PERSONS REPRESENTED.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1.

KING JOHN.

Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2.
Act IV. sc. 2. Act V. sc. 1;

Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3. sc. 3; sc. 7.

PRINCE HENRY, son to King John; afterwards King Henry III.

Appears, Act V. sc. 7.

ARTHUR, Duke of Bretagne, son of Geffrey, late Duke of Bretagne, the elder brother of King John.

Appears, Act II. sc. 1. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 3. WILLIAM MARESHALL, Earl of Pembroke.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1.

Act II. sc. 1.
Act V. sc. 2; sc. 4.

Act IV. sc. 2; sc. 3.

GEFFREY FITZ-PETER, Earl of Essex, chief justiciary of England.
Appears, Act I. sc. 1.

WILLIAM LONGSWORD, Earl of Salisbury.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act III. sc. 1. Act IV. sc. 2; sc. 3.
Act V. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 7.

ROBERT BIGOT, Earl of Norfolk.

Appears, Act IV. sc. 3. Act V. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 7.

HUBERT DE BURGH, chamberlain to the King.

Appears, Act II. sc. 2. Act III. sc. 2; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3.
Act V. sc. 3; sc. 6.

ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, son of Sir Robert Faulconbridge.
Appears, Act I. sc. 1.

PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE, half-brother to Robert Faulconbridge, bastard son to King Richard I.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1.

Act IV. sc. 2;

Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2; Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3.

sc. 3. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 6; sc. 7.

JAMES GURNEY, servant to Lady Faulconbridge.
Appears, Act I. sc. 1.

PETER OF POMFRET, a Prophet.

Appears, Act IV. sc. 2.

PHILIP, King of France.

Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 4.

LEWIS, the Dauphin.

Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 4.

ARCHDUKE OF AUSTRIA.

Act V. sc. 2; sc. 5.

Act III. sc. 1.

Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2.

CARDINAL PANDULPH, the Pope's legate.

Appears, Act III. se. 1; sc. 4.

Act V. sc. 1; sc. 2.

MELUN, a French lord.

Appears, Act V. sc. 2; sc. 4.

CHATILLON, ambassador from France to King John.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 1.

ELINOR, the widow of King Henry II., and mother of King John. Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 3.

CONSTANCE, mother to Arthur.

Appears, Act II. sc. 1. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 4.

BLANCH, daughter to Alphonso, King of Castile, and niece to King John. Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1.

LADY FAULCONBRIDGE, mother to the Bastard and Robert Faulconbridge. Appears, Act I. sc. 1.

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

SCENE, SOMETIMES IN ENGLAND; SOMETIMES IN FRANCE.

In the original edition we have no Names of the Actors.

THE

KING JOHN' of Shakspere was first printed in the folio collection of his plays, in 1623. We have followed the text of this edition almost literally. King John' is one of the plays of Shakspere enumerated by Francis Meres, in 1598,

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:
Desiring thee to lay aside the sword,

Which sways usurpingly these several titles;
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 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: so answer France.

CHAT. Then take my king's defiance from my mouth, The farthest limit of my embassy.

K. JOHN. Bear mine to him, and so depart in peace;

Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France;

For ere thou canst report I will be there,
The thunder of my cannon shall be heard:
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, Chatillon.

[Exeunt CHATILLON and PEMBROKE.
ELI. What now, my son? have I not ever said,
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.

K. JOHN. Our strong possession, and our right, for us. ELI. Your strong possession much more than your right; Or else it must go wrong with you and me:

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?

K. JOHN. Let them approach.

Our abbeys, and our priories, shall pay

[Exit Sheriff.

Re-enter Sheriff, with FAULCONBRIDGE, and PHILIP, his bastard

Brother.

This expedition's charge. What men are you?
BAST. 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.