English Lords.
Burg.
God save your Majesty! my royal cousin,
teach you our Princess English?
K. Henry.
I would have her learn, my fair cousin,
how perfectly I love her, and that is good English.
Burg.
Is she apt?
K. Henry.
Our tongue is rough, and my condition
is not smooth; so that having neither the voice nor
1 notethe heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up
the spirit of love in her, that he will appear in his true
likeness.
Burg.
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 love in her in his
true likeness, he must appear naked and blind. Can
you blame her then, being a maid yet ros'd over with
the virgin crimson of modesty, if she deny the appearance
of a naked blind boy, in her naked seeing
self? it were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to
consign to.
-- 428 --
K. Henry.
Yet they do wink and yield, as love is
blind and enforces.
Burg.
They are then excus'd, my lord, when they
see not what they do.
K. Henry.
Then, good my lord, teach your cousin
to consent to winking.
Burg.
I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if
you will teach her to know my meaning. Maids, well
summer'd 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. Henry.
This moral ties me over to time, and a
hot summer; and so I shall catch the flie your cousin
in the latter end, and she must be blind too.
Burg.
As love is, my lord, before it loves.
K. Henry.
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 turn'd into a maid; for they are all girdled
with maiden walls, that war hath never enter'd.
K. Henry.
Shall Kate be my wife?
Fr. King.
So please you.
K. Henry.
I am content, so the maiden cities you talk
of may wait on her; so the maid, that stood in the way
for my wish, shall shew me the way to my will.
Fr. King.
We have consented to all terms of reason.
K. Henry.
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 nature.
Exe.
Only he hath not yet subscribed this:
Where your Majesty demands, That the King of France,
having occasion to write for matter of grant, shall name
your Highness in this form, and with this addition in
-- 429 --
French: 2 notenostre tres cher filz Henry Roy d' Angleterre,
heretier de France: and thus in Latin; Præcarissimus
filius noster Henricus Rex Angliæ & hæres Franciæ.
Fr. King.
Yet this I have not (brother) so deny'd,
But your request shall make me let it pass.
K. Henry.
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 these contending Kingdoms,
England and France, 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
In their sweet breasts; that never war advance
His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France.
Lords.
Amen!
K. Henry.
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 jealousie,
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!
K. Henry.
Prepare we for our marriage; on which day,
-- 430 --
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 prosp'rous be!
[Exeunt.
[Epilogue]
Enter Chorus.
Thus far with rough, and all-unable, pen
3 note
Our bending author hath pursu'd 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 liv'd
This Star of England. Fortune made his sword;
By which the world's best garden he atchiev'd,
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 i' th' 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.
