reputation depends upon his work in _Punch_ and his writing of plays,
of which nearly seventy stand to his credit. To _Punch_ he contributed
from the second number and soon became a power by means of "Mrs.
Caudle's Curtain Lectures," "The Story of a Feather" and countless
other articles which suited the taste of the public of that day. Of
his work for _Punch_ there is only the barest mention in this book,
for that story has already been told at some length by the same
author. In the present book Mr. WALTER JERROLD devotes a large amount
of space to a review of DOUGLAS JERROLD'S theatrical pieces. Where
now is a five-act comedy, entitled _Bubbles of the Day_, which at the
time of its production was described as "one of the wittiest and best
constructed comedies in the English language"? I am afraid that this
comedy, and even _Black-eyed Susan_, JERROLD'S greatest triumph, have
passed away into the limbo of forgotten plays and can never return
to us. Another drama had in it as one of the characters "a certain
cowardly English traveller named Luckless Tramp," a name, I should
have thought, quite sufficient in itself to swamp every possible
chance of success; yet our forefathers seem to have had no difficulty
in accommodating themselves to it.

* * * * *

In an author's note to _Moon of Israel_ (MURRAY) Sir H. RIDER HAGGARD
tells us that his book "suggests that the real Pharaoh of the Exodus
was not Meneptah or Merenptah, son of Rameses the Great, but the
mysterious usurper, Amenmeses ..." I am not a student of Egyptology,
and in this little matter of AMENMESES am perfectly content to trust
myself to Sir RIDER, and, provided that he tells a good tale, to
follow him wherever he chooses to lead the way. And this story, put
into the mouth of _Ana_, the scribe, is packed with mystery and magic