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Henry V: Act V, Scene 2

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Henry V
Act V, Scene 2

France. The French King’s apartment in Troyes.

The Flowers of Shakspeare

From: The Flowers of Shakspeare

Viola, 1883

  1. Enter, at one door, King Henry, Exeter, Bedford, Gloucester,
  2. Warwick, Westmorland, and other Lords; at another, Queen
  3. Isabel, the King of France, the Duke of Burgundy, Katherine,
  4. Alice, and other French.

King Henry the Fifth

1 - 8
  1. Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met!
  2. Unto our brother France, and to our sister,
  3. Health and fair time of day; joy and good wishes
  4. To our most fair and princely cousin Katherine;
  5. And as a branch and member of this royalty,
  6. By whom this great assembly is contriv’d,
  7. We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy,
  8. And, princes French, and peers, health to you all!

French King

9 - 11
  1. Right joyous are we to behold your face,
  2. Most worthy brother England, fairly met!
  3. So are you, princes English, every one.

Queen Isabel

12 - 20
  1. So happy be the issue, brother England,
  2. Of this good day and of this gracious meeting,
  3. As we are now glad to behold your eyes—
  4. Your eyes, which hitherto have borne in them
  5. Against the French that met them in their bent
  6. The fatal balls of murdering basilisks.
  7. The venom of such looks we fairly hope
  8. Have lost their quality, and that this day
  9. Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.

King Henry the Fifth

21
  1. To cry amen to that, thus we appear.

Queen Isabel

22
  1. You English princes all, I do salute you.

Duke of Burgundy

23 - 67
  1. My duty to you both, on equal love.
  2. Great Kings of France and England: that I have labor’d
  3. With all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavors
  4. To bring your most imperial Majesties
  5. Unto this bar and royal interview,
  6. Your mightiness on both parts best can witness.
  7. Since then my office hath so far prevail’d,
  8. That face to face, and royal eye to eye,
  9. You have congreeted, let it not disgrace me,
  10. If I demand, before this royal view,
  11. What rub or what impediment there is,
  12. Why that the naked, poor, and mangled Peace,
  13. Dear nurse of arts, plenties, and joyful births,
  14. Should not in this best garden of the world,
  15. Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?
  16. Alas, she hath from France too long been chas’d,
  17. And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,
  18. Corrupting in it own fertility.
  19. Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,
  20. Unpruned dies; her hedges even-pleach’d,
  21. Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair,
  22. Put forth disorder’d twigs; her fallow leas
  23. The darnel, hemlock, and rank femetary
  24. Doth root upon, while that the coulter rusts
  25. That should deracinate such savagery;
  26. The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth
  27. The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover,
  28. Wanting the scythe withal, uncorrected, rank,
  29. Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems
  30. But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs,
  31. Losing both beauty and utility;
  32. And all our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges,
  33. Defective in their natures, grow to wildness.
  34. Even so our houses, and ourselves, and children,
  35. Have lost, or do not learn for want of time,
  36. The sciences that should become our country,
  37. But grow like savages—as soldiers will
  38. That nothing do but meditate on blood—
  39. To swearing and stern looks, defus’d attire,
  40. And every thing that seems unnatural.
  41. Which to reduce into our former favor
  42. You are assembled; and my speech entreats
  43. That I may know the let why gentle Peace
  44. Should not expel these inconveniences,
  45. And bless us with her former qualities.
The plant-lore and garden-craft of Shakespeare

The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth the freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover

From: The plant-lore and garden-craft of Shakespeare

Henry Nicholson Ellacombe, University College Library Services, 1896

King Henry the Fifth

68 - 73
  1. If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace,
  2. Whose want gives growth to th’ imperfections
  3. Which you have cited, you must buy that peace
  4. With full accord to all our just demands,
  5. Whose tenures and particular effects
  6. You have enschedul’d briefly in your hands.

Duke of Burgundy

74 - 75
  1. The King hath heard them; to the which, as yet
  2. There is no answer made.

King Henry the Fifth

76 - 77
  1.                          Well then: the peace,
  2. Which you before so urg’d, lies in his answer.

French King

78 - 83
  1. I have but with a cursitory eye
  2. O’erglanc’d the articles. Pleaseth your Grace
  3. To appoint some of your Council presently
  4. To sit with us once more, with better heed
  5. To re-survey them, we will suddenly
  6. Pass our accept and peremptory answer.

King Henry the Fifth

84 - 92
  1. Brother, we shall. Go, uncle Exeter,
  2. And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester,
  3. Warwick, and Huntington, go with the King,
  4. And take with you free power to ratify,
  5. Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best
  6. Shall see advantageable for our dignity,
  7. Any thing in or out of our demands,
  8. And we’ll consign thereto. Will you, fair sister,
  9. Go with the princes, or stay here with us?

Queen Isabel

93 - 95
  1. Our gracious brother, I will go with them.
  2. Happily a woman’s voice may do some good,
  3. When articles too nicely urg’d be stood on.

King Henry the Fifth

96 - 98
  1. Yet leave our cousin Katherine here with us:
  2. She is our capital demand, compris’d
  3. Within the fore-rank of our articles.

Queen Isabel

99
  1. She hath good leave.
  1. Exeunt omnes. Manent King Henry and Katherine with the
  2. gentlewoman Alice.

King Henry the Fifth

100 - 103
  1. Fair Katherine, and most fair,
  2. Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms,
  3. Such as will enter at a lady’s ear,
  4. And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?

Katherine

104
  1. Your Majesty shall mock at me, I cannot speak your England.

King Henry the Fifth

105 - 107
  1. O fair Katherine, if you will love me soundly with your
  2. French heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it brokenly
  3. with your English tongue. Do you like me, Kate?

Katherine

108
  1. Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell wat is “like me.”

King Henry the Fifth

109
  1. An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel.

Katherine

110
  1. Que dit-il? Que je suis semblable à les anges?

Alice

111
  1. Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grâce, ainsi dit-il.

King Henry the Fifth

112 - 113
  1. I said so, dear Katherine, and I must not blush to affirm
  2. it.

Katherine

114 - 115
  1. O bon Dieu! Les langues des hommes sont pleines de
  2. tromperies.

King Henry the Fifth

116 - 117
  1. What says she, fair one? That the tongues of men are full of
  2. deceits?

Alice

118 - 119
  1. Oui, dat de tongeus of de mans is be full of deceits: dat is
  2. de Princess.

Dat is as it shall please de roi mon père.

Robert Dudley, William MacKenzie, 19th century

King Henry the Fifth

120 - 128
  1. The Princess is the better Englishwoman. I’ faith, Kate, my
  2. wooing is fit for thy understanding. I am glad thou canst
  3. speak no better English, for if thou couldst, thou wouldst
  4. find me such a plain king that thou wouldst think I had sold
  5. my farm to buy my crown. I know no ways to mince it in love,
  6. but directly to say “I love you”; then if you urge me
  7. farther than to say “Do you in faith?” I wear out my suit.
  8. Give me your answer, i’ faith, do, and so clap hands and a
  9. bargain. How say you, lady?

Katherine

129
  1. Sauf votre honneur, me understand well.

King Henry the Fifth

130 - 163
  1. Marry, if you would put me to verses, or to dance for your
  2. sake, Kate, why, you undid me: for the one, I have neither
  3. words nor measure; and for the other, I have no strength in
  4. measure, yet a reasonable measure in strength. If I could
  5. win a lady at leap-frog, or by vaulting into my saddle with
  6. my armor on my back, under the correction of bragging be it
  7. spoken, I should quickly leap into a wife. Or if I might
  8. buffet for my love, or bound my horse for her favors, I
  9. could lay on like a butcher, and sit like a jack-an-apes,
  10. never off. But, before God, Kate, I cannot look greenly, nor
  11. gasp out my eloquence, nor I have no cunning in
  12. protestation; only downright oaths, which I never use till
  13. urg’d, nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a
  14. fellow of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth
  15. sunburning, that never looks in his glass for love of any
  16. thing he sees there, let thine eye be thy cook. I speak to
  17. thee plain soldier. If thou canst love me for this, take me!
  18. If not, to say to thee that I shall die, is true; but for
  19. thy love, by the Lord, no; yet I love thee too. And while
  20. thou liv’st, dear Kate, take a fellow of plain and uncoin’d
  21. constancy, for he perforce must do thee right, because he
  22. hath not the gift to woo in other places; for these fellows
  23. of infinite tongue, that can rhyme themselves into ladies’
  24. favors, they do always reason themselves out again. What? A
  25. speaker is but a prater, a rhyme is but a ballad; a good leg
  26. will fall, a straight back will stoop, a black beard will
  27. turn white, a curl’d pate will grow bald, a fair face will
  28. wither, a full eye will wax hollow; but a good heart, Kate,
  29. is the sun and the moon, or rather the sun and not the moon;
  30. for it shines bright and never changes, but keeps his course
  31. truly. If thou would have such a one, take me! And take me,
  32. take a soldier; take a soldier, take a king. And what say’st
  33. thou then to my love? Speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray
  34. thee.

Katherine

164
  1. Is it possible dat I sould love de ennemie of France?

King Henry the Fifth

165 - 170
  1. No, it is not possible you should love the enemy of France,
  2. Kate; but in loving me, you should love the friend of
  3. France; for I love France so well that I will not part with
  4. a village of it; I will have it all mine. And, Kate, when
  5. France is mine and I am yours, then yours is France and you
  6. are mine.

Katherine

171
  1. I cannot tell wat is dat.

King Henry the Fifth

172 - 180
  1. No, Kate? I will tell thee in French, which I am sure will
  2. hang upon my tongue like a new-married wife about her
  3. husband’s neck, hardly to be shook off. Je quand sur le
  4. possession de France, et quand vous avez le possession de
  5. moi—let me see, what then? Saint Denis be my speed!—donc
  6. votre est France et vous êtes mienne. It is as easy for me,
  7. Kate, to conquer the kingdom as to speak so much more
  8. French. I shall never move thee in French, unless it be to
  9. laugh at me.
The plant-lore and garden-craft of Shakespeare

What say’st thou, my fair flower-de-luce?

From: The plant-lore and garden-craft of Shakespeare

Henry Nicholson Ellacombe, University College Library Services, 1896

Katherine

181 - 182
  1. Sauf votre honneur, le François que vous parlez, il est
  2. meilleur que l’Anglois lequel je parle.

King Henry the Fifth

183 - 186
  1. No, faith, is’t not, Kate; but thy speaking of my tongue,
  2. and I thine, most truly falsely, must needs be granted to be
  3. much at one. But, Kate, dost thou understand thus much
  4. English? Canst thou love me?

Katherine

187
  1. I cannot tell.

King Henry the Fifth

188 - 201
  1. Can any of your neighbors tell, Kate? I’ll ask them. Come, I
  2. know thou lovest me; and at night, when you come into your
  3. closet, you’ll question this gentlewoman about me; and I
  4. know, Kate, you will to her dispraise those parts in me that
  5. you love with your heart. But, good Kate, mock me
  6. mercifully, the rather, gentle Princess, because I love thee
  7. cruelly. If ever thou beest mine, Kate, as I have a saving
  8. faith within me tells me thou shalt, I get thee with
  9. scambling, and thou must therefore needs prove a good
  10. soldier-breeder. Shall not thou and I, between Saint Denis
  11. and Saint George, compound a boy, half French, half English,
  12. that shall go to Constantinople and take the Turk by the
  13. beard? Shall we not? What say’st thou, my fair
  14. flower-de-luce?

Katherine

202
  1. I do not know dat.

King Henry the Fifth

203 - 207
  1. No; ’tis hereafter to know, but now to promise. Do but now
  2. promise, Kate, you will endeavor for your French part of
  3. such a boy; and for my English moi’ty, take the word of a
  4. king and a bachelor. How answer you, la plus belle Katherine
  5. du monde, mon très cher et devin déesse?

Katherine

208 - 209
  1. Your Majestee ave fausse French enough to deceive de most
  2. sage demoiselle dat is en France.

King Henry the Fifth

210 - 233
  1. Now fie upon my false French! By mine honor, in true
  2. English, I love thee, Kate; by which honor I dare not swear
  3. thou lovest me, yet my blood begins to flatter me that thou
  4. dost—notwithstanding the poor and untempering effect of my
  5. visage. Now beshrew my father’s ambition! He was thinking of
  6. civil wars when he got me; therefore was I created with a
  7. stubborn outside, with an aspect of iron, that when I come
  8. to woo ladies, I fright them. But in faith, Kate, the elder
  9. I wax, the better I shall appear. My comfort is, that old
  10. age, that ill layer-up of beauty, can do no more spoil upon
  11. my face. Thou hast me, if thou hast me, at the worst; and
  12. thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and better; and
  13. therefore tell me, most fair Katherine, will you have me?
  14. Put off your maiden blushes, avouch the thoughts of your
  15. heart with the looks of an empress, take me by the hand, and
  16. say, “Harry of England, I am thine”; which word thou shalt
  17. no sooner bless mine ear withal, but I will tell thee aloud,
  18. “England is thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, and
  19. Henry Plantagenet is thine”; who, though I speak it before
  20. his face, if he be not fellow with the best king, thou shalt
  21. find the best king of good fellows. Come, your answer in
  22. broken music; for thy voice is music and thy English broken;
  23. therefore, queen of all, Katherine, break thy mind to me in
  24. broken English—wilt thou have me?

Katherine

234
  1. Dat is as it shall please de roi mon père.

King Henry the Fifth

235 - 236
  1. Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall please him,
  2. Kate.
The plant-lore and garden-craft of Shakespeare

Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart

From: The plant-lore and garden-craft of Shakespeare

Henry Nicholson Ellacombe, University College Library Services, 1896

Katherine

237
  1. Den it sall also content me.

King Henry the Fifth

238
  1. Upon that I kiss your hand, and I call you my queen.

Katherine

239 - 242
  1. Laissez, mon seigneur, lais sez, laissez! Ma foi, je ne veux
  2. point que vous abaissez votre grandeur en baisant la main
  3. d’une (Notre Seigneur!) indigne serviteur. Excusez-moi, je
  4. vous supplie, mon très puissant seigneur.

King Henry the Fifth

243
  1. Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.

Katherine

244 - 245
  1. Les dames et demoiselles pour être baisées devant leur
  2. noces, il n’est pas la coutume de France.

King Henry the Fifth

246
  1. Madam my interpreter, what says she?

Alice

247 - 248
  1. Dat it is not be de fashon pour les ladies of France—I
  2. cannot tell wat is baiser en Anglish.

King Henry the Fifth

249
  1. To kiss.

Alice

250
  1. Your Majestee entendre bettre que moi.

King Henry the Fifth

251 - 252
  1. It is not a fashion for the maids in France to kiss before
  2. they are married, would she say?

Alice

253
  1. Oui, vraiment.

King Henry the Fifth

254 - 265
  1. O Kate, nice customs cur’sy to great kings. Dear Kate, you
  2. and I cannot be confin’d within the weak list of a country’s
  3. fashion. We are the makers of manners, Kate; and the liberty
  4. that follows our places stops the mouth of all find-faults,
  5. as I will do yours, for upholding the nice fashion of your
  6. country in denying me a kiss; therefore patiently and
  7. yielding.
  8. Kissing her.
  9. You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate; there is more
  10. eloquence in a sugar touch of them than in the tongues of
  11. the French council; and they should sooner persuade Harry of
  12. England than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your
  13. father.
  1. Enter the French Power and the English Lords.

Duke of Burgundy

266 - 267
  1. God save your Majesty! My royal cousin, teach you our
  2. princess English?

King Henry the Fifth

268 - 269
  1. I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how perfectly I love
  2. her, and that is good English.

Duke of Burgundy

270
  1. Is she not apt?

King Henry the Fifth

271 - 274
  1. Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition is not smooth; so
  2. that having neither the voice nor the heart of flattery
  3. about me, I cannot so conjure up the spirit of love in her,
  4. that he will appear in his true likeness.

Duke of Burgundy

275 - 282
  1. Pardon the frankness of my mirth, if I answer you for that.
  2. If you would conjure in her, you must make a circle; if
  3. conjure up Love in her in his true likeness, he must appear
  4. naked and blind. Can you blame her then, being a maid yet
  5. ros’d over with the virgin crimson of modesty, if she deny
  6. the appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked seeing
  7. self? It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to
  8. consign to.

King Henry the Fifth

283
  1. Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind and enforces.

Duke of Burgundy

284 - 285
  1. They are then excus’d, my lord, when they see not what they
  2. do.

King Henry the Fifth

286
  1. Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to consent winking.

Duke of Burgundy

287 - 291
  1. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will teach
  2. her to know my meaning; for maids, well summer’d and warm
  3. kept, are like flies at Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they
  4. have their eyes, and then they will endure handling, which
  5. before would not abide looking on.

King Henry the Fifth

292 - 294
  1. This moral ties me over to time and a hot summer; and so I
  2. shall catch the fly, your cousin, in the latter end, and she
  3. must be blind too.

Duke of Burgundy

295
  1. As love is, my lord, before it loves.

Byam Shaw, 1901

King Henry the Fifth

296 - 298
  1. It is so; and you may, some of you, thank love for my
  2. blindness, who cannot see many a fair French city for one
  3. fair French maid that stands in my way.

French King

299 - 301
  1. Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively: the cities turn’d
  2. into a maid; for they are all girdled with maiden walls that
  3. war hath never ent’red.

King Henry the Fifth

302
  1. Shall Kate be my wife?

French King

303
  1. So please you.

King Henry the Fifth

304 - 306
  1. I am content, so the maiden cities you talk of may wait on
  2. her; so the maid that stood in the way for my wish shall
  3. show me the way to my will.

French King

307
  1. We have consented to all terms of reason.

King Henry the Fifth

308
  1. Is’t so, my lords of England?

Earl of Westmorland

309 - 311
  1. The King hath granted every article:
  2. His daughter first; and in sequel, all,
  3. According to their firm proposed natures.

Duke of Exeter

312 - 313
  1. Only he hath not yet subscribed this:
  2. Where your Majesty demands that the King of France, having any occasion to write for matter of grant, shall name your Highness in this form, and with this addition, in French, Notre très cher fils Henri, Roi d’Angleterre, Héritier de France; and thus in Latin, Praeclarissimus filius noster Henricus, Rex Angliae, et Heres Franciae.

French King

314 - 315
  1. Nor this I have not, brother, so denied,
  2. But your request shall make me let it pass.

King Henry the Fifth

316 - 318
  1. I pray you then, in love and dear alliance,
  2. Let that one article rank with the rest,
  3. And thereupon give me your daughter.

French King

319 - 326
  1. Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up
  2. Issue to me, that the contending kingdoms
  3. Of France and England, whose very shores look pale
  4. With envy of each other’s happiness,
  5. May cease their hatred; and this dear conjunction
  6. Plant neighborhood and Christian-like accord
  7. In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance
  8. His bleeding sword ’twixt England and fair France.

English Lords

327
  1. Amen!

King Henry the Fifth

328 - 329
  1. Now welcome, Kate; and bear me witness all,
  2. That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen.
  1. Flourish.

Queen Isabel

330 - 339
  1. God, the best maker of all marriages,
  2. Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one!
  3. As man and wife, being two, are one in love,
  4. So be there ’twixt your kingdoms such a spousal,
  5. That never may ill office, or fell jealousy,
  6. Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage,
  7. Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms,
  8. To make divorce of their incorporate league;
  9. That English may as French, French Englishmen,
  10. Receive each other. God speak this Amen!

All

340
  1. Amen!

King Henry the Fifth

341 - 345
  1. Prepare we for our marriage; on which day,
  2. My Lord of Burgundy, we’ll take your oath,
  3. And all the peers’, for surety of our leagues.
  4. Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me,
  5. And may our oaths well kept and prosp’rous be!
  1. Sennet. Exeunt.
Marriage of Henry V of England to Catherine of Valois

Marriage of Henry V of England to Catherine of Valois

Unknown artist, circa 1494

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