NOTES OF A READER.

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THE DRAMATIC ANNUAL.

Mr Frederick Reynolds, the veteran dramatist, has, by the aid of Mr.
W.H. Brooke, produced an amusing and elegant volume of a Playwright's
Adventures, under the above title, Mr. Brooke's contributions are a
plentiful sprinkling of Cuts, full of point and humour, and dovetailed
by the Editor with no lack of ingenuity. The Narrative itself purports
to be a series of adventures, or a volume of accidents to a young
playwright in quest of dramatic fortune, with a due admixture of love
and murder, and "a happy union."--These are relieved by pungent attempts
at repartee and harmless raillery, so as to make the dialogue portion
glide off pleasantly enough. Instead of quoting an entire chapter from
the volume, we are enabled to transfer to our pages a few of its
epigrammatic illustrations. First, is what Mr. Reynold calls _l'auteur
sifflè_, but this, for the sake of comprehensiveness, we style the
damned author.

[Illustration: THE DAMNED AUTHOR.]

* * * * *

Mr. Reynolds seems to hold with Swift, that the merriest faces are in
mourning coaches, for his hero at a funeral introduces one of the best