You may imagine him upon Blackheath: Did they this Harry. Now in London place him; SCENE I-France. An English court of guard. Gow. Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock. Flu. 'Tis no matter for his swellings, nor his turkey-cocks.-Got pless you, ancient Pistol! you scurvy, lousy knave, Got pless you! Pist. Ha! art thou Bedlam? dost thou thirst, To have me fold up Parca's fatal web ?" I (1) i. e. To order it to be borne. (2) Transferring all the honours of conquest from himself to God. Pist. Not for Cadwallader, and all his goats. Flu. You say very true, scald knave, when Got's will is: 1 will desire you to live in the mean time, and eat your victuals; come, there is sauce for it. [Striking him again. You called me yesterday, mountain-squire; but I will make you to-day squire of low degree. I pray you, fall to; if you can mock a leek, you can eat a leek. Gow. Enough, captain; you have astonished him. Flu. I say, I will make him cat some part of my leek, or I will peat his pate four days:-Pite, I pray you; it is goot for your green wound, and your ploody coxcomb. (3) Similitude. Pist. Must I bite? Flu. Yes, certainly; and out of doubt, and out of questions too, and ambiguities. Pist. By this leck, I will most horribly revenge; I cat, and cke I swear Flu. Eat, I pray you: Will you have some more sauce to your leck? there is not enough leek to swear by. Pist. Quiet thy cudgel; thou dost see, I eat. Flu. Much goot do you, scald knave, heartily. Nay, 'pray you, throw none away; the skin is goot for your proken coxcomb. When you take occasions to see-lecks hereafter, I pray you, mock at them; that is all. Gow. Nay, that's right; but why wear you your leek to-day? Saint Davy's day is past. Pist. I take thy groat, in earnest of revenge. Flu. If I owe you any thing, I will pay you in cudgels; you shall be a woodmonger, and buy nothing of me but cudgels. God be wi' you, and keep you, and heal your pate. [Exil. Gow. Go, go; you are a counterfeit cowardly Flu. There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things: I will tell you, as my friend, captain Gower; The rascally, scald, beggarly, lousy, pragging knave, Pistol,-which you and yourself, and all the 'orld, know to be no petter than a fellow, look you now, of no merits,-he is Pist. All hell shall stir for this. come to me, and prings me pread and salt yesterday, look you, and pid me cat my leek: it was in knave. Will you mock at an ancient tradition,a place where I could not breed no contentions begun upon an honourable respect, and worn as with him; but I will be so pold as to wear it in my a memorable trophy of predeceased valour,-and cap till I see him once again, and then I will tell dare not avouch in your deeds any of your words? him a little piece of my desires. I have seen you gleeking and galling at this gentleman twice or thrice. You thought, because he could not speak English in the native garb, he could not therefore handle an English cudgel: you find it otherwise; and, henceforth, let a Welsh correction teach you a good English condition. Fare ye well. [Exit. Pist. Doth fortune play the huswife with me News have I, that my Nell is dead i'the spital" Of malady of France; Enter Pistol. Pist. Good. Fiu. Ay, leeks is goot:-Hold you, there is a groat to heal your pate. Pist. Mc a groat! Flu. Yes, verily, and in truth, you shall take it ; or I have another leek in my pocket, which you shall eat. SCENE II.-Troyes in Champagne. An apart- To swearing, and stern looks, diffus'd' attire, ment in the French King's palace. Enter, at And every thing that seems unnatural. one door, King Henry, Bedford, Gloster, Exeter, Which to reduce into our former favour, Warwick, Westmoreland, and other lords; al You are assembled: and my speech entreats, another, the French king, queen Isabel, the prin- That I may know the let, why gentle peace cess Katharine, lords, ladies, &c. the duke of Should not expel these inconveniences, Burgundy, and his train. And bless us with her former qualities. K. Hen. If, duke of Burgundy, you would the Whose want gives growth to the imperfections There is no answer made. K. Hen. Brother, we shall.-Go, uncle Exeter,→ K. Hen. Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met! Unto our brother France,-and to our sister, Q. Isa. So happy be the issue, brother England, With all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavours, Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart, And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges, (1) Barrier. (2) Plowshare. (3) To deracinate is to force up the roots, Haply, a woman's voice may do some good, Q. Isa. She hath good leave. [Exeunt all but 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 woman. l'faith, Kate, my wooing is fit for thy un- shall never move thee in French, unless it be to Kath. Is it possible dat I should love de enemy of France? K. llen. No; it is not possible, you should love with the looks of an empress; take me by the hand, the enemy of France, Kate: but, in loving me, you and say-Harry of England, I am thine: which should love the friend of France; for I love France word thou shalt no sooner bless mine ear, withal, so well, that I will not part with a village of it; but I will tell thee aloud-England is thine, Ire will have it all mine: and, Kate, when France is land is thine, France is thine, and Henry Plantagemine, and I am yours, then yours is France, and net is thine; who, though I speak it before his face, you are mine. 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 is music, and the English broken: therefore, queen of all, Katharine, break thy mind to me in broken English, Wilt thou have me? Kath. Dat is, as it shall please de roy mon pere. K. Hen. Nay, it will please him well, Kate; shall please him, Kate. Kath. Den it shall also content me. K. Hen. Upon that I will kiss your hand, and I call you-my queen, Kath. I cannot tell vat is dat. K. Hen. No, Kate? I will tell thee in French; which, I am sure, will hang upon my tongue like a new-married wife about her husband's neck, hardly to be shook off. Quand j'ay la possession de France, et quand vous avez la possession de moi, (let me see, what then? Saint Dennis be m speed!)-donc vostre est France, et vous estes mienne. It is as casy for me, Kate, to conquer the kingdom, as to speak so much more French: I (1) In dancing. (2) i. e. Like a young lover, awkwardly. (3) He means, resembling a plain piece of metal, which has not yet received any impression. (4) Fall away. (5) i. e. Though my face has no power to soften you. KING HENRY V. 465 Kath. Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez: a fair French city, for one fair French maid that ma foy, je ne veux point que vous abbaissez vostre stands in my way. grandeur, en baisant la main d'une vostre indigne Fr. King. Yes, my lord, you see them perspecserviteure; excusez moy, je vous supplie, mon tres tively, the cities turned into a maid; for they are puissant seigneur. all girdled with maiden walls, that war hath never entered. K. Hen. Then I will kiss your lips, Kate. Kath. Les dames, et damoiselles, pour estre baisées devant leur nopces, il n'est past le coutume de France. K. Hen. Shall Kate be my wife? K. Hen. I am content; so the maiden cities you K. Hen. Madam, my interpreter, what says she? talk of, may wait on her: so the maid, that stood Alice. Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies in the way of my wish, shall show me the way to of France,-I cannot tell what is baiser, en English. K. Hen. To kiss. my will. Fr. King. We have consented to all terms of Alice. Your majesty entendre bettre que moy. reason. Alice. Ouy, vrayment. 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 curt'sy to great Exe. Only, he hath not yet subscribed this:kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confined Where your majesty demands-That the king of within the weak list of a country's fashion: we are France, having any occasion to write for matter of the makers of manners, Kate; and the liberty that grant, shall name your highness in this form, and follows our places, stops the mouths of all find- with this addition, in French,-Notre tres cher faults; as I will do yours, for upholding the nice filz Henry, roy d'Angleterre, heretier de France; fashion of your country, in denying me a kiss: and thus in Latin,-Præclarissimus filius noster therefore, patiently, and yielding. [Kissing her.] Henricus, rex Angliæ, et hæres Francia. You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate: there is more eloquence in a sugar touch of them, than in the tongues of the French council; and they should sooner persuade Harry of England, than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father. Enter the French King and Queen, Burgundy, Bedford, Gloster, Exeter, Westmoreland, and other French and English Lords. Fr. King, Nor this I have not, brother, so denied Let that one article rank with the rest: Issue to me: that the contending kingdoms Bur. God save your majesty! my royal cousin, teach you our princess English? K. Hen. I would have her learn, my fair cousin, With envy of each other's happiness, now perfectly I love her; and that is good English. Bur. Is she not apt? Bur. They are then excused, my lord, when they see not what they do. May cease their hatred; and this dear conjunction K. Hen. Now welcome, Kate:-and bear me That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen. 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, I 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, [Flourish. you must make a circle: if conjure up love in her, Q. Isa. God, the best maker of all marriages, in his true likeness, he must appear naked, and Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one! blind: Can you blame her then, being a maid yet As man and wife, being two, are one in love, rosed over with the virgin crimson of modesty, if So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal, she deny the appearance of a naked blind boy in That never may ill office, or fell jealousy, her naked seeing self? It were, my lord, a hard Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage, condition for a maid to consign to. 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. Hen. Yet they do wink, and yield; as love is blind, and enforces. K. Hen. Prepare we for our marriage:-on which day, K. Hen. Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to consent to winking. Bur. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if My lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath, you will teach her to know my meaning: for maids, And all the peers', for surety of our leagues.well summered and warm kept, are like flies at Bar- Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me; tholomew-tide, blind, though they have their eyes; And may our oaths well kept and prosp'rous be! and then they will endure handling, which before [Exeunt. would not abide looking on. K. Hen. This moral ties me over to time, and a hot summer; and so I will 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, nk love for my blindness; who cannot see many (2) Temper. (1) Slight barrier. Enter Chorus. Thus far, with rough, and all unable pen, (3) Application. (4) i. e. Unequal to the weight of the subject. SN KING HENRY Y. 406 Small time, but, in that smail, 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 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. [Exit. This play has many scenes of high dignity, and many of easy merriment. The character of the (1) France. Act F. king is well supported, except in his courtship, where he has neither the vivacity of Hal, nor the grandeur of Henry. The humour of Pistol is very happily continued: his character has perhaps been the model of all the bullies that have yet appeared on the English stage. The lines given to the Chorus have many admirers; but the truth is, that in them a little may be praised, and much must be forgiven; nor can it be easily discovered, why the intelligence given by the Chorus is more necessary in this play, than in many others where it is omitted. The great defect of this play is, the emptiness and narrowness of the last act, which a very little diligence might have easily avoided. JOHNSON. |