If gall or wormwood have a pleasant tast...

KING EDWARD.

If gall or wormwood have a pleasant taste,

Then is thy salutation honey sweet;

But as the one hath no such property,

So is the other most satirical.

Yet wot how I regard thy worthless taunts:

If thou have uttered them to foil my fame

Or dim the reputation of my birth,

Know that thy wolvish barking cannot hurt;

If slyly to insinuate with the world,

And with a strumpet's artificial line

To paint thy vicious and deformed cause,

Be well assured, the counterfeit will fade,

And in the end thy foul defects be seen;

But if thou didst it to provoke me on,

As who should say I were but timorous.

Or, coldly negligent, did need a spur,

Bethink thy self how slack I was at sea,

How since my landing I have won no towns,

Entered no further but upon the coast,

And there have ever since securely slept.

But if I have been other wise employed,

Imagine, Valois, whether I intend

To skirmish, not for pillage, but for the Crown

Which thou dost wear; and that I vow to have,

Or one of us shall fall into his grave.

Shakespeare, William, Edward III, Act 3, Sc. 3.

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