... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. THE SECOND IN COMMAND. THE Haymarket is crowded even at the mutinies, at which, of course, the lady professional is, as usual, inconsiderable force. I regret to have to record that, as a rule, she shows the same ill-breeding as the professional lady, who per sists in wearing a monster hat, in order that the pleasure of other people may be spoilt. As it is with these ...

... DRAMA OF THE WEEK. THE RING MISTRESS. AFTER a trial performance at the Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne, Mr. Robert Ganthony's new three-act farcical comedy, The Ring Mistress, was brought to London on the 20th inst. for the commencement of a series of holiday matinées, under the direction of the popular Miss Kate Phillips, at the Lyric Theatre, where it had a cordial reception by a large ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. THE LONDON HIPPODROME. COMPARED with past combinations of the circus and the theatre the Hippodrome is quite a revelation. Even Astley's --most famous of its predecessors-- seemed unable ever thoroughly to master the difficulties, and to utilise the advantages, of making, the arena do harmonious duty with the stage. How this can be done, and well done, we see in the ...

... . TERRY'S THEATRE was reopened on Tuesday evening under the management of Mr. E. H. Bull. The fortunes of the house have not been too brilliant of late, and we fear that success is not likely to be restored by the new and original musical extravaganza in two acts, written by W. H. Risque, furnished with music by Edward Jones, and called The Thirty Thieves. The Thirty are a very fine lot of ...

... DRAMA OF Til 10 YEAR. IT has just been discovered Hint the money lost in theatrical business during the last twenty years would have more than paid the cost of the original Army Corps sent out to South Africa in November, 1899. The discovery is not a very important one, for it might with equal truth he said that the sum lost in a score or so of other different enterprises would have covered ...

... London, January 2nd, 1901. 'The influence of the Christmas holidays is not con- ducive to much desultory reading, but during the week or so I have read the following A Thorough-bf.ed Mongrel. By Stephen Townesend. T Fisher Unwin The Silver Fox. By Martin Ross and E. (E. Soraerville. Long mans The Three Friends a Story of Rugby in the Forties. By A. G. Butler. Oxford University Press.) Mrs. ...

... DRAMA OF THE WEEK. THE TAMING OE THE SHREW. SHAKESPEARE and Mr. E. R. Benson, now generally recognised as the Shakespearean enthusiast, have both been badly mauled by critical pens since the revival, on the 2nd inst., at the Comedy Theatre, of The Taming of the Shrew. The poet-dramatist has been taken to task by the superior person for writing a piece so extravagant in its farcical humour, ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. SLEEPING BEAUTY AND THE BEAST' I TRIED to see the Drury Lane pantomime on an after noon-- and was only partially successful. The ladies' hats were again too much for me as regards the view to the front. It was impossible to get an idea of the dancers, and even the singers were difficult to keep under observation, except in the upper notes. Fortunately for themselves there ...

... London, January gth, 1901. We have been reminded once or twice of late that we are no longer entitled to use the term fin de siècle. I am tempted, however, to use the expression once again as applicable to the two books which apparently enjoyed the largest share of popularity in the closing week of the old year:-- An Englishwoman's Love Letters. {John Murray.) 1 The Visits of Elizabeth. By ...

... THE LIBRARY. OUR BIRD FRIENDS' THE thanks of all bird-loving folk ate title to Mr. Richard Kearton for his contributions to ornithological literature, and of the many charming books which he has produced, his latest is one of the best. His brother, Mr. C. Kearton, contributes no less than one hundred photo-illustrations to Our Bird Friends, and these are all very beautiful. By the courtesy ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. KING HENRY THE FIFTH. King Henry the Fifth is a panorama with a lecturer in front. There is so little dramatic interest in the play as it is told that, if it must he acted at all, it ought to be especially well acted, which is impossible until our knowledge of Shakespeare comes back. I do not like, after the compliments which the performance has re ceived from the ...

... . DURING the past few years very many books have been written on all that appertains to golf, but I venture to think that to none of them belongs quite the same interest-- mournful though it be-- as to that of F. G. Tait: A Record.¹ There are indeed two classes of readers to whom this book will specially appeal: those to whom Mr. Tait was known personally, and those to whom he was merely ...