lover, makes a fine hero. The sketch of Algernon Sidney is rather
colourless, but Charles II. is well drawn. It seems to be a novel with a
high purpose and a noble meaning. Yet it is never dull.

Mrs. Macquoid's Louisa is modern and the scene is in Italy. Italy, we
fear, has been a good deal overdone in fiction. A little more Piccadilly
and a little less Perugia would be a relief. However, the story is
interesting. A young English girl marries an Italian nobleman and, after
some time, being bored with picturesqueness, falls in love with an
Englishman. The story is told with a great deal of power and ends
properly and pleasantly. It can safely be recommended to young persons.

(1) In the Golden Days. By Edna Lyall, Author of We Two, Donovan, etc.
(Hurst and Blackett.)

(2) Louisa. By Katherine S. Macquoid. (Bentley and Son.)




HENRY THE FOURTH AT OXFORD


(Dramatic Review, May 23, 1885.)

I have been told that the ambition of every Dramatic Club is to act Henry
IV. I am not surprised. The spirit of comedy is as fervent in this play
as is the spirit of chivalry; it is an heroic pageant as well as an
heroic poem, and like most of Shakespeare's historical dramas it contains
an extraordinary number of thoroughly good acting parts, each of which is