within me, tells me,-thou fhalt,) I get thee with scambling, and thou must therefore needs prove a good foldierbreeder Shall not thou and I, between faint Dennis and faint George, compound a boy, half French, half English, that shall go to Conftantinople, and take the Turk by the beard? fhall we not? what fay'ft thou, my fair flowerde-luce?

KATH. I do not know dat.

K.HEN. 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 answer you, la plus belle Katharine du monde, mon tres chere et divine deeffe?

KATH. Your majesté 'ave fausse French enough to deceive de most fage damoiselle dat is en 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 fwear, thou lov'ft me; yet my blood begins to flatter me that thou dost, notwithstanding the poor and untempering effect of my vifage. Now bethrew my father's ambition! he was thinking of civil wars when he got me; therefore I was created with a stubborn outside, with an afpéct of iron, that, when I come to woo ladies, I fright them. But, in faith, Kate, the elder I wax, the better I fhall appear: my comfort is, that old age, that ill layer-up of beauty, can do no more spoil upon my face: thou haft me, if thou haft me, at the worst; and thou fhalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and better; And therefore tell me, most fair Katharine, 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 say→

Harry of England, I am thine: which word thou shalt no fooner 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 musick; for thy voice is musick, and thy English broken: therefore, queen of all, Katharine, break thy mind to me in broken English, Wilt thou have me?

KATH. Dat is, as it fhall please de roy mon pere.

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

KATH. Den it fhall alfo content me.

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

KATH. Laiffez, mon feigneur, laiffez, laiffez: ma foy, je ne veux point que vous abbaiffez voftre grandeur, en baisant la main d'une voftre indigne ferviteure; excufez moy, je vous fupplie, mon tres puiffant feigneur.

K. HEN. Then I will kifs your lips, Kate.

KATH. Les dames, & damoifelles, pour eftre baifees devant leur nopces, il n'eft pas le coûtume de France.

K. HEN. Madam my interpreter, what says she? ALICE. Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of France,-I cannot tell what is, baifer, en English. K. HEN. To kifs.

ALICE. Your majesty entendre bettre que moy.

K. HEN. It is not a fashion for the maids in France to kifs before they are married, would fhe fay?

ALICE. Ouy, vrayment.

K. HEN. O, Kate, nice customs curt'fy to great kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confined within the

weak list of a country's fashion: we are the makers of manners, Kate; and the liberty that follows our places, ftops the mouths of all-find-faults; as I will do yours, for 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 fugar touch of them, than in the tongues of the French council; and they should fooner perfuade Harry of England, than a general petition of monarch. Here comes your father.

Enter the FRENCH KING and QUEEN, BURGUNDY, BEDFORD, GLOSTER, EXETER, WESTMORELAND, and other French and English Lords.

BUR. God fave your majefty! my royal coufin, teach you our princess English?

K. HEN. I would have her learn, my fair coufin, how perfectly I love her; and that is good English.

BUR. Is fhe not apt?

K. HEN. Our tongue is rough, coz; 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 spirit of love in her, that he will appear in his true likenefs.

BUR. Pardon the franknefs of my mirth, if I answer you for that. If you would conjure in her you 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 rofed over with the virgin crimson of modefty, if she deny the appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked feeing felf? It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to confign to.

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

BUR. They are then excused, my lord, when they fee not what they do.

K. HEN. Then, good my lord, teach your coufin to confent to winking.

BUR. I will wink on her to confent, my lord, if you will teach her to know my meaning: for maids, well fummer'd and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomewtide, 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 fummer; and so I shall catch the fly, your coufin, in the latter end, and she must be blind too.

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

K. HEN. 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 ftands in my way.

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

K. HEN. I am content; fo the maiden cities you talk of, may wait on her : fo the maid, that stood in the way wifh, fhall fhow me the way to my will.

for

my

FR. KING. We have consented to all terms of reason.

K. HEN. Is't fo, my lords of England?

WEST. The king hath granted every article: His daughter, firft; and then, in fequel, all, According to their firm proposed natures.

EXE. Only, he hath not yet fubfcribed this:

Where your majefty demands,-that the king of France,

having any occafion to write for matter of grant, shall name your highness in this form, and with this addition, in French,-Notre tres cher filz Henry roy d'Angleterre, heretier de France; and thus in Latin,-Præclariffimus filius nofter Henricus, rex Anglia, & hæres Francia. FR. KING. Nor this I have not, brother, fo deny'd, But your request fhall make me let it pafs.

K. HEN. I pray you then, in love and dear alliance, Let that one article rank with the reft:

And, thereupon, give me your daughter.

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

Iffue 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 chriftian-like accord

In their fweet bofoms, that never war advance

His bleeding fword 'twixt England and fair France.

ALL. Amen!

[all,

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

[Flourish.

2. 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 bleffed 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!