... . A novel in three vols. By James Payn. Longmans, Green, and Co., 39, Paternoster- row, E.C. CONSIDERING how much Mr. Payn has written, there is remark able freshness in this, his latest book. The story is interesting, natural, and some of the incidents are actually new; the heroines-- for there are two-- win esteem and sympathy; indeed, one of them, Maria Barton, the sub-heroine, is really ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. HARD HIT. IT is all very well to be wise after the event-- to claim to have prognosticated an inevitable failure, or to add one's tributary brick to the laudatory pile erected over a secured success. A writer who has leisure to watch the course of events and nous to gauge the issue of paper before penning a criticism has a better opportunity of posing as a correct ...

... . THE continual increase in the number of amateur vocalists is likely to bring accessions to the list of our professional singers. The lastest accession is that of Mr. Charles Wade, who--after winning fame as an amateur tenor--has adopted the career of a professional vocalist, and on Tuesday last, at Prince's Hall, gave the second of three chamber concerts honoured by Royal patronage. It will ...

... PAVOY THEATRE. A NEW operetta, entitled The Carp, was successfully produced last Saturday at the Savoy Theatre, where it will for the present serve as a lever du rideau before The Mikado, which still draws large audiences. The operetta will henceforth commence at 7.30 p.m. and the opera at 8.30. The libretto of the operetta is written by Mr. F. Desprez, and sets forth a simple story in simple ...

... . At St. George's Hall, amongst the varied entertainments pro vided by Mies Minnie Bell, on Tuesday last, was a new operetta, entitled Keep your Places written by Mr. Robert Reece, and composed by Mr. G. B. Allen. Tbe libretto is founded on the ancient Scottish story of John Grumlie and His Wife, who for the space of an entire day changed places, the wife going on to the farm to hoe turnips, ...

... . As The Don, the piece by Mr. and Mrs. Merivale which was pro duced here on Wednesday, suits Mr. Toole and his company very well and amuses his audiences very much, there is little doubt that it will attract good houses for some time to come. To describe such a work, however, as a comedy-- for so the playbill has it-- is obviously incorrect. Moreover, if it is desirable that even in the ...

... . DURING the past month the weather has been of a nature to fully merit all that Sydney Smith said of our erratic climate, while it has, at the same time, served to form a bond of union between the votaries of nearly every sport and pastime. For three whole weeks have hounds been confined to kennel, and hunting men have been anxiously awaiting that telegram which should once more summon them ...

... -a x ew oratorio Dy an English composer can hardly fail to prove attractive, and a large audience assembled in St. James's Hall last week to hear the first public performance of JudUli, an oratorio in two parts, composed by Mr. Jacob Brad ford as the exercise indispensable to the obtaining of a Mus. Doc. degree at Oxford or Cambridge. Considered simply as an exercise, Judith althouglinot ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. THE MYSTERY OF A HANSOM CAB. THE man who de sires a good play should certainly have no hand in adapting his own novel. It is true that Mr. Fergus Hume, the author of The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, the story, called in Mr. Arthur Law to help him to produce the drama now played at the Princess's. But I fancy that had Mr. Hume left his share of the labour to some body else ...

... . THE change of programme at the Lyceum on Wednesday evening attracted a large audience in spite of the fact that no thing absolutely novel was put before the public. For our part we cannot but think it a pity that Mr. Irving did not see his way to a Shakespearian revival on his return; for the prettiness of The Amber Heart, and the picturesque melodrama of Robert Macaire, seem at best rather ...

... . IN spite of its uniform sombreness of tone and of certain inconsistencies in its modified characters, Mr. Wilson Barrett's adaptation of Mr. Hall Caine's novel The Deemster has many unquestionable dramatic merits. Its motives are pure and fine; several of its situations are powerful; its local colouring if quaint, is picturesque; its dialogue has the strength of directness and sincerity. ...

... SURREY THEATRE. The Surrey is 011c of the few theatres which this year pro duced any novelty for Whit Monday. The Surrey production is The Stowaway in which Mr. Tom Craven has furnished a fairly good specimen of the conventional transpontine melodrama. Space would fail us to set forth the complicated and, if the truth be told, somewhat improbable story of Tom Ingliss, the dissipated yet not ...