12. A HISTORICAL CHARADE
My first, if foolishly or rashly taken,
May mar the future prospects of your life.
My second, by her fickle lord forsaken
(Sad type of many a gentle, patient wife),
May toil and moil to feed his many babies,
While he goes flirting off with other ladies.
The thrifty monarch of a former age
My whole a place in Britain’s history fills.
Immortalised in Shakespeare’s magic pages
As one who’d fain reform his tailor’s bills!