«FASHION, n. A despot whom the wise ridicule and obey.A king there was who lost an eye In some excess of passion; And straight his courtiers all did try To follow the new fashion.Each dropped one eyelid when before The throne he ventured, thinking'Twould please the king. That monarch swore He'd slay them all for winking.What should they do? They were not hot To hazard such disaster; They dared not close an eye --dared not See better than their master.Seeing them lacrymose and glum, A leech consoled the weepers: He spread small rags with liquid gum And covered half their peepers.The court all wore the stuff, the flame Of royal anger dying. That's how court-plaster got its name Unless I'm greatly lying. --Naramy Oof»

«LAUREATE, adj. Crowned with leaves of the laurel. In England the Poet Laureate is an officer of the sovereign's court, acting as dancing skeleton at every royal feast and singing-mute at every royal funeral. Of all incumbents of that high office, Robert Southey had the most notable knack at drugging the Samson of public joy and cutting his hair to the quick; and he had an artistic color-sense which enabled him so to blacken a public grief as to give it the aspect of a national crime.»

«Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's house, over against the king's house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house.»

«You may have a throne at the royal court, with beautiful decorations and soft carpets, all sorts of luscious fruits and beautiful gardens, the excitement of the chase and princely pleasures - but still, the mind is not made happy by such illusory diversions.»