KING HENRY V Fair Katharine, and most...

KING HENRY V

Fair Katharine, and 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?

KATHARINE

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

KING HENRY V

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?

KATHARINE

Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is 'like me.'

KING HENRY V

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

KATHARINE

Que dit-il? que je suis semblable a les anges?

ALICE

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

KING HENRY V

I said so, dear Katharine; and I must not blush to

affirm it.

KATHARINE

O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines de

tromperies.

KING HENRY V

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

deceits: dat is de princess.

KING HENRY V

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 thou 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 bargain: how say you, lady?

KATHARINE

Sauf votre honneur, me understand vell.

KING HENRY V

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

have no strength in measure, yet a reasonable

measure in strength. If I could win a lady at

leap-frog, or 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.

Or if I might buffet for my love, or bound my horse

for her favours, I could lay on like a butcher and

sit like a jack-an-apes, 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,

nor 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 to thee 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

livest, 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 these fellows of infinite tongue, that

can rhyme themselves into ladies' favours, 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 grow

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; and take me, take a soldier; take a soldier,

take a king. And what sayest thou then to my love?

speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee.

KATHARINE

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

KING HENRY V

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 is France and you are mine.

KATHARINE

I cannot tell vat is dat.

KING HENRY V

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. Je 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 votre est

France et vous etes 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 French,

unless it be to laugh at me.

KATHARINE

Sauf votre honneur, le Francois que vous parlez, il

est meilleur que l'Anglois lequel je parle.

KING HENRY V

No, faith, is't not, Kate: but thy speaking of my

tongue, and I thine, most truly-falsely, must needs

be granted to be much at one. But, Kate, dost thou

understand thus much English, canst thou love me?

KATHARINE

I cannot tell.

KING HENRY V

Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll ask

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, gentle 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 George, compound a

boy, half French, half English, that shall go to

Constantinople and take the Turk by the beard?

shall we not? what sayest thou, my fair

flower-de-luce?

KATHARINE

I do not know dat

KING HENRY V

No; 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promise: do

but now promise, Kate, you will endeavour 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 Katharine du monde, mon tres cher

et devin deesse?

KATHARINE

Your majestee ave fausse French enough to deceive de

most sage demoiselle dat is en France.

KING HENRY V

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 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

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, if thou wear me, better and better:

and therefore tell me, most fair Katharine, 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 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 Harry

Plantagenet is thine;' who though 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, Katharine, break thy mind to me in broken

English; wilt thou have me?

KATHARINE

Dat is as it sall please de roi mon pere.

KING HENRY V

Nay, it will please him well, Kate it shall please

him, Kate.

KATHARINE

Den it sall also content me.

KING HENRY V

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

KATHARINE

Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez: ma foi, je

ne veux point que vous abaissiez votre grandeur en

baisant la main d'une de votre seigeurie indigne

serviteur; excusez-moi, je vous supplie, mon

tres-puissant seigneur.

KING HENRY V

Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.

KATHARINE

Les dames et demoiselles pour etre baisees devant

leur noces, il n'est pas la coutume de France.

KING HENRY V

Madam my interpreter, what says she?

ALICE

Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of

France,--I cannot tell vat is baiser en Anglish.

KING HENRY V

To kiss.

ALICE

Your majesty entendre bettre que moi.

KING HENRY V

It is not a fashion for the maids in France to kiss

before they are married, would she say?

ALICE

Oui, vraiment.

KING HENRY V

O 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 our

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.

[Kissing her]

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.