Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, March 21, 1917Various
History
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, March 21, 1917
Various
English wit and humor -- Periodicals
I won't deny that the excellent moral of the play goes far to disarm one's
critical faculty. Why not confess that one lost one's heart to the nicest
tailor since _Evan Harrington_? Indeed, Mr. TULLY (always, I find, quite
admirable in characterisation, and that no mere matter of outward trick,
but duly charged with feeling) made just such a decent, lovable, sideless
officer as it has been the pride of the nation of shopkeepers to produce in
the day of challenge. Whoever was it dared cast Mr. MCKINNEL for the part
of a weak kindly old ass of a baronet, without any ruggedness or violence
in his composition? Congratulations to the unknown perspicacious hero and
to Mr. MCKINNEL! Miss MADGE TITHERADGE flapped prettily as a flapper; bit
cleanly and cruelly in her biting mood; surrendered most engagingly. This
is less than justice. She used her queer caressing voice and her reserves
of emotional power to fine effect. Miss LILIAN BRAITHWAITE made her _Lady
Broughton_ nearly credible and less "unsympathetic" than was just. Mr.
DANIELL is new to me. He played one of those difficult foil parts with a
really nice discretion.
The audience was genuinely pleased. It dragged from the author a becomingly
modest acknowledgment. He _did_ owe a great deal to his players, but a
writer of stage plays need not be ashamed of that. T.
* * * * *
[Illustration: _Ethel (playing at grown-ups)._ "IS YOUR HUSBAND IN THE WAR,
MRS. BROWN?" _Mabel._ "OH YES, OF COURSE, MRS. SMITH."
_Ethel._ "IS HE IN FRANCE?" _Mabel._ "NO, HE'S IN THE WAR LOAN."]
* * * * *
THE PLOT PRECAUTIONARY.
(_The KAISER addresses his Transatlantic Faithful._)
Ye stalwart Huns and strident,
Who can't come home again,
Because base Albion's trident,
Though largely on the wane,
Still occupies successfully the surface of the main;
Give ear, my gallant fellows,
While I the truth declare;
Britain's expiring bellows
Will shortly rend the air;
Wiping the earth up then will be a simplified affair.
But, while at home our Hunnish
Valour obtains the day,
It must be yours to punish
The craven U.S.A.,
Debouching on them unawares from Sinaloa way.
I make the rough suggestion,
And it shall be your care
To solve the minor question
Of how and when and where,
Aided by Gen. CARRANZA, the party with the hair.
Some pesos and centavos
He will of course demand
Before he leads his bravos
Across the Rio Grande;
Offer the fellow all he wants--in German notes of hand.
Meanwhile the Hyphenated,
Busy with bomb and knife,
Will likewise hand the hated
Gringos a taste of strife,
Starting with Colonel ROOSEVELT and the Editor of _Life_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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