A

K. Henry. Madam my interpreter, what fays fhe? Lady. Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of France; I cannot tell, what is baiffer en English.

K. Henry. To kiss.

Lady. Your Majefty entendre bettre que moy.

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

Lady. Oui vrayement.

K. Henry. O Kate, nice cuftoms curt'fy to greatKings. 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 the upholding the nice fashion of your country in denying me a kifs: therefore, patiently and yielding. [Kiffing her.] You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate; there is more eloquence in a touch of them, than in the tongues of the French Council; and they fhould fooner perfuade Harry of England, than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father.

Enter the French King and Queen, with French and Eng

Burg.

G

lith Lords.

OD fave your Majefty! my royal coufin, teach you our Princefs English?

K. Henry. I would have her learn, my fair coufin, how perfectly I love her, and that is good English. Burg. Is fhe apt?

K. Henry. Our tongue is rough, and my condition is not smooth; fo that having neither the voice nor the heart of flattery about me, I cannot fo conjure up the fpirit of love in her, that he will appear in his true

likeness.

Burg. Pardon the franknefs of my mirth, if I anfwer you for that. If you would conjure in her, you

muft

must make a circle: if conjure up love in her in his true likeness, he muft appear naked and blind. Can you blame her then, being a maid yet ros'd over with the virgin crimson of modefty, if the deny the pearance of a naked blind boy, in her naked seeking felf? it were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to confign to.

ap

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 cousin to confent to winking.

Burg. I will wink on her to confent, my lord, if you will teach her to know my meaning. Maids, well fummer'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.

K. Henry. This moral ties me over to time, and a hot fummer; and fo 1 fhall 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 fee 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 food in the way for my wifh, fhall fhew me the way to my

will.

Fr. King. We have confented to all terms of reafon.
K. Heury. Is't fo, my lords of England?

Weft.

Weft. The King hath granted every article: His daughter firft; and then in sequel all, According to their firm propofed nature.

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 your Highnefs in this form, and with this addition in French: notre tres cher filz Henry Roy d'Angleterre, hereties de France: and thus in Latin; Præcariffimus filius nofter Henricus Rex Angle et hæres Francia.

Tr. King. Yet this have I not (brother) fo deny'd, But your request shall make me let it pafs.

K. Henry. I pray you then, in love and dear alli

ance,

Let that one article rank with the reft,

And thereupon give me your daughter.

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

Iffue to me; that these contending Kingdoms,
England and France, whofe very fhores look pale
With envy of each other's happiness,

May ceafe their hatred; and this dear conjunction
Plant neighbourhood and chriftian-like accord
In their fweet breafts; that never war advance
His bleeding fword 'twixt England and fair France.
Lords. Amen!

K. Henry. Now welcome, Kate; and bear me witnefs all,

That here I kifs her as my fovereign Queen. [Flourish.
Q. 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 such a spoufal,
That never may ill office, or fell jealoufy,
Which troubles oft the bed of bleffed marriage,
Thruft in between the paction of thefe kingdoms,
To make divorce of their incorporate league:

That

That English may as French, French Englishmen,
Receive each other. God speak this Amen!

All. Amen!

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.

[Exeunt.

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

Mangling by ftarts the full courfe of their glory, Small time, but, in that fmall, moft greatly liv'd This Star of England. Fortune made his fword; By which the world's beft garden he atchiev'd,

And of it left his fon imperial lord..

Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd King

Of France and England, did this King fucceed: Whofe ftate fo many had i'th' managing,

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