Enter Chorus.
CHORUS.Vouchsafe to those that have not read the story,That I may prompt them; and of such as have,I humbly pray them to admit the excuseOf time, of numbers, and due course of things,Which cannot in their huge and proper lifeBe here presented. Now we bear the KingToward Calais; grant him there; there seen,Heave him away upon your winged thoughtsAthwart the sea. Behold, the English beachPales in the flood with men, with wives and boys,Whose shouts and claps out-voice the deep-mouth’d sea,Which like a mighty whiffler ’fore the KingSeems to prepare his way. So let him land,And solemnly see him set on to London.So swift a pace hath thought that even nowYou may imagine him upon Blackheath,Where that his lords desire him to have borneHis bruised helmet and his bended swordBefore him through the city. He forbids it,Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride;Giving full trophy, signal, and ostentQuite from himself to God. But now behold,In the quick forge and working-house of thought,How London doth pour out her citizens!The mayor and all his brethren in best sort,Like to the senators of th’ antique Rome,With the plebeians swarming at their heels,Go forth and fetch their conquering Caesar in;As, by a lower but loving likelihood,Were now the general of our gracious empress,As in good time he may, from Ireland coming,Bringing rebellion broached on his sword,How many would the peaceful city quit,To welcome him! Much more, and much more cause,Did they this Harry. Now in London place him;As yet the lamentation of the FrenchInvites the King of England’s stay at home,The Emperor’s coming in behalf of France,To order peace between them;—and omitAll the occurrences, whatever chanc’d,Till Harry’s back-return again to France.There must we bring him; and myself have play’dThe interim, by rememb’ring you ’tis past.Then brook abridgement, and your eyes advanceAfter your thoughts, straight back again to France.
[Exit.]
SCENE I. France. The English camp.
Enter Fluellen and Gower.
GOWER.Nay, that’s right; but why wear you your leek today?Saint Davy’s day is past.
FLUELLEN.There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things. I willtell you ass my friend, Captain Gower. The rascally, scald, beggarly,lousy, pragging knave, Pistol, which you and yourself and all the worldknow to be no petter than a fellow, look you now, of no merits, he iscome to me and prings me pread and salt yesterday, look you, and bid meeat my leek. It was in a place where I could not breed no contentionwith him; but I will be so bold as to wear it in my cap till I see himonce again, and then I will tell him a little piece of my desires.
Enter Pistol.
GOWER.Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock.
FLUELLEN.’Tis no matter for his swellings nor his turkey-cocks. God pless you,Anchient Pistol! you scurvy, lousy knave, God pless you!
PISTOL.Ha! art thou bedlam? Dost thou thirst, base Trojan,To have me fold up Parca’s fatal web?Hence! I am qualmish at the smell of leek.
FLUELLEN.I peseech you heartily, scurfy, lousy knave, at my desires, and myrequests, and my petitions, to eat, look you, this leek. Because, lookyou, you do not love it, nor your affections and your appetites andyour digestions does not agree with it, I would desire you to eat it.
PISTOL.Not for Cadwallader and all his goats.
FLUELLEN.There is one goat for you. [Strikes him.] Will you be so good, scaldknave, as eat it?
PISTOL.Base Trojan, thou shalt die.
FLUELLEN.You say very true, scald knave, when God’s will is. I will desire youto live in the mean time, and eat your victuals. Come, there is saucefor it. [Strikes him.] You call’d me yesterday mountain-squire; but Iwill make you today a squire of low degree. I pray you, fall to; if youcan mock a leek, you can eat a leek.
GOWER.Enough, captain; you have astonish’d him.
FLUELLEN.I say, I will make him eat some part of my leek, or I will peat hispate four days. Bite, I pray you; it is good for your green wound andyour ploody coxcomb.
PISTOL.Must I bite?
FLUELLEN.Yes, certainly, and out of doubt and out of question too, andambiguities.
PISTOL.By this leek, I will most horribly revenge. I eat and eat, I swear—
FLUELLEN.Eat, I pray you. Will you have some more sauce to your leek? There isnot enough leek to swear by.
PISTOL.Quiet thy cudgel; thou dost see I eat.
FLUELLEN.Much good do you, scald knave, heartily. Nay, pray you, throw noneaway; the skin is good for your broken coxcomb. When you take occasionsto see leeks hereafter, I pray you, mock at ’em; that is all.
PISTOL.Good.
FLUELLEN.Ay, leeks is good. Hold you, there is a groat to heal your pate.
PISTOL.Me a groat!
FLUELLEN.Yes, verily and in truth you shall take it; or I have another leek inmy pocket, which you shall eat.
PISTOL.I take thy groat in earnest of revenge.
FLUELLEN.If I owe you anything I will pay you in cudgels. You shall be awoodmonger, and buy nothing of me but cudgels. God be wi’ you, and keepyou, and heal your pate.
[Exit.]
PISTOL.All hell shall stir for this.
GOWER.Go, go; you are a couterfeit cowardly knave. Will you mock at anancient tradition, begun upon an honourable respect, and worn as amemorable trophy of predeceased valour, and dare not avouch in yourdeeds any of your words? I have seen you gleeking and galling at thisgentleman twice or thrice. You thought, because he could not speakEnglish in the native garb, he could not therefore handle an Englishcudgel. You find it otherwise; and henceforth let a Welsh correctionteach you a good English condition. Fare ye well.
[Exit.]
PISTOL.Doth Fortune play the huswife with me now?News have I, that my Doll is dead i’ the spitalOf malady of France;And there my rendezvous is quite cut off.Old I do wax; and from my weary limbsHonour is cudgell’d. Well, bawd I’ll turn,And something lean to cutpurse of quick hand.To England will I steal, and there I’ll steal;And patches will I get unto these cudgell’d scars,And swear I got them in the Gallia wars.
[Exit.]
SCENE II. France. A royal palace.
Enter at one door, King Henry, Exeter, Bedford, Warwick, Gloucester, Westmorland, Clarence, Huntingdon and other Lords. At another, Queen Isabel, the French King, the Princess Katharine, Alice, and other Ladies; the Duke of Burgundy and other French.
KING HENRY.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 wishesTo 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!
FRENCH KING.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 meetingAs we are now glad to behold your eyes;Your eyes, which hitherto have borne in themAgainst the French that met them in their bentThe fatal balls of murdering basilisks.The venom of such looks, we fairly hope,Have lost their quality; and that this dayShall change all griefs and quarrels into love.
KING HENRY.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 MajestiesUnto this bar and royal interview,Your mightiness on both parts best can witness.Since then my office hath so far prevail’dThat, face to face and royal eye to eye,You have congreeted, let it not disgrace meIf 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, 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 it 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 leasThe darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory,Doth root upon, while that the coulter rustsThat should deracinate such savagery;The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forthThe freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover,Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,Conceives by idleness, and nothing teemsBut 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 childrenHave lost, or do not learn for want of time,The sciences that should become our country;But grow like savages,—as soldiers willThat nothing do but meditate on blood,—To swearing and stern looks, diffus’d attire,And everything that seems unnatural.Which to reduce into our former favourYou are assembled; and my speech entreatsThat I may know the let, why gentle PeaceShould not expel these inconveniencesAnd bless us with her former qualities.
KING HENRY.If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace,Whose want gives growth to the imperfectionsWhich you have cited, you must buy that peaceWith full accord to all our just demands;Whose tenours and particular effectsYou have enschedul’d briefly in your hands.
BURGUNDY.The King hath heard them; to the which as yetThere is no answer made.
KING HENRY.Well, then, the peace,Which you before so urg’d, lies in his answer.
FRENCH KING.I have but with a cursorary eyeO’erglanc’d the articles. Pleaseth your GraceTo appoint some of your council presentlyTo sit with us once more, with better heedTo re-survey them, we will suddenlyPass our accept and peremptory answer.
KING HENRY.Brother, we shall. Go, uncle Exeter,And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester,Warwick, and Huntington, go with the King;And take with you free power to ratify,Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms bestShall see advantageable for our dignity,Anything 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 urg’d be stood on.
KING HENRY.Yet leave our cousin Katharine here with us:She is our capital demand, compris’dWithin the fore-rank of our articles.
QUEEN ISABEL.She hath good leave.
[Exeunt all except Henry, Katharine and Alice.]
KING HENRY.Fair Katharine, and most fair,Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier termsSuch as will enter at a lady’s earAnd plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?
KATHARINE.Your Majesty shall mock me; I cannot speak your England.
KING HENRY.O fair Katharine, if you will love me soundly with your French heart, Iwill be glad to hear you confess it brokenly with your English tongue.Do you like me, Kate?
KATHARINE.Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell wat is “like me.”
KING HENRY.An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel.
KATHARINE.Que dit-il? Que je suis semblable à les anges?
ALICE.Oui, vraiment, sauf votre Grâce, ainsi dit-il.
KING HENRY.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.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 dePrincess.
KING HENRY.The Princess is the better Englishwoman. I’ faith, Kate, my wooing isfit for thy understanding. I am glad thou canst speak no betterEnglish; for if thou couldst, thou wouldst find me such a plain kingthat thou wouldst think I had sold my farm to buy my crown. I know noways to mince it in love, but directly to say, “I love you”; then ifyou 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. Howsay you, lady?
KATHARINE.Sauf votre honneur, me understand well.
KING HENRY.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, andfor the other I have no strength in measure, yet a reasonable measurein strength. If I could win a lady at leap-frog, or by vaulting into mysaddle with my armour on my back, under the correction of bragging beit spoken, I should quickly leap into a wife. Or if I might buffet formy love, or bound my horse for her favours, I could lay on like abutcher 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 cunningin protestation; only downright oaths, which I never use till urg’d,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 glassfor love of anything he sees there, let thine eye be thy cook. I speakto 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 theLord, no; yet I love thee too. And while thou liv’st, dear Kate, take afellow of plain and uncoined constancy; for he perforce must do theeright, because he hath not the gift to woo in other places; for thesefellows of infinite tongue, that can rhyme themselves into ladies’favours, they do always reason themselves out again. What! a speaker isbut a prater: a rhyme is but a ballad. A good leg will fall; a straightback will stoop; a black beard will turn white; a curl’d pate will growbald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax hollow; but a goodheart, Kate, is the sun and the moon; or rather the sun and not themoon; for it shines bright and never changes, but keeps his coursetruly. If thou would have such a one, take me; and take me, take asoldier; take a soldier, take a king. And what say’st thou then to mylove? Speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee.
KATHARINE.Is it possible dat I should love de enemy of France?
KING HENRY.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 Franceso well that I will not part with a village of it, I will have it allmine; and, Kate, when France is mine and I am yours, then yours isFrance and you are mine.
KATHARINE.I cannot tell wat is dat.
KING HENRY.No, Kate? I will tell thee in French; which I am sure will hang upon mytongue like a new-married wife about her husband’s neck, hardly to beshook off. Je quand sur le possession de France, et quand vous avez lepossession de moi,—let me see, what then? Saint Denis be myspeed!—donc votre est France, et vous êtes mienne. It is as easy forme, Kate, to conquer the kingdom as to speak so much more French. Ishall never move thee in French, unless it be to laugh at me.
KATHARINE.Sauf votre honneur, le français que vous parlez, il est meilleur quel’anglais lequel je parle.
KING HENRY.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.Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I’ll ask them. Come, I know thoulovest me; and at night, when you come into your closet, you’llquestion this gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will to herdispraise those parts in me that you love with your heart. But, goodKate, mock me mercifully; the rather, gentle princess, because I lovethee cruelly. If ever thou beest mine, Kate, as I have a saving faithwithin me tells me thou shalt, I get thee with scambling, and thou musttherefore needs prove a good soldier-breeder. Shall not thou and I,between Saint Denis and Saint George, compound a boy, half French, halfEnglish, that shall go to Constantinople and take the Turk by thebeard? Shall we not? What say’st thou, my fair flower-de-luce?
KATHARINE.I do not know dat.
KING HENRY.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 myEnglish moiety, take the word of a king and a bachelor. How answer you,la plus belle Katherine du monde, mon très cher et divin déesse?
KATHARINE.Your Majestee ’ave fausse French enough to deceive de most sagedemoiselle dat is en France.
KING HENRY.Now, fie upon my false French! By mine honour, in true English, I lovethee, Kate; by which honour I dare not swear thou lovest me; yet myblood begins to flatter me that thou dost, notwithstanding the poor anduntempering effect of my visage. Now, beshrew my father’s ambition! Hewas thinking of civil wars when he got me; therefore was I created witha stubborn outside, with an aspect of iron, that, when I come to wooladies, I fright them. But, in faith, Kate, the elder I wax, the betterI shall appear. My comfort is, that old age, that ill layer up ofbeauty, can do no more spoil upon my face. Thou hast me, if thou hastme, at the worst; and thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better andbetter; and therefore tell me, most fair Katharine, will you have me?Put off your maiden blushes; avouch the thoughts of your heart with thelooks of an empress; take me by the hand, and say, Harry of England, Iam thine; which word thou shalt no sooner bless mine ear withal, but Iwill tell thee aloud, England is thine, Ireland is thine, France isthine, and Henry Plantagenet is thine; who, though I speak it beforehis face, if he be not fellow with the best king, thou shalt find thebest king of good fellows. Come, your answer in broken music; for thyvoice 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 shall please le roi mon père.
KING HENRY.Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall please him, Kate.
KATHARINE.Den it sall also content me.
KING HENRY.Upon that I kiss your hand, and call you my queen.
KATHARINE.Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez! Ma foi, je ne veux point quevous abaissiez votre grandeur en baisant la main d’une—NotreSeigneur!—indigne serviteur. Excusez-moi, je vous supplie, montrès-puissant seigneur.
KING HENRY.Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.
KATHARINE.Les dames et demoiselles pour être baisées devant leurs noces, iln’est pas la coutume de France.
KING HENRY.Madame my interpreter, what says she?
ALICE.Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of France,—I cannot tellwat is baiser en Anglish.
KING HENRY.To kiss.
ALICE.Your Majestee entend bettre que moi.
KING HENRY.It is not a fashion for the maids in France to kiss before they aremarried, would she say?
ALICE.Oui, vraiment.
KING HENRY.O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannotbe confined within the weak list of a country’s fashion. We are themakers of manners, Kate; and the liberty that follows our places stopsthe mouth of all find-faults, as I will do yours, for upholding thenice fashion of your country in denying me a kiss; therefore, patientlyand yielding. [Kissing her.] You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate;there is more eloquence in a sugar touch of them than in the tongues ofthe French council; and they should sooner persuade Harry of Englandthan a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father.
Enter the French Power and the English Lords.
BURGUNDY.God save your Majesty! My royal cousin, teach you our princess English?
KING HENRY.I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how perfectly I love her; andthat is good English.
BURGUNDY.Is she not apt?
KING HENRY.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 cannotso conjure up the spirit of love in her, that he will appear in histrue likeness.
BURGUNDY.Pardon the frankness of my mirth, if I answer you for that. If youwould conjure in her, you must make a circle; if conjure up Love in herin his true likeness, he must appear naked and blind. Can you blame herthen, being a maid yet ros’d over with the virgin crimson of modesty,if she deny the appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked seeingself? It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to consign to.
KING HENRY.Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind and enforces.
BURGUNDY.They are then excus’d, my lord, when they see not what they do.
KING HENRY.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 knowmy meaning; for maids, well summer’d and warm kept, are like flies atBartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their eyes; and then theywill endure handling, which before would not abide looking on.
KING HENRY.This moral ties me over to time and a hot summer; and so I shall catchthe fly, your cousin, in the latter end, and she must be blind too.
BURGUNDY.As love is, my lord, before it loves.
KING HENRY.It is so; and you may, some of you, thank love for my blindness, whocannot see many a fair French city for one fair French maid that standsin my way.
FRENCH KING.Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities turn’d into amaid; for they are all girdled with maiden walls that no war hathentered.
KING HENRY.Shall Kate be my wife?
FRENCH KING.So please you.
KING HENRY.I am content, so the maiden cities you talk of may wait on her; so themaid that stood in the way for my wish shall show me the way to mywill.
FRENCH KING.We have consented to all terms of reason.
KING HENRY.Is’t so, my lords of England?
WESTMORLAND.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, thatthe King of France, having any occasion to write for matter of grant,shall name your Highness in this form and with this addition, inFrench, Notre très-cher fils Henri, Roi d’Angleterre, Héritier deFrance; and thus in Latin, Praeclarissimus filius noster Henricus,rex Angliae et haeres Franciae.
FRENCH KING.Nor this I have not, brother, so deniedBut our request shall make me let it pass.
KING HENRY.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 upIssue to me; that the contending kingdomsOf France and England, whose very shores look paleWith envy of each other’s happiness,May cease their hatred; and this dear conjunctionPlant neighbourhood and Christian-like accordIn their sweet bosoms, that never war advanceHis bleeding sword ’twixt England and fair France.
LORDS.Amen!
KING HENRY.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.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.]