Tonight the King and Queen hold their fit great Court at Buckingham Palace and with that function the great, season of 1902 may be said to commence.
These Courts, which are to replace the drawing rooms of the last reign, mark an entirely new departure and great curiosity has been evinced with regard to them. That they will always be held in the evening instead of the afternoon is a most welcome innovation, and that "mero man" will no longer be conspicuous by is absence will rejoice the hearts of old and young alike. Ten o'clock is the hour fixed for the reception, which gives nice time for a cosy little dinner first—which dinners will it is said in future take the place of drawing-room was with the addition of select supper parties afterwards, only light refreshments are to, be served at. the Palace. I am told that every table for supper at Prince's, the Carlton and the Savoy had been engaged for to-night weeks ago, and even those three rooms will take but a small number of the nine hundred invited guests who are to be present at the Court; and there will be the far larger number—those who wish to sce all that is to be seen—to ho catered for, so the managers of the lading West End restaurants are likely to have their resources taxed to the utmost to meet all demands made upon them.
rumoured that the Queen will en-put aside her mourning for Queen Victoria from to-night, when she will wear a magnificent dress. of iris yellow satin and a bouquet to correspond.
Owing to the great age of the late Queen the Court for some years had been little more than a "name, Four of five Drawing Rooms a couple of Balls and the same number of State Concerts were considered sufficient to meet the requirements of the case, but now everything will be changed and entertainments, Courts, dinners and small dances will follow each other in close succession; in fact, it is said that if the King and Queen enjoy rood health our English Court during the next few years will outrival the traditions of the French Court in the days of the Empire. One can only hope not, when one thinks of France as she is to-day and as she was then! It is certain, however, that' cverything points to luxury ahead. One has but, to consult the fashion papers and sco "what is worn" to see that extravagance in dress is to be the order of the day, and the same applies to furniture and food and all else. Yet our Queen and her daughters have most simple tastes; it almost seems that it is from the stage we get our sumptuous ideas. As Mrs. Kendal said one day, it is so easy to be generous there, one gives away thousands of pounds every night and does not miss them at alli I heard only a few days ago of some ladies who have had a flat in Victoria Street for 14 years at a very average rental. Their lease expires in March and they wrote to the landlord with regard to its renewal. Ho replied that in consequence of the King living so much more at Buckingham Palace than the late Queen had done, he was raising his rents, ip. conjunction with all other holders of property in the neighbourhood, 25 per cent, and that if they wished to remain in their flat it would have to be at an increased rental of £60 a year! The ladies say that as they see no prospect of their income increasing in the same ratio, they will be reluctantly obliged to leave this much-favoured neighbourhood which, by the way, docs not even command a view pf the chimneypota of the Palace Paolo and Francesco.
After several failures Mr. George Alexander has at last scored a great success in Mr. Stephen Phillips' romantic tragedy, and it will be months at least before he will need to rehearse Mr. Anthony Hope's comedy which, 1 believe, stands nest on the list for production at this theatre. Although this is the third of Mr. Phillips' plays which has been produced on the stage, it comes first in order of sequence, having been published in book form some time before "Herod or "Ulysses." It is likewise far ahead of either of them the matter of stagecraft, which is somewhat unusual, though of course Mr. Phillips was an actor (a member of Mr. Benson's Company) for some years before he took up Literature as a profession.
"Paolo" contains four acts with seven seenes, of which the Arbour of Roses in the Castle Garden, where the lovers read the sad story of Launcelot and Guinevere is infinitely the most beautiful. Mr. Phillips has adopted the theory that this episode took place just immediately after the marriage, whereas the one generally accepted is that Francesco and Giovanni had been married about eight years, and that she was the mother of two or more of his children before the final tragedy took place. In view of the insight into life which the author makes his heroine possess, it seems to mo that it had been Miser lad he dated the marriage as far back as possible, as no girl just fresh from 'a convent (presumably about fifteen, as we are told when she had been married eight Years she was twenty-three or four) would say, Oh Nito, when we women sin "tis not By art; it is not easy, it is not light Tt is an agony shot through with bliss:
We sway and rock and sutler ere we fall.
This shows a comprehension of life which no girl just home from the convent could possibly lave possessed, and it is only one among several passages of the same nature. Miss Evelyn Millard made a charming Francesco, though of course she could not look fifteen; but on the other hand no girl of anything like that ago could have portrayed the passion requisite in the closing scenes. Mr. Alexanders Giovanni was a fine performance, luite the most masterly thing I have seen jim do, and the Paolo of Mr. Henry Ain-ley (a Bensonite and a new comer to London), was interesting if somewhat cold. Miss' Elizabeth Robins, after some years absence from the stage, made a welcome Te-appearance, and was most excellent as Lucrezia, Giovanni's cousin—a widow, bitter and childless who, after making alt the mischief she could, repented most bit terly when she found Francesco loved her and Jonged to be loved in return. This Lucrezia is a creation of Mr. Phillips—she does not figure in any former plays fon the subject, the making of mischief being left to the time honoured man servant. Possibly the modern acceptation is that women do it more effectively; in any case Miss Robins could not have been better.
J.B.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.