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 majesty, The borrow'd majefty of England here. ELI. A ftrange beginning; borrow'd majesty! K. JOHN. Silence, good mother; hear the embaffy. 2 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 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 mafter'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 use. So, in the fifth act of this play, the Baitard fays to the French king, "Now hear our English king, "For thus his royalty doth speak in me." MALONE. CHAT. Philip of France, in right and true behalf Arthur Plantagenet, lays moft lawful claim To Ireland, Poitiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine: Which fways ufurpingly these several titles; K. JOHN. What follows, if we difallow of this? 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.* 3-control-] Oppofition, from controller. JOHNSON. I think it rather means conftraint or compulfion. So, in the second 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 : 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. ▲ 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 fudden wars. STEEVENS. 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 earliest of these dates: CHAT. Then take my king's defiance from my mouth, The furthest limit of my embassy. K. JOHN. Bear mine to him, and fo depart in Be thou as lightning' in the eyes of France; "Mark hym that fhowes ye Tragedies, 66 B. Googe had already founded the praises of Phaer and Gaf coigne, 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 firft 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 destructive and the thunder innocent. JOHNSON. The allufion may notwithstanding be very proper fo far as Shakspeare had applied it, i. e. merely to the fwiftness of the lightning, and its preceding and foretelling the thunder. But there is fome reason to believe that thunder was not thought to be innocent in our author's time, as we elsewhere learn from himfelf. See King Lear, Act III. fc. ii. Antony and Cleopatra, A&t II. fc. v, Julius Cæfar, A&t I. sc. iii. and still more decifively in Measure for Meafure, Act II. fc. ii. This old fuperftition is still prevalent in many parts of the country. RITSON. King John does not allude to the deftructive powers either of thunder or lightning; he only means to fay, 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. 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 fays: "You fulphurous and thought-executing fires, So, hence! Be thou the trumpet of our wrath, [Exeunt CHATILLON and PEMBROKE. ELI. What now, my fon? have I not ever said, How that ambitious Conftance would not cease, Till she 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 Or else it muft go wrong with you, and me: 6 fullen prefage-] By the epithet fullen, which cannot be applied to a trumpet, it is plain that our author'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. JOHNSON. I do not fee why the epithet fullen may not be applied to a trumpet, with as much propriety as to a bell. In our author's Henry IV. P. II. we find "Sounds ever after as a fullen bell-." MALONE. That here are two ideas, is evident; but the second of them has not been luckily explained. The fullen prefage of your own decay, means, the difmal paffing bell, that announces your own approaching diffolution. STEEVENS. 7 the manage-] i. e. conduct, adminiftration. K. Richard II: So, in STEEVENS. Enter the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, who whifpers ESSEX.8 ESSEX. My liege, here is the ftrangest contro verfy, Come from the country to be judg'd by you, K. JOHN. Let them approach.- [Exit Sheriff. Our abbies, and our priories, fhall pay Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, and PHILIP, his bastard brother.? This expedition's charge.-What men are you? Enter the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, &c.] This ftage direction I have taken from the old quarto. STEEVENS. 9 and Philip, his baftard brother.] Though Shakspeare adopted this character of Philip Faulconbridge from the old play, it is not improper to mention that it is compounded of two distinct perfonages. Matthew Paris fays:- Sub illius temporis curriculo, Falcafius de Brente, Neufterienfis, et fpurius ex parte matris, atque Baftardus, qui in vili jumento manticato ad Regis paulo ante clientelam defcenderat," &c. Matthew Paris, in his Hiftory of the Monks of St. Albans, calls him Falco, but in his General Hiftory, Falcafius de Brente, as above. Holinfhed fays, "That Richard I. had a natural fon named Philip, who in the year following killed the Viscount De Limoges to revenge the death of his father." STEEVENS. Perhaps the following paffage in the Continuation of Harding's Chronicle, 1543, fol. 24, b. ad ann. 1472, induced the author of the old play to affix the name of Faulconbridge to King Richard's natural fon, who is only mentioned in our hiftories by the name of Philip: " one Faulconbridge, therle of Kent, his bastarde, a ftoute-harted man.” Who the mother of Philip was, is not ascertained. It is faid that she was a lady of Poitou, and that King Richard bestowed upon her fon a lordship in that province.. |