At the December general meeting of the NSW branch Isolde and Julia entertained us with a variety of sketches with Ricardian themes. And then it was our turn to get into the swing of things and sing our branch-own Christmas songs. Here is one of them:
Oh, little town of Middleham,
How still we see thee lie.
But lying more than half a score,
King Richard to decry.
Mancini, Rous and Morton
And Hall and Holinshed
And Henry Tudor added to
The tales to help them spread.
Then Henry’s Polydore Vergil
Had Richard painted blacker,
But Sainted Thomas was a still
More modacious* attacker.
Then up rose Willy Shakespeare,
He too the truth foreswore,
Now we persevere until we hear
Their rotten lies no more.
*Never heard of the word? Neither had we but, being good Ricardians, we realised research was needed and came to the conclusion it is an adjective from the word MODALITY –the capacity to express the speaker’s confidence in the statement he or she is making.
So this might be the mot juste for Sir Thomas’s history if you believe that he believed it.
(Words: Isolde Martyn and Eileen Larbalastier, a former member. Photo: Dorothea Preis)
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