LITERARY, MUSICAL, & DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1250, 9 March 1878, Page 3

LITERARY, MUSICAL, & DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

(From English files.) Mr B. L. Karjeon delivered his first reading, in New York, at Steinway Hall, on December 13th, selecting "Blade of Crass" for his subject. Mr Alfred Dampier, an actor who about seven or eight years ago was a member of the company at the Manchester Theatre Royal, is starring at San Francisco. One of the papers says that "he is gifted with a fine stage presence, and a voice that is pleasant and effective, although somewhat marred by his pronounced English accent (!) —"S. and D. News."

Mr Sydney Hall has almost completed his painting for Her Majesty of the wedding of the Princess Louise. It probably will appear in the next exhibition of the Royal Academy. Captain Parker Gilhnore (Unique) has in the press a new work, entitled " The Great Thirst Land," containing an account of a ride through Natal, Orange Free States, Transvaal, and Kalahari, which will be published early in the new year by Messrs. Cassell, Petter, and Galpin. Mr Layard, Her Majesty's Ambassador at Constantinople, whose name is so closely connected with the Assyrian explorations, has found time, among his many and arduous duties, to rescue from the oblivion of battle-fields in Turkish Armenia, a series of most interesting antiquities. These have just arrived at the British Museum, and are found io be of very great interest, both from an artistic and a philological point of view.

The following resume of the London theatrical season is from the pen of the " Captious Critic" of the " Sporting and Dramatic News":—

Cramercy, let mc pause for a moment, and icileot. By'r lady, we are now i' the year of '7B. Twelve weaiy moons have passed since '77 first saw the light. This may not be an extraordinary fact, but it is a fact, nevertheless. And facts are usually respectable things, which a writer needs not be ashamed of stating in a simple unpretending manner, when his brilliant fancies are not thickcoming. '77, as a theatrical year, had many failings. Indeed, I am not at all certain but that it deserves to be considered a rather poor year in the annals of the stage. Its i pige in the history of " ancient Drury" is, to say the least of it, dreary. Andrew Halliday having gone to his rest, it was incumbent upon Mr Chatterton to find another author to furnish dialogue for a new "spectacular" drama The poetical W. G. Wills, whose ".lane Shore" has proved a remarkable success at the Princess's, seemed the most likely dramatist to lill the place of him who "discovered Sir Walter Scott." Mr Wills, however, contrived to "discover" so very more in. "Peveril of the Peak" than that romance contained, or than the requirements of spectacular drama demanded, that "England in the Days of Charles II." was only able to "drag its slo\v length along" for a few weeks, in, spite of many literary mwifcs, and much good acting. Tb,o ttJiUoot

very successful "Amyßobsart" had speedily to be revived in its place. And Halliday's practical stage-authorship proved, even at second hand, more satisfying to the palate of the playgoer than Wills's Elizabethan pentameters.

The Shaksperean drama in 77 was, everything considered, not unworthily represented by Mr Henry Irving's revival of "Richard III." at the Lyceum. But although Colley Cibber's time-honored version of that historical drama was utterly discarded, and the name of the clever Restoration play-wright held up to much gratuitous derision, there will still remain numerous practical students of the stage who are not convinced of the superiority of Mr Irving's edition of "Richard III." to Colley Cibber's. Shakspeare at the Lyceum, however, seemed to be growing slightly monotonous to the general public, so that Mr Irving found it advisable to return te those depths of gloomy melodrama, wherein he was first fortunate to enthral the imagination of Londcn audiences. The "Lyons Mail" appears to have been sufficiently successful to warrant its revival.

Melodrama has had a good innings in '77. Mr Wilkie Collins and Mr Charles Reade have been the chief expounders in this class of dramatic art. Their productions at the Lyceum and Olympic Theatres during the past year have been attended with more or less success. Rather less I think. Boucicault has been profusely revived at the Adelphi, and seems to be the only safe card to play in the doubtful game of theatrical management. Mr H. J. Byron at the Princess's underwent wholesale but not surprising condemnation, for his melodrama '• Guinea Gold." The piece notwithstanding, from occult causes, achieved a very decent 1 ' run." The vicissitudes of Mr Laboucher e's remarkable theatre in Long Acre have been too many and varied for me to summarise them. Haply, some of these days the public will take it into their heads to frequent the Queen's.

Mr Righton's campaign at the Globe appears to have been fortunate and successful. Its success may be attributed to the popularity of Mr Paul Merritt's " Stolen Kisses," a play which is full of telling dramatic qualities. At the Prince of AVales's and the Court Theatres, the two houses wherein modern comedy is represented in the most refined and finished manner our stage affords revived plays by Mr Tom Taylor have proved abundantly profitable. At the Court, the great event of the year has, of course, been the posthumous production of Lord Lytton's "House of Darnley." The prestige of the author's name naturally drew multitudes to see this play. The work in itself, however, is by no means an adequate successor to "Money." Burlesque has flourished most effectively at the Gaiety. At the Strand it holds its own with vigor. French opera-bouffc and water at the Alhambra, Royalty, and Polly have been of the accustomed pattern. " Our Boys" in its second childhood at the Vaudeville. At the Haymarket, Gilbert's "Engaged" proved an unique and brilliant tour-de-force. While the topmost peak of popularity has been attained by the " naughty" " Pink Dominos," out of which, not only in London, but throughout the entire kingdom, Mr Charles Wyndham has been reaping a golden harvest.