Short nights, can I shortly forget,
How punning went mad, and infected
The soberest brains in our set;
How the quips and the cranks running round
Put a stopper to mental decorum;—
How Laughter was monarch, and crown'd
At our Noctes conoque deorum?
Not always in lightness, however,
Our nights and our suppers were spent;—
At times we could cease to be clever,