We subdued all softer feelings, and we sternly answered ‘No!’
“When the clown had sung ‘Hot Codlins’ we prevented an encore,
And we ceased not opposition till the pantomime was o’er.
“Then at last the public join’d us—on our side was ev’ry voice,
And the wretched thing died hardly in a hurricane of noise.
“I am sure successive ages will our mem’ries ne’er efface,
We shall live on future hist’ry, and give lustre to our race,
“And our sons shall say, a cent’ry hence—or perhaps a longer time,
‘Gallant spirits were our fathers, for they damn’d a pantomime.’”
From The Man in the Moon.—1847.