We thank you for "trolling the bowl" once again,
Ah! it were a pleasure to play it with PAYN--
(By Jove, though--that loin-twinge was frightful!)

* * * * *

A THEATRICAL PLUNGE; OR, TAKING A HEDDA.

A plunge indeed! but fortunately the swimmers are strong, and able
to save the suicidal Ibsenites. For my part,--that is, as one of the
audience drawn by curiosity,--I should say that were it not for the
excellent acting of all concerned in the piece, and especially of Miss
ELIZABETH ROBINS as the Hanwellian heroine, IBSEN's _Hedda Gabler_
would scarcely have been allowed a second night's existence at the
Vaudeville. Miss ROBINS is so much in earnest--as a true artist should
be--that she excites your curiosity to discover what on earth she is
taking all this trouble about; and thus she compels your attention.
That the result is eminently unsatisfactory is no fault of hers.
The piece itself is stuff and nonsense; poor stuff and "pernicious
nonsense." It is as if the author had studied the weakest of the
Robertsonian Comedies, and had thought he could do something like it
in a tragic vein.

[Illustration: A Powerful Cast.]

In the last Act there is a situation reminding us strongly of one
short scene in _Caste; there_--so delicately and touchingly treated by
its author; _here_--so repulsively treated by IBSEN. Let it be reduced
to serious burlesque, and let us have it played by PENLEY as _George
Tesman_, ARTHUR ROBERTS (with a song) as _Judge Brack_, WEEDON