| ACT V | 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, | 5 |
| 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: | 10 |
| 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 | 15 |
| 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. | 20 |
| 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, | 25 |
| 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, | 30 |
| 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, | 35 |
| 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. | 40 |
| 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 | 45 |
| 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, | 50 |
| 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, | 55 |
| 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,-- | 60 |
| 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 | 65 |
| 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 | 70 |
| 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. | 75 |
| 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 | 80 |
| 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, | 85 |
| 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, | 90 |
| 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. | 95 |
| 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, | 100 |
| 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 | 105 |
| 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. | 110 |
| 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 | 115 |
| 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. | 120 |
| 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 | 125 |
| 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? | 130 |
| 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 | 135 |
| 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 | 140 |
| 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, | 145 |
| 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 | 150 |
| 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 | 155 |
| 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 | 160 |
| 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 | 165 |
| 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. | 170 |
| 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 | 175 |
| 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 | 180 |
| 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, | 185 |
| 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. | 190 |
| 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. | 195 |
| 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 | 200 |
| 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 | 205 |
| 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 | 210 |
| 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 | 215 |
| 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. | 220 |
| 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 | 225 |
| 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: | 230 |
| 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 | 235 |
| 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 | 240 |
| 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 | 245 |
| 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 | 250 |
| 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 | 255 |
| 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 | 260 |
| 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. | 265 |
| 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 | 270 |
| 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 | 275 |
| 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 | 280 |
| 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 | 285 |
| 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 | 290 |
| 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 | 295 |
| 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 | 300 |
| 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. | 305 |
| 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 | 310 |
| 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. | 315 |
| 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 | 320 |
| 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 | 325 |
| 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, | 330 |
| 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 | 335 |
| 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, | 340 |
| 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 | 345 |
| 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 | 350 |
| 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. | 355 |
| [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, | 360 |
| 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! | 365 |
| 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; | 370 |
| And may our oaths well kept and prosperous be! |
| [Sennet. Exeunt] |
