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King Henry V: Act 5 Scene 2

Scene II France. A royal palace.

[Enter, at one door KING HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD,

GLOUCESTER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and other Lords;

at another, the FRENCH KING, QUEEN ISABEL, the

PRINCESS KATHARINE, ALICE and other Ladies; the

DUKE of BURGUNDY, and his train]

KING HENRY V

Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met!

Unto our brother France, and to our sister,

Health and fair time of day; joy and good wishes

To our most fair and princely cousin Katharine;

And, as a branch and member of this royalty,

By whom this great assembly is contrived,

We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy;

And, princes French, and peers, health to you all!

KING OF FRANCE

Right joyous are we to behold your face,

Most worthy brother England; fairly met:

So are you, princes English, every one.

QUEEN ISABEL

So happy be the issue, brother England,

Of this good day and of this gracious meeting,

As we are now glad to behold your eyes;

Your eyes, which hitherto have borne in them

Against the French, that met them in their bent,

The fatal balls of murdering basilisks:

The venom of such looks, we fairly hope,

Have lost their quality, and that this day

Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.

KING HENRY V

To cry amen to that, thus we appear.

QUEEN ISABEL

You English princes all, I do salute you.

BURGUNDY

My duty to you both, on equal love,

Great Kings of France and England! That I have labour'd,

With all my wits, my pains and strong endeavours,

To bring your most imperial majesties

Unto this bar and royal interview,

Your mightiness on both parts best can witness.

Since then my office hath so far prevail'd

That, face to face and royal eye to eye,

You have congreeted, let it not disgrace me,

If I demand, before this royal view,

What rub or what impediment there is,

Why that the naked, poor and mangled Peace,

Dear nurse of arts and joyful births,

Should not in this best garden of the world

Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?

Alas, she hath from France too long been chased,

And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,

Corrupting in its own fertility.

Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,

Unpruned dies; her hedges even-pleach'd,

Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair,

Put forth disorder'd twigs; her fallow leas

The darnel, hemlock and rank fumitory

Doth root upon, while that the coulter rusts

That should deracinate such savagery;

The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth

The freckled cowslip, burnet and green clover,

Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,

Conceives by idleness and nothing teems

But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs,

Losing both beauty and utility.

And as our vineyards, fallows, meads and hedges,

Defective in their natures, grow to wildness,

Even so our houses and ourselves and children

Have lost, or do not learn for want of time,

The sciences that should become our country;

But grow like savages,--as soldiers will

That nothing do but meditate on blood,--

To swearing and stern looks, diffused attire

And every thing that seems unnatural.

Which to reduce into our former favour

You are assembled: and my speech entreats

That I may know the let, why gentle Peace

Should not expel these inconveniences

And bless us with her former qualities.

KING HENRY V

If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace,

Whose want gives growth to the imperfections

Which you have cited, you must buy that peace

With full accord to all our just demands;

Whose tenors and particular effects

You have enscheduled briefly in your hands.

BURGUNDY

The king hath heard them; to the which as yet

There is no answer made.

KING HENRY V

Well then the peace,

Which you before so urged, lies in his answer.

KING OF FRANCE

I have but with a cursorary eye

O'erglanced the articles: pleaseth your grace

To appoint some of your council presently

To sit with us once more, with better heed

To re-survey them, we will suddenly

Pass our accept and peremptory answer.

KING HENRY V

Brother, we shall. Go, uncle Exeter,

And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester,

Warwick and Huntingdon, go with the king;

And take with you free power to ratify,

Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best

Shall see advantageable for our dignity,

Any thing in or out of our demands,

And we'll consign thereto. Will you, fair sister,

Go with the princes, or stay here with us?

QUEEN ISABEL

Our gracious brother, I will go with them:

Haply a woman's voice may do some good,

When articles too nicely urged be stood on.

KING HENRY V

Yet leave our cousin Katharine here with us:

She is our capital demand, comprised

Within the fore-rank of our articles.

QUEEN ISABEL

She hath good leave.

[Exeunt all except HENRY, KATHARINE, and ALICE]

KING HENRY V

Fair Katharine, and most fair,

Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms

Such as will enter at a lady's ear

And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?

KATHARINE

Your majesty shall mock at me; I cannot speak your England.

KING HENRY V

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?

KATHARINE

Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is 'like me.'

KING HENRY V

An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel.

KATHARINE

Que dit-il? que je suis semblable a les anges?

ALICE

Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grace, ainsi dit-il.

KING HENRY V

I said so, dear Katharine; and I must not blush to

affirm it.

KATHARINE

O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines de

tromperies.

KING HENRY V

What says she, fair one? that the tongues of men

are full of deceits?

ALICE

Oui, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of

deceits: dat is de princess.

KING HENRY V

The princess is the better Englishwoman. I' faith,

Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding: I am

glad thou canst speak no better English; for, if

thou couldst, thou wouldst find me such a plain king

that thou wouldst 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

farther than to say 'do you in faith?' I wear out

my suit. Give me your answer; i' faith, do: and so

clap hands and a bargain: how say you, lady?

KATHARINE

Sauf votre honneur, me understand vell.

KING HENRY V

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,

Kate, 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 the

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.

KATHARINE

Is it possible dat I sould love de enemy of France?

KING HENRY V

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.

KATHARINE

I cannot tell vat is dat.

KING HENRY V

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. Je quand sur le possession de France, et quand

vous avez le possession de moi,--let me see, what

then? Saint Denis be my speed!--donc votre est

France et vous etes 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.

KATHARINE

Sauf votre honneur, le Francois que vous parlez, il

est meilleur que l'Anglois lequel je parle.

KING HENRY V

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?

KATHARINE

I cannot tell.

KING HENRY V

Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll ask

them. Come, I know 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 beest 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 Denis 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?

KATHARINE

I do not know dat

KING HENRY V

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 cher

et devin deesse?

KATHARINE

Your majestee ave fausse French enough to deceive de

most sage demoiselle dat is en France.

KING HENRY V

Now, fie 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 Harry

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 music; for thy voice is

music and thy English broken; therefore, queen of

all, Katharine, break thy mind to me in broken

English; wilt thou have me?

KATHARINE

Dat is as it sall please de roi mon pere.

KING HENRY V

Nay, it will please him well, Kate it shall please

him, Kate.

KATHARINE

Den it sall also content me.

KING HENRY V

Upon that I kiss your hand, and I call you my queen.

KATHARINE

Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez: ma foi, je

ne veux point que vous abaissiez votre grandeur en

baisant la main d'une de votre seigeurie indigne

serviteur; excusez-moi, je vous supplie, mon

tres-puissant seigneur.

KING HENRY V

Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.

KATHARINE

Les dames et demoiselles pour etre baisees devant

leur noces, il n'est pas la coutume de France.

KING HENRY V

Madam my interpreter, what says she?

ALICE

Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of

France,--I cannot tell vat is baiser en Anglish.

KING HENRY V

To kiss.

ALICE

Your majesty entendre bettre que moi.

KING HENRY V

It is not a fashion for the maids in France to kiss

before they are married, would she say?

ALICE

Oui, vraiment.

KING HENRY V

O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great kings. Dear

Kate, you and I cannot be confined within the weak

list of a country's fashion: we are the makers of

manners, Kate; and the liberty that follows our

places stops the mouth of all find-faults; as I will

do yours, for upholding the nice fashion of your

country in denying me a kiss: therefore, patiently

and yielding.

[Kissing her]

You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate: there is

more eloquence in a sugar touch of them than in the

tongues of the French council; and they should

sooner persuade Harry of England than a general

petition of monarchs. Here comes your father.

[Re-enter the FRENCH KING and his QUEEN, BURGUNDY,

and other Lords]

BURGUNDY

God save your majesty! my royal cousin, teach you

our princess English?

KING HENRY V

I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how

perfectly I love her; and that is good English.

BURGUNDY

Is she not apt?

KING HENRY V

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.

BURGUNDY

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, 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.

KING HENRY V

Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind and enforces.

BURGUNDY

They are then excused, my lord, when they see not

what they do.

KING HENRY V

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

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.

KING HENRY V

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 V

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

turned into a maid; for they are all girdled with

maiden walls that war hath never entered.

KING HENRY V

Shall Kate be my wife?

FRENCH KING

So please you.

KING HENRY V

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.

FRENCH KING

We have consented to all terms of reason.

KING HENRY V

Is't so, my lords of England?

WESTMORELAND

The king hath granted every article:

His daughter first, and then in sequel all,

According to their firm proposed natures.

EXETER

Only he hath not yet subscribed this:

Where your majesty demands, that the King of France,

having any occasion to write for matter of grant,

shall name your highness in this form and with this

addition in French, Notre trescher fils Henri, Roi

d'Angleterre, Heritier de France; and thus in

Latin, Praeclarissimus filius noster Henricus, Rex

Angliae, et Haeres Franciae.

FRENCH KING

Nor this I have not, brother, so denied,

But your request shall make me let it pass.

KING HENRY V

I pray you then, in love and dear alliance,

Let that one article rank with the rest;

And thereupon give me your daughter.

FRENCH KING

Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up

Issue to me; that the contending kingdoms

Of France and England, whose very shores look pale

With envy of each other's happiness,

May cease their hatred, and this dear conjunction

Plant neighbourhood and Christian-like accord

In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance

His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France.

ALL

Amen!

KING HENRY V

Now, welcome, Kate: and bear me witness all,

That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen.

[Flourish]

QUEEN ISABEL

God, the best maker of all marriages,

Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one!

As man and wife, being two, are one in love,

So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal,

That never may ill office, or fell jealousy,

Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage,

Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms,

To make divorce of their incorporate league;

That English may as French, French Englishmen,

Receive each other. God speak this Amen!

ALL

Amen!

KING HENRY V

Prepare we for our marriage--on which day,

My Lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath,

And all the peers', for surety of our leagues.

Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me;

And may our oaths well kept and prosperous be!

[Sennet. Exeunt]

EPILOGUE

[Enter Chorus]

CHORUS

Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen,

Our bending author hath pursued the story,

In little room confining mighty men,

Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.

Small time, but in that small most greatly lived

This star of England: Fortune made his sword;

By which the world's best garden be achieved,

And of it left his son imperial lord.

Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd King

Of France and England, did this king succeed;

Whose state so many had the managing,

That they lost France and made his England bleed:

Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake,

In your fair minds let this acceptance take.

[Exit]