ACTORS AND GENTLEMEN.

Observer, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4, 5 October 1912, Page 14

ACTORS AND GENTLEMEN.

(A policeman giving evidence in a Melbourne court declared that the accused represented himself as a gentleman, but was discovered to be an actor). Never was imputation worse Than this from tongue or pen, That actors, be they what they may, Are yet not gentlemen. - - Though Kean in taverns sat and sang, Preferred the sterner sex, Yet now our Oscar or our George Takes tea with Lady X. Of old the actor in hie " waits " Diepatched for gin or "purl, But now receives, with knightly air, Ambassador and. Earl. Now Borneo and Hamlet wear Deportment of the city ; Othello now is comme il faut, E'en Oedipus is pretty. Oh ! let the tragic manner go, Decay, decline, and die. But, ah, for mercy's sake, ye mimes, Preserve gentility I Great British Public, slow to learn, Yet apprehended this fact, That actors now are gentlemen— Alas ! but can they act ! S.P.