It may be said of such an one that he is a man unlettered, having little Latin and of Greek no whit. How should he write plays? Whence hath he lore of law and medicine, of history and science? But there be handbooks. And a man may learn by enquiry of another, giving to him the price of half-a-pint. So shall the dramatist acquire such matters as be necessary, as the names of battles and of Kings and an imperfect understanding of legal phrases. Moreover, where no copyright is, he may steal freely from others, appropriating their plots and embellishing them.... Lastly to conclude this part, he that writeth dramas must endure with philosophy the investigations of talented ladies. Being of humble estate he must not murmur should his works be taken from him and given to a Lord Chancellor. Being himself sane he must bear with the lunatick fancies of others. And though his words be twisted into crazy anagrams, and his dramas be made a source of a scandal about Queen Elizabeth, he must not complain. Generally let the wise man ignore the bee that buzzeth in another's bonnet. _Punch's_ "Essay" is not without relevance in its bearing on the recent "invention" of that highly "talented lady" Miss Clemence Dane. [Sidenote: _Punch on "R. L. S."_] To repeat what I said in another volume, the highest qualities of the literary critic are revealed, not in his loyalty to established reputations so much as in his attitude to contemporary writers, in his ability to gauge the durability of their merits, and to distinguish a passing vogue from a sure title to remembrance. And there was certainly no lack of material on which to exercise these faculties in the 'nineties--romantic, realistic, and decadent. _Punch_ had already welcomed Mr. Kipling and Sir James Barrie, and though his appreciation of the former varied considerably in the next fifteen years, admiration of his freshness and invention prevailed on the whole over distaste for his excursions into politics, his addiction to technicalities, slang and obscurity. The literary criticism of _Punch_ was probably at its lowest ebb in 1893, when a review of Stevenson's _Catriona_ is bracketed with a notice of Miss Corelli's _Barabbas_. Punch deals faithfully with the method of handling Holy Writ adopted in _Barabbas_, but contents himself with recommending _Catriona_ to those who love Scots dialect, which he frankly confesses he does not. When Stevenson died in his early prime in 1894, a very different temper inspired _Punch's_ tribute to the Great Romancer:-- The lighthouse-builder raised no light That shall outshine the flame Of genius in its mellowest might, That beacons him to fame. And Pala's peak shall do yet more Than the great light at Skerryvore To magnify his name, Who mourned, when stricken flesh would tire, That he was weaker than his sire.