Henry V, Modern text based on the Folio

¶Catherine Your majesty shall mock at me. I cannot speak ¶your England.

¶King Henry Oh, fair Catherine, if you will love me soundly 3095with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you ¶confess it brokenly with your English tongue. Do you ¶like me, Kate?

¶Catherine Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell wat is "like me."

¶King Henry An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an 3100angel.

¶Catherine [To Alice] Que dit-il? Que je suis semblable à les anges?

¶Alice Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grâce, ainsi dit-il.

¶King Henry I said so, dear Catherine, and I must not blush ¶to affirm it.

3105Catherine O bon Dieu, les langues des hommes sont pleines de ¶tromperies!

¶King Henry [To Alice] What says she, fair one? That the tongues of ¶men are full of deceits?

¶Alice Oui, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of 3110deceits. Dat is de princess.

¶King Henry 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 3115thou 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 3120bargain. How say you, lady?

¶Catherine Sauf votre honneur, me understand well.

¶King Henry 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 3125have no strength in measure, yet a reasonable measure in ¶strength. If I could win a lady at leapfrog, or by ¶vaulting into my saddle with my armor on my back -- ¶under the correction of bragging be it spoken -- I should ¶quickly leap into a wife. Or if I might buffet for my 3130love or bound my horse for her favors, I could lay on ¶like a butcher and sit like a jackanapes, never off. But ¶before God, Kate, I cannot look greenly, nor gasp out ¶my eloquence, nor I have no cunning in protestation, ¶only downright oaths, which I never use till urged, 3135nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a fellow ¶of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth ¶sunburning, 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, 3140take 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 he perforce must do thee right, ¶because he hath not the gift to woo in other places. For 3145these fellows of infinite tongue, that can rhyme themselves ¶into ladies' favors, they do always reason themselves ¶out again. What! A speaker is but a prater, a rhyme is ¶but a ballad, a good leg will fall, a straight back will ¶stoop, a black beard will turn white, a curled pate will 3150grow 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. 3155An take me, take a soldier. Take a soldier, take a king. ¶And what say'st thou then to my love? Speak, my fair, ¶and fairly, I pray thee.

¶Catherine Is it possible dat I sould love de enemy of ¶France?

3160King Henry No, it is not possible you should love the ¶enemy of France, Kate, but in loving me you should 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 3165is France, and you are mine.

¶Catherine I cannot tell wat is dat.

¶King Henry 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. 3170Je quand sur le possession de France, et quand vous avez le ¶possession de moi -- let me see, what then? Saint Denis be ¶my speed! -- donc vôtre est France, et vous êtes mienne. ¶It is as easy for me, Kate, to conquer the kingdom as to ¶speak so much more French. I shall never move thee in 3175French unless it be to laugh at me.

¶Catherine Sauf votre honneur, le fran√ßais que vous parlez, il ¶est meilleur que l'anglais lequel je parle.

¶King Henry No, faith, is't not, Kate; but thy speaking of ¶my tongue and I thine, most truly falsely, must 3180needs be granted to be much at one. But Kate, dost ¶thou understand thus much English? Canst thou love ¶me?

¶Catherine I cannot tell.

¶King Henry Can any of your neighbors tell, Kate? I'll 3185ask 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, 3190gentle princess, because I love thee cruelly. If ever thou ¶beest mine, Kate, as I have a 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 Saint Denis and Saint 3195George, compound a boy, half French, half English, ¶that shall go to Constantinople and take the Turk by ¶the beard? Shall we not? What say'st thou, my fair ¶flower-de-luce?

¶Catherine I do not know dat.

3200King Henry No, 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promise. ¶Do but now promise, Kate, you will endeavor for your ¶French part of such a boy, and for my English moiety, ¶take the word of a king and a bachelor. How answer ¶you, la plus belle Catherine du monde, mon très cher et divin 3205déesse?

¶Catherine Your majesty 'ave fausse French enough to ¶deceive de most sage demoiselle dat is en France.

¶King Henry Now fie upon my false French! By mine honor, ¶in true English, I love thee, Kate; by which honor I dare 3210not 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 created with a 3215stubborn 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 3220the worst; and thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, ¶better and better. And therefore tell me, most fair ¶Katherine, will you have me? Put off your maiden blushes. ¶Avouch the thoughts of your heart with the looks of ¶an empress. Take me by the hand and say, "Harry of 3225England, 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, though I speak it before his ¶face, if he be not fellow with the best king, thou shalt 3230find 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, Catherine, ¶break thy mind to me in broken English: wilt thou ¶have me?

3235Catherine Dat is as it shall please de roi mon père.

¶King Henry Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall please ¶him, Kate.

¶Catherine Den it sall also content me.

¶King Henry Upon that I kiss your hand, and I call you my 3240queen.

¶Catherine Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez! Ma foi, je ne ¶veux point que vous abaissez votre grandeur en baisant le ¶main d'une de votre seigneurie indigne serviteure. Excusez-moi, je ¶vous supplie, mon très puissant seigneur.

3245King Henry Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.

¶Catherine Les dames et demoiselles, pour être baisées devant ¶leurs noces, il n'est pas la coutume de France.

¶King Henry Madam my interpreter, what says she?

¶Alice Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of 3250France -- I cannot tell wat is baiser en Anglish.

¶King Henry To kiss.

¶Alice Your majesty entend bettre que moi.

¶King Henry It is not a fashion for the maids in France to ¶kiss before they are married, would she say?

3255Alice Oui, vraiment.

¶King Henry Oh, Kate, nice customs curtsy 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 3260our places stops the mouth 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 -- [Kisses her] You have witchcraft in your lips, ¶Kate. There is more eloquence in a sugar touch of 3265them 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.

¶Burgundy God save your majesty. My royal cousin, ¶teach you our princess English?

¶King Henry I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how ¶perfectly I love her, and that is good English.

3275Burgundy Is she not apt?

¶King Henry 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 3280likeness.

¶Burgundy 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 3285blame 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.

3290King Henry Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind ¶and enforces.

¶Burgundy They are then excused, my lord, when they see ¶not what they do.

¶King Henry Then good my lord, teach your cousin to 3295consent winking.

¶Burgundy 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 3300they will endure handling, which before would not abide ¶looking on.

¶King Henry 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.

3305Burgundy As love is, my lord, before it loves.

¶King Henry 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.

3310French King Yes, my lord, you see them ¶perspectively, the cities turned into a maid, for they are ¶all girdled with maiden walls that no war hath ¶entered.

¶King Henry Shall Kate be my wife?

3315French King So please you.

¶King Henry 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.

3320French King We have consented to all terms of ¶reason.

¶King Henry Is't so, my lords of England?

¶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 3330addition, in French: Notre très cher fils Henri, Roi d'Angleterre, ¶héritier de France; and thus in Latin: Praecarissimus ¶filius noster Henricus, Rex Angliae et Haeres Franciae.