Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met.

2989Unto our brother France and to our sister,

2990Health and fair time of day. Joy and good wishes

2991To our most fair and princely cousin Catherine.

2992And as a branch and member of this royalty,

2993By whom this great assembly is contrived,

2994We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy.

2995And princes French, and peers, health to you all.

Right joyous are we to behold your face,

2997Most worthy brother England; fairly met.

2998So are you, princes English, every one.

So happy be the issue, brother England,

3000Of this good day and of this gracious meeting

3001As we are now glad to behold your eyes --

3002Your eyes which hitherto have borne 3003in them

Against the French that met them in their bent

3004The fatal balls of murdering basilisks.

3005The venom of such looks, we fairly hope,

3006Have lost their quality, and that this day

3007Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.

To cry amen to that, thus we appear.

You English princes all, I do salute you.

My duty to you both, on equal love.

3011Great kings of France and England, that I have labored

3012With all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavors,

3013To bring your most imperial majesties

3014Unto this bar and royal interview,

3015Your mightiness on both parts best can witness.

3016Since, then, my office hath so far prevailed

3017That face to face and royal eye to eye

3018You have congreeted, let it not disgrace me

3019If I demand before this royal view

3020What rub or what impediment there is

3021Why that the naked, poor, and mangled peace,

3022Dear nurse of arts, plenties, and joyful births,

3023Should not in this best garden of the world,

3024Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?

3025Alas, she hath from France too long been chased,

3026And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,

3027Corrupting in it own fertility.

3028Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,

3029Unprunèd, dies. Her hedges even-pleached,

3030Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair,

3031Put forth disordered twigs. Her fallow leas

3032The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory

3033Doth root upon, while that the colter rusts

3034That should deracinate such savagery.

3035The even mead that erst brought sweetly forth

3036The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover,

3037Wanting the scythe, withal uncorrected, rank,

3038Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems

3039But hateful docks, rough thistles, kexes, burrs,

3040Losing both beauty and utility,

3041And all our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges,

3042Defective in their natures, grow to wildness.

3043Even so our houses, and ourselves, and children

3044Have lost, or do not learn for want of time

3045The sciences that should become our country,

3046But grow like savages -- as soldiers will

3047That nothing do but meditate on blood --

3048To swearing and stern looks, diffused attire,

3049And everything that seems unnatural.

3050Which to reduce into our former favor,

3051You are assembled, and my speech entreats

3052That I may know the let why gentle peace

3053Should not expel these inconveniences

3054And bless us with her former qualities.

If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace

3056Whose want gives growth to th'imperfections

3057Which you have cited, you must buy that peace

3058With full accord to all our just demands,

3059Whose tenors and particular effects

3060You have enscheduled briefly in your hands.

The king hath heard them, to the which as yet

3062There is no answer made.

Well then, the peace

Which you before so urged 3064lies in his answer.

I have but with a curselary eye

3066O'erglanced the articles. Pleaseth your grace

3067To appoint some of your council presently

3068To sit with us once more, with better heed

3069To re-survey them, we will suddenly

3070Pass our accept and peremptory answer.

Brother, we shall. -- Go, uncle Exeter,

3072And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester,

3073Warwick, and Huntingdon, go with the king,

3074And take with you free power to ratify,

3075Augment, or alter as your wisdoms best

3076Shall see advantageable for our dignity,

3077Anything in or out of our demands,

3078And we'll consign thereto. [To Queen Isabeau] Will you, fair sister,

3079Go with the princes, or stay here with us?

Our gracious brother, I will go with them.

3081Haply a woman's voice may do some good

3082When articles too nicely urged be stood on.

Yet leave our cousin Catherine here with us.

3084She is our capital demand, comprised

3085Within the forerank of our articles.

She hath good leave.

Fair Catherine, and most fair,

3089Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms

3090Such as will enter at a lady's ear

3091And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?

Your majesty shall mock at me. I cannot speak 3093your England.

Oh, fair Catherine, if you will love me soundly 3095with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you 3096confess it brokenly with your English tongue. Do you 3097like me, Kate?

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

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

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

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

I said so, dear Catherine, and I must not blush 3104to affirm it.

O bon Dieu, les langues des hommes sont pleines de 3106tromperies!

[To Alice] What says she, fair one? That the tongues of 3108men are full of deceits?

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

The princess is the better Englishwoman. 3112I'faith, Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding. I am 3113glad thou canst speak no better English, for if thou 3114couldst, thou wouldst find me such a plain king that 3115thou wouldst think I had sold my farm to buy my 3116crown. I know no ways to mince it in love, but 3117directly to say "I love you." Then if you urge me farther 3118than to say, "Do you in faith?", I wear out my suit. Give 3119me your answer, i'faith do, and so clap hands and a 3120bargain. How say you, lady?

Sauf votre honneur, me understand well.

Marry, if you would put me to verses or to 3123dance for your sake, Kate, why you undid me. For the one 3124I have neither words nor measure, and for the other I 3125have no strength in measure, yet a reasonable measure in 3126strength. If I could win a lady at leapfrog, or by 3127vaulting into my saddle with my armor on my back -- 3128under the correction of bragging be it spoken -- I should 3129quickly leap into a wife. Or if I might buffet for my 3130love or bound my horse for her favors, I could lay on 3131like a butcher and sit like a jackanapes, never off. But 3132before God, Kate, I cannot look greenly, nor gasp out 3133my eloquence, nor I have no cunning in protestation, 3134only downright oaths, which I never use till urged, 3135nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a fellow 3136of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth 3137sunburning, that never looks in his glass for love of 3138anything he sees there, let thine eye be thy cook. I speak 3139to 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 3141for thy love, by the Lord, no. Yet I love thee too. And 3142while thou liv'st, dear Kate, take a fellow of plain and 3143uncoined constancy, for he perforce must do thee right, 3144because he hath not the gift to woo in other places. For 3145these fellows of infinite tongue, that can rhyme themselves 3146into ladies' favors, they do always reason themselves 3147out again. What! A speaker is but a prater, a rhyme is 3148but a ballad, a good leg will fall, a straight back will 3149stoop, a black beard will turn white, a curled pate will 3150grow bald, a fair face will wither, a full eye will wax 3151hollow; but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the 3152moon, or rather the sun and not the moon, for it 3153shines bright and never changes, but keeps his course 3154truly. If thou would have such a one, take me. 3155An take me, take a soldier. Take a soldier, take a king. 3156And what say'st thou then to my love? Speak, my fair, 3157and fairly, I pray thee.

Is it possible dat I sould love de enemy of 3159France?

No, it is not possible you should love the 3161enemy of France, Kate, but in loving me you should love 3162the friend of France, for I love France so well that I 3163will not part with a village of it; I will have it all mine. 3164And Kate, when France is mine and I am yours, then yours 3165is France, and you are mine.

I cannot tell wat is dat.

No, Kate? I will tell thee in French, which I am 3168sure will hang upon my tongue like a new-married wife 3169about her husband's neck, hardly to be shook off. 3170Je quand sur le possession de France, et quand vous avez le 3171possession de moi -- let me see, what then? Saint Denis be 3172my speed! -- donc vôtre est France, et vous êtes mienne. 3173It is as easy for me, Kate, to conquer the kingdom as to 3174speak so much more French. I shall never move thee in 3175French unless it be to laugh at me.

Sauf votre honneur, le francais que vous parlez, il 3177est meilleur que l'anglais lequel je parle.

No, faith, is't not, Kate; but thy speaking of 3179my tongue and I thine, most truly falsely, must 3180needs be granted to be much at one. But Kate, dost 3181thou understand thus much English? Canst thou love 3182me?

I cannot tell.

Can any of your neighbors tell, Kate? I'll 3185ask them. Come, I know thou lovest me, and at night 3186when you come into your closet you'll question this 3187gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will to 3188her dispraise those parts in me that you love with your 3189heart. But good Kate, mock me mercifully, the rather, 3190gentle princess, because I love thee cruelly. If ever thou 3191beest mine, Kate, as I have a saving faith within me tells 3192me thou shalt, I get thee with scambling, and thou 3193must therefore needs prove a good soldier-breeder. 3194Shall not thou and I, between Saint Denis and Saint 3195George, compound a boy, half French, half English, 3196that shall go to Constantinople and take the Turk by 3197the beard? Shall we not? What say'st thou, my fair 3198flower-de-luce?

I do not know dat.

No, 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promise. 3201Do but now promise, Kate, you will endeavor for your 3202French part of such a boy, and for my English moiety, 3203take the word of a king and a bachelor. How answer 3204you, la plus belle Catherine du monde, mon très cher et divin 3205déesse?

Your majesty 'ave fausse French enough to 3207deceive de most sage demoiselle dat is en France.

Now fie upon my false French! By mine honor, 3209in true English, I love thee, Kate; by which honor I dare 3210not swear thou lovest me, yet my blood begins to 3211flatter me that thou dost, notwithstanding the poor and 3212untempering effect of my visage. Now beshrew my 3213father's ambition! He was thinking of civil wars 3214when he got me, therefore was I created with a 3215stubborn outside, with an aspect of iron, that when I come 3216to woo ladies I fright them. But in faith, Kate, the 3217elder I wax, the better I shall appear. My comfort is that 3218old age, that ill layer-up of beauty, can do no more 3219spoil upon my face. Thou hast me, if thou hast me, at 3220the worst; and thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, 3221better and better. And therefore tell me, most fair 3222Catherine, will you have me? Put off your maiden blushes. 3223Avouch the thoughts of your heart with the looks of 3224an empress. Take me by the hand and say, "Harry of 3225England, I am thine." Which word thou shalt no sooner 3226bless mine ear withal but I will tell thee aloud 3227"England is thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, and Henry 3228Plantagenet is thine," who, though I speak it before his 3229face, if he be not fellow with the best king, thou shalt 3230find the best king of good fellows. Come, your 3231answer in broken music, for thy voice is music and 3232thy English broken. Therefore, queen of all, Catherine, 3233break thy mind to me in broken English: wilt thou 3234have me?

Dat is as it shall please de roi mon père.

Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall please 3237him, Kate.

Den it sall also content me.

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

Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez! Ma foi, je ne 3242veux point que vous abaissez votre grandeur en baisant le 3243main d'une de votre seigneurie indigne serviteure. Excusez-moi, je 3244vous supplie, mon très puissant seigneur.

Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.

Les dames et demoiselles, pour être baisées devant 3247leurs noces, il n'est pas la coutume de France.

Madam my interpreter, what says she?

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

To kiss.

Your majesty entend bettre que moi.

It is not a fashion for the maids in France to 3254kiss before they are married, would she say?

Oui, vraiment.

Oh, Kate, nice customs curtsy to great kings. 3257Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confined within the 3258weak list of a country's fashion. We are the 3259makers of manners, Kate, and the liberty that follows 3260our places stops the mouth of all find-faults, as I 3261will do yours for upholding the nice fashion of your 3262country in denying me a kiss, therefore patiently, 3263and yielding -- [Kisses her] You have witchcraft in your lips, 3264Kate. There is more eloquence in a sugar touch of 3265them than in the tongues of the French council, and 3266they should sooner persuade Harry of England than a 3267general petition of monarchs. Here comes your 3268father.

God save your majesty. My royal cousin, 3272teach you our princess English?

I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how 3274perfectly I love her, and that is good English.

Is she not apt?

Our tongue is rough, coz, and my 3277condition is not smooth, so that having neither the voice nor 3278the heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up 3279the spirit of love in her that he will appear in his true 3280likeness.

Pardon the frankness of my mirth if I answer 3282you for that. If you would conjure in her, you must 3283make a circle. If conjure up love in her in his true 3284likeness, he must appear naked and blind. Can you 3285blame her then, being a maid yet rosed over with the 3286virgin crimson of modesty, if she deny the appearance 3287of a naked blind boy in her naked seeing self? It were, 3288my lord, a hard condition for a maid to consign 3289to.

Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind 3291and enforces.

They are then excused, my lord, when they see 3293not what they do.

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

I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you 3297will teach her to know my meaning. For maids well 3298summered and warm kept are like flies at 3299Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their eyes, and then 3300they will endure handling, which before would not abide 3301looking on.

This moral ties me over to time and a hot 3303summer, and so I shall catch the fly, your cousin, in 3304the latter end, and she must be blind too.

As love is, my lord, before it loves.

It is so. And you may, some of you, thank 3307love for my blindness, who cannot see many a fair 3308French city for one fair French maid that stands in my 3309way.

Yes, my lord, you see them 3311perspectively, the cities turned into a maid, for they are 3312all girdled with maiden walls that no war hath 3313entered.

Shall Kate be my wife?

So please you.

I am content, so the maiden cities you 3317talk of may wait on her. So the maid that stood in 3318the way for my wish shall show me the way to my 3319will.

We have consented to all terms of 3321reason.

Is't so, my lords of England?

The king hath granted every article:

3324His daughter first, and in sequel, all,

3325According to their firm proposèd natures.

Only he hath not yet subscribèd this:

3327where your majesty demands that the king of France, 3328having any occasion to write for matter of grant, shall 3329name your highness in this form and with this 3330addition, in French: Notre très cher fils Henri, Roi d'Angleterre, 3331héritier de France; and thus in Latin: Praecarissimus 3332filius noster Henricus, Rex Angliae et Haeres Franciae.

Nor this I have not, brother, so denied

3334But your request shall make me let it pass.

I pray you then in love and dear alliance,

3336Let that one article rank with the rest,

3337And thereupon give me your daughter.

Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up

3339Issue to me, that the contending kingdoms

3340Of France and England, whose very shores look pale

3341With envy of each other's happiness,

3342May cease their hatred, and this dear conjunction

3343Plant neighborhood and Christian-like accord

3344In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance

3345His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France.

Amen.

Now welcome, Kate, and bear me witness all

3348That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen.

God, the best maker of all marriages,

3351Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one.

3352As man and wife, being two, are one in love,

3353So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal

3354That never may ill office or fell jealousy,

3355Which troubles oft the bed of blessèd marriage,

3356Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms

3357To make divorce of their incorporate league,

3358That English may as French, French Englishmen,

3359Receive each other. God speak this amen.

Amen.

Prepare we for our marriage; on which day,

3362My lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath,

3363And all the peers', for surety of our leagues.

3364Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me,

3365And may our oaths well kept and prosp'rous be.