BURGUNDY.
They are then excus’d, my lord, when they see not what they do.
KING HENRY.
Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to consent winking.
BURGUNDY.
I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will teach her to know my meaning; for maids, well summer’d and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their eyes; and then they will endure handling, which before would not abide looking on.
KING HENRY.
This moral ties me over to time and a hot summer; and so I shall catch the fly, your cousin, in the latter end, and she must be blind too.
BURGUNDY.
As love is, my lord, before it loves.
KING HENRY.
It is so; and you may, some of you, thank love for my blindness, who cannot see many a fair French city for one fair French maid that stands in my way.
FRENCH KING.
Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities turn’d into a maid; for they are all girdled with maiden walls that no war hath entered.
KING HENRY.
Shall Kate be my wife?
FRENCH KING.
So please you.
KING HENRY.
I am content, so the maiden cities you talk of may wait on her; so the maid that stood in the way for my wish shall show me the way to my will.