these fellows of infinite tongue, that can rhyme to promise: do but now promise, Kate, you themselves into ladies' favours, they do always will endeavour for your French part of such a reason themselves out again. What ! a boy; and for my English moiety, take the speaker is but a prater; a rhyme is but a ballad. word of a king and a bachelor. How answer A good leg will fall; a straight back will you, la plus belle Katharine du monde, mon stoop; a black beard will turn white; a curled très chère et divine déesse ? 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 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. Kath. Your majesté have fausse French enough to deceive de most sage demoiselle dat is en France. Kath. Is it possible dat I should love de enemy of France? 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 my father's ambition! he was thinking of civil wars when he got me: therefore was I K. Hen. No; it is not possible you created with a stubborn outside, with an aspect should love the enemy of France, Kate; but, of iron, that, when I come to woo ladies, I in loving me, you should love the friend of fright them. But, in faith, Kate, the elder I France; for I love France so well, that I will wax, the better I shall appear: my comfort is, not part with a village of it; I will have it all that old age, that ill layer-up of beauty, can do mine: and, Kate, when France is mine and I no more spoil upon my face: thou hast me, if am yours, then yours is France and you are thou hast me, at the worst; and thou shalt Kath. I cannot tell vat is dat. [mine. wear me, if thou wear me, better and better:-K. Hen. No, Kate? I will tell thee in and therefore tell me, most fair Katharine, French; which I am sure will hang upon my will you have me? Put off your maiden blushes; tongue like a new-married wife about her hus-avouch the thoughts of your heart with the band's neck, hardly to be shook off.-Quand looks of an empress; take me by the hand, jay la possession de France, et quand vous avez and say--Harry of England, I am thine : la possession de moy, (let me see, what then? Saint Dennis be my speed!)-donc vostre est France, et vous estes 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. Kath. Sauf vostre honneur, le François que vous parlez, est meilleur que l'Anglois lequel je parle. K. Hen. No, 'faith, is't not, Kate; but thy speaking of my tongue, and I thine, most truly falsely, must needs be 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, 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 be'st mine, Kate, (as I have a saving faith within ine 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 Dennis and Saint George, compound a boy, half French, half English, that shall go to Constantinople, and take the Turk by the beard? shall we not? what sayest thou, my fair Kath. I do not know dat. [flower-de-luce. K. Hen. No; 'tis hereafter to know, but now which word thou shalt no sooner bless mine ear Kath. Dat is as it shall please de roy mon K. Hen. Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall please him, Kate. Kath. Den it shall also content me. K. Hen. Upon that I kiss your hand, and I call you my queen. Kath. Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez: ma foy, je ne veux point que vous abaissez vostre grandeur, en baisant la main d'une vostre indigne serviteure: excusez moy, je vous supplie, mon très puissant seigneur. K. Hen. Then I will kiss your lips, Kate. K. Hen. Madam my interpreter, what says Alice. Your majesty entendre bettre que moy. Fr. King. So please you. K. Hen. O Kate, nice customs court'sy to great kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be K. Hen. I am content; so the maiden cities confined within the weak list of a country's you talk of may wait on her: so the maid, fashion; we are the makers of manners, Kate; that stood in the way for my wish, shall show and the liberty that follows our places stops me the way to my will. [of reason. the mouths of all find-faults, as I will do yours, Fr. King. We have consented to all terms for upholding the nice fashion of your country K. Hen. Is't so, my lords of England? in denying me a kiss: therefore, patiently, and West. The king hath granted every article: yielding. [Kissing her.] You have witch- His daughter first: and then, in sequel, all, craft in your lips, Kate: there is more eloquence According to their firm proposed natures. in a sugar touch of them, than in the tongues Exe. Only, he hath not yet subscribed this: of the French council; and they should sooner Where your majesty demands, that the king persuade Harry of England, than a general of France, having any occasion to write for petition of monarchs. Here comes your father. Re-enter the King and Queen, Burgundy, Bedford, Gloster, Exeter, Warwick, Westmoreland, and other French and English Lords. Bur. God save your majesty! My royal couTeach you our princess English? [sin, 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 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. matter of grant, shall name your highness in Fr. King. Nor this I have not, brother, so Let that one article rank with the rest; Issue to me; that the contending kingdoms 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 With envy of each other's happiness, [junction Love in her in his true likeness, he must appear May cease their hatred; and this dear connaked, and blind. Can you blame her, then, Plant neighbourhood and Christian-like accord being a maid yet rosed over with the virgin| In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance crimson of modesty, if she deny the appearance His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair of a naked blind boy in her naked seeing self? | It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to consign to. 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. Bur. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will 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; and then they will endure handling, which before would not abide looking on. 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, 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? All. Amen! [France. 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, To make divorce of their incorporate league; men, King Henry the Sixth. DRAMATIS PERSONE. Duke of Gloster, Uncle to the King, and Protector. Duke of Bedford, Uncle to the King, and Re- Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, Great Henry Beaufort, Great Uncle to the King; John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset, afterwards Richard Plantagenet, Eldest Son of Richard, Earls of Warwick, Salisbury, and Suffolk. Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March. Woodville, Lieutenant of the Tower; Mayor Vernon, of the White Rose, or York Faction. Reignier, Duke of Anjou, and titular king of Dukes of Burgundy and Alençon. Bastard of Governor of Paris. Master-Gunner of Orleans, General of the French Forces in Bourdeaux. Joan la Pucelle, commonly called Joan of Arc. Sir John Fastolfe. Sir William Lucy. Sir Fiends appearing to La Pucelle, Lords, grave. Sir Thomas Gar Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and Attendants. SCENE, Partly in England, and partly in France. ACT I. SCENE 1.-Westminster Abbey. Bed. Hung be the heavens with black, yield Comets, importing change of times and states, beams; His arms spread wider than a dragon's wings; Henry is dead, and never shall revive. Win. He was a king, bless'd of the King of Glo. The church! where is it? Had not churchmen pray'd, His thread of life had not so soon decay'd: None do you like but an effeminate prince, Whom, like a school-boy, you may over-awe. Win. Gloster, whate'er we like, thou art protector, And lookest to command the prince, and realm. Thy wife is proud; she holdeth thee in awe, More than God or religious churchmen may. Glo. Name not religion, for thou lov'st the flesh, And ne'er throughout the year to church thou Let's to the altar-Heralds, wait on us :- Enter a Messenger. Mess. My honourable iords, health to you all! Sad tidings bring I to you out of France, Of loss, of slaughter, and discomfiture: Guienne, Champaigne, Rheims, Orleans, Paris, Guysors, Poictiers, are all quite lost. Bed. What say'st thou, man, before dead Henry's corse? Speak softly; or the loss of those great towns Will make him burst his lead, and rise from death. Glo. Is Paris lost? is Rouen yielded up? If Henry were recall'd to life again, These news would cause him once more yield the ghost. [was us'd? Exe. How were they lost? what treachery Mess. No treachery; but want of men and Among the soldiers this is muttered, [money. That here you maintain several factions; And, whilst a field should be despatch'd and You are disputing of your generals: [fought, One would have lingering wars, with little cost; Another would fly swift, but wanteth wings; A third man thinks, without expense at all, By guileful fair words peace may be obtain'd. Awake, awake, English nobility! Let not sloth dim your honours, new-begot: Cropp'd are the flower-de-luces in your arms; Of England's coat one half is cut away. Exe. Were our tears wanting to this funeral, These tidings would call forth her flowing tides. Bed Methey concern; regent I am of France. Give me my steeled coat! I'll fight for France. Away with these disgraceful wailing robes! Wounds will I lend the French, instead of eyes, To weep their intermissive miseries. Enter a second Messenger. 2 Mess. Lords, view these letters, full of bad mischance. France is revolted from the English quite, The bastard of Orleans with him is join'd; Exe. The Dauphin crowned king! all fly to him! O, whither shall we fly from this reproach? Glo. We will not fly, but to our enemies' throats : Bedford, if thou be slack, I'll fight it out. An army have I muster'd in my thoughts, 3 Mess. My gracious lords, to add to your laments, Wherewith you now bedew king Henry's I must inform you of a dismal fight [hearse, Betwixt the stout lord Talbot and the French. Win. What! wherein Talbot overcame? is't so ? 3 Mess. O, no; wherein lord Talbot was o'erthrown : The circumstance I'll tell you more at large. They pitched in the ground confusedly, stand him; Here, there, and everywhere, enrag'd he slew: Durst not presume to look once in the face. [throne; Reig. Let's raise the siege: why live we Talbot is taken, whom we wont to fear: Char. Who ever saw the like? what men 3 Mess. O no, he lives; but is took prisoner, And lord Scales with him, and lord Hungerford: Most of the rest slaughtered or took, likewise. Now for the honour of the forlorn French : Bed. His ransom there is none but I shall Him I forgive my death, that killeth me, pay: When he sees me go back one foot, or fly. I'll hale the Dauphin headlong from his [Exeunt. His crown shall be the ransom of my friend: Alarums; Excursions; afterwards a ReFour of their lords I'll change for one of ours. treat. Re-enter Charles, Alencon, ReigFarewell, my masters; to my task will I ; nier, and others. Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make, To keep our great Saint George's feast withal: Ten thousand soldiers with me I will take, Whose bloody deeds shall make all Europe quake. [besieg'd; 3 Mess. So you had need; for Orleans is The English army is grown weak and faint: The Earl of Salisbury craveth supply, And hardly keeps his men from mutiny, Since they, so few, watch such a multitude. Exe. Remember, lords, your oaths to Henry sworn, Either to quell the Dauphin utterly, Το about my preparation. [Exit. have I !- It sendeth forth to skirmish. One to ten! [eager: Glo. I'll to the Tower, with all the haste I To view th' artillery and munition; [can, And hunger will enforce them to be more And then I will proclaim young Henry king. Of old I know them; rather with their teeth [Exit. The walls they'll tear down, than forsake the Exe. To Eltham will I, where the young I am left out; for me nothing remains. SCENE II.-France. Before Orleans. Char. Mars his true moving, even as in the So in the earth, to this day is not known: Faintly besiege us one hour in a month. Alen. They want their porridge, and their Either they must be dieted like mules, siege. [device, Reig. think, by some odd gimmals, or Their arms are set like clocks, still to strike on; Else ne'er could they hold out so as they do, By my consent, we'll e'en let them alone. Alen. Be it so. Enter the Bastard of Orleans. Bast. Where's the prince Dauphin? I have news for him. [us. Char. Bastard of Orleans, thrice welcome to Bast. Methinks your looks are sad, your cheer appall'd: Hath the late overthrow wrought this offence? |