Famous Plays. By F. Fitzgerald Molloy. (Ward and Downey.)— The
first chapter of Mr. Molloy's book is devoted to Love for Love. About this play he has, indeed, little to tell us, but he gives us instead an interesting chapter on the playhouses of the Restoration. Cato, The Beggar's Opera, and Irene occupy the next three chapters. That the first of these was a success (it ran for thirty nights in London), and the third not a failure, was owing to political feeling. Gay's drama ran for about four months (January 29th to June 19th). But he probably made more money by Polly, which was vetoed by the Duke of Grafton, Lord Chamberlain. It was published. The Whigs vied with each other in favouring the author. The Duchess of Marl- borough gave him £100 for a single copy. Altogether, he received £1,200, and a home with the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry for the rest of his life. For She Stoops to Conquer, Goldsmith received in all about £600, or would have, had he not owed nearly half that sum to his publisher. The next chapter has for its subject Sheridan's two comedies ; but more than half of it is given to a sketch of the author's early life. In the last chapter we have an account of Lord Lytton's plays. His first effort, The Duchess de in Valliere, was a decided failure ; The Lady of Lyons, though severely criticised, a success,—and, indeed, it deserved to be so, though it is not free from the author's characteristic faults. It still survives, as do Richelieu and Money. The latter of these two had a run from December 8th to March 15th, when Macready's engagement came to an end. Mr. Molloy's is a very readable volume, not made the less ao by its occasional digressions.
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