網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

Kath. Your Majefty fhall mock at me, I cannot speak your England.

K. Henry. O fair Katharine, if you will love me foundly with your French Heart, I will be glad to hear you confels it brokenly with your English Tongue. Do you like me, Kate? Kath. Pardonnez moy, I cannot tell vat is like me.

K. Henry. An Angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an Angel.

Kath. Que dit-il, que je fuis femblable à les Anges?
Lady. Ouy verament (Jauf voftre Grace) ainfi dit-il.

K. Henry. I faid fo, dear Katharine, and I must not blufh to affirm it.

Kath. O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes font plein de tromperies.

K. Henry. What fays fhe, fair One? that Tongues of Men are full of Deceits?

Lady. Ouy, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of deceits: dat is de Princefs.

K. Henry. The Princefs is the better English Woman; i'faith Kate, my wooing is fit for thy Understanding, I am glad thou canft fpeak no better English, for if thou could'ft, thou woul'ft find me fuch a plain King, that thou would'st think, I had fold my Farm to buy my Crown. I know no ways to mince it in Love, but directly to fay, I love you; then if you urge me farther, than to fay, Do you in faith? I wear out my fuit: Give me your anf ver, i'faith do, and fo clap Hands, and a Bargain; how fay you, Lady?

Kath. Sauf voftre konneur, me understand well.

K. Henry Marry, if you would put me to Verses, or to Dance for your fake, Kate, why you undid me; for the one, I have neither words nor measure; and for the other, I have no ftrength in measure, yet a reasonable measure in ftrength. If I could win a Lady at leap-frog, or by vault. ing into my Saddle, with my Armour on my Back; under the correction of Bragging be it fpoken, I fhould quickly leap into a Wife: Or if I might buffet for my Love, or bound my Horse for her Favours, I could lay on like a Butcher, and fit like a Jack-an-Apes, never off. But before God, Kate, I cannot look greenly, nor gafp out my Eloquence, nor I have no cunning in Proteftation; only down

H 3

right

right Oaths, which I never ufe till urg'd, nor never break for urging. If thou canft love a Fellow of this Temper, Kate, whofe Face is not worth Sun-burning; that never looks in his Glafs, for love of any thing he fees there; let thine Eye be thy Cook. 1 fpeak thee plain Soldier; if thou canst love me for this, take me; if not, to say to thee that I fhall dye, is true; but for thy love, by the Lord, No: yet I love thee too: And while thou liv'ft, dear Kate, take a Fellow of plain and uncoined Conftancy, for he perforce muft do thee right, because he hath not the gift to woo in other places: For thefe Fellows of infinite Tongue, that can Rhime themselves into Ladies Favours, they do always reason themselves out again. What? a Speaker is but a Prater, a Rhime is but a Ballad; a good Leg will fall, a ftraight Back will ftoop, a black Beard will turn white, a curl'd Pate will grow bald, a fair Face will wither, a full Eye will wax hollow; but a good Heart, Kate, is the Sun and the Moon, or rather the Sun, and not the Moon; for it fhines bright, and never changes, but keeps his course truly. If thou would'st have such a one, take me; and take me, take a Soldier; take a Soldier, take a King: And what fay'ft thou then to my Love? speak my fair, and fairly, I pray thee.

Kath. Isit poffible dat I fould love de Enemy of France? K. Harry. No, it is not poffible that you fhould love the Eremy of France, Kate; but in loving me. you fhould love the Friend of France; for I love France fo 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 vhat is dat.

K. Henry. No, Kate? I will tell thee in French, which I am fure will hang upon my Tongue, like a new Married Wife about her Husband's Neck, hardly to be fhook off: Je quand fur le poffeffion de France, & quand vous aves le poffeffion de moy (Let me fee, what then? Saint Dennis be my Speed) Donc voftre eft France, & vous eftes mienne. It is as ealie for me, Kate, to conquer the Kingdom, as to speak fo much more French: I fhall never move thee in French, unless it be to laugh at me.

Kath,

Kath. Sauf voftre honneur, le François que vous parlez, il· eft melieur quel' Anglois le quel je parle.

K. Henry. No faith is't not, Kate; but thy freaking of my Tongue, and I thine, moft truly falfly, muft needs be granted to be much at one. But, Kate, doft thou under itand thus much English? Can't thou love me?

Kath. I cannot tell.

K. Henry. Can any of your Neighbours tell, Kate? I'l ask them. Come, I know thou loveft me; and at night, when you come into your Closet, you'll queftion this Gentlewoman about me; and I know, Kate, you will to her dif praise those parts in me, that you love with your Heart; but, good Kate, mock me mercifully, the rather, gentle Princefs, because I love thee cruelly. If ever thou beeft mine, Kate, as I have faving Faith within me tells me, thou shalt; I get thee with scambling, and thou must therefore needs prove a good Soldier-breeder: Shall not thou and I hetween Saint Dennis and St. George, compound a Boy, half French, half English, that fhall go to Conftantinople, and take the Turk by the Beard. Shall we not? what fay'st thou, my fair Flower-de-Luce?

Kath. I do not know dat.

K. Henry. No; 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promife; do but now promife, Kate, you will endeavour for your French part of fuch a Boy; and for my English moiety, take the word of a King, and a Batchelor. How anfwer you, La plus belle Katherine du monde mon tres chere & divine deeffe.

Kath. Your Majestee ave fause Frenche enough to deceive de most fage Damoifel dat is en France.

K. Henry. Now fie upon my falfe French; by mine Honour, in true English, I love thee, Kate; by which Honour I dare not swear thou loveft me, yet my blood begins to flatter me, that thou do'ft notwithstanding the poor and untempering effect of my Vifage. Now befhrew my Father's Ambition, he was thinking of Civil Wars, when he got me, therefore was I created with a ftubborn outfide, with an afpect of Iron, that when I come to woo Ladies, I fright them; but in faith, Kate, the elder Iwax, the better I fhall appear, My comfort is, that Old Age, that ill layer up of Beauty,

H 4

Beauty, can do no more fpoil upon my Face. Thou haft me, if thou haft me, at the worst; and thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and better; and therefore tell me, moft fair Katherine, will you have me? Put off your Maiden Blushes, avouch the Thoughts of your Heart with the Looks of an Emprefs, take me by the Hand, and say, Harry of England, I am thine; which word thou fhalt no fooner blefs 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 fpeak it before his Face, if he be not Fellow with the best King, thou shalt find the beft King of Good-fellows. Come, your Anfwer in broken Mufick; for thy Voice is Mufick, and thy English broken: Therefore Queen of all, Katherine, break thy mind to me in broken English, wilt thou have me? Kath. Dat is as it fhall please le roy mon pere.

K. Henry. Nay, it will pleafe him well, Kate; it fhall pleafe him, Kate.

Kath. Den it fhall alfo content me.

K. Henry. Upon that I kifs your Hand, and I call you my Queen.

Kath. Laiffez mon Seigneur, laiffez, laiffez, may foy: Fene veus point que vous abbaissez vostre grandeur, en baifant le main d'une voftre, Seigneur, indignie ferviteur, excufez moy. Je vous fupplie mon tref-puiffant Seigneur.

K. Henry. Then I will kifs your Lips, Kate.

Kath. Les Dames and Damoifels pour eftre baifée devant leur nopces il n'e't pas le Coutume de France.

K.Henry. Madam, my Interpreter, what says she? Lady. Dat it is not be de fafhion pour le Ladies of France ; I cannot tell what is buiffe en English.

K. Henry. To kifs.

Lady. Your Majesty 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. Ouy verayment.

K. Henry. O Kate, nice Customs curt'fie to great Kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confin'd within the weak Lift of a Country's fafhion; we are the makers of Manners,Kate ;

and

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 Sugar 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 Power, and the English Lords. Burg. God fave your Majefty, my Royal Coufin, teach you our Princess 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, Coz, and my condition is not fmooth; fo that having neither the Voice nor the Heart of Hatred about me, I cannot fo conjure up the fpirit of Love in her, that he will appear in his true likenefs.

muft

Burg, Pardon the franknefs of my Mirth, if I anfwer 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 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 appearance of a naked blind Boy in her naked feeing felf? It were, my Lord, a hard Condition for a Maid to confign to.

[ocr errors]

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 Coufin 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 Summer'd, and warm kept, are like Flies at Bartholomew-tyde, 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 Summer;

H 5

« 上一頁繼續 »