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fice is not worth fun-burning; that never looks in his glafs for love of any thing he fees there; let thine éye be thy cook. I fpeak plain foldier; if thou canft 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, Kate, take a fellow of plain and uncoined conftancy; for he perforce muft do thee right, because he hath not the gift to woo in other places: "for thefe fellows of infinite tongue,

but a

that can rhime themselves into ladies' favours, they "do always reafon themselves out again. What? a fpeaker is but a prater; a rhime is but a ballad; a good leg will fall, a traight 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; good heart, Kate, is the fun and the moon: or rather the fun, and not the moon; for it thines bright,' and never changes, but keeps his courfe truly. If thou wouldft have fuch a one, take me; take a foldier; take a King: and what fay'ft thou then to my love? Speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee.

Cath. Is it poffible dat I fould love de enemy of France?

K. Henry. No, it is not poffible that you should love the enemy of France, Kate: but in loving me you fhould 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 your's, then your's is France, and you are mine. Cath. I cannot tell vhat is dat.

K. Henry. No, Kate? I will tell thee in French, (which I am fure will hang upon my tongue like a newmarried wife about her husband's neck, hardly to be fhook off): Quand j'ay le poffeffion de France, & quand vous aves le poffeffion de moi, (let me fee, what then? St. Dennis be my fpeed !), donc vostre eft France, & vous estes mienne. It is as eafy for me, Kate, to conquer the kingdom, as to speak fo much more French: I fhall never move thee in French, unless it be to laugh at me.

Cath. Sauf voftre honneur, le François que vous parlez, eft meilleur que l'Anglois lequel je parle.

K. Henry. No, faith, is't not, Kate; but thy fpeak

ing 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 English? cantt thou love me? Cath. I cannot tell,

K. Henry, Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll ask them, Come, I know thou loveft me; and at night when you come into your clofet, you'll question 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, becaufe I love thee cruelly. If ever thou beeft 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 St. Dennis and St. George, compound a boy half French half English, that thall go to Conftantinople, and take the Turk by the beard? fhall we not? What fay'it thou, my fair Flower-de-luce,

Cath, I do not know dat

K. Henry, 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 bachelor. How aniwer you, La plus belle Catharine du monde, mon trés-chere & divine deeffe?

Cath. Your Majettee ave faufe French enough to deceive de moit fage damoifel dat is en France,

K. Henry. Now, fie upon my falte French; by mine honour, in true Englith I love thee, Kate; by which honour I dare not wear thou loveft me, yet my blood begins to flatter me that thou doit, notwithitanding the poor and untempting effect of my vitage. Now bethrew 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 thall appear, My comfort is, that old age (that ill layer up of beauty can do no more fpoil upon my face. Thou hast me, if thou haft me, at the worst; and thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and better; and therefore tell me, mot fair VOL. IV. Catharine,

T t

Catharine, will you have me? Put off your maidenbluthes, avouch the thoughts of your heart with the looks of an Emprefs; take me by the hand, and say, Harry of England, I am thine: which word thou fhalt no fooner blefs 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 fhalt find the best King of good fellows. Come, your answer in broken mufic; for thy voice is mufic, and thy English broken: therefore, Queen of all, Catharine, break thy mind to me in broken Eng. lith; wilt thou have me?

Cath. Dat is as it shall please le Roy mon pere.

K. Henry. Nay, it will pleafe him well, Kate; it fhall pleafe him, Kate.

Cath. Den it fhall alfo content me.

K. Henry. Upon that I kifs your hand, and I call you my Queen.

Cath. Laiffez, mon Seigneur, laifez, laiffez: ma foy, je ne veux point que vous abbaiez votre grandeur, en baifant la main d'une voftre indigne ferviteure; excufez moy, je vous fupplie, mon très-puifant Seigneur.

K. Henry. Then I will kifs your lips, Kate. Cach. Les dames & damoifels pour eftre baifées devant leur nopces, il n'eft pas le coutume de France.

K. Henry. Madam my interpreter, what fays fhe? Lady. Dat it is not be de faíhion pour les ladies of France; I cannot tell what is baiffer en English. K. Henry. To kiss.

Lady. Your Majesty entendre bettre que moy. K. Henry. Is it not a fashion for the maids in France to kifs before they are married, would fhe fay? Lady. Quy, vrayement.

K. Penry. O Kate, nice cuftoms curt'fie to great Kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confin'd within the weak lift of a country's fafhion: 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 your's, for the upholding the nice fashion of your country in denying me a kifs: therefore patiently and yielding. [Kiffing her.] You have witchcraft in your

lips, Kate; there is more eloquence in a touch of them, than in the tongues of the French council; and they fhould fooner perfuade Harry of England, than a ge neral petition of monarchs. Here comes your father.

SCENE V.

Enter the French King and Queen, with French and Englith Lords.

Burg. God fave your Majefty! my Royal coufin, teach you our Princefs Englith?

K. Henry. I would have her learn, my fair coufin, how perfectly I love her, and that is good Englith. Burg. Is the apt?

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

Burg. Pardon the franknefs of my mirth, if I anfwer you for that. If you would conjure in her, you must make a circle: if conjure up love in her in his true likenefs, he must appear naked and blind. Can you blame her then, being a maid yet ros'd over with the virgin-crimfon 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. Henry. Yet they do wink and yield, as love is

blind and inforces.

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

K. Henry. 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. 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, which before would not a- · bide looking on.

K. Henry. This moral ties me over to time, and a hot fummer and fo I fhall catch the flie your coufin in the latter end, and the must be blind too.

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DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

KING HENRY VI.
Duke of Gloucester, uncle to
the King, and Protector.
Duke of Bedford, uncle to
the King, and Regent of
France.
Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of
Winchefer, and uncle like-
wife to the King.

Duke of Exeter, brother to
King Henry IV.
Duke of Somerfet.
Earl of Warwick.
Earl of Salisbury.
Earl of Suffolk.
Lord Talbot.
Young Talbot his fon.
Richard Plantagenet, after-
wards Duke of York.
Mortimer, Earl of March.
Sir John Falfaff *.
Woodvile, Lieut. of the
Tower.

Lord Mayor of London.
Sir Thomas Gargrave.
Sir William Glandfdale.
Sir William Lucy.

Vernon, of the White Rofe, or York faction.

Baffet, of the Red Rofe, or
Lancafler faction.
Charles, Dauphin, and af-
terwards King of France.
Reignier, Duke of Anjou and
titular King of Naples.
Duke of Burgundy.
Duke of Alanfon.
Baftard of Orleans.
Governor of Paris.
Mafter Gunner of Orleans.
Boy, his fon.

An old jhepherd, father to
Joanla Pucelle.

Margaret, daughter to Reig nier, and afterwards Queen to King Henry. Countefs of Auvergne, Joan la Pucelle, a maid pretending to be infpir'd from heaven, and fetting up for the championefs of France. Fiends, attending her.

Lords, Captains, Soldiers, Meengers, and feveral attendants both on the Englijh and French.

The SCENE is partly in England,

and partly in France.

Falfaff is introduced again, who was dead in Henry V. a. 2. f. 3. The reafon is, because this play was ritten by Shakespeare before Henry IV. or V. See the laft lines of Henry V.

ACT

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