TRI. Yet a great many people think it admirable.

VAD. It does not prevent it from being wretched; and if you had read
it, you would think like me.

TRI. I know that I should differ from you altogether, and that few
people are able to write such a sonnet.

VAD. Heaven forbid that I should ever write one so bad!

TRI. I maintain that a better one cannot be made, and my reason is
that I am the author of it.

VAD. You?

TRI. Myself.

VAD. I cannot understand how the thing can have happened.

TRI. It is unfortunate that I had not the power of pleasing you.

VAD. My mind must have wandered during the reading, or else the reader
spoilt the sonnet; but let us leave that subject, and come to my
ballad.

TRI. The ballad is, to my mind, but an insipid thing; it is no longer
the fashion, and savours of ancient times.

VAD. Yet a ballad has charms for many people.