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

Unto this bar and royal interview,

Your mightiness on both parts beft can, witness.
Since then my office hath fo far prevail'd,
That, face to face, and royal eye to eye,
You have congreeted; let it not difgrace 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 beft garden of the world,
Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?
Alas! fhe hath from France too long been chas'd;
And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,
Corrupting in its own fertility.

3 Her vine, the merry chearer of the heart,
Unpruned dies; her hedges even pleach'd,
+ Like prifoners, wildly over-grown with hair,
Put forth disorder'd twigs: her fallow leas
The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory
Doth root upon; while that the coulter rufts,
That fhould deracinate fuch favag'ry:

The even mead, that erft brought fweetly forth
The freckled cowflip, burnet, and green clover,
Wanting the fcythe, all uncorrected, rank,
Conceives by idleness; and nothing teems,

2 Unto this bar] To this barrier; to this place of congrefs. JOHNSON.

3 Her vine,

Unpruned dies;] We must read, lyes; for neglect of pruning does not kill the vine, but caufes it to ramify immoderately, and grow wild; by which the requifite nourishment is withdrawn from its fruit. WARBURTON.

This emendation is phyfically right, but poetically the vine' may be well enough faid to die which ceafes to bear fruit. JOHNSON.

Like prifoners,] This image of prifoners is oddly introduced. A hedge even pleach'd is more properly imprisoned than when it luxuriates in unpruned exuberance. JOHNSON.

I 4.

But

But hateful docks, rough thistles, keckfies, burs,
Lofing both beauty and utility.

And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges,
5 Defective in their natures, grow to wildness.
Even fo our houses, and ourselves and children
Have loft, or do not learn, for want of time,
The sciences, that should become our country;
But grow, like favages; as foldiers will,
That nothing do but meditate on blood,
To fwearing and stern looks, 6 diffus'd attire,
And every thing that seems unnatural.
Which to reduce into our 7 former favour,
You are affembled: and my fpeech intreats,
That I may know the let, why gentle peace
Should not expel these inconveniencies;
And blefs us with her former qualities.

K. Henry. 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 juft demands;
Whose tenours and particular effects.

You have, enfchedul'd briefly, in your

hands.

Bur. The king hath heard them; to the which

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5 Defective in their natures,-] Nature had been changed by fome of the editors into nurtures; but, as Mr. Upton obferves, unneceffarily. Sua deficiuntur natura. They were not defective in their crefcive nature, for they grew to wildness; but they were defective in their proper and favourable nature, which was to bring forth food for man. STEEVENS.

6

-diffus'd attire,] Diffus'd, for extravagant. The military habit of thofe times was extremely fo. A& 3. fcene 7. Gower fays, And what a beard of the general's cut, and a horrid fuit of the camp, will do among ft, &c. is wonderful to be thought on. WARBURTON.

Diffus'd is fo much used by our author for wild, irregular, and Strange, that in The Merry Wives of Windfor he applies it to a fong fuppofed to be fung by fairies. JOHNSON.

7-former favour,] Former appearance. JOHNSON.

K. Henry.

K. Henry. Well, then the peace
Which you before fo urg'd, lies in his answer.
Fr. King. I have but with a curforary eye
O'er-glanc'd the articles: pleafeth your grace
To appoint fome of your council presently
To fit with us, once more with better heed
To re-furvey them, we will fuddenly
Pass, or accept, and peremptory antwer.

K. Henry. Brother, we fhall. Go, uncle Exeter, And brother Clarence, and you, brother Glo'fter, Warwick and Huntington, go with the king: And take with you free power to ratify, Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best Shall fee advantageable for our dignity, Any thing in, or out of our demands; And we'll confign thereto. Will you, fair fifter, Go with the princes, or ftay here with us?

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

K. Henry. Yet leave our coufin Catherine here with us.

She is our capital demand, compris'd
Within the fore-rank of our articles.

2. Ifa. She hath good leave.

[Exeunt.

Manent king Henry, Catherine, and a lady.

K. Henry. Fair Catherine, most fair! Will you vouchfafe to teach a foldier terms,

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we will fuddenly

Pafs our accept, and peremptory anfver.] As the French king defires more time to connder deliberately of the articles, 'tis odd and abfurd for him to fy abfolutely, that he would accept them all. He certainly must mean, that he would at once wave and decline what he diflik'd, and confign to fuch as he approv'd of. Our author ufes pass in this manner in other places; as in King John:

But if you fondly pass our proffer'd love.

WARBURTON.

Such

Such as will enter at a lady's ear,

And plead his love-fuit to her gentle heart? Cath. Your majefty fhall mock at me; I cannot speak your England.

your

K. Henry. O fair Catherine, if you will love me foundly with French heart, I will be glad to hear you confefs it brokenly with your English tongue. Do you like me, Kate?

Cath. Pardonnez moy, I cannot tell vat is like me. K. Henry. An angel is like you, Kate; and you are like an angel.

Cath. Que dit-il? que je fuis femblable à les anges? Lady. Ouy, vrayment (fauf voftre grace) ainfi dit il. K. Henry. I faid fo, dear Catherine, and I must not blush to affirm it.

Cath. O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes font pleines de tromperies.

K. Henry. What fays fhe, fair one? that tongues men are full of deceits?

of

Lady. Ouy, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of deceits. Dat is de princefs.

K. Henry. The princess is the better English woman. I'faith, Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding: I am glad thou canft fpeak no better English; for if thou couldft, thou wouldst find me 9 fuch a plain king, that thou wouldft think, I had fold my farm to buy

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fuch a plain king,-] I know not why Shakespeare now gives the king nearly fuch a character as he made him formerly ridicule in Percy. This military groffnefs and unfkilfulness in all the fofter arts does not fuit very well with the gaieties of his youth, with the general knowledge afcribed to him at his acceflion, or with the contemptuous meffage fent him by the Dauphin, who reprefents him as fitter for the ball-room than the field, and tells him that he is not to revel into dutchies, or win provinces with a nimble galliard. The truth is, that the poet's matter failed him in the fifth act, and he was glad to fill it up with whatever he could get; and not even Shakespeare can write well without a proper fubject. It is a vain endeavour for the most skilful hand to cultivate barrennefs, or to paint upon vacuity. JOHNSON.

my

my crown. I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to fay, I love you: then if you urge me further than to fay, Do you in faith? I wear out my fuit. Give me your anfwer; i'faith, do; and fo clap hands and a bargain. How fay you, lady?

Cath. Sauf votre bonneur, me understand well.

K. Henry. Marry, if you would put me to verses, or to dance for your fake, Kate, why, you undid me: for the one I have neither words nor measure, and for the other I have no ftrength in measure, yet a reasonable measure in strength. If I could win a lady at leap-frog, or by vaulting into my faddle with my armour on my back, under the correction of bragging be it fpoken, I fhould quickly leap into a wife. Or if I might buffet for my love, or bound my horfe for her favours, I could lay on like a butcher, and fit like a jack-a-napes, never off. But, before God, Kate, I cannot look greenly, nor gafp out my eloquence, nor have I no cunning in proteftation; only downright oaths, which I never ufe 'till urg'd, and never break for urging. If thou canst love a fellow of this temper, Kate, whofe face is not worth fun-burning, that never looks in his glafs for love of any thing he fees there, let thine eye be thy cook. I fpeak plain foldier: if thou canft love me for this, take me: if not, to fay to thee that I fhall die, 'tis true; but for thy love, by the Lord, no; yet I love thee too. And while thou liv'ft, Kate, take a fellow of plain and uncoined conftancy; for he perforce muft do thee right, because he hath not the gift to woo in other places: for thefe fellows of infinite tongue, that can rhyme themfelves into ladies' favours, they do always reafon themselves out

- take a fellow of plain and uncoined conftancy ;-] i. e. A conftancy in the ingot, that hath fuffered no alloy, as all coined metal has. WARBURTON.

I believe this explanation is more ingenious than true; to coin is to fiamp and to counterfeit. He ufes it in both fenfes ; uncoined conftancy fignifies real and true conftancy, unrefined and nadorned. JOHNSON.

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