ACT V.
PROLOGUE.[5295]
Enter Chorus.
Chor. Vouchsafe to those that have not read the story,[5296]
That I may prompt them: and of such as have,[5297]
I humbly pray them to admit the excuse
Of time, of numbers and due course of things,
Which cannot in their huge and proper life5
Be here presented. Now we bear the king
Toward Calais: grant him there; there seen,[5298]
Heave him away upon your winged thoughts
Athwart the sea. Behold, the English beach
Pales in the flood with men, with wives and boys,[5299]10
Whose shouts and claps out-voice the deep-mouth'd sea,
Which like a mighty whiffler 'fore the king
Seems to prepare his way: so let him land,
And solemnly see him set on to London.
So swift a pace hath thought that even now15
You may imagine him upon Blackheath;
Where that his lords desire him to have borne
His bruised helmet and his bended sword
Before him through the city: he forbids it,
Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride;20
Giving full trophy, signal and ostent
Quite 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,25
Like to the senators of the antique Rome,[5300]
With the plebeians swarming at their heels,
Go forth and fetch their conquering Cæsar in:
As, by a lower but loving likelihood,[5301]
Were now the general of our gracious empress,30
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;35
As yet the lamentation of the French[5302]
Invites the King of England's stay at home;[5303]
The emperor's coming in behalf of France,[5304]
To order peace between them; and omit[5305]
All the occurrences, whatever chanced,40
Till Harry's back-return again to France:
There must we bring him; and myself have play'd
The interim, by remembering you 'tis past.
Then brook abridgement, and your eyes advance,
After your thoughts, straight back again to France. [Exit.45
Scene I. France. The English Camp.[5306]
Enter Fluellen and Gower.
Gow. Nay, that's right; but why wear you your leek
to-day? Saint Davy's day is past.[5307]
Flu. There is occasions and causes why and wherefore
in all things: I will tell you, asse my friend, Captain Gower:[5308]
the rascally, scald, beggarly, lousy, pragging knave, Pistol,5
which you and yourself and all the world know to be no[5309]
petter than a fellow, look you now, of no merits, he is
come to me and prings me pread and salt yesterday, look
you, and bid me eat my leek: it was in a place where I
could not breed no contention with him; but I will be so[5310]10
bold as to wear it in my cap till I see him once again, and
then I will tell him a little piece of my desires.
Enter Pistol.
Gow. Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock.
Flu. 'Tis no matter for his swellings nor his turkey-cocks.[5311]
God pless you, Aunchient Pistol! you scurvy, lousy knave,[5312]15
God pless you!
Pist. Ha! art thou bedlam? dost thou thirst, base Trojan,[5313][5314]
To have me fold up Parca's fatal web?[5313]
Hence! I am qualmish at the smell of leek.[5313]
Flu. I peseech you heartily, scurvy, lousy knave, at[5315]20
my desires, and my requests, and my petitions, to eat, look
you, this leek: because, look you, you do not love it, nor[5316]
your affections and your appetites and your disgestions[5317]
doo's not agree with it, I would desire you to eat it.[5318]
Pist. Not for Cadwallader and all his goats.25
Flu. There is one goat for you. [Strikes him.] Will[5319]
you be so good, scauld knave, as eat it?
Pist. Base Trojan, thou shalt die.
Flu. You say very true, scauld knave, when God's will
is: I will desire you to live in the mean time, and eat your30
victuals: come, there is sauce for it. [Strikes him.] You[5320]
called me yesterday mountain-squire; but I will make you
to-day a squire of low degree. I pray you, fall to: if you[5321]
can mock a leek, you can eat a leek.
Gow. Enough, captain: you have astonished him.35
Flu. I say, I will make him eat some part of my leek,
or I will peat his pate four days. Bite, I pray you; it is[5322]
good for your green wound and your ploody coxcomb.
Pist. Must I bite?
Flu. Yes, certainly, and out of doubt and out of question[5323]40
too, and ambiguities.
Pist. By this leek, I will most horribly revenge: I eat[5324][5325]
and eat, I swear—[5325]
Flu. Eat, I pray you: will you have some more sauce
to your leek? there is not enough leek to swear by.45
Pist. Quiet thy cudgel; thou dost see I eat.
Flu. Much good do you, scauld knave, heartily. Nay,
pray you, throw none away; the skin is good for your
broken coxcomb. When you take occasions to see leeks
hereafter, I pray you, mock at 'em; that is all.[5326]50
Pist. Good.
Flu. Ay, leeks is good: hold you, there is a groat to
heal your pate.
Pist. Me a groat!
Flu. Yes, verily and in truth, you shall take it; or I55
have another leek in my pocket, which you shall eat.
Pist. I take thy groat in earnest of revenge.
Flu. If I owe you any thing, I will pay you in cudgels:
you shall be a woodmonger, and buy nothing of me
but cudgels. God b' wi' you, and keep you, and heal your[5327]60
pate. [Exit.
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[5328]
honourable respect, and worn as a memorable trophy of65
predeceased valour and dare not avouch in your deeds
any of your words? I have seen you gleeking 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;[5329]70
and henceforth let a Welsh correction teach you a good
English condition. Fare ye well.[5330] [Exit.
Pist. Doth Fortune play the huswife with me now?[5331]
News have I, that my Doll is dead i' the spital[5331][5332]
Of malady of France;[5331][5333]75
And there my rendezvous is quite cut off.[5331]
Old I do wax; and from my weary limbs[5331]
Honour is cudgelled. Well, bawd I'll turn,[5331][5334]
And something lean to cutpurse of quick hand.[5331]
To England will I steal, and there I'll steal:80
And patches will I get unto these cudgell'd scars,[5335]
And swear I got them in the Gallia wars.[5336] [Exit.
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.[5337]
K. Hen. 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,5
By whom this great assembly is contrived,
We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy;[5338]
And, princes French, and peers, health to you all!
Fr. King. Right joyous are we to behold your face,
Most worthy brother England; fairly met:[5339]10
So are you, princes English, every one.
Q. Isa. So happy be the issue, brother England,[5340]
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[5341]15
Against the French, that met them in their bent,[5341]
The fatal balls of murdering basilisks:
The venom of such looks, we fairly hope,
Have lost their quality, and that this day[5342]
Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.20
K. Hen. To cry amen to that, thus we appear.
Q. Isa. You English princes all, I do salute you.
Bur. My duty to you both, on equal love,
Great Kings of France and England! That I have labour'd,[5343]
With all my wits, my pains and strong endeavours,25
To bring your most imperial majesties
Unto this bar and royal interview,
Your mightiness on both parts best can witness.[5344]
Since then my office hath so far prevail'd
That, face to face and royal eye to eye,30
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,
Dear nurse of arts, plenties and joyful births,35
Should not in this best garden of the world
Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?[5345]
Alas, she hath from France too long been chased,
And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,
Corrupting in its own fertility.[5346]40
Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,
Unpruned dies; her hedges even-pleach'd,[5347]
Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair,
Put forth disorder'd twigs; her fallow leas
The darnel, hemlock and rank fumitory[5348]45
Doth root upon, while that the coulter rusts[5349]
That should deracinate such savagery;
The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth
The freckled cowslip, burnet and green clover,
Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,[5350]50
Conceives by idleness and nothing teems
But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs,[5351]
Losing both beauty and utility.
And as our vineyards, fallows, meads and hedges,[5352][5353]
Defective in their natures, grow to wildness,[5353][5354]55
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[5355]
That nothing do but meditate on blood,—60
To swearing and stern looks, diffused attire[5356]
And every thing that seems unnatural,
Which to reduce into our former favour
You are assembled: and my speech entreats
That I may know the let, why gentle Peace65
Should not expel these inconveniences
And bless us with her former qualities.
K. Hen. If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace,[5357]
Whose want gives growth to the imperfections
Which you have cited, you must buy that peace70
With full accord to all our just demands;
Whose tenours and particular effects[5358]
You have enscheduled briefly in your hands.
Bur. The king hath heard them; to the which as yet
There is no answer made.
K. Hen. Well then the peace,75
Which you before so urged, lies in his answer.
Fr. King. I have but with a cursorary eye[5359]
O'erglanced the articles: pleaseth your grace
To appoint some of your council presently
To sit with us once more, with better heed[5360]80
To re-survey them, we will suddenly
Pass our accept and peremptory answer.[5361]
K. Hen. Brother, we shall. Go, uncle Exeter,
And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester,[5362]
Warwick and Huntingdon, go with the king;[5363]85
And take with you free power to ratify,
Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best
Shall see advantageable for our dignity,[5364]
Any thing in or out of our demands;[5365]
And we'll consign thereto. Will you, fair sister,90
Go with the princes, or stay here with us?
Q. Isa. Our gracious brother, I will go with them:
Haply a woman's voice may do some good,[5366]
When articles too nicely urged be stood on.
K. Hen. Yet leave our cousin Katharine here with us:95
She is our capital demand, comprised
Within the fore-rank of our articles.
Q. Isa. She hath good leave.
[Exeunt all except Henry, Katharine, and Alice.[5367]
K. Hen. Fair Katharine, and most fair,
Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms
Such as will enter at a lady's ear100
And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?
Kath. Your majesty shall mock at me; I cannot speak
your England.
K. Hen. O fair Katharine, if you will love me soundly
with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it105
brokenly with your English tongue. Do you like me, Kate?
Kath. Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is 'like me.'[5368]
K. Hen. An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like
an angel.
Kath. Que dit-il? que je suis semblable à les anges?110
Alice. Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grace, ainsi dit-il.
K. Hen. I said so, dear Katharine; and I must not
blush to affirm it.
Kath. O bon Dieu! les langues des homines sont
pleines de tromperies.115
K. Hen. What says she, fair one? that the tongues of[5369]
men are full of deceits?
Alice. Oui, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of
deceits: dat is de princess.[5370]
K. Hen. The princess is the better Englishwoman. I'120
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:'125
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?
Kath. Sauf votre honneur, me understand vell.[5371]
K. Hen. Marry, if you would put me to verses or to130
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, yet a reasonable measure in
strength. If I could win a lady at leap-frog, or by vaulting[5372]
into my saddle with my armour on my back, under the135
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, never off. But, before God, Kate,
I cannot look greenly nor gasp out my eloquence, nor I140
have no cunning in protestation; only downright oaths,[5373]
which I never use till urged, nor never break for urging.[5374]
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 cook.145
I speak to thee plain soldier: if thou canst love me for this,[5375]
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[5376]
while thou livest, dear Kate, take a fellow of plain and uncoined[5377]
constancy; for he perforce must do thee right,150
because he hath not the gift to woo in other places: for[5378]
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; a straight back will stoop; a155
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[5379]160
such a one, take me; and take me, take a soldier; take a[5380]
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?165
K. Hen. 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 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[5381]170
France and you are mine.
Kath. I cannot tell vat is dat.[5382]
K. Hen. No, Kate? I will tell thee in French; which
I am sure will hang upon my tongue like a new-married[5383]
wife about her husband's neck, hardly to be shook off. Je[5384]175
quand sur le possession de France, et quand vous avez[5384][5385]
le possession de moi,—let me see, what then? Saint Denis[5385]
be my speed!—done 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 in180
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.[5386]
K. Hen. No, faith, is't not, Kate: but thy speaking of
my tongue, and I thine, most truly-falsely, must needs be[5387]185
granted to be much at one. But, Kate, dost thou understand
thus much English, canst thou love me?
Kath. I cannot tell.
K. Hen. Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll
ask them. Come, I know thou lovest me: and at night,190
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 beest195
mine, Kate, as I have a saving faith within me tells me
thou 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 to200
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.
K. Hen. No; 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promise:
do but now promise, Kate, you will endeavour for your205
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 très cher et devin déesse?[5388]
Kath. Your majestee ave fausse French enough to[5389]
deceive de most sage demoiselle dat is en France.[5390]210
K. Hen. 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, beshrew[5391]215
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, the elder I wax,
the better I shall appear: my comfort is, that old age, that220
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 your225
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 it230
before his face, if he be not fellow with the best king, thou[5392]
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, Katherine, break[5393]
thy mind to me in broken English; wilt thou have me?235
Kath. Dat is as it sall please de roi mon père.[5394]
K. Hen. Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall
please him, Kate.
Kath. Den it sail also content me.[5394]
K. Hen. Upon that I kiss your hand, and I call you240
my queen.
Kath. Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez: ma foi, je
ne veux point que vous abaissiez votre grandeur en baisant
la main d'une de votre seigneurie indigne serviteur;[5395]
excusez-moi, je vous supplie, mon très-puissant seigneur.245
K. Hen. Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.
Kath. Les dames et demoiselles pour être baisées
devant leur noces, il n'est pas la coutume de France.[5396]
K. Hen. Madam my interpreter, what says she?
Alice. Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of250
France,—I cannot tell vat is baiser en Anglish.[5397]
K. Hen. To kiss.
Alice. Your majesty entendre bettre que moi.
K. Hen. It is not a fashion for the maids in France to[5398]
kiss before they are married, would she say?255
Alice. Oui, vraiment.
K. Hen. O Kate, nice customs courtesy to great kings.[5399]
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 the260
mouth of all find-faults; as I will do yours, for upholding[5400]
the nice fashion of your country in denying me a kiss:
therefore, patiently and yielding. [Kissing her.] You have[5401]
witchcraft in your lips, Kate: there is more eloquence in
a sugar touch of them than in the tongues of the French[5402]265
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.[5403]
Bur. God save your majesty! my royal cousin, teach[5404][5405]
you our princess English?[5405]270
K. Hen. I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how
perfectly I love her; and that is good English.
Bur. Is she not apt?[5406]
K. Hen. Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition[5407]
is not smooth; so that, having neither the voice nor the275
heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up the spirit[5408]
of love in her, that he will appear in his true likeness.
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 likeness, he280
must appear naked and blind. Can you blame her then,
being a maid yet rosed over with the virgin crimson of[5409]
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.285
K. Hen. Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind
and enforces.
Bur. They are then excused, my lord, when they see
not what they do.
K. Hen. Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to290
consent winking.[5410]
Bur. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you
will teach her to know my meaning: for maids, well summered[5411]
and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomew-tide,
blind, though they have their eyes; and then they will295
endure handling, which before would not abide looking on.
K. Hen. This moral ties me over to time and a hot[5412]
summer; and so I shall catch the fly, your cousin, in the
latter end and she must be blind too.
Bur. As love is, my lord, before it loves.300
K. Hen. 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.
Fr. King. Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively,
the cities turned into a maid; for they are all girdled with305
maiden walls that war hath never entered.[5413]
K. Hen. Shall Kate be my wife?
Fr. King. So please you.
K. Hen. I am content; so the maiden cities you talk
of may wait on her: so the maid that stood in the way for[5414]310
my wish shall show me the way to my will.[5414]
Fr. King. We have consented to all terms of reason.
K. Hen. Is't so, my lords of England?
West. The king hath granted every article:
His daughter first, and then in sequel all,[5415]315
According to their firm proposed natures.[5416]
Exe. 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, shall name
your highness in this form and with this addition, in French,320
Notre très-cher fils Henri, Roi d'Angleterre, Hèritier de[5417]
France; and thus in Latin, Præclarissimus filius noster[5418]
Henricus, Rex Angliæ, et Hæres Franciæ.
Fr. King. Nor this I have not, brother, so denied,[5419]
But your request shall make me lot it pass.325
K. Hen. I pray you then, in love and dear alliance,
Let that one article rank with the rest;
And thereupon give me your daughter.[5420]
Fr. King. Take her, fair, son and from her blood raise up
Issue to me; that the contending kingdoms[5421]330
Of France and England, whose very shores look pale[5422]
With envy of each other's happiness,
May cease their hatred, and this dear conjunction
Plant neighbourhood and Christian-like accord
In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance[5423]335
His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France.
All. Amen![5424]
K. Hen. Now, welcome, Kate: and bear me witness all,
That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen. [Flourish.
Q. Isa. God, the best maker of all marriages,340
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,345
Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms,[5425]
To make divorce of their incorporate league;
That English may as French, French Englishmen,[5426]
Receive each other. God speak this Amen!
All. Amen![5427]350
K. Hen. 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.[5428]
Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me;
And may our oaths well kept and prosperous be!360
[Sennet. Exeunt.[5429]
Epilogue.
Enter Chorus.[5430]
Chor. Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen,
Our bending author hath pursued the story,[5431]
In little room confining mighty men,
Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.
Small time, but in that small most greatly lived5
This star of England: Fortune made his sword;
By which the world's best garden he achieved,
And of it left his son imperial lord.[5432]
Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd King
Of France and England, did this king succeed;10
Whose state so many had the managing,
That they lost France and made his England bleed:[5433]
Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake,
In your fair minds let this acceptance take. [Exit.[5434]