Original Plays. By W. S. Gilbert. (Chatto and Windus.)—The first
play in the volume is "The Wicked World," it had a certain fame of its own, and got more, perhaps, from a burlesqne which the Censor's inter- ference made celebrated. Reading it calmly, without the attractions which art could give to a stage fairy-land, and nature and art combined to stage fairies, we have felt no sort of pleasure, but something very like disgust. The "Fairy World" is one from which love is banished. As soon as the new element is introduced, envy, jealousy, unbridled desire, and every bad passion are introduced with it. The lines with which the mortal Ethais finally repulses the love of Selene are such as never should have been spoken, much less written :— e Away from me! I go to that good world, Where women are not devils till they die."
"Pygmalion and Galatea" is a better play, though not a very pleasant one. In the old story, Pygmalion, disgusted with the wickedness of man- kind, expends his toil on the sculpture of a statue, for which ho finally feels a love so intense that Venus wakens it to life. In Mr. Gilbert's play the statue is wakened, but finds itself so out of place among the passions of the living creatures into the midst of whom it has come, that it returns to its pedestal. The situation is really dramatic at the close of the play, and deserves success. The other plays are Charity,', "The Princess," "The Palace of Truth," and "Trial by Jury."
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