LITERATURE, MUSIC, AND THE DRAMA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6829, 6 October 1883, Page 3 (Supplement)

LITERATURE, MUSIC, AND THE DRAMA.

-The Denver Tribune refers to P,ret Harte 5 a who went to Europe a* an assisted literary en ? i P | a °r' rjjje Flowars of the Forest - T ? 6 S to le® * Failure. The oldin Londo n 0(; Ba it to-day. Mr° n Swinburne has written a preface in French to accompany Mme. Dorian s transition into that language of Shelley s will be accompanied on his Henry J. b Clemen t Scott, who will special correspondent of the London D is applying to several New York managers for an engagement for fhe coming season. This is sad news of a n sir ß Ou^as Ü Benedi ? cTdespite his advanced vears is said to contemplate _ a visit to America. He last landed m that country m "Alice's Advenfnres in Wonderland," has written a new , ' Med "Rhyme and Reason," which &miu and Cofwill publish. . A verv interesting debut , was made in Paris lately by Mdlle. Goldberg Brilianti, a vonng American vocalist, for whom is predicted the career of a second Nilsson. Andrew Carnegie gave a brilliant dinner in London the other day to Matthew Arnold in view of his approaching departure for America to lecture on sweetness and light. Mr John Maclean, one of the cleverest and most versatile of English actors, has been encaged by Messrs. Hare and Kendal, for the winter season, at the St. Jamea s Theatre. James Payn, the novelist, declares that he i 3 a slow writer, only producing three or four a clay. has, however, puDlißhed ; :53°novels and he is not an old gentleman by any means. . A woman whose Dame is given as Mme, ue Grandval, has carried off the first prize of the Society of Composers in Paris this year. | Sho was awarded the prize of £120 for the beßt orchestral suite in three movements. v Fechter once remarked : Actors, my boy, never become decent or sensible till they get old. When a man makes a permanent hit ho Itecomes ashamed of his past. That the reason snccessful actors shun their interiors. They remind them too much of themselves. W. E. Sheridan, says an American paper, was ready to leave Australia by last steamer, hut the agile Selim, who went with him from here as manager, put in a gentle attachment of £200, and Mr. Sheridan was " perwailed upon to stop," like the Bishop s coachman in the aong of Dick Turpin, We may expect in October another Indian poem by Edwin Arnold, the author of The Light of Asia." It will be composed of the following idyls from the Sanskrit ol the •' Mahabharata" '' Savitri, or Love and Death," "Nala and Damayanti," "The Enchanted Lake," The Saint's Temptation," " The Birth of Death." The scene most loudly ridiculed in Wilkie. Collins' new play, Rank and Riches, on its production in London, was one in which the daughter of an earl and affianced bride of a duke, the rival of her own maid in the affections of a lawyer's clerk, accompanied her lover to a tavern, kissed him before a crowd, and drank to the downfall of the House of Lords.

Some interesting figures are given with respect to the pecuniary results of the performances of the Ristori Company some seven years ago in .the United States, and in these colonies respectively. Mdme. Ristori and her company played in 15 cities, and gave 88 representations in the former country, producing £17,458, or an average in round numbers of £200 a night. In Australia, only six centres of population were visited, and the gross receipts were £13,336, or an average of rather more than £156 a night. The head of the hous6 of Appleton and Co. gave in a recent interview an entertaining account of how he came to accept McMasters' 44 History of the American People." The manuscript had been rejected by several expert " readers," but Mr. Appleton . took home the first volume. In the evening he proposed that he should read a few pages from it to iiis wife and several young ladies, who were engaged upon sewing or faincy work. Mrs. Appleton protested, but finally the, company agreed. Then he began, and the interest of the story and the liveliness Of —th©~o£ aIX-liti! threatened tedinm, and when he paused there were calls for him to continue. He read'for nearly two hours and only desisted when too hoarse to continue. Then he decided to publish the book, for he regarded this as the best test oi its merits as a popular historical work.