ART, LITERARY, AND DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1750, 29 September 1879, Page 3

ART, LITERARY, AND DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

[Prom English Piles.] Messrs. Ohatto and Windus will publish immediately in one volume a new copyright story of Californian life, by Bret Harte, entitled “ The Twins of the Mountain.” Maolise’s picture of “ The Marriage of Strongbow," which was recently sold for the third time by auction at the rooms of Messrs. Christie for £750, was purchased by a distinguished patron of the arts, and has been presented to the National Gallery of Ireland, Major Serpa Pinto’s account of his recent extraordinary journey across Africa is, says the “ Athenaeum," now being rapidly prepared for the press. Arrangements are being made for simultaneous publication in English, Portuguese, French, and German. The work will be ready for publication before Christmas, and will be issued by Messrs. Sampson, Low. Marston, and Co, A phenomenon (says the “ Figaro ”), said to come from America, and named Miss Theresa Patchwork, has arrived in Paris. The name suggests the silly season, but as M. Leon Bscudier, lately director of the Paris Italian Opera, has given in his paper, “ L’Art Musical,” the news the credit of his sanction, it will be courteous to presume there is at least something in it. Mias Patchwork has three pairs of arms and two pairs of legs, and she can play both the piano and the violin. I recommend this monstrosity to some enterprising showman. He might be able to get a quartet out of this extraordinarily malformed individual, she playing the piano with one pair of hands, violin and viola with the remaining two pairs, and violoncello with her toes, reserving the other pair of legs to keep her equilibrium. Hr Alma Tadema, says the “Academy,” has just finished an important picture, entitled “ The Invocation of Ceres,” It illustrates that charming custom amongst the ancient Italians which Virgil describes in a famons passage of his first Eclogue. The cornfields in the background are still green, and the priestesses of Ceres leave their temple to celebrate in the meadows the opening of summer. Their irregular procession hastens down a hollow, deeply starred with anemones; in the immediate foreground two girls, the one fair and garlanded with white flowers, the other dark and crowned with purple flowers, have gained a slight eminence, and pause to strike their uplifted tambourines. Behind them their sisters rush, breathless but shouting, with flowing garments and outspread arms; a male figure to the right advances with a silver amphora of wine.

The Comedie Feangaise in London, — Mr Hollingahead writes to the 44 Times” : “ As a number of small and irresponsible French journalists—the camp followers of the Comedie Franoaise—are very likely to publish exaggerated estimates of the receipts of the Gaiety Theatre during the French season, it may be as well to anticipate such estimates by giving the exact figures. The forty-two performances yielded a sum of £ i 9,805 14s 6d. The thirty-six night representations produced an average of £470 for each representation, and the six matinees produced a similar average of £466, the general average for the forty-two representations being £472. The largest ‘ house ’ was £571, when • Hernani ’ was played, and the smallest £349, when ‘ Tartufe ’ and ‘La Joie Fait Peur’ were played. The 4 Sphinx ’ —much abused by the Press—was played three times to an average of £532 each representation. If this is considered a sign of the degradation of public taste, it may comfort many people to know that the performances of ‘L’Avare’ and the ‘Femmes Savantee,’ supported in each case by ‘ L’Etincelle,’ produced respectively £471 and £479, although they contained no 1 star ’ performer and no sensational scene. It is a curious fact that 1 L’Ami Fritz ’—the anti-Malthusion drama, so liberally supplied with real food, a real cherry tree, a real pump with real water, and all the flesh-pots of the theatrical Egypt—should have produced nearly as much in one representation as it produced in one week at the Gaiety Theatre in 1877, the chief character in each case having been represented by the same actor. This is a proof, if any is needed, that the prestige of the Comedie Francaise as the * troupe d’ensemble’ is worth nothing after all.” “My Lady Green-Sleeves,” a three volume novel, by Miss Helen Mathers, author of “ Cornin’ thro the Bye,” “ Cherry Eipe,” See., will very shortly be published by Messrs Sampson Low and Co.

Mr Baseam has brought over for the British Museum one of the finest pieces of Assyrian workmanship in terracotta ever seen. It represents the figure of a man in the act of attacking a lion. M. Charles Monselet has discovered in the shop of a Paris bookseller forty-five manuscript volumes—quite modern —written in utterly unknown characters. An assembly of savants having been convoked to pass an opinion on the hieroglyphics, declared that they were quite beyond their ken. Several pages are framed by borders executed with the pen in the most marvellously delicate style, flowers, animals, heraldic shields, angels, landscapes, ruins, &c. Meissonier (says the “ Whitehall Review”! is preparing a graceful gift for the Empress Eugenie—the portrait of her son as he was before the fatal 1870. The great painter, interrupted in his sittings, never resumed the work until now, and he has not miscalculated in supposing that it will be treasured at Camden Place. A Belgian painter, too, M. Campo Tosto, has nearly completed a lifesize portrait of the ill-fated boy. The real name of Max Adeler, the American comic writer, is Charles Heber Clarke. He is on the staff of the Philadelphia " Bulletin.”

Messrs Sothey, Wilkinson, and Hodge sold the late Mr Bingway’s collection of autograph letters and literary documents recently. We select the following among the more valuable specimens—Letter of Beethoven and one of Bach, £lO 10s ; Burns, signed “ Burncss,” £6; Letter of Erasmus, in Latin, £6 6s ; James I. to Queen Mary of Scotland, £7 7s; remarkable letter of Edmund Eean, in which he alludes to the trial of 11 Cox v Kean,” £4 14s ; Lucretia Borgia, signature only, £4 18s; Martin Luther, in German, £5 12s 6d ; Marquis and Marchioness of Montrose. £l7 15s; Mozart, Haydn, and Gluck, £24; Napoleon HI., Empress Eugenie, and the Prince Imperial, an affectionate note, in English, in which he says, “ I love you of all my hart,” £2O; William 1., Prince of Orange, £6 ; Marchioness of Sevigne, £6 6s ; P. 6. Shelley, £4 8s ; Mrs Siddons and Mrs Jordan, £6 ; Queen Victoria and some members of the Royal Family, £5 5a ; Louise de la Valliere £8 8s ; Sir Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, £l2 12s ; General Wolfe to Georgu Sackville, £5 12s Gd. Total, £672 9s.

Gounod has sold the score of the " Tribnt de Zamorra” to a musical publisher for £4OOO, half of which is to be paid on the first representation, another thousand at the fiftieth, and the remainder when the opera has been played seventy-five times. Mr George Bose, professionally known as Arthur Sketchley, and celebrated as the originator of “ Mrs Brown,” so famous in book and entertainment, sailed from London in the Warwick Oastle steamer on the 22nd July for the Cape of Good Hope. He will stay for some six weeks in our South African colony, and proceed in October to Australia, afterwards going to New Zealand. Tha account of his travels will be afterwards published in two volumes, to be entitled “ Out and Home.”

Mr B. O. Woodville. one of onr rising painters of military subjects, is engaged upon a large picture of the late Prince Louis Napoleon in Zululand. Mr Woodville’s canvas represents the Prince on horseback at the head of a reconnoitring party, halftoning in the saddle, field-glass in hand, and scanning the surrounding country. An escort of the 17th Lancers is seen in the middle distance.

Mr Samuel 8, Clemens (Mark Twain), who has been living busy a retired life in Paris for the last four months, has left Paris for Belgium and Holland, en route for England, where he is the expect; d guest at one of the magnificent country seats. Mr Clemens will sail with his family for America, and immediately on his arrival home will give his attention to the publication of a new book he has written during this last visit to Europe, the illustrations for which have been designed by Walter F. Brown in Paris, under tbe supervision of the author. Among the pictures sent to the Sydney Exhibition are Mr Armitage’a “ Mother of Moses,” “Pygmalion’s Galatea;” Mr Calderon’s “ Joan of Arc; ” Mr Elmore’s “ Leoore ” and “On the Housetops, Algiers Sir J. Gilbert’s “ Doge and Senators of Venice in Council” ; Mr Hodgson’s “Loot;” Sir F. Leighton’s “ Sampson and Dalilah”j; Mr H. Moore’s “Mist and Sunshine;” Mr Poole’s “ Wounded Knight; ” Mr Tadema’s “ Elizabeth,” “ Spring,” and “Sunflowers;” Mr Watts’ “ Britomartis."

An unpublished MS, opera, in three acts, by Haydn, has been discovered among a lot of old music scores belonging to the late Theatre Italiens, in Paris. The finder was M. Wekerlin, the librarian of the Conservatoire. The title of the opera is “Vera Costanza,” and it was originally composed by Haydn for the Vienna Opera House, and subsequently brought to Paris. Bernhardt again— She came, she played, and Londoners were captured, But o’er her pictures they were less enraptured ; And critics sneered once more that old complaint, “ She draws divinely, but she cannot paint." —“ New York Evening Post.”

Anyone who wants to form a little collection of animals, and who goes for that purpose to Mr Jamrach’s establishment, may make purchases on the following terms;—Lions or tigers, £BO each ; pumas, £3O ; leopards, £2O; cheetahs, £4O ; black panthers, £150; clouded tigers, £3CO; jaguars, £3O to £SO ; ocelots, £3 to £lO ; Vivorrine cats, £10: servals. £4 ; lynx, £5 to £ls ; hyamas, £l2 to £3O ; Aard wolf, £4O to £100; civet cats, £2 to £lO ; paradoxines, £2 to £5 ; ichneumons, £25; wolf, £5 to £10; silver fox, £10; coatemundis, or racoons, £2 ; Polar bears, £25 ; brown bears, £lO ; Syrian or black bears, £l2; J d pancso or Himalayan bears, £ls ; sloths, £lO ; beavers, £4O the pair; porcupines, £6 each ; agouti, £2 ; A rhinoceros costs from £4OO to £1000; the one now in stock is a young one, and worth about £SOO. Elephants are cheaper in this country than in India, an African elephant being now only worth about £6O, and an Indian elephant from £l5O to £3OO. Indian tapirs cost about £l5O, and the South American specimens from £3O to £4O ; a llama or nylgherie will fetch £3O to £4O, and a zebra is worth from £IOO to £l5O, while kangaroos are sold at from £lO to £6O the pair. Monkeys vary much in price, ranging from the tiny marmoset at £l. to the chimpanzee, or orang-outang at £IOO. Australian finches, wimbles, Tasmanian devils, &c., range from Ss to £2 a pair ; parrots, parroquets, lories, &0., range from 8s to £SO the pair.