The new Lyceum season opened with yet one more play of Shakespeare’s—‘Richard III.’ As might have been expected, he put aside the old, well-established Cibberian version, a most effective piece of its kind, and restored the pure, undiluted text of the Bard, to the gratification, it need not be said, of all true critics and cultivated persons. It was refreshing to assist at this intellectual feast, and to follow the original arrangement, which had all the air of novelty.[15] A happily-selected piece was to follow, the old melodrama of ‘The Courier of Lyons,’ which was brought out on May 19, 1877, under a new title, ‘The Lyons Mail.’ The success of ‘The Bells’ had shown that for a certain class of romantic melodramas the actor had exceptional gifts; and it may be added that he has a _penchant_ for portraying characters of common life under exciting and trying circumstances. This play is an admirable specimen of French workmanship. The characters are marked, distinct, amusing; every passage seems to add strength to the interest, and with every scene the interest seems to grow. The original title—‘The Courier of Lyons’—seems a more rational one than ‘The Lyons Mail.’ With pieces of this kind, where one actor plays two characters, a nice question of dramatic propriety arises, viz., to how far the point of likeness should be carried. In real life no two persons could be so alike as a single person, thus playing the two characters, would be to himself. The solution I believe to be this, that likenesses of this kind, which are recognised even under disguise, are rather mental and intellectual, and depend on peculiar expression—a glance from the eye, smiles, etc. Irving, it must be said, contrived just so much likeness in the two characters as suited the situations and the audience also. Superficially there was a resemblance, but he suggested the distinct individualities in the proper way. The worthy Lesurques was destined to be one of his best characters, from the way in which he conveyed the idea of the tranquil, innocent merchant, so affectionate to his family, and so blameless in life. Many will recall the pleasant, smiling fashion in which he would listen to the charges made against him. A yet bolder experiment was now to be made, and another piece in which Charles Kean made a reputation, ‘Louis XI.,’ was brought out on March 9, 1878. It may be said without hesitation that this is one of the most powerful, finished, and elaborate of all Irving’s efforts, and the one to which we would bring, say, a foreign actor who desired to see a specimen of the actor’s talents.