[Susan McLean]

It’s been the custom--long before Achilles
dragged Hector’s corpse--to stab your enemies’
dead bodies, gouge their eyes, and dock their willies.
Why should I stoop to whine of tricks like these?
Nor does it fret me to have been paraded,
tied to a horse, a sword stuck in my bum,
jeered through the Leicester streets, naked, degraded.
Such are the losers’ rites till kingdom come.
The winners shape the story. I became
a villain whose deceits made groundlings chortle,
cutting a swath through all my kin to fame—
a twisted monster, witty and immortal.
But centuries have passed, and so should spite.
It seems ungenerous and downright surly
for those who found my bones to spread the slight:
“His back was crooked, and his arms were girly.”

L16: "but" changed to "and"
May I inquire of those who know The Spectator better than I do whether the language of this would be considered inappropriate?