Page:General William Booth enters into Heaven, and other poems.djvu/69

Rh His troupe, too fat or short or long or lean, Step from the pages of the magazine With slapstick or sombrero or with cane: The tube, the cowboy or the masher vain. They over-act each part. But at the height Of banter and of canter and delight The masks fall off for one queer instant there And show real faces: faces full of care And desperate longing: love that's hot or cold; And subtle thoughts, and countenances bold. The masks go back. 'Tis one more joke. Laugh on! The goodly grown-up company is gone.

No doubt had he occasion to address The brilliant court of purple-clad Queen Bess, He would have wrought for them the best he knew And led more loftily his actor-crew. How coolly he misquoted. 'Twas his art&mdash; Slave-scholar, who misquoted&mdash;from the heart. So when we slapped his back with friendly roar Æsop awaited him without the door,&mdash; Æsop the Greek, who made dull masters laugh With little tales of fox and dog and calf.