... .3 SPORT is now such a well-worn subject that few can be found to say anything new about it. Still, if Miss Slaughter and her colleagues have not been able to throw any fresh light on the various subjects treated of, they have put forth a very readable book, and one which will please most women, inasmuch as it is by no means technical, in fact some of the writing is very free indeed. This, ...

... . By Vedette. IF it had not been for the enterprise of Mr. Gaston Mayer at the Royalty, I should not have had many new plays to write about lately, and unfortunately those that he gives me to discuss are decidedly out of the line of the London playgoer. There really seems to be only one subject for the popular Parisian playwright of to-day, who would feel his list of dramatis 'personal to be ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. BILBERRY OF TILBURY. I SHOULD like to be able to say something nice about Bilberry of Tilbury, if only because some writers appear to think that musical comedy-- so called-- ought to be a sort of monopoly in London. But although I cannot go all the way with those of my friends who have found scarcely anything to praise in the latest Criterion production, neither can I be ...

... . IT is impossible to do justice to this interesting book-- every article in which is worthy of special notice-- in the space at our disposal; but there is little in it to provoke criticism and much that deserves praise, and the latter is more susceptible of compression than the former. Mr. Elliot is to be congratulated on the successful accom plishment of what must have been though evidently ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. MR, SHERIDAN, AT THE GARRICK THEATRE. TO be satisfactory in every way, a piece about Sheridan ought to be written by another Sheridan, if-- which would be admittedly difficult-- another Sheridan could be found. I think that he would be found in Ireland if anywhere, for Sheridan was before all else Irish, both in his personal character and in his work for the stage. Those ...

... THE DKAMA. See also page 206.) Haymarket. EXCEPT as a modern fairy-story it is not very easy to classify Mr. W. J. Locke's new play, The Palace of Puck, which, in its methods, half-whimsical and half-serious, re calls the Engaged of Mr. W. S. Gilbert more nearly per haps than any other production of our day. Happily, however, classification is not necessary to enjoyment, and we may relish ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. BECKET. I SUPPOSE that I should bo committed for contempt forthwith were I to suggest that Becket, as wo have it at the Lyceum, is less a tragedy than a very mild melodrama. Still, I must venture to think that were we ignorant of Tennyson's share in it we should be disposed to regard it as the effort of some beginner in dramatic poetry deriving his inspiration from the ...

... . A very neat little plot is that devised by the collaborators who write as Richard-Henry for their new one-act piece now presented before The Bungalow at Toole's. This piece, which is called Adoption, is not exactly a farce and not exactly a burlesque, but may perhaps be most accurately classified as a comic domestic drama of the old-fashioned school enlivened by the humour of modern ...

... . AS usual, the subjects of sport aud drama have not appealed in any large number to the hanging committee, for we must assume that pictures on these most effective themes have been numerously painted. There is, indeed, a wonderful hunting picture, Casualties in the Hunting Field (1,004), surely one of the most wonderful ever seen! Mr. Sidney Cooper's age does not excuse him for sending this ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. ESTHER SANDRAZ. MRS. LANGTRY'S performance in the part of the heroine goes for everything in Esther Sandraz; and, indeed, so it ought to, for there is literally little except the leading character in the piece. I am not aware how far Mr. Grundy was master of the matter and manner of his adaptation. But, at all events, he has given the actress-manageress enough to say and ...

... . fillip would speedily effect a change. CONCERTS of any importance are still few and far between, and Mr. Arthur Chappell's Popular Concerts practically hold the field. On Monday night they were honoured with the presence of the Princess of Wales, who was attended by Lady de Grey and Miss Knollys. It would be well if a little more Royal patronage were possible for these Monday Pops, as the ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. PETER THE GREAT. HISTORY is only made to be falsified-- although it would not be well that every one should know it; for why should folk worry themselves about Fame-- which the first-coming literary aspirant is licensed to knock into a cocked hat? Mr. Laurence Irving is, I am sure, a most deserving young man; and when he has lived a little longer in the world will, I ...