Fr. King. Take her, fair son, and from her blood

raise up

Issue to me; that the contending kingdoms

350

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!

K. Hen. Now, welcome, Kate: and bear me witness

all,

That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen.

[Flourish. Q. Isa. God, the best maker of all marriages, 360 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!

370

K. Hen. 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 prosperous be!

[Sennet. Exeunt.

351. look pale: in allusion to the chalky cliffs on either side of the Channel. W.

EPILOGUE

Enter Chorus.

Chor. 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 liv'd

This star of England: Fortune made his sword; By which the world's best garden he achiev'd, And of it left his son imperial lord. Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd King

Of France and England, did this king succeed; 10 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.

Epilogue. The epilogue, or speech at the end, recommending the play to the favor of the audience, was, like the prologue, not unusual in the Elizabethan drama. It lasted to rather a later period. Shakespeare uses the epilogue in several plays, The Tempest, Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, All's Well that Ends Well, 2 Henry IV, and Henry VIII. He usually, however, has some other ending, a dance or a song as in Twelfth Night, Love's Labor's Lost, Much Ado About Nothing; or, as in the tragedies especially, words indicative of the players leaving the stage. It may be that Shakespeare did not always feel any necessity for the conventional apologies that usually made up the epilogue. He probably knew that his plays were good and needed no apology.

13. Which oft, etc.: meaning the plays elder and later on the reign of Henry VI, which seems to have been a popular subject. W.