ABDICATION

n.

An act whereby a sovereign attests his sense of the high temperature of the throne.

Poor Isabella's Dead, whose abdication

Set all tongues wagging in the Spanish nation.

For that performance 'twere unfair to scold her:

She wisely left a throne too hot to hold her.

To History she'll be no royal riddle —

Merely a plain parched pea that jumped the griddle.

G.J.

ABSOLUTE

adj.

Independent, irresponsible. An absolute monarchy is one in which the sovereign does as he pleases so long as he pleases the assassins. Not many absolute monarchies are left, most of them having been replaced by limited monarchies, where the sovereign's power for evil (and for good) is greatly curtailed, and by republics, which are governed by chance.

ACKNOWLEDGE

v.t.

To confess. Acknowledgement of one another's faults is the highest duty imposed by our love of truth.

AFFIANCED

pp.

Fitted with an ankle-ring for the ball-and-chain.

AMBIDEXTROUS

adj.

Able to pick with equal skill a right-hand pocket or a left.

ANOINT

v.t.

To grease a king or other great functionary already sufficiently slippery.

As sovereigns are anointed by the priesthood,

So pigs to lead the populace are greased good.

Judibras

ARMOR

n.

The kind of clothing worn by a man whose tailor is a blacksmith.