Come, gently lay within the lap of earth
This heart that loved to let us share its mirth
But bore alone the sorrow none might share.
FIFTY YEARS A QUEEN
(An Author's Tribute.)
(A scheme is on foot for presenting a National Tribute to Miss Ellen Terry on April 28, the fiftieth anniversary of her first appearance on the stage.)
Ellen Terry's Jubilee in the same year was honoured in a cartoon; but a new and formidable rival to the Muses of legitimate Comedy and Tragedy reared its menacing head in the following year. The visit of the Grand Guignol to London in 1907 inspired a prophetic fantasy on the new cult of "Shrieks and Shudders" which has been easily eclipsed by the realities of the Little Theatre. As I write these lines the leading serious weekly, among "Plays worth seeing," includes the "unabated horrors" of the London Grand Guignol. I have spoken elsewhere of the dancing mania. In 1909 the furore excited by Miss Maud Allan led to the following squib in which burlesque is mingled with caustic ridicule:—
HER RETURN