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| Character | King Henry V?Katherine?Alice?? | |
|---|---|---|
| Scene type / Who are | Persuading somebody | |
| Type | Comic | |
| Period | Any | |
| Genre | Historical, Drama, Comedy | |
| Description | King Henry comically woos Katherine with the help of her maid | |
| Location | ACT V, Scene 2 | |
Summary
The play is set in the early 15th century. Henry V has just become king after the death of his father. He is now a changed man as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely point out in the first scene of the play. Henry V, as a young prince, had lived a dissolute life surrounded by questionable characters. He is now a responsible, intelligent and virtuous king.
King Henry is now considering to claim the throne of France too since he thinks he is entitled to as one of his ancestors was the daughter of the king of France. The French king, Charles VI, doesn't agree and sends a group of ambassadors with an insulting message to King Henry, saying that the French king considers him immature to rule England and will never concede to his claim to the French crown. King Henry decides to invade France and gathers an army.
The English army wins several battles and the climax of the war comes in the battle of Agincourt where the English, even if heavily outnumbered by the French, triumph. At the end of the play the two kings work out peace negotiations. One of King Henry's demands is that he'd be allowed to marry Katherine, the daughter of the king of France. This way the king of France will be allowed to retain his crown and Henry's heirs will rule France in the future. After the negotiations, Henry woos Katherine is a comic scene where Alice, Katherine's maid, is also involved as her translator.
King Henry is now considering to claim the throne of France too since he thinks he is entitled to as one of his ancestors was the daughter of the king of France. The French king, Charles VI, doesn't agree and sends a group of ambassadors with an insulting message to King Henry, saying that the French king considers him immature to rule England and will never concede to his claim to the French crown. King Henry decides to invade France and gathers an army.
The English army wins several battles and the climax of the war comes in the battle of Agincourt where the English, even if heavily outnumbered by the French, triumph. At the end of the play the two kings work out peace negotiations. One of King Henry's demands is that he'd be allowed to marry Katherine, the daughter of the king of France. This way the king of France will be allowed to retain his crown and Henry's heirs will rule France in the future. After the negotiations, Henry woos Katherine is a comic scene where Alice, Katherine's maid, is also involved as her translator.
Written by Administrator
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| [France. A royal palace.] KING HENRY V Fair Katharine, 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? KATHARINE Your majesty shall mock at me; I cannot speak your England. KING HENRY V O fair Katharine, 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? KATHARINE Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is 'like me.' KING HENRY V An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel. KATHARINE Que dit-il? que je suis semblable a les anges? ALICE Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grace, ainsi dit-il. KING HENRY V I said so, dear Katharine; and I must not blush to affirm it. KATHARINE O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines de tromperies. KING HENRY V 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 V The princess is the better Englishwoman. 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? KATHARINE Sauf votre honneur, me understand vell. KING HENRY V 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 a 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 eloquence, nor I have no cunning in protestation; only downright oaths, which I never use till urged, nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a fellow of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth sun-burning, that never looks in his glass for love of any thing 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 livest, 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 curled 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 sayest thou then to my love? speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee. KATHARINE Is it possible dat I sould love de enemy of France? KING HENRY V 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. KATHARINE I cannot tell vat is dat. KING HENRY V 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. KATHARINE Sauf votre honneur, le Francois que vous parlez, il est meilleur que l'Anglois lequel je parle. KING HENRY V 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? KATHARINE I cannot tell. KING HENRY V 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 sayest thou, my fair flower-de-luce? KATHARINE I do not know dat KING HENRY V 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 Katharine du monde, mon tres cher et devin deesse? KATHARINE Your majestee ave fausse French enough to deceive de most sage demoiselle dat is en France. KING HENRY V 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 Katharine, 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 Harry 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, Katharine, break thy mind to me in broken English; wilt thou have me? KATHARINE Dat is as it sall please de roi mon pere. KING HENRY V Nay, it will please him well, Kate it shall please him, Kate. KATHARINE Den it sall also content me. KING HENRY V Upon that I kiss your hand, and I call you my queen. KATHARINE Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez: ma foi, je ne veux point que vous abaissiez votre grandeur en baisant la main d'une de votre seigeurie indigne serviteur; excusez-moi, je vous supplie, mon tres-puissant seigneur. KING HENRY V Then I will kiss your lips, Kate. KATHARINE Les dames et demoiselles pour etre baisees devant leur noces, il n'est pas la coutume de France. KING HENRY V Madam my interpreter, what says she? ALICE Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of France,--I cannot tell vat is baiser en Anglish. KING HENRY V To kiss. ALICE Your majesty entendre bettre que moi. KING HENRY V It is not a fashion for the maids in France to kiss before they are married, would she say? ALICE Oui, vraiment. KING HENRY V 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. [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 Harry of England than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father. |
