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.