The Life of King Henry the Fifth

    French council; and they should sooner persuade Henry ofEngland    than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father.

Enter the FRENCH POWER and the 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, howperfectly 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 lovein    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 appearnaked    and blind. Can you blame her, then, being a maid yet ros'dover    with the virgin crimson of modesty, if she deny theappearance 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 notwhat    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 willteach    her to know my meaning; for maids well summer'd and warm keptare    like flies at Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their    eyes; and then they will endure handling, which before wouldnot    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, andshe    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 formy    blindness, who cannot see many a fair French city for onefair    French maid that stands in my way.  FRENCH KING. Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, thecities    turned into a maid; for they are all girdled with maidenwalls    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 maywait    on her; so the maid that stood in the way for my wish shallshow    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, havingany    occasion to write for matter of grant, shall name yourHighness    in this form and with this addition, in French, Notre trescher    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