I love this scene:
KING HENRY. Yet leave our cousin Katherine here with us;
She is our capital demand, compris'd
Within the fore-rank of our articles.
QUEEN ISABEL. She hath good leave.
Exeunt all but the KING, KATHERINE, and ALICE
KING HENRY. Fair Katherine, and most fair,
Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms
Such as will enter at a lady's ear,
And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?
KATHERINE. Your Majesty shall mock me; I cannot speak your England.
KING HENRY. O fair Katherine, if you will love me soundly with your
French heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it brokenly with
your English tongue. Do you like me, Kate?
KATHERINE. Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is like me.
KING HENRY. An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel.
KATHERINE. Que dit-il? que je suis semblable a les anges?
ALICE. Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grace, ainsi dit-il.
KING HENRY. I said so, dear Katherine, and I must not blush to
affirm it.
KATHERINE. O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines de
tromperies.
KING HENRY. What says she, fair one? that the tongues of men are
full of deceits?
ALICE. Oui, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of deceits- dat is
de Princess.
KING HENRY. The Princess is the better English-woman. I' faith,
Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding: I am glad thou
canst speak no better English; for if thou couldst, thou wouldst
find me such a plain king that thou wouldst 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 farther 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?
KATHERINE. Sauf votre honneur, me understand well.
KING HENRY. 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 wife. Or if I might buffet for my love,
or bound my horse for her favours, I could lay on like a butcher,
and sit like a jack-an-apes, never off. But, before God, Kate, I
cannot look greenly, nor gasp out my cloquence, nor I have no
cunning in protestation; only downright oaths, which I never use
till urg'd, nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a
fellow of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth sunburning,
that never looks in his glass for love of anything 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 liv'st, 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 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 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 say'st thou, then,
to my love? Speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee.
KATHERINE. Is it possible dat I sould love de enemy of France?
KING HENRY. 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.
KATHERINE. I cannot tell vat is dat.
KING HENRY. 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. Je quand sur le
possession de France, et quand vous avez le possession de moi-
let me see, what then? Saint Denis be my speed!- donc votre est
France et vous etes 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.
KATHERINE. Sauf votre honneur, le Francais que vous parlez, il est
meilleur que l'Anglais lequel je parle.
KING HENRY. 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?
KATHERINE. I cannot tell.
KING HENRY. 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 beest mine, Kate, as I have a saving 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, 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 say'st thou, my fair flower-de-luce?
KATHERINE. I do not know dat.
KING HENRY. 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 Katherine du monde, mon
tres cher et divin deesse?
KATHERINE. Your Majestee ave fausse French enough to deceive de
most sage damoiselle dat is en France.
KING HENRY. 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 in 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 Katherine, 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, Katherine,
break thy mind to me in broken English, wilt thou have me?
KATHERINE. Dat is as it shall please de roi mon pere.
KING HENRY. Nay, it will please him well, Kate- it shall please
him, Kate.
KATHERINE. Den it sall also content me.
KING HENRY. Upon that I kiss your hand, and I can you my queen.
KATHERINE. Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez! Ma foi, je ne
veux point que vous abaissiez votre grandeur en baisant la main
d'une, notre seigneur, indigne serviteur; excusez-moi, je vous
supplie, mon tres puissant seigneur.
KING HENRY. Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.
KATHERINE. Les dames et demoiselles pour etre baisees devant leur
noces, il n'est pas la coutume de France.
KING HENRY. Madame my interpreter, what says she?
ALICE. Dat it is not be de fashion pour le ladies of France- I
cannot tell vat is baiser en Anglish.
KING HENRY. To kiss.
ALICE. Your Majestee entendre bettre que moi.
KING HENRY. It is not a fashion for the maids in France to kiss
before they are married, would she say?
ALICE. Oui, vraiment.
KING HENRY. O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great kings. Dear Kate,
you and I cannot be confin'd 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. [Kissing
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 Henry of England
than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father.
