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And take with you free power, to ratify,
Augment, or alter, as your wifdoms belt
Shall fee advantageable for our dignity,
Any thing in, or out of, our demands;
And we'll confign thereto.-Will you, fair fifter,
Go with the princes, or stay here with us?

2. Ija. 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.
K. Henry. Yet leave our cousin Katharine here
with us:

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

[Exeunt.

Manent King Henry, Katharine, and a Lady.
K. Henry. Fair Katharine, and most fair!
Will you vouchfafe to teach a soldier terms,
Such as will enter at a lady's ear,

And plead his love-fuit to her gentle heart?
Kath. Your majesty shall mock at me; I can-
not speak your England.

K. Henry. O fair Katharine, if you will love me foundly with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you confefs it brokenly with your English tongue. Do you like me, Kate ?

for my love, or bound my horse for her favours, I could lay on like a butcher, and fit like a jack-anapes, never off: But, before God, Kate, I cannot look greenly, nor gafp out my eloquence, nor I have no cunning in protestation; only downright oaths, which I never ufe 'till urg'd, nor never break for urging. If thou canft love a fellow of this temper, Kate, whofe face is not worth funburning, that never looks in his glafs for love of any thing he fees there, let thine eye be thy cook. I speak to thee plain foldier: If thou can'st love me for this, take me: if not, to fay to thee-that I fhall die, 'tis true;-but for thy love, by the Lord, no; yet I love thee too. And while thou liv'ft, dear Kate, take a fellow of plain and uncoined conftancy I; for he perforce must do thee right, because he hath not the gift to woo in other places: for thefe fellows of infinite tongue, that can rhime themfelves into ladies' favours,-they do always reason themselves out again. What! a fpeaker 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 curl'd pate will grow bald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax hollow: but a good heart, Kate, is the fun and the moon; or, rather, the fun, and not the

Kath. Pardonnez moy, I cannot tell vat is moon; for it fhines bright, and never changes, like me.

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but keeps his courfe truly. If thou would have fuch a one, take me: And take me, take a foldier; take a foldier, take a king: And what fay'ft thou then to my love? Speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee.

Kath. Is it poffible dat I should love the enemy of France ?

K. Hen. No; it is not poffible, that you should love the enemy of France, Kate: but, in loving me, you should love the friend of France; for I love France fo 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. 1 cannot tell vat is dat.

K. Henry. The princefs is the better English- K. Hen. No, Kate? I will tell thee in French; woman. I'faith, Kate, my wooing is fit for thy which, I am fure, will hang upon my tongue like understanding: I am glad, thou canft fpeak no a new-married wife about her husband's neck, better English; for, if thou couldst, thou wouldft hardly to be thook off. Quand j'ay la poffeffion de find me fuch a plain king, that thou wouldst think, France, & quand vous avez la poffeffion de moi, (let I had fold my farm to buy my crown. I know me fee, what then? Saint Denis be my speed!) no ways to mince it in love, but directly to faydonc voftre eft France, vous eftes mienne. It is I love you: then, if you urge me further than to as eafy for me, Kate, to conquer the kingdom, as fay-Do you in faith? I wear out my fuit. Give to fpeak fo much more French: I fhall never me your answer; i'faith, do; and fo clap hands, move thee in French, unless it be to laugh at me. and a bargain: How fay you, lady?

Kath. Sauf votre bonneur, me understand well. K. Henry. Marry, if you would put me to veries, or to dance for your fake, Kate, why you undid me for the one, I have neither words nor measure; and for the other, I have no ftrength in measure, yet a reasonable meafure in ftrength. If I could win a lady at leap-frog, or by vaulting into my faddle with my armour on my back, under the correction of bragging be it fpoken, I thould quickly leap into a wife. Or, if I might buffet

Kath. Sauf votre bonneur, le Francois que vous parlez, eft meilleur que l' Anglois lequel je parle.

K. Hen. No, faith, is't not, Kate; but thy fpeaking of my tongue, and I thine, moft truly falfely, muft needs be granted to be much at one. But, Kate, doft thou understand thus much Englith? Canft thou love me?

Kath. I cannot tell.

K. Hen. Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll ask them. Come, I know, thou loveit me: and at night when you come into your closet,

1 i. e. real and true conftancy, unrefined and unadorned.

you'll

foy, je ne veux point que vous abbaiffex vofire grant
deur, en baifant la main d'une voftre indigne ferviteure;
excufez moy, je vous supplie, mon tres puissant seigneur.
K. Hen. Then I will kifs your lips, Kate.
Kath. Les dames, & damoifelles pour fire baifles
devant leur nopces, il n'eft pas le coûtume de France.
K. Hen. Madam, my interpreter, what fays the?
Lady. Dat is not be de fashion pour de ladies of
France,-I cannot tell what is, baifer, en English.
K. Hen. To kifs.

you'll queftion this gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will, to her, difpraise those parts in me, that you love with your heart: but, good Kate, mock me mercifully; the rather, gentle princefs, because I love thee cruelly. If ever thou beit mine, Kate, (as I have faving faith within me, tells me thou fhalt) I get thee with fcambling, and thou must therefore needs prove a good foldier-breeder: fhall not thou and I, between faint Denis and faint George, compound a boy, half French, half English, that thall go to Conftantinople 2, and take the Turk by the beard ? fhall we not? What fay it thou, my fair flower-France to kifs before they are married, would she

de-luce?

Kath. I do not know dat.

K. Hen. No; 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promife: do but now promife, Kate, you will endeavour for your French part of fuch a boy; and, for my English moiety, take the word of a king and a batchelor. How answer you, la plus belle Katharine du monde, mon tres chere & divine déeffe! Kath. Your majefté 'ave fauffe French enough to deceive de moft fage damnifelle dat is en France.

Lady. Your majefty entendre bettre que moy.

K. Hen. It is not a fashion for the maids in

fay?

Lady. Ouy, vrayment.

K. Hen. O, Kate, nice cuftoms curt'fy to great kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be contin'd within the weak lift of a country's fashion: we are the makers of manners, Kate; and the liberty, that follows our places, ftops the mouth of all find-faults; as I will do yours, for upholding the nice fafhion of your country, in denying me a kifs: therefore, patiently, and yielding-[killing ber.] You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate: there is more eloquence in a fugar touch of them, than in the tongues of the French council; and they thould fooner perfuade Harry of England, than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father. Enter the French King and Queen, with French and English Lords.

Burg. God fave your majesty! my royal coufin, teach you our princess English?

K. Hen. I would have her learn, my fair coufin, how perfectly I love her; and that is good English. Burg. Is the not apt?

K. Hen. Our tongue is rough, coz'; and my condition + is not smooth; fo that, having neither the voice nor the heart of flattery about me, I cannot fo conjure up the spirit of love in her, that he will appear in his true likeness.

K. Hen. Now, fie upon my falfe French! By mine honour, in true English, I love thee, Kate: by which honour I dare not fwear, thou loveft me; yet my blood begins to flatter me that thou doft, notwithstanding the poor and untempering 3 effect of my vifage. Now befhrew my father's ambition! he was thinking of civil wars when he got me; therefore was I created with a ftubborn outfide, 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 fhall appear: my comfort is, that old age, that ill layer-up of beauty, can do no more fpoil upon my face; thou haft me, if thou haft me, at the worit; and thou fhalt 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 fay--Harry of England, I am thine: which word thou fhalt no fooner 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 fpeak it before his face, if he be not fellow with the best king, thou shalt find the beft king of good-fellows. Come, your anfwer in broken mufic; for thy voice is mufic, and thy English broken: therefore, queen of all, Katha-is rine, break thy mind to me in broken English, Wilt thou have me?

Kath. Dat is, as it fhall please de roy mon perc. K. Hen. Nay, it will pleate him well, Kate; it fhall please him, Kate.

Kath. Den it shall alfo content me.

K. Hen. Upon that I kits your hand, and I call you-my queen.

Kath. Laiffez, mon feigneur, laisse≈, laissez: ma

Burg. Pardon the franknefs 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 rofy'd over with the virgin crimson of modefty, if the deny the appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked feeing felf? It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to confign to.

K. Hen. Yet they do wink, and yield; as love blind, and enforces.

Burg. They are then excus'd, my lord, when they fee not what they do.

K. Hen. Then, good my lord, teach your coufin to confent to winking.

Burg. I will wink on her to confent, my lord," if you will teach her to know my meaning: for maids, well fummer'd and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their eyes: and then they will endure handling,

1 i. e. fcrambling. 2 Shakspeare has here committed an anachronifm. The Turks were not poffelled of Conftantinople before the year 1453, when Henry V. had been dead thirty-one years. 3 Meaning, notwithftanding my face has no power to temper, i. e foften you to my purpose. 4 i. e. my temper.

which before would not abide looking on.

K. Hen. This moral ties me over to time, and a hot fummer; and fo I fhall catch the fly, your coufin, in the latter end, and the muft he blind too. Barg. As love is, my lord, before it loves.

K. Hen. It is fo: and you may, fome of you, thank love for my blindnefs; who cannot fee many a fair French city, for one fair French maid that ftands in my way.

Fr. King. Yes, my lord, you see them perfpectively, the cities turn'd into a maid; for they are all girdled within maiden walls, that war hath never enter'd.

K. Hen. Shall Kate be my wife ?
Fr. King. So please you.

K. Hen. I am content; fo the maiden cities you talk of, may wait on her: fo the maid, that stood in the way for my wifh, fhall fhew me the way to my will.

Fr. King. We have confented to all terms of reafon.

K. Hen. Is't fo, my lords of England? Weft. The king hath granted every article : His daughter, firit; and then in sequel all, According to their firm propofed natures.

Exe. Only, he hath not yet subscribed this :-Where your majesty demands,-That the king of France, having any occafion to write for matter of grant, fhall name your highnefs in this form, and with this addition in French :-Notre tres cher Fix Henry roy d'Angleterre, beretier de France: and thus in Latin,-Præclariffimus filius nofter Henricus, rex Angliæ, & beres Francice.

Fr. King. Yet this I have not, brother, fo deny'd, But your request fhall make me let it pafs.

K. Hen. 1 pray you then, in love and dear alliance,

Let that one article rank with the rest:

And, thereupon, give me your daughter.

F. King. Take her, fair fon; and from her

blood raife up

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Q. Ifa. God, the beft 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 fuch a spousal, That never may ill office, or fell jealousy, Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage, Thruft 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!

K. Hen. Prepare we for our marriage :-on
which day,

My lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath
And all the peers', for furety of our leagues.—
Then thall I fwear to Kate,-and you to me ;-
And may our oaths well kept and proíp'rous be!
[Excunt.

Enter Chorus.

Thus far, with rough, and all unable pen,
Our bending 2 author hath purfu'd the story;
In little room confining mighty men,

Mangling by starts the full courfe of their glory. Small time, but, in that fmail, most greatly liv'd

This ftar of England: fortune made his fword; By which the world's beft garden he atchiev'd, And of it left his fon imperial lord.

Henry the fixth, in infant bands crown'd king Of France and England, did this king succeed; Whofe ftate fo many had the managing,

That they loft France, and made his England bleed: [take,

Iffue to me: that the contending kingdoms [pale Which oft our stage hath fhewn; and, for their Of France and England, whose very thores look | In your fair minds let this acceptance take.

1 That is, the application of this fable, the moral being the application of a fable. 2 i. e. humble. Meaning, by touching only on felect parts.

FIRST

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Lords, Captains, Soldiers, Messengers, and feveral Attendants both on the English and French.
The SCENE is partly in England, and partly in France.

Dead March.

A C T

SCENE I.

Weftminfer-Abbey.

I.

Brandifh your crystal treffes in the fky;
And with them fcourge the bad revolting stars,

Enter the Funeral of King Henry the That have confented unto Henry's death!
Fifth, attended on by the Duke of Bedford, Re-Henry the fifth, too famous to live long !
gent of France; the Duke of Glofter, Protector; England ne'er loft a king of fo much worth.
the Duke of Exeter, and the Earl of Warwick;
the Bishop of Winchester, and the Duke of So-
merfet, &c.

Bed. H yield day to night!

UNG be the heavens with black,

Comets, importing change of times and states,

Virtue he had, deferving to command:
Glo. England ne'er had a king, until his time.

His brandifh'd fword did blind men with his beams;
His arms spread wider than a dragon's wings;
His fparkling eyes, replete with wrathful fire,
More dazzled and drove back his enemies,
Than mid-day fun, fierce bent against their faces.

1 Mr. Theobald obferves, that "the hiftorical tranfactions contained in this play, take in the compafs of above thirty years. I muft obferve, however, that our authot, in the three parts of Henry VI. has not been very precife to the date and difpofition of his facts; but shuffled them, backwards and forwards, out of time. For inftance; the lord Talbot is kill'd at the end of the fourth act of this play, who in reality did not fall till the 13th of July 1453; and The Second Part of Henry VI. opens with the marriage of the king, which was folemnized eight years before Talbot's death, in the year 1445. Again, in the fecond part, dame Eleanor Cobham is introduced to infult queen Margaret; though her penance and banishment for forcery happened three years before that princefs came over to England. I could point out many other tranfgreffions againft hiftory, as far as the order of time is concerned. Indeed, though there are feveral maiter-ftrokes in thefe three plays, which inconteftably betray the workmanship of Shakspeare; yet I am almost doubtful, whether they were entirely of his writing. And unless they were wrote by him very early, I fhould rather imagine them to have been brought to him as a director of the flage; and to have received fome finishing beauties at his hand. An accurate obferver will eafily fee, the diction of them is more obfolete, and the numpers more mean and profaical, than in the generality of his genuine compofitions."

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