have been a pleasant, interesting comedy of modern manners, if only it had had a good comedy plot. Taken as a whole, the acting is admirable. Mr. TREE, as the titled cad, _Lord Illingworth_, is perfect in make-up and manner. Certainly one of the many best things he has done. It is a companion portrait to the other wicked nobleman in _The Dancing Girl_. (_"There is another and a worse wicked nobleman" N. B., O. W._) But this is no fault, and, indeed, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find fault with Mr. TREE'S _Lord Illingworth_. Mrs. TREE as _Mrs. Allonby_, is a very charming battledore in the game of repartee-shuttlecock, who with eight other principal characters in the piece, has nothing whatever to do with the plot. To the character of _Lady Hunstanton_, as written in the Mrs. Nickleby vein, and as played by Miss ROSE LECLERCQ, the success is mainly due; and "for this relief much thanks." It is here and in the comedy characters of the _Archdeacon_ (Mr. KEMBLE excellent in this) and of _Lady Caroline Pontefract_ (who couldn't have a better representation than Miss LE THIERE) that Mr. O. WILDE shows what he can do as a writer of comedy, both in the quality of the material and its introduction at the right moment. (_"The right speech at the wrong moment, or the wrong speech at the right moment, both are fatal. Thus is it that comedies become tragedies, and tragedies comedies." U.P.N.B., O. W._) At the Haymarket the "play's" not "the thing," it is the playing. (_"Likewise the writing," O. W._) However, it is not for the plot, or for the Bulwery-Lyttony orations, or for the familiar melodramatic situations that audiences will seek the Haymarket. No, it will be to hear the Christy-Minstrel epigrammatic dialogue in the first two Acts, to laugh heartily at Miss LECLERCQ as _Lady Nickleby Hunstanton_, to smile on the _Archdeacon_ and _Lady Caroline_, and to enjoy the first-rate acting all round. * * * * * MEMS, FROM THE O. W. UNCOMMONPLACE BOOK. "Essentials for success of modern play are 'Latitude and Platitude.' First being risky is saved by second." _Receipt for Play-making._--First catch your epigrams: preserve them for use: serve with _sauce piquante un pen risquee_ distributed impartially among a variety of non-essential _dramatis personae_, invented for the purpose. Provide fine old crusted copybook moral sentiments, to suit _bourgeois_ palate: throw in the safe situation of some one concealed, behind door or window, listening to private conversation. Add one well-tried effective dramatic situation to bring down curtain on penultimate Act, and there's a stage-dish to set before the appreciative B. P., if only it can be presented to them effectively garnished by a clever and popular Manager at a first-class theatre. * * * * * FLOWERS OF FASHION.