Berting dagabout

• Dagobert I: Merovingian king of the Franks (623-634) (in comic songs said to wear trousers back to front)

• "Le bon roi Dagobert": A French children's song, in which the infantile king's failings are corrected by Saint Éloi.

• gadabout: a roving pleasure-seeker, a gossip

• beating about: discussing topics already treated of; (with "the bush") avoiding the main topic

• thereabouts