Troyes in Champagne. The French King's Palace.
 Enter, at one door, KING HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD, GLOUCESTER, WARWICK,
 CLARENCE, WESTMORELAND, and other LORDS;
 at another, QUEEN ISABEL, the FRENCH KING, Princess KATHARINE, ALICE,
 and other FRENCH; the DUKE OF BURGUNDY and his TRAIN.

King Henry	Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met!
	Unto our brother France, and to our sister,
	Health and fair time of day. Joy and good wishes
	To our most fair and princely cousin Katharine;
	And, as a branch and member of this royalty,
	By whom this great assembly is contrived,
	We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy;
	And, princes French, and peers, health to you all.

French King	Right joyous are we to behold your face,
	Most worthy brother England, fairly met.
	So are you, princes English, every one.

Queen Isabel	So happy be the issue, brother England,
	Of this good day and of this gracious meeting,
	As we are now glad to behold your eyes-
	Your eyes which hitherto have borne in them
	Against the French, that met them in their bent,
	The fatal balls of murdering basilisks.
	The venom of such looks we fairly hope
	Have lost their quality, and that this day
	Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.

King Henry	To cry amen to that, thus we appear.

Queen Isabel	You English princes all, I do salute you.

Burgundy	My duty to you both, on equal love,
	Great Kings of France and England. That I have laboured
	With all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavours,
	To bring your most imperial majesties
	Unto this bar and royal interview,
	Your mightiness on both parts best can witness.
	Since, then, my office hath so far prevailed
	That face to face and royal eye to eye
	You have congreeted, let it not disgrace me
	If I demand, before this royal view,
	What rub or what impediment there is
	Why that the naked, poor, and mangled peace,
	Dear nurse of arts, plenties, and joyful births,
	Should not in this best garden of the world,
	Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?
	Alas, she hath from France too long been chased,
	And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,
	Corrupting in it own fertility.
	Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,
	Unprund dies; her hedges even-pleached,
	Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair,
	Put forth disordered twigs; her fallow leas
	The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory
	Doth root upon, while that the coulter rusts
	That should deracinate such savagery.
	The even mead that erst brought sweetly forth
	The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover,
	Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,
	Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems
	But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burrs,
	Losing both beauty and utility;
	And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges,
	Defective in their natures, grow to wildness,
	Even so our houses and ourselves and children
	Have lost, or do not learn for want of time,
	The sciences that should become our country,
	But grow like savages, as soldiers will
	That nothing do but meditate on blood,
	To swearing and stern looks, diffused attire,
	And everything that seems unnatural.
	Which to reduce into our former favour
	You are assembled; and my speech entreats
	That I may know the let why gentle peace
	Should not expel these inconveniences,
	And bless us with her former qualities.

King Henry	If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace
	Whose want gives growth to th' imperfections
	Which you have cited, you must buy that peace
	With full accord to all our just demands,
	Whose tenors and particular effects
	You have, enscheduled briefly, in your hands.

Burgundy	The king hath heard them; to the which as yet
	There is no answer made.

King Henry								Well then, the peace
	Which you before so urged lies in his answer.

French King	I have but with a cursitory eye
	O'erglanced the articles. Pleaseth your grace
	To appoint some of your Council presently
	To sit with us once more, with better heed
	To resurvey them, we will suddenly
	Pass our accept and peremptory answer.

King Henry	Brother, we shall. Go, uncle Exeter,
	And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester,
	Warwick, and Huntingdon, go with the king;
	And take with you free power to ratify,
	Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best
	Shall see advantageable for our dignity,
	Anything in or out of our demands,
	And we'll consign thereto. Will you, fair sister,
	Go with the princes or stay here with us?

Queen Isabel	Our gracious brother, I will go with them.
	Haply a woman's voice may do some good
	When articles too nicely urged be stood on.

King Henry	Yet leave our cousin Katharine here with us:
	She is our capital demand, comprised
	Within the fore-rank of our articles.

Queen Isabel	She hath good leave.
													[Exeunt.

                 Manet KING HENRY, KATHARINE, and ALICE.

King Henry							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	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 wat is 'like me'.

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

Katharine	Que dit-il? Que je suis semblable  les anges?

Alice	Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grce, ainsi dit-il.

King Henry	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	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	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 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 have 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 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 
	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, nor 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, 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 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 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 
	sayst 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	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 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. 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 vtre est France, et vous tes 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 Franais 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 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	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 be'st 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 sayst thou, my fair 
	flower-de-luce?

Katharine	I do not know dat.

King Henry	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 trs cher et divin desse?

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

King Henry	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 Henry 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 shall please de roi mon pre.

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

Katharine	Den it sall also content me.

King Henry	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 seigneurie indigne serviteur. Excusez-
	moi, je vous supplie, mon trs puissant seigneur.

King Henry	Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.

Katharine	Les dames et demoiselles pour tre baises devant leur 
	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 France - I 
	cannot tell wat is baiser en Anglish.

King Henry	To kiss.

Alice	Your majesty entendre bettre que moi.

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

Alice	Oui, vraiment.

King Henry	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.
													[Kisses 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.

 Re-enter the FRENCH KING, QUEEN ISABEL, BURGUNDY, EXETER, WESTMORELAND,
                    and the FRENCH and ENGLISH LORDS.

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.

Burgundy	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 likeness.

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 blame 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.

King 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 consent 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 they 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.

Burgundy	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.

French King	Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively: the cities 
	turned into a maid; for they are all girdled with maiden 
	walls that war hath never entered.

King Henry	Shall Kate be my wife?

French 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.

French King	We have consented to all terms of reason.

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

Westmoreland	The king hath granted every article:
	His daughter first, and then in sequel all,
	According to their firm proposd natures.

Exeter	Only he hath not yet subscribd this:
	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 addition - in French: 
	Notre trs cher fils Henri, Roi d'Angleterre, Hritier de 
	France - and thus in Latin: Praeclarissimus filius noster 
	Henricus, Rex Angliae, et Haeres Franciae.

French King	Nor this I have not, brother, so denied,
	But your request shall make me let it pass.

King Henry	I pray you then, in love and dear alliance,
	Let that one article rank with the rest;
	And thereupon give me your daughter.

French King	Take her, fair son; and from her blood raise up
	Issue to me, that the contending kingdoms
	Of France and England, whose very shores look pale
	With envy of each other's happiness,
	May cease their hatred, and this dear conjunction
	Plant neighbourhood and Christianlike accord
	In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance
	His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France.

All	Amen!

King Henry	Now welcome, Kate; and bear me witness all,
	That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen.
													[Flourish.
Queen Isabel	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 such a spousal
	That never may ill office or fell jealousy,
	Which troubles oft the bed of blessd marriage,
	Thrust 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 speak this "Amen"!

All	Amen!

King Henry	Prepare we for our marriage; on which day,
	My Lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath,
	And all the peers', for surety of our leagues.
	Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me;
	And may our oaths well kept and prosperous be!
													[Sennet. Exeunt.


                              Enter CHORUS.

Chorus	Thus far with rough and all-unable pen
		Our bending author hath pursued the story,
	In little room confining mighty men,
		Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.
	Small time, but in that small most greatly lived
		This star of England. Fortune made his sword,
	By which the world's best garden he achieved,
		And of it left his son imperial lord.
	Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crowned King
		Of France and England, did this king succeed,
	Whose state so many had the managing
		That they lost France and made his England bleed;
	Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake,
	In your fair minds let this acceptance take.
													[Exit.
