Gather your laurels whilst ye may,
The season on is flying,
And make your audience smile to-day,
To-morrow set them crying.
A good tragedian, when there’s one,
Much money may be getting,
But longer dramas have a run
The nearer he’s to fretting.

(After Lovelace.)

Large type does not an actor make,
Nor theatre-walls a cage,
Minds unambitious then may take
The salary they engage.
If I can’t get the parts I love,
At least, let me be free,
Another theatre yet may prove
My right to liberty.

Fun, 1863.


THE POETS’ CORNER

THE POETS’ CORNER

PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN
In the act of writing a funny poem, that will make you die of laughing when you read it.