nnettes." Encouraged by
his extraordinary success, he has soared higher yet, and adapted
our greatest national drama for the purposes of the (Independent)
itinerant Stage. We are enabled by the courtesy of his publishers to
give a few specimen scenes from this _magnum opus_, which, as will
be seen, requires somewhat more elaborate mounting and mechanical
effects than are at present afforded by the ordinary Punch
Show. In M. MAETERLINCK's version, Ponsch becomes the Prince of
Half-seas-over-Holland; he is the victim of hereditary homicidal
mania, complicated by neurotic hysteria. Inflamed by the insinuations
of Mynheer Olenikke--a kind of Dutch Mephistopheles and Iago
combined--he is secretly jealous of his consort the Princess Joedi's
preference for the society of Djoe, the Court Jester and Society
Clown. Here is our first sample:--

_A Chamber in the Castle. Princess JOeDI discovered at a
window with DJOE._

_Joedi_. Lo! lo! a shower of stars is falling upon the fowl-house!

_Djoe_. Oh! oh! a shower of stars upon the fowl-house? (_A water pipe
in the back-garden bursts suddenly and splashes them._) Ah! ah! I am
wet all over! Have you a pocket handkerchief?

_Joedi_. Oh, look! a comet--an enormous one--has descended into the
water-butt! The sky is blood-red, and the moon has turned the colour
of green cheese. This bodes some disaster!

_Djoe_. It is unsettled--rainy--unpleasant weather. Can you lend me an
umbrella?

_Joedi_. I cannot lend you an umbrella, because I have lent mine to
the gardener's wife. Owls are roosting on the chimney-pots, and a
stickleback has jumped out of the pond. Hush, my Lord the Prince
approaches!

[_Prince PONSCH enters, bearing a stout staff, which he nurses
gloomily, like an infant; a hurricane is heard in the middle
distance; the waterpipe sobs strangely and then expires; a
blackbeetle comes out of a cupboard and runs uneasily about,
until a flash of lightning enters down the chimney and kills
it. PONSCH stands glaring at DJOE and the Princess._

_Djoe_ (_hastily_). There is going to be a storm. Do not forget what I
have uttered. Good evening!

[_He goes; the wind whistles a popular air through the
keyhole._

_Joedi_ (_nervously_). What an appalling evening! I have never seen the
like of such a sky.

_Ponsch_. There is something about you this evening--how beautiful you
are looking! Bring BEBBI-PONSCH.

_Joedi_ (_fetching the Infant