K. Henry.
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 wishes
To our most fair and princely cousin Katharine;
And as a branch and member of this royalty,
By whom this great assembly is contriv'd,
We do salute you Duke of Burgundy.

And Princes French and Peers, health to you all.

Fr. King.
Right joyous are we to behold your face,
Most worthy brother England, fairly met,
So are you Princes English, every one.

Q. Isa.
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 born in them
Against the French that met them in their bent,
The fatal balls of murthering basilisks:
The venom of such looks we fairly hope
Have lost their quality, and that this day
Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.

K. Henry.
To cry Amen to that, thus we appear.

Q. Isa.
You English Princes all, I do salute you.

Burg.
My duty to you both on equal love;
Great Kings of France and England. That I've labour'd
With all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavours,
To bring your most imperial Majesties
Unto this bar and royal interview,
Your mightinesses on both parts can witness.
Since then my office hath so far prevail'd,
That 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, plenties, and joyful births,
Should not in this best garden of the world
Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?
Alas! she hath from France too long been chas'd,
And all her husbandry doth lye on heaps,
Corrupting in its own fertility.

Her vine, the merry chearer of the heart,
Unpruned dies; her hedges even pleach'd,
Like prisoners wildly over-grown with hair
Put forth disorder'd twigs: her fallow leas
The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory
Doth root upon; while that the culter rusts,
That should deracinate such savagery:
The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth
The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover,
Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,
Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems
But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs,
Losing both beauty and utility;
And all our vineyards, fallows, meads and hedges,
Defective in their natures, grow to wildness.
Even so our houses, and our selves and children
Have lost, or do not learn for want of time,
The sciences that should become our country;
But grow like savages, (as soldiers will,
That nothing do but meditate on blood)
To swearing and stern looks, diffus'd attire,
And every thing that seems unnatural.
Which to reduce into our former favour
You are assembled; and my speech intreats
That I may know the let, why gentle peace
Should not expel these inconveniences,
And bless us with her former qualities.

K. Henry.
If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace,
Whose want gives growth to th'imperfections
Which you have cited; you must buy that peace
With full accord to all our just demands:
Whose tenures and particular effects

You have enschedul'd briefly in your hands.

Burg.
The King hath heard them; to the which as yet
There is no answer made.

K. Henry.
Well then; the peace
Which you before so urg'd, lyes in his answer.

Fr. King.
I have but with a cursorary eye
O'er-glanc'd the articles; pleaseth your grace
T'appoint some of your council presently
To sit with us, once more with better heed
To re-survey them; we will suddenly
Pass our accept and peremptory answer.

K. Henry.
Brother, we shall. Go, uncle Exeter,
And brother Clarence, brother Gloucester,
Warwick and Huntington, go with the King;
And take with you free Pow'r to ratifie,
Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best
Shall see advantageable for our dignity,
And we'll consign thereto. Will you, fair sister,
Go with the Princes, or stay here with us?

Q. Isa.
Our gracious brother, I will go with them;
Haply a woman's voice may do some good,
When articles too nicely urg'd be stood on.

K. Henry.
Yet leave our cousin Katharine here with us,
She is our capital demand, compris'd
Within the fore-rank of our articles.

Q. Isa.
She hath good leave. [Exeunt.

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