(Signed)
A. BRIEFLESS, JUNIOR.
Pump-Handle Court, January 24, 1891.
"PRO-DIGIOUS!"—In last Sunday's Observer we read that at St. Petersburg Madame MELBA, as Juliette, "was recalled thirty-one times before the proscenium." The italics are ours, rather! If this sort of thing is to be repeated during the Opera season here, and each gifted singer is recalled in proportion to his or her merits, the audience will not get away till the following morning. Juliette must have said, on the above-mentioned occasion, "Parting is such sweet sorrow, That I could say 'good-night' until to-morrow." And the usual chorus of operatic habitués will be, "We won't go home till morning. Till daylight doth appear!" with refrain, "For—she (or he)'s a jolly good singer," &c., ad infinitum, or "ad infi-next-nightum."
THE FRIEZE OF THE PARTHENON.
ENGLAND TO ATHENS:—
O Queen of Cities, with a crown of woe,
Scarred by the ruin of two thousand years,