asleep than _Josh Sedley_ on the eve of Waterloo, or the Fat Boy when
he surprised _Mr. Tupman_ and _Aunt Rachel_ in the arbour, or when he
pinched _Mr. Pickwick's_ leg in order to attract his attention. But,
after all, _Ivanhoe_ and _Rowena_, as THACKERAY remarked, are a poor
namby-pamby pair, and the real heroine is _Rebecca_. The Opera ends
with a "Rebecca Riot." Every one wishes success to the new venture.

[Illustration: "A1" Saxon Friar.]

As to the Music,--well, I am not a musician, and in any new Opera when
there is no one tuneful phrase as in _Aïda_ or _Tannhäuser_, which, at
the very first hearing, anyone with half an ear can straightway catch,
and reproduce next day till everyone about him cries, "Oh don't!" and
when, as in this instance, the conducting-composer, Wagnerianly, will
not permit _encores_--where am I? Nowhere. I return home in common
time, but tuneless. On the other hand, besides being certain that
_Friar Tuck's_ jovial song will "catch on," I must record the complete
satisfaction with which I heard the substantial whack on the drum so
descriptive of _Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert-sans-Sullivan's_ heavy fall
"at the ropes." This last effect, being as novel as it is effective,
attracted the attention of the wily and observant DRURIOLANUS, who
mentally booked the effect as something startlingly new and original
for his next Pantomime. The combat between the Saxon Slogger, very
much out of training, and the Norman Nobbler, rather over-trained
as the result proved, is decidedly exciting, and the Nobbler would
be backed at long odds. Altogether, the whole show was thoroughly
appreciated by WAMBA JUNIOR.

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