SCENE I. Northampton. A Room of State in the Palace.

KING JOHN on his Throne; QUEEN ELINOR, PEMBROKE, ESSEX, SALISBURY, and others. Banners of England, Normandy, and Aquitaine. Enter CHATILLON and Attendants.

K. John. Now, say, Chatillon, what would France with us?

Chat. Thus, after greeting, speaks the King of France,

In my behaviour,1 to the majesty,
The borrowed majesty, of England here.
Eli. A strange beginning: "borrowed ma-
jesty!"

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

1 In my behaviour, i.e. "with the behaviour which I now assume as his representative."

VOL. III.

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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.

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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!

70

What doth move you to claim your brother's land?

Bast. Because he hath a half-face, like my father.

With half that 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,— [Bust. Well, sir, by this you cannot get my land:

Your tale must be, how he employ'd my mother.

Rob.] And once dispatch'd him in an embassy

To Germany, there with the emperor1

100

To treat of high affairs touching that time.
Th' advantage of his absence took the king,
And in the mean time sojourn'd at my fa-
ther'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 it2 on his death, 110 That this, my mother's son, was none of his; [And if he were, he came into the world 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 hers; Which fault lies on the hazards of all hus

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. [To Bastard] Whether hadst thou ra-
ther be a Faulconbridge,

And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land,
Or the reputed son of Cœur-de-lion,
Lord of thy presence,3 and no land beside?

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

And I had his, sir Robert's his, like him; And if my legs were two such riding-rods, 140 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 threefarthings goes!"

And, to his shape, were heir to all this land,-
Would I might never stir from off this place,
I would 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,

Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me?

I am a soldier, and now bound to France. 150 Bast. Brother, take you my land, I'll take

Kneel thou down Philip, but rise up more great,-

Arise sir Richard and Plantagenet.

Bast. Brother by the mother's side, give me your hand:

My father gave me honour, yours gave land. [Now blessed be the hour, by night or day, When I was got, sir Robert was away! Eli. The very spirit of Plantagenet! I am thy grandam, Richard; call me so. Bast. Madam, by chance but not by truth:1 what though?2

Something about, a little from the right,

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In at the window, or else o'er the hatch: Who dares not stir by day must walk by night; And have is have, however men do catch: Near or far off, well won is still well shot; And I am I, howe'er I was begot.]

K. John. Go, Faulconbridge: now hast thou thy desire;

A landless knight makes thee a landed squire.

Come, madam,--and come, Richard; we must speed

For France, for France; for it is more than need.

Bast. Brother, adieu; good fortune come to thee!

[For thou wast got i' the way of honesty.

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[Trumpets. Exeunt all but Bastard.

A foot of honour better than I was; But many a many foot of land the worse. ] Well, now can I make any Joan a lady:"Good den,3 sir Richard!"—"God-a-mercy, fellow!"

And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter;

1 Truth, honesty.

2 What though? what does it matter?

3 Good den, good evening.

For new-made honour doth forget men's

names,

'Tis too respective1 and too sociable For your conversion. Now your traveller,— He and his toothpick at my worship's mess; And when my knightly stomach is suffic'd, 191 Why then I suck my teeth, and catechize My picked man of countries: "My dear sir,"Thus, leaning on mine elbow, I begin,-"I shall beseech you"--that is question now; And then comes answer like an Abseys book:"O sir," says answer, "at your best command; At your employment; at your service, sir;” "No sir," says question, "I, sweet sir, at yours:"

And so, ere answer knows what question would,

Saving in dialogue of compliment,
And talking of the Alps and Apennines,
The Pyrenean and the river Po,-
It draws toward supper in conclusion so.
But this is worshipful society,

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And fits the mounting spirit like myself;
For he is but a bastard to the time,
That doth not smack of observation;—
And so am I, whether I smack or no;
[And not alone in habit and device,
Exterior form, outward accoutrement,
But from the inward motion 10 to deliver
Sweet, sweet, sweet poison for the age's tooth:
Which," though I will not practise to deceive,)
Yet, to avoid deceit, I mean to learn;
For it shall strew the footsteps of my rising.
But who comes in such haste in riding robes?
[What woman-post is this? hath she no hus-
band,

That will take pains to blow a horn before her?] 2-19

Enter LADY FAULCONBRIDGE and JAMES
GURNEY.

O me! it is my mother. - How now, good lady!

What brings you here to court so hastily?

220

Madam, I was not old sir Robert's son; [Sir Robert might have eat his part in me {Upon Good-Friday, and ne'er broke his fast: Sir Robert could do well: marry, to confess, Could he get me? Sir Robert could not do it: We know his handiwork: therefore, good mother,

To whom am I beholdings for these limbs? Sir Robert never holp to make this leg.] 240 Lady F. Hast thou conspired with thy brother too,

That for thine own gain shouldst defend mine honour?

What means this scorn, thou most untoward knave?

Bast. Knight, knight, good mother,-Basilisco-like;

What! I am dubb'd:-I have it on my shoul