No fever or sickness. He has chosen death: Refusing to eat or drink, that he may bring Disgrace upon me; for there is a custom, An old and foolish custom, that if a man Be wronged, or think that he is wronged, and starve Upon another’s threshold till he die, The common people, for all time to come, Will raise a heavy cry against that threshold, Even though it be the King’s. OLDEST PUPIL. My head whirls round; I do not know what I am to think or say. I owe you all obedience, and yet How can I give it, when the man I have loved More than all others, thinks that he is wronged So bitterly, that he will starve and die Rather than bear it? Is there any man Will throw his life away for a light issue? KING. It is but fitting that you take his side Until you understand how light an issue Has put us by the ears. Three days ago I yielded to the outcry of my courtiers— Bishops, Soldiers, and Makers of the Law— Who long had thought it against their dignity For a mere man of words to sit amongst them At my own table. When the meal was spread, I ordered Seanchan to a lower table; And when he pleaded for the poets’ right, Established at the establishment of the world, I said that I was King, and that all rights Had their original fountain in some king, And that it was the men who ruled the world, And not the men who sang to it, who should sit Where there was the most honour. My courtiers— Bishops, Soldiers, and Makers of the Law— Shouted approval; and amid that noise Seanchan went out, and from that hour to this, Although there is good food and drink beside him, Has eaten nothing. OLDEST PUPIL. I can breathe again. You have taken a great burden from my mind, For that old custom’s not worth dying for. KING. Persuade him to eat or drink. Till yesterday I thought that hunger and weakness had been enough; But finding them too trifling and too light To hold his mouth from biting at the grave, I called you hither, and all my hope’s in you, And certain of his neighbours and good friends That I have sent for. While he is lying there Perishing, my good name in the world Is perishing also. I cannot give way, Because I am King. Because if I gave way, My Nobles would call me a weakling, and it may be The very throne be shaken. OLDEST PUPIL. I will persuade him. Your words had been enough persuasion, King; But being lost in sleep or reverie, He cannot hear them. KING.