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mienne.

nis be my speed!) donc votre eft France, & vous étes 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 votre honneur, le Francois que vous parlez, eft meilleur que l'Anglois lequel je parle.

K. Henry. No, faith, is't not, Kate; but thy fpeaking of my tongue and I thine, moft truly falfely, must needs be granted to be much at one. But, Kate, doft thou understand thus much English? canft thou love me?

Cath. I cannot tell.

K, Henry. Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll afk them. Come, I know thou loveft me; and at night when you come into your closet, you'll queftion this gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will to her difpraise those parts in me, that you love with your heait; but, good Kate, mock me mercifully, the rather, gentle Princefs, because I love thee cruelly. If ever thou beeft mine, Kate, (as I have faving faith within me tells me, thou shalt) I get thee with scambling, 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 fhall go to Conftantinople and take the Turk by the beard? fhall we not? what fay'st 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 anfwer you, La plus belle Catharine du monde, mon tres chere & divine deeffe.

Cath. Your Majeftee ave faufe French enough to deceive de moft lage damoisel dat is en France.

K. Henry. Now, fie upon my falfe French; by mine honour, in true English I love thee Kate; by which honour

honour, I dare not swear thou loveft me, yet my blood begins to flatter me that thou doft, notwithftanding the poor and untempting effect of my vifage. Now befhrew my father's ambition, he was thinking of civil wars when he got me; therefore was I created with a stubborn 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 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 haft me, at the worst; and thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and better; and therefore tell me, most fair Catharine, will you have me? Put off your maiden blushes, avouch the thoughts of your heart with the looks of an Emprefs, take me by the hand and fay, Harry of England, I am thine; which word thou shalt 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, tho' I fpeak it before his face, if he be not fellow with the best King, thou shalt 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 English, wilt thou have me?

Cath. Dat is, as it fhall pleafe le roy mon pere.

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

Cath. Den it fhall alfo content me.

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

Cath. Laiffez, mon feigneur, laissez, laissez: ma foy, je ne veux point que vous abbaiffez votre grandeur, en baifant la main d'une votre indigne ferviteure; excufez moy, je vous Supplie, mon tres puiffant Seigneur.

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

K. Henry.

K. Henry. Madam my interpreter, what says she? Lady. Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of France; I cannot tell, what is baisser en English.

K. Henry. To kifs.

Lady. Your Majefty entendre bettre que moy.

K. Henry. Is it not a fashion for the maids in France, to kifs before bey are married, would she say? Lady. Oui vrayement.

K. Henry. O Kate, nice cuftoms curt'fy to great Kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confin'd within the weak lift of a country's fashion: we are the makers of manners, Kate; and the liberty that follows our places, flops the mouth of all find-faults, as I will do yours, 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 should fooner perfuade Harry of England, than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father.

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

Burg. GOD fave your Majefty! my royal coufin,

teach you our Princefs English?

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

K. Henry. Ourtongue is rough, and my condition is not smooth; 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

muft

must 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 ros'd over with the virgin crimson of modefty, if the deny the appearance of a naked blind boy, in her naked seeking 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 enforces.

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 abide looking on.

K. Henry. This moral ties me over to time, and a hot fummer; and fo 1 fhall catch the fly your coufin in the latter end; and fhe must be blind too.

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

K. Henry. It is fo; and you may fome of you thank love for my blindness, who cannot fee many a fair French city, for one fair French maid that stands in my way.

Fr. King. Yes, my lord, you fee them perspectively; the cities turn'd into a maid; for they are all girdled with maiden walls, that war hath never enter'd.

K. Henry. Shall Kate be my wife?

Fr. King. So please you.

K. Henry. I am content, fo the maiden cities you talk of may wait on her; fo the maid, that food in the way for my wish, shall fhew me the way to my

will.

Fr. King. We have confented to all terms of reason." K.-Henry. Is't fo, my lords of England?

Weft.

Weft. The King hath granted every article: His daughter firft; and then in fequel all, According to their firm propofed nature.

Exe. Only he hath not yet fubfcribed this : Where your Majesty demands, That the King of France, having occafion to write for matter of grant, fhall name your Highness in this form, and with this addition in French: notre tres cher filz Henry Roy d'Angleterre, hereties de France: and thus in Latin; Præcariffi mus filius nofter Henricus Rex Angle et hæres Francia. Fr. King. Yet this have I not (brother) fo deny'd, But your request fhall make me let it pass.

K. Henry. I pray you then, in love and dear alli

ance,

Let that one article rank with the reft,
And thereupon give me your daughter.

Fr. King. Take her, fair son, and from her blood raife up

Iffue to me; that thefe contending Kingdoms,
England and France, whofe very fhores look pale
With envy of each other's happiness,

May ceafe their hatred; and this dear conjunction
Plant neighbourhood and chriftian-like accord
In their sweet breafts; that never war advance
His bleeding fword 'twixt England and fair France.
Lords. Amen!

K. Henry. Now welcome, Kate; and bear me witnefs all,

That here I kiss her as my fovereign Queen. [Flourish.
Q. Ifa. 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 spoufal,
That never may ill office, or fell jealoufy,
Which troubles oft the bed of bleffed marriage,
Thruft in between the paction of these kingdoms,
To make divorce of their incorporate league:

That

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