RUTLAND BARRINGTON possesses a ready wit and keen appreciation of
humour; and, as this is true also of Miss JESSIE BOND, the couple, being
thoroughly in their element with such parts as _The Gondoliers_ provide
for them, legitimately graft their own fun on the plentiful stock
already supplied by the author, and are literally the life and soul of
the piece.

On the night I was there a Miss NORAH PHYLLIS took Miss ULMAR'S part of
_Gianetta_, and played it, at short notice, admirably. She struck me as
bearing a marked facial resemblance to Miss FORTESQUE, and is a decided
acquisition. Mr. DENNY, as the Grand Inquisitor (a part that recalls the
Lord High Chancellor of the ex-Savoyard, GEORGE GROSSMITH, now
entertaining "on his own hook"), doesn't seem to be a born Savoyard,
_non nascitur_ and _non fit_ at present. Good he is, of course, but
there's no spontaneity about him. However, for an eccentric comedian
merely to do exactly what he is told, and nothing more, yet to do that,
little or much, well, is a performance that would meet with _Hamlet's_
approbation, and Mr. GILBERT'S. Mr. FRANK WYATT, as "the new boy" at the
Savoy School, doesn't, as yet, seem quite happy; but it cannot be
expected that he should feel "quite at home," when he has only recently
arrived at a new school.

Miss BRANDRAM is a thorough Savoyard; _nihil tetigit quod non ornavit_,
and her embroidery of a part which it is fair to suppose was written to
suit her, is done in her own quaint and quiet fashion.

A fantastically and humorous peculiarly Gilbertian idea is the
comparison between a visit to the dentist's, and an interview with the
questioners by the rack, suggested by the Grand Inquisitor Don ALHAMBRA
who says that the nurse is waiting in the torture-chamber, but that
there is no hurry for him to go and examine her, as she is all right and
"has all the illustrated papers."

[Illustration: Rutland Pooh-Bah-rington, after signing his
re-engagement, takes his Bond, and sings, "Again we come to the Savoy."]

There are ever so many good things in the Opera, but the best of all,
for genuinely humorous inspiration of words, music and acting, is the
quartette in the Second Act, "In a contemplative fashion." It is
excellent. Thank goodness, _encores_ are disencouraged, except where
there can be "No possible sort of doubt, No possible doubt whatever"
(also a capital song in this piece) as to the unanimity of the
enthusiasm. There is nothing in the mu