In the page of metrical explanation subjoined, the usual mythic narrative is closely followed.
The full idea is carried out in 3 Henry VI. (act v. sc. 6, l. 18, vol. v. p. 332), Gloucester and King Henry being the speakers,—
“Glou. 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 drown’d.
K. Hen. I, Dædalus; my poor boy, Icarus;
Thy father, Minos, that denied our course;
The sun that sear’d the wings of my sweet boy
Thy brother Edward, and thyself the sea
Whose envious gulf did swallow up his life.