Page:Henry VI Part 1 (1918) Yale.djvu/102

90

So doth the swan her downy cygnets save,

Keeping them prisoners underneath her wings.

Yet if this servile usage once offend,

Go and be free again, as Suffolk's friend.

She is going.

O stay! I have no power to let her pass;

My hand would free her, but my heart says no.

As plays the sun upon the glassy streams,

Twinkling another counterfeited beam,

So seems this gorgeous beauty to mine eyes.

Fain would I woo her, yet I dare not speak:

I'll call for pen and ink and write my mind.

Fie, De la Pole! disable not thyself;

Hast not a tongue? is she not here?

Wilt thou be daunted at a woman's sight?

Ay; beauty's princely majesty is such

Confounds the tongue and makes the senses rough.

Mar. Say, Earl of Suffolk,—if thy name be so,—

What ransom must I pay before I pass?

For I perceive, I am thy prisoner.

Suf. [Aside.] How canst thou tell she will deny thy suit,

Before thou make a trial of her love?

Mar. Why speak'st thou not? what ransom must I pay?

Suf. [Aside.] She's beautiful and,

She is a woman, therefore to be won.

Mar. Wilt thou accept of ransom, yea or no?

Suf. [Aside.] Fond man! remember that thou hast a wife;

 63 Cf. n.

67 disable: disparage

68 Cf. n.

71 Confounds: that it confounds

75 S. d. Aside; cf. n.

78, 79 Cf. n. 