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KATH. Dat is, as it fhall please de roy mon pere. K. HEN. Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it shall please him, Kate.

KATH. Den it fhall alfo content me.

K. HEN. Upon that I will kifs your hand, and I call you-my queen.

KATH. Laiffez, mon feigneur, laissez, laissez: ma foy, je ne veux point que vous abbaissez voftre grandeur, en baifant la main d'une voftre indigne ferviteure; excufez moy, je vous fupplie, mon tres puiffant feigneur.

K. HEN. Then I will kifs your lips, Kate.

KATH. Les dames, & damoifelles, pour eftre baifeés devant leur nopces, il n'eft pas le coûtume de France.

K. HEN. Madam my interpreter, what says fhe? ALICE. Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of France,-I cannot tell what is, baifer, en English.

K. HEN. To kifs.

ALICE. Your majesty entendre bettre que moy.

K. HEN. It is not the fashion for the maids in France to kifs before they are married, would fhe fay?

ALICE, Ouy, vrayment.

K. HEN. O, Kate, nice cuftoms curt'fy to great kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confined within the weak lift 5 of a country's fashion: we are the makers of manners, Kate; and the liberty that follows our places, ftops the mouths of all

5 -weak lift-] i. e. flight barrier. So, in Othello:
"Confine yourself within a patient lift." STEEVENS.

find-faults; as I will do yours, for upholding the nice fashion of your country, in denying me a kifs: therefore, patiently, and yielding. [Kissing her.] You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate: there is more eloquence in a fugar touch of them, than in the tongues of the French council; and they should fooner perfuade Harry of England, than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father.

Enter the French King and Queen, BURGUNDY, BEDFORD, GLOSTER, EXETER, WESTMORELAND, and other French and English Lords.

BUR. God fave your majefty! my royal coufin, teach you our princefs English?

K. HEN. I would have her learn, my fair coufin, how perfectly I love her; and that is good English. BUR. Is the not apt?

K. HEN. Our tongue is rough, coz; and my condition is not smooth: fo that, having neither the voice nor the heart of flattery about me, I cannot fo conjure up the spirit of love in her, that he will appear in his true likeness.

BUR. Pardon the frankness of my mirth,3 if I

6 - your lips,—should fooner perfuade Harry of England, than a general petition of monarchs.] So, in the old anonymous Henry V: « -Tell thy father from me, that none in the world fhould fooner have perfuaded me," &c.

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STEEVENS.

my condition is not smooth:] Condition is temper. So, in King Henry IV. Part I. A&t I. fc. iii:

66

my condition,

"Which has been smooth as oil," &c.

See Vol. XI. p. 213, n. 7. STEEVENS.

Pardon the frankness of my mirth,] We have here but a mean dialogue for princes; the merriment is very gross, and the fentiments are very worthless. JOHNSON.

anfwer you for that. If you would conjure in her you must make a circle: if conjure up love in her in his true likeness, he muft appear naked, and blind: Can you blame her then, being a maid yet rofed over with the virgin crimson of modefty, if The deny the appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked feeing felf? It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to confign to.

K. HEN. Yet they do wink, and yield; as love is blind, and enforces.

BUR. They are then excufed, my lord, when they fee not what they do.

K. HEN. Then, good my lord, teach your coufin to confent to winking.

BUR. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will teach her to know my meaning: for maids, well fummered and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their eyes; and then they will endure handling, which before would not abide looking on.

K. HEN. This moral ties me over to time, and a hot fummer; and fo I will catch the fly, your coufin, in the latter end, and the muft be blind too.

BUR. As love is, my lord, before it loves. K. HEN. It is fo: and you may, fome of you, thank love for my blindness; who cannot fee many a fair French city, for one fair French maid that ftands in my way.

9 This moral-] That is, the application of this fable. The moral being the application of a fable, our author calls any application a moral. JOHNSON.

So, in Much Ado about Nothing: "Benedictus! why Benedictus? you have fome moral in this Benedictus ?" See Vol. VI. STEVENS.

p. 112, n. 1.

I

FR. KING. Yes, my lord, you fee them perfpec-
tively, the cities turned into a maid; for they
are all girdled with maiden walls, that war hath
never entered.2

K. HEN. Shall Kate be my wife?

FR. KING. So please you.

K. HEN. I am content; fo the maiden cities you
talk of, may wait on her: fo the maid, that stood
in the way of my wifh, fhall fhow me the way to
my will.

FR. KING. We have confented to all terms of
reason.

K. HEN. Is't fo, my lords of England?

WEST. The king hath granted every article:
His daughter, firft; and then, in fequel, all,3
According to their firm proposed natures.

EXE. Only, he hath not yet subscribed this:-
Where your majefty demands,-That the king of
France, having any occafion to write for matter of

I

you fee them perfpectively, the cities turned into a
maid;] So, in Twelfth-Night, A&t V. fc. i:

"A natural perspective, that is, and is not.”
See Mr. Tollet's note on this paffage, Vol. V. p. 469, n. 7.
STEEVENS.

2

they are all girdled with maiden walls, &c.] We
have again the fame allufion in The Rape of Lucrece :
"This moves in him more rage, and leffer pity,
"To make the breach, and enter this fweet city."

Again, in his Lover's Complaint:

"And long upon these terms I held my city,

"Till thus he 'gan to fiege me."

See alio All's well that ends well, Vol. VIII. p. 214. MALONE,

3

and then, in fequel, all,] Then, which is not in the
old copy, was fupplied, for the fake of the metre, by the editor
of the fecond folio. MALone.

grant, fhall name your highnefs in this form, and with this addition, in French,-Notre tres cher filz Henry roy d'Angleterre, heretier de France; and thus in Latin,-Præclarifsimus filius4 nofter Henricus, rex Angliæ, & hæres Francia.

FR. KING. Nor this I have not, brother, fo denied, But your request shall make me let it pass.

K. HEN. I pray you then, in love and dear alli

ance,

Let that one article rank with the reft:

And, thereupon, give me your daughter.

FR. KING. Take her, fair fon; and from her
blood raise up

Iffue to me that the contending kingdoms
Of France and England, whofe very thores look pale
With envy of each other's happiness,

May cease their hatred; and this dear conjunction
Plant neighbourhood and chriftian-like accord
In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance
His bleeding fword 'twixt England and fair France.
ALL. Amen!

Notre tres cher filx--and thus in Latin,-Præclariffimus filius-] What, is tres cher, in French, Præclariffimus in Latin ? We fhould read-præcariffimus.

WARBURTON. "but how came

"This is exceeding true," fays Dr. Farmer, the blunder? It is a typographical one in Holinshed, which Shakspeare copied; but muft indisputably have been corrected, had he been acquainted with the languages." STEEVENS.

In all the old hiftorians that I have seen, as well as in Holinfhed, I find this mistake; but in the preamble of the original treaty of Troyes, Henry is ftyled Præcariffimus; and in the 22d article the ftipulation is, that he fhall always be called, "in lingua Gallicana notre tres cher fils, &c. in lingua vero Latina hoc modo, nofter præcariffimus filius Henricus," &c. Rymer's Foed. IX. 893. MALONE.

See

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