And see our gentle queen how well she fares;
By this, I hope, she hath a son for me.
Scene Six
[London. The Tower]
Enter Henry the Sixth and Richard [meeting], with the Lieutenant on the Walls.
Rich. Good day, my lord. What! at your book so hard?
Hen. 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,4
And both preposterous; therefore, not 'good lord.'
Rich. Sirrah, leave us to ourselves: we must confer.
Hen. So flies the reckless shepherd from the wolf;
So first the harmless sheep doth yield his fleece,8
And next his throat unto the butcher's knife.
What scene of death hath Roscius now to act?
Rich. Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind;
The thief doth fear each bush an officer.12
Hen. The bird that hath been limed in a bush,
With trembling wings misdoubteth every bush;
And I, the hapless male to one sweet bird,
Have now the fatal object in my eye16
Where my poor young was lim'd, was caught, and kill'd.
Rich. Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete,
That taught his son the office of a fowl!
10 Roscius; cf. n.
13 limed: caught with bird-lime
15 male: male parent
18 that of Crete; cf. n.
