K. Hen. Open your gates. Come, uncle Exeter, Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain, And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French: Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle, The winter coming on and sickness growing Upon our soldiers, we will retire to Calais. To-night in Harfleur we will be your guest; To-morrow for the march are we addrest.

[Flourish. The King and his train enter the town.

SCENE IV. The FRENCH KING's palace.

Enter KATHARINE and ALICE.

Kath. Alice, tu as été en Angleterre, et tu parles bien le langage.

Alice. Un peu, madame.

Kath. Je te prie, m'enseignez; il faut que j'apprenne à parler. Comment appelez-vous la main en Anglois ?

Alice. La main? elle est appelée de hand.
Kath. De hand. Et les doigts?

Alice. Les doigts? ma foi, j'oublie les doigts; mais me souviendrai. Les doigts? je pense qu'ils sont

appelés de fingres; oui, de fingres.

11

56. retire: a map will show the course of this retreat. Scene IV. It is of course impossible to present here a translation of this amusing scene. The princess is represented as preparing herself for the conquest of Henry, and she engages her waiting gentlewoman to teach her English. Prefiguring Ollendorf, S. has her taught to say hand, fingers, nails, arm, elbow, neck, and chin, which Alice tells her she pronounces as well as an Englishwoman born. She then finds out that the English for pied is foot, and for robe gown, or, as Alice pronounces it, coun; with a misapprehension of which words the lesson ends. The scene is printed in the folio with a notable approach to correctness; and I suspect that S. was assisted in its composition and elsewhere in this play by a better French scholar than himself. W.

Kath. La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. Je pense que je suis le bon écolier; j'ai gagné deux mots d'Anglois vêtement. Comment appelez-vous les ongles?

Alice. Les ongles? nous les appelons de nails.

Kath. De nails. Ecoutez; dites-moi, si je parle bien de hand, de fingres, et de nails.

Alice. C'est bien dit, madame; il est fort bon Anglois.

Kath. Dites-moi l'Anglois pour le bras.

Alice. De arm, madame.

Kath. Et le coude?

Alice. De elbow.

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Kath. De elbow. Je m'en fais la répétition de tous les mots que vous m'avez appris dès à présent.

Alice. Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense. Kath. Excusez-moi, Alice; écoutez: de hand, de fingres, de nails, de arma, de bilbow.

Alice. De elbow, madame.

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Kath. O Seigneur Dieu, je m'en oublie! de elbow. Comment appelez-vous le col?

Alice. De neck, madame.

Kath. De nick. Et le menton?
Alice. De chin.

Kath. De sin. Le col, de nick; le menton, de sin. Alice. Oui. Sauf votre honneur, en vérité, vous prononcez les mots aussi droit que les natifs d'Angleterre.

Kath. Je ne doute point d'apprendre, par la grace de Dieu, et en peu de temps.

41

Alice. N'avez vous pas déjà oublié ce que je vous ai enseigné?

Kath. Non, je reciterai à vous promptement: de hand, de fingres, de mails,

Alice. De nails, madame.

Kath. De nails, de arm, de ilbow.

Alice. Sauf votre honneur, de elbow.

Kath. Ainsi dis-je; de elbow, de nick, et de sin. Comment appelez-vous le pied et la robe?

Alice. De foot, madame; et de coun.

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Kath. De foot et de coun! O Seigneur Dieu! ce sont mots de son mauvais, corruptible, gros, et impudique, et non pour les dames d'honneur d'user: je ne voudrais prononcer ces mots devant les seigneurs de France pour tout le monde. Foh! le foot et le coun! Néanmoins, je reciterai une autre fois ma leçon ensemble de hand, de fingres, de nails, de arm, de elbow, de nick, de sin, de foot, de coun.

Alice. Excellent, madame!

60

Kath. C'est assez pour une fois : allons-nous à dîner.

SCENE V. The same.

[Exeunt.

Enter the KING OF FRANCE, the DAUPHIN, the DUKE OF BOURBON, the CONSTABLE OF FRANCE, and others.

Fr. King. 'Tis certain he hath pass'd the river
Somme.

Con. And if he be not fought withal, my lord,
Let us not live in France; let us quit all
And give our vineyards to a barbarous people.

Dau. O Dieu vivant! shall a few sprays of us,

The emptying of our fathers' luxury,

Our scions, put in wild and savage stock,
Spurt up so suddenly into the clouds,

And overlook their grafters?

4. a barbarous people. Even in S.'s day the French, the Italians, and the Spaniards regarded the English as semi-barbarians. W.

Bour. Normans, but bastard Normans, Norman bastards!

Mort de ma vie! if they march along

Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom,

To buy a slobbery and a dirty farm

In that nook-shotten isle of Albion.

10

Con. Dieu de batailles! where have they this mettle?

Is not their climate foggy, raw and dull,

On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,

Killing their fruit with frowns? Can sodden water,
A drench for sur-rein'd jades, their barley-broth,
Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat?
And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine,
Seem frosty? O, for honour of our land,
Let us not hang like roping icicles

20

Upon our houses' thatch, whiles a more frosty people
Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields!
Poor we may call them in their native lords.

Dau. By faith and honour,

Our madams mock at us, and plainly say
Our mettle is bred out and they will give
Their bodies to the lust of English youth
To new-store France with bastard warriors.

30

Bour. They bid us to the English dancing-schools, And teach lavoltas high and swift corantos; Saying our grace is only in our heels,

And that we are most lofty runaways.

14. nook-shotten: strangely means either cut up into nooks and corners, or set off in a corner by itself; and strangely either meaning is here applicable. W.

W.

19. sur-rein'd = over-ridden. W.

33. lavoltas . . . corantos = two very lively Italian dances.

Fr. King. Where is Montjoy the herald? speed

him hence

40

Let him greet England with our sharp defiance.
Up, princes! and, with spirit of honour edg'd
More sharper than your swords, hie to the field:
Charles Delabreth, High Constable of France;
You Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berri,
Alençon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy;
Jaques Chatillon, Rambures, Vaudemont,
Beaumont, Grandpré, Roussi, and Fauconberg,
Foix, Lestrale, Bouciqualt, and Charolois;
High dukes, great princes, barons, lords and knights,
For your great seats now quit you of great shames.
Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land
With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur:
Rush on his host, as doth the melted snow
Upon the valleys, whose low vassal seat
The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon:
Go down upon him, you have power enough,
And in a captive chariot into Rouen

Bring him our prisoner.

Con.

This becomes the great.

Sorry am I his numbers are so few,

His soldiers sick and famish'd in their march,
For I am sure, when he shall see our army,
He'll drop his heart into the sink of fear
And for achievement offer us his ransom.

50

60

40. Charles Delabreth. So Holinshed. The name is D'Albret. S. took the names as he found them in Holinshed, and it is well for us to be content with them. W. The enumeration of the killed and prisoners at Agincourt, IV, viii, 69–95, accounts for almost all these gentlemen.

47. For ... shames. The greater their possessions the greater the shame in allowing the English in the land.