Henry V — Act 5, Scene 2 · Shakespeare for Bharat

KING HENRY V

Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met!Unto our brother France, and to our sister,Health and fair time of day; joy and good wishesTo our most fair and princely cousin Katharine;And, as a branch and member of this royalty,By whom this great assembly is contrived,We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy;And, princes French, and peers, health to you all!

KING OF FRANCE

Right joyous are we to behold your face,Most worthy brother England; fairly met:So are you, princes English, every one.

QUEEN ISABEL

So happy be the issue, brother England,Of this good day and of this gracious meeting,As we are now glad to behold your eyes;Your eyes, which hitherto have borne in themAgainst the French, that met them in their bent,The fatal balls of murdering basilisks:The venom of such looks, we fairly hope,Have lost their quality, and that this dayShall change all griefs and quarrels into love.

KING HENRY V

To cry amen to that, thus we appear.

QUEEN ISABEL

You English princes all, I do salute you.

BURGUNDY

My duty to you both, on equal love,Great Kings of France and England! That I have labour'd,With all my wits, my pains and strong endeavours,To bring your most imperial majestiesUnto this bar and royal interview,Your mightiness on both parts best can witness.Since then my office hath so far prevail'dThat, face to face and royal eye to eye,You have congreeted, let it not disgrace me,If I demand, before this royal view,What rub or what impediment there is,Why that the naked, poor and mangled Peace,Dear nurse of arts and joyful births,Should not in this best garden of the worldOur fertile France, put up her lovely visage?Alas, she hath from France too long been chased,And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,Corrupting in its own fertility.Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,Unpruned dies; her hedges even-pleach'd,Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair,Put forth disorder'd twigs; her fallow leasThe darnel, hemlock and rank fumitoryDoth root upon, while that the coulter rustsThat should deracinate such savagery;The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forthThe freckled cowslip, burnet and green clover,Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,Conceives by idleness and nothing teemsBut hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs,Losing both beauty and utility.And as our vineyards, fallows, meads and hedges,Defective in their natures, grow to wildness,Even so our houses and ourselves and childrenHave lost, or do not learn for want of time,The sciences that should become our country;But grow like savages,--as soldiers willThat nothing do but meditate on blood,--To swearing and stern looks, diffused attireAnd every thing that seems unnatural.Which to reduce into our former favourYou are assembled: and my speech entreatsThat I may know the let, why gentle PeaceShould not expel these inconveniencesAnd bless us with her former qualities.

KING HENRY V

If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace,Whose want gives growth to the imperfectionsWhich you have cited, you must buy that peaceWith full accord to all our just demands;Whose tenors and particular effectsYou have enscheduled briefly in your hands.

BURGUNDY

The king hath heard them; to the which as yetThere is no answer made.

KING HENRY V

Well then the peace,Which you before so urged, lies in his answer.

KING OF FRANCE

I have but with a cursorary eyeO'erglanced the articles: pleaseth your graceTo appoint some of your council presentlyTo sit with us once more, with better heedTo re-survey them, we will suddenlyPass our accept and peremptory answer.

KING HENRY V

Brother, we shall. Go, uncle Exeter,And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester,Warwick and Huntingdon, go with the king;And take with you free power to ratify,Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms bestShall see advantageable for our dignity,Any thing in or out of our demands,And we'll consign thereto. Will you, fair sister,Go with the princes, or stay here with us?

QUEEN ISABEL

Our gracious brother, I will go with them:Haply a woman's voice may do some good,When articles too nicely urged be stood on.

KING HENRY V

Yet leave our cousin Katharine here with us:She is our capital demand, comprisedWithin the fore-rank of our articles.

QUEEN ISABEL

She hath good leave.

KING HENRY V

Fair Katharine, and most fair,Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier termsSuch as will enter at a lady's earAnd plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?

KATHARINE

Your majesty shall mock at me; I cannot speak your England.

KING HENRY V

O fair Katharine, if you will love me soundly withyour French heart, I will be glad to hear youconfess it brokenly with your English tongue. Doyou like me, Kate?

KATHARINE

Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is 'like me.'

KING HENRY V

An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel.

KATHARINE

Que dit-il? que je suis semblable a les anges?

ALICE

Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grace, ainsi dit-il.

KING HENRY V

I said so, dear Katharine; and I must not blush toaffirm it.

KATHARINE

O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines detromperies.

KING HENRY V

What says she, fair one? that the tongues of menare full of deceits?

ALICE

Oui, dat de tongues of de mans is be full ofdeceits: dat is de princess.

KING HENRY V

The princess is the better Englishwoman. I' faith,Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding: I amglad thou canst speak no better English; for, ifthou couldst, thou wouldst find me such a plain kingthat thou wouldst think I had sold my farm to buy mycrown. I know no ways to mince it in love, butdirectly to say 'I love you:' then if you urge mefarther than to say 'do you in faith?' I wear outmy suit. Give me your answer; i' faith, do: and soclap hands and a bargain: how say you, lady?

KATHARINE

Sauf votre honneur, me understand vell.

KING HENRY V

Marry, if you would put me to verses or to dance foryour sake, Kate, why you undid me: for the one, Ihave neither words nor measure, and for the other, Ihave no strength in measure, yet a reasonablemeasure in strength. If I could win a lady atleap-frog, or by vaulting into my saddle with myarmour on my back, under the correction of braggingbe it spoken. I should quickly leap into a wife.Or if I might buffet for my love, or bound my horsefor her favours, I could lay on like a butcher andsit like a jack-an-apes, never off. But, before God,Kate, I cannot look greenly nor gasp out myeloquence, 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 afellow of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worthsun-burning, that never looks in his glass for loveof any thing he sees there, let thine eye be thycook. I speak to thee plain soldier: If thou canstlove me for this, take me: if not, to say to theethat I shall die, is true; but for thy love, by theLord, no; yet I love thee too. And while thoulivest, dear Kate, take a fellow of plain anduncoined constancy; for he perforce must do theeright, because he hath not the gift to woo in otherplaces: for these fellows of infinite tongue, thatcan rhyme themselves into ladies' favours, they doalways reason themselves out again. What! aspeaker is but a prater; a rhyme is but a ballad. Agood leg will fall; a straight back will stoop; ablack beard will turn white; a curled pate will growbald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will waxhollow: but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and themoon; or, rather, the sun, and not the moon; for itshines bright and never changes, but keeps hiscourse truly. If thou would have such a one, takeme; 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.

KATHARINE

Is it possible dat I sould love de enemy of France?

KING HENRY V

No; it is not possible you should love the enemy ofFrance, Kate: but, in loving me, you should lovethe friend of France; for I love France so well thatI will not part with a village of it; I will have itall mine: and, Kate, when France is mine and I amyours, then yours is France and you are mine.

KATHARINE

I cannot tell vat is dat.

KING HENRY V

No, Kate? I will tell thee in French; which I amsure will hang upon my tongue like a new-marriedwife about her husband's neck, hardly to be shookoff. Je quand sur le possession de France, et quandvous avez le possession de moi,--let me see, whatthen? Saint Denis be my speed!--donc votre estFrance et vous etes mienne. It is as easy for me,Kate, to conquer the kingdom as to speak so muchmore French: I shall never move thee in French,unless it be to laugh at me.

KATHARINE

Sauf votre honneur, le Francois que vous parlez, ilest meilleur que l'Anglois lequel je parle.

KING HENRY V

No, faith, is't not, Kate: but thy speaking of mytongue, and I thine, most truly-falsely, must needsbe granted to be much at one. But, Kate, dost thouunderstand thus much English, canst thou love me?

KATHARINE

I cannot tell.

KING HENRY V

Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll askthem. Come, I know thou lovest me: and at night,when you come into your closet, you'll question thisgentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will toher dispraise those parts in me that you love withyour heart: but, good Kate, mock me mercifully; therather, gentle princess, because I love theecruelly. If ever thou beest mine, Kate, as I have asaving faith within me tells me thou shalt, I getthee with scambling, and thou must therefore needsprove a good soldier-breeder: shall not thou and I,between Saint Denis and Saint George, compound aboy, half French, half English, that shall go toConstantinople and take the Turk by the beard?shall we not? what sayest thou, my fairflower-de-luce?

KATHARINE

I do not know dat

KING HENRY V

No; 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promise: dobut now promise, Kate, you will endeavour for yourFrench part of such a boy; and for my English moietytake the word of a king and a bachelor. How answeryou, la plus belle Katharine du monde, mon tres cheret devin deesse?

KATHARINE

Your majestee ave fausse French enough to deceive demost sage demoiselle dat is en France.

KING HENRY V

Now, fie upon my false French! By mine honour, intrue English, I love thee, Kate: by which honour Idare not swear thou lovest me; yet my blood begins toflatter me that thou dost, notwithstanding the poorand untempering effect of my visage. Now, beshrewmy father's ambition! he was thinking of civil warswhen he got me: therefore was I created with astubborn outside, with an aspect of iron, that, whenI 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 ofbeauty, can do no more, spoil upon my face: thouhast me, if thou hast me, at the worst; and thoushalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and better:and therefore tell me, most fair Katharine, will youhave me? Put off your maiden blushes; avouch thethoughts of your heart with the looks of an empress;take me by the hand, and say 'Harry of England I amthine:' which word thou shalt no sooner bless mineear withal, but I will tell thee aloud 'England isthine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, and HarryPlantagenet is thine;' who though I speak it beforehis 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 ismusic and thy English broken; therefore, queen ofall, Katharine, break thy mind to me in brokenEnglish; wilt thou have me?

KATHARINE

Dat is as it sall please de roi mon pere.

KING HENRY V

Nay, it will please him well, Kate it shall pleasehim, Kate.

KATHARINE

Den it sall also content me.

KING HENRY V

Upon that I kiss your hand, and I call you my queen.

KATHARINE

Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez: ma foi, jene veux point que vous abaissiez votre grandeur enbaisant la main d'une de votre seigeurie indigneserviteur; excusez-moi, je vous supplie, montres-puissant seigneur.

KING HENRY V

Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.

KATHARINE

Les dames et demoiselles pour etre baisees devantleur noces, il n'est pas la coutume de France.

KING HENRY V

Madam my interpreter, what says she?

ALICE

Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies ofFrance,--I cannot tell vat is baiser en Anglish.

KING HENRY V

To kiss.

ALICE

Your majesty entendre bettre que moi.

KING HENRY V

It is not a fashion for the maids in France to kissbefore they are married, would she say?

ALICE

Oui, vraiment.

KING HENRY V

O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great kings. DearKate, you and I cannot be confined within the weaklist of a country's fashion: we are the makers ofmanners, Kate; and the liberty that follows ourplaces stops the mouth of all find-faults; as I willdo yours, for upholding the nice fashion of yourcountry in denying me a kiss: therefore, patientlyand yielding.

KING HENRY V

You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate: there ismore eloquence in a sugar touch of them than in thetongues of the French council; and they shouldsooner persuade Harry of England than a generalpetition of monarchs. Here comes your father.

BURGUNDY

God save your majesty! my royal cousin, teach youour princess English?

KING HENRY V

I would have her learn, my fair cousin, howperfectly I love her; and that is good English.

BURGUNDY

Is she not apt?

KING HENRY V

Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition is notsmooth; so that, having neither the voice nor theheart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure upthe spirit of love in her, that he will appear inhis true likeness.

BURGUNDY

Pardon the frankness of my mirth, if I answer youfor that. If you would conjure in her, you mustmake a circle; if conjure up love in her in his truelikeness, he must appear naked and blind. Can youblame her then, being a maid yet rosed over with thevirgin crimson of modesty, if she deny theappearance of a naked blind boy in her naked seeingself? It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maidto consign to.

KING HENRY V

Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind and enforces.

BURGUNDY

They are then excused, my lord, when they see notwhat they do.

KING HENRY V

Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to consent winking.

BURGUNDY

I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you willteach her to know my meaning: for maids, wellsummered and warm kept, are like flies atBartholomew-tide, blind, though they have theireyes; and then they will endure handling, whichbefore would not abide looking on.

KING HENRY V

This moral ties me over to time and a hot summer;and so I shall catch the fly, your cousin, in thelatter end and she must be blind too.

BURGUNDY

As love is, my lord, before it loves.

KING HENRY V

It is so: and you may, some of you, thank love formy blindness, who cannot see many a fair French cityfor one fair French maid that stands in my way.

FRENCH KING

Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the citiesturned into a maid; for they are all girdled withmaiden walls that war hath never entered.

KING HENRY V

Shall Kate be my wife?

FRENCH KING

So please you.

KING HENRY V

I am content; so the maiden cities you talk of maywait on her: so the maid that stood in the way formy wish shall show me the way to my will.

FRENCH KING

We have consented to all terms of reason.

KING HENRY V

Is't so, my lords of England?

WESTMORELAND

The king hath granted every article:His daughter first, and then in sequel all,According to their firm proposed natures.

EXETER

Only he hath not yet subscribed this:Where your majesty demands, that the King of France,having any occasion to write for matter of grant,shall name your highness in this form and with thisaddition in French, Notre trescher fils Henri, Roid'Angleterre, Heritier de France; and thus inLatin, Praeclarissimus filius noster Henricus, RexAngliae, et Haeres Franciae.

FRENCH KING

Nor this I have not, brother, so denied,But your request shall make me let it pass.

KING HENRY V

I pray you then, in love and dear alliance,Let that one article rank with the rest;And thereupon give me your daughter.

FRENCH KING

Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise upIssue to me; that the contending kingdomsOf France and England, whose very shores look paleWith envy of each other's happiness,May cease their hatred, and this dear conjunctionPlant neighbourhood and Christian-like accordIn their sweet bosoms, that never war advanceHis bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France.

ALL

Amen!

KING HENRY V

Now, welcome, Kate: and bear me witness all,That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen.

QUEEN ISABEL

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!

ALL

Amen!

KING HENRY V

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;And may our oaths well kept and prosperous be!

KING HENRY V

EPILOGUE

Chorus

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 livedThis star of England: Fortune made his sword;By which the world's best garden be achieved,And of it left his son imperial lord.Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd KingOf 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.