‘Away with melancholy,

Nor doleful changes ring

On life and human folly,

But merrily merrily sing

Fal la!’

‘Away with melancholy, Nor doleful changes ring On life and human folly, But merrily merrily sing Fal la!’

Don’t let us sing Fal la, my dear Mortimer (which is comparatively unmeaning), but let us sing that we give up guessing the riddle altogether.”