TPTT The Life of Henry the Fifth: ACT V
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
PROLOGUE.
SCENE I. France. The English camp.
SCENE II. France. A royal palace.
EPILOGUE
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SCENE II. 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;
5     And, as a branch and member of this royalty,
      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,
10    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 meeting,
      As we are now glad to behold your eyes;
15    Your eyes, which hitherto have borne in them
      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
20    Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.
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,
25    With all my wits, my pains and strong endeavours,
      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
30    That, face to face and royal eye to eye,
      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,
35    Dear nurse of arts 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 chased,
      And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,
40    Corrupting in its 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 leas
45    The darnel, hemlock and rank fumitory
      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,
50    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,
55    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
60    That nothing do but meditate on blood,--
      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
65    That I may know the let, why gentle Peace
      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
70    Which you have cited, you must buy that peace
      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
75    There is no answer made.
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
80    To appoint some of your council presently
      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,
85    And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester,
      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,
90    Any thing 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,
95    When articles too nicely urged be stood on.
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
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?
KATHARINE
      Your majesty shall mock at me; I cannot speak your England.
KING HENRY V
105   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?
KATHARINE
      Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is 'like me.'
KING HENRY V
110   An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel.
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
115   O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines de
      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
120   deceits: dat is de princess.
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
125   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
130   clap hands and a bargain: how say you, lady?
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
135   have no strength in measure, yet a reasonable
      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.
140   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, never off. But, before God,
      Kate, I cannot look greenly nor gasp out my
      eloquence, nor I have no cunning in protestation;
145   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
      sun-burning, that never looks in his glass for love
      of any thing he sees there, let thine eye be thy
150   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
155   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
160   speaker 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 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
165   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?
170   speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee.
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
175   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.
KATHARINE
      I cannot tell vat is dat.
KING HENRY V
      No, Kate? I will tell thee in French; which I am
180   sure will hang upon my tongue like a new-married
      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
185   France et vous etes 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.
KATHARINE
      Sauf votre honneur, le Francois que vous parlez, il
190   est meilleur que l'Anglois lequel je parle.
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
195   I cannot tell.
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
200   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 me thou shalt, I get
205   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?
210   shall we not? what sayest thou, my fair
      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
215   French part of such a boy; and for my English moiety
      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
220   most sage demoiselle dat is en France.
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
225   and untempering effect of my visage. Now, beshrew
      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,
230   Kate, 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:
235   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
240   ear withal, but I will tell thee aloud 'England is
      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.
245   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?
KATHARINE
      Dat is as it sall please de roi mon pere.
KING HENRY V
250   Nay, it will please him well, Kate it shall please
      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
255   ne veux point que vous abaissiez votre grandeur en
      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
260   Les dames et demoiselles pour etre baisees devant
      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
265   To kiss.
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
270   O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great kings. Dear
      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
275   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
280   tongues of the French council; and they should
      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
285   I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how
      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
290   heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up
      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
295   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 rosed over with the
      virgin crimson of modesty, if she deny the
      appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked seeing
300   self? It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid
      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
305   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 know my meaning: for maids, well
      summered and warm kept, are like flies at
      Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their
310   eyes; and then they will endure handling, which
      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
315   As love is, my lord, before it loves.
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
320   turned into a maid; for they are all girdled with
      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
325   wait on her: so the maid that stood in the way for
      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:
330   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, that the King of France,
      having any occasion to write for matter of grant,
335   shall name your highness in this form and with this
      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
340   Nor this I have not, brother, so denied,
      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
345   Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up
      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
350   Plant neighbourhood and Christian-like accord
      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,
355   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,
360   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,
365   Receive each other. God speak this Amen!
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.
370   Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me;
      And may our oaths well kept and prosperous be!
Sennet. Exeunt
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