MISCELLANEOUS.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1557, 14 February 1879, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

Major White-Melville, a few days before his death, placed in the hands of his publishers, Messrs. Chapman and Hall, the manuscript of a three-volume novel. Sir Arthur Gordon, Governor of the Fiji Islands, who is now at home on leave, is said to have in preparation a work on Western Australia. The appearance of a new work by M. Gustave Dor6 is an event in art, says the “Times,”and adds that Messrs. Hatchette have published a splendid edition in 650 pages, of the “Orlando Furioso,” translated by M. du Pays, with over 500 illustrations by M. DorA Ariosto could not have wished for a worthier interpreter, and one rises from the contemplation of the pictures with a feeling of having been coursing over the grandest and strangest landscapes peopled by beings such as the ardent imagination of Ariosto alone could conceive. This work would have been enough to save Gustave Dor6 from oblivion, if his preceding productions did not protect him from the indifference of contemporaries and posterity. The list of aristocratic composers is likely, the “Era” says, to be shortly increased by the name of the Earl of Dunmore, who has composed a four-act Italian opera, which he intends to submit to Mr Mapleaon. Mr W. H. Payne, the head of the wellknown family of pantomimisis of that name, died at Dover recently after a long illness. The following English artists, architects, and sculptors, whose works appeared at the Paris Exhibition, have received decorations : —Mr Millais, Sir F. Leighton, vi r Barry, Mr Alma Tadema, and Mr Gilbert Redgrave have been appointed officers ; and Sir John Gilbert, Mr P. H. Caledon, Mr J. Arnoux, Mr W. P. Frith, Mr J Collier, Mr Carl Haag, Mr Street, and Count d’Epinay have been appointed Knights of the Legion of Honour.

Professor A. W. Ward has undertaken to write on haucer, and Mr Henry James, jun., on Hawthorne for Messrs. Macmillan and Co. ’s series of “English Men of Letters,” edited by Mr John Money. Mr George Henry Lewes has, it is stated, left a considerable mass of MSS., including the remainder of his work on theology and its philosophical relations. It is also said that a new and full edition of his works will shortly appear. The following particulars of the death of Bobert Heller, the celebrated magician, are clipped from an English theatrical paper ; The many who we-e delighted and puzzled by the extraordinary feats of Bobert Heller, the “ magician,” will regret to learn that he died at Philadelphia on the 27th November. Mr Heller had arrived at the Quaker City on the previous Saturday to fulfil a winter’s engagement there. On Monday, November 25th, he was taken ill while performing, but persisted in finishing his programme. By the next morning his indisposition had developed into an attack of congestion of the lungs. Danger was not at first apprehended, bnt the symptoms quickly became more severe, and on Wednesday night he died. Mr Heller, who was in the prime of life, was one of the most cultured and skilful members of his peculiar profession. According to a New York paper, he has left—principally to his wife and three children, now in Paris—a fortune of between £60,000 and £70,000. By the death of Mr Alfred Wigan the contemporary drama loses another link which bound it to the past. As a stage Frenchman Mr Wigan was, in his time, without a rival. Whatever may be said of the old versus the new school of tragedy, it must be confessed that our actors of polite comedy have not improved upon such men as Charles Mathews, Montague, and Alfred Wigan, A curious coincidence has happened in operatic affairs. The representative in London of Mr Ernest Gye-now practically lirector of the Royal Italian Opera—is Mr r erbtrt Gye, who was formerly in the Royal -wy. The actual representative in London °Mr Mapleson, director of Her Majesty’s is Mr Armit, who was also formerly ln le Royal Navy, The burden of the old aoa iia therefore reversed, and the waves “ow ule Britannia. Mr Sugden, the actor, it is stated, has marrieL the lady who, through a mutual understating with him, forfeited her claim to the tiri of Countess.

This remarkable escape is noticed in an English provincial paper:—“Miss De Pussie, the celebrated actress, narrowly escaped being one of the victims of the Princess Alice disaster. She escaped by being at Glasgow at the time. Had she been in London, and gone on the excursion, the probabilities are that she would have found a watery grave.” (N.B.—This is not an advertisement.)

The following letter, wliicli is printed verbatim (says a writer in the “Spectator”) was received at the office of this paper recently—“ A Challenge ! Sir,—Thinking that coming dramatists have been sacrificed long enough by present theatrical authors, managers, and critics, who have systematically refused to even look at their creations, but have meanly sold them for waste paper, thus realising a clear profit of which the coming dramatist got nothing, and to show that the coming dramatists do possess real talent, I hereby issue the following challenge —A coming dramatist will write a burlesque or drama against any author breathing for any amount he likes to put down, each to be the bearer of his own expenses, and to choose three gentlemen of the press aside. ‘ Lorgnette,' of the * Sportsman,’ to be stakeholder and appoint a referee. On intimation that the above challenge has been accepted, I will forward a deposit to be covered. First come first served.—Yours, A Coming Dramatist. N.B. —American papers please copy.” For my own part, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to assist as stakeholder at such an intellectual “mill.” I may, however, observe that the proposition is not altogether without pre edent. I am informed that a lady of American extraction, not altogether unknown upon our stage, wishing to become the possessor of a drama containing a strong leading part for herself, seriously suggested that a few of our most celebrated playwrights should enter into a dramatic competition, she very kindly undertaking to become the purchaser of the prize play. The gentlemen whose names were proposed as probable competitors did not, however, fall in with the lady’s views, and she is, to the best of my knowledge, still a playless female. In “ Oberon” Mr Armit has chosen a party of twenty Fairies. Their united ages are 1123 years. I leave it to those well versed in theatrical arithmetic to find out what the average age of that wondrous bevy of fairies can be. The Abbe Lebaize, who recently started on a Government mission of exploration in Africa, has 400 negroes with him. Ho is the only white, and this, he says, increases his authority over men of color, whereas the Belgian mission had three whites and the Algerian had ten. He is confident of crossing Africa.