With regard to the first ideal, many critics of this drama take the view that to the Greeks there would be nothing contemptible or unnatural in the conduct of Admetus. To quote Mr. Collins again on this point, 'Alcestis would be considered fortunate for having had an opportunity of displaying so conspicuously the fidelity to a wife's first and capital duty. Had Admetus prevented such a sacrifice he would have robbed Alcestis of an honor which every nobly ambitious woman in Hellas would have coveted. This is so much taken for granted by the poet that all that he lays stress on in the drama is the virtue rewarded by the return of Alcestis to life, the virtue characteristic of Admetus, the virtue of hospitality, to this duty in all the agony of his sorrow Admetus had been nobly true, and as a reward for what he had thus earned, the wife who had been equally true to woman's obligations was restored all-glorified to home and children and mutual love.' The unbiased reader, however, cannot help suspecting that Euripides saw ahead of the ideals of his time and intended deliberately to show up the cowardice and selfishness of Admetus, by what the critics call the 'painful scene' between Pheres and Admetus. In the second place, if he did not share to some extent the feelings of the chorus that the virtue of hospitality might be carried too far, how could he have made it say: 'Many a guest from many a land ere now I've known arriving at Admetus' halls, And set before them viands; but ne'er yet Any more reckless have I entertained Than this, who first, although he saw my lord, Bowed down with sorrow, dared to pass our gates, And next immoderately took his fill Of what was offered--though he knew our grief-- And what we did not offer bade us fetch.' The unbiased reader will find a few critics on his side, and he will find also the poet Browning, who, in his Balaustion's 'Adventure,' has put into the mouth of his beautiful young Greek woman an interpretation which will chime in fully with his own untutored perceptions. * * * * * THE CALDRON '_Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble_' OPERA VERSUS DRAMA Why opera, which is a less old and less vital form of entertainment than drama (in America), should spring into such prominence is difficult to understand. San Francisco has raised one hundred thousand dollars towards a seven-hundred-thousand-dollar opera house, which will be owned and managed by the municipality. The Metropolitan and the Chicago and the Philadelphia and the New Orleans Opera maintain themselves as centers of real artistic work, though they are not municipal enterprises. Opera in Boston is assured for another three years, and this has been accomplished through the efforts of citizens. But America has no endowed nor municipal theater.