Page:The Bab Ballads.djvu/159

 They see in his gay rotundity,
 * A clumsy stuffed-out dress—

They see in the cup he waves on high
 * A tinselled emptiness.

Those aged men so lean and wan,
 * They've seen it all before,

They know they'll see the charlatan
 * But twice or three times more.

And so they bear with dance and song,
 * And crimson foil and green,

They wearily sit, and grimly long,
 * For the Transformation Scene.