SHAKESPEARE IN ROME.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4144, 31 May 1875, Page 3

SHAKESPEARE IN ROME.

A correspondent write 3to us from Rome : —Franco has not become quite " la fanyuii uniri'rse.lle" that Louis XIV. fondly hoped it would. In Italy at the present time English seems to be most in fashion. Even the washerwomen in Rome are affected by the prevailing taste, and scrawl their accounts iv our vernacular. One item in a- Roman washerwoman's iist, sent to a friend of mine a short time since, caused him considerable surprise. It was, "To washing seven hills,

1 lira." Had she sent him in a bill for scouring the country he could not have been more astonished. She had mad-i out her account wilh the aid of a dictionary, from which she learned that "hill" was the English for "eollo." However it be, Shakespeare is at present triumphant on the banks of the Tiber as far as private theatricals are concerned, and Raciue and Comeille are failures. At the Barberini Palace " The Merchant of Venice" was played the other evening by a party of amateurs with gieat success. The Earl of Elgin played admirably the part of Antonio, and his brother, the Hon. R. Bruce, equally well the part of Lorenzo. Miss Wilhrabatn, sister to the Princess Teuno, was Jessica, and acted with a grace and charm that made Sliylock's daughter perfectly bewitching. Mr Storey and Miss Storey were Shylock aud Portia, and each displayed a degree of histrionic talent rat ely seen inamateurs. All the other personages of the drama were well rereseated, especially that of Portia's maid by Mrs Frank Lascelles.