who, though I speak it before his face, if he be not fellow with the best king, thou shalt find the best king of goodfellows. Come, your answer in broken mufic; for thy voice is mufic, and thy English broken: therefore, "queen of all, Katharine, break thy mind to me in broken Englifh, Wilt thou have me?

Kath. Dat is, as it fhall please de roy mon pere.

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

Kath. Den it fhall also content me.

K. Henry. Upon that I kifs your hand, and I call youmy queen.

Kath. Laiffez, mon feigneur, laiffez, laiffez: ma foy, je ne veux point que vous abbaissez votre grandeur, en baifant la main d'une voftre indigne ferviteure; excufez moy, je vous fupplie, mon tres puissant seigneur.

K. Henry. Then I will kifs your lips, Kate.

Kath. Les dames, & damofelles, pour eftre baifees devant leur nopces, il n'eft pas le coûtume de France.

K. Henry. Madam my interpreter, what says she? Lady. Dat it is not be de fashion pour de ladies of France,-I cannot tell what is, baiser, en English. K. Henry. To kiss.

Lady. Your majesty entendre bettre que moy.

K. Henry. It is not a fashion for the maids in France to kifs before they are married, would she say?

Lady. Ouy, vrayment.

1

K. Henry. O, Kate, nice cuftoms curt'fy to great kings.. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confin'd within the weak lift of a country's fashion: we are the makers of manners, Kate; and the liberty, that follows our places, ftops the mouth of all find-faults; as I will do yours, for uphold

queen of all Katharines.

ing the nice fashion of your country, in denying me a kiss: therefore, patiently, and yielding-[kiffing her.] You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate: there is more eloquence in a fugar touch of them, than in the tongues of the French council; and they should fooner perfuade Harry of England, than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father.

Enter the French king and queen, with French and Englife lords.

Burg. God fave your majefty! my royal coufin, teach you our princess English?

K. Henry. I would have her learn, my fair coufin, how perfectly I love her; and that is good English.

Burg. Is fhe not apt?

K. Henry. Our tongue is rough, coz'; and my "condition is not fmooth: fo 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.

Burg. Pardon the franknefs 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 blame her then, being a maid yet rofy'd over with the virgin crimson of modefty, if fhe deny the appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked feeing felf? It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to confign to.

K. Henry. Yet they do wink, and yield; as love is blind, and enforces.

Burg. They are then excus'd, my lord, when they fee not what they do.

K. Henry. Then, good my lord, teach your coufin to confent to winking.

Burg. I will wink on her to confent, my lord, if you will teach her to know my meaning: for maids, well fummer'd and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomewtide, blind, though they have their eyes; and then they will endure handling, which before would not abide looking on.

K. Henry. This moral ties me over to time, and a hot fummer; and so I shall catch the fly, your coufin, in the latter end, and she must be blind too.

Burg. As love is, my lord, before it loves.

K. Henry. It is fo: and you may, fome 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.

Fr. King. Yes, my lord, you fee them perfpectively, the cities turn'd into a maid; for they are all girdled with maiden walls, that war hath never enter'd.

K. Henry. Shall Kate be my wife?

Fr. King. So please you.

K. Henry. I am content; fo the maiden cities you talk of, may wait on her: fo the maid, that ftood in the way of my wish, shall shew me the way to my will.

Fr. King. We have consented to all terms of reafon.
K. Henry. Is't fo, my lords of England?
Weft. The king hath granted every article:
His daughter, firft; and then in fequel all,
According to their firm propofed natures.

Exe. Only, he hath not yet fubfcribed this:

Where

your majefty demands,―That the king of France, having occafion to write for matter of grant, fhall name

any

This moral]-The application of your fimile.

P for matter of grant,]—in his edicts, or charters,

your

your highness in this form, and with this addition, in French :-Notre tres cher filz Henry roy d' Angleterre, beretier de France: and thus in Latin,- Præclariffimus filius. nofter Henricus, rex Angliæ, & hæres Franciæ.

Fr. King. Yet this I have not, brother, fo deny'd, But your request shall make me let it pass.

K. Henry. I pray you then, in love and dear alliance, Let that one article rank with the rest:

And, thereupon, give me your daughter.

Fr. King. Take her, fair fon; and from her blood raise up

Iffue to me that the contending kingdoms

Of France and England, whofe very fhores look pale
With envy of each other's happiness,

May cease their hatred; and this dear conjunction
Plant neighbourhood and chriftian-like accord

In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance

His bleeding fword 'twixt England and fair France.
All. Amen!

K. Henry. Now welcome, Kate:-and bear me witnefs all, That here I kiss her as my fovereign queen.

[Flourish.

2. Ifa. God, the best maker of all marriages,
Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one!
As man and wife, being two, are one in love,
So be there 'twixt your kingdoms fuch a spousal,
That never may ill office, or fell jealousy,
Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage,
Thruft in between 'the paction of these kingdoms,
To make divorce of their incorporate league;
That English may as French, French Englishmen,
Receive each other!-God fpeak this Amen!
All. Amen!

Percariffimus.

the paction]—the harmony, mutual agreement.

K. Henry.

K. Henry. Prepare we for our marriage:-on which day, My lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath, And all the peers, for furety of our leagues.Then fhall I fwear to Kate,-and you to me ;And may our oaths well kept and profp'rous be!

Enter Chorus.

Thus far, with rough, and all unable pen,
Our bending author hath purfu'd the story;
In little room confining mighty men,

[Exeunt.

'Mangling by ftarts the full course of their glory, Small time, but, in that small, most greatly liv'd

This ftar of England: fortune made his sword; By which the world's best garden he atchiev❜d, And of it left his fon imperial lord.

Henry the fixth, in infant bands crown'd king

Of France and England, did this king succeed; Whose state so many had the managing,

That they loft France, and made his England bleed : Which oft our stage hath fhown; and, "for their fake, In your fair minds let this acceptance take.

bending]-beneath the weight of his fubject, fuppliant. Mangling by farts]-by defcanting only upon select parts. "their fake-the fake of the three parts, or plays of HENRY VI. which had been performed feven years before HENRY V, was written,

ERRATUM.

Page 11, note f, (for Charlechauve-or the bald Charlemain.) read Charlechauve]-Charles the bald-Charlemain.