and The Coquette, in which he played Michele. Pounds continued to perform in comic opera and operetta. In 1900 he starred in a revival of Dorothy. In 1903 he took the title role in Hervé's opéra bouffe Chilpéric, and in 1905 he starred in The Blue Moon. In 1912, he played the title role in Herbert Beerbohm Tree's production of Jacques Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underground. In 1916 he appeared as Harry Benn in the premiere of Ethel Smyth's comic opera The Boatswain's Mate, described by The Manchester Guardian as "something of a triumph for Miss Rosina Buckman and Mr. Courtice Pounds as well as for Dr. Ethel Smyth." In the first quarter of the 20th century, Pounds appeared regularly in London in a range of roles ranging from Shakespeare to variety. He established himself as a popular Shakespearean character actor with Tree's company, as the clown Feste in Twelfth Night (1901), the preposterous Sir Hugh Evans in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Touchstone in As You Like It (1907), of which The Times said he "acts even better than he sings, which is, of course, saying a good deal." The Manchester Guardian wrote of him, "Courtice Pounds had all that Shakespeare asked of his clowns – the gift of song and a robustness of comedy that could change at will to a tender and poignant moment." From 1903 onwards, Pounds became especially known for his performances in musical comedies. The first of these was The Cherry Girl (1903), presented by Seymour Hicks, in which Pounds played Starlight. Prominent among his musical comedy roles were Papillon in The Duchess of Dantzic (1903), which he created in both London (1903) and New York (1905); Hugh Meredith in The Belle of Mayfair (1906), with his sister Louie in the cast; the lead in Leo Fall's The Merry Farmer (Der fidele Bauer; 1907) and Jasomir in Fall's Princess Caprice (1912). He appeared in The Laughing Husband, the English version of the operetta Der lachende Ehemann by Edmund Eysler, in both London (1913) and New York (1914). He was Ali Baba in the long-running Chu Chin Chow (beginning in 1916, he starred in the role for over 2,000 performances); a similar role in Cairo (1921) and Franz Schubert in Lilac Time (1922–1924). Of the last, The Times commented, "Pounds is delightful as the moping composer". The musical theatre authority Kurt Gänzl writes that