Act5 Scene1

France: I haue but with a curselarie eye O're-glanc't the Articles: Pleaseth your Grace To appoint some of your Councell presently To sit with vs once more, with better heed

To re-suruey them; we will suddenly Passe our accept and peremptorie Answer.

King: Yet leaue our Cousin Katherine here with vs, She is our capitall Demand, compris'd Within the fore-ranke of our Articles.

King: Faire Katherine, and most faire, Will you vouchsafe to teach a Souldier tearmes, Such as will enter at a Ladyes eare, And pleade his Loue-suit to her gentle heart.

Katherine:Your Maiestie shall mock at me, I cannot speake / your England.

King: O faire Katherine, if you will loue me soundly / with your French heart, I will be glad to heare you confesse / it brokenly with your English Tongue. Doe you / like me, Kate?

Katherine:Pardonne moy, I cannot tell wat is like me.

King :An Angell is like you Kate, and you are like an / Angell.

Katherine: Que dit il que Ie suis semblable a les Anges? Lady: Ouy verayment (sauf vostre Grace) ainsi dit il.

King:I said so, deare Katherine, and I must not blush / to affirme it.

Katherine: O bon Dieu, les langues des hommes sont plein de / tromperies.

King: What sayes she, faire one? that the tongues of / men are full of deceits? Lady. Ouy, dat de tongeus of de mans is be full of deceits: / dat is de Princesse.

King: The Princesse is the better English-woman: / yfaith Kate, my wooing is fit for thy vnderstanding, I am / glad thou canst speake no better English, for if thou / could'st,

thou would'st finde me such a plaine King, that / thou wouldst thinke, I had sold my Farme to buy my / Crowne. I know no wayes to mince it in loue, but directly / to say, I loue you: then if you vrge me farther, / then to say, Doe you in faith?

I weare out my suite: Giue / me your answer, yfaith doe, and so clap hands, and a bargaine: / how say you, Lady?

Katherine: Sauf vostre honeur, me vnderstand well.

King: I speake / to thee plaine Souldier: If thou canst loue me for this, / take me? if not? to say to thee that I shall dye, is true; but / for thy loue, by the L. No: yet I loue thee too. And / while thou liu'st, deare Kate, take a fellow of plaine and / vncoyned Constancie, for he perforce must do thee right, / because he hath not the gift to wooe in other places: for / these fellowes of infinit tongue, that can ryme themselues / into Ladyes fauours, they doe alwayes reason themselues / out againe.

take me; take a Souldier: take a Souldier; take a King.

Katherine:Is it possible dat I sould loue de ennemie of / Fraunce?

King: No, it is not possible you should loue the Enemie / of France, Kate; but in louing me, you should loue / the Friend of France: for I loue France so well, that I / will not part with a Village of it; I will haue it all mine: / and Kate, when France is mine, and I am yours; then yours / is France, and you are mine.

Katherine: I cannot tell wat is dat.

King: No, Kate? I will tell thee in French, which I am / sure will hang vpon my tongue,

like a new-married Wife / about her Husbands Necke, hardly to be shooke off; Ie / quand sur le possession de Fraunce, & quand vous aues le possession / de moy,

(Let mee see, what then? Saint Dennis bee / my speede)

Donc vostre est Fraunce, & vous estes mienne. / It is as easie for me, Kate, to conquer the Kingdome, as to / speake so much more French: I shall neuer moue thee in / French, vnlesse it be to laugh at me.

Katherine: Sauf vostre honeur, le Francois ques vous parleis, il / & melieus que l'Anglois le quel Ie parle.

King: No faith is't not, Kate: but thy speaking of / my Tongue, and I thine, most truely falsely, must / needes be graunted to be much at one. But Kate, doo'st / thou vnderstand thus much English? Canst thou loue / mee? Katherine: I cannot tell.

King: Can any of your Neighbours tell, Kate? Ile / aske them.

Come, I know thou louest me: and at night, / when you come into your Closet, you'le question this / Gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will to / her disprayse those parts in me, that you loue with your / heart:

but good Kate, mocke me mercifully, the rather / gentle Princesse, because I loue thee cruelly. If euer thou / beest mine, Kate, as I haue a sauing Faith within me tells / me thou shalt;

King: Now fye vpon my false French: by mine Honor / in true English, I loue thee Kate;

by which Honor, I dare / not sweare thou louest me, yet my blood begins to flatter / me, that thou doo'st;

notwithstanding the poore and / vntempering effect of my Visage.

Now beshrew my / Fathers Ambition, hee was thinking of Ciuill Warres / when hee got me, therefore was I created with a stubborne / out-side, with an aspect of Iron, that when I come / to wooe Ladyes, I fright them: but in faith Kate, the elder / I wax, the better I shall appeare. My comfort is, that / Old Age, that ill layer vp of Beautie, can doe no more / spoyle vpon my Face. Thou hast me, if thou hast me, at / the worst; and thou shalt weare me, if thou weare me, / better and better: and therefore tell me, most faire Katherine, / will you haue me?

Katherine: Dat is as it shall please de Roy mon pere. King: Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall please / him, Kate. Katherine: Den it sall also content me.

King: Vpon that I kisse your Hand, and I call you my / Queene.

Katherine: Laisse mon Seigneur, laisse, laisse, may foy: Ie ne / veus point que vous abbaisse vostre grandeus, en baisant le / main d'une nostre Seigneur indignie seruiteur excuse moy. Ie / vous supplie mon tres-puissant Seigneur.

King: Then I will kisse your Lippes, Kate. Katherine:Les Dames & Damoisels pour estre baisee deuant / leur nopcese il net pas le costume de Fraunce.

King: Madame, my Interpreter, what sayes shee?

Lady: Dat it is not be de fashon pour le Ladies of / Fraunce; I cannot tell wat is buisse en Anglish.

King: It is not a fashion for the Maids in Fraunce to / kisse before they are marryed, would she say? / Lady: Ouy verayment.

King: O Kate, nice Customes cursie to great Kings. / Deare Kate, you and I cannot bee confin'd within the / weake Lyst of a Countreyes fashion: wee are the makers / of Manners, Kate;

You haue Witch-craft in your Lippes, / Kate: there is more eloquence in a Sugar touch of / them, then in the Tongues of the French Councell; and / they should sooner perswade Harry of England, then a / generall Petition of Monarchs. Heere comes your / Father.

France: Take her faire Sonne, and from her blood rayse vp Issue to me, that the contending Kingdomes

Of France and England, whose very shoares looke pale,

With enuy of each others happinesse,

May cease their hatred; and this deare Coniunction Plant Neighbour-hood and Christian-like accord

In their sweet Bosomes: that neuer Warre aduance His bleeding Sword 'twixt England and faire France.

Lords: Amen.

King: Now welcome Kate: and beare me witnesse all, That here I kisse her as my Soueraigne Queene.

FINIS.