Most distinctly I remember, it was just about September—

Though it might have been in August, or it might have been

before—

Dreadfully I fear'd the morrow. Vainly had I sought to borrow;

For (I own it to my sorrow) I was miserably poor,

And the heart is heavy laden when one's miserably poor;

(I have been so once before.)

I was doubtful and uncertain, at the rising of the curtain,

If the piece would prove a novelty, or one I'd seen before;

For a band of robbers drinking in a gloomy cave, and clinking