Eva : an Original Play. By Henry Cook. (Kogan Paul,
Trench, and Co.)—Mr. Cook possesses a certain amount of dramatic power. So much we can judge from the play before us. But whether he is likely to write one which will succeed on the stage, it is not easy to say. We do not think that Eva would. But then, that is scarcely a fair test, as we gather from Mr. Cook's preface that it was not written with this view. Eva has not sufficient variety of incident ; nor, indeed, enough material in the way of characters. We have the hero, heroine, villain and his tool, all of them old friends ; but a successful play will need more than these. For instance, there is no comic element. Still the play does not drag ; and Mr. Cook has had the good sense to write it in prose. He has also given us in his volume a translation of Giuseppe Giacosa's The Triumph of Love. This little play is pretty, though weak and somewhat lacking in originality.
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