To re-survey them, we will, suddenly, KING HENRY Brother, we shall.-Go, uncle Exeter, And brother Clarence,-and you, brother Gloster; And we'll consign thereto.--Will you, fair sister, QUEEN ISABEL Our gracious brother, I will go with them; KING HENRY Yet leave our cousin Katherine here with us; QUEEN ISABEL She hath good leave. (Exeunt all excepting KING HENRY, the PRINCESS, and ALICE, who stand Left Centre, up near window-seat.) KING HENRY (Centre) Fair Katherine, and most fair! (KATHERINE and LADY ALICE curtsey low) 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? (1) Declare our acceptance. (2) Profitable. KATHERINE (Left Centre) Your majesty shall mock at me; I cannot speak your England. KING HENRY O fair Katherine, 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? KATHERINE Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is—like me. KING HENRY An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel. KATHERINE Que dit-il? que je suis semblable à les anges? ALICE (Left) Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grace, ainsi dit-il. KING HENRY I said so, dear Katherine; and I must not blush to affirm it. KATHERINE O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines de tromperies. She comes forward to her chair, Left Centre) KING HENRY What says she, fair one? that the tongues of men are full of deceits? ALICE (up at Left Centre curtseys low) Oui, dat the tongues of de mans is be full of deceits dat is de princess. KING HENRY 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 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.' Give me your answer; i' faith, do: and so clap hands and a bargain: how say you, lady? KATHERINE Sauf votre honneur, me understand vell. KING HENRY If Marry, if you would put me to verses or to dance for your sake, Kate, why you undid me. 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. Or if I might buffet (1) 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; 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 sunburning, that never looks in his glass for love of anything he sees there, let thine eye be thy cook. I speak to thee plain soldier: If ¶(1) Box. 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 uncoined constancy; (1) 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 speaker is but a prater; a rhyme is but a ballad. A good leg will fall (2); 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 moon; or, rather the sun, and not the moon; for it shines bright, and never changes, but keeps his course truly. If thou wouldst 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? Speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee. KATHERINE 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 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 France, and you are mine. KATHERINE I cannot tell vat is dat. (1) That is like a plain piece of metal, that has not yet received any impression. (2) Grow thin. KING HENRY No, Kate? I will tell thee in French; which, I am sure, will hang upon my tongue like a new-married wife about her husband's neck, hardly to be shook off. Quand j'ai la possession de France, et quand vous avez la possession de moi (let me see, what then? Saint Dennis(1) be my speed!)—donc 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 in French, unless it be to laugh at me. KATHERINE Sauf votre honneur, le François que vous parlez est meilleur que 1 Anglois lequel je parle. KING HENRY No, 'faith, is't not, Kate: but thy speaking of my tongue, and I thine, must needs be granted to be much at one. But, Kate, dost thou understand thus much English? Canst thou love me? I cannot tell. KATHERINE KING HENRY 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 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. How answer you, la (1) Patron saint of France. |