[AN APRIL JOKE.]
BY M. D. BRINE.
Master Ned on the door-step sat,
Busily thinking away.
"Now what shall I plan for a clever trick
For an April-fool to play?
There's Tom, he's mean as a boy can be,
And he never can pass me by
Without a word that is rude and cross,
And maybe a punch on the sly.
"Some trick I'll find that'll pay him off
And teach him a lesson too."
So Master Ned he pondered awhile,
Till the dimples grew and grew,
And he laughed at last as away he ran.
"I'll make him sorry," thought he,
"For the many times he has done his best
To tease and to trouble me."
On April first, with the early dawn,
Was found at Tommy's door
A package tied, and "Master Tom"
Was the only address it bore.
"'Tis only a trick of Ned's," said Tom;
"He owes me many a one;
But I'll match him yet—he'd better beware—
Before the day is done."
Then Tom peeped in at his package. Oh,
What a shamefaced fellow was he!
A handsome book, and a line which read,
"Accept this, Tom, from me."
And this was the way in which Tom was "fooled";
And afterward, meeting Ned,
"Your trick has beaten all mine for good—
Forgive me, old fellow," he said.
[THE STORY OF THE OPERA.]
BY MRS. JOHN LILLIE.
One evening toward the close of the sixteenth century, a group of gentlemen were hurrying up the staircases and along the corridors of a house in Florence.
They were richly dressed, according to the custom of the time. But they were all students, all deeply absorbed in music, and they were on their way to the salons of one Giovanni Bardi, Conte di Vernio, for the purpose of discussing a new idea in their beloved art.
Now if we followed these gentlemen, what should we hear and see? Something very interesting, but, from our point of view to-day, very strange; for they were determined to develop opera, yet they had but the vaguest idea how it should be done.
Opera in its present form had so far been unheard of. The only idea these Italian gentlemen had of it was from the Greek lyrical dramas. You know that in ancient Athens there was a famous theatre where plays were given, accompanied by an orchestra of lyres and flutes. The chorus of the Agamemnon was sung, and some of the dialogue was given in a sort of recitative. Then, in early English times, music, or recitatives was introduced into the simple plays usually performed in the public streets. People in various countries had been gifted with some perception of the beauty of music and dialogue, but a regular opera, as I have said, was unknown.