Jubilee Festival Concert given at the Crystal Palace last week, Mme. Albani and Mr. Lloyd co-operated with a choir of 3,000 voices in the production of a Special Ode, written for the occasion by Mr. Joseph Bennett, and composed by Mr. A. C. Mackenzie. To both these gentlemen it does credit. The soprano solo, More than crown of monarch precious, sung by Mme. Albani, was warmly ...

... RICHTF.R. OONOF.RTS At the eighth Richter Concert, on Monday last, Mr. C. V. Stanford's Irish Symphony was heard for the first time in London, and met with a highly favourable reception, the com poser being twice recalled after the second movement, and again at the end of the symphony. The public evidently enjoyed the work, which is largely made up of Irish melodies, more or less familiar. The ...

... The Rcian of Queen Victoria a Surra/ of Fiftv V,.„ ..r Prog ran. Edited by Thomas Humphrey Ward, M.A. In Two Volumes. London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 15, Waterloo- nlace. 1887. THESE volumes are a fitting contribution to the literature of the Jubilee year, and Mr. Ward has performed his difficult duty with excellent judgment. He himself has undertaken and very efficiently carried out several of ...

... . Bv Sir W. G. Simpson. Bart. Edinburgh D .via Doue-las. 188 SEVERAL excellent books have lately been written about golf, a proof of the popularity of the royal and ancient game, but we have not come across a better than the present volume. That the author is an enthusiast goes without saying for two reasons: all golfers are enthusiasts, and one who writes a book about the game must be ...

... . We have this week had a surfeit of Italian opera in London, No other capital oity in the world has ever exhibited the re markable spectacle of three opera houses simultaneously occupied in the performance of Italian operas at the rate of seventeen per week. We are inclined to believe that this state of things is likely to prove injurious rather than beneficial to the best interests of ...

... . Mr. Mai'LESON resumed his operations at this theatre on Saturday last with a newly-engaged band of fifty performers, conducted by Signor Arditi, who was greeted with hearty cheering. The opera chosen for this occasion was Beethoven's Fidelia, and the title-character was admirably represented by Mile. Lillie Lehmann, whose fine impersonation of Isolde is remembered with pleasure by those who ...

... . A SINGULARLY feeble play was that tried at the Vaudeville on Monday afternoon under the title Cerstance Frere. Its authors, Messrs. Gough and Edwards, take for their motto Dryden's lines: W onmn's honour Is nice as ermine-- will noi bear a slain, and then proceed to besmirch tbeir heroine's reputation with a very big blot indeed, while they still demand for her the fympathy of their audience ...

... . WE should doubt whether M. Delpit's drama of the Com mune, Mademoiselle de Bressier, can be as good a play as it was reported to be by some of those who saw it at the Ambigu in Paris a few months ago. We are quite sure that Civil War, the adaptation by Mr. Herman Merivale, now produced at the Gaiety, is a very poor play indeed. Dull and prolix in dialogue, disjointed in action, and sketchy ...

... . Victor Hugo s Mart n de Lorme, hue drama though it is, has generally been recognised even by the hungriest of adapters as an impossible dish to cook for the palate of English playgoers. Thus Mr. Richard Davey's version, as produced on Tuesday afierroon at the Princess's, might fairly cl-itn attention for iis novelty and courage if for nothirg else. As a matter of fact, however, the bold ...