He's great upon the music-halls, can tell you what befalls there;

He drops in at the Gaiety, and ornaments the stalls there;

He knows each vapid joke by heart, and wishes that he knew more;

They quite conform in quality to his idea of humour.

He skims the sportin' papers, and devours the shillin' thriller;

He counts the bard of comic songs a cut above a Schiller—

In fact, they scoff at poets in his very wide-awake sphere,

And in his secret soul he has a fine contempt for Shakspeare.

He dawdles dully through his day in quite the latest fashion—

A round of folly minus wit, and vice without its passion.