William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition (287 page)
Read William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
Tags: #Drama, #Literary Criticism, #Shakespeare
BOOK: William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition
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CATHERINE I cannot tell vat is dat.
KING HARRY 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.
le quand suis le possesseur de France, et quand vous avez le possession de moi—
let me see, what then? Saint Denis be my speed!—
donc vôtre
est
France
,
et vous êtes 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.
le quand suis le possesseur de France, et quand vous avez le possession de moi—
let me see, what then? Saint Denis be my speed!—
donc vôtre
est
France
,
et vous êtes 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.
CATHERINE
Sauf votre honneur, le français que vous parlez, il est meilleur que l’anglais lequel je parle.
Sauf votre honneur, le français que vous parlez, il est meilleur que l’anglais lequel je parle.
KING HARRY 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?
CATHERINE I cannot tell.
KING HARRY 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 scrambling, and thou must therefore needs prove a good soldier-breeder. Shall not thou and I, between Saint Denis 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 sayst thou, my fair flowerde-luce?
CATHERINE I do not know dat.
KING HARRY 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 Catherine du monde, mon très chere et divine deésse?
la plus belle Catherine du monde, mon très chere et divine deésse?
CATHERINE Your
majesté
’ave
faux
French enough to deceive de most sage
demoiselle
dat is en France.
majesté
’ave
faux
French enough to deceive de most sage
demoiselle
dat is en France.
KING HARRY Now fie 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 begins to flatter me that thou dost, notwithstanding the poor and untempering effect 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 aspect 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 Catherine, 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 say, ‘Harry 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 music—for thy voice is music and thy English broken. Therefore, queen of all, Catherine, break thy mind to me in broken English: wilt thou have me?
CATHERINE Dat is as it shall please de
roi mon père
.
roi mon père
.
KING HARRY Nay, it will please him well, Kate. It shall please him, Kate.
CATHERINE Den it sail also content me.
KING HARRY Upon that I kiss your hand, and I call you my queen.
CATHERINE
Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez! Ma foi, je ne veux point que vous abbaissez votre grandeur en baisant la main d’une de votre seigneurie indigne serviteur. Excusezmoi, je vous supplie, mon treis-puissant seigneur.
Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez! Ma foi, je ne veux point que vous abbaissez votre grandeur en baisant la main d’une de votre seigneurie indigne serviteur. Excusezmoi, je vous supplie, mon treis-puissant seigneur.
KING HARRY Then I will kiss your lips, Kate. 255
CATHERINE
Les dames et demoiselles pour être baisées devant leurs noces, il n’est pas la coutume de France.
Les dames et demoiselles pour être baisées devant leurs noces, il n’est pas la coutume de France.
KING HARRY (
to Alice
) Madam my interpreter, what says she?
to Alice
) Madam my interpreter, what says she?
ALICE Dat it is not be de
façon pour les
ladies of France—I cannot tell vat is
baiser
en Anglish.
façon pour les
ladies of France—I cannot tell vat is
baiser
en Anglish.
KING HARRY To kiss.
ALICE Your
majesté entend
bettre
que moi.
majesté entend
bettre
que moi.
KING HARRY It is not a fashion for the maids in France to kiss before they are married, would she say? 265 ALICE
Oui, vraiment
.
Oui, vraiment
.
KING HARRY O Kate, nice customs curtsy 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 mouth of all find-faults, as I will do yours, for upholding the nice fashion of your country in denying me a kiss. Therefore, patiently and yielding. (He
kisses 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 should sooner persuade Harry of England than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father
Enter King Charles, Queen Isabel, the Duke of Burgundy, and the French and English lords
kisses 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 should sooner persuade Harry of England than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father
Enter King Charles, Queen Isabel, the Duke of Burgundy, and the French and English lords
BURGUNDY God save your majesty. My royal cousin, teach you our princess English?
KING HARRY I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how perfectly I love her, and that is good English.
BURGUNDY Is she not apt?
KING HARRY 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 love in 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 appear naked and blind. Can you blame her then, being a maid yet rosed over with the virgin crimson of modesty, if she deny the appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked seeing self? It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to consign to.
KING HARRY Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind and enforces.
BURGUNDY They are then excused, my lord, when they see not what they do.
KING HARRY Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to consent winking.
BURGUNDY I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will teach her to know my meaning. For maids, well summered 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.
KING HARRY This moral ties me over to time and a hot summer, and so I shall catch the fly, your cousin, in the latter end, and she must be blind too.
BURGUNDY As love is, my lord, before that it loves.
KING HARRY It is so. And you may, some of you, thank love for my blindness, who cannot see many a fair French city for one fair French maid that stands in my way.
KING CHARLES Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities turned into a maid—for they are all girdled with maiden walls that war hath never entered.
KING HARRY Shall Kate be my wife?
KING CHARLES So please you.
KING HARRY I am content, so the maiden cities you talk of may wait on her: so the maid that stood in the way for my wish shall show me the way to my will.
KING CHARLES We have consented to all terms of reason.
KING HARRY Is’t so, my lords of England?
⌈WARWICKI⌉
The King hath granted every article:
His daughter first, and so in sequel all,
According to their firm proposed natures.
His daughter first, and so 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,
having any occasion to write for matter of grant, shall
name your highness in this form and with this addition:
⌈reads⌉ in French,
Notre très
cher fils Henri, Roi
d’Angleterre, Heritier de France,
and thus in Latin,
Praeclarissimus filius noster Henricus, Rex Angliae et
Haeres Franciae.
where your majesty demands that the King of France,
having any occasion to write for matter of grant, shall
name your highness in this form and with this addition:
⌈reads⌉ in French,
Notre très
cher fils Henri, Roi
d’Angleterre, Heritier de France,
and thus in Latin,
Praeclarissimus filius noster Henricus, Rex Angliae et
Haeres Franciae.
KING CHARLES
Nor this I have not, brother, so denied,
But your request shall make me let it pass.
But your request shall make me let it pass.
KING HARRY
I pray you then, in love and dear alliance,
Let that one article rank with the rest,
And thereupon give me your daughter.
Let that one article rank with the rest,
And thereupon give me your daughter.
KING CHARLES
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.
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.
⌈ALL⌉ Amen.
KING HARRY
Now welcome, Kate, and bear me witness all
That here I kiss her as my sovereign Queen.
That here I kiss her as my sovereign Queen.
Flourish
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’.
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 HARRY
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.
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
Enter Chorus
Enter Chorus
CHORUS
Thus far with rough and all-unable pen
Our bending author hath pursued 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,
Our bending author hath pursued 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 crowned 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
Exit
ADDITIONAL PASSAGESThe Dauphin/Bourbon variant, which usually involves only the alteration of speech-prefixes, has several consequences for the dialogue and structure of 4.5. There follow edited texts of the Folio and Quarto versions of this scene.A. FOLIOEnter the Constable, Orleans, Bourbon, the Dauphin, and RamburesCONSTABLE
O diable!ORLÉANS
O Seigneur! Le jour est perdu, tout est perdu.DAUPHINMort de ma vie!
All is confounded, all.
Reproach and everlasting shame
Sits mocking in our plumes.
A short alarum
O méchante fortune!
Do not run away.⌈
Exit Rambures
⌉CONSTABLE Why, all our ranks are broke.DAUPHINO perdurable shame! Let’s stab ourselves:
Be these the wretches that we played at dice for?ORLÉANSIs this the king we sent to for his ransom?BOURBONShame, an eternall shame, nothing but shame!
Let us die in pride. In once more, back again!
And he that will not follow Bourbon now,
Let him go home, and with his cap in hand
Like a base leno hold the chamber door,
Whilst by a slave no gentler than my dog
His fairest daughter is contaminated.CONSTABLEDisorder that hath spoiled us, friend us now,
Let us on heaps go offer up our lives.ORLÉANSWe are enough yet living in the field
To smother up the English in our throngs,
If any order might be thought upon.BOURBONThe devil take order now. I’ll to the throng.
Let life be short, else shame will be too long.ExeuntB. QUARTOEnter the four French lords: the Constable, Orléans, Bourbon, and GebonGEBON
O diabello!CONSTABLE
Mort de ma vie!ORLÉANS O what a day is this!BOURBONO jour de honte,
all is gone, all is lost.CONSTABLE We are enough yet living in the fieldTo smother up the English,
If any order might be thought upon.BOURBONA plague of order! Once more to the field!
And he that will not follow Bourbon now,
Let him go home, and with his cap in hand,
Like a base leno hold the chamber door,
Whilst by a slave no gentler than my dog
His fairest daughter is contaminated.CONSTABLEDisorder that hath spoiled us, right us now.
Come we in heaps, we’ll offer up our lives
Unto these English, or else die with fame.⌈BOURBON⌉ Come, come along.Let’s die with honour, our shame doth last too long.Exeunt
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