From some source or another handbills in the following form were plentifully distributed:
£100 REWARD
will be given to any person, male or female, who will pass the night alone in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussaud’s Exhibition. The only condition made is that the daring one shall not smoke or drink or read during the twelve hours he passes with the wax figures of the world’s noted criminals.
It was also stated on the handbill that the above was a copy of a placard said to have been issued many years ago, but in spite of the large reward, no one came forward to try the experiment, and that now, after many years, “Tom Lambert, the trainer of The Whip, undergoes this horrible experience in the Drury Lane drama.”
So far so good, for dramatic purposes—and that is all.
Apparently it was something of this sort that the bard had in mind who wrote the following stanza:
I dreamt that I slept at Madame Tussaud’s
With cut-throats and kings by my side,
And that all the wax figures in those weird abodes
At midnight became vivified.