places with the cabman.

Perched aloft in the driver's seat of the First Person Singular, it is
my proud privilege to crack the prefatory whip and start this newest
and best Le Gallienne Vehicle upon its course through the garlanded Via
Laurea to the Sign of the Golden Sheaf.

Look at it well, Dear People, before it starts, this golden vehicle of
Richard Le Gallienne.

Consider how it is built on the authentic lines of the best
workmanship, made to last for generations, maybe for ever.

Take note of its springs so perfectly hung that the Muse may ride in
luxurious ease, unjarred by metrical joltings as befits the Queen.

Mark the mirror smooth surface of the lacquer that only time and
tireless labour can apply.

Before this Master Coach of Poesy the rattle-jointed Tin Lizzie of Free
Verse and the painted jazz wagon of Futurism and the cheap imitation of
the Chinese palanquin must turn aside, they have no right of way, these
literary road-lice on the garlanded Via Laurea.

With angry thumb, the traffic cop Time will jerk them back to the side
streets and byways where they belong, to make way for the Golden Coach
of Richard Le Gallienne.


OLIVER HERFORD