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

9    Right joyous are we to behold your face,
10   Most worthy brother England; fairly met:
11   So are you, princes English, every one.

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

21   To cry amen to that, thus we appear.

22   You English princes all, I do salute you.

23   My duty to you both, on equal love,
24   Great Kings of France and England! That I have labour'd,
25   With all my wits, my pains and strong endeavours,
26   To bring your most imperial majesties
27   Unto this bar and royal interview,
28   Your mightiness on both parts best can witness.
29   Since then my office hath so far prevail'd
30   That, face to face and royal eye to eye,
31   You have congreeted, let it not disgrace me,
32   If I demand, before this royal view,
33   What rub or what impediment there is,
34   Why that the naked, poor and mangled Peace,
35   Dear nurse of arts and joyful births,
36   Should not in this best garden of the world
37   Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?
38   Alas, she hath from France too long been chased,
39   And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,
40   Corrupting in its own fertility.
41   Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,
42   Unpruned dies; her hedges even-pleach'd,
43   Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair,
44   Put forth disorder'd twigs; her fallow leas
45   The darnel, hemlock and rank fumitory
46   Doth root upon, while that the coulter rusts
47   That should deracinate such savagery;
48   The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth
49   The freckled cowslip, burnet and green clover,
50   Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,
51   Conceives by idleness and nothing teems
52   But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs,
53   Losing both beauty and utility.
54   And as our vineyards, fallows, meads and hedges,
55   Defective in their natures, grow to wildness,
56   Even so our houses and ourselves and children
57   Have lost, or do not learn for want of time,
58   The sciences that should become our country;
59   But grow like savages,--as soldiers will
60   That nothing do but meditate on blood,--
61   To swearing and stern looks, diffused attire
62   And every thing that seems unnatural.
63   Which to reduce into our former favour
64   You are assembled: and my speech entreats
65   That I may know the let, why gentle Peace
66   Should not expel these inconveniences
67   And bless us with her former qualities.

68   If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace,
69   Whose want gives growth to the imperfections
70   Which you have cited, you must buy that peace
71   With full accord to all our just demands;
72   Whose tenors and particular effects
73   You have enscheduled briefly in your hands.

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

76   Well then the peace,
77   Which you before so urged, lies in his answer.

78   I have but with a cursorary eye
79   O'erglanced the articles: pleaseth your grace
80   To appoint some of your council presently
81   To sit with us once more, with better heed
82   To re-survey them, we will suddenly
83   Pass our accept and peremptory answer.

84   Brother, we shall. Go, uncle Exeter,
85   And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester,
86   Warwick and Huntingdon, go with the king;
87   And take with you free power to ratify,
88   Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best
89   Shall see advantageable for our dignity,
90   Any thing in or out of our demands,
91   And we'll consign thereto. Will you, fair sister,
92   Go with the princes, or stay here with us?

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

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

99   She hath good leave.

100  Fair Katharine, and most fair,
101  Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms
102  Such as will enter at a lady's ear
103  And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?

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

105  O fair Katharine, if you will love me soundly with
106  your French heart, I will be glad to hear you
107  confess it brokenly with your English tongue. Do
108  you like me, Kate?

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

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

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

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

113  I said so, dear Katharine; and I must not blush to
114  affirm it.

115  O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines de
116  tromperies.

117  What says she, fair one? that the tongues of men
118  are full of deceits?

119  Oui, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of
120  deceits: dat is de princess.

121  The princess is the better Englishwoman. I' faith,
122  Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding: I am
123  glad thou canst speak no better English; for, if
124  thou couldst, thou wouldst find me such a plain king
125  that thou wouldst think I had sold my farm to buy my
126  crown. I know no ways to mince it in love, but
127  directly to say 'I love you:' then if you urge me
128  farther than to say 'do you in faith?' I wear out
129  my suit. Give me your answer; i' faith, do: and so
130  clap hands and a bargain: how say you, lady?

131  Sauf votre honneur, me understand vell.

132  Marry, if you would put me to verses or to dance for
133  your sake, Kate, why you undid me: for the one, I
134  have neither words nor measure, and for the other, I
135  have no strength in measure, yet a reasonable
136  measure in strength. If I could win a lady at
137  leap-frog, or by vaulting into my saddle with my
138  armour on my back, under the correction of bragging
139  be it spoken. I should quickly leap into a wife.
140  Or if I might buffet for my love, or bound my horse
141  for her favours, I could lay on like a butcher and
142  sit like a jack-an-apes, never off. But, before God,
143  Kate, I cannot look greenly nor gasp out my
144  eloquence, nor I have no cunning in protestation;
145  only downright oaths, which I never use till urged,
146  nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a
147  fellow of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth
148  sun-burning, that never looks in his glass for love
149  of any thing he sees there, let thine eye be thy
150  cook. I speak to thee plain soldier: If thou canst
151  love me for this, take me: if not, to say to thee
152  that I shall die, is true; but for thy love, by the
153  Lord, no; yet I love thee too. And while thou
154  livest, dear Kate, take a fellow of plain and
155  uncoined constancy; for he perforce must do thee
156  right, because he hath not the gift to woo in other
157  places: for these fellows of infinite tongue, that
158  can rhyme themselves into ladies' favours, they do
159  always reason themselves out again. What! a
160  speaker is but a prater; a rhyme is but a ballad. A
161  good leg will fall; a straight back will stoop; a
162  black beard will turn white; a curled pate will grow
163  bald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax
164  hollow: but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the
165  moon; or, rather, the sun, and not the moon; for it
166  shines bright and never changes, but keeps his
167  course truly. If thou would have such a one, take
168  me; and take me, take a soldier; take a soldier,
169  take a king. And what sayest thou then to my love?
170  speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee.

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

172  No; it is not possible you should love the enemy of
173  France, Kate: but, in loving me, you should love
174  the friend of France; for I love France so well that
175  I will not part with a village of it; I will have it
176  all mine: and, Kate, when France is mine and I am
177  yours, then yours is France and you are mine.

178  I cannot tell vat is dat.

179  No, Kate? I will tell thee in French; which I am
180  sure will hang upon my tongue like a new-married
181  wife about her husband's neck, hardly to be shook
182  off. Je quand sur le possession de France, et quand
183  vous avez le possession de moi,--let me see, what
184  then? Saint Denis be my speed!--donc votre est
185  France et vous etes mienne. It is as easy for me,
186  Kate, to conquer the kingdom as to speak so much
187  more French: I shall never move thee in French,
188  unless it be to laugh at me.

189  Sauf votre honneur, le Francois que vous parlez, il
190  est meilleur que l'Anglois lequel je parle.

191  No, faith, is't not, Kate: but thy speaking of my
192  tongue, and I thine, most truly-falsely, must needs
193  be granted to be much at one. But, Kate, dost thou
194  understand thus much English, canst thou love me?

195  I cannot tell.

196  Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll ask
197  them. Come, I know thou lovest me: and at night,
198  when you come into your closet, you'll question this
199  gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will to
200  her dispraise those parts in me that you love with
201  your heart: but, good Kate, mock me mercifully; the
202  rather, gentle princess, because I love thee
203  cruelly. If ever thou beest mine, Kate, as I have a
204  saving faith within me tells me thou shalt, I get
205  thee with scambling, and thou must therefore needs
206  prove a good soldier-breeder: shall not thou and I,
207  between Saint Denis and Saint George, compound a
208  boy, half French, half English, that shall go to
209  Constantinople and take the Turk by the beard?
210  shall we not? what sayest thou, my fair
211  flower-de-luce?

212  I do not know dat

213  No; 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promise: do
214  but now promise, Kate, you will endeavour for your
215  French part of such a boy; and for my English moiety
216  take the word of a king and a bachelor. How answer
217  you, la plus belle Katharine du monde, mon tres cher
218  et devin deesse?

219  Your majestee ave fausse French enough to deceive de
220  most sage demoiselle dat is en France.

221  Now, fie upon my false French! By mine honour, in
222  true English, I love thee, Kate: by which honour I
223  dare not swear thou lovest me; yet my blood begins to
224  flatter me that thou dost, notwithstanding the poor
225  and untempering effect of my visage. Now, beshrew
226  my father's ambition! he was thinking of civil wars
227  when he got me: therefore was I created with a
228  stubborn outside, with an aspect of iron, that, when
229  I come to woo ladies, I fright them. But, in faith,
230  Kate, the elder I wax, the better I shall appear:
231  my comfort is, that old age, that ill layer up of
232  beauty, can do no more, spoil upon my face: thou
233  hast me, if thou hast me, at the worst; and thou
234  shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and better:
235  and therefore tell me, most fair Katharine, will you
236  have me? Put off your maiden blushes; avouch the
237  thoughts of your heart with the looks of an empress;
238  take me by the hand, and say 'Harry of England I am
239  thine:' which word thou shalt no sooner bless mine
240  ear withal, but I will tell thee aloud 'England is
241  thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, and Harry
242  Plantagenet is thine;' who though I speak it before
243  his face, if he be not fellow with the best king,
244  thou shalt find the best king of good fellows.
245  Come, your answer in broken music; for thy voice is
246  music and thy English broken; therefore, queen of
247  all, Katharine, break thy mind to me in broken
248  English; wilt thou have me?

249  Dat is as it sall please de roi mon pere.

250  Nay, it will please him well, Kate it shall please
251  him, Kate.

252  Den it sall also content me.

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

254  Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez: ma foi, je
255  ne veux point que vous abaissiez votre grandeur en
256  baisant la main d'une de votre seigeurie indigne
257  serviteur; excusez-moi, je vous supplie, mon
258  tres-puissant seigneur.

259  Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.

260  Les dames et demoiselles pour etre baisees devant
261  leur noces, il n'est pas la coutume de France.

262  Madam my interpreter, what says she?

263  Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of
264  France,--I cannot tell vat is baiser en Anglish.

265  To kiss.

266  Your majesty entendre bettre que moi.

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

269  Oui, vraiment.

270  O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great kings. Dear
271  Kate, you and I cannot be confined within the weak
272  list of a country's fashion: we are the makers of
273  manners, Kate; and the liberty that follows our
274  places stops the mouth of all find-faults; as I will
275  do yours, for upholding the nice fashion of your
276  country in denying me a kiss: therefore, patiently
277  and yielding.
Kissing her
278  You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate: there is
279  more eloquence in a sugar touch of them than in the
280  tongues of the French council; and they should
281  sooner persuade Harry of England than a general
282  petition of monarchs. Here comes your father.

283  God save your majesty! my royal cousin, teach you
284  our princess English?

285  I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how
286  perfectly I love her; and that is good English.

287  Is she not apt?

288  Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition is not
289  smooth; so that, having neither the voice nor the
290  heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up
291  the spirit of love in her, that he will appear in
292  his true likeness.

293  Pardon the frankness of my mirth, if I answer you
294  for that. If you would conjure in her, you must
295  make a circle; if conjure up love in her in his true
296  likeness, he must appear naked and blind. Can you
297  blame her then, being a maid yet rosed over with the
298  virgin crimson of modesty, if she deny the
299  appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked seeing
300  self? It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid
301  to consign to.

302  Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind and enforces.

303  They are then excused, my lord, when they see not
304  what they do.

305  Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to consent winking.

306  I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will
307  teach her to know my meaning: for maids, well
308  summered and warm kept, are like flies at
309  Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their
310  eyes; and then they will endure handling, which
311  before would not abide looking on.

312  This moral ties me over to time and a hot summer;
313  and so I shall catch the fly, your cousin, in the
314  latter end and she must be blind too.

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

316  It is so: and you may, some of you, thank love for
317  my blindness, who cannot see many a fair French city
318  for one fair French maid that stands in my way.

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

322  Shall Kate be my wife?

323  So please you.

324  I am content; so the maiden cities you talk of may
325  wait on her: so the maid that stood in the way for
326  my wish shall show me the way to my will.

327  We have consented to all terms of reason.

328  Is't so, my lords of England?

329  The king hath granted every article:
330  His daughter first, and then in sequel all,
331  According to their firm proposed natures.

332  Only he hath not yet subscribed this:
333  Where your majesty demands, that the King of France,
334  having any occasion to write for matter of grant,
335  shall name your highness in this form and with this
336  addition in French, Notre trescher fils Henri, Roi
337  d'Angleterre, Heritier de France; and thus in
338  Latin, Praeclarissimus filius noster Henricus, Rex
339  Angliae, et Haeres Franciae.

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

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

345  Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up
346  Issue to me; that the contending kingdoms
347  Of France and England, whose very shores look pale
348  With envy of each other's happiness,
349  May cease their hatred, and this dear conjunction
350  Plant neighbourhood and Christian-like accord
351  In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance
352  His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France.

353  Amen!

354  Now, welcome, Kate: and bear me witness all,
355  That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen.

356  God, the best maker of all marriages,
357  Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one!
358  As man and wife, being two, are one in love,
359  So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal,
360  That never may ill office, or fell jealousy,
361  Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage,
362  Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms,
363  To make divorce of their incorporate league;
364  That English may as French, French Englishmen,
365  Receive each other. God speak this Amen!

366  Amen!

367  Prepare we for our marriage--on which day,
368  My Lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath,
369  And all the peers', for surety of our leagues.
370  Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me;
371  And may our oaths well kept and prosperous be!