Page:Henry VI Part 3 (1923) Yale.djvu/57

King Henry the Sixth, II. vi 

Clif. Here burns my candle out; ay, here it dies,

Which, whiles it lasted, gave King Henry light.

O Lancaster! I fear thy overthrow

More than my body's parting with my soul.

My love and fear glu'd many friends to thee;

And, now I fall, thy tough commixtures melts,

Impairing Henry, strength'ning misproud York:

[ The common people swarm like summer flies; ]

And whither fly the gnats but to the sun?

And who shines now but Henry's enemies?

O Phœbus! hadst thou never given consent

That Phaethon should check thy fiery steeds,

Thy burning car never had scorch'd the earth;

And, Henry, hadst thou sway'd as kings should do,

Or as thy father and his father did,

Giving no ground unto the house of York,

They never then had sprung like summer flies;

I and ten thousand in this luckless realm

Had left no mourning widows for our death,

And thou this day hadst kept thy chair in peace.

For what doth cherish weeds but gentle air?

And what makes robbers bold but too much lenity?

Bootless are plaints, and cureless are my wounds;

No way to fly, nor strength to hold out flight:

The foe is merciless, and will not pity,

For at their hands I have deserv'd no pity.

The air hath got into my deadly wounds,

 Scene Six S. d.; cf. n.

5 My fear: love and fear of me

6 commixtures: compounds, substances held together by glue

7 Impairing: weakening

8 Cf. n.

12 check: curb, manage

17 sprung: propagated 