Citizens of Angiers, Heralds, Executioners, Messengers, Soldiers, and other Attendants. The SCENE, sometimes in England, and sometimes in France.

SCENE I.

Northampton.

A room of state in the palace.

ACT I.

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 controul' of fierce and bloody

Euter King John, Queen Elinor, Pembroke, Es- 5 To inforce these rights so forcibly withheld. [war,

sex, and Salisbury, with Chatillon. K. John. NOW, say, Chatillon, what would

France with us?

[France,

Chat. Thus, after greeting, speaks the king of
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 those several titles;

10

K. John. Here have we war for war, and blood
for blood,
Controulment forcontroulment; so answer France.
Chat. Then take my king's defiance from my
The farthest limit of my embassy. [mouth,
K. John. Bear mine to him, and so depart in
Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France: [peace:
For ere thou canst report I will be there,
The thunder of my cannon shall be heard:
15 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, Ghatillon.
[Exeunt Chat. and Pem.
Eli. What now, my son? have I not ever said

20

'Mr. Theobald remarks, that though this play had 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 at the time of his demise, being an interval of about seventeen years. Mr. Steevens observes, that Hall, Hollinshed, Stowe, &c. are closely followed not only in the conduct, but sometimes in the expressions throughout the following historical dramas; viz. Macbeth, this play, Richard II. Henry IV. 2 parts, Henry V. Henry VI. 3 parts, Richard III. and Henry VIII. 2 William Mareshall Jeffrey Fitzpeter, Ch. J. of England. William Longsword, son to Henry II. by Rosamond Clifi. e. in my character. i. e. opposition. Cc 2

ford. Roger, Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk.

How

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.

[us.

5

K. John. Our strong possession, and our right for Eli.Yourstrong possession,much more than your Or else it must go wrong with you, and me: [right; 10 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?

15

K. John. Let them approach.- [Exit Sheriff.
Our abbies, and our priories, shall pay
Re-enter Sheriff with Robert Faulconbridge; and 20
"Philip, his brother.

This expedition's charge.-What men are you?
Phil. Your faithful subject I, a gentleman,
Born in Northamptonshire; and eldest son,
As I suppose, to Robert Faulconbridge;
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.

Phil. 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.

Phil. 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 pounds 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?

Phil. 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 ;
But that Lam 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.
K. John. Why, what a mad-cap hath heaven
lent us here!

Eli. He hath a trick' of Cœur-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'sland?
Phil. 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;—

Phil. 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 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;
25 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
30 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
Full fourteen weeks before the course of time.
Then, good my liege, let me have what is mine,
35 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 hazard of all husbands
40 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 calt, 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 the child that is not his?

45

50

55

Phil. 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;

That is, conduct, administration. Meaning, that peculiarity of face which may be sufficiently. shewn by the slightest outline. Our author is here knowingly guilty of an anachronism, as he alludes to a coin not struck till the year 1504, in the reign of king Henry VII. viz. a groat, which, as well as the half groat, bare but half faces impressed. The groats of all our kings of England, and indeed all their other coins of silver, one or two only excepted, had a full face crown'd; till Henry VII. at the time above mentioned, coined groats and half groats, as also some shillings, with half faces, i. e. faces in profile, as all our coin has now. The first groats of king Henry VIII. were like those of his father; though afterwards he returned to the broad faces again. In the time of King John there were no groats at all, they being first, as far as appears, coined in the reign of king Edward III.

Or the reputed son of Cœur-de-lion,
Lord of thy presence', and no land beside?
Phil. Madam, an if my brother had my shape,
And I had his, sir Robert's his, like him2;
And if my legs were two such riding-rods,
My arms such eel-skins stuft; my face so thin,
That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose', [goes!
Lest men should say, Look, where three-farthings
And, to his shape, were heir to all this land,
'Would I might never stir from off this place,
I'd give it every toot to have this face;
I would not be Sir Nob in any case. [tune,
Eli. I like thee well; wilt thou forsake thy for.
Pequeath thy land to him, and follow me?
I am a soldier, and now bound to France.

Phil. Brother, take you my land, I'll take my
chance:

Your face hath got five hundred pound a-year;
Yet sell your face for five pence, and 'tis dear.-
Madam, I'll follow you unto the death.

Eli. Nay, I would have yongo before me thither.
Phil. Our country manners give our betters way.
K. John. What is thy name?

Phil. Philip, my liege; so is my name begun;
Philip, good old Sir Robert's wife's eldest son.

K. John. From henceforth bear his name whose form thou bear'st:

Phil. Brother, adieu; Good fortune come to thee, For thou wast got i' the way of honesty ! [Exeunt all but Philip.

A foot of honour better than I was.;

5 But many a many foot of land the worse.
Well, now can I make any Joan a Lady:
Good den, Sir Richard, --God-a-mercy, fellow' ;-
And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter:
For new-made honour doth forget men's names:
10Tis too respective, and too sociable,

For your conversing. Now your traveller,
He and his tooth-pick' at my worship's mess;
And when my knightly stomach is suffic'd,
Why then I suck my teeth, and catechise
15 My piked man of countries:- -My dear sir,
(Thus, leaning on my elbow, I begin)

20

10

I shali beseech you-That is question now;
And then comes answer like an ABC-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 taking of the Alps, and Apennines,
25 The Pyrenean, and the river Po)

Kneel thou down Philip, but arise more great;
Arise Sir Richard, and Plantagenet. [hand;
Phil. Brother by the mother's side, give me your 30
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 grandame, Richard; call me so.
- Phil. Madam, by chance, but not by truth:
What though"?

Something about, a little from the right,

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.

It draws towards supper in conclusion so.
But this is worshipful society,
And fits the mounting spirit, like myself:
For he is but a bastard to the time,
That does 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 to deliver
35 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?
40 What woman-post is this? hath she no husband,
That will take pains to blow a horn before her11?
Enter Lady Faulconbridge and James Gurney.
O me! it is my mother:-How now, good lady?
What brings you here to court so hastily? [he,
Lady. Where is that slave, thy brother? where is
That holds in chase mine honour up and down?
Phil. My brother Robert? old Sir Robert's 'son?
Colbrand the giant, that same nighty man?

45

2

1i. e. master of thy majestic figure and dignified appearance. The meaning is, "If I had his shape-Sir Robert's-as he has." Sir Robert his, for Sir Robert's, is agreeable to the practice of that time, when the 's added to the nominative was believed, I think erroneously, to be a contraction of bis. Theobald says, that in this very obscure passage our poet is anticipating the date of another coin; humorously to rally a thin face, eclipsed, as it were, by a full-blown rose. We must observe, to explain this aliusion, that queen Elizabeth was the first, and indeed the only prince, who coined in England three-half-pence, and three-farthing pieces. She at one and the same timecoined shillings, sixpences, groats, three-pences, two-pences, three-half-pence, pence, three-farthings, and half-pence; and these pieces all had her head, and were alternately with the rose behind, and without the rose. The shilling, groat, two-pence, penny, and half-penny, had it not: the other intermediate coins, viz. the six-pence, three-pence, three-half-pence, and three-farthings had the rose. But Dr. Warburton observes, that the sticking roses about them was then all the court-fashion. What then? These expressions mean, says Mr. Steevens, to be born out of wedlock. i. e. a step. Faulconbridge here entertains himself with the ideas of greatness.-Good den, Sir Richard, he supposes to be the salutation of a vassal. God-a-mercy, fellow, his own supercilious reply to it. i. e. respectful. To pick the teeth, and wear a piqued beard, were, in that time, marks of a traveller, or man affecting foreign fashions. 1o See note3, p. 164. i. e. as they then spoke and wrote it, an absey-book, meaning á catechism. 12 Which for this. 13 Dr. Johnson says, our author means, that a woman that travelled about like a post, was likely to horn her husband,

6

4

7

Is it Sir Robert's son that you seek so?.

Lady. Sir Robert's son! Ay, thou unreverend boy,
Sir Robert's son: Why scorn'st thou at Sir Robert?
He is Sir Robert's son, and so art thou. [while?
Phil. James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave a 5
Gur. Good leave', good Philip.
Phil. Philip?-sparrow!-James,
There's toys abroad'; anon I'll tell thee more.
[Exit James.
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 handy work:-Therefore, good mo-
To whom am I beholden for these limbs? [ther,
Sir Robert never holp to make this leg.

Lady. Hast thou conspired with thy brother too, That for thine own gain should'st defend mine honour?

What means this scorn, thou most untoward knave?
Phil. Knight, knight, good mother,-Basilisco

like':

10

Some proper man, I hope; Who was it, mother?
Lady. Hast thoudenydthyselfa Faulconbridge;
Phil. As faithfully as I deny the devil. [ther?
Lady. King Richard Coeur-de-lion was thy fa-
By long and vehement suit I was seduc'd
To make room for him in my husband's bed:-
Heaven lay not my transgression to my charge!-
Thou art the issue of my dear offence,
Which was so strongly urged, past my defence.
Phil. Now, by this light, were I to get again,
Madam, I would not wish a better father.
Some sins do bear their privilege on earth,
And so doth yours; your fault was not your folly:
Needs must you lay your heart at his dispose,-
15 Subjected tribute to commanding love,-
Against whose fury and unmatched force
The awless lion could not wage the fight,
Nor keep his princely heart from Richard's hand.
He, that perforce robs lions of their hearts,
May easily win a woman's. Ay, my mother,
With all my heart I thank thee for my father!
Who lives and dares but say, thou didst not well
When I was got, I'll send his soul to hell.
Come, lady, I will show thee to my kin;
And they shall say, when Richard me begot,
If thou hadst said him nay, it had been sin:
Who says, it was, he lyes; I say, 'twas not.
[Exeunt.

20

25

ACT II.

But with a heart full of unstained love: 35 Welcome before the gates of Angiers, duke. Lewis. A noble boy! Who would not do thee right?

Aust. Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss,
As seal to this indenture of my love;
40 That to my home I will no more return,

Till Angiers, and the right thou hast in France,
Together with that pale, that white-fac'd shore,
Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides,
And coops from other lands her islanders,
45 Even till that England, hedg'd in with the main,
That water-walled bulwark, still secure
And confident from foreign purposes,
Even 'till that utmost corner of the west,
Salute thee for her king: 'till then, fair boy,
Will I not think of home, but follow arms.
Const. O, take his mother's thanks, a widow's
thanks,
[strength,
Till your strong hand shall help to give him
To make a more requital to your love.

Of thy unnatural uncle, English John;
Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither. 50

Arthur. God shall forgive you Cœur-de-lion's
The rather, that you give his offspring life, [death,
Shadowing their right under your wings of war:
I give you welcome with a powerless hand,

3

1Good leave means a ready assent. i. e. rumours, idle reports. Faulconbridge's words here carry a concealed piece of satire on a stupid drama of that age, printed in 1599, and called Soliman and Perseda. In this piece there is the character of a bragging cowardly knight, called Basilisco. His pretension to valour is so blown, and seen through, that Piston, a buffoon servant in the play, jumps upon his back, and will not disengage him, till he makes Basilisco swear upon his dudgeon dagger that he was a knave, knave, knave, and no knight, knight, knight, as Basilisco arrogantly stiled himself. In the same manner Philip, when his mother calls him knave, throws off that reproach by humorously laying claim to his new dignity of knighthood. Shakspeare here alludes to the old metrical romance of Richard Cour de lion, wherein this once celebrated monarch is related to have acquired his distinguishing ap pellation, by having plucked out a lion's heart to whose fury he was exposed by the duke of Austria, for having slain his son with a blow of his fist. i. e. importunity. i. e. greater,

Aust,

Against the brows of this resisting town.-
Call for our chiefest men of discipline,
To cull the plots of best advantages:--
We'll lay before this town our royal bones,
Wade to the market-place in Frenchmen's blood,
But we will make it subject to this boy.

Const. Stay for an answer to your embassy,
Lest unadvis'd you stain your swords with blood:
My lord Chatillon may from England bring
That right in peace, which here we urge in war;
And then we shall repent each drop of blood,
That hot rash haste so indirectly shed.
Enter Chatillon.

K. Philip. A wonder, lady!-lo, upon thy wish,
Our messenger Chatillon is arriv'd.-
What England says, say briefly, gentle lord,
We coldly pause for thee; Chatillon, speak. [siege,
Chat. Then turn your forces from this paltry
And stir them up against á mightier task.
England, impatient of your just demands,
Hath put himself in arms; the adverse winds,
Whose leisure I have staid, have given him time
To land his legions all as soon as I:
His marches are expedient' to this town,
His forces strong, his soldiers confident.
With him is come along the mother-queen,
An Ate, stirring him to blood and strife;
With her, ber niece, the lady Blanch of Spain;
With them a bastard of the king deceas'd:
And all the unsettled humours of the land,-
Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries,
With ladies' faces, and fiery dragons' spleens,-
Have sold their fortunes at their native homes,
Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs,
To make a hazard of new fortunes here.
In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits,
Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er,
Did never float upon the swelling tide,
To do offence and scath in Christendom.
The interruption of their churlish drums

[Drums beat.
Cuts off more circumstance: They are at hand,
To parley, or to fight; therefore, prepare.
K. Philip. How much unlook'd for is this ex-

pedition!

Aust. By how much unexpected, by so much We must awake endeavour for defence;

For courage mounteth with occasion:

Let them be welcome then, we are prepar'd,

England we love; and for that England's sake,
With burthen of our armour here we sweat :
This toil of ours should be a work of thine;
But thou from loving England art so far,
5 That thou hast under-wrought' its lawful king,
Cut off the sequence of posterity,
Out-faced infant state, and done a rape
Upon the maiden virtue of the crown.

Look here upon thy brother Geffrey's face ;—
10 These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his:
This little abstract doth contain that large,
Which dy'd in Geffrey; and the hand of time
Shall draw this brief into as huge a volume.
That Geffrey was the elder brother born,
15 And this his son; England was Geffrey's right,
And this is Geffrey's: In the name of God,
How comes it then, that thou art call'd a king,
When living blood doth in these temples beat,
Which owe the crown that thou o'er-masterest?
K. John. From whom hast thou this great
commission, France,

20

To draw my answer from thy articles? [thoughts
K. Phil.From that supernal judge, thatstirs good
In any breast of strong authority,

25 To look into the blots and stains of right.
That judge hath made me guardian to this boy:
Under whose warrant, I impeach thy wrong;
And by whose help, I mean to chastise it.

30

K. John. Alack, thou dost usurp authority.
K. Phil. Excuse it; 'tis to beat usurping down.
Eli. Who is it, thou dost call usurper, France?
Const. Let me make answer;-thy usurping son."
Eli. Out, insolent! thy bastard shall be king;
That thou may'st be a queen, and check the world!.
Const. My bed was ever to thy son as true,
As thine was to thy husband: and this boy
Liker in feature to his father Geffrey,
Than thou and John in manners; being as like,
As rain to water, or devil to his dam.
40 My boy a bastard! By my soul, I think,
His father never was so true begot;

35

45

50

It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother. [father.
Eli. There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy
Const. There's a good grandam, boy, that
would blot thee.
Aust. Peace!

Faulc. Hear the crier.

Aust. What the devil art thou?

Faulc. One that will play the devil, sir, with you,

An a' may catch your hide and you alone.
You are the hare of whom the proverb goes,
Whose valour plucks dead lions by the beard;
I'll smoak your skin-coat, an I catch you right;
Sirrah, look to't; i'faith, I will, i'faith.

Enter King John, Faulconbridge, Elinor, Blanch, 55 Blanch. O, well did he become that lion's robe,

Pembroke, and others.

K. John. Peace be to France; if France in peace Ourjust and lineal entrance to our own! [permit If not; bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven! Whiles we, God's wrathful agent, do correct Their proudcontempt that beat his peacetoheaven. K.Philip. Peace be to England; if that war return From France to England, there to live in peace

! That is, expeditious,

That did disrobe the lion of that robe!

Faule. It lies as sightly on the back of him,
As great Alcides' shoes upon an ass:-
But, ass, I'll take that burden from your back;
60 Or lay on that, shall make your shoulders crack.

Aust. What cracker is this same, that deats our
With this abundance of superfluous breath? [ears
King Lewis, determine what we shall do strait.

i. e. destruction, harm. i. e. undermined,

K. Philip.