The Life Of King Henry The Fifth

1 Enter at one door, King Henry, Exeter, Bedford, Warwick, Gloucester,
2 Westmorland, Clarence, Huntingdon and other Lords. At another, Queen
3 Isabel, the French King, the Princess Katharine, Alice, and other
4 Ladies; the Duke of Burgundy and other French.
5 KING HENRY.
6 Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met!
7 Unto our brother France, and to our sister,
8 Health and fair time of day; joy and good wishes
9 To our most fair and princely cousin Katharine;
10 And, as a branch and member of this royalty,
11 By whom this great assembly is contriv’d,
12 We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy;
13 And, princes French, and peers, health to you all!
14 FRENCH KING.
15 Right joyous are we to behold your face,
16 Most worthy brother England; fairly met!
17 So are you, princes English, every one.
18 QUEEN ISABEL.
19 So happy be the issue, brother England,
20 Of this good day and of this gracious meeting
21 As we are now glad to behold your eyes;
22 Your eyes, which hitherto have borne in them
23 Against the French that met them in their bent
24 The fatal balls of murdering basilisks.
25 The venom of such looks, we fairly hope,
26 Have lost their quality; and that this day
27 Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.
28 KING HENRY.
29 To cry amen to that, thus we appear.
30 QUEEN ISABEL.
31 You English princes all, I do salute you.
32 BURGUNDY.
33 My duty to you both, on equal love,
34 Great Kings of France and England! That I have labour’d,
35 With all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavours,
36 To bring your most imperial Majesties
37 Unto this bar and royal interview,
38 Your mightiness on both parts best can witness.
39 Since then my office hath so far prevail’d
40 That, face to face and royal eye to eye,
41 You have congreeted, let it not disgrace me
42 If I demand, before this royal view,
43 What rub or what impediment there is,
44 Why that the naked, poor, and mangled Peace,
45 Dear nurse of arts, plenties, and joyful births,
46 Should not in this best garden of the world,
47 Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?
48 Alas, she hath from France too long been chas’d,
49 And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,
50 Corrupting in it own fertility.
51 Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,
52 Unpruned dies; her hedges even-pleach’d,
53 Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair,
54 Put forth disorder’d twigs; her fallow leas
55 The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory,
56 Doth root upon, while that the coulter rusts
57 That should deracinate such savagery;
58 The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth
59 The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover,
60 Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,
61 Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems
62 But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs,
63 Losing both beauty and utility;
64 And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges,
65 Defective in their natures, grow to wildness.
66 Even so our houses and ourselves and children
67 Have lost, or do not learn for want of time,
68 The sciences that should become our country;
69 But grow like savages,—as soldiers will
70 That nothing do but meditate on blood,—
71 To swearing and stern looks, diffus’d attire,
72 And everything that seems unnatural.
73 Which to reduce into our former favour
74 You are assembled; and my speech entreats
75 That I may know the let, why gentle Peace
76 Should not expel these inconveniences
77 And bless us with her former qualities.
78 KING HENRY.
79 If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace,
80 Whose want gives growth to the imperfections
81 Which you have cited, you must buy that peace
82 With full accord to all our just demands;
83 Whose tenours and particular effects
84 You have enschedul’d briefly in your hands.
85 BURGUNDY.
86 The King hath heard them; to the which as yet
87 There is no answer made.
88 KING HENRY.
89 Well, then, the peace,
90 Which you before so urg’d, lies in his answer.
91 FRENCH KING.
92 I have but with a cursorary eye
93 O’erglanc’d the articles. Pleaseth your Grace
94 To appoint some of your council presently
95 To sit with us once more, with better heed
96 To re-survey them, we will suddenly
97 Pass our accept and peremptory answer.
98 KING HENRY.
99 Brother, we shall. Go, uncle Exeter,
100 And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester,
101 Warwick, and Huntington, go with the King;
102 And take with you free power to ratify,
103 Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best
104 Shall see advantageable for our dignity,
105 Anything in or out of our demands,
106 And we’ll consign thereto. Will you, fair sister,
107 Go with the princes, or stay here with us?
108 QUEEN ISABEL.
109 Our gracious brother, I will go with them.
110 Haply a woman’s voice may do some good,
111 When articles too nicely urg’d be stood on.
112 KING HENRY.
113 Yet leave our cousin Katharine here with us:
114 She is our capital demand, compris’d
115 Within the fore-rank of our articles.
116 QUEEN ISABEL.
117 She hath good leave.
118 [_Exeunt all except Henry, Katharine and Alice._]
119 KING HENRY.
120 Fair Katharine, and most fair,
121 Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms
122 Such as will enter at a lady’s ear
123 And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?
124 KATHARINE.
125 Your Majesty shall mock me; I cannot speak your England.
126 KING HENRY.
127 O fair Katharine, if you will love me soundly with your French heart, I
128 will be glad to hear you confess it brokenly with your English tongue.
129 Do you like me, Kate?
130 KATHARINE.
131 _Pardonnez-moi_, I cannot tell wat is “like me.”
132 KING HENRY.
133 An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel.
134 KATHARINE.
135 _Que dit-il? Que je suis semblable à les anges?_
136 ALICE.
137 _Oui, vraiment, sauf votre Grâce, ainsi dit-il._
138 KING HENRY.
139 I said so, dear Katharine; and I must not blush to affirm it.
140 KATHARINE.
141 _O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines de tromperies._
142 KING HENRY.
143 What says she, fair one? That the tongues of men are full of deceits?
144 ALICE.
145 _Oui_, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of deceits: dat is de
146 Princess.
147 KING HENRY.
148 The Princess is the better Englishwoman. I’ faith, Kate, my wooing is
149 fit for thy understanding. I am glad thou canst speak no better
150 English; for if thou couldst, thou wouldst find me such a plain king
151 that thou wouldst think I had sold my farm to buy my crown. I know no
152 ways to mince it in love, but directly to say, “I love you”; then if
153 you urge me farther than to say, “Do you in faith?” I wear out my suit.
154 Give me your answer; i’ faith, do; and so clap hands and a bargain. How
155 say you, lady?
156 KATHARINE.
157 _Sauf votre honneur_, me understand well.
158 KING HENRY.
159 Marry, if you would put me to verses, or to dance for your sake, Kate,
160 why you undid me; for the one, I have neither words nor measure, and
161 for the other I have no strength in measure, yet a reasonable measure
162 in strength. If I could win a lady at leap-frog, or by vaulting into my
163 saddle with my armour on my back, under the correction of bragging be
164 it spoken, I should quickly leap into a wife. Or if I might buffet for
165 my love, or bound my horse for her favours, I could lay on like a
166 butcher and sit like a jack-an-apes, never off. But, before God, Kate,
167 I cannot look greenly, nor gasp out my eloquence, nor I have no cunning
168 in protestation; only downright oaths, which I never use till urg’d,
169 nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a fellow of this temper,
170 Kate, whose face is not worth sunburning, that never looks in his glass
171 for love of anything he sees there, let thine eye be thy cook. I speak
172 to thee plain soldier. If thou canst love me for this, take me; if not,
173 to say to thee that I shall die, is true; but for thy love, by the
174 Lord, no; yet I love thee too. And while thou liv’st, dear Kate, take a
175 fellow of plain and uncoined constancy; for he perforce must do thee
176 right, because he hath not the gift to woo in other places; for these
177 fellows of infinite tongue, that can rhyme themselves into ladies’
178 favours, they do always reason themselves out again. What! a speaker is
179 but a prater: a rhyme is but a ballad. A good leg will fall; a straight
180 back will stoop; a black beard will turn white; a curl’d pate will grow
181 bald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax hollow; but a good
182 heart, Kate, is the sun and the moon; or rather the sun and not the
183 moon; for it shines bright and never changes, but keeps his course
184 truly. If thou would have such a one, take me; and take me, take a
185 soldier; take a soldier, take a king. And what say’st thou then to my
186 love? Speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee.
187 KATHARINE.
188 Is it possible dat I should love de enemy of France?
189 KING HENRY.
190 No; it is not possible you should love the enemy of France, Kate; but,
191 in loving me, you should love the friend of France; for I love France
192 so well that I will not part with a village of it, I will have it all
193 mine; and, Kate, when France is mine and I am yours, then yours is
194 France and you are mine.
195 KATHARINE.
196 I cannot tell wat is dat.
197 KING HENRY.
198 No, Kate? I will tell thee in French; which I am sure will hang upon my
199 tongue like a new-married wife about her husband’s neck, hardly to be
200 shook off. _Je quand sur le possession de France, et quand vous avez le
201 possession de moi_,—let me see, what then? Saint Denis be my
202 speed!—_donc votre est France, et vous êtes mienne._ It is as easy for
203 me, Kate, to conquer the kingdom as to speak so much more French. I
204 shall never move thee in French, unless it be to laugh at me.
205 KATHARINE.
206 _Sauf votre honneur, le français que vous parlez, il est meilleur que
207 l’anglais lequel je parle._
208 KING HENRY.
209 No, faith, is’t not, Kate; but thy speaking of my tongue, and I thine,
210 most truly-falsely, must needs be granted to be much at one. But, Kate,
211 dost thou understand thus much English: canst thou love me?
212 KATHARINE.
213 I cannot tell.
214 KING HENRY.
215 Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I’ll ask them. Come, I know thou
216 lovest me; and at night, when you come into your closet, you’ll
217 question this gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will to her
218 dispraise those parts in me that you love with your heart. But, good
219 Kate, mock me mercifully; the rather, gentle princess, because I love
220 thee cruelly. If ever thou beest mine, Kate, as I have a saving faith
221 within me tells me thou shalt, I get thee with scambling, and thou must
222 therefore needs prove a good soldier-breeder. Shall not thou and I,
223 between Saint Denis and Saint George, compound a boy, half French, half
224 English, that shall go to Constantinople and take the Turk by the
225 beard? Shall we not? What say’st thou, my fair flower-de-luce?
226 KATHARINE.
227 I do not know dat.
228 KING HENRY.
229 No; ’tis hereafter to know, but now to promise. Do but now promise,
230 Kate, you will endeavour for your French part of such a boy; and for my
231 English moiety, take the word of a king and a bachelor. How answer you,
232 _la plus belle Katherine du monde, mon très cher et divin déesse?_
233 KATHARINE.
234 Your Majestee ’ave _fausse_ French enough to deceive de most _sage
235 demoiselle_ dat is _en France_.
236 KING HENRY.
237 Now, fie upon my false French! By mine honour, in true English, I love
238 thee, Kate; by which honour I dare not swear thou lovest me; yet my
239 blood begins to flatter me that thou dost, notwithstanding the poor and
240 untempering effect of my visage. Now, beshrew my father’s ambition! He
241 was thinking of civil wars when he got me; therefore was I created with
242 a stubborn outside, with an aspect of iron, that, when I come to woo
243 ladies, I fright them. But, in faith, Kate, the elder I wax, the better
244 I shall appear. My comfort is, that old age, that ill layer up of
245 beauty, can do no more spoil upon my face. Thou hast me, if thou hast
246 me, at the worst; and thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and
247 better; and therefore tell me, most fair Katharine, will you have me?
248 Put off your maiden blushes; avouch the thoughts of your heart with the
249 looks of an empress; take me by the hand, and say, Harry of England, I
250 am thine; which word thou shalt no sooner bless mine ear withal, but I
251 will tell thee aloud, England is thine, Ireland is thine, France is
252 thine, and Henry Plantagenet is thine; who, though I speak it before
253 his face, if he be not fellow with the best king, thou shalt find the
254 best king of good fellows. Come, your answer in broken music; for thy
255 voice is music and thy English broken; therefore, queen of all,
256 Katharine, break thy mind to me in broken English. Wilt thou have me?
257 KATHARINE.
258 Dat is as it shall please _le roi mon père_.
259 KING HENRY.
260 Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall please him, Kate.
261 KATHARINE.
262 Den it sall also content me.
263 KING HENRY.
264 Upon that I kiss your hand, and call you my queen.
265 KATHARINE.
266 _Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez! Ma foi, je ne veux point que
267 vous abaissiez votre grandeur en baisant la main d’une—Notre
268 Seigneur!—indigne serviteur. Excusez-moi, je vous supplie, mon
269 très-puissant seigneur._
270 KING HENRY.
271 Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.
272 KATHARINE.
273 _Les dames et demoiselles pour être baisées devant leurs noces, il
274 n’est pas la coutume de France._
275 KING HENRY.
276 Madame my interpreter, what says she?
277 ALICE.
278 Dat it is not be de fashion _pour les_ ladies of France,—I cannot tell
279 wat is _baiser en_ Anglish.
280 KING HENRY.
281 To kiss.
282 ALICE.
283 Your Majestee _entend_ bettre _que moi_.
284 KING HENRY.
285 It is not a fashion for the maids in France to kiss before they are
286 married, would she say?
287 ALICE.
288 _Oui, vraiment._
289 KING HENRY.
290 O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot
291 be confined within the weak list of a country’s fashion. We are the
292 makers of manners, Kate; and the liberty that follows our places stops
293 the mouth of all find-faults, as I will do yours, for upholding the
294 nice fashion of your country in denying me a kiss; therefore, patiently
295 and yielding. [_Kissing her._] You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate;
296 there is more eloquence in a sugar touch of them than in the tongues of
297 the French council; and they should sooner persuade Harry of England
298 than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father.
299 Enter the French Power and the English Lords.
300 BURGUNDY.
301 God save your Majesty! My royal cousin, teach you our princess English?
302 KING HENRY.
303 I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how perfectly I love her; and
304 that is good English.
305 BURGUNDY.
306 Is she not apt?
307 KING HENRY.
308 Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition is not smooth; so that,
309 having neither the voice nor the heart of flattery about me, I cannot
310 so conjure up the spirit of love in her, that he will appear in his
311 true likeness.
312 BURGUNDY.
313 Pardon the frankness of my mirth, if I answer you for that. If you
314 would conjure in her, you must make a circle; if conjure up Love in her
315 in his true likeness, he must appear naked and blind. Can you blame her
316 then, being a maid yet ros’d over with the virgin crimson of modesty,
317 if she deny the appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked seeing
318 self? It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to consign to.
319 KING HENRY.
320 Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind and enforces.
321 BURGUNDY.
322 They are then excus’d, my lord, when they see not what they do.
323 KING HENRY.
324 Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to consent winking.
325 BURGUNDY.
326 I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will teach her to know
327 my meaning; for maids, well summer’d and warm kept, are like flies at
328 Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their eyes; and then they
329 will endure handling, which before would not abide looking on.
330 KING HENRY.
331 This moral ties me over to time and a hot summer; and so I shall catch
332 the fly, your cousin, in the latter end, and she must be blind too.
333 BURGUNDY.
334 As love is, my lord, before it loves.
335 KING HENRY.
336 It is so; and you may, some of you, thank love for my blindness, who
337 cannot see many a fair French city for one fair French maid that stands
338 in my way.
339 FRENCH KING.
340 Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities turn’d into a
341 maid; for they are all girdled with maiden walls that no war hath
342 entered.
343 KING HENRY.
344 Shall Kate be my wife?
345 FRENCH KING.
346 So please you.
347 KING HENRY.
348 I am content, so the maiden cities you talk of may wait on her; so the
349 maid that stood in the way for my wish shall show me the way to my
350 will.
351 FRENCH KING.
352 We have consented to all terms of reason.
353 KING HENRY.
354 Is’t so, my lords of England?
355 WESTMORLAND.
356 The king hath granted every article;
357 His daughter first, and then in sequel all,
358 According to their firm proposed natures.
359 EXETER.
360 Only he hath not yet subscribed this: where your Majesty demands, that
361 the King of France, having any occasion to write for matter of grant,
362 shall name your Highness in this form and with this addition, in
363 French, _Notre très-cher fils Henri, Roi d’Angleterre, Héritier de
364 France_; and thus in Latin, _Praeclarissimus filius noster Henricus,
365 rex Angliae et haeres Franciae._
366 FRENCH KING.
367 Nor this I have not, brother, so denied
368 But our request shall make me let it pass.
369 KING HENRY.
370 I pray you then, in love and dear alliance,
371 Let that one article rank with the rest;
372 And thereupon give me your daughter.
373 FRENCH KING.
374 Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up
375 Issue to me; that the contending kingdoms
376 Of France and England, whose very shores look pale
377 With envy of each other’s happiness,
378 May cease their hatred; and this dear conjunction
379 Plant neighbourhood and Christian-like accord
380 In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance
381 His bleeding sword ’twixt England and fair France.
382 LORDS.
383 Amen!
384 KING HENRY.
385 Now, welcome, Kate; and bear me witness all,
386 That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen.
387 [_Flourish._]
388 QUEEN ISABEL.
389 God, the best maker of all marriages,
390 Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one!
391 As man and wife, being two, are one in love,
392 So be there ’twixt your kingdoms such a spousal,
393 That never may ill office, or fell jealousy,
394 Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage,
395 Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms,
396 To make divorce of their incorporate league;
397 That English may as French, French Englishmen,
398 Receive each other. God speak this Amen!
399 ALL.
400 Amen!
401 KING HENRY.
402 Prepare we for our marriage; on which day,
403 My Lord of Burgundy, we’ll take your oath,
404 And all the peers’, for surety of our leagues,
405 Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me;
406 And may our oaths well kept and prosperous be!
407 [_Sennet. Exeunt._]
408 EPILOGUE.
409 Enter Chorus.
410 CHORUS.
411 Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen,
412 Our bending author hath pursu’d the story,
413 In little room confining mighty men,
414 Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.
415 Small time, but in that small most greatly lived
416 This star of England. Fortune made his sword,
417 By which the world’s best garden he achieved,
418 And of it left his son imperial lord.
419 Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown’d King
420 Of France and England, did this king succeed;
421 Whose state so many had the managing,
422 That they lost France and made his England bleed:
423 Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake,
424 In your fair minds let this acceptance take.
425 [_Exit._]