Yet looks he like a king; behold! his eye,
As bright as is the eagle’s, lightens forth
Controlling majesty.[46]
The future King Edward IV. was taunted by his brother Richard thus:
Nay, if thou be that princely eagle’s bird,
Show thy descent by gazing ’gainst the sun.[47]
With delightful hyperbole, Biron, in Love’s Labour’s Lost, discovers a power of vision beyond that of an eagle, when he is persuading himself and his friends to abjure their foolish vow “to fast, to study, and to see no woman.” Enlarging on the potency of “love first learned in a lady’s eyes” he declares that it
Gives to every power a double power,
Above their functions and their offices.
It adds a precious seeing to the eye: