[Illustration: "A1" Saxon Friar.]

As to the Music,--well, I am not a musician, and in any new Opera when
there is no one tuneful phrase as in _Aida_ or _Tannhaeuser_, which, at
the very first hearing, anyone with half an ear can straightway catch,
and reproduce next day till everyone about him cries, "Oh don't!" and
when, as in this instance, the conducting-composer, Wagnerianly, will
not permit _encores_--where am I? Nowhere. I return home in common
time, but tuneless. On the other hand, besides being certain that
_Friar Tuck's_ jovial song will "catch on," I must record the complete
satisfaction with which I heard the substantial whack on the drum so
descriptive of _Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert-sans-Sullivan's_ heavy fall
"at the ropes." This last effect, being as novel as it is effective,
attracted the attention of the wily and observant DRURIOLANUS, who
mentally booked the effect as something startlingly new and original
for his next Pantomime. The combat between the Saxon Slogger, very
much out of training, and the Norman Nobbler, rather over-trained
as the result proved, is decidedly exciting, and the Nobbler would
be backed at long odds. Altogether, the whole show was thoroughly
appreciated by WAMBA JUNIOR.

* * * * *

SPECIMENS FROM MR. PUNCH'S SCAMP-ALBUM.

NO. I.--THE CLASSICAL SCHOLAR IN REDUCED CIRCUMSTANCES.

You are, let us say, a young professional man in chambers or offices,
incompetently guarded by an idiot boy whom you dare not trust with the
responsibility of denying you to strangers. You hear a knock at your
outer door, followed by conversation in the clerk's room, after which
your salaried idiot announces, "A Gentleman to see you." Enter a dingy
and dismal little man in threadbare black, who advances with an air of
mysterious importance. "I think," he begins, "I 'ave the pleasure of
speaking to Mr.----" (_whatever your name is_.) "I take the liberty of
calling, Mr.----, to consult you on a matter of the utmost importance,
and I shall feel personally obliged if you will take precautions for
our conversation not being over'eard."

He looks grubby for a client--but appearances are deceptive, and
you offer him a seat, assuring him that he may speak with perfect
security--whereupon he proceeds in a lowered voice.

[Illustration]

"The story I am about to reveal," he says, smoothing a slimy tall hat,
"is of a nature so revolting, so 'orrible in its details, that I