OBSERVATIONS.

THE Troublefome Reign of King John was written in two parts, by W. Shakfpeare and W. Rowley, and printed in 1611. But the prefent play is entirely different, and infinitely fuperior

to it. POPE.

The edition of 1611 has no mention of Rowley, nor in the account of Rowley's works is any mention made of his conjunction with Shakspeare in any play. King John was reprinted in two parts in 1622. The first edition that I have found of this play in its prefent form, is that of 1623, in folio. The edition of 1591 I have not feen. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnfon miftakes when he fays there is no mention in Rowley's works of any conjunction with Shakspeare. The Birth of Merlin is afcribed to them jointly; though I cannot believe Shakspeare had any thing to do with it. Mr. Capell is equally mistaken when he fays that Rowley is called his partner in the title-page of The Merry Devil of Edmonton.

There must have been fome tradition, however erroneous, upon which Mr. Pope's account was founded. I make no doubt that Rowley wrote the first King John; and when Shakspeare's play was called for, and could not be procured from the players, a piratical book feller reprinted the old one, with W. Sh. in the titlepage. FARMER.

The elder play of King John was firft published in 1591. Shakfpeare has preferved the greateft part of the conduct of it, as well as fome of the lines. The number of quotations from Horace, and fimilar fcraps of learning fcattered over this motley piece, afcertain it to have been the work of a fcholar. It contains likewife a quantity of rhyming Latin, and ballad-metre; and in a fcene where the Baftard is reprefented as plundering a monaftery, there are strokes of humour, which feem, from their particular turn, to have been moft evidently produced by another hand than that of our author.

Of this hiftorical drama there is a fubfequent edition in 1611, printed for John Helme, whose name appears before none of the genuine pieces of Shakspeare. I admitted this play fomeyears ago as our author's own, among the twenty which I published from the old editions; but a more careful perufal of it, and a fur. ther conviction of his cuftom of borrowing plots, fentiments, &c. difpofes me to recede from that opinion. STEEVENS.

A play

A play entitled The troublefome 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, fays that the former was printed in 1611, as written by W. Shakspeare and W. Rowley. But this is not true. In the fecond edition of this old play in 1611, the letters W. Sh. were put into the title-page, to deceive the purchafer, and to lead him to fuppofe the piece was Shakfpeare's play, which at that time was not published.—Our author's King John was written, I imagine, in 1596. 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 fome tranfactions of his reign to the time of his demife, being an interval of about feventeen years.

THEOBALD.

Hall, Holinfhed, Stowe, &c. are clofely followed not only in the conduct, but fometimes in the very expreffions throughout the following hiftorical dramas; viz. Macbeth, this play, Richard II. Henry IV. two parts, Henry V. Henry VI. three parts, Richard III. and Henry VIII.

"A booke called The Hiftorie of Lord Faulconbridge, baftard 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 hiftory, or a play on the fame fubject. For the original K. John, fee Six old Plays on which ShakSpeare founded, &c. published by S. Leacroft, Charing-Crofs.

STEEVENS.

The biftorie of Lord Faulconbridge, &c. is a profe narrative, in bl. 1. The earliest edition that I have feen 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 Wilfon, Henry Chettle, Anthony Mundy, and Michael Drayton, and first exhibited in the year 1598. MALONE.

KING JOHN:

PRINCE HENRY, his fon; 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 Effex, Chief Justiciary of England.

WILLIAM LONGSWORD, Earl of Salisbury.

ROBERT BIGOT, Earl of Norfolk.

HUBERT DE BURGH, Chamberlain to the King.

ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, fon of Sir Robert Faulconbridge.

PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE, his half-brother; baftard son to
K. Richard the First.

JAMES GURNEY, fervant to Lady Faulconbridge.
PETER of Pomfret, a Prophet.

PHILIP, King of France.

LEWIS, the Dauphin.

ARCH-DUKE of Auftria.

CARDINAL PANDULPHO, 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 Alphonfo King of Caftile, and niece. to King John.

Lady FAULCONBRIDGE, mother to the baftard, and Robert Faulconbridge.

Lords, Ladies, Citizens of Angiers, Sheriff, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Meffengers, and other Attendants.

SCENE, fometimes in England, and fometimes 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.

Now,

King John.

Ow, fay, 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 ftrange 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 Geffery's fon,

Arthur Plantagenet, lays most lawful claim
To this fair island, and the territories;

To Ireland, Poitiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine:
Defiring thee to lay afide the fword,

Which fways usurpingly these several titles;
And put the fame into young Arthur's hand,
Thy nephew, and right royal fovereign.

K. John. What follows, if we difallow 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; fo anfwer France.

Chat. Then take my king's defiance from my mouth, The furthest limit of my embaffy.

K. John. Bear mine to him, and fo depart in peace : Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France;

For ere thou canft report 1 will be there,
The thunder of my cannon fhall be heard:
So, hence! Be thou the trumpet of our wrath,
And fullen prefage of your own decay.—
An honourable conduct let him have ;-
Pembroke, look to't: Farewell, Chatillon.

[Exeuni CHATILLON and PEMBROKE.
Eli. What now, my fon? have I not ever said,
How that ambitious Conftance would not cease,
Till she had kindled France, and all the world,
Upon the right and party of her fon?

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 poffeffion, and our right, for us. Eli. Your ftrong poffeffion, much more than your right;

Or else it must go wrong with you, and me:

So much my confcience whispers in your ear;

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

Enter the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, who whispers ESSEX.

Effex. 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, fhall pay

[Exit Sheriff.

Re-enter