e myrmidons of John, however, attack the King, who would
oppose them single-handed; but Friar Tuck snatches the King's bugle and
blows a blast of summons--whereupon the Foresters swarm into the field
and possess it. John's faction is dispersed, Marian is saved, the absent
Walter Lea reappears, Sir Richard is assured of his estate, the Abbot
and the Sheriff are punished, and Robin Hood and Maid Marian may
wed--for now the good King Richard has come again to his own.

The lyrics in the piece possess the charm of fluent and unaffected
sweetness, and of original, inventive, and felicitous fancy, and some of
them are tenderly freighted with that indescribable but deeply affecting
undertone of pathetic sentiment which is a characteristic attribute of
Tennyson's poetry.

The characters in the comedy were creatures of flesh and blood to the
author, and they come out boldly, therefore, on the stage. Marian Lea is
a woman of the Rosalind order--handsome, noble, magnanimous,
unconventional, passionate in nature, but sufficient unto herself,
humorous, playful, and radiant with animal spirits. Ada Rehan embodied
her according to that ideal. The chief exaction of the part is
simplicity--which yet must not be allowed to degenerate into tameness.
The sweet affection of a daughter for her father, the coyness yet the
allurement of a girl for her lover, the refinement of high birth, the
blithe bearing and free demeanour of a child of the woods, and the
predominant dignity of purity and honour--those are the salient
attributes of the part. Ada Rehan struck the true note at the
outset--the note of buoyant health, rosy frolic, and sprightly
adventure--and she sustained it evenly and firmly to the last. Every eye
was pleased with the frank, careless, cheerful beauty of her presence,
and every ear was soothed and charmed with her fluent and expressive
delivery of the verse. In this, as in all of the important
representations that Ada Rehan has given, the delightful woman-quality
was conspicuously present. She can readily impersonate a boy. No actress
since Adelaide Neilson has done that so well. But the crowning
excellence of her art was its expression of essential womanhood. Her
acting was never trivial and it never obtruded the tedious element of
dry intellect. It refreshed--and the spectator was happier for having
seen her. Many pleasant thoughts were scattered in many minds by her
performance of Maid Marian, and no one who saw it will eve