102
THE FORTNIGHT.
"Lights o' London"' has the reputation of being a successful play, and a large audience turned out to see it here. The play is based on the old and hackneyed story of a disinherited son and a concealed will, with the addition of a number of comic parts. Squire Armytage, his son Harold, his nephew Clifford, and the old family servant Marks, are all of the conventional and stage English type. In the comic parts the author has evidently studied Dickens to advantage.
In the Jarvis family we recognize our old friends, the Crummles, and the idea for most of the other comic parts can be found in Dickens. Some of these parts seem to be put in only to fill up, for they are wholly useless and help on the action in no way whatever.
As a whole, however, the play is well worth seeing. The scenery is the best we have ever seen on this stage. Particularly good are London-road scene, and the river at night. In the serious parts Miss Viola Roseborough as Bess Marks, is easily the first of the ladies. Miss Carrie Lee as Hetty Preene, barring a little rant, was also good. William Lee and W.A. Sands as Harold and Clifford Armytage, played well. None of these is anything extraordinary, but they all played evenly and supported each other well, so that a good effect was produced. Frank Padgett as Seth Preene, shows good and careful work; he is, in our judgment, by odds the most talented man in the company. In the comic parts, Daniel Hemple, Mrs. Sands and Miss Leonard as Jo, Eliza and Shakespeare Jarvis, are very funny.
We think the play owes its deserved success to the humor of its comic scenes, to the goodness of its scenery, and to the uniform, though not high, excellence of its serious parts. It is certainly pleasanter for an audience to see a whole company of
fairly good actors, than one or two stars wretchedly supported.
Divorce is not a very good play in the first place and the performance by the Jane Coombs company made it worse. The play is after the school of Robertson, where talk takes the place of action, but the talk in Divorce is by no means as good as in Caste. Jane Coombs' acting reminded us of that military second in the duel in Chas. Reed's Christie Johnstone. This gentleman looked as though he had swallowed all the ramrods in the company, and then not feeling sure of his dignity, had bolted the mess-room poker.
That is how Jane Coombs looked to us. The rest of the actors were only mediocre.
We have received the November number of the Beta Theta Pi. The literary excellence of this magazine was something of a surprise to us. The articles of general interest are "The First Latin Renaissance," and "Harvard." Most of the other matter is of interest to the fraternity only. We extract the following by Chambers Baird, Jr., as a specimen of Beta poetry;
HEINE.
A strange white swan, who in a wearied flight
Sped over lands and seas, and overhung
With maim'd, worn pinions, the abodes of light
Whence he was exile. And the while he sung
A wild, sad melody, wherein despair
Was ever link'd with wondrous sweetness rare,
Whose tender, haunting strains echoed his wrong;
A death-song lasting as the stricken life was long.
Messrs. G. and C. Merriam, publishers of Webster's Unabridged, have sent us a copy of the latest edition of that dictionary, with Denison's Index. For general reference we know of none better, and scarcely of one equal to Webster. Every student should have a good English dictionary. The experience of many years leads us to chose Webster.