The Shakespeare Memorial

Lord Lilac thought it rather rotten That Shakespeare should be quite forgotten, And therefore got on a Committee With several chaps out of the City, And Shorter and Sir Herbert Tree, Lord Rothschild and Lord Rosebery, And F.C.G. and Comyn Carr Two dukes and a dramatic star, Also a clergy man now dead; And while the vain world careless sped Unheeding the heroic name -- The souls most fed with Shakespeare's flame Still sat unconquered in a ring, Remembering him like anything. Lord Lilac did not long remain, Lord Lilac did not some again. He softly lit a cigarette And sought some other social set Where, in some other knots or rings, People were doing cultured things. -- Miss Zwilt's Humane Vivarium -- The little men that paint on gum -- The exquisite Gorilla Girl . . . He sometimes, in this giddy whirl (Not being really bad at heart), Remembered Shakespeare with a start -- But not with that grand constancy Of Clement Shorter, Herbert Tree, Lord Rosebery and Comyn Carr And all the other names there are; Who stuck like limpets to the spot, Lest they forgot, lest they forgot. Lord Lilac was of slighter stuff; Lord Lilac had had quite enough.