12 JANUARY 1884, Page 21

The Portfolio.—There is a very interesting article—certainly the most thorough

criticism that has yet appeared—on the Cambridge performance of the Birds of Aristophanes. A curious chapter in artistic history is supplied in " Hogarth and the Pirates." The second of the etchings, "The Front of Rheims Cathedral," is a very fine piece of work; and the engraving, a fac-simile after J. Pennell, of a Venetian scene, "A Water Gate in Venice," is exoellent. This illustrates the first of a proposed series of papers, " The Artist in Venice," by Miss Julia Cartwright. The other article is " Sold and Matter in the Fine Arts."