Page:Plays in Prose and Verse (1922).djvu/84

68 Are not more welcome to one that loves the world For some fair woman’s sake. I have called you hither To save the life of your great master, Seanchan, For all day long it has flamed up or flickered To the fast cooling hearth.

. When did he sicken? Is it a fever that is wasting him? . No fever or sickness. He has chosen death: Refusing to eat or drink, that he may bring Disgrace upon me; for there is a custom, An old and foolish custom, that if a man Be wronged, or think that he is wronged, and starve Upon another’s threshold till he die, The common people, for all time to come, Will raise a heavy cry against that threshold, Even though it be the King’s.

. My head whirls round; I do not know what I am to think or say. I owe you all obedience, and yet How can I give it, when the man I have loved More than all others, thinks that he is wronged So bitterly, that he will starve and die Rather than bear it? Is there any man Will throw his life away for a light issue? . It is but fitting that you take his side Until you understand how light an issue