1882.
The Promise of May. [A Play partly in prose, partly in blank verse, with Songs interposed.] Produced at the Globe Theatre, Nov. 11, 1882, with Mr. Hermann Vezin as Edgar, and Mrs. Bernard-Beere as Dora Steer.
This play, though it had some weeks' run, as a succès d'estime, was practically and deservedly damned by the pit on the first night. The Poet hesitated even to publish it for some years afterwards, or to weight or swell the small volume of "The Falcon and the Cup" with it. When it did at last appear in 1887, it appeared under cover of a long lyrical poem, the name of which had been a popular one for forty-five years; and crept into the volume without any announcement or notice on the title-page.
The Song of "The Promise of May" was printed on the programme sold or distributed at the theatre at the representation; and it seems probable that a small edition of the entire piece was privately printed at the time for the use of the actors and actresses and of others concerned in its production, This, however, is mere conjecture on my part. I never saw or heard of a copy of such an edition.
