ACT I. SCENE I.

The Court of England.

Enter King John, Queen Elinor, Pembroke, Effex, and Salisbury, with Chatillon.

King JoHN.

TOW, fay, Chatillon, what would France with us?

Chat. Thus, after greeting, fpeaks the

king of France,

The borrow'd Majefty of England here.

Eli. A ftrange beginning. Borrow'd Majesty!
K. John. Silence, good mother; hear the embaffy.
Chat. Philip of France, in right and true behalf
Of thy deceased brother Geffrey's fon,
Arthur Plantagenet, lays lawful claim
To this fair ifland, and the territories,
To Ireland, Poilliers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine;
Defiring thee to lay afide the fword,

Which fways ufurpingly thefe feveral titles;
And put the fame into young Arthur's hand,
Thy nephew, and right-royal Sovereign.

K. John. What follows, if we difallow of this?
Chat. The proud controul of fierce and bloody

war,

T' inforce thefe rights fo forcibly with-held.

K. John. Here have we war for war, and blood for blood,

Controulment for controulment; fo answer France. Chat. Then take my King's defiance from my mouth, The fartheft 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, I will be there, The thunder of my cannon fhall be heard. So, hence! be thou the trumpet of our wrath,

have a fignification that I have never found in any other authour. The king of France, fays the Envoy, thus fpeaks in my behaviour to the Majefty of England: That is, the king of France fpeaks in the character which I here affume. I once thought that thefe two lines, in my behaviour, &c. had been uttered by the ambaffador as part of his master's meffage, 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. 3 Contrcul.] Oppofition, from controller.

4 Be thou as lightning.] The fimile does not fuit well: the lightning indeed appears before the thunder is heard, but the lightning is destructive, and the thunder innocent.

And

And fullen prefage of your own decay.
An honourable conduct let him have,
Pembroke, look to't; farewel, Chatillon.

[Exeunt Chat. and Pem.
Eli. What now, my fon? Have I not ever said,
How that ambitious Conftance would not ceafe,
Till fhe 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, iffue 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 heav'n, and you, and I shall hear.
Enter Effex.

Effex. My Liege, here is the ftrangest controverfie, 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
This expedition's charge-

[Exit Effex,

Enter Robert Faulconbridge, and Philip, his Brother.

What men are you?

Phil. Your faithful fubject, I, a gentleman

5 Sullen prefage.] By the epithet fullen, which cannot be applied to a trumpet, it is plain, that our authour's imagination had now fuggefted a new idea.

It is as if he had faid, be a trumpet to alarm with our invafion, be a bird of ill omen to croak out the prognoftick of your own ruin.

Born in Northamptonshire, and eldest fon,
As I fuppofe, to Robert Faulconbridge,
A foldier, by the honour-giving hand
Of Caur-de-lion knighted in the field.
K. John. What art thou?

Robert. The fon and heir to that fame Faulconbridge. K. John. Is that the elder, and art thou the heir? You came not of one mother then, it feems ?

Phil. Moft 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 heav'n, and to my mother; Of that I doubt, as all mens' children may.

Eli. Out on thee, rude man! thou doft fhame thy mother,

And wound her honour with this diffidence.

Phil. I, Madam? no, I have no reafon for it; That is my brother's plea, and none of mine; The which if he can prove, he pops me out At least from fair five hundred pound a year : Heav'n 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 i But, once, he flander'd me with bastardy;

But whether I be true begot or no,

That ftill I lay upon my mother's head;
But that I am 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 fon like him;
O old Sir Robert, father, on my knee
I give heav'n thanks, I was not like to thee.

K. John. Why, what a mad cap hath heav'n lent us here?

Eli. He hath a trick of Caur-de-lion's face,

The

The accent of his tongue affecteth him.
Do you not read fome tokens of my fon
In the large compofition of this man?

K. John. Mine eye hath well examined his parts, And finds them perfect Richard. Sirrah, fpeak, What doth move you to claim your brother's land? 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!

6

Rob. My gracious Liege, when that my father liv'd, Your brother did imploy my father much;

Phil. Well, Sir, by this you cannot get my land. Your tale muft be, how he imploy'd my mother. Rob. And once difpatch'd him in an embaffie To Germany; there with the Emperor To treat of high affairs touching that time. Th' advantage of his abfence took the King, And in the mean time fojourn'd at my father's; Where, how he did prevail, I fhame to speak,

6 With half that Face.] But why with half that Face? There in no Question but the Poet wrote, as I have restored the Text, With that half-face- Mr. Pope, perhaps, will be angry with me for difcovering an Anachronism of our Poet's, in the next Line; where he alludes to a Coin not ftruck 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 imprefs'd. Vide Stow's Survey of London, p. 47. Hollingfhed, Cambden's Remains, &c. The Poet fneers at the meagre fharp Vifage of the elder Brother, by comparing him to a Silver Groat, that bore the King's Face in Profile, fo fhew'd but half the Face: 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 alfo fome Shillings, with half Faces, that is, Faces in Profile, as all our Coin has now. The first Groats of King Henry VIII. were like thefe of his Father; though afterwards he returned to the broad Faces again. These Groats, with the Impreffion in Profile, are undoubtedly here alluded to: though, as I faid, the Poet is knowingly guilty of an Anachronifm in it: for, 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. THEOBALD. Dd 4

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