There is something in a name, especially when it happens to be the
title of a play. At the St. James's, Mr. ALEXANDER'S latest venture
has been _Guy Domville_, by the American novelist HENRY JAMES, who
if he knew as much about play-writing as he does about novel-writing
would probably be in the first flight of dramatists; _and_ he would
not have chosen so hopeless a name for his hero and for his play as
_Guy Domville_. For the anti-James jokers would delight in finding
that _Guy could_ be "_guy'd_," and to say as to "_Domville_" that
"a first night audience '_vill dom_' the play." For all that, if
ALEXANDER be the sagacious commander in the dramatic field that he
has hitherto shown himself, it is not likely that he should have been
completely mistaken in accepting a play which a portion of the public
has refused to accept. Of course, a manager cannot afford to keep a
play going until the public come _en masse_ to see it, and therefore,
unless there is "a turn of the tide" (and such things have happened
before now, and a condemned piece has had a long and prosperous
career), Mr. ALEXANDER will himself be obliged to do to the play what
those who ridicule and chaff it have already done, _i.e._ "_take it
off_."
* * * * *
MRS. R. admits that she has always been very fond of sweets at dinner.
What she is especially fond of is, she says, "a dish of _pommes
d'Ananias_;" and she always adds, "But, my dear, why the French choose
such awful names for such nice things is what I never can understand."
* * * * *
[Illustration: "QUITE ENGLISH, YOU KNOW!"
_Abdurrahman Khan_ (_to himself_). "I THINK THIS'LL FETCH 'EM!"
["Should the Ameer happily accomplish the visit to this country on
which he has set his heart, he may be assured of the warm welcome due
to one who, since his accession to supreme power in Afghanistan, has
been the steady friend of Great Britain."--_Times._]]
* * * * *