POLITICAL SEPULTURE.--The Senior Member for Northampton lately told his constituents that:--
"The Conservatives were digging their own graves, and it was about the only good and sensible thing they possibly could do."
But if they wanted an interment, the Home-Rulers could supply them with a SEXTON ready and willing to save them that trouble.
"THE SCARCITY OF HARES."--It is so stated. But it's only a bald statement.
LETTS' DIARIES.--There are two sorts of Letts: The Out-Letts for 1887, and the In-Letts for 1888. Letts get 'em.
Last week was remarkable for a number of _Matinées_. There were two, each with a new Play, at the Vaudeville, in preparation apparently for the disappearance of _Sophia_. The Author of one of the pieces was, I fancy, Mr. JONES (the name fixed itself on my memory), but I am not quite so sure about the others. I rather think the first play was written in collaboration possibly by Messrs. BROWN and ROBINSON to complete the immortal _trio_. However, the morning performance _par excellence_, was the production of a new and original poetical drama in five Acts, called _Nitrocris_, by GEO. GRAVES, at Drury Lane. This was really a very interesting occasion, as we were taken back to B.C. 1420, and I must admit that I too was rather taken aback when I found the Early Egyptians talking of the "Pharmacopoeia," and many other matters of a yet more recent date. I supposed this was local colouring, and when I saw the "Banquetting Hall in the Palace," I felt sure that the Egyptian Court represented belonged to the Nineteenth Century, and could be easily discovered (either by season ticket or on payment of a shilling) in Sydenham. The Author supplies a note in the official programme, in which she informs the World that AMUN-MYKERA NITOCRIS was "handsome among women, and brave among men, and governed for her husband with great splendour and much justice, though she is rebuked by several of the ancient historians for her cruelty and sensuality," and no doubt these facts have suggested the five long Acts of the more or less poetical play. What story there is shows how the adopted son of and apprentice to an Embalmer, after being left to die in the Palace of _Nitocris_ for refusing to join in an unpatriotic toast, escapes, and twelve weeks later is lured back once more to the Royal realms to reject the suddenly-kindled love of the Egyptian Queen in favour of the affection of a Grecian orphan called _Soris_, who happens to be staying on a visit with her swarthy Majesty. Then _Soris_ gets half-poisoned and entirely stabbed, and _Nitocris_ and the Embalmer's Apprentice repair to a "stretch of desert in the neighbourhood of the Pyramids," to be drowned in an inundation which is much talked about but never seen. As the Embalmer's Apprentice, Mr. J. H. BARNES fostered the impression that he was either a very slow and dull pupil, or that the art of embalming had taken him a middle-aged lifetime to thoroughly acquire. In the last act he looked like a portly Friar of Orders Grey sadly in need of the fast rising Nile. Mr. ROBERT PATEMAN was good as a nigger _Quasimodo_, who apparently had nothing in particular to do save to murder Miss ALMA MURRAY when that popular young _tragédienne's_ sorrows became monotonous and required curtailment in the interests of the audience. Mr. FERNANDEZ too was useful as Chief of the Magi, and Mr. BERNARD GOULD'S performance would have been more pleasing had he really died at the end of the Second Act, instead of living to see the final fall of the curtain. But this last was rather the Author's than the actor's fault. Personally I should have been better satisfied had every one died at the end of the First Act, but I confess I am a little exacting. On Wednesday, after the "principals" had been called and received more or less applause, there was a cry for the Authoress, when to my surprise a lady in a semi-masculine costume and seemingly in her "teens," made her way before the curtain. This was young "CLO,"--a most charming person to judge from her personal appearance. There was a further "call" when a gentleman of much maturer years was seen bowing. I do not know if he was also a "CLO,"--if so, he was unquestionably a much older "CLO"--in fact, quite an elderly "CLO." Ages ago a wonderful piece called _Nitocris_ was played at Drury Lane for a few nights with moderate success. In it was represented an inundation, that, if it did not precisely resemble the waters of the rising Nile, at any rate was a capital realisation of green-coloured muslin sprinkled with spangles. I am afraid that young "CLO'S" poetical play will not keep the stage much longer than its predecessor.