sooner persuade Harry of England than a general petition of
monarchs. Here comes your father.

Re-enter the FRENCH KING and QUEEN, BURGUNDY, BEDFORD,
GLOUCESTER, EXETER, WESTMORELAND, and other French and
English Lords.

BUR. God save your majesty! my royal cousin, teach you our 245 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 not 250 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. Yet they do wink and yield, as

love is blind and enforces.

BUR. They are then excused, my lord, when they see not what 255 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 260 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, 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.

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FR. KING. Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities 270 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 275 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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Where your majesty demands that the King of France, having any occasion to write for matter of grant, shall name your highness in 285 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;

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And thereupon give me your daughter.

FR. KING. Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up

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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
Plant neighbourhood and Christian-like accord

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His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France.

[Flourish, 305

In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance

ALL. Amen!

K. HEN. Now welcome, Kate: and bear me witness all, 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 blessed 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!

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315

ALL. Amen!

K. HEN. Prepare we for our marriage: on which day,

My Lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath,

And all the peers, for surety of our leagues.

Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me;

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And may our oath well kept and prosperous be!

[Sennet. Exeunt.

EPILOGUE.

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,

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.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

THESEUS, Duke of Athens.
EGEUS, father to Hermia.
LYSANDER,
DEMETRIUS,

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

}

in love with Hermia.

HERMIA, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander.

HELENA, in love with Demetrius.

PHILOSTRATE, master of the revels to OBERON, king of the fairies.

TITANIA, queen of the fairies.
Puck, or Robin Goodfellow.
PEASEBLOSSOM,

Queen.

HIPPOLYTA, queen of the Amazons, Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta. betrothed to Theseus.

SCENE: Athens, and a wood near it.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Athens. The palace of THESEUS.

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Attendants.

THE. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour Draws on apace; four happy days bring in Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires, Like to a step-dame or a dowager

5

Long withering out a young man's revenue.

HIP. Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;

Four nights will quickly dream away the time;

The pale companion is not for our pomp.

Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,
And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
But I will wed thee in another key,

With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.

[Exit PHILOSTRATE. 15

Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS.

EGE. Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!

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THE. Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with thee?

EGE. Full of vexation come I, with complaint

Against my child, my daughter Hermia.

Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,
This man hath my consent to marry her.
Stand forth, Lysander: and, my gracious duke,
This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child:
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes
And interchanged love-tokens with my child:
Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung
With feigning voice, verses of feigning love,
And stolen the impression of her fantasy

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30

With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers
Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth:
With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart,
Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,

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To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke,

Be it so she will not here before your grace
Consent to marry with Demetrius,

I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,
As she is mine, I may dispose of her:
Which shall be either to this gentleman
Or to her death, according to our law

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Immediately provided in that case.

45

THE. What say you, Hermia? be advised, fair maid:

To you your father should be as a god;

One that composed your beauties, yea, and one

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HER. I would my father look'd but with my eyes.

THE. Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.