I HAD a fellow as my guest, Not knowing he was such a pest, And gave him just my usual fare;He ate his fill of what was there,And for desert my best things swallow'd, Soon as his meal was o'er, what follow'd?
Led by the Deuce, to a neighbour he went, And talk'd of my food to his heart's content:
"The soup might surely have had more spice, The meat was ill-brown'd, and the wine wasn't nice."A thousand curses alight on his head!
'Tis a critic, I vow! Let the dog be struck dead!
1776.*
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