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
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 shalt find the best king of
good fellows. Come, your answer in broken
music, for thy voice is music, and thy English
broken; therefore, queen of all, Katharine,
break thy mind to me in broken English, wilt
thou have me?
[père.

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.
Kath. Les dames, et demoiselles, pour estre
baisées devant leur noces, il n'est pas la coutume
de France.
[she

K. Hen. Madam my interpreter, what says
Alice. Dat it is not be de fashion pour les
ladies of France,-I cannot tell what is baiser
K. Hen. To kiss.
Len English.

Alice. Your majesty entendre bettre que moy.
K. Hen. It is not a fashion for the maids in
France to kiss before they are married, would
Alice. Ouy, vrayment.
[she say?

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
this form, and with this addition, in French, -
Notre très cher filz Henry roy d'Angleterre,
heretier de France; and thus in Latin,-Pra-
clarissimus filius noster Henricus. rex Anglia,
et hæres Francia.
[denied,

Fr. King. Nor this I have not, brother, so
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;
And, thereupon, give me your daughter.
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

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,
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 blessed marriage,
Thrust in between the paction of these king-
doms,

To make divorce of their incorporate league;
That English may as French, French English-

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-
gent of France.

Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, Great
Uncle to the King.

Henry Beaufort, Great Uncle to the King;
Bishop of Winchester, and afterwards
Cardinal.

John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset, afterwards
Duke.

Richard Plantagenet, Eldest Son of Richard,
late Earl of Cambridge; afterwards Duke
of York.

Earls of Warwick, Salisbury, and Suffolk.
Lord Talbot, afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury.
John Talbot, his Son.

Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March.
Mortimer's Keeper, and a Lawyer.

Woodville, Lieutenant of the Tower; Mayor
of London. A Lawyer.

Vernon, of the White Rose, or York Faction.
Basset, of the Red Rose, or Lancaster Faction.
Charles, Dauphin, and afterwards King of
France.

Reignier, Duke of Anjou, and titular king of
Naples.

Dukes of Burgundy and Alençon. Bastard of
Orleans.

Governor of Paris. Master-Gunner of Orleans,
and his Son.

General of the French Forces in Bourdeaux.
A French Sergeant. A Porter. An old
Shepherd, Father to Joan la Pucelie.
Margaret, Daughter to Reignier; afterwards
married to King Henry.
Countess of Auvergne.

Joan la Pucelle, commonly called Joan of Arc.
Mortimer's Keepers.

Sir John Fastolfe. Sir William Lucy. Sir Fiends appearing to La Pucelle, Lords,
William Glansdale.

grave.

Sir Thomas Gar

Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and Attendants.

SCENE, Partly in England, and partly in France.

ACT I.

SCENE 1.-Westminster Abbey.
Dead March. The Corpse of King Henry the
Fifth is discovered, lying in state; attended
on by the Dukes of Bedford, Gloster, and
Exeter, the Earl of Warwick, the Bishop of
Winchester, Heralds, &c..

Bed. Hung be the heavens with black, yield
day to night!

Comets, importing change of times and states,
Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky,
And with them scourge the bad revolting stars,
That have consented unto Henry's death!
King Henry the fifth, too famous to live long!
England ne'er lost a king of so much worth.
Glo. England ne'er had a king until his time.
Virtue he had, deserving to command :
His brandish'd sword did blind men with his

beams;

His arms spread wider than a dragon's wings;
His sparkling eyes, replete with wrathful fire,

Henry is dead, and never shall revive.
Upon a wooden coffin we attend;
And death's dishonourable victory
We with our stately presence glorify,
Like captives bound to a triumphant car.
What! shall we curse the planets of mishap,
That plotted thus our glory's overthrow?
Or shall we think the subtle-wifted French
Conjurers and sorcerers, that, afraid of him,
By magic verses have contriv'd his end? kings.

Win. He was a king, bless'd of the King of
Unto the French the dreadful judgment-day
So dreadful will not be, as was his sight.
The battles of the Lord of hosts he fought:
The church's prayers made him so prosperous

Durst not presume to look once in the face.
Bed. Is Talbot slain? then I will slay my-
For living idly here in pomp and ease, [self,
Whilst such a worthy leader, wanting aid,
Unto his dastard foemen is betray'd.

[throne;

Reig. Let's raise the siege: why live we
idly here?

Talbot is taken, whom we wont to fear:
Remaineth none but mad-brain'd Salisbury;
And he may well in fretting spend his gall,
Nor men, nor money, hath he to make war.
Char. Sound, sound alarum! we will rush
on them.

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,
Or bring him in obedience to your yoke.
Bed. I do remember it; and here take my
leave,

Το about my preparation.
go

[Exit.

have I !-
[have fled,
Dogs! cowards! dastards !-I would ne'er
But that they left me 'midst my enemies.
Reig. Salisbury is a desperate homicide;
He fighteth as one weary of his life.
The other lords, like lions wanting food,
Do rush upon us as their hungry prey. [cords,
Alen. Froissart, a countryman of ours, re-
England all Olivers and Rowlands bred,
During the time Edward the third did reign.
More truly now may this be verified;
For none but Samsons, and Goliasses,

It sendeth forth to skirmish. One to ten!
Lean raw-bon'd rascals! who would e'er sup-
They had such courage and audacity? [pose
Char. Let's leave this town; for they are
hare-brain'd slaves,

[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
Being ordain'd his special governor; [king is,
And for his safety there I'll best devise. [Exit.
Win. Each hath his place and function to
attend ;

I am left out; for me nothing remains.
But long I will not be Jack-out-of-office :
The king from Eltham I intend to steal,
And sit at chiefest stern of public weal. [Exit.

SCENE II.-France. Before Orleans.
Enter Charles, with his forces; Alençon,
Reignier, and others.

Char. Mars his true moving, even as in the
heavens,

So in the earth, to this day is not known:
Late did he shine upon the English side;
Now we are victors, upon us he smiles.
What towns of any moment but we have?
At pleasure here we lie, near Orleans;
Otherwhiles, the famish'd English, like pale
ghosts,

Faintly besiege us one hour in a month.

Alen. They want their porridge, and their
fat bull-beeves:

Either they must be dieted like mules,
And have their provender tied to their mouths,
Or piteous they will look, like drownèd mice.

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?
Be not dismay'd, for succour is at hand :
A holy maid hither with me I bring,
Which, by a vision sent to her from heaven,
Ordained is to raise this tedious siege.
And drive the English forth the bounds of
The spirit of deep prophecy she hath, [France.
Exceeding the nine sibyls of old Rome :
What's past and what's to come she can