Page 1731 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

O Kate! nice customs curtsy to great kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be
confined within the [265] 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.] [270]
[Before God,] Kate, you have witchcraft in your lips: 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. [275]

Re-enter the French King, [Queen,] and the French Powers; [Burgundy],
and the English Lords.

BURGUNDY
God save your majesty! My royal cousin, teach you our Princess English?

KING HENRY
I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how perfectly I love her, and that is

good English.

BURGUNDY

Is she not apt? [280]

KING HENRY
Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition is not smooth; so that, having
neither the voice nor the heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up
the spirit of love in her, that he will appear in his true likeness. [285]

BURGUNDY
Pardon the frankness of my mirth if I answer 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 must appear naked and blind. Can you blame her then, being a
maid yet rosed over with the virgin crimson of [290] modesty, if she deny the
appearance of a naked blind boy in her naked seeing self? It were, my lord, a

hard condition for a maid to consign to.

KING HENRY