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 ros'd over
with the
virgincrimson 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 excus'd, 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 summer'd 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 ent'red.
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 proposed natures.
EXETER. Only he hath not yet subscribed 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 tres cher
fils Henri, Roi d'Angleterre, Heritier 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 our 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 Christian-like accord
In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance
His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France.
LORDS. Amen!
KING HENRY. Now,
welcome, Kate; and bear me
witness all,
That here I kiss her as my
sovereign queen. [Floulish]
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
blessed 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 prosp'rous be!
Sennet. Exeunt
EPILOGUE
EPILOGUE.
Enter CHORUS
CHORUS. Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen,
Our bending author hath pursu'd 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 crown'd 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
-THE END-
.