Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

Boy. Escoutez; Comment estes vous appellé ?
Fr. Sol. Monsieur le Fer.

Boy. He says his name is master Fer.

Pist. Master Fer! I'll fer him, and firk him, and ferret him :- discuss the same in French unto him. Boy. I do not know the French for fer, and ferret, and firk.

Pist. Bid him prepare, for I will cut his throat.
Fr. Sol. Que dit-il, monsieur?

Boy. Il me commande de vous dire que vous faites vous prest; car ce soldat icy est disposé tout à cette heure de couper vostre gorge.

Pist. Ouy, couper gorge, par ma foy, pesant.
Unless thou give me crowns, brave crowns;
Or mangled shalt thou be by this my sword.

Fr. Sol. O, je vous supplie, pour l'amour de Dieu, me pardonner! Je suis gentilhomme de bonne maison; gardez ma vie, et je vous donneray deux cent escus. Pist. What are his words?

Boy. He prays you to save his life: he is a gentleman of a good house; and for his ransom he will give you two hundred crowns.

Pist. Tell him,-my fury shall abate, and I The crowns will take.

Fr. Sol. Petit monsieur, que dit-il?

Boy. Encore qu'il est contre son jurement de pardonner aucun prisonnier; neantmoins, pour les escus que vous l'avez promis, il est content de vous donner la liberté, le franchisement.

Fr. Sol. Sur mes genoux je vous donne mille remerciemens: et je m'estime heureux que je suis tombé entre les mains d'un chevalier, je pense, le plus brave, valiant, et très distingué seigneur d'Angleterre.

Pist. Expound unto me, boy.

Boy. He gives you, upon his knees, a thousand thanks: and he esteems himself happy that he hath fallen into the hands of one (as he thinks) the most brave, valorous, and thrice-worthy signieur of England. Pist. As I suck blood, I will some mercy show.— Follow me. [Exit PISTOL. Boy. Suivez vous le grand capitaine. [Exit French Soldier.] I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart: but the saying is true,-the empty vessel makes the greatest sound. Bardolph and Nym had ten times more valour than this roaring devil i' the old play, that every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger; and they are both hanged; and so would this be, if he durst steal anything adventurously. I must stay with the lackeys, with the luggage of our camp: the French might have a good prey of us, if he knew of it; for there is none to guard it but boys.

[Exit. SCENE V.-Another Part of the Field of Battle. Enter DAUPHIN, ORLEANS, BOURBON, CONSTABLE, RAMBURES, and others.

Alarums.

Con. O diable!

Orl. O seigneur !-le jour est perdu, tout est perdu! Dau. Mort de ma vie! all is confounded, all! Reproach and everlasting shame Sits mocking in our plumes.-O meschante fortune!— Do not run away. [A short alarum. Con. Why, all our ranks are broke. Dau. O perdurable shame!-let 's stab ourselves. Be these the wretches that we play'd at dice for?

Orl. Is this the king we sent to for his ransom? Bour. Shame, and eternal shame, nothing but shame! Let's die in honour: Once more back again; And he that will not follow Bourbon now, Let him go hence, and, with his cap in hand, Like a base pander, hold the chamber-door, Whilst by a slave, no gentler than my dog, His fairest daughter is contaminated.

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

But all 's not done, yet keep the French the field. Exe. The duke of York commends him to your majesty.

K. Her. Lives ne, good uncle? thrice within this
Lour

I saw him down; thrice up again, and fighting;
From helmet to the spur, all blood he was.

Exe. In which array (brave soldier!) doth he lie,
Larding the plain: and by his bloody side
(Yoke-fellow to his honour-owing wounds)
The noble earl of Suffolk also lies.
Suffolk first died: and York, all haggled over,
Comes to him, where in gore he lay insteep'd,
And takes him by the beard; kisses the gashes,
That bloodily did yawn upon his face;
And cries aloud,-" Tarry, my cousin Suffolk!
My soul shall thine keep company to heaven :
Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly a-breast;
As, in this glorious and well-foughten field,
We kept together in our chivalry!"
Upon these words I came, and cheer'd him up:
He smil'd me in the face, raught me his hand,
And with a feeble gripe, says,-" Dear my lord,
Commend my service to my sovereign."
So did he turn, and over Suffolk's neck
He threw his wounded arm, and kiss'd his lips;
And so, espous'd to death, with blood he seal'd
A testament of noble-ending love.
The pretty and sweet manner of it forc'd
Those waters from me, which I would have stopp`d;
But I had not so much of man in me,
And all my mother came into mine eyes,
And gave me up to tears.
K. Hen.
I blame you not;
For, hearing this, I must perforce compound
With mistful eyes, or they will issue too.-
But, hark! what new alarum is this same?—
The French have reinforc'd their scatter'd men :-
Then every soldier kill his prisoners;
Give the word through.

[Alarum.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VII.-Another Part of the Field. Alarums.

Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER.

of

Flu. Kill the poys and the luggage! 't is expressly against the law of arms: 't is as arrant a piece knavery, mark you now, as can be offered. În your conscience now, is it not?

Gow. 'Tis certain there 's not a boy left alive; and the cowardly rascals that ran from the battle have done this slaughter: besides, they have burned and carried away all that was in the king's tent; wherefore the king, most worthily, hath caused every soldier to cut his prisoner's throat. O, 't is a gallant king!

Flu. Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, captain Gower. What call you the town's name where Alexander the pig was porn?

Gow. Alexander the great.

Flu. Why, I pray you, is not pig, great! The pig

of

[ocr errors]

SCENE VII.

KING HENRY V.

or the great, or the mighty, or the huge, or the maganimous, are all one reckonings, save the phrase is a little variations.

Gore. I think Alexander the great was born in Macodon; his father was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it.

Flu. I think it is in Macedon where Alexander is porn. I tell you, captain,-If you look in the maps of the orld, I warrant you shall find, in the comparisons between Macedon and Monmouth, that the situations, book you, is both alike. There is a river in Macedon; and there is also moreover a river at Monmouth: it is called Wye, at Monmouth; but it is out of my prains what is the name of the other river; but 't is all one, tis alike as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both. If you mark Alexander's life well, Harry of Monmouth's life is come after it indifferent well; for there is figures in all things. Alexander (God knows, and you know), in his rages, and his furies, and his wraths, and his cholers, and his moods, and his displeasures, and his indignations, and also being a little intoxicates in his prains, did, in his ales and his angers, look kill his pest friend, Clytus.

you,

Gote. Our king is not like him in that; he never killed any of his friends.

Flu. It is not well done, mark you now, to take the tales out of my mouth, ere it is made and finished. I seak but in the figures and comparisons of it: As Alexander killed his friend Clytus, being in his ales and his cups; so also Harry Monmouth, being in his right wits and his goot judgments, turned away the fat Eight with the great pelly-doublet: he was full of jests, and gipes, and knaveries, and mocks; I have forgot his name.

Gow. Sir John Falstaff.

Flu. That is he: I'll tell you, there is goot men porn at Monmouth.

Gow. Here comes his majesty.

Alarum. Enter KING HENRY with a part of the
English Forces; WARWICK, GLOSTER, EXETER,
and others.

K. Hen. I was not angry since I came to France
Until this instant.-Take a trumpet, herald;
Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill;

If they will fight with us, bid them come down,
Or void the field; they do offend our sight:
If they 'Il do neither, we will come to them;
And make them skirr away, as swift as stones
Enforced from the old Assyrian slings:
Besides, we ll cut the throats of those we have;
And not a man of them, that we shall take,
Shall taste our mercy :-Go, and tell them so.
Enter MONTJOY.

Eze. Here comes the herald of the French, my
liege.

Glo. His eyes are humbler than they us'd to be.
K. Hen. How now! what means this, herald? know'st

thou not

That I have fin'd these bones of mine for ransom?
Com'st thou again for ransom?

No, great king,
Mont.
I come to thee for charitable licence,
That we may wander o'er this bloody field,
To book our dead, and then to bury them;
To sort our nobles from our common men:
For many of our princes (woe the while!)
Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood;
So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs
In blood of princes;) and their wounded steeds
Fret fetlock deep in gore, and, with wild rage,
Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters,
Kiiling them twice. O, give us leave, great king,

Of their dead bodies.
To view the field in safety, and dispose

K. Hen.

I tell thee truly, herald,
I know not if the day be ours, or no;
And gallop o'er the field.
For yet a many of your horsemen peer,
The day is yours.

Mont.
K. Hen. Praised be God, and not our strength, for it!
Mont. They call it Agincourt.
What is this castle call'd that stands hard by?

K. Ilen. Then call we this the field of Agincourt,
Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.

Flu. Your grandfather of famous memory, an 't please
your majesty, and your great-uncle Edward the plack
prince of Wales, as I have read in the chronicles,
K. Hen. They did, Fluellen.
fought a most prave pattle here in France.

Flu. Your majesty says very true: if your majesties
a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their
is remembered of it, the Welshmen did goot service in
Monmouth caps; which, your majesty knows, to this
believe, your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek
hour is an honourable padge of the service; and, I do
upon Saint Tavy's day.

K. Hen. I wear it for a memorable honour:
Flu. All the water in Wye cannot wash your ma-
For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.
jesty's Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell you
that: Got pless it and preserve it, as long as it pleases
his grace, and his majesty too!

K. Hen. Thanks, good my countryman.

Flu. By Cheshu, I am your majesty's countryman, I need not to be ashamed of your majesty, praised be I care not who know it; I will confess it to all the 'orld: with him; God, so long as your majesty is an honest man. K. Hen. God keep me so!-Our heralds Bring me just notice of the numbers dead On both our parts.-Call yonder fellow hither. [Points to WILLIAMS. Exeunt MONTJOY and others.

go

Exe. Soldier, you must come to the king.
K. Hen. Soldier, why wearest thou that glove in thy

cap?

Will. An 't please your majesty, 't is the gage of one that I should fight withal, if he be alive.

K. Hen. An Englishman?

Will. An't please your majesty, a rascal that swaggered with me last night: who, if a live and ever dare to challenge this glove, I have sworn to take him a box o' the ear: or, if I can see my glove in his cap, (which he swore, as he was a soldier, he would wear if alive,) I will strike it out soundly.

K. Hen. What think you, captain Fluellen? is it fit this soldier keep his oath?

Flu. He is a craven and a villain else, an 't please your majesty, in my conscience.

K. Hen. It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort, quite from the answer of his degree.

Flu. Though he be as goot a gentleman as the tevil
is, as Lucifer and Belzebub himself, it is necessary,
look your grace, that he keep his vow and his oath: if
he be perjured, see you now, his reputation is as arrant
a villain, and a Jack sauce, as ever his plack shoe trod
upon Got's ground and his earth, in my conscience, la.
K. Hen. Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meet'st
the fellow.

Will. So I will, my liege, as I live.
K. Hen. Who servest thou under?
Will. Under captain Gower, my liege.

Flu. Gower is a goot captain; and is goot knowledge and literature in the wars.

K. Hen. Call him hither to
Will. I will, my liege.

me,

soldier

[Erit.

K. Hen. Here, Fluellen; wear thon this favour for

me, and stick it in thy cap: When Alençon and myself, were down together, I plucked this glove from his helm; if any man challenge this, he is a friend to Alençon and an enemy to our person; if thou encounter any such, apprehend him, an thou dost me love.

Flu. Your grace does me as great honours as can be desired in the hearts of his subjects: I would fain see the man, that has but two legs, that shall find himself aggriefed at this glove, that is all; but I would fain see it once: an please Got of his grace that I might see it. K. Hen. Knowest thou Gower?

Flu. He is my dear friend, an please you.

K. Hen. Pray thee, go seek him, and bring him to my tent.

Flu. I will fetch him.

[Exit.

[blocks in formation]

Will. Sir, know you this glove?

Flu. Know the glove? I know, the glove is a glove. Will. I know this; and thus I challenge it. [Strikes him. Flu. 'Sblud, an arrant traitor as any 's in the universal 'orld, or in France, or in England.

Gow. How now, sir? you villain!
Will. Do you think I'll be forsworn?

Flu. Stand away, captain Gower; I will give treason his payment into plows, I warrant you. Will. I am no traitor.

Flu. That's a lie in thy throat.-I charge you in his majesty's name, apprehend him; he's a friend of the duke Alençon's.

Enter WARWICK and GLOSter.

War. How now, how now! what's the matter? Fh. My lord of Warwick, here is (praised be Got for it!) a most contagious treason come to light, look you, as you shall desire in a summer's day. Here is his majesty.

Enter KING HENRY and EXETER. K. Hen. How now! what's the matter? Flu. My liege, here is a villain, and a traitor, that, look your grace, has struck the glove which your majesty is take out of the helmet of Alençon.

Will. My liege, this was my glove; here is the fellow of it: and he that I gave it to in change promised co wear it in his cap; I promised to strike him, if he did I met this man with my glove in his cap, and I have been as good as my word.

:

Flu. Your majesty hear now, (saving your majesty's manhood,) what an arraut, rascally, beggarly, lousy

knave it is: I hope your majesty is pear me testimony, and witness, and will avouchment, that this is the glove of Alençon, that your majesty is give me, in your conscience now.

K. Hen. Give me thy glove, soldier! Look, here 's the fellow of it.

"T was I, indeed, thou promised'st to strike, And thou hast given me most bitter terms. Flu. An please your majesty, let his neck answer for it, if there is any martial law in the 'orld.

K. Hen. How canst thou make me satisfaction? Will. All offences, my lord, come from the heart: never came any from mine that might offend your ma jesty.

K. Hen. It was ourself thou didst abuse.

Will. Your majesty came not like yourself: you appeared to me but as a common man; witness the night, your garments, your lowliness; and what you highness suffered under that shape, I beseech you, take it for your own fault, and not mine: for had you been as I took you for, I made no offence; therefore, I be seech your highness, pardon me.

K. Hen. Here, uncle Exeter, fill this glove with

crowns,

And give it to this fellow.-Keep it, fellow;
And wear it for an honour in thy cap,
Till I do challenge it.-Give him the crowns:-
And, captain, you must needs be friends with him.

Flu. By this day and this light, the fellow has mettle enough in his pelly:-Hold, there is twelve pence for you, and I pray you to serve Got, and keep you out of prawls, and prabbles, and quarrels, and dissensions, and, I warrant you, it is the petter for you.

Will. I will none of your money.

Flu. It is with a goot will; I can tell you it will serve you to mend your shoes: Come, wherefore should you be so pashful? your shoes is not so goot: 't is a goot silling, I warrant you, or I will change it.

Enter an English Herald.

K. Hen. Now, herald; are the dead number'd? Her. Here is the number of the slaughter'd French. [Delivers a paper.

K. Hen. What prisoners of good sort are taken, uncle? Exe. Charles duke of Orleans, nephew to the king; John duke of Bourbon, and lord Bouciqualt: Of other lords and barons, knights and 'squires, Full fifteen hundred, besides common men.

K. Hen. This note doth tell me of ten thousand
French

That in the field lie slain of princes, in this number,
And nobles bearing banners, there lie dead
One hundred twenty-six: added to these,
Of knights, esquires, and gallant gentlemen,
Eight thousand and four hundred of the which,
Five hundred were but yesterday dubb'd knights:
So that, in these ten thousand they have lost,
There are but sixteen hundred mercenaries;
The rest are princes, barons, lords, knights, 'squires,
And gentlemen of blood and quality.
The names of those their nobles that lie dead,-
Charles De-la-bret, high constable of France;
Jaques of Chatillon, admiral of France;
The master of the cross-bows, lord Rambures;
Great master of France, the brave sir Guischard Dar-
phin;

John duke of Alençon; Antony duke of Brabant,
The brother to the duke of Burgundy;
And Edward duke of Bar: of lusty earls,
Grandpré and Ronssi, Fauconberg and Foix,
Beaumont and Marle, Vaudemont and Lestrale.
Here was a royal fellowship of death!
Where is the number of our English dead?

[Herald presents another paper.

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

:

To boast of this, or take that praise from God Which is his only.

Flu. Is it not lawful, an please your majesty, to tell how many is killed?

K. Hen. Yes, captain; but with this acknowledg ment,

That God fought for us.

Flu. Yes, my conscience, he did us great goot.

K. Hen. Do we all holy rites;

Let there be sung Non Nobis, and Te Deum ;
The dead with charity enclos'd in clay:

And then to Calais; and to England then;

Where ne'er from France arriv'd more happy men. [Ex.

ACT V.

Vouchsafe to those that have not read the story,
That I may prompt them and of such as have,
I bumbly pray them to admit the excuse
Of time, of numbers, and due course of things,
Which cannot in their huge and proper life
Be here presented. Now we bear the king
Toward Calais: grant him there; there seen,
Heave him away upon your winged thoughts,
Athwart the sea: Behold, the English beach
Pales in the flood with men, with wives, and boys,
Whose shouts and claps out-voice the deep-mouth'd

sea,

Which, like a mighty whiffler 'fore the king,
Seems to prepare his way: so let him land;
And, solemnly, see him set on to London.
So swift a pace hath thought, that even now
You may imagine him upon Blackheath:
Where that his lords desire him to have borne
His bruised helmet, and his bended sword,
Before him, through the city: he forbids it,
Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride;
Giving full trophy, signal, and ostent,

SCENE I.-France. An English Court of Guard. Enter FLUELLEN and GoWER.

Gov. Nay, that's right; but why wear you your leek to-day? Saint Davy's day is past.

Flu. There is occasions and causes why and wherefare in all things: I will tell you, as my friend, captain Gower: The rascally, scald, beggarly, lousy, pragging knave, Pistol,—which you and yourself, and all the orld, know to be no petter than a fellow, look you now, of no merits, he is come to me, and prings me pread and salt yesterday, look you, and bid me eat my leek: it was in a place where I could not breed no contentions with him; but I will be so pold as to wear it in my cap till I see him once again, and then I will tell him a little piece of my desires.

[blocks in formation]

Flu. 'Tis no matter for his swellings, nor his turkeycocks-Got pless you, ancient Pistol! you scurvy, lousy knave, Got pless you!

Pist. Ha! art thou Bedlam? dost thou tnirst, base
Trojan,

To have me fold up Parca's fatal web?
Hence! I am qualmish at the smell of leek.

Flu. I peseech you heartily, scurvy, lousy knave, at my desires, and my requests, and my petitions, to eat, Look you, this leek; because, look you, you do not

Quite from himself, to God. But now behold,
In the quick forge and working-house of thought,
How London doth pour out her citizens !
The mayor, and all his brethren, in best sort,-
Like to the senators of the antique Rome,
With the plebeians swarming at their heels,-
Go forth, and fetch their conquering Cæsar in :
As, by a lower but by loving likelihood,
Were now the general of our gracious empress
(As, in good time, he may) from Ireland coming,
Bringing rebellion broached on his sword,
How many would the peaceful city quit

To welcome him! much more (and much more cause)
Did they this Harry. Now in London place him;
(As yet the lamentation of the French
Invites the king of England's stay at home:
The emperor's coming in behalf of France,
To order peace between them;) and omit
All the occurrences, whatever chanc'd,
Till Harry's back-return again to France:
There must we bring hini; and myself have play'd
The interim, by remembering you 't is past.
Then brook abridgment; and your eyes advance
After your thoughts, straight back again to France.

love it, nor your affections, and your appetites, and your digestions, does not agree with it, I would desire you to eat it.

Pist. Not for Cadwallader and all his goats. Flu. There is one goat for you. [Strikes him.] Will you be so goot, scald knave, as eat it? Pist. Base Trojan, thou shalt die.

Flu. You say very true, scald knave, when Got's will is: I will desire you to live in the mean time, and eat your victuals; come, there is sauce for it. [Striking him again.] You called me yesterday, mountain-squire, but I will make you to-day a squire of low degree. I pray you, fall to; if you can mock a leek, you can eat a feek.

Gow. Enough, captain; you have astonished him." Flu. I say, I will make him eat some part of my leek, or I will peat his pate four days:-Bite, I pray you; it is goot for your green wound, and your ploody coxcomb.

Pist. Must I bite?

Flu. Yes, certainly; and out of doubt, and out of questions too, and ambiguities.

Pist. By this leek, I will most horribly revenge; I eat-and eat-I swear.

Flu. Eat, I pray you: Will you have some more sauce to your leek? there is not enough leek to swear by. Pist. Quiet thy cudgel; thou dost see, I eat.

Flu. Much goot do you, scald knave, heartily. Nay,

a Astonished him-stunned him with the blow: astonished is still a pugilistic term, in the precise sense in which Gower uses it.

pray you, throw none away; the skin is goot for your
proken coxcomb. When you take occasions too see leeks
hereafter, I pray you, mock at 'em; that is all.
Pist. Good.

Flu. Ay, leeks is goot :--Hold you, there is a groat to heal your pate.

Pist. Me a groat!

Flu. Yes, verily, and in truth, you shall take it; or I have another leek in my pocket, which you shall eat. Pist. I take thy groat, in earnest of revenge. Flu. If I owe you anything, I will pay you in cudgels; you shall be a woodmonger, and buy nothing of me but cudgels. God be wi' you, and keep you, and heal your pate. [Exit.

Pist. All hell shall stir for this.

Gow. Go, go; you are a counterfeit cowardly knave.
Will you mock at an ancient tradition,-begun upon an
honourable respect, and worn as a memorable trophy of
predeceased valour, and dare not avouch in your
deeds any of your words? I have seen you gleeking
and galling at this gentleman twice or thrice. You
thought, because he could not speak English in the
native garb, he could not therefore handle an English
cudgel: you find it otherwise; and henceforth, let a
Welsh correction teach you a good English condition.
Fare ye well.
[Exit.

Pist. Doth Fortune play the huswife with me now?
News have I that my Nell is dead i' the spital
Of malady of France;

And there my rendezvous is quite cut off.
Old I do wax; and from my weary limbs
Honour is cudgell'd. Well, bawd I'll turn,
And something lean to cutpurse of quick hand.
To England will I steal, and there I'll steal:
And patches will I get unto these cudgell'd scars,
And swear I got them in the Gallia wars.
SCENE II.-Troyes, in Champagne. An Apartment
in the French King's Palace.

[Exit.

Enter at one door, KING HENRY, BEDFORD, GLOSTER,
EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and other
Lords; at another, the French KING, QUEEN ISABEL,
the PRINCESS KATHARINE, Lords, Ladies, &c., the
DUKE OF BURGUNDY, and his Train.

K. Hen. Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met!
Unto our brother France, and to our sister,
Health and fair time of day ;-joy and good wishes
To our most fair and princely cousin Katharine;
And (as a branch and member of this royalty,
By whom this great assembly is contriv'd)
We do salute you, duke of Burgundy;-
And, princes French, and peers, health to you all!

Fr. King. Right joyous are we to behold your face,
Most worthy brother England; fairly met:-
So are you, princes English, every one.

Q. Isa. So happy be the issue, brother England,
Of this good day, and of this gracious meeting,
As we are now glad to behold your eyes;
Your eyes, which hitherto have borne in them
Against the French, that met them in their bent,
The fatal balls of murthering basilisks:
The venom of such looks, we fairly hope,
Have lost their quality; and that this day
Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.

K. Hen. To cry amen to that, thus we appear.
Q. Isa. You English princes all, I do salute you.
Bur. My duty to you both, on equal love,
Great kings of France and England! That I have
labour'd

With all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavours,
To bring your most imperial majesties

Unto this bar and royal interview,

Your mightiness on both parts best can witness.
Since then my office hath so far prevail'd

That face to face, and royal eye to eye,
You have congreeted; let it not disgrace me.
If I demand, before this royal view,
What rub, or what impediment, there is,
Why that the naked, poor, and mangled peace,
Dear nurse of arts, plenties, and joyful births,
Should not, in this best garden of the world,
Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?
Alas! she hath from France too long been chas'd;
And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,
Corrupting in its own fertility.
Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,
Unpruned dies: her hedges even-pleach'd,
Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair
Put forth disorder'd twigs; her fallow leas
The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory,
Doth root upon; while that the coulter rusts,
That should deracinate such savagery:
The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth
The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover,
Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,
Conceives by idleness; and nothing teems
But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs,
Losing both beauty and utility:
And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges,
Defective in their natures, grow to wildness;
Even so our houses, and ourselves, and children,
Have lost, or do not learn, for want of time,
The sciences that should become our country;
But grow, like savages,-as soldiers will,
That nothing do but meditate on blood,-
To swearing, and stern looks, diffus'd attire,
And everything that seems unnatural.
Which to reduce into our former favour a
You are assembled; and my speech entreats
That I may know the let, why gentle peace
Should not expel these inconveniencies,
And bless us with her former qualities.

K. Hen. If, duke of Burgundy, you would the peace,
Whose want gives growth to the imperfections
Which you have cited, you must buy that peace
With full accord to all our just demands;
Whose tenors and particular effects
You have, enschedul'd briefly, in your hands.
Bur. The king hath heard them; to the which, as yet
There is no answer made.
K. Hen.
Well, then, the peace,
Which you before so urg'd, lies in his answer.
Fr. King. I have but with a cursorary eye
O'er-glanc'd the articles: pleaseth your grace
To appoint some of your council presently
To sit with us once more, with better heed
To re-survey them, we will, suddenly,
Pass our accept and peremptory answer.

K. Hen. Brother, we shall.-Go, uncle Exeter,-
And brother Clarence,-and you, brother Gloster,—
Warwick, and Huntington,-go with the king:
And take with you free power to ratify,
Augment or alter, as your wisdoms best
Shall see advantageable for our dignity,
Anything in, or out of, our demands;
And we'll consign thereto.-Will you, fair sister,
Go with the princes, or stay here with us?

Q. Isa. Our gracious brother, I will go with them;
Haply a woman's voice may do some good,
When articles too nicely urg'd be stood on.

K. Hen. Yet leave our cousin Katharine here with us,
She is our capital demand, compris'd
Within the fore rank of our articles.
Q. Isa. She hath good leave.

K. Hen.

[Exeunt all but HENRY, KATH,

and her Gentlewoman. Fair Katharine, and most fair! Favour-appearance.

« PredošláPokračovať »