Ibsen's _Pillars of Society_, produced at a matinée in July, 1888, is compared by Punch with a melodrama performed at the "Old Vic" before it became "a sort of frisky Coffee Palace," very much to the disadvantage of Ibsen. In the old play the dialogue was crisp and to the point, in the new it was "hopelessly dull." _Punch_ adds that Mr. William Archer's translation seemed excellent, adding, "But what a pity he ever learned Norwegian!" Ada Rehan, the famous Irish-American actress, made her first appearance in London with Daly's company in the summer of 1890, but _Punch_, while delighted by her charming vivacity, thought she was already too old to play _ingénue_ parts. Her successes in Shakespearean comedy were to come later. [Illustration: IBSEN IN BRIXTON MRS. HARRIS: "Yes, William, I've thought a deal about it, and I find I'm nothing but your Doll and Dicky Bird, and so I'm going!"] Three familiar names greet us in the notices of the Christmas pantomimes of 1891. Marie Lloyd, Dan Leno and Little Tich all appeared in _Humpty Dumpty_, but the last-named receives the Benjamin's portion of praise. "Why Marie?" asks _Punch_, who disliked these unnecessary variants, which have since taken a more eccentric form in "Maudi," "Mai," and so forth. The Court Theatre was drawing the town with its Triple Bill in the spring of 1892, and _Punch_ did not spare his praise of the "Pantomime Rehearsal" which, with Ellaline Terriss, Decima Moore, Weedon Grossmith and Brandon Thomas in the leading parts, is pronounced to be "about the very funniest thing to be seen in any London theatre." Gilbert's brilliant Hamlet burlesque, _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern_, was for a while included in the bill, and _Punch_ describes it as "an excellent piece of genuine fun." It is all that and more. Gilbert never wrote anything wittier than the passage in which Ophelia discusses the various theories of the Prince's "mentality" and synthesizes them in the conclusion:-- Hamlet is idiotically sane, With lucid intervals of lunacy. These were stirring years in the realm of music. To take only some of the outstanding events, there was the Wagner Festival at the Albert Hall in 1877, conducted by the composer, which led in due time to something like a revolution in the repertory of grand opera in London; there was the coming of Hans Richter, whose orchestral concerts lent a fresh impetus to the cult of symphonic music already fostered by Manns and Hallé; there were the visits of Rubinstein and Liszt in 1886; the superb performance of Verdi's _Otello_ in 1887 by the Scala Company, with Tamagno and Maurel in the cast; the advent of the de Reszkes and Melba in 1889 and of Paderewski in 1890. Last and assuredly not least, when the test of pleasure and popularity is applied, there was the long and fruitful collaboration of Gilbert and Sullivan which began with _Thespis, or the Gods grown Old_, in 1871, and continued till nearly the close of the period under review.