LITERATURE, MUSIC, AND THE DRAMA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7650, 29 May 1886, Page 4 (Supplement)

LITERATURE, MUSIC, AND THE DRAMA.

Oscar Wilde's mother has completed what in regarded as an important collection of Irish legends. It is stated that Miss Kate Vaughan, who is engaged to appear in "Round the World" at the kinpire, is to receive for her services as much ar £70 a week. It is stated that the preparation of a memoir of the late Bishop Colenso will be nndertaken by the Rev. Sir G. W. Cox. The biographer will bo assisted by s voluminous correspondence of great interest and value. A mathematical musician has been working out a calculation as to the payments made to Mdnie. Patti at the recent P.iris concerts, The prima donna received £COO per night, or 20 shillings sterling for each note. Mr. W. G. B. Page, of the Hull Subscription Library, is compiling a work on the I booksellers' signs of London, lie has collected upwards of seven hundred shop signs extending over a period of nearly four hundred yearn, '! here is every reason to believe that this year's Academy, owing to the exceptionally unfavourable weather and light which have prevailed so long, will be considerably below the average—at least in the matter of large and important works. Mr. A. Gordon Crawford, the editor of Mr. Rutin's " Notes on the Millais Exhibition," is about to publish some notes from the. same hand on the woodcuts in Bewick's " Birds." Those were originally written by Ml*. Ruekin [ in a copy of the first edition. Messrs. C. L. Webster and Co. announce for the summer of ISS7 an authoritative biography of Pope Leo XIII. in two volumes. The lirst is already written by a high digni--1 tary of the Church in Latin, which will be the language of the rut edition, Mr. Webster expects to publish two million copies, and i;, ia conjfoctured that the proceeds will he for the benefit of the Church. ) An exchange says : —We gather from a private letter from tho Abbe I If/.t that it ia unlikely t' e great pi::'.ii.4 will lay either at the private reception at tiio Gro3vci:or Gallery or elsewhere in England. Liszt's hands, it serins, now shake under excitement (small wonder in a man of 73), and he hesitates in risking his great fame, under such conditions, btfore that which will bd certainly an ultra-critical audience. Stage pistols are never mennt to hit what they are aimed at. When a stage hero wants to Mhoota villain or a villain to shoot a hero or body eke, tho weapon ia always directed at the roof. Rut do.vn goes the victim all the same when the pistol goes (Y. Occasionally the pistol won't go off, but that doesn't make much difference. Many a man has been killed on the stage by three clicks of a trigger, and nothiug more. Among the principal articles in the volume of tho '' En cyclop a , iia Britaunica," are, " Psalms," by Professor Hobertson Smith ; •'Quakers," by Sir Edward Fry, F. K.S. ; "Religions," by Professor C. P. Tale, of Lsyduu ; "Renaissance," by Mr. J, A. Svu:onds; "Richard 1.-III.," by Mr. G. W. Prothcro ; " Roman Topography ami Arclno ■ cgy," by Professor J. 11. Middleton ; and I!oo3et;i," by Mr. Theodore Watts. Mr. Charles Marvin contributed an article t> the April Dumber of the Army and Navy Magazine, entitle "Is Viadivoatoek wort! takirg ?' laying down the lines of a policy for expunging Russia from the Pacific. In 8' iv.c rcfpo-ts it will be a sequel to the article or. "The Value of Port Hamilton," written by Mr. Marvin a short time ago, which provoked inch a sensation in Russia, and caused the Russian Government to function hurried mea3ure3 for rtrcugthening V!::divostock. "How ia the roll of thunder contrived '! Formerly a Urge sheet of iron, hung up at wi-jg, wjs rr.trU-d noisily. In t'.e larger theatres ti.e property-room u placed over the audioiue. li*r •is whtoled along a sort 11 truck laden with round sh >t, which tilts over on a hir'ge, and semis t he balls tumbling over each other, to be followed hy a hollow sound as they roll over the floor. For lightning, a long tin tube, with a spirit lamp, in used. A powder is then blown through, which takes (ire as it p:\sica by thy bpirit, and gives out a vivid flash. The most elective, though n;o3t troublesome moiie is to c.u. out of the scene zigzag stripes in imitation of forked lightning ; these are cover I with varnished calico and painted. Rain 13 imitated by the rolling of peas in a li.nj tube ; wind, by revolving a roller against a rough cloth."