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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=538926" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>At a Pantomime. By a Bilious One</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">An Actor sits in doubtful gloom,<br>His stock-in-trade unfurled,<br>In a damp funereal dressing-room<br>In the Theatre Royal, World.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He comes to town at Christmas-time,<br>And braves its icy breath,<br>To play in that favourite pantomime,<br>HARLEQUIN LIFE AND DEATH.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A hoary flowing wig his weird<br>Unearthly cranium caps,<br>He hangs a long benevolent beard<br>On a pair of empty chaps.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">To smooth his ghastly features down<br>The actor's art he cribs, -<br>A long and a flowing padded gown.<br>Bedecks his rattling ribs.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He cries, &quot;Go on - begin, begin!<br>Turn on the light of lime -<br>I'm dressed for jolly Old Christmas, in<br>A favourite pantomime!&quot;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The curtain's up - the stage all black -<br>Time and the year nigh sped -<br>Time as an advertising quack -<br>The Old Year nearly dead.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The wand of Time is waved, and lo!<br>Revealed Old Christmas stands,<br>And little children chuckle and crow,<br>And laugh and clap their hands.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The cruel old scoundrel brightens up<br>At the death of the Olden Year,<br>And he waves a gorgeous golden cup,<br>And bids the world good cheer.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The little ones hail the festive King, -<br>No thought can make them sad.<br>Their laughter comes with a sounding ring,<br>They clap and crow like mad!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They only see in the humbug old<br>A holiday every year,<br>And handsome gifts, and joys untold,<br>And unaccustomed cheer.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The old ones, palsied, blear, and hoar,<br>Their breasts in anguish beat -<br>They've seen him seventy times before,<br>How well they know the cheat!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They've seen that ghastly pantomime,<br>They've felt its blighting breath,<br>They know that rollicking Christmas-time<br>Meant Cold and Want and Death, -</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Starvation - Poor Law Union fare -<br>And deadly cramps and chills,<br>And illness - illness everywhere,<br>And crime, and Christmas bills.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They know Old Christmas well, I ween,<br>Those men of ripened age;<br>They've often, often, often seen<br>That Actor off the stage!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They see in his gay rotundity<br>A clumsy stuffed-out dress -<br>They see in the cup he waves on high<br>A tinselled emptiness.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Those aged men so lean and wan,<br>They've seen it all before,<br>They know they'll see the charlatan<br>But twice or three times more.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And so they bear with dance and song,<br>And crimson foil and green,<br>They wearily sit, and grimly long<br>For the Transformation Scene.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=William+Schwenck+Gilbert">William Schwenck Gilbert</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=538926" data-title="At a Pantomime. By a Bilious One de William Schwenck Gilbert" data-description="An Actor sits in doubtful gloom,
His stock-in-trade unfurled,
In a damp funereal dressing-room
In the Theatre Royal, World.

He comes to town at Christmas-time,
And braves its icy breath,
To play in that favourite pantomime,
HARLEQUIN LIFE AND DEA..."></div>
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