_Enter the melancholy_ JAMES (_footman to the banished_ DUKE) _with one or two Lords, like Bushmen_. _James_ [_looking at his watch_]: 'Tis but an hour ago since it was nine And after one hour more 'twill be eleven; And thereby hangs a song. [_Sings it._] [_Mr. Punch_: Excuse me a moment, but is this Act _very_ bad? _Mr. Hicks von Rubenstammer_: Very bad indeed. _Mr. Punch_: Personally I fear that I shall not be able to survive it. _Mr. H. v. R._: Oh, two or three of us will re-write it after the first night, you know. _Mr. Punch_: Then by all means let us wait for that occasion.] Irving had met with various vicissitudes of criticism at _Punch's_ hands during his career. But latterly admiration prevailed, and, when the end came, real affection shines through the brief memorial quatrain printed in October, 1905:-- Ring down the curtain, for the play is done. Let the brief lights die out, and darkness fall. Yonder to that real life he has his call; And the loved face beholds the Eternal Sun. [Sidenote: _Ellen Terry's Jubilee_] Irving, as _Punch_ noted in his review of Mr. Bram Stoker's Life, was if possible more loved by his company than by the idolizing public. The financial misfortunes which dogged the last years of his life were due more to bad luck than bad management, and did not impair his serenity. He died in harness, and there was more tragedy in the latter years of his contemporary and friend, the famous and prosperous comedian J. L. Toole, for they were clouded by bereavement as well as infirmity; and _Punch's_ farewell to his friend in July, 1906, emphasizes the contrast:-- While Summer's laughter thrills the golden air, 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. [Illustration: 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 _Being a wholly imaginative anticipation of the Proceedings at the Palace on the historic night._