SCENE IV. The FRENCH KING'S palace.

Enter KATHARINE and ALICE.

Kath. Alice, tu as été en Angleterre, et tu parles bien le langage.

Alice. Un peu, madame.

Kath. Je te prie, m'enseignez; il faut que j'apprenne à parler. Comment appelez-vous la main en Anglois ?

Alice. La main? elle est appelée de hand.

Kath. De hand. Et les doigts?

Alice. Les doigts ? ma foi, j'oublie les doigts; mais je me souviendrai. Les doigts? je pense 10 qu'ils sont appelés de fingres; oui, de fingres.

Kath. La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. Je pense que je suis le bon écolier; j'ai gagné deux mots d'Anglois vitement. Comment appelez-vous les ongles?

Alice. Les ongles? nous les appelons de nails. Kath. De nails. Écoutez; dites-moi, si je parle bien de hand, de fingres, et de nails.

Alice. C'est bien dit, madame; il est fort bon Anglois.

Kath. Dites-moi l'Anglois pour le bras.
Alice. De arm, madame.
Kath. Et le coude?
Alice. De elbow.
Kath. De elbow. Je

Scene 4. Successive editors have substituted approximately correct modern French for the imperfect and corrupted French of the Folio text. Probably what Shakespeare wrote was less correct than what we read; but

m'en fais la répétition

20

in the absence of any criteria of his French scholarship, it is hardly worth while to insist on a few cases in which the incorrectness of the Folio version cannot be due to mere corruption.

de tous les mots que vous m'avez appris dès à présent.

Alice. Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense.

Kath. Excusez-moi, Alice; écoutez: de hand, 30 de fingres, de nails, de arma, de bilbow.

Alice. De elbow, madame.

Kath. O Seigneur Dieu, je m'en oublie! de elbow. Comment appelez-vous les col?

Alice. De neck, madame.

Kath. De nick. Et le menton?

Alice. De chin.

Kath. De sin. Le col, de nick; le menton, de sin.

Alice. Oui. Sauf votre honneur, en vérité, 40 vous prononcez les mots aussi droit que les natifs d'Angleterre.

Kath. Je ne doute point d'apprendre, par la grace de Dieu, et en peu de temps.

Alice. N'avez vous pas déjà oublié ce que je vous ai enseigné?

Kath. Non, je reciterai à vous promptement: de hand, de fingres, de mails,—

Alice. De nails, madame.

Kath. De nails, de arm, de ilbow.

Alice. Sauf votre honneur, de elbow.

Kath. Ainsi dis-je; de elbow, de nick, et de sin. Comment appelez-vous le pied et la robe? Alice. De foot, madame; et de coun.

50

Kath. De foot et de coun! O Seigneur Dieu ! ce sont mots de son mauvais, corruptible, gros, et impudique, et non pour les dames d'honneur d'user je ne voudrais prononcer ces mots devant les seigneurs de France pour tout le monde. Foh! le foot et le coun! Néanmoins, je reciterai 60 une autre fois ma leçon ensemble: de hand, de

fingres, de nails, de arm, de elbow, de nick, de

sin, de foot, de coun.

Alice. Excellent, madame!

Kath. C'est assez pour une fois: allons-nous

à diner.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V. The same.

Enter the KING OF FRANCE, the DAUPHIN, the DUKE OF BOURBON, the CONSTABLE FRANCE, and others.

OF

Fr. King. 'Tis certain he hath pass'd the river
Somme.

Con. And if he be not fought withal, my lord,
Let us not live in France; let us quit all
And give our vineyards to a barbarous people.
Dau. O Dieu vivant! shall a few sprays of us,
The emptying of our fathers' luxury,

Our scions, put in wild and savage stock,
Spirt up so suddenly into the clouds,

And overlook their grafters ?

Bour. Normans, but bastard Normans, Norman bastards!

Mort de ma vië! if they march along

Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom,
To buy a slobbery and a dirty farm

In that nook-shotten isle of Albion.

ΤΟ

Con. Dieu de batailles! where have they this mettle ?

Is not their climate foggy, raw and dull,

On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,
Killing their fruit with frowns? Can sodden water,
A drench for sur-rein'd jades, their barley-broth,
Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat?
And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine,
Seem frosty? O, for honour of our land,
Let us not hang like roping icicles

Upon our houses' thatch, whiles a more frosty people

Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields!
Poor we may call them in their native lords.

Dau. By faith and honour,

Our madams mock at us, and plainly say
Our mettle is bred out and they will give
Their bodies to the lust of English youth
To new-store France with bastard warriors.

Bour. They bid us to the English dancingschools,

And teach lavoltas high and swift corantos;
Saying our grace is only in our heels,

And that we are most lofty runaways.

Fr. King. Where is Montjoy the herald? speed him hence:

Let him greet England with our sharp defiance.
Up, princes! and, with spirit of honour edged

20

30

and Staunton's spawned or 19. drench, physic.
shot into a nook,' though this
gives a vigorous sense. The
Dauphin's point, moreover, is
not that England is remote, but
that it is wet and uncomfort-
able to live in. 'Nook-shotten'
aptly contrasts England with the
compact, four-square contour of
France.

ib. sur-rein'd, jaded from being over-ridden.

26. in their native lords, in respect of the poor show which their owners make compared with the English.

33. lavoltas and corantos, quick, lively dances.

More sharper than your swords, hie to the field:
Charles Delabreth, high constable of France;
You Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berri,
Alençon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy;
Jaques Chatillon, Rambures, Vaudemont,
Beaumont, Grandpré, Roussi, and Fauconberg,
Foix, Lestrale, Bouciqualt, and Charolois;
High dukes, great princes, barons, lords and
knights,

For your great seats now quit you of great shames.

Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land
With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur :
Rush on his host, as doth the melted snow
Upon the valleys, whose low vassal seat
The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon :
Go down upon him, you have power enough,
And in a captive chariot into Rouen

Bring him our prisoner.

Con.

This becomes the great.

Sorry am I his numbers are so few,

His soldiers sick and famish'd in their march,
For I am sure, when he shall see our army,

40

50

He'll drop his heart into the sink of fear
And for achievement offer us his ransom.

бо

Fr. King. Therefore, lord constable, haste on
Montjoy,

And let him say to England that we send
To know what willing ransom he will give.

Prince Dauphin, you shall stay with us in Rouen.
Dau. Not so, I do beseech your majesty.

40. Delabreth, properly D'Albret; but Shakespeare took the name from Holinshed.

44. Fauconberg, anglicised by Ff to Faulconbridge.' In the next line Ff read Loys' for

'Foix.' Both forms were restored from Holinshed.

47. seats, signorial castles. 48. England; Henry's title as king, as in v. 37 and elsewhere. 60. for, instead of.