My sisters of the _cultus_ shall attend me clad in green; All the poets and the painters must hail me as their Queen! The great dramatic critics of course will have their say, Now I'm to be Promise of Maytime, I'm to be Promise of May! The Pit with wild excitement will tremble, never fear, And the merry gods above them will greet me with a cheer! There will not be a ribald line in all the Laureate's play, For I'm to be Promise of May, you see, I'm to be Promise of May! All the Stalls will sit in silence, or with cynicism chill Will pick the Bard to pieces, and work their own sweet will; And HAMILTON CLARKE in the orchestra he'll merrily pose and play-- For I'm to be Promise of May, my Lad, I'm to be Promise of May! So call rehearsals early, call them early, there's a dear! Bid gipsy-tinted ORMSBY and VEZIN to appear. November'll see what "gushers" call the "sweetest, daintiest play," And I'm to be Promise of May, KELLY, I'm to be Promise of May! _Punch_, November 4, 1882. As this parody refers to a nearly-forgotten play, the allusions in it may best be explained by the reproduction of the Play-bill, which has now become a literary curiosity. * * * * * The drama was a complete and melancholy failure; even George Augustus Sala, most lenient and genial of critics, could not but condemn it, as being as unactable a play as Shelley's "Cenci," or Swinburne's "Bothwell," or Southey's "Wat Tyler," whilst it possessed none of the literary merits of either of those compositions. He added, "It is finally and most wretchedly unfortunate that an illustrious English poet has not by his side some really candid and judicious friend, with influence enough, and courage enough, to persuade him to desist from subjecting this disastrous production to the ordeal of representation before a miscellaneous audience." Bad as _The Promise of May_ was, it contained one leading idea, which, from the very opposition it gave rise to, enabled the management to keep the play on the boards much longer than could have been anticipated. The plot had been foreshadowed in one of Tennyson's earliest poems, _The Sisters:_-- "We were two daughters of one race: She was the fairest in the face: The wind is blowing in turret and tree. They were together, and she fell: Therefore revenge became me well. O the Earl was fair to see!" THE GLOBE THEATRE. Licensed by the Lord Chamberlain to Mr. F. MAITLAND, 26½, Newcastle Street. _Under the Management of_ MRS. BERNARD-BEERE. _On SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11th, 1882_, WILL BE PRODUCED A NEW AND ORIGINAL RUSTIC DRAMA, IN PROSE, BY ALFRED TENNYSON (POET LAUREATE), ENTITLED, THE PROMISE OF MAY, IN THREE ACTS. THE WHOLE PRODUCED UNDER THE MANAGEMENT OF MR. CHARLES KELLY.