borrowing plots, sentiments, &c. disposes me to recede from that opinion. STEEVENS. A play entitled The troublesome Raigne of John King of England, in two parts, was printed in 1591, without the writer's name. It was written, I believe, either by Robert Greene, or George Peele; and certainly preceded this of our author. Mr. Pope, who is very inaccurate in matters of this kind, says that the former was printed in 1611, as written by W. Shakespeare and W. Rowley. But this is not true. In the second edition of this old play, in 1611, the letters W. Sh. were put into the title-page to deceive the purchaser, and to lead him to suppose the piece was Shakespeare's play, which, at that time, was not published. -See a more minute account of this fraud in An Attempt to ascertain the Order of Shakespeare's Plays, Vol. II. Our author's King John was written, I imagine, in 1596. The reasons on which this opinion is founded may be found in that Essay. MALONE. Though this play have the title of The Life and Death of King John, yet the action of it begins at the thirty-fourth year of his life, and takes in only some transactions of his reign to the time of his demise, being an interval of about seventeen years. THEOBALD. Hall, Holinshed, Stowe, &c. are closely followed, not only in the conduct, but sometimes in the very expressions, throughout the following historical dramas; viz. Macbeth, this play, Richard II. Henry IV. two parts, Henry V. Henry VI. three parts, Ricnard III. and Henry VIII. "A booke called The Historie of Lord Faulconbridge, bastard Son to Richard Cordelion," was entered at Stationers' Hall, Nov. 29, 1614; but I have never met with it, and therefore know not whether it was the old black letter history, or a play upon the same subject. For the original King John, see Six old Plays on which Shakespeare founded, &c. published by S. Leacroft, Charing-cross. STEEVENS. The Historie of Lord Faulconbridge, &c. is a prose nar rative, in bl. 1. The earliest edition that I have seen of it was printed in 1616. A book entitled Richard Cur de Lion was entered on the Stationers' Books in 1558. A play called The Funeral of Richard Cordelion, was written by Robert Wilson, Henry Chettle, Anthony Mundy, and Michael Drayton, and first exhibited in the year 1598. See The Historical Account of the English Stage, Vol. II. 'MALONE. King JoHN: PERSONS REPRESENTED. Prince HENRY, his son; afterwards King Henry III. ARTHUR, duke of Bretagne, son of Geffrey, late duke of Bretagne, the elder brother of King John. WILLIAM MARESHALL, earl of Pembroke. GEFFREY FITZ-PETER, earl of Essex, chief justiciary of England. WILLIAM LONGSWORD, earl of Salisbury. ROBERT BIGOT, earl of Norfolk. HUBERT DE BURGH, chamberlain to the king. ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, son of sir Robert Faulconbridge: PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE, his half-brother, bastard son te King Richard the First. JAMES GURNEY, servant to Lady Faulconbridge. PETER of POMFRET, a prophet. PHILIP, king of France. LEWIS, the dauphin. Arch-duke of Austria. Cardinal PANDULPH, the Pope's legate. MELUN, a French lord. CHATILLON, ambassador from France to King John. ELINOR, the widow of King Henry II. and mother of King John. CONSTANCE, mother to Arthur. BLANCH, daughter to Alphonso, king of Castile, and niece to King John. Lady FAULCONBRIDGE, mother to the Bastard, and Robert Faulconbridge. Lords, Ladies, Citizens of Angiers, Sheriff, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants. SCENE, sometimes in England, and sometimes in France. 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! Arthur Plantagenet, lays most lawful claim To Ireland, Poictiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine : Which sways usurpingly these several titles; 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 furthest 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 ; [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, Which now the manage of two kingdoms must 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? K. John. Let them approach. Our abbies, and our priories, shall pay [Exit Sheriff. Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, and This expedition's charge.-What men are you? 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, 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; |