Nor must my brief laudations Omit the genial Dan, Or Harvey's imitations Framed on a novel plan, Or Ben, that priceless super Moustachioed like a trooper, Who plays like Margaret Cooper Were she a Superman. 'Twould need the fire of Uriel To hymn your female stars For Muriel's most Mercurial And Gwennie's surnamed Mars. O Gwennie, you're a miracle Of mimicry satirical, Yet when your mood is lyrical There's not a note that jars. The "Follies" were benefactors; their satire was in the main most genial; and they did not cause their audiences "furiously to think." These aims accorded largely with _Punch's_ own conception of the function of public entertainers; none the less in his later years he was by no means antagonistic to the serious drama. In 1907 Mr. Galsworthy's _Strife_ is welcomed as a great play, greatly acted. _Punch's_ dramatic critic has nothing but praise for it, though he did not think that the author bothered about a moral. It was his business to make other people uncomfortable, to make them think and "do something." "If _Strife_ has a moral it is simply that the problem of Capital and Labour will have to be settled." [Illustration: THE ENEMY THAT WAS CHORUS OF MUSIC-HALL ARTISTS: "Glad you're one of us now, Sir Beerbohm."] _Punch_ still intermittently bewailed the decline of the Harlequinade. His Lament for King Pantomime in 1910 was based on an article in the _Daily Telegraph_ welcoming the beneficent revolution which had substituted _Peter Pan_ for the old Christmas carnival of Clown and Pantaloon. At the same time _Punch_ had himself become more than reconciled to the new children's idol and had compared Maeterlinck's _Blue Bird_ unfavourably with the perennial Peter. The competition of the film play had not yet become acute, and the Music-Hall, which _Punch_ had so frequently and even fiercely assailed in its earlier phases, was now a formidable and fashionable rival of the theatre. In 1908 Harry Lauder's salary, alleged to average £250 a week, is compared with that of the Lord Chancellor. There was no longer any talk of "indignity" in appearing on the boards of the variety stage, and _Punch_ notices Sarah Bernhardt's appearance at the Coliseum, in 1910, as putting the crown on the new movement, and providing the Halls with their apotheosis, for she was "still the greatest star in the Thespian firmament." Her "turn" was in the second Act of _L'Aiglon_; the only other feature in the programme that called for notice was the performance of the "Balalaika Orchestra"; the rest of the "artists" were "very small minnows alongside of this great Tritoness." The "divine Sarah" could do no wrong, but, when Sir Herbert Tree appeared in the Halls, in 1911, _Punch's_ cartoon was certainly not honorific. Nor is the note of "indignity" altogether lacking in the dialogue between the two knockabout comedians in Mr. Townsend's picture in 1912:--