The Tower of London

        isn’t really a tower.  It’s a square
	building with towers at each
	of the four corners.  In the thirties
	they made a movie of it starring Boris Karloff
	as Mord the executioner, who dabbled in torture.
	A busy man Mord.  His boss, Richard the Third,
	was demanding.  Richard had no hump
	on his back, but Boris had a club foot,
	as though to make up for it.  Richard drowned
	the Duke of Clarence, whose name wasn’t Clarence,
	in a tub of malmsey, a sweet-tasting wine.
	Clarence had stood in his way.  Richard
	was determined to kill all who stood in his way,
	including the princes in the Tower, two
	little boys, practically infants, the sons
	of old Henry the Sixth, or maybe of
	Richard’s half brother, Edward,
	played by Ian Hunter.  Richard was played by
	Basil Rathbone, who also played Sherlock Holmes.
	 
        The princes, also named Richard
	And Edward, I believe, hadn’t done anything.
	They didn’t deserve to be killed.
	But then, none of them did, including old Henry
	The Sixth, although he was quite dotty at the time.
	 
        Richard’s bride was unlike the Queen
	in the play Richard III.  She was played by
	Barbara O’Neil, who played Scarlett O’Hara’s
	Mother in Gone with the Wind, though she wasn’t old
	enough to be.  That’s the way I remember it.  Wait, she was
	actually Edward’s wife.  Richard took
	unto him the Lady Anne, who was
	played by Nan Grey, though she actually
	married Wyatt (John Sutton) after they escaped from
	the Tower, or the Castle.  In the end Richard
	killed just about everybody, except Mord,
	who got thrown off a cliff by somebody,
	a fitting end to a miserable career.