Unto our brother France, and to our sister, And, princes French, and peers, health to you all! Most worthy brother England; fairly met: --- Q. Isa. So happy be the issue, brother England, With all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavours, Unto this bar and royal interview, Your mightiness on both parts best cam witness, Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart, And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges, Whose want gives growth to the imperfections K. Hen. Brother, we shall.-Go, uncle Exeter,- Q. Isab. Our gracious brother, I will go with them; K. Hen. Yet leave our cousin Katharine here with She is our capital demand, compris'd K. Hen. [Exeunt all but HENRY, KATHARINE, Fair Katharine, and most fair! And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart? K. Hen. O fair Katharine, if you will love me soundly with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it brokenly with your English tongue. Do you like me, Kate? Kath. Pardonnez moy, I cannot tell vat is-like me. K. Hen. An angel is like you, Kate; and you are like an angel. Kath. Que dit-il? que je suis semblable à les anges? Alice. Ouy, vrayment, (sauf vostre grace) ainsi dit-il. K. Hen. I said so, dear Katharine; and I must not blush to affirm it. Kath. O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines des tromperies. K. Hen. What says she, fair one? that the tongues of men are full of deceits? Alice. Ouy; dat de tongues of de mans is be full of deceits: dat is de princess. K. Hen. The princess is the better English-wo man. I'faith, Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding: I am glad, thou can'st speak no better English; for, if thou couldst, thou would'st find me such a plain king, that thou would'st think, I had sold my farm to buy my crown. I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say I love you: then, if you urge me further than to say- Do you in faith? I wear out my suit. Give me your answer; K. Hen. If, duke of Burgundy, you would the i'faith, do; and so clap hands and a bargain: How peace, say you, lady? Kath. Sauf vostre honneur, me understand well. K. Hen. Marry, if you would put me to verses, or to dance for your sake, Kate, why you undid me: for the one, I have neither words nor measure; and for the other, I have no strength in measure, yet a reasonable measure in strength. If I could win a lady at leap-frog, or by vaulting into my saddle with my armour on my back, under the correction of bragging be it spoken, I should quickly leap into a wife. Or, if I might buffet for my love, or bound my horse for her favours, I could lay on like a butcher, and sit like a jack-an-apes, never off: but, before God, I cannot look greenly, nor gasp out my eloquence, nor I have no cunning in protestation; only downright oaths, which I never use till urged, nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a fellow of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth sun-burning, that never looks in his glass for love of any thing he sees there, let thine eye be thy cook. I speak to thee plain soldier: If thou canst love me for this, take me if not, to say to thee-that I shall die, is true: but-for thy love, by the lord, no; yet I love thee too. And while thou livest, dear Kate, take a fellow of plain and uncoined constancy; for he perforce must do thee right, because he hath not the gift to woo in other places: for these fellows of infinite tongue, that can rhyme themselves into ladies' favours, they do always reason themselves out again, What! a speaker is but a prater; a rhyme is but a ballad. A good leg will fall; a straight back will stoop; a black beard will turn white; a curled pate will grow bald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax hollow; but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and moon; or, rather, the sun, and not the moon; for it shines bright, and never changes, but keeps his course truly. If thou would have such a one, take me: And take me, take a soldier; take a soldier, take a king: And what sayest thou then to my love? speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee. Kath. Is it possible dat I should love de enemy of France? K. Hen. No; it is not possible, you should love the enemy of France, Kate: but, in loving me, you should love the friend of France; for I love France so well, that I will not part with a village of it; I will have it all mine: and, Kate, when France is mine, and I am yours, then yours is France, and you are mine. Kath. I cannot tell vat is dat. K. Hen. No, Kate? I will tell thee in French; which, I am sure, will hang upon my tongue like a new-married wife about her husband's neck, hardly to be shook off. Quand j'ay la possession de France, et quand vous avez le possession de moi, (let me see, what then? Saint Dennis be my speed!)-donc vostre est France, et vous estes mienne. It is as easy for me, Kate, to conquer the kingdom, as to speak so much more French: I shall never move thee in French, unless it be to laugh at me. Kath. Sauf vostre honneur, le François que vous parlez, est meilleur que l'Anglois lequel je parle. K. Hen. No, 'faith, is't not, Kate: but thy speaking of my tongue, and I thine, most truly falsely, must needs be granted to be much at one. But, Kate, dost thou understand thus much English? Canst thou love me? Kath. I cannot tell. K. Hen. Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll ask them. Come, I kuow, thou lovest me: and at night when you come into your closet, you'll question this gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will, to her, dispraise those parts in me, that you love with your heart: but, good Kate, mock me mercifully; the rather, gentle princess, because I love thee cruelly. If ever thou be'st mine, Kate, (as I have a saving faith within me, tells me,-thou shalt,) I get thee with scambling, and thou must therefore needs prove a good soldier-breeder: Shall not thou and I, between Saint Dennis and Saint George, compound a boy, half French, half English, that shall go to Constantinople, and take the Turk by the beard? shall we not? what sayest thou, my fair flower-de-luce? Kath. I do not know dat. K. Hen. No; 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promise: do but now promise, Kate, you will endeavour for your French part of such a boy; and, for my English moiety, take the word of a king and a bachelor. How answer you, la plus belle Katharine du monde, mon tres chere et divine deesse? Kath. Your majesté 'ave fausse French enough to deceive de most sage damoiselle dat is en France. K. Hen. Now, fye upon my false French! By mine honour, in true English, I love thee, Kate: by which honour I dare not swear, thou lovest me; yet my blood begins to flatter me that thou dost, notwithstanding the poor and untempering effect of my visage. Now beshrew my father's ambition! he was thinking of civil wars when he got me; therefore was I created with a stubborn outside, with an aspect of iron, that, when I come to woo ladies, I fright them. But, in faith, Kate, the elder I wax, the better I shall appear: my comfort is, that old age, that ill layer-up of beauty, can do no more spoil upon my face: thou hast me, if thou hast me, at the worst; and thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and better; And therefore tell me, most fair Katharine, will you have me? Put off your maiden blushes; avouch the thoughts of your heart with the looks of an empress; take me by the hand, and say - Harry of England, I am thine: which word thou shalt no sooner bless mine ear withal, but I will tell thee aloud - England is thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, and Henry Plantagenet is thine; who, though I speak it before his face, if he be not fellow with the best king, thou shalt find the best king of good fellows. Come, your answer in broken musick; for thy voice is musick, and thy English broken: therefore, queen of all, Katharine, break thy mind to me in broken English, Wilt thou have me? Kath. Dat is, as it shall please de roy mon pere. K. Hen. Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall please him, Kate. Kain. Den it shall also content me. K. Hen. Upon that I will kiss your hand, and I caii you - my queen. Kath. Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez: ma. foy, je ne veux point que vous abbaissez vostre grandeur, en baisant la main d'une vostre indigne serviteure; excusez moy, je vous supplie, mon tres puissant seigneur. K. Hen. Then I will kiss your lips, Kate. Kath. Les dames, et damoiselles, pour estre baiséca devant leur nopces, il n'est pas le coûtume de France. K. Hen. Madam my interpreter, what says she? Alice, Dat it is not be de fashion pour les laaies of France,-I cannot tell what is, baiser, en English K. Hen, To kiss. Ali.e. Your majesty entendre bettre que may, SCENE II. KING HENRY V. K. Hen. It is not the fashion for the maids in K. Hen. O Kate, nice customs curt'sy to great Bur. God save your majesty! my royal cousin, teach you our princess English? 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? K. Hen. Our tongue is rough, coz ; and my condition is not smooth: so that, having neither the voice nor the heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up the spirit 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 rust make a circle: if conjure up love in her in his true likeness, he must appear naked, and blind : Can you blame her then, being a maid yet rosed over with the virgin crimson of 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. 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 to consent to winking. Bur. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will teach her to know my meaning: for maids, well summered 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. K. Hen. This moral ties me over to time, and a hot summer; and so I will catch the fly, your cousin, in the latter end, and she must be blind too. Bur. As love is, my lord, before it loves. K. Hen. 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. Fr. King. Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities turned into a maid; for they are all girdled with maiden walls, that war hath never entered. K. Hen, Shall Kate be my wife? :: K. Hen, I am content; so the maiden cities you talk of, may wait on her so the maid that stood in the way of my wish,shall show me the way to my will Fr. K. We have consented to all terms of reason. ·Præclarissimus filius noster Henri- Let that one article rank with the rest: Fr. King. Take her, fair son; and from her : Issue to me that the contending kingdoms May cease their hatred; and this dear conjunction K. Hen. Now welcome, Kate: - and bear me That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen. [Flourish. Q. Isab. God, the best maker of all marriages, K. Hen. Prepare we for our marriage; on My lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath, Enter Chorus. Thus far, with rough, and all unable pen, Mangling by starts the full course of their glory. This star of England: fortune made his sword; Of France and England, did this king succeed; That they lost France, aud made his England bleed: Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake SCENE I. ACT I. Westminster Abbey.' Dead march. Corpse of KING HENRY THE FIFTH discovered, lying in state; attended on by the DUKES OF BEDFORD, GLOSTER, and EXETER; the EARL OF WARWICK, the Bishop of Winchester, Heralds, &c. Bed. Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night! Comets, importing change of times and states, Henry the fifth, too famous to live long! Glo. England ne'er had a king until his time. Exe. We mourn in black; Why mourn we not in blood? Henry is dead, and never shall revive: Upon a wooden coffin we attend ; Win. He was a king bless'd of the King of kings. His thread of life had not so soon decay'd; Win. Gloster, whate'er we like, thou art protector; Glo. Name not religion, for thou lov'st the flesh; And ne'er throughout the year to church thou go'st, Except it be to pray against thy foes. Bed. Cease, cease these jars, and rest your minds in peace! Let's to the altar: :- Heralds, wait on us : - When at their mothers' moist eyes babes shall suck; Enter a Messenger. Mess. My honourable lords, health to you all! Speak softly; or the loss of those great towns These news would cause him once more yield the ghost. Eze. How were they lost? what treachery was us'd? Mess. No treachery; but want of men and money. One would have ling'ring wars, with little cost; Let not sloth dim your honours, new-begot ; Exe. Were our tears wanting to this funeral, These tidings would call forth her flowing tides. - Bed. Me they concern; regent I am of France: Give me my steeled coat, I'll fight for France. Away with these disgraceful wailing robes! Wounds I will lend the French, instead of eyes, To weep their intermissive miseries. Enter another Messenger. 2 Mess. Lords, view these letters, full of bad mischance, France is revolted from the English quite ; Exe. The Dauphin crowned king! all fly to him! O, whither shall we fly from this reproach? Glo. We will not fly, but to our enemies' throats :Bedford, if thou be slack, I'll fight it out. Bed. Gloster, why doubt'st thou of my forwardness? An army have I muster'd in my thoughts, 3 Mess. My gracious lords, to add to your la ments, Wherewith you now bedew king Henry's hearse, I must inform you of a dismal fight, Betwixt the stout lord Talbot and the French. Win. What! wherein Talbot overcame? is't so? 3 Mess. O, no; wherein lord Talbot was o'erthrown: The circumstance I'll tell you more at large. him; Here, there, and every where, enrag'd he slew: Bed. Is Talbot slain? then I will slay myself, For living idly here, in pomp and ease, |