OPERATIC NOTES.

Tuesday, July 4. State Visit to the Opera.-Yes, "TODGERS'S could do it when it liked," as CHARLES DICKENS remarked in Martin Chuzzlewit, and Sir COVENTGARDENSIS DRURIOLANUS can do it when he likes, rather! The front of the house is quite a "mask of flowers," which the Master of the Gray's Inn Revels, himself present in a gorgeous and awe-inspiring uniform, regards with a benign and

appreciative smile. Interesting to note a number of ordinarily quiet and unobtrusive individuals, personally known to me as the mildest-mannered men, who now appear as the fiercest, and, on such a night, the hottest of warriors; seeing that if it is 98 in the shade, the temperature must be ten degrees higher to those who are buttoned up to the chin in a military uniform, with straps, belts, buckles, boots, weighted too with a dangling, clattering sword, and having to carry about a thickly-furred hat, with a plume in it like a shavingbrush, that obstinately refuses to be hung up, or sat upon, or put out of sight, in any sort of way whatever, and which, like a baby in arms, must be carried, or dropped. The Venetians on the stage in all their mediæval bravery are not arrayed like one of these simple English yeomen, for, as I am given to understand, to that glorious body of our country's agricultural defenders do these dashing Hussars, in their Hessianfly boots, belong! Ah! with such warriors England is safe! Then there are what Mr. Weller would have termed "My Prooshan Blues," and likewise the diplomatic Muscovite, in hardlooking cap, blue, naval-looking coat, and (apparently) flannel boating trousers, falling, rather short, on to ordinary boots, with plain unornamental spurs; a costume which, on the whole, suggests that its wearer, at the command of the Autocrat of all the Russias, must be ready at a second's notice to execute a forced march, dance a hornpipe, run as a footman, take somebody up as a policeman, head a cavalry charge, or (still in spurs) steer a torpedo boat on its dangerous errand. Opera going strong, with the DE FRISKY Bros. & Co. The Last Act (by Royal Command) is omitted, and so for the first time in dramatic history the story of Romeo and Juliet ends as happily as possible. The lovers are only interrupted by the fall of the curtain, and there are no sleeping draughts, poisonings, or burials. It is a realisation of the line in The Critic, In the Queen's name I charge you all to drop your swords and daggers! Only the order is given in the Princess's name, and the swords, daggers, and deadly draughts are all dropped accordingly. Greatest possible success. Gloria DRUBIOLANO Î

"Pas de Druriolanus; or, All among the Roses."

"

A DITTY OF THE DOG-DAYS. NINETY-ONE in the shade, by NEGRETTI and ZAMBRA ! 'Tis O that I dwelt in an ice-crevasse,

Or rented a share in the Mer de Glace,
Or hired (ere I melt and resolve to gas)
That patio cool in the chill Alhambra

(Not Lei-ces-ter Squarr," but Granada far),
Where fountains sprinkle and plash and tinkle-
Ay me! that my dream can ne'er come to pass!
"Fourteen hours of the sun!" says the "Jordan Recorder ".
Each day it grows hotter in London town!

The plane-trees are withered and burnt and brown;
Ere Lammas has come the leaves are down!
The months have been mixed-they're out of order;
We'd the weather of June six weeks too soon;
And now we swelter and gasp for shelter-
We're grilled alive from toe to crown!

There's drought in the fields, and drought in my gullet!
I would that I sat in a boundless tank

Of claret and soda, and drank and drank!
My thirst with PANTAGRUEL's own would rank-
Gargantuan draughts alone may lull it!

A shandygaff "chute" à la BOYTON would suit,
Or of Pilsener lager a Nile or Niagara-
Would that it through my oesophagus sank!
I'd long to be NANSEN, that bold Norwegian,
Who's off to the north like a sailor-troll;
Dry land I prefer in my inmost soul,
And his tub-like Fram will pitch and roll,
But she's bound at least for a glacial region!
Or stay, to be sure! here's Professor D-R
To cold can consign us untold degrees minus-

There's no need to visit the Northern Pole !
With this decuman "heat-wave" I grow delirious,
And babble a prayer to the Maid who sways
The Weather-department (on working-days)
Of the Daily Graphic-in crazy phrase-
The bale-fire to quench of far-distant Sirius!
To the Man in the Moon at noon I croon
For a lunatic boon, if that lone buffoon
Can stay this canicular, perpendicular,
Bang-on-my-forehead, horrid, torrid,
Beaming, gleaming, and ever-streaming
Blaze of rays that maze and daze ! !

ROBERT AT THE MANSHUN HOUSE.

I HAVE long nown as how as the present LORD MARE was one of the werry nicest, as well as one of the werry liberallists, of Lord Mares as we has had for many years, but I most suttenly did not kno, till larst Saturday, that, noticing, as he must have done, how shamefoolly the County Counsellors is a trying for to destroy the grand old Copperation, and take pusession of Gildhal and the Manshun House, he had the courage to assemble round his ospiterbel Table all the most princiblest of the great writers of our wunderful and powerful Press, and let them judge for theirselves whether sich a hinstitootion as he represented was worth preserwin or not! Ah, that was sumthink like a Bankwet that was! Why amost eweryboddy was there as was any boddy. And the ony trubble as that caused was, that they was all so jolly glad to meet each other, under sitch unusual suckemstances, that nothink on airth coud keep em quiet, no, not ewen when the Amerryean Embassader torked to em for about arf a nour!

GE-O-M-ETRICALLY CONSIDERED.-The illuminations were as good as they could be everywhere. The brilliant initials, G. M.," wanted nothing to render them perfect. If that want had been supplied, then, as "nothing "is represented by a cipher, the initials would have commemorated the G. O. M.

Friday Night.-First_performance of I Rantzau, and first-rate One of the most distinguist of the skollars as I was waiting on performance, too. The Plot is simply a Plot of Land. Scene laid told one of the most butiful Painters, in my hearing, as how he laid for seven dramatis personae-in a Vague Village of the thort it wood be rayther a wise thing of all future Lord Mares if Vosges; time, present century. The Rantzaus are the Capulets they himmitated the present LORD MARE's exampel; and I wentur, and Montagues of this district; the son of one faction is in love with all umility, to say Ditto to the distinguisht Skoller. ROBERT. with the daughter of the other; but it doesn't end tragically, and the lovers marry. That's all. It was played as a Drama at the Français, with Gor in it; when subsequently it was turned into an Opera, it had the "Go" taken out of it. DE LUCIA, ANCONA, CASTELMARY, BISPHAM, and CORSI doing their very best, as do also the lamplighter and his assistant, who deftly perform their Wagnerian watehman" "business" to characteristic music. Mlle. BAUERMEISTER great in a small part; and Madame MELBA does her very best with the singularly uninteresting part of Luisa, who is a very "Limited Loo.' Signor MASCAGNI conducted the Opera, and was himself conducted on to the stage as often as possible in order to receive the congratulations of his "friends in front." I Rantzau not "in it" with MASCAGNI'S Cavalleria, which, MRS. R. caught sight of a heading in a daily paper-" Board of like the Rantzau family at the end of the piece, “still holds the field." Trade Returns." Our old friend at once exclaimed. "Then where Thermometer 95° in the stalls. House animated and appreciative. has the Board of Trade been to? Where is it returning from? I Saturday.-Les Huguenots. Grand Cast. Thermometer down again. I really don't call this attending to business."

66

FROM HENLEY TO THE OPERA ON THE NIGHT OF THE STATE PERFORMANCE.-" Rich and rare were the gems they wore;" and two ladies, with magnificent tiaras, if they had only shown up at Henley, would have won the prize for "The Diamond Skulls.”

Tommy (on his way to the Browns' Juvenile Garden Party). "Now, NURSE, REMEMBER, WHEN ONCE WE'VE PASSED THAT GARDEN GATE,

YOU DON'T BELONG TO ME!"

"YOU ARE OLD," SAID THE YOUTH; "ONE WOULD HARDLY SUPPOSE

THAT YOUR EYE WAS AS STEADY AS EVER;

YET YOU BALANCE THAT EEL ON THE END OF YOUR NOSE-
WHAT MAKES YOU SO AWFULLY CLEVER ?"

AN ORATOR "POUR RIRE."

(A STUDY IN HYDE PARK.)

The Scene is that Forum for Fadmongers-the angle of the Park fronting Cumberland Gate. A large and utterly irreverent crowd is listening with cheerful intolerance to a Persevering Gentleman, of a highly respectable and almost scholarly appearance, who is addressing them from a three-legged stool on nothing in particular, though he has apparently committed himself by charging a certain Statesman with at least two political murders.

The Orator (haltingly). We who are fighting the battle-(uproarious laughter from Crowd, which he endures with dignified resignation)-I say we who are fighting the battle! The Crowd. 'Oo's talking about fightin' a battle?... You wouldn't be 'ere if there was any battles about! 'E's a fair ple fraud, 'e is-that's about 'is sort! Shet up, you idiotic ole ass, do! (&c., &c.)

The Orator (patiently). I say once more the- (Howls of derision, at which he smiles, but perceives, regretfully, that the battle must be abandoned.) One of my friends here has seen fit to describe me as an idiotic old ass. ("So you are!") Well, I am glad, at least, that he pronounced it ass with the vowel short, and not ass, for it shows that he has at least a certain regard for the Queen's English (The Crowd hasten to give the vowel sound all the breadth in their power). I think I was-(here he consults a sheaf of notes)-offering some remarks upon Mr. WILLIAM WOBLER. Now we are told, "Speak evil of no man!"

The Crowd. That's a good un! 'Oo spoke evil of Mr. BAGWIND jest now?

The Orator (mildly hurt). I never said a single unkind word about Mr. BAGWIND!

The Crowd. Yer lie! Why, didn't you say as he murdered JETTISON and SCAPEGOAT? Wot yer call that, eh?

we who are fighting

of a Statesman we all revere, by the unspeakably offensive and degraded individual with a black coat, a clean collar, and only one lung, who has just concluded his contemptible remarks, and is now debasing himself, if possible, still further by going round cringing, actually cringing, for the miserable halfpence which he hopes his foul-mouthed virulence will extract from the more foolish among his hearers! (Applause at this spirited opening; the First Orator imperturbably continues to protrude his hat.) I have no hesitation in saying that if such language as he has favoured us with was uttered against a public man in any other community, in any other country, in any other hemisphere in the civilized globe, the audience would have risen in righteous indignation, and chased the cowardly aggressor back to the vile den from whose obscurity he would have done better never to emerge! Gentlemen, he has appealed to your sympathy on the ground, forsooth, that he has only one lung! I venture to assert that it is nothing short of a public calamity that he is the possessor of one lung; for had he none at all, he would have been incapable of outraging the general intelligence by the utterance of such sentiments as he has disgusted you by this evening. When I first became acquainted with this man, before he had sunk

The Orator. I may have made some such observation-but far be it from me to speak evil of any man. If I spoke evil, it was on public grounds. I should scorn to attack any individual in his private character. I think I have satisfactorily answered that matter. And I tell you this-it is largely owing to me that Mr. WILLIAM WOBLER owes his seat in Parliament to-day! (His hearers receive this with frank incredulity.) Ah, but it is, though, and I denounce him, as I have denounced him before, and shall denounce him while I have power to raise my voice, as a man who has proved himself utterly unworthy of the efforts I have made on his behalf. Some people are saying they want THOMAS TIDDLER in North Paddington. I say-Never! Not as long as I've breath in my body shall THOMAS TIDDLER be returned for any constituency! No, gentlemen: here I stand before you, with no money, and only one lung. I have rich and high rela"I say-Never!" tions, to whom I might apply for relief if I condescended to do so; but I scorn to abase myself in any such manner. I prefer to appeal to you, the people of London. It's a disgrace-a public disgrace-that you people should allow such a man as myself to walk the streets without food! (A voice. "Why don't yer work?") Work? Am I not working? Am I not in my proper place here to-night?

The Crowd (with hearty unanimity). No!

The Orator (with exultation). Then support me in the name of all you hold dear! I have my work to accomplish, and I shall accomplish it by the aid of the People's pence, by the aid of the People's sixpences,-aye, and by the aid of the People's shillings! Will you help me?

The Crowd (more heartily than ever). No!

The Orator. Then I will now proceed to make a collection.
[He descends from his stool, and circulates among the crowd
proffering a highly respectable hat. A Rival Orator mounts
the stool; he has a straw hat, side whiskers, and a style of
concentrated and withering invective.

The Rival Orator (fluently, and with much enjoyment of his own eloquence). I shall preface what I have to say by protesting in the strongest terms at my disposal against the most disgraceful attack we have had the pain of listening to to-night, against the character

into the besotted state in which he now wallows, he used, I remember, to condemn the practice of making a public collection. Now I've never been against that practice myself. I hold that a man who is capable of attracting an audience by such gifts of oratory as he may possess, is perfectly justified in making a collection afterwards, whether he requires the money or not. But this person has become so degraded, so destitute of any sense of honour, so soaked and sodden with gin, that he now turns round on the principles he once professed, and is to be seen going round with a hat laden with the coppers of those who are infinitely worse off than-judging from his dress and prosperous appearance he evidently is himself!

The First Orator (exhibiting his empty hat). It don't look much like it at present, GABBITT! Mr. Gabbitt. He has boasted to you of having rich relations, and said he scorned to apply to them. I want to know why, instead of coming here begging to you, he don't go to them ?

The First Orator. I've been, GABBITT. Mr. G. (triumphantly). You hear? he 's been to them. That proves they've found him out; they know him for the grovelling soaker he is, a wretch tottering on the verge of delirium tremens, and, rightly, they'll have nothing to do with him. It's very possible, gentlemen, that he may have rich relations in the place where most of us have rich relations-I refer to the workhouse! (Cheers and laughter.) And it is this wretch, this indescribable mixture of meanness and malignity, who has dared to come here and charge Mr. BAGWIND with crime! He asked youand let him not deny it now-"What about Mr. SCAPEGOAT ?" Well, there may be a good many things about Mr. SCAPEGOAT, but what I tell you is an observation like that is one that doesn't convey any concrete idea whatever; in short, it is the observation of a drivelling and confirmed lunatic! Voice in the Crowd. With on'y one lung; don't forgit that, ole man! Mr. G. (magnanimously). No, I've done with his lung, now; it doesn't do to carry personalities too far, and I've disposed of that already, and have no desire to return to it. And, as I observe that the wretched object of the strictures which I have felt it my duty to express, has concluded his efforts with the hat, and met with the freezing contempt and indifference which are only to be expected from intelligent and fair-minded men like yourselves, I will now bring my exposure of the sophistries, the base insinuations, and the incoherent maunderings which he had the effrontery to impose upon your understandings as argument, to a premature close, and proceed to make a collection on my own account, and thereby afford you the opportunity of showing on which side your real sympathies and your confidence are enlisted. [He goes round with the straw hat, which his delighted audience fill liberally with the coppers that the previous speaker has ignominiously failed to extract from them. But the tender-hearted Reader may be relieved to hear that, as soon as the crowd has dispersed, the victor shares the proceeds of his eloquence in the handsomest manner with his adversary, who shows a true elevation of mind in betraying no abiding resentment at his oratorical defeat. So may all such contests terminate-as, for that matter, they generally do.