al declared that so enormous a compensation would never again be
heard of in any imperial theatre. The pupils of the dramatic school
receive eighteen rubles monthly, and, according to their performances,
obtain permission every two years to ask an increase of salary. The
period of service extends to twenty-five years, with the certainty
of a yearly pension equal to the salary received at the close of the
period.

For the artist this is a very important arrangement, which enables him
to endure a thousand inconveniences.

There is no prospect of a better state of the Polish drama. Count
Fedro may, in his comedies, employ the finest satire with a view
to its restoration, but he will accomplish nothing so long as the
Generals ride the theater as they would a war horse. On the other
hand, no Russian drama has been established, because the conditions
are wanting among the people. That is a vast empire, but poor in
beauty; mighty in many things, but weak in artistic talents; powerful
and prompt in destruction, but incapable spontaneously and of itself
to create anything.

* * * * *

"DEATH'S JEST BOOK, OR THE FOOL'S TRAGEDY."

The _Examiner_, for July 20, contains an elaborate review, with
numerous extracts, of a play just published under this title in
London. "It is radiant," says the critic, "in almost every page with
passion, fancy, or thought, set in the most apposite and exquisite
language. We have but to discard, in reading it, the hope of any
steady interest of story, or consistent development of character:
and we shall find a most surprising succession of beautiful passages,
unrivaled in sentiment and pathos, as well as in terseness, dignity,
and picturesque vigor of language; in subtlety and power of passion,
as well as in delicacy and strength of imagination; and as perfect and
various, in modulation of verse, as the airy flights of Fletcher or
Marlowe's mighty line.

"The whole range of the Elizabethan drama has not finer expression,
nor does any single work of the period, out of Shakspeare, exhibit so
many rich and precious bars of golden verse, side by side with such
poverty and misery of character and plot. Nothing can be meaner than
the design, nothing grander than the execution."

In conclusion, the _Examiner_ observes--"We are not acquainted with
any living author who could have written the Fool's Tragedy; and,
though the publication is unaccompanied by any hint of