when he exhibits his pearl-like teeth and frets his eyelids as though they were pursued black butterflies. But the handkerchief!-the square piece of lace is as necessary a furniture as the hand that flaunts it; for, as he himself will explain, it is the ornament of gentlewomen. Tarry awhile, you must hear him speak!-what a delicious tenor! you will exclaim. When he sings it is like listening to a dying swan; but when he speaks of rescuing his beloved Florizel from the clutches of the saucy brute that demands gold for her, one feels certain that all this will be accomplished by proxy. When he leaves the stage he is the one individual that is permitted to pose before the cheval glass in the green-room. He is fondled by soft palms and breathes sachet.

Why the tenors of our operas are creatures so brittle in substance and so effeminate in activity will, it is presumed, remain forever unsolved to those of us who have not perused the Banquet of Plato. Nor is the strange guise absent from the dramatic stage, where I have seen him portray Romes in true Venetian etiquette. Better to have baritones, would it be, than to encourage this mockery of womanhood and the attempt at manliness.

**

THE Doll of Nuremburg," or "Ardriell," as it has been retitled, was a charining operetta in one act when I saw it two years ago at Chickering Hall, as produced by Prof. Tetedoux; but with its present inefficient cast and its general ensemble, any amount of buffoonery and expense would be wasted. A number of the best songs have been, evidently, cut out to leave a vacuum for marches and choral arrangements that seem to have no other motif than that of rendering the composer's name still more oblivious.

Silk fleshings and tin helmets will never cons'itute the success of a comic opera, however adapted, and well, they may be to burlesque and extravaganza. Much space to a criticism would be a sin in literas.

Louise Paullin was the vital pivot of the performance.

EVERY musical composition has its similar

ity somewhere. This being so, one cannot expect wondrous scores from modern originators unless as followers of Wagner. Here I wish to recall what was said by a member of the

Nineteenth Century Club a short time ago: "The Godhead of Music is in Bach the Father, Beethoven the Son, and Mendelssohn the Holy Ghost."

*

**

THE modern composer is very much like the designer he is ever awaiting the forthcoming productions of his fellow men that he may be assured of the different sources of their spoils as in contradistinction to his own. The posthumous works of operatic composers are destined to be voluminous; but it is the same for those of literary masters, Hugh Conway's as an example.

THE most impudent plagiarist is the dramatist. Few of us would think of reading a story by Page and another by Warner for two of the grossest evidences of dramatic plagiarism as were ever manifest; it is incontrovertible, nevertheless, this fact.

Bronson Howard may be spoken of as a dramatist whose both literary and theatrical efforts are unparalleled in the reality with which they represent the ethics of society, at no detriment to the art itself; in the comic portions of the dénouement, never admitting the influence of absurd incident, which to the imagination of the unrefined cynic of a world in which he has never so much as drunk a cup of coffee, seems ever to present itself as likely a factor in the higher as in the lower stratum.

Steele Mackaye is another upon whose shoulders the garb of plagiarism sets unfittingly. He feeds on opposites. Two organs moving at the same time must move in opposite directions. The physical, not the street, organ is here referred to. Steele Mackaye could no more set his mind on doing something which somebody else has done than—

believe there was anything in the way of physical accomplishment he could not do, and I believed him again. He is constantly thinking of something he'd like to do and practicing it. His mode of living is very strict: a bath, breakfast, two hours' work, another bath, then lunch. His afternoon is passed in attending to his correspondence in several languages, for he is one of the proprietors of the Reichstag Theatre in Berlin. Then a dinner with a glass of water and claret and a cigarette, his first extravagance of the day. After the performance a social chat somewhere, and to bed at midnight. Cinquevalli began to show his hand, and leg for that matter, when he was about seven years old. He is a Pole by birth, and used to distract his good mother by smashing eggs and glasses in his attempts at juggling. When he was barely in his 'teens he won a prize for amateur wrestling. Then he ran away and joined a circus like all boys want to do at that period of their lives. After a number of years of hard work and adventure he appeared as a star and caused a furore in Paris, where he exhibited for two consecutive years. Afterwards, in London, he was taken up by the foremost people, gave private performances before Royalty, was carricatured in Punch, and was the object of all kinds of admiring verse. Cinquevalli sailed for home last week, and in the fall will make his re-appearance in New York. Fileur.

actress like Mrs. Bowers sufficient opportunity to work up to any strong situation. She was simply a silent object through the play. What she did do was well done. Mr. Bangs acted well enough, but had about as much the appearance of a retired gentleman of wealth as a waiter in Delmonico's looks like the Honorable Daniel Dougherty. He slouched through the part and dressed it in the same manner. In fact, the whole cast of men, offended by Prince Albert coats, which are always vulgar and ungraceful when allowed to hang open as they were on this occasion. However, this is not criticism of the piece.

Had Jeanne Fortier" been produced by Mr. Palmer in the roseate days of the famous Union Square Theatre Company, under Cazauran's supervision it would have made a hit quite as instantaneous as the bullet flies. It is a story of crime in which the suspense, escape, and human agony is as intense, ingenious, and terrible as the construction of "The Two Orphans." In its present presentation the superficial critic will contradict me, and I will admit that it contains a number of absurd and unskillful patches. But the working possibilities are there, and if it were played with ease, judgment and care, the drama would hardly be recognized. Yet, it was pretty well done, considering old scenery, bad lighting and a snap" company.

There is money to be made with the play if properly pushed and handled. It is not a star piece for Mrs. Bowers, but it is infinitely superior to such as "The Silver King," which has made a fortune for its owners. If Miss Soldene, who furnished this dramatization of Dornay's piece, will find a good stage colaborator and make certain changes in the second and third acts, and suppress some of the unnecessary adjunctory business, and then cast the drama with great care, it ought to find plenty of "dates" for next season. There is certainly a great deal of valuable and effective material in "Jeanne Fortier," and I was surprised by the flippant and thoughtless reviews" in the next day's papers. It seems to me that the critic ought to constitute himself a popular audience and look through different spectacles; his own have become unreliable because his judgment is affected by his philosophy being too delicately attuned. There are some musicians whose auricular organs are so sensitive that they are constantly being offended by

musical performances that delight the other 999 auditors.

In act fourth there are two splendid incidents-the scene between the three men in the lawyer's office, and the melo-dramatic, pantomimic suspense in the street scene. This latter is singularly "Frenchy" and interesting. Fileur.

ENGLISH OPERA.

'HE season of English opera given by Mr. James W. Morrissey's company at the Grand Opera House promises to be very successful, the performances during the past week, when "Martha" was the attraction, having been greeted with crowded houses.

It really seems as though in a city like New York there ought to be an opera house devoted to the production of those works which occupy a place midway between opera comique and the music-drama of Wagner. This idea has occurred to many, and it will strike one still more forcibly after he has attended the performances of the company at the "Grand," where a pleasing repertory has been prepared. In addition to " Martha," the management intend to give "The Bohemian Girl," "The Chimes of Normandy," " Carmen," and "Maritana."

The cast includes Mme. Pauline L'Allemand, Miss Nina Bertini, Miss Athalie Claire, Mr. Frank Baxter, Mr. W. Maine, and others. A good sized chorus and excellent orchestrathough of moderate proportions-are well conducted by Mr. Paul Sterndorff. It is rumored that the orchestra is going to be thinned out, something which ought to be avoided if possible. A large theatre like the Grand Opera House should have a corps of musicians larger rather than smaller than that of the Casino or "Palmer's," while still further reduction of this number will produce a thinness which will be perceptible to the mass and will have its effect, flagging interest in the performances.

Edgar S. Kelley.

MR. IRVING'S "MACBETH." THE THEATRE published in its issue of June 1st a very good portrait of Mr. Irving in the character of Macbeth. On another page the engraving of Miss Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth will be found equally interesting. Mr.

Irving first appeared before a London audience as Macbeth, September 18th, 1875. His manager was then the late Mr. Bateman, whose daughter, Mrs. Crowe, played Lady Macbeth. Critics differed over the new reading given, and generally it was freely expressed by them that, though Mr. Irving's Macbeth might probably not be accepted as the Macbeth of Shakespeare, it was nevertheless a highly intellectual, picturesque rendering, that had many sound attractions for the playgoer. Since then Mr. Irving has but slightly altered his conception and performance of Macbeth. He presents little of the savage grandeur of the general's nature, whose prowess in the battlefield is so well described by the Bleeding Sergeant in the first act of the play; he rather prefers to paint Macbeth as restless and cunning-natured, eager to attain great ends, yet a coward at heart, and incapable of sustaining his ambition without the stimulus of the witches, prophecies and the urging of his wife. Mr. Irving is at his best in the murder scene, in that with the doctor, and the last scene of all. In the first-named his action is full of force and intensity. He depicts an indescribable terror that is fascinating by reason of its very repulsiveness. Mr. Irving's delivery of the beautiful lines addressed to the doctor in the second scene, commencing, "Can'st thou not minister to a mind diseased," is his best elocutionary effort, while in the final act the faltering of Macbeth is well portrayed by Mr. Irving in the fight with Macduff, and his last impotent effort to kill his adversary by hurling his dagger at him is a fine finish to a performance that throughout gives the thinking ample food for reflection.

Regarding Miss Terry's Lady Macbeth there is a vast difference of opinion. Those who know this sweet woman's characteristics will understand that she can no more cover up her personality than you could disguise a rose as a black thorn. Miss Terry has based her entire reading of the character upon the supposition that Macbeth is loved by his wife, that all her evil promptings are but the outcome of her loving thought for his future. She, however, causes us to wonder whether such a loving. tender wife as she makes the character, so graceful, poetical, could invoke the aid of the spirits to unsex her, to fill her with direst cruelty, and "stop up the access and passage to remorse.' Could such a woman laugh and jeer at her

husband's fears after the murder is done? Could she take the daggers from his hands and carefully smear the faces of the grooms with the dripping blood?

In the sleepwalking scene she looks like a beautiful picture, the conception of a poetic mind. But her pure white clinging garments and pain-strained face call for admiration rather than pity and awe. Mr. Irving and Miss Terry may not win all playgoers to their way of thinking in this grand production, but their new reading of two of the most complex of Shakespeare's characters have given rise to much learned and, it is to be hoped, useful controversy.

THE DRAMATIC FUND. THE commemorative meeting of the officers

and members of The Dramatic Fund was held at Palmer's Theatre on Tuesday afternoon, June 4th. An excellent orchestra, under the direction of Herr Nowak occupied the rear of the stage. Mr. A. M. Palmer was the president upon the occasion, and Messrs. Chauncey M. Depew, Daniel Dougherty and William Winter were conspicuous among a number of other invited guests.

The programme commenced with the overture to William Tell, which was followed by Mr. A. M. Palmer's annual address. The President, in complimenting the Fund upon its growth in members and popularity, contrasted it favorably with the first meeting of the Fund held in the same house, which he said was exceedingly small in numbers, "brief in its proceedings, uninteresting, and very discouraging." He congratulated the Society upon its financial success and its wide usefulness in the dispensing of its charity. He then said that the totality of the work of the Fund since its foundation can hardly be summarized in figures, but so far as they go they show that there has been expended for relief, burials, medicines and hospital charges during the past seven years the sum of $111,209.70, or an average of $15,887.10 for each year. In the same number of years there has been paid into the Fund the sum of $173,723.22, or an average of $24,817.60 for each year.

All of this money, with the exception of about $25,000 appropriated to the Fund's use by the city authorities from the theatrical license moneys, has been raised by the direct

efforts of the members of the profession, some of it by contributions, but most of it through benefits. In these seven years the Fund has afforded relief to 1833 sick and indigent persons and has given burial to 390. The Secretary's report for the year just closed shows that the number of persons to whom relief has been furnished is 324. This is an increase in the number of beneficiaries over last year of fortyeight and is largely in excess of any previous year.

He then spoke briefly of the objects of the Fund, and also referred to the generous and earnest efforts of the medical staff who give their services to the professional members, and remarked that the number of physicians in the service of the Fund has increased to seventeen. Nine of them are located in New York and Brooklyn, Dr. Robert Taylor being the Physician in Chief. The others are located in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, Philadelphia, Jersey City, Baltimore and Pittsburg.

The library of the Fund, he said, at their rooms, which is still situated at 145 Fifth Ave., contains some 306 volumes, all of which have been donated, together with pictures, prints, photographs and busts of distinguished actors, among which is an excellent bust of one of America's best beloved-E. L. Davenport. then referred to the Dramatic Bureau, and spoke of its successful operation, and thought that it would become eventually to be a "great help to individual actors."

He

The report of the Treasurer shows a total of receipts (including last year's balance) of $44,366.93, which is considerably in excess of any previous, and a total of expenditures of $21,638.59. The entire amount in our Treasury, including invested funds, is $57,988.34, the largest sum we have ever been able to report. One of the gratifying features of the Treasurer's report is the amount of money received from Life and Annual memberships-$3,964-a sum which is nearly $1,200 in excess of any previous year's receipts from the same source. Five honorary members (the full number allowed by the constitution) have been elected this year: Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, Hon. Chauncey M. Depew, Hon. Robert G. Ingersoll, Hon. Daniel Dougherty and Mr. William Winter.

There has been received during the year one important donation-$200-from Mr. A. E Terry, and one legacy for a like amount from