72

Pist. All hell shall stir for this. Gow. Go, go; you are a counterfeit cowardly knave. Will you mock at an ancient tradition, begun upon an honourable respect, and worn as a memorable trophy of predeceased valour and dare not avouch in your deeds any of your words? I have seen you gleeking1 and galling' at this gentleman twice or thrice. You thought, because he could not speak English in the native garb, he could not therefore handle an English cudgel: you find it otherwise; and henceforth let a Welsh correction teach you a good English condition.3 Fare ye well. [Exit.

Pist. Doth Fortune play the huswife1 with

SCENE II. Troyes in Champagne. An apartment in the King's 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. 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 contriv'd,
We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy;
And princes French, and peers, health to you
all!

Fr. King. Right joyous are we to behold your face,

9

Most worthy brother England; fairly met:So are you, princes English, every one.

Queen. 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:8
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. To cry amen to that, thus we appear.
Queen. You English princes all, I do salute
you.

22

Your mightiness on both parts best can wit

ness.

30

Since then my office hath so far prevail'd
That, face to face and royal eye to eye,
You have congreeted,1 let it not disgrace me,
If I demand, before this royal view,
What rub2 or what impediment there is,
Why that the naked, poor and mangled Peace,
Dear nurse of arts, plenties 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
chas'd,

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,3
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;6
The even mead, that erst brought sweetly
forth

51

The freckl'd 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,- 60
To swearing and stern looks, diffus'd attire
And every thing that seems unnatural.
Which to reduce into our former favour7
You are assembl'd: and my speech entreats
That I may know the let,8 why gentle Peace
Should not expel these inconveniences
And bless us with her former qualities.

Whose tenours and particular effects
You have enschedul'd briefly in your hands.
Bur. The king hath heard them; to the?
which as yet

There is no answer made.

King. Well then the peace, Which you before so urg'd, lies in his answer.] [Burgundy gives the French King a scroll. Fr. King. I have but with a cursorary eye

9 Would, wish.

81

O'erglanced the articles: pleaseth your grace
T'appoint some of your council presently
To sit with us once more, with better heed
To re-survey them, we will suddenly
Pass our accept1 and peremptory answer.
King. Brother, we shall. Go, uncle Exeter,
And brother Clarence, and you, brother Glou-
cester,

Warwick and Huntingdon, go with the king;
And take with you free power to ratify,
Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best
Shall see advantageable2 for our dignity,
Any thing in or out of our demands,
And we'll consign3 thereto. Will you, fair
sister,

90

Go with the princes, or stay here with us? Queen. Our gracious brother, I will go with them:-.

Haply a woman's voice may do some good,
When articles too nicely urg'd be stood on.
King. Yet leave our cousin Katharine here
with us:

She is our capital demand, compris'd
Within the fore-rank of our articles.
Queen. She hath good leave.

King.

[Exeunt all except Henry, Katharine, and Alice.

100

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

King. 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-moi, I cannot tell vat is "like me."

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

111

Alice. Oui, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of deceits: dat is de princess.8

King. 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?

134

Kath. Sauf votre honneur, me understand vell.

King. 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,10 yet a reasonable measure in strength. If I could win a lady at leapfrog, 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,12 never off. But before God, Kate, I cannot look greenly 13 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 sunburning, 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:1 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. Kath. Is it possible dat I sould love de enemy of France?

179

King. 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'ai 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 êtes 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 votre honneur, le François que vous parlez, il est meilleur que l'Anglois lequel je parle.

1 Fall, shrink.

201

"When I have possession of France and you have the possession of me-then France is yours and you are mine." a "Saving your honour, the French that you speak, it is better than the English which I speak."

King. 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 methou 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?

[Kath. I do not know dat.

4

224

King. 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, be-shrew 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,

4 Scambling, struggling.

5 Saint Denis, the French patron saint.

"The most beautiful Katharine in the world, my very dear and divine goddess."

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 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?

Kath. Dat is as it sall please de roi mon père.

King. Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall please him, Kate.

Kath. Den it sall also content me.

270

King. O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confined within the weak list3 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.

306

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