The public felt no great surprise
When Cicero Brick did advertise
A course of lectures--five or six,--
O, what a notion of Cicero Brick’s!
St. James’s Hall, in Regent Street,
For these orations he said was meet;
The first oration that he spoke
Two dozen heard it--what a joke!
The next time ten, the next time four,
And then the public came no more;
But Cicero Brick--_this_ who shall blame?--
Spoke the oration all the same.
“Read my advertisement,” quoth he,
“And tell me what you in it see
About the oration’s being _heard_!
It says, ‘_delivered_.’ I keep my word!”