A GENT. IN DIFFS.
I
A gentleman in difficulties, what is he to do?
His wife has sought the English shore, he fain would seek it too.
But there, alas! he's liable to writ, arrest, and dun,
So he assumes a servant's suit, all other suits to shun.
A gentleman in difficulties, what is he to do?
A gent. in diffs, a gent. in diffs! what, what's he to do?
II
And is it not a difficulty, when he fain would eat,
To stand behind a chair, and take the covers off the meat!
To hand the soup, to hand the wine, to long in vain for both,
And find, tho' poor, his way of life is not from hand to mouth.
A gentleman in difficulties, &c.
III
And can there be a difficulty, as you walk along,
To know the man who dreads to meet his tailor in the throng?
In cloak so closely muffled up, his flitting form you view;
These wraps betray his malady is tic, tic-douloureux!
A gentleman in difficultics, &c.
IV
And would you sooth his difficulties, sing in accents sweet,
“The sea, the sea, the open sea,” but never name the Fleet.
A rest in vain you offer him on this side Dover Cliffs;
Arrest (especially the Bench) dismays the gent. in diffs.
A gentleman in difficulties, &c.
