Doth root upon, while that the coulter 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,
Losing both beauty and utility.
And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and
hedges,

[burs,

Defective in their natures, grow to wildness,
Even so our houses, and ourselves 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 everything that seems unnatural.
Which to reduce into our former favour,
You are assembled and my speech entreats
That I may know the let, why gentle Peace
Should not expel these inconveniences,
And bless us with her former qualities.

K. Hen. If, duke of Burgundy, you would

the peace,

K. Hen.

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

K. Hen. O fair Katharine, if you will love me soundly with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it brokenly with your English tongue. Do you like me, Kate?

Kath. Pardonnez moy, I cannot tell vat is like me.

K. Hen. An angel is like you, Kate; and you are like an angel.

Kath. Que dit-il ? que je suis semblable à les anges?

Alice. Ouy, vrayment, sauf vostre grace, ainsi dit-il.

K. Hen. I said so, dear Katharine; and I must not blush to affirm it.

Kath. O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines des tromperies.

K. Hen. What says she, fair one? that the tongues of men are full of deceits?

Alice. Ouy, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of deceits: dat is de princess.

K. Hen. The princess is the better Englishwoman. I' faith, Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding: I am glad thou canst speak no better English; for, if thou couldst, thou wouldst find me such a plain king, that thou wouldst think I had sold my farm to buy my crown. I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say-I love you: then, if you urge me farther than to say-- -Do you in faith? I wear out my suit. Give me your answer; i' faith, do, and so clap hands and a bargain: how say you, lady?

Kath. Sauf vostre honneur, me understand well.

K. Hen. Marry, if you would put me to verses, or to dance for your sake, Kate, why you undid me: for the one, I have neither words nor measure; and for the other, I have

Whose want gives growth to the imperfections
Which you have cited, you must buy that peace
With full accord to all our just demands;
Whose tenors and particular effects
You have, enschedul'd briefly, in your hands.
Bur. The king hath heard them; to the
There is no answer made. [which as yet,
Well then, the peace,
Which you before so urg'd, lies in his answer.
Fr. King. I have but with a cursorary eye
O'er-glanc'd the articles: pleaseth your grace
To 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. Hen. Brother, we shall.-Go, uncle Ex-no strength in measure, yet a reasonable mea-
[ter,- sure in strength. If I could win a lady at
And brother Clarence,--and you, brother Glos- leap-frog, or by vaulting into my saddle with
Warwick, and Huntingdon,-go with the my armour on my back, under the correction
And take with you free power to ratify, [king; of bragging be it spoken, I should quickly leap
Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best
Shall see advantageable for our dignity,
Anything in, or out of, our demands;
And we'll consign thereto. Will you, fair
Go with the princes, or stay here with us?
Q. Isa. Our gracious brother, I will
with them:

eter,

go

Haply a woman's voice may do some good,
When articles, too nicely urg'd, be stood on.
K. Hen. Yet leave our cousin Katharine
here with us :

into a wife. Or if I might buffet for my love, or bound my horse for her favours, I could lay [ter, on like a butcher, and sit like a jackanapes, sis-never off. But before God, Kate, I cannot look greenly, nor gasp out my eloquence, nor I have no cunning in protestation; only down. right oaths, which I never use till urged, nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a fellow of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth sun-burning, that never looks in his glass for love of anything he sees there,-let thine eye be thy cook. I speak to thee plain soldier: If thou canst love me for this, take me; if not, to say to thee that I shall die, is true,— but for thy love, by the Lord, no; yet I love thee too. And while thou livest, dear Kate, take a fellow of plain and uncoined constancy; for he perforce must do thee right, because he hath not the gift to woo in other places: for

[Alice.

She is our capital demand, compris'd
Within the fore-rank of our articles.
Q. Isa. She hath good leave.
[Exeunt all except K. Henry, Kath., and
K. Hen. Fair Katharine, and most fair!
Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms
Such as will enter at a lady's ear,

And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?

Kath. Your majesté have fausse French enough to deceive de most sage demoiselle dat is en France.

these fellows of infinite tongue, that can rhyme to promise: do but now promise, Kate, you themselves into ladies' favours, they do always will endeavour for your French part of such a reason themselves out again. What! a boy; and for my English moiety, take the speaker is but a prater; a rhyme is but a ballad. word of a king and a bachelor. How answer A good leg will fall; a straight back will you, la plus belle Katharine du monde, mon stoop; a black beard will turn white; a curled très chère et divine déesse? pate will grow bald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax hollow; but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the moon; or, rather, the sun, and not the moon,-for it shines bright, and never changes, but keeps his course truly. If thou would have such a one, take me 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.

Kath. Is it possible dat I should love de enemy of 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 swear thou lovest me; yet my blood begins to flatter me that thou dost, notwithstanding the poor and untempering effect of my visage. Now, beshrew my father's ambition! he was thinking of civil wars when he got me: therefore was I K. Hen. No; it is not possible you created with a stubborn outside, with an aspect should love the enemy of France, Kate; but, of iron, that, when I come to woo ladies, I in loving me, you should love the friend of fright them. But, in faith, Kate, the elder I France; for I love France so well, that I will wax, the better I shall appear: my comfort is, not part with a village of it; I will have it all that old age, that ill layer-up of beauty, can do mine and, Kate, when France is mine and I no more spoil upon my face: thou hast me, if am yours, then yours is France and you are thou hast me, at the worst; and thou shalt Kath. I cannot tell vat is dat. [mine. wear me, if thou wear me, better and better:K. Hen. No, Kate? I will tell thee in and therefore tell me, most fair Katharine, French; which I am sure will hang upon my will you have me? Put off your maiden blushes; tongue like a new-married wife about her hus-avouch the thoughts of your heart with the band's neck, hardly to be shook off.-Quand looks of an empress; take me by the hand, jay la possession de France, et quand vous avez and say--Harry of England, I am thine: la possession de moy, (let me see, what then? which word thou shalt no sooner bless mine ear Saint Dennis be my speed!)-donc vostre est withal, but will tell thee aloud-England is France, et vous estes mienne. It is as easy for thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, and me, Kate, to conquer the kingdom, as to speak Henry Plantagenet is thine; who, though I so much more French: I shall never move thee speak it before his face, if he be not fellow with in French, unless it be to laugh at me. the best king, thou shalt find the best king of good fellows. Come, your answer in broken music, for thy voice is music, and thy English broken; therefore, queen of all, Katharine, break thy mind to me in broken English, wilt thou have me? [père.

Kath. Sauf vostre honneur, le François que vous parlez, est meilleur que l'Anglois lequel je parle.

K. Hen. No, 'faith, is't not, Kate; but thy speaking of my tongue, and I thine, most truly falsely, must needs be granted to be much at one. But, Kate, dost thou understand thus much English, Canst thou love me?

Kath. I cannot tell.

K. Hen. Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll ask them. Come, I know thou lovest me; and at night, when you come into your closet, you'll question this gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will, to her, dispraise those parts in me that you love with your heart: but, good Kate, mock me mercifully; the rather, gentle princess, because I love thee cruelly. If ever thou be'st mine, Kate, (as I have a saving faith within ine tells me thou shalt,) I get thee with scambling, and thou must therefore needs prove a good soldier-breeder: shall not thou and I, between Saint Dennis and Saint George, compound a boy, half French, half English, that shall go to Constantinople, and take the Turk by the beard? shall we not? what sayest thou, my fair

Kath. I do not know dat. [flower-de-luce.
K. Hen. No; 'tis hereafter to know, but now

Kath. Dat is as it shall please de roy mon K. Hen. Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall please him, Kate.

Kath. Den it shall also content me.

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

Kath. Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez: ma foy, je ne veux point que vous abaissez vostre grandeur, en baisant la main d'une vostre indigne serviteure: excusez moy, je vous supplie, mon très puissant seigneur.

K. Hen. Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.
Kath. Les dames, et demoiselles, pour estre
baisées devant leur noces, il n'est pas la coutume
de France.
[she

K. Hen. Madam my interpreter, what says
Alice. Dat it is not be de fashion pour les
ladies of France,-I cannot tell what is baiser
K. Hen. To kiss.
Len English.

Alice. Your majesty entendre bettre que moy.
K. Hen. It is not a fashion for the maids in
France to kiss before they are married, would
Alice. Ouy, vrayment.
[she say?

Fr. King. So please you.

K. Hen. 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 show me the way to my will. [of reason. Fr. King. We have consented to all terms 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.

K. Hen. O Kate, nice customs court'sy 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 stops the mouths of all find-faults, as I will do yours, for upholding the nice fashion of your country in denying me a kiss: therefore, patiently, and yielding. [Kissing her.] You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate: there is more eloquence in a sugar touch of them, than in the tongues Exe. Only, he hath not yet subscribed this: of the French council; and they should sooner Where your majesty demands, that the king persuade Harry of England, than a general of France, having any occasion to write for petition of monarchs. Here comes your father. matter of grant, shall name your highness in Re-enter the King and Queen, Burgundy, this form, and with this addition, in French, — Bedford, Gloster, Exeter, Warwick, West- Notre très cher filz Henry roy d'Angleterre, moreland, and other French and English heretier de France; and thus in Latin,-PreLords. clarissimus filius noster Henricus, rex Angliæ,

Bur. God save your majesty! My royal cou-et hæres Franciæ. Teach you our princess English? [sin, 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 smooth; so that, having neither the voice nor the heart of flattery about me, cannot so conjure up the spirit of love in her, that he will appear in his true likeness.

Bur. 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 rosed 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.

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

Bur. They are then excused, my lord, when they see not what 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 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. 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.

Fr. King. Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities turned into a maid; for they are all girdled with maiden walls, that war hath never entered.

K. Hen. Shall Kate be my wife?

[denied,

Fr. King. Nor this I have not, brother, so
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 ;
And, thereupon, give me your daughter.
Fr. King. Take her, fair son; and from her
blood raise up

Issue to me; that the contending kingdoms
Of France and England, whose very shores
look pale

With envy of each other's happiness, [junction
May cease their hatred; and this dear con-
Plant neighbourhood and Christian-like accord
In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance
His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair
[France.
K. Hen. Now, welcome, Kate:--and bear
me witness all,

All. Amen!

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 jealousy,
Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage,
Thrust in between the paction of these king-
doms,

To make divorce of their incorporate league ;
That English may as French, French English-

men,

Receive each other! God speak this Amen!
All. Amen!
[which day,

K. Hen. Prepare we for our marriage: on
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
[Exeunt.

be!

Enter Chorus.

Thus far, with rough and all unable pen,
Our bending author hath pursued the story;
In little room confining mighty men, [glory.
Mangling by starts the full course of their

Shall 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 achiev'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 sucWhose state so many had the managing, [ceed; That they lost France, and made his Eng[sake, Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their In your fair minds let this acceptance take.

land bleed:

[Exit.

FIRST PART OF KING HENRY VI.

King Henry the Sixth.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

Duke of Gloster, Uncle to the King, and Protector.

Duke of Bedford, Uncle to the King, and Re-
gent of France.

Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, Great
Uncle to the King.

Henry Beaufort, Great Uncle to the King;
Bishop of Winchester, and afterwards
Cardinal.

John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset, afterwards
Duke.

Richard Plantagenet, Eldest Son of Richard,
late Earl of Cambridge; afterwards Duke
of York.

Earls of Warwick, Salisbury, and Suffolk.
Lord Talbot, afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury.
John Talbot, his Son.

Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March.
Mortimer's Keeper, and a Lawyer.
Sir John Fastolfe. Sir William Lucy. Sir
William Glansdale.
grave.

Sir Thomas Gar

Woodville, Lieutenant of the Tower; Mayor
of London. A Lawyer.

Vernon, of the White Rose, or York Faction.
Basset, of the Red Rose, or Lancaster Faction.
Charles, Dauphin, and afterwards King of
France.

Reignier, Duke of Anjou, and titular king of
Naples.

Dukes of Burgundy and Alençon. Bastard of
Orleans.

Governor of Paris. Master-Gunner of Orleans,
and his Son.

General of the French Forces in Bourdeaux.
A French Sergeant. 4 Porter. An old
Shepherd, Father to Joan la Pucelle.
Margaret, Daughter to Reignier; afterwards
married to King Henry.
Countess of Auvergne.

Joan la Pucelle, commonly called Joan of Arc.
Mortimer's Keepers.

Fiends appearing to La Pucelle, Lords,
Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers,
and Attendants.

SCENE,-Partly in England, and partly in France.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-Westminster Abbey. Dead March.

The Corpse of King Henry the Fifth is discovered, lying in state; attended on by the Dukes of Bedford, Gloster, and Exeter, the Earl of Warwick, the Bishop of Winchester, Heralds, &c.

Bed. Hung be the heavens with black, yield
day to night!

Comets, importing change of times and states,
Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky,
And with them scourge the bad revolting stars,
That have consented unto Henry's death!
King Henry the fifth, too famous to live long!
England ne'er lost a king of so much worth.

Glo. England ne'er had a king until his time.
Virtue he had, deserving to command:
His brandish'd sword did blind men with his
beams;

His arms spread wider than a dragon's wings;
His sparkling eyes, replete with wrathful fire,

More dazzled and drove back his enemies
Than mid-day sun fierce bent against their
faces.
[speech:
What should I say? his deeds exceed all
He ne'er lift up his hand, but conquered.

Exe. We mourn in black: why mourn we

not in blood?

Henry is dead, and never shall revive.
Upon a wooden coffin we attend ;
And death's dishonourable victory
We with our stately presence glorify,
Like captives bound to a triumphant car.
What! shall we curse the planets of mishap,
That plotted thus our glory's overthrow?
Or shall we think the subtle-witted French
Conjurers and sorcerers, that, afraid of him,
By magic verses have contriv'd his end? [kings.

Win. He was a king, bless'd of the King of
Unto the French the dreadful judgment-day
So dreadful will not be, as was his sight.
The battles of the Lord of hosts he fought :
The church's prayers made him so prosperous