"THE SCARCITY OF HARES."--It is so stated. But it's only a bald statement. * * * LETTS' DIARIES.--There are two sorts of Letts: The Out-Letts for 1887, and the In-Letts for 1888. Letts get 'em. * * * * * SHOWS VIEWS. _By Victor Who-goes-Everywhere._ [Illustration] Last week was remarkable for a number of _Matinées_. There were two, each with a new Play, at the Vaudeville, in preparation apparently for the disappearance of _Sophia_. The Author of one of the pieces was, I fancy, Mr. JONES (the name fixed itself on my memory), but I am not quite so sure about the others. I rather think the first play was written in collaboration possibly by Messrs. BROWN and ROBINSON to complete the immortal _trio_. However, the morning performance _par excellence_, was the production of a new and original poetical drama in five Acts, called _Nitrocris_, by GEO. GRAVES, at Drury Lane. This was really a very interesting occasion, as we were taken back to B.C. 1420, and I must admit that I too was rather taken aback when I found the Early Egyptians talking of the "Pharmacopoeia," and many other matters of a yet more recent date. I supposed this was local colouring, and when I saw the "Banquetting Hall in the Palace," I felt sure that the Egyptian Court represented belonged to the Nineteenth Century, and could be easily discovered (either by season ticket or on payment of a shilling) in Sydenham. The Author supplies a note in the official programme, in which she informs the World that AMUN-MYKERA NITOCRIS was "handsome among women, and brave among men, and governed for her husband with great splendour and much justice, though she is rebuked by several of the ancient historians for her cruelty and sensuality," and no doubt these facts have suggested the five long Acts of the more or less poetical play. What story there is shows how the adopted son of and apprentice to an Embalmer, after being left to die in the Palace of _Nitocris_ for refusing to join in an unpatriotic toast, escapes, and twelve weeks later is lured back once more to the Royal realms to reject the suddenly-kindled love of the Egyptian Queen in favour of the affection of a Grecian orphan called _Soris_, who happens to be staying on a visit with her swarthy Majesty. Then _Soris_ gets half-poisoned and entirely stabbed, and _Nitocris_ and the Embalmer's Apprentice repair to a "stretch of desert in the neighbourhood of the Pyramids," to be drowned in an inundation which is much talked about but never seen. As the Embalmer's Apprentice, Mr. J. H. BARNES fostered the impression that he was either a very slow and dull pupil, or that the art of embalming had taken him a middle-aged lifetime to thoroughly acquire. In the last act he looked like a portly Friar of Orders Grey sadly in need of the fast rising Nile. Mr. ROBERT PATEMAN was good as a nigger _Quasimodo_,