Page:Henry V (1918) Yale.djvu/131

Henry the Fifth, V. ii

K. Hen. Then, good my lord, teach your

cousin to consent winking.

Bur. I will wink on her to consent, my lord,

if you will teach her to know my meaning: for

maids, well summered and warm kept, are like

flies at Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they

have their eyes; and then they will endure hand-

ling, which before would not abide looking on.

K. Hen. This moral ties me over to time

and a hot summer; and so I shall catch the

fly, your cousin, in the latter end, and she must

be blind too.

Bur. As love is, my lord, before it loves.

K. Hen. It is so: and you may, some of you,

thank love for my blindness, who cannot see

many a fair French city for one fair French

maid that stands in my way.

Fr. King. Yes, my lord, you see them per-

spectively, the cities turned into a maid; for

they are all girdled with maiden walls that war

hath never entered.

K. Hen. Shall Kate be my wife?

Fr. King. So please you.

K. Hen. I am content; so the maiden cities

you talk of may wait on her: so the maid that

stood in the way for my wish shall show me the

way to my will.

Fr. King. We have consented to all terms of

reason.

K. Hen. Is 't so, my lords of England?

West. The king hath granted every article:

His daughter first, and then in sequel all,

According to their firm proposed natures.

 335 Bartholomew-tide: St. Bartholomew's day, August 24

347 perspectively; cf. n. 