K. Hen. I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how
perfectly I love her; and that is good English.
Bur. Is she not apt?[5406]
K. Hen. Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition[5407]
is not smooth; so that, having neither the voice nor the275
heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up the spirit[5408]
of love in her, that he will appear in his true likeness.
Bur. Pardon the frankness of my mirth, if I answer
you for that. If you would conjure in her, you must make
a circle; if conjure up love in her in his true likeness, he280
must appear naked and blind. Can you blame her then,
being a maid yet rosed over with the virgin crimson of[5409]
modesty, if she deny the appearance of a naked blind boy
in her naked seeing self? It were, my lord, a hard condition
for a maid to consign to.285
K. Hen. Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind
and enforces.
Bur. They are then excused, my lord, when they see
not what they do.
K. Hen. Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to290
consent winking.[5410]
Bur. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you
will teach her to know my meaning: for maids, well summered[5411]
and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomew-tide,
blind, though they have their eyes; and then they will295
endure handling, which before would not abide looking on.
K. Hen. This moral ties me over to time and a hot[5412]
summer; and so I shall catch the fly, your cousin, in the
latter end and she must be blind too.
Bur. As love is, my lord, before it loves.300