that thou would'st 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 further 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?

6

Kath. Sauf vostre honneur, me understand well.

K. Hen. 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 leap-frog, 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

phin, who represents him as fitter for a ball-room than the field, and tells him that he is not to revel into duchies, or win provinces with a nimble galliard. The truth is, that the poet's matter failed him in the fifth Act, and he was glad to fill it up with whatever he could get; and not even Shakspeare can write well without a proper subject. It is a vain endeavour for the most skilful hand to cultivate barrenness, or to paint upon vacuity. Johnson.

Our author, I believe, was led imperceptibly by the old play to give this representation of Henry, and meant probably, in this speech at least, not to oppose the soldier to the lover, but the plain, honest Englishman, to the less sincere and more talkative Frenchman. In the old King Henry V, quarto, 1598, the corresponding speech stands thus:

"Hen. Tush Kate, but tell me in plain terms, "Canst thou love the king of England?

"I cannot do as these countries [perhaps counties, i. e. noblemen] do,

"That spend half their time in wooing:

"Tush, wench, I am none such;

"But wilt thou go over to England?"

The subsequent speech, however, "Marry, if you would put me to verses," &c. fully justifies Dr. Johnson's observation.

6

n. 8.

Malone.

and so clap hands, and a bargain:] See Vol. VI, p. 171, Reed.

7 -no strength in measure,] i. e. in dancing. So, in As you Like it:

"I am for other than for dancing measures."

The word measure, signifying a stately dance so called, occurs in Much Ado about Nothing, King Henry VIII, and other plays of our author.

Steevens.

8

like a butcher, and sit like a jack-an-apes, never off: but, before God, 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 sun-burning, that never looks in his glass for love of any thing 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 livest, 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 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

8

look greenly,] i. e. like a young lover, awkwardly. The same adverb occurs in Hamlet:

and we have done but greenly, "In hugger-mugger to inter him

Steevens.

9 I speak to thee plain soldier:] Similar phraseology has already occurred in King John:

"He speaks plain cannon, fire, and smoke, and bounce;" See Vol. VII, p. 326. Steevens.

1 — take a fellow of plain and uncoined constancy;] i. e. A constancy in the ingot, that hath suffered no alloy, as all coined metal has. Warburton.

I believe this explanation to be more ingenious than true; to coin is to stamp and to counterfeit. He uses it in both senses; uncoined constancy signifies real and true constancy, unrefined and unadorned. Fohnson.

"Uncoined constancy," resembling a plain piece of metal that has not yet received any impression. Katharine was the first woman that Henry had ever loved. A. C.

-fall; —] i. e. shrink, fall away. Steevens.

sayest thou then to my love? speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee.

Kath. Is it possible dat I should love de enemy of France! 3

K. Hen. 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.

Kath. I cannot tell vat is dat.

K. Hen. 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. Quand j'ay la possession de France, & quand vous avez le possession de moi, (let me see, what then? Saint Dennis be my speed!)-donc vostre est France, & vous estes 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. Kath. Sauf vostre honneur, le François que vous parlez, est meilleur que l'Anglois lequel je parle.

K. Hien. 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? Kath. I cannot tell.

K. Hen. 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

4

3 Is it possible dat I should love de enemy of France?] So, in the anonymous play of The famous Victories of Henry the Fifth: "Kate. How should I love thee, which is my father's enemie?" Steevens.

with scambling,] i. e. scrambling. See Dr. Percy's note

in the first scene of this play, p. 203. Steevens.

thou must therefore needs prove a good soldier-breeder: Shall not thou and I. between Saint Dennis 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 sayest thou, my fair flowerde-luce?

Kath. I do not know dat.

K. Hen. 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 tres chere et divine deesse?

Kath. Your majesté 'ave fausse French enough to deceive de most sage damoiselle dat is en France.

K. Hen. Now, fy 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 be. gins to flatter me that thou dost, notwithstanding the poor and untempering effects 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 aspéct 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

5

go to Constantinople,] Shakspeare has here committed an anachronism. The Turks were not possessed of Constantinople before the year 1453, when Henry V had been dead thirty-one years. Theobald.

6 untempering effect-] Certainly untempting. Warburton. Untempering I believe to have been the poet's word. The sense is, I conceive, that you love me, notwithstanding my face has no power to temper, i. e. soften you to my purpose:

nature made you

"To temper man -.' Otway.

So again, in Titus Andronicus, which may, at least, be quoted as the work of an author contemporary with Shakspeare:

"And temper him with all the art I have."

Again, in King Henry IV, Part II: "I have him already tempering between my thumb and finger -" Steevens.

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 sayHarry 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 musick; for thy voice is musick, and thy English broken: therefore, queen of all, Katharine, break thy mind to me in broken English, Wilt thou have me?

Kath. Dat is, as it shall please de roy mon pere.

K. Hen. Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall please him, Kate.

Kath. Den it shall also content me.

K. Hen. Upon that I will kiss your hand, and I call you-my queen.

Kath. Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez: ma foy, je ne veux point que vous abbaissez vostre grandeur, en baisant la main d'une vostre indigne serviteure; excusez moy, je vous supplie, mon tres puissant seigneur.

K. Hen. Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.

Kath. Les dames, & damoiselles, pour estre baiseés devant leur nopces, il n'est pas le coûtume de France.

K. Hen. Madam, my interpreter, what says she? Alice. Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of France, I cannot tell what is, baiser, en English. K. Hen. To kiss.

Alice. Your majesty entendre bettre que moy.

K. Hen. It is not the fashion for the maids in France to kiss before they are married, would she say?

Alice. Ouy, vrayment.

K. Hen. O, Kate, nice customs curt'sy 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 mouths of all find-faults; as I will do yours, for upholding the nice fashion of your country, in denying me

7- weak list] i. e. slight barrier. So, in Othello: "Confine yourself within a patient list." Steevens, I i

VOL. IX.