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[The LADIES-IN-WAITING mask]

Enter KING, LONGAVILLE, DUMAIN, BEROWNE,

and ATTENDANTS

Here comes Navarre.

KING.

Fair Princess, welcome to the court of Navarre.

PRINCESS OF FRANCE.

'Fair' I give you back again; and 'welcome'

I

have not yet. The roof of this court is too high to be yours, and

welcome to the wide fields too base to be mine.

KING.

You shall be welcome, madam, to my court.

PRINCESS OF FRANCE.

I will be welcome then; conduct me thither.

KING.

Hear me, dear lady: I have sworn an oath-

PRINCESS OF FRANCE.

Our Lady help my lord! He'll be forsworn.

KING.

Not for the world, fair madam, by my will.

PRINCESS OF FRANCE.

Why, will shall break it; will, and nothing else.

KING.

Your ladyship is ignorant what it is.

PRINCESS OF FRANCE.

Were my lord so, his ignorance were wise,

Where now his knowledge must prove ignorance.

I hear your Grace hath sworn out house-keeping.

'Tis deadly sin to keep that oath, my lord,

And sin to break it.

But pardon me, I am too sudden bold;

To teach a teacher ill beseemeth me.

Vouchsafe to read the purpose of my coming,

And suddenly resolve me in my suit. [Giving a paper]

KING.

Madam, I will, if suddenly I may.

PRINCESS OF FRANCE.

You will the sooner that I were away,

For you'll prove perjur'd if you make me stay.

BEROWNE.

Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?

KATHARINE.

Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?

BEROWNE.

I know you did.

KATHARINE.

How needless was it then to ask the question!

BEROWNE.

You must not be so quick.

KATHARINE.

'Tis long of you, that spur me with such questions.

BEROWNE.

Your wit 's too hot, it speeds too fast, 'twill tire.

KATHARINE.

Not till it leave the rider in the mire.

BEROWNE.

What time o' day?

KATHARINE.

The hour that fools should ask.

BEROWNE.

Now fair befall your mask!

KATHARINE.

Fair fall the face it covers!

BEROWNE.

And send you many lovers!

KATHARINE.

Amen, so you be none.

BEROWNE.

Nay, then will I be gone.

KING.

Madam, your father here doth intimate

The payment of a hundred thousand crowns;

Being but the one half of an entire sum

Disbursed by my father in his wars.

But say that he or we, as neither have,

Receiv'd that sum, yet there remains unpaid

A hundred thousand more, in surety of the which,

One part of Aquitaine is bound to us,

Although not valued to the money's worth.

If then the King your father will restore

But that one half which is unsatisfied,

We will give up our right in Aquitaine,

And hold fair friendship with his Majesty.

But that, it seems, he little purposeth,

For here he doth demand to have repaid

A hundred thousand crowns; and not demands,

On payment of a hundred thousand crowns,

To have his title live in Aquitaine;

Which we much rather had depart withal,

And have the money by our father lent,

Than Aquitaine so gelded as it is.

Dear Princess, were not his requests so far

From reason's yielding, your fair self should make

A yielding 'gainst some reason in my breast,

And go well satisfied to France again.

PRINCESS OF FRANCE.

You do the King my father too much wrong,

And wrong the reputation of your name,

In so unseeming to confess receipt

Of that which hath so faithfully been paid.

KING.

I do protest I never heard of it;

And, if you prove it, I'll repay it back

Or yield up Aquitaine.

PRINCESS OF FRANCE.

We arrest your word.

Boyet, you can produce acquittances

For such a sum from special officers

Of Charles his father.

KING.

Satisfy me so.

BOYET.

So please your Grace, the packet is not come,

Where that and other specialties are bound;

To-morrow you shall have a sight of them.

KING.

It shall suffice me; at which interview

All liberal reason I will yield unto.

Meantime receive such welcome at my hand

As honour, without breach of honour, may

Make tender of to thy true worthiness.

You may not come, fair Princess, within my gates;

But here without you shall be so receiv'd

As you shall deem yourself lodg'd in my heart,