AustLit

Q. writes that he has been 'much abused lately' following comments he made regarding 'the "Author of Orion" [R. H. Horne]'. (See also Q.'s article in the Australasian,11 April 1868, for his original comments, and a further response on 9 May 1868.) He then goes on to reflect on watching the theatre from 'the sixpenny gallery' and commends the experience to his readers (whom he suspects are mostly of the 'porcelain of humanity'). Q.'s final topic is news that a literary club is being mooted for the city of Melbourne; he hopes 'it will come to birth'.

Q. confesses that, in his railing against the supposed wrongdoing of R. H. Horne in relation to a re-working of Shakespeare's character 'Shylock', he has himself committed a wrong: 'I have leant upon the broken reed of the Sydney press and it has pierced my hand. I have done an injustice, and must repair it.' (For Q.'s original comments, see 'The Peripatetic Philosopher' Australasian, 11 April 1868: 465.)

Q. was misled by a Sydney newspaper report into believing that there had been a public performance of an adapted version of Shylock; in fact, Horne had created a 'dramatic speculation as to what might have passed through Shylock's mind on listening to certain parts of Portia's lines of defence, supposing the same trial ... had occurred in Venice in the present century'. Horne's speculation was performed by Walter Montgomery at a private entertainment.

Q. also comments on several political and social matters affecting Melbourne.