| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | October 2 | | Richard III | | By Francis Saltus Saltus (1849–1889) |
| | | | Last King of Plantagenet line, born at Fotheringay Castle, Oct. 2, 1452. |
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MIRACULOUS genius, grasping at the whole! | |
| Gossiping history calls you cruel, mad. | |
| Was not your hump enough to make you bad, | |
| Politic despot? Aye, with bitter soul, | |
| You played a grand and most stupendous role; | 5 |
| Numbing your secret nature, good and glad, | |
| To juggle with crowns as does with stones a lad, | |
| And wade through blood to a stupendous goal! | |
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| Brave, cunning, reckless, on broad Bosworth field, | |
| Where red swords gleamed, when Death claimed you his own, | 10 |
| You did not falter Richard, nor did yield, | |
| Or hear again the smothered princes moan. | |
| No victim-ghosts before your mind’s eye reeled. | |
| What your grand soul regretted was a throne! | | | |
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