The Express.
London, England, 1866-03-13 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

THE SEASON OF 1886.

The season at her Majesty's Theatre commences
on Saturday, April 7. The band and chorus will be again
under the direction of Signor Arditi. The engage-
ments include the following :—Prime Donne Asso.
lute, Mille. Titian; Mille. Bioko, Mdii.. Louise
Lightmay (her first appearance), Mille. Enegoist,
Mille. Harrien.Wippern, and Mille. Ilma de Musks,
Prime Donne Mezzo-soprani e Contralti, Mdate. Dernerio
Lablache (her first appearance) ; Mille. Bettelbeim, Mime,
BAUM TreboUi. Seconds Donne, Mille. Rosalie and Mille.
FAL Primi Tenori Assoluti, Signor Mongini, Signor Arvini
(bia first appearance), Dr. Guns, Sigma Tam (hie first
appearance at her Majesty's Theatre), Signor Bettini, Signor
Stage°, Mr. nobler (his first appearance), and Signor Gardoei.
Primibaritoni e bassi essoluti : Mr. Bentley, Signor Amodio,
Signor Verger (of the Italian Opera, Paris, his rust appear-
ance), Signor Monello Junco, Signor Poll, Signor Boat,
and Signor Rokitansky. Primo buffo, Signor Scales*.
Secondi import: Signor Capello, Signor Berteochi,
Signor Manfredi, Signor Oasaboni. Madame Grisi.
This artiste's representations will extend over a few
nights only ; Mille. Thiene will take part in them. The
pieces to be produced include Clock's /pAigenia in Taurus,
IDinoralt, Mozart's comic opera /1 Seraglio, Don Giovanni,
Snontini's La Teetak, Rossini's La Donna del Logo, Der
AriecAutz, Mirella, Falstaff, Oberon, and TAe Huguenots.
The subscription will nought of thirty-five nights.

ALTERING HYDINS. —Anyone can mar a hymn,
which not one in ten thousand could have made. Ex-
ample. continually occur in almost all our hymn-books
where the editors have entirely mimed the sense of the
words which they thus bunglingly alter. Our translators
of the Bible are said to have received an application im-
puting a change in a word, and stating five reasons for its
adoption. The reply was a thankful acknowledgment,
stating that the translators had fifteen reasons against it.
And so, it the hymn writer were consulted, would it often
turn out to he with proposed shanties's of his work.
Indeed, he of all men is mach to be pitied in this matter.
He, poor man, in his bookseller's shop, turns over on the
counter some hymnbook of great pretension and highly ac-
credited, perhaps with ituircidation of millions. A hymn
of his own flatten his eta ; and liable as he is to human
weakness, a certain pleasurable seosation comes over him
doomed, alas, to give way to bow bitter disappointment,
when he sees that the very keystone of his thoughts has
been taken out, and the place supplied by some trumpery
stop-gap, whose greatest merit would be to have no meaning
at all, seeing that whatever it hes, mars and vulgarises the
whole. Of the books before us which adopt this practice,
it is hard to say which is the wont. As far es we have ex-
amined, Bosworth and Hefter are comparatively free from
it. The editors of " Hymns Ancient and Modern" have
indulged in it far too often ; indeed some of its worst ex-
amples are to be fond in their pers. Nothing can excuse
it when dealing with the hymn. of living writers. The
author may be always consulted as to any desired change,
and if his consent be withheld, the bymn ought not to be
used. We are sorry to say that such has not been the
practice of the editors of " Hymns Ancient and Modern."
Having taken hymns originally without any application to
the author, and having °hinged the wording so as to make
him responsible in the eyes of the public for senti-
ments very different from those of his own composi-
tion, they bay*, when applied to, declined to cor-
rect the fault, alleging as an excuse their extensive
circulation. That is, they refused reparation oa account
of the magnitude of the injury inflicted. The conduct of
the tract committee of the Christian Knowledge &misty
forma a favourable contrast. In one of the noses referred
to, they hrd copied the " amended " hymn from " Hymns
Ancient and Modern," truatiog to the high character and
good faith of that collection. But, on being made aware
of their error, they at once cancelled the leaf, and inserted
the hymn in its genuine state.—Contemporary Review for
Marsh.