“To have done, is to hang quite out of fashion, Like a rusty mail in monumental mockery.... For honour travels in a strait so narrow, Where one but goes abreast: keep, then, the path; For emulation hath a thousand sons, That one by one pursue: if you give way, Or turn aside from the direct forth-right, Like to an enter’d tide, they all rush by, And leave you hindmost;—and there you lie Like a gallant horse fallen in first rank, For pavement to the abject rear, o’er-run And trampled on; then, what they do in present, Though less than yours in past, must o’ertop yours.” CHAPTER XVI. 1893. ‘KING ARTHUR’—CORPORAL BREWSTER—HONOURS. When the theatre opened for the season, ‘Faust’ was revived to fill the time, and it drew excellent and satisfactory “houses” until the new piece was got ready. This, it was said, was rehearsed on board the steamer on the way home. Our actor had long before him the idea of playing the “spotless King,” and had the late Laureate been alive he might have been tempted to shape his great poem into a play. As it was, the versatile Comyns Carr was intrusted with the task, and, somewhat to the surprise of the public, he who had been art-critic, manager of Grosvenor and New Galleries, dramatist and designer of dresses, etc., for the Lyceum, now came forward as a poet; and a very respectable poet he proved to be, with harmonious mellifluous lines, effective from a stage point of view. It must be said, however, that the play is altogether a literary one, and rather lacks dramatic movement. It is really a series of dramatic recitations set off by beautiful shows, processions, and scenic views. The situations, too, scarcely brought about or led up to, are effective enough when we reach them. The piece was no doubt “written in the theatre” under inspiration of the manager, and supplied exactly what he wanted. The scenery was designed by Sir E. Burne Jones, who supplied some exquisite combinations or arrangements of colour, which were certainly new to stage-land. The music was Sir Arthur Sullivan’s, and there was later to be the unusual and unprecedented incident of no fewer than _three_ knights—a musician, a painter, and an actor—combining their talents in a single play. Beautiful was the opening scene with the blue waters and the swimming maidens imported from ‘Rheingold,’ with the finding of the “Excalibur” contrived most skilfully. There were grand halls and castles, and woodland groves, all exhibiting much originality of touch, that unvarying effective grace and tact which made the most of the materials. The characters were rather faintly outlined. King Arthur and his queen are comparatively colourless; so is Elaine. Mr. Forbes Robertson, who played Lancelot with picturesque power, was early withdrawn, being bound by some other engagement. His successor, a pleasing light comedian, lacks the weight necessary for the character.