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246 Thus the  mused on his way to the Club to read the latest telegrams from the seat of war.

Business done.—Various emergency Bills advanced a stage.

Thursday.—Five weeks ago, when Declaration of War with Germany boomed across Europe, asked the Commons to sanction increase of Army by half-a-million men. Reply enthusiastically affirmative. To-day comes down again and, like a young person who shall here be nameless, "asks for more."

National response to recruitment of first batch most gratifying. Save 60,000 men the half-million already enrolled. At present rate of progress another couple of days or so will see number completed. Meanwhile asks for another half-million.

These forthcoming, and in present mood of nation there is no doubt on subject, "We shall be in a position," he added, "to put something like 1,200,000 men in the field," a sight that would make, not to mention , stare.

With that patriotic zeal that has marked attitude of Opposition since war began warmly supported proposal. Vote agreed to without debate or division.

Business done.— Having voted additional half-million men for Army, House adjourned till Monday.





arrangements for the production of Mr. Author:Louis Napoleon Parker's pageant-comedy had of course been made long before war was contemplated. The completion of Mr. beard in itself points to a comparatively remote date for the play's inception. Certainly there is nothing very apposite in its theme at the present juncture; for, suffering from the gout, blustering into a sixth marriage, and haunted by the ghosts of four dead wives and the wraith of the sole survivor, is not a figure precisely calculated to inspire patriotic fervour. Still, the circumstances of the play are sufficiently national, and it should serve well enough as a permissible distraction for non-combatants.

You need not be terrified by the complexity of the cast, which consists of twenty prominent characters, twenty-four in smaller type, four ghosts and a wraith, and a sprinkling of nameless "halberdiers, huntsmen, minstrels, servitors, etc." (The soldier-supers—a type not to be confused with the super-soldier—were a very scratch lot; and I must hope that this defect was due to the enlistment of the more martial spirits in the profession.) The history of the period is made very easy for all intelligences, and the relations of Katherine Parr with her lover, Sir Thomas Seymour, furnish a clear thread of human interest.

It was pleasant to make the acquaintance of two future Queens—Mary and Elizabeth—at the less familiar stages of girlhood. Mary, very nicely played by Miss, showed no sign of her subsequent taste for blood; but Miss , in the part of the pedantic little Princess Elizabeth, gave us some very happy premonitions of the domineering qualities of the Virgin Queen. The tiny Prince Edward, too, who was prepared to compose an epithalamium for his royal parent's final wedlock, already gave promise of a scholarly career. Apart, however, from the charm of Miss as Katharine Parr, and the gentle dignity of Miss  as Anne Askew, there was little distinction shown by the others, though the Lord Chancellor Wriothesley of Mr., and Mr. Bishop Gardiner, conducted their villainies with a proper restraint.

The honours of the evening obviously went to Mr., who devised the admirable scenery and costumes, and to Mr. in the title-róle. By nature and constitution he is clearly made for this part of all others. Occasionally, in asides, his voice was the voice of Mr., but for the rest he identified himself with the undefeatable Hal. I hope he may be persuaded to retain the monarch's beard as a permanent feature; for, as a finished product, it suits him well in private life; and, if he is to make a practice of playing the part of Henry VIII., whether to the words of or Mr., I would not, for his own sake and that of his many friends, have him renew the horrific processes of its growth.

O. S.

The joy of Tante (from which novel Mr. Author:Charles Haddon Chambers has adapted this play) was that many chapters went by before the reader realised that Madame Okraska was indeed an impossible woman. One began by liking her; went on to criticise; decided that she wasn't so nice as the author intended her to be; and then discovered suddenly that she wasn't intended to be a sympathetic character at all, and that, in fact, our changing attitude towards her had been just the changing attitude which would have been ours in real life. That was Miss Author:Anne Douglas Sedgwick art. She took her time. Mr. on the stage has not the time to take.

And so "Tante" is shown to us at once as a histrionic vampire, feeding on the admiration and love of others. Gregory Jardine, in love with her ward, Karen, had already seen through her; we have seen through her; the question is, when will Karen see through her. Forget about the book and you have the foundation of a good play here, on which Mr. has built skilfully. I gather from the fact that he took alone the call for "Author" that he would wish us to forget about the book. I cannot quite do that, but I can say with confidence that whoever has not read Tante will enjoy The Impossible Woman fully, and that the others will at least find it interesting.

Miss was a superb Okraska. Since she had to reveal herself plainly to the audience, the temptation to overplay the part must have been great, but she resisted it nobly. Mr., still a little apt to smile at the wrong moment, was a thoroughly efficient Gregory; but Miss did not give me a very clear idea of Mr. Karen, and was certainly not Miss. Miss and Mr., in the small but important parts of Mrs. Talcot and Franz Lippheim, were of very great assistance to the play.

M.

 Motto for German sailors who have sunk several herring-boats:—Nemo repente fuit Tirpitzimus.