, costume, etc., could deprive him of his
responsibility or his honor. The recent tendency to criticise these
designs with some severity will soon be counteracted. As a matter of
fact, they present some of the cleverest work du Maurier has ever done."

* * * * *

The New York _Sun_ printed a letter, not long ago, in which the drawings
were declared to be anachronistic. "Why," it was asked, "should Mr. du
Maurier deny to his characters the crinolines, waterfalls, surtouts,
cravats, chignons, peg-top trousers and hoop-skirts of the early
sixties, and make them, despite Taffy's whiskers, of the _monde_ of
to-day? Is it that his artistic instincts have reverted to that fine
school of old masters who delighted to portray, saving Taffy's grace,
Hector fighting in the armor of the Black Prince, or turned out Madonnas
by the score in Margaret of Anjou skirts?"

* * * * *

In "Trilby" every stroke of pen or pencil seems to be significant. Is
there special meaning in the fact that, in the dainty tail-piece, one
glass in the spectacles appears to be heavily shaded, while the other is
clear? Is Mr. du Maurier, like so many literary people, afflicted with
partial loss of sight or other visual difficulty?

AMHERST COLLEGE LIBRARY.

W. I. FLETCHER.

[Unhappily he is, and has been for many years. It is only with the
greatest difficulty that he is able to work with either pen or pencil.]

[Illustration: From "Trilby." Copyright, 1894, by Harper & Brothers.]

"Trilby" on the Stage

Mr. Paul M. Potter's dramatization of "Trilby" was produced by Mr. A. M.
Palmer's company at the Boston Museum on Monday, 4 March, 1895, and
achieved so great a success that several companies were immediately put
upon the road to play it throughout the country. Its first production in
New York, with the original cast, occurred at the Garden Theatre, on
April 15. Hundreds of people were turned away from the door for want of
room to accommodate them; and an offer was received from Mr. Beerbohm
Tree, the eminent English actor, for the privilege of producing the play
in England, where he himself wished to impersonate Svengali. It would be
a pity if the Lyceum company did not secure the English rights; for Mr.
Irving would make an inimitable Svengali, and Ellen Terry would be
Trilby without trying.

As nobody has ever succeeded, or is likely to succeed, in really
dramatizing a novel,