whom CHARLES DICKENS
described as "_Hamlet's_ Aunt," her funereal attire being relieved by
a whitened face with tear-reddened eyes. It is these two characters,
with _Gerald Arbuthnot_, Mr. FRED TERRY, who, like the three gruesome
personages in _Don Giovanni_, will intrude themselves into what might
have been a pleasant, interesting comedy of modern manners, if only it
had had a good comedy plot.

Taken as a whole, the acting is admirable. Mr. TREE, as the titled
cad, _Lord Illingworth_, is perfect in make-up and manner. Certainly
one of the many best things he has done. It is a companion portrait to
the other wicked nobleman in _The Dancing Girl_. (_"There is another
and a worse wicked nobleman" N. B., O. W._) But this is no fault, and,
indeed, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find fault with
Mr. TREE'S _Lord Illingworth_. Mrs. TREE as _Mrs. Allonby_, is a
very charming battledore in the game of repartee-shuttlecock, who with
eight other principal characters in the piece, has nothing whatever to
do with the plot. To the character of _Lady Hunstanton_, as written
in the Mrs. Nickleby vein, and as played by Miss ROSE LECLERCQ, the
success is mainly due; and "for this relief much thanks." It is here
and in the comedy characters of the _Archdeacon_ (Mr. KEMBLE excellent
in this) and of _Lady Caroline Pontefract_ (who couldn't have a better
representation than Miss LE THIERE) that Mr. O. WILDE shows what he
can do as a writer of comedy, both in the quality of the material and
its introduction at the right moment. (_"The right speech at the wrong
moment, or the wrong speech at the right moment, both are fatal.
Thus is it that comedies become tragedies, and tragedies comedies."
U.P.N.B., O. W._) At the Haymarket the "play's" not "the thing," it is
the playing. (_"Likewise the writing," O. W._)

However, it is not for the plot, or for the Bulwery-Lyttony orations,
or for the familiar melodramatic situations that audiences will
seek the Haymarket. No, it will be to hear the Christy-Minstrel
epigrammatic dialogue in the first two Acts, to laugh heartily at Miss
LECLERCQ as _Lady Nickleby Hunstanton_, to smile on the _Archdeacon_
and _Lady Caroline_, and to enjoy the first-rate acting all round.

* * * * *

MEMS, FROM THE O. W. UNCOMMONPLACE BOOK.

"Essentials for success of modern play are 'Latitude and Platitude.'
First being risky is saved by second."

_Receipt for Play-making._