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, Richard 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 Shakspeare founded, &c. published by S. Leacroft, Charingcross. Steevens. The Historie of Lord Faulconbridge, &c. is a prose narrative, 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 Stationer' 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. Malone. A a 2 King John: 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: James Gurney, servant to lady Faulconbridge. 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. Salisbury.] Son to King Henry II, by Rosamond Clifford. Steevens. 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: 1 In my behaviour,] The word hehaviour seems here to have a signification that I have never found in any other author. The king of France, says the envoy, thus speaks in my behaviour to the majesty of England; that is, the King of France speaks in the character which I here assume. I once thought that these two lines, in my behaviour, &c. had been uttered by the ambassador, as a part of his master's message, and that behaviour had meant the conduct of the King of France towards the King of England; but the ambassador's speech, as continued after the interruption, will not admit this meaning. Johnson. In my behaviour means, in the manner that I now do. M. Mason. In my behaviour means, I think, in the words and action that I am now going to use. So, in the fifth Act of this play, the Bastard says to the French king Now hear our English king, "For thus his royalty doth speak in me." Malone. Desiring thee to lay aside the sword, K. John. What follows, if we disallow of this? K. John. Here have we war for war, and blood for blood, Controlment for controlment: so answer France.3 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; 2— control-] Opposition, from controller. Johnson. I think it rather means constraint or compulsion. So, in the second Act of King Henry V, when Exeter demands of the King of France the surrender of his crown, and the King answers-" Or else what follows?" Exeter replies: 66 Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown "Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it." The passages are exactly similar. M. Mason. 3 Here have we war for war, and blood for blood, Controlment for controlment: &c.] King John's reception of Chatillon not a little resembles that which Andrea meets with from the King of Portugal, in the first part of Jeronimo, &c. 1605: "And. Thou shalt pay tribute, Portugal, with blood."Bal. Tribute for tribute then; and foes for foes. "And. I bid you sudden wars." Steevens. • Be thou as lightning-] The similie does not suit well: the lightning, indeed, appears before the thunder is heard, but the lightning is destructive, and the thunder innocent. Johnson. The allusion may, notwithstanding, be very proper, so far as Shakspeare had applied it, i. e. merely the swiftness of the lightning, and its preceding and foretelling the thunder. But there is some reason to believe that thunder was not thought to be innocent in our author's time, as we elsewhere learn from himself.— See King Lear, Act III, sc. ii, Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, sc. v, Julius Cæsar, Act I, sc. iii, and still more decisively in Measure for Measure, Act II, sc. ii. This old superstition is still prevalent in many parts of the country. Ritson. King John does not allude to the destructive powers either of thunder or lightning; he only means to say that Chatillon shall appear to the eyes of the French like lightning, which shows that thunder is approaching: and the thunder he alludes to is that of his cannon. Johnson also forgets, that though, philoso For ere thou canst report I will be there, Sudden [Exeunt CHAT. and PEM. Eli. What now, my son? have I not ever said, 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. right; Or else it must go wrong with you, and me: phically speaking, the destructive power is in the lightning, it has generally, in poetry, been attributed to the thunder. So, Lear says: 5 "You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, sullen presage-] By the epithet sullen, which cannot be applied to a trumpet, it is plain that our author's imagination had now suggested a new idea. It is as if he had said, be a trumpet to alarm with our invasion, be a bird of ill omen to croak out the prognostick of your own ruin. Johnson. I do not see why the epithet sullen may not be applied to a trumpet, with as much propriety as to a bell. In our author's King Henry IV, P. II, we find "Sounds ever after as a sullen bell -" Malone. That here are two ideas is evident; but the second of them has not been luckily explained. The sullen presage of your own decay, means, the dismal passing bell, that announces your own approaching dissolution. Steevens. 6 the manage] i. e. conduct, administration. So, in K. Richard II: for the rebels Expedient manage must be made, my liege." Steevens. |