As plays the sun upon the glassy streams, 8
Twinkling another counterfeited beam,
So seems this gorgeous beauty to mine eyes.
Fain would I woo her, yet I dare not speak:
I'll call for pen and ink, and write my mind:
Fy, De la Poole! disable not thyself;9

Hast not a tongue? is she not here thy prisoner?
Wilt thou be daunted at a woman's sight?

Ay; beauty's princely majesty is such,

Confounds the tongue, and makes the senses rough.1 Mar. Say, earl of Suffolk,—if thy name be so,— What ransome must I pay before I pass?

For, I perceive, I am thy prisoner.

Suf. How canst thou tell, she will deny thy suit, Before thou make a trial of her love?

[Aside. Mar. Why speak'st thou not? what ransome must I

pay?

Suf. She's beautiful; and therefore to be woo'd: She is a woman; therefore to be won.2

[Aside.

Mar. Wilt thou accept of ransome, yea, or no? Suf. Fond man! remember, that thou hast a wife; Then how can Margaret be thy paramour? [Aside. Mar. I were best to leave him, for he will not hear. Suf. There all is marr'd; there lies a cooling card.3 Mar. He talks at random; sure, the man is mad. -Suf. And yet a dispensation may be had.

my heart accords thereto,

"And yet a thousand times it answers-no.”

وو

Steevens.

8 As plays the sun upon the glassy streams, &c.] This comparison, made between things which seem sufficiently unlike, is intended to express the softness and delicacy of Lady Margaret's beauty, which delighted, but did not dazzle; which was bright but gave no pain by its lustre. Johnson.

9

· disabled not thyself;] Do not represent thyself so weak. To disable the judgment of another was, in that age, the same as to destroy its credit or authority. Johnson.

1

and makes the senses rough.] The meaning of this word is not very obvious. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads-crouch.

Malone.

2 She is a woman; therefore to be won. n.] This seems to be a proverbial line, and occurs in Greene's Planetomachia, 1585.

Steevens

a cooling card.] So, in Marius and Sylla, 1594:
"I'll have a present cooling card for you,” Steevens.

4

Mar. And yet I would that you would answer me.
Suf. I'll win this lady Margaret. For whom?
Why, for my king: Tush! that's a wooden thing.
Mar. He talks of wood: It is some carpenter.
Suf. Yet so my fancy5 may be satisfy'd,
And peace established between these realms.
But there remains a scruple in that too:
For though her father be the king of Naples,
Duke of Anjou and Maine, yet is he poor,
And our nobility will scorn the match.

[Aside.

Mar. Hear ye, captain? Are you not at leisure?
Suf. It shall be so, disdain they ne'er so much:

Henry is youthful, and will quickly yield.

Madam, I have a secret to reveal.

Mar. What though I be enthrall'd? he seems a knight,

And will not any way dishonour me.

[Aside.

Suf. Lady, vouchsafe to listen what I say.

Mar. Perhaps, I shall be rescu'd by the French;

And then I need not crave his courtesy.

[Aside.

Suf. Sweet madam, give me hearing in a cause
Mar. Tush! women have been captivate ere now.

Suf. Lady, wherefore talk you so?

Mar. I cry you mercy, 'tis but quid for quo,

[Aside.

Suf. Say, gentle princess, would you not suppose

Your bondage happy, to be made a queen?

Mar. To be a queen in bondage, is more vile,

Than is a slave in base servility;

For princes should be free.

Suf.

And so shall you,

If happy England's royal king be free.

Mar. Why, what concerns his freedom unto me?
Suf. I'll undertake to make thee Henry's queen;

To put a golden sceptre in thy hand,

And set a precious crown upon thy head,

a wooden thing.] Is an aukward business, an undertaking not likely to succeed.

So, in Lyly's Galathea, 1592: "Would I were out of these woods, for I shall have but wooden luck." Steevens.

5

Dream:

my fancy -] i. e. my love. So, in A Midsummer Night's

“Fair Helena in Fancy following me.” See Vol. II, p. 347, n. 5. Steevens.

If thou wilt condescend to be my —

Mar.

Suf. His love.

What?

Mar. I am unworthy to be Henry's wife.
Suf. No, gentle madam; I unworthy am
To woo so fair a dame to be his wife,
And have no portion in the choice myself.
How say you, madam; are you so content?

Mar. An if my father please, I am content. Suf. Then call our captains, and our colours, forth: And, madam, at your father's castle walls We'll crave a parley, to confer with him.

[Troops come forward. A Parley sounded. Enter REIGNIER, on the Walls. Suf. See, Reignier, see, thy daughter prisoner. Reig. To whom?

Suf. Reig.

To me.

Suffolk, what remedy?

I am a soldier; and unapt to weep,

Or to exclaim on fortune's fickleness.

Suf. Yes, there is remedy enough, my lord: Consent, (and, for thy honour, give consent,) Thy daughter shall be wedded to my king; Whom I with pain have woo'd and won thereto : And this her easy-held imprisonment

Fair Margaret knows,

Hath gain'd thy daughter princely liberty.
Reig. Speaks Suffolk as he thinks?
Suf.
That Suffolk doth not flatter, face, or feign.7
Reig. Upon thy princely warrant, I descend,
To give thee answer of thy just demand.

[Exit, from the Walls.

6 If thou wilt condescend to be my-] I have little doubt that the words-be my, are an interpolation, and that the passage originally stood thus:

If thou wilt condescend to

What?

His love.

Both sense and measure are then complete. Steevens.

7

face, or feign.] "To face (says Dr. Johnson) is to carry a false appearance; to play the hypocrite." Hence the name of one of the characters in Ben Jonson's Alchymist. Malone.

Suf. And here I will expect thy coming.

Trumpets sounded. Enter REIGNIER, below. Reig. Welcome, brave earl, into our territories; Command in Anjou what your honour pleases.

Suf. Thanks, Reignier, happy for so sweet a child, Fit to be made companion with a king:

What answer makes your grace unto my suit?

Reig. Since thou dost deign to woo her little worth, To be the princely bride of such a lord; Upon condition I may quietly

9

Enjoy mine own, the county Maine, and Anjou,
Free from oppression, or the stroke of war,
My daughter shall be Henry's, if he please.
Suf. That is her ransome, I deliver her;
And those two counties, I will undertake,
Your grace shall well and quietly enjoy.

Reig. And I again,-in Henry's royal name,
As deputy unto that gracious king,—

Give thee her hand, for sign of plighted faith.

Suf. Reignier of France, I give thee kingly thanks, Because this is in traffick of a king:

And yet, methinks, I could be well content
To be mine own attorney in this case.
I'll over then to England with this news,
And make this marriage to be solemniz'd:
So, farewel, Reignier! Set this diamond safe
In golden palaces, as it becomes.

Reig. I do embrace thee, as I would embrace
The Christian prince, king Henry, were he here.

[Aside.

Mar.Farewel, my lord! Good wishes, praise, and prayers,

Shall Suffolk ever have of Margaret.

[Going.

Suf. Farewel, sweet madam! But hark you, Margaret;

No princely commendations to my king?

Mar. Such commendations as become a maid,

But

8 Since thou dost deign to woo her little worth, &c.] To woo her little worth-may mean-to court her small share of merit. perhaps the passage should be pointed thus:

9

Since thou dost deign to woo her, little worth

To be the princely bride of such a lord;

i. e. little deserving to be the wife of such a prince. Malone. the county Maine,] Maine is called a county both by Hali and holinshed. The old copy erroneously reads-country.

Malone.

A virgin, and his servant, say to him.

Suf. Words sweetly plac'd, and modestly1 directed. But, madam, I must trouble you again,➡

No loving token to his majesty?

Mar. Yes, my good lord; a pure unspotted heart, Never yet taint with love, I send the king.

Suf. And this withal.

[Kisses her.

Mar. That for thyself;-I will not so presume, To send such peevish tokens to a king.

[Exeunt REIG. and MAR,

Suf. O, wert thou for myself!-But, Suffolk, stay; Thou may'st not wander in that labyrinth; There Minotaurs, and ugly treasons, lurk. Solicit Henry with her wond'rous praise: Bethink thee on her virtues that surmount; Mad, natural graces3 that extinguish art;

1- modestly] Old copy-modesty. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. Malone.

2 To send such peevish tokens -] Peevish, for childish.

Warburton. See a note on Cymbeline, Act I, sc. vii: "He's strange and peevish." Steevens.

3 Mad, natural graces -] So the old copy. The modern editors have been content to read-her natural graces. By the word mad, however, I believe the poet only meant wild or uncultivated. In the former of these significations he appears to have used it in Othello:

which Dr. Johnson has properly interpreted. We call a wild girl, to this day, a mad-cap.

In Marcer's Herball, practysyd by Doctor Linacre; Translated out of Laten into Englyshe &c. bl. I. no date, the epithet mad seems also to be used in an uncommon sense: "The vertue of this herbe [lactuca leporica] is thus: yf a hare eat of this herbe in sōmer whan he is mad, he shall be hole."

Mad, in some of the ancient books of gardening, is used as an epithet to plants which grow rampant and wild. Steevens. Pope had, perhaps, this line in his thoughts, when he wrote"And catch a grace beyond the reach of art." In The Two Noble Kinsmen, 1634, mad is used in the same manner as in the text:

"Is it not mad lodging in these wild woods here?" Again, in Nashe's Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1596: "—with manie more madde tricks of youth never plaid before." Malone.

It is possible that Steevens may be right in asserting that the word mad, may have been used to express wild; but I believe it