mopolitans of Covent Garden.

The _clou_ of the evening was the ballet, already well-known, of the
Polovtsy warriors, executed with the extreme of fanatic fervour and
frenzy. The art of M. MICHEL FOKINE can turn his Russians into Tartars
without a scratch of the skin. BORODINE'S music, taking on a more
barbaric quality as the action travelled further East, here touched its
climax, and the final scene, where _Prince Igor_ returns home and
resumes the embraces of his queen, (a model of fidelity), was of the
character of a sedative.

"DAPHNIS ET CHLOE."

Those who complained--I speak of the few whose critical faculties had
not been paralysed by M. NIJINSKI--that in _L'Apres-midi d'un Faune_
the limitations of plastic Art (necessarily confined to stationary forms)
were forced upon an art that primarily deals with motion, will have
little of the same fault to find in _Daphnis et Chloe._ Here there is no
fixed or formal posing, if we except the attitude adopted (after a
preliminary and irrelevant twiddle) by certain Nymphs to indicate,
appropriately enough, their grief over the inanimate form of _Daphnis_.
The dances in which, to the mutual suspicion of the lovers, _Chloe_ was
circled by the men and _Daphnis_ by the maidens, were a pure delight.
There was one movement, when heads were tossed back and then brought
swiftly forward over hollowed breasts and lifted knees that had in it an
exquisite fleeting beauty. But memory holds best the grace of the
simpler and more elemental movements, the airy swing and poise of feet
and limbs in straight flight, linked hands outstretched.

In the _pas seul_ competition M. ADOLPH BOLM as _Darkon_ did some
astonishing feats which made the performance of M. FOKINE as _Daphnis_
seem relatively tame and conventional; and if I, instead of _Chloe_, had
been the judge I should have awarded the palm to the former. I am sure
that _Chloe_ was prejudiced, though certainly _Darkon_ was a very rude
and hirsute shepherd, and had none of _Daphnis'_ pretty ways.

The dancing of the brigands was in excellent contrast with the methods
of the pastoral Greeks. I will not, like the programme, distinguish them
as "Brigands with Lances," "Brigands with Bows" and "Young Brigands." To
me they were all alike very perfect examples of the profession; though I
admit that the flight of their spears was not always as deadly as it
should have been, and that one of the arrows refused to go off the
string and had to be