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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 parchafer, and to lead him to fuppofe the piece was Shakspeare's play, which at that time was not publifhed. See a more minute account of this fraud in An Attempt to afcertain the order of Shakspeare's Plays, Vol. I. Our author's King John was written, I imagine, in 1596. The reafons on which this opinion is founded, may be found in that Effay. 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 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 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 byftorie of Lord Faulconbridge, &c. is a profe narrative, in bl. 1. The earlieft 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 firft exhibited in the year 1598. See The Hiftorical Account of the English Stage, Vol. II. MALONE.

King John:

Prince Henry, bis fon; afterwards King Henry III. Arthur, Duke of Bretagne, fon of Geffrey, late Duke) of Bretagne, the elder brother of King John. William Marefhall, Earl of Pembroke.

Geffrey Fitz-Peter, Earl of Effex, Chief Justiciary of England.

William Longfword, 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 fon 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.

Conftance, 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 sometimes in France.

-

Salisbury.] Son to King Henry II. by Rofamond 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, fay, Chatillon, what would France with us?

CHAT, Thus, after greeting, speaks the king of France, In my behaviour,' to the majefty,

The borrow'd majefty of England here..

ELI. A ftrange beginning;-borrow'd majesty! K. JOHN. Silence, good mother; hear the embassy.

In my behaviour,] The word behaviour feems here to have a fignification that I have never found in any other author. The king of France, fays the envoy, thus Speaks in my behaviour to the majefty of England; that is, the King of France speaks in the character which I here affume. I once thought that these 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 ambaffador's fpeech, 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 ufe. So, in the fifth act of this play, the Bastard fays to the French king,

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-Now hear our English king,

"For thus his royalty doth speak in me." MALONE,

CHAT. Philip of France, in right and true behalf Of thy deceafed brother Geffrey's fon,

Arthur Plantagenet, lays moft lawful claim
To this fair ifland, and the territories;

To Ireland, Poitiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine:
Defiring thee to lay aside the sword,

Which fways ufurpingly 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 fo forcibly withheld.

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

Controlment for controlment; fo answer France.4

3

-control-] Oppofition, from controller. JOHNSON.

I think it rather means conftraint or compulfion. So, in the fecond act of King Henry V. when Exeter demands of the King of France the furrender of his crown, and the King answers—“ Ör else what follows?" Exeter replies:

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Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown

"Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it."

The paffages are exactly fimilar. M. MASON.

4 Here have we war for war, and blood for blood,

Controlment for controlment ; &c.] King John's reception of Chatillon not a little refembles that which Andrea meets with from the King of Portugal in the first part of Jeronimo, &c. 1605:

"And. Thou fhalt pay tribute, Portugal, with blood.-
"Bal. Tribute for tribute then; and foes for foes.

I bid

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fudden wars." you

STEEVENS.

"And. Jeronimo was exhibited on the stage before the year 1590.

MALONE.

From the following paffage in Barnabie Googe's Cupido conquered, (dedicated with his other Poems, in May, 1562, and printed in 1563,) Jeronymo appears to have been written earlier than the earlieft of thefe dates:

CHAT. Then take my king's defiance from my

mouth,

The furtheft 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:

"Mark hym that fhowes ye Tragedies,

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Thyne owne famylyar frende,

"By whom ye Spaniard's barty ftyle

"In Englyfh verfe is pende."

B. Googe had already founded the praifes of Phaer and Gafcoigne, and is here defcanting on the merits of Kyd.

It is not impoffible (though Ferrex and Porrex was acted in 1561) that Hieronymo might have been the first regular tragedy that appeared in an English drefs.

It may also be remarked, that B. Googe, in the foregoing lines, feems to speak of a tragedy" in English verfe," as a novelty.

STEEVENS.

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

The allufion may notwithstanding be very proper fo far as Shakspeare had applied it, i. e. merely to the swiftness of the lightning, and its preceding and foretelling the thunder. But there is fome reafon 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. fc. ii. Antony and Cleopatra, Act II. fc. v. Julius Cafar, Act I. fc. iii. and ftill more decifively in Measure for Meajure, Act II. fc. ii. This old fuperftition is still prevalent in many parts of the country. RITSON.

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King John does not allude to the deftructive powers either of thunder or lightning; he only means to fay, that Chatillon fhall appear to the eyes of the French like lightning, which fhows that thunder is approaching: and the thunder he alludes to is that of his cannon. Johnfon alfo forgets, that though philofophically fpeaking, the deftructive power is in the lightning, it has generally in poetry been attributed to the thunder. So, Lear says:

"You fulphurous and thought-executing fires,

"Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head!" M. MASON.

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