 | King Henry V. Or The Conquest of France |  |
ACT V.
SCENE I.
The English Camp in France.Enter Fluellen and Gower.
Gower.
Nay, that's right; but why wear you your leek
to-day? St. David's day is past.
Flu.
There is occasions and causes why and wherefore
in all things; I will tell you as a friend, Captain
Gower; the rascally, scauld, beggarly, lowsie, pragging
knave Pistol, which you and yourself and all the
world know to be no petter than a fellow (look you
now) of no merits; he is come to me and prings me
pread and salt, yesterday, look you, and bid me eat
my leek; it was in a place where I could breed no
contentions with him; but I will be so pold as to wear
it in my cap 'till I see him once again, and then I will
tell him a little piece of my desires.
Enter Pistol.
Gow.
Why here he comes, swelling like a turky-cock.
Flu.
'Tis no matter for his swelling, nor his turky-cocks.
God plesse you aunchient Pistol: you scurvy
lowsie knave, God plesse you.
Pist.
Ha! art thou bedlam? dost thou thirst, base Trojan,
To have me fold up Parcas' fatal web?
Hence, I am qualmish at the smell of leek.
Flu.
I peseech you heartily, scurvy lowsie knave, at
my desires and my requests and my petitions, to eat,
love it, and your affections and your appetites and your
digestions does not agree with it; I would desire you
to eat it.
Pist.
Not for Cadwallader and his goats.
Flu.
There is one goat for you,
[Strikes him.
Will you be so good, scald knave, as eat it?
Pist.
Base Trojan thou shalt die.
Flu.
You say very true, scald knave, when God's
will is: I will desire you to live the mean time and eat
your victuals; come, there is sawce for it—
[Strikes
him]
You call'd me yesterday Mountain-Squire, but
I will make you to-day a 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 astonish'd him.
Flu.
I say I will make him eat some part of my leek,
or I will peat his pate four days and four nights. Pite,
I pray you, it is good for your green wound and your
ploody coxcomb.
Pist.
Must I bite?
Flu.
Yes out of doubt and out of questions too, and
ambiguities.
Pist.
By this leek I will most horribly revenge; I eat
and swear—
Flu.
Eat I pray you; will you have some more
sawce to your leek? there is not enough leek to swear
by.
Pist.
Quiet thy cudgel, thou dost see I eat.
Flu.
Much good do you, scald knave, heartily.
Nay, pray you throw none away, the skin is good for
your proken coxcomb; when you take occasion to see
leeks hereafter I pray you mock at 'em, that's all.
Pist.
Good.
Flu.
Ay, leeks is good; hold you, there is a groat
to heal your pate.
Pist.
Me a groat?
Yes verily and in truth you shall take it, or I
have another leek in my pocket which you shall eat.
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 pe wi' you and keep you, and
heal your pate.
[Exit.
Pist.
All hell shall stir for this.
Gow.
Go, go, you are a counterfeit cowardly knave:
will you mock at an ancient tradition, began upon an
honourable respect, and worn as a memorable trophy of
predeceased valour, and dare not avouch in your deeds
any of your words? I have seen you gleeking and galling
at this gentleman twice on 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 you
well.
[Exeunt.
SCENE II.
The French Court at Trois, in Champaigne.Enter King Henry, Exeter, Bedford, and other Lords; meeting the French King, Queen Isabel, Princess Catharine, the Duke of Burgundy, and other French Lords and Ladies.
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 Catharine;
And as a branch and member of this royalty,
By whom this great assembly is contriv'd,
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?
K. Henry.
If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace,
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.
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, lies 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 peremptoty answer.
K. Henry.
Brother, we shall. Go, uncle Exeter,
Cousin of Westmorland, Bedford, and Gloucester,
And take with you free pow'r to ratify,
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 Catharine here with us,
She is our capital demand, compris'd
Within the fore-rank of our articles.
Q. Isa.
She hath good leave.
[Exeunt.
Manent King Henry and Catharine.
K. Henry.
Fair Catharine, 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?
Cath.
Your Majesty shall mock at me, I cannot
speak your England.
K. Henry.
O fair Catharine, if you love me soundly
with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you
like me, Kate?
Cath.
I cannot tell vat is like me.
K. Henry.
An angel is like you, Kate, and you are
like an angel.
Lady.
De tongues of de mans is be full of deceits.
K. Henry.
No faith, Kate, I know no ways to
mince it in love, but directly to say I love you; then
if you urge me further 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?
Cath.
Me understand well.
K. Henry.
Marry if you would put me to verses,
or to dance for your sake, Kate, why you undid me;
If I could win a lady by vaulting into my saddle with
my armour on my back; under the correction of bragging
be it spoken, I should quickly leap into a wife.
But before Heav'n, Kate, I cannot look greenly nor
gasp out my eloquence, nor have I cunning in protestation;
only downright oaths, which I never use 'till
urg'd, and 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
any thing he sees there; let thine eye be thy cook. I
speak 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 liv'st dear Kate, take a fellow of plain
and uncoined constancy, for a good leg will fall, a
straight back will stoop, a black beard will turn white,
but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the moon; or
rather the sun, and not the moon; for it burns bright
and never changes, but keeps his course truly. If
thou would'st have such a one, take me; take me,
take a soldier; take a soldier, take a King: and what
say'st thou then to my love?
Cath.
Is it possible dat I sould love de enemy of
France?
No, it is not possible that you should
love the enemy of France, Kate; but in loving me
you shall love the friend of France; for I love France
so well that I will not part with a village of it: I will
have it all mine: and Kate, when France is mine and
I am yours, then yours is France, and you are mine.
But Kate, dost thou understand thus much English?
canst thou love me?
Cath.
I cannot tell.
K. Henry.
Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate?
Come, I know thou lovest me; and at night when you
come into your closet, you'll question your gentlewomen
about me: and I know, Kate, you will to them
dispraise those parts in me, that you love with your
heart. If ever thou beest mine, Kate, (as I have saving
faith within me 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
St. Dennis and St. George, compound a boy half
French, half English, that shall go to Constantinople
and take the Turk by the beard? shall we not, my
fair Flower de Luce? How answer you, La plus belle
Catharine du monde, mon tres chere & divine deesse.
Cath.
Your Majestee ave fause Frenche enough to
deceive the most sage damoisel dat is en France.
K. Henry.
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 untempting effect of my visage. Now beshrew
my father's ambition, he was thinking of civil
wars when he got me; therefore was I created with a
stubborn outside, with an aspect of iron, that when I
come to woo ladies I fright them; but in faith, Kate,
the elder I wax, the better I shall appear. My comfort
is, that old age (that ill layer up of beauty) can
do no more spoil upon my face. Thou hast me, if
thou hast me, at the worst, and thou shalt wear me,
me, most fair Catharine, will you have me? Put off
you maiden blushes, avouch the thoughts of your
heart with the looks of an Empress, take me by the
hand and say, Harry of England I am thine; which
word thou shalt no sooner bless mine ear withal, but I
will tell thee aloud, England is thine, Ireland is thine,
France is thine, and Henry Plantagenet is thine; who
tho' I speak it before his face, 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 thy English broken: therefore
Queen of all, Catharine, break thy mind to me in
broken English, wilt thou have me?
Cath.
Dat is as it shall please le roy mon pere.
K. Henry.
Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it
shall please him, Kate.
Cath.
Den it shall also content me.
K. Henry.
Upon that I kiss you, and I call you my
Queen.
[Kissing her.]
You have witchcraft in your lips,
Kate; there is more eloquence in a 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, with French and English Lords.
Burg.
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 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.
Shall Kate be my wife?
Fr. King.
So please you.
The King hath granted every article:
His daughter first; and then in sequel all,
According to their firm proposed nature.
Fr. King.
Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up
Issue to me, that these contending kingdoms
England and France, whose very shoars 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.
K. Henry.
Now welcome, Kate; and bear me witness all,
That here I take her as my Sovereign Queen.
Prepare we for our marriage; on which day,
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 Omnes.
| King Henry V. Or The Conquest of France | |