Page:Henry VI Part 3 (1923) Yale.djvu/33

King Henry the Sixth, I. iv

'Tis beauty that doth oft make women proud;

But, God he knows, thy share thereof is small:

'Tis virtue that doth make them most admir'd;

The contrary doth make thee wonder'd at:

'Tis government that makes them seem divine;

The want thereof makes thee abominable.

Thou art as opposite to every good

As the Antipodes are unto us,

Or as the south to the septentrion.

O tiger's heart wrapp'd in a woman's hide!

How couldst thou drain the life-blood of the child,

To bid the father wipe his eyes withal,

And yet be seen to bear a woman's face?

Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible;

Thou stern, obdurate, flinty, rough, remorseless.

Bidd'st thou me rage? why, now thou hast thy wish:

Wouldst have me weep? why, now thou hast thy will;

For raging wind blows up incessant showers,

And when the rage allays, the rain begins.

These tears are my sweet Rutland's obsequies,

And every drop cries vengeance for his death,

'Gainst thee, fell Clifford, and thee, false French-woman.

North. Beshrew me, but his passions moves me so

That hardly can I check my eyes from tears.

York. That face of his the hungry cannibals

Would not have touch'd, would not have stain'd with blood;

But you are more inhuman, more inexorable,—

O! ten times more, than tigers of Hyrcania.

See, ruthless queen, a hapless father's tears:

 132 government: conduct

136 septentrion: north

137 Cf. n.

146 allays: abates

149 fell: vindictive

150 Beshrew: plague on

passions: wild griefs

155 Hyrcania; cf. n. 