Ye Jester, dressed in cap and bells,

With jokes adorned his chat,

And every joke was all his own,

And all his jokes were pat.

No jokes were old in days of yore,

No stories had been told,

And so ye wit had ample scope

His humor to unfold.

Ye modern wit’s in sorry plight,

Re-writing o’er and o’er

Ye jokes that ancient jesters told

Five hundred years before.