Page 908 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

Good day, my lord. What, at your book so hard?

KING HENRY

Ay, my good lord - my lord I should say rather:
’Tis sin to flatter. ‘Good’ was little better:
‘Good Gloucester’ and ‘good devil’ were alike
And both preposterous: therefore, not ‘good lord’. [5]

GLOUCEST ER

Sirrah, leave us to ourselves; we must confer.

[Exit Lieutenant.]

KING HENRY

So flies the reckless shepherd from the wolf;
So first the harmless sheep doth yield his fleece
And next his throat unto the butcher’s knife.
What scene of death hath Roscius now to act? [10]

GLOUCEST ER

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind;
The thief doth fear each bush an officer.

KING HENRY

The bird that hath been limèd in a bush
With trembling wings misdoubteth every bush:
And I, the hapless male to one sweet bird, [15]
Have now the fatal object in my eye
Where my poor young was limed, was caught, and killed.

GLOUCEST ER

Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete
That taught his son the office of a fowl!
And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drowned. [20]

KING HENRY

I, Daedalus; my poor boy, Icarus,
Thy father, Minos that denied our course;
The sun that seared the wings of my sweet boy,
Thy brother Edward; and thyself, the sea
Whose envious gulf did swallow up his life. [25]