GERRY, of Massachusetts, was smartish, for his time, But HOZIER "goes one better," it moves his soul to rhyme. Our Scottish Wegg (_sans_ timber leg) drops into verse--though queer. About the game--which two can play--of the "Tre-vel-yan-de-rer!"
There's Jove, the god of thunder, and Mars, the god of war, Brave Neptune, with his trident, but here's a greater, far! HOZIER-Apollo now is seen descending from his sphere To string betimes impromptu rhymes on the "Tre-vel-yan-de-rer!"
Then let us fill a bumper, and drink a health to those Who, "dropping into poetry," leave lesser wits to prose, And especially to HOZIER, who raised a ringing cheer, By his doggerel delightful on the "Tre-vel-yan-de-rer!"
MR. G. "SHADOWED."--Of course even Mr. G. cannot be "The Shadowless Man," except under the terms of that weird story, "which is impossible." The Police have arrived at one important point about the recently arrested TOWNSEND. They now say, "We know that man, he comes from Sheffield."
[Illustration: THE "POINT TO POINT RACE."
MR. JORROCKS-GLADSTONE (_loq._). "COME HUP! I SAY--YOU HUGLY BEAST!!"]
[Illustration: Massa Beerbones Lord Shillingworth. Massa Johnson O'Wilde. Dr. Proudie Kemble of Barchester. Lady Nickleby Leclercq.
"Let who will give me a plot, _I_ will write their dialogue." (_Extract from Uncommon-place Book of_ Mr. O. WILDE.) Now when the author of _A Woman of No Importance_ and of _Lady Windermere's Fan_ has to find his own materials for a plot (_"'Play-wrights' materials for plots made up.' Idea for Literary and Dramatic Advertisement" Note-book, O. W._)--well, he does find them, and makes them his own. (_"Adoption not adaptation. A clear distinction.--N.B. I confer the 'distinction'" O. W._) Certainly "Our OSCAR" possesses the happy knack of turning out some well-polished epigrams up to Drawing-room date. And so it happens that, during the first two Acts, when Mr. WILDE'S _dramatis personæ_ are all gathered together, with nothing to do and plenty to say, their conversation is light and airy, with an occasional sparkler coming out (_"A summer night, with, at intervals, a brilliant meteor flashing through the sky." Uncom. P. B., O. W._), that crackles, goes pop like the weasel of the old song, and "then is heard no more," as was the case with _Macbeth's_ poor player, and, as he was a poor player, his fate was not undeserved.--(_Mem. "A Lady Nickleby or Duchesse de Malapropos, to misquote.--For example, she might say, as quoting Shakspeare, 'Life's but a walking candle.'" O. W._)