THE PROMISE OF MAY!
(An Old Song re-set, and specially dedicated, for purposes of recitation, to Mrs. Bernard-Beere, Manageress of the Globe Theatre).
YOU must call rehearsals early, call them early, KELLY dear!
November'll be the merriest month of our dramatic year;
November I have fixed it for the Laureate's new play,
And I'm to be Promise of May, KELLY, I'm to be Promise of May!
There's many a chosen priestess in the wild æsthetic line.
There's ELLEN! and there's MARION! whose fingers intertwine!
But all the Grosvenor Gallery think none like me, they say;
So I'm to be Promise of May, KELLY, I'm to be Promise of May!
I'm thinking of the night, you know, both sleeping and awake,
And I hear them calling loudly till their voices seem to break;
But I must fashion lots of gowns in Liberty silks so gay,
For I'm to be Promise of May, my Lad, I'm to be Promise of May!
I went down into Surrey—don't laugh, it is no joke—
And found the great Bard dramatist wrapt in a cloak—of smoke!
He handed me his manuscript, and read it yesterday;
So I'm to be Promise of Maytime, I'm to be Promise of May!
He said I was ideal, because I kept it up,
This mixture of his Dora, and his Camma in the Cup.
They call me a replica, but I care not what they say.
Now I'm to be Promise of May, you see, I'm to be Promise of May!
They say he's pining still for fame; but that can never be.
He likes to roar his lyrics, but what is that to me?
I'll fill the Globe with worshippers, in the old Lyceum way—
For I'm to be Promise of May, my Friend, I'm to be Promise of May!
My sisters of the cultus shall attend me clad in green;
All the poets and the painters must hail me as their Queen!
The great dramatic critics of course will have their say,
Now I'm to be Promise of Maytime, I'm to be Promise of May!
The Pit with wild excitement will tremble, never fear,
And the merry gods above them will greet me with a cheer!
There will not be a ribald line in all the Laureate's play,
For I'm to be Promise of May, you see, I'm to be Promise of May!
All the Stalls will sit in silence, or with cynicism chill
Will pick the Bard to pieces, and work their own sweet will;
And HAMILTON CLARKE in the orchestra he'll merrily pose and play—
For I'm to be Promise of May, my Lad, I'm to be Promise of May!
So call rehearsals early, call them early, there's a dear!
Bid gipsy-tinted ORMSBY and VEZIN to appear.
November'll see what "gushers" call the "sweetest, daintiest play,"
And I'm to be Promise of May, KELLY, I'm to be Promise of May!
Punch, November 4, 1882.
As this parody refers to a nearly-forgotten play, the allusions in it may best be explained by the reproduction of the Play-bill, which has now become a literary curiosity.
The drama was a complete and melancholy failure; even George Augustus Sala, most lenient and genial of critics, could not but condemn it, as being as unactable a play as Shelley's "Cenci," or Swinburne's "Bothwell," or Southey's "Wat Tyler," whilst it possessed none of the literary merits of either of those compositions. He added, "It is finally and most wretchedly unfortunate that an illustrious English poet has not by his side some really candid and judicious friend, with influence enough, and courage enough, to persuade him to desist from subjecting this disastrous production to the ordeal of representation before a miscellaneous audience."
Bad as The Promise of May was, it contained one leading idea, which, from the very opposition it gave rise to, enabled the management to keep the play on the boards much longer than could have been anticipated. The plot had been foreshadowed in one of Tennyson's earliest poems, The Sisters:—
"WE were two daughters of one race:
She was the fairest in the face:
The wind is blowing in turret and tree.
They were together, and she fell:
Therefore revenge became me well.
O the Earl was fair to see!"