Take me

by the hand, and say, "Harry of England, I am thine".

KATH. Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez ma foi, je

ne veux point que vous abaissiez votre grandeur en baisant la main d'une votre indigne serviteur; excusez-moi, je vous 235 supplie, mon très-puissant seigneur.

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.

K. HEN. 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.

K. HEN. To kiss.

ALICE. Your majesty entendre bettre que moi.

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K. HEN. It is not the fashion for the maids in France to 245 kiss before they are married, would she say?

ALICE. Oui, vraiment.

K. HEN. 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, 250 Kate; and the liberty that follows our places stops the mouth of all find faults; as I will 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 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 QUEEN, BURGUNDY, BED

FORD, GLOUCESTER, EXETER, WESTMORELAND, and other
French and English Lords.

255

BUR. God save your majesty! my royal cousin, teach you 260 our princess English?

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?

K. HEN. Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition is 265 not smooth; so that, having neither the voice nor the heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up the spirit of love in her, that he will appear in his true likeness.

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 to consent winking.

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BUR. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will 275 teach her to know my meaning; for maids, well summered and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their eyes.

K. HEN. This moral ties me over to time and a hot summer; and so I shall catch the fly, your cousin, in the latter end, 280 and she must be blind too.

BUR. As love is, my lord, before it loves.

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 with maiden walls that war hath never entered.

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 of my wish shall show me the way to my will.

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, According to their firm proposed natures.

EXE. Only he hath not yet subscribed this:

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290

295

Where your majesty demands that the King of France, 300 having any occasion to write for matter of grant, shall name your highness in this form and with this addition in French, Notre très-cher fils Henri, Roi d'Angleterre, Héritier de France; and thus in Latin, Præclarissimus filius noster Henricus, Rex Angliæ et Hæres Francia.

FR. KING. Nor this I have not, brother, so denied,

But your request shall make me let it pass.

K. HEN. I pray you then, in love and dear alliance, Let that one article rank with the rest;

305

And thereupon give me your daughter.

310

FR. KING. 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

315

Plant neighbourhood and Christian-like accord

In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance

His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France.
ALL. Amen!

K. HEN. Now welcome, Kate and bear me witness all, 320 That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen.

Q. ISA. 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 blessèd 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!

[Flourish.

K. HEN. Prepare we for our marriage: on which day, My Lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath,

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330

335

And all the peers', for surety of our leagues.
Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me;
And may our oath well kept and prosperous be!

[Sennet. Exeunt.

EPILOGU E.

Enter CHORUS.

CHOR. Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen,
Our bending author hath pursued the story,
In little room confining mighty men,

Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.
Small time, but in that small most greatly lived

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.
Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd King

Of France and England, did this king succeed;
Whose state so many had the managing,

5

10

That they lost France and made his England bleed : Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake, In your fair minds let this acceptance take.

[Exit.