KING JOHN.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Northampton. A Room of State in the Palace.

Enter King JOHN, Queen ELINOR, PEMBROKE, ESSEX,
SALISBURY, and Others, with CHATILLON.

K. John. Now, say, Chatillon, what would France with us?
Chat. Thus, after greeting, speaks the king of France,
In my behaviour, to the majesty,

The borrow'd majesty, of England here.

Eli. A strange beginning!-borrow'd majesty?
K. John. Silence, good mother: hear the embassy.
Chat. Philip of France, in right and true behalf
Of thy deceased brother Geffrey's son,
Arthur Plantagenet, lays most lawful claim
To this fair island, and the territories,

To Ireland, Poictiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine;
Desiring thee to lay aside the sword

Which sways usurpingly these several titles,
And put the same into young Arthur's hand,
Thy nephew, and right royal sovereign.

K. John. What follows, if we disallow of this?
Chat. The proud control of fierce and bloody war,

To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld.

K. John. Here have we war for war, and blood for blood, Controlment for controlment: so answer France.

Chat. Then take my king's defiance from my mouth,

The farthest limit of my embassy.

K. John. Bear mine to him, and so depart in peace.

Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France;
For ere thou canst report I will be there,
The thunder of my cannon shall be heard.
So, hence! Be thou the trumpet of our wrath,
And sullen presage of your own decay'.-
An honourable conduct let him have:
Pembroke, look to't.-Farewell, Chatillon.

[Exeunt CHATILLON, and PEMBROKE.

Eli. What now, my son? have I not ever said,
How that ambitious Constance would not cease,
Till she had kindled France, and all the world,
Upon the right and party of her son?

This might have been prevented, and made whole,
With very easy arguments of love,

Which now the manage of two kingdoms must

With fearful bloody issue arbitrate.

K. John. Our strong possession, and our right for us. Eli. Your strong possession, much more than your right, Or else it must go wrong with you, and me:

So much my conscience whispers in your ear,

Which none but heaven, and you, and I, shall hear.

Enter the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, who whispers ESSEX'.

Essex. My liege, here is the strangest controversy,
Come from the country to be judg'd by you,
That e'er I heard: shall I produce the men?

1 And SULLEN presage of your own decay.] It seems difficult to imagine how the sound of a trumpet could be a "sullen presage," although it might give a sudden warning of the approach of the English. Nevertheless, we leave "sullen" in the text, as the word in all early authorities, and as an epithet not wholly inapplicable, although the corr. fo. 1632 instructs us to read sudden. One word might be misheard for the other; and "sullen" is actually misprinted sudden in the folio, 1623, in "Richard II." A. i. sc. 3. The small difference between "sullen" and sudden in sound is played upon in Fletcher's "Woman's Prize," A. iv. sc. 4, where a servant brings news of the illness of Livia :

"Serv. Is fallen sick o' the sudden.

Rowl. How, o' the sullens?

:

Serv. O' the sudden, sir, I say: very sick."

See also "Bonduca," A. v. sc. 2, where Suetonius wishes "some sullen plague" to fall on Petillius, and where the epithet certainly ought to be sudden-some instant plague. The Rev. Mr. Dyce overlooked this obvious error.

2 Enter the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, who whispers Essex.] The stagedirection in the folio, 1623, is only "Enter a Sheriff;" but it is evident that he was Sheriff of Northamptonshire. In the old play of "King John," he is said to "whisper Salisbury," who stands in the place of Essex.

K. John. Let them approach.

Our abbeys, and our priories, shall pay

[Exit Sheriff.

Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, and PHILIP, his bastard Brother.

This expedition's charge.-What men are you?
Bast. Your faithful subject I; a gentleman
Born in Northamptonshire, and eldest son,
As I suppose, to Robert Faulconbridge3,
A soldier, by the honour-giving hand
Of Coeur-de-lion knighted in the field.
K. John. What art thou?

Rob. The son and heir to that same Faulconbridge.
K. John. Is that the elder, and art thou the heir?
You came not of one mother, then, it seems.

Bast. Most certain of one mother, mighty king;
That is well known, and, as I think, one father:
But, for the certain knowledge of that truth,
I put you o'er to heaven, and to my mother':
Of that I doubt, as all men's children may.

Eli. Out on thee, rude man! thou dost shame thy mother, And wound her honour with this diffidence.

Bast. I, madam? no, I have no reason for it:
That is my brother's plea, and none of mine;
The which if he can prove, 'a pops me out
At least from fair five hundred pound a year.
Heaven guard my mother's honour, and my land!

K. John. A good blunt fellow.-Why, being younger born,

Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance?

Bast. I know not why, except to get the land.
But once he slander'd me with bastardy:
But whe'r I be as true begot, or no,

That still I lay upon my mother's head;

3 As I suppose, to ROBERT Faulconbridge,] The folio, 1632, omits "Robert," but it is inserted in the margin by the old corrector, perhaps from the folio, 1623, for it is in none of the subsequent impressions in that form. We may presume that "Robert" was not left out in recitation on the stage.

I put you o'er to heaven, and to my mother:] In the old "King John" the mother of Philip and Robert being present while the legitimacy of the former is canvassed, Robert says,

"And here my mother stands to prove him so;"

i. e. not the legitimate son of sir Robert Faulconbridge. Lady Faulconbridge affects to be very indignant at the accusation.

But, that I am as well begot, my liege,

(Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me!)
Compare our faces, and be judge yourself.
If old sir Robert did beget us both,

And were our father, and this son like him,
O! old sir Robert, father, on my knee

I give heaven thanks, I was not like to thee.

[Kneeling.

K. John. Why, what a mad-cap hath heaven lent us here!
Eli. He hath a trick of Coeur-de-lion's face;

The accent of his tongue affecteth him.
Do you not read some tokens of my son
In the large composition of this man?

K. John. Mine eye hath well examined his parts,
And finds them perfect Richard.—Sirrah, speak;
What doth move you to claim your brother's land?
Bast. Because he hath a half-face like my father,
With that half-face would he have all my land':
A half-fac'd groat five hundred pound a year!

Rob. My gracious liege, when that my father liv'd,
Your brother did employ my father much.—

Bast. Well, sir; by this you cannot get my land:
Your tale must be, how he employ'd my mother.
Rob. And once despatch'd him in an embassy
To Germany, there, with the emperor,
To treat of high affairs touching that time.
The advantage of his absence took the king,
And in the mean time sojourn'd at my father's;
Where how he did prevail I shame to speak,
But truth is truth: large lengths of seas and shores
Between my father and my mother lay,
As I have heard my father speak himself,
When this same lusty gentleman was got.
Upon his death-bed he by will bequeath'd
His lands to me; and took it on his death,
That this, my mother's son, was none of his :
And, if he were, he came into the world

5 With that HALF-FACE Would he have all my land :] We somewhat reluctantly vary from the old text here, because we are not sure that the change expresses the precise meaning of the poet: the folios all read,

"With half that face would he have all my land,"

but the corr. fo. 1632 shows that for "half that face" we ought to substitute "that half-face," the words having been accidentally transposed. We yield to this authority, supported as it is by Theobald's conjecture, and it is easy to see how the words became misplaced.

Full fourteen weeks before the course of time.
Then, good my liege, let me have what is mine,
My father's land, as was my father's will.

K. John. Sirrah, your brother is legitimate:
Your father's wife did after wedlock bear him;
And if she did play false, the fault was her's,
Which fault lies on the hazards of all husbands
That marry wives. Tell me, how if my brother,
Who, as you say, took pains to get this son,
Had of your father claim'd this son for his?
In sooth, good friend, your father might have kept
This calf, bred from his cow, from all the world;
In sooth, he might: then, if he were my brother's,
My brother might not claim him, nor your father,
Being none of his, refuse him. This concludes,—
My mother's son did get your father's heir;
Your father's heir must have your father's land.
Rob. Shall, then, my father's will be of no force
To dispossess that child which is not his?.

Bast. Of no more force to dispossess me, sir,
Than was his will to get me, as I think.

Eli. Whether hadst thou rather be a Faulconbridge, And like thy brother to enjoy thy land,

Or the reputed son of Cœur-de-lion,

Lord of thy presence, and no land beside ?

Bast. Madam, an if my brother had my shape,

And I had his, sir Robert his, like him;

And if my legs were two such riding-rods,

My arms such eel-skins stuff'd; my face so thin,

That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose,

Lest men should say, "Look, where three-farthings goes","
And, to his shape, were heir to all this land,

Would I might never stir from off this place,
I'd give it every foot to have this face:

I would not be sir Nob' in any case.

Eli. I like thee well. Wilt thou forsake thy fortune,

6 "Look, where three-farthings goes,"] Philip here again jokes on the thinness of Robert's face. Elizabeth coined thin silver pieces, of the value of three farthings, on which, at the back of the ear of the Queen's head, was a rose, and to this Philip alludes. Costard in "Love's Labour's Lost," Vol. ii. p. 120, mentions pieces of "three farthings" as then current.

7 I would not be sir NOB] The old copy reads, "It would not be, &c." The correction was made by the editor of the second folio. In both it is printed sir nobbe, without a capital letter.

VOL. III.

K