KING JOHN.

King John.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

Lewis, the dauphin.

Prince Henry, his son; afterward King Henry III. Arch-duke of Austria.
Arthur, duke of Bretagne, son of Geffrey, late duke Cardinal Pandulph, the pope's legate.
Bretagne, the elder brother of King Melun, a French lord.

John.

William Marshall, earl of Pembroke.
Geffrey Fitz-Peter, earl of Essex, chief justiciary
of England.

William Longsword, earl of Salisbury.
Robert Bigot, earl of Norfolk.

Hubert de Burgh, chamberlain to the king.
Robert Faulconbridge, son of Sir Robert Faulcon-
bridge.

Philip Faulconbridge, his half-brother, bastard son
to King Richard the First.

James Gurney, servant to Lady Faulconbridge.
Peter of Pomfret, a prophet.

Philip, king of France.

Chatillon, ambassador from France to King John.

Elinor, the widow of King Henry II. and mother of

King John.

Constance, mother to Arthur.

Blanch, daughter to Alphonso, king of Castile, and
niece to King John.

Lady Faulconbridge, mother to the bastard, and
Robert Faulconbridge.

Lords, ladies, citizens of Angiers, sheriff, heralds,
officers, soldiers, messengers, and other attend-

ants.

Scene, sometimes in England, and sometimes in
France.

ACT I.

The thunder of my cannon shall be heard:
So, hence! Be thou the trumpet of our wrath,
And sullen presage of your own decay.-

SCENE I.-Northampton. A room of state in
the palace. Enter King John, Queen Elinor, An honourable conduct let him have:-
Pembroke, Essex, Salisbury, and others, with Pembroke, look to't: Farewell, Chatillon.
Chatillon.

King John.

[Exeunt Chatillon and Pembroke. Eli. What now, my son? have I not ever said, How that ambitious Constance would not cease,

Now, say, Chatillon, what would France with Till she had kindled France, and all the world,

us?

Upon the right and party of her son?

Chat. Thus, after greeting, speaks the king of This might have been prevented, and made whole,

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 em-
bassy.

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 furthest limit of my embassy.

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 whis-
pers Essex.

Esser. My liege, here is the strangest controversy,
Come from the country to be judg'd by you,
That ere I heard: Shall I produce the men?

K. John. Let them approach.- [Exit Sheriff.
Our abbies, and our priories, shall pay
Re-enter Sheriff, with Robert 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,

K. John. Bear mine to him, and so depart in As I suppose, to Robert Faulconbridge;

A soldier, by the honour-giving hand
Of Coeur-de-lion kni, hted in the field.
K. John, What art thou?

(2) Conduct, administration,

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.

?

Bast. 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.

Bast. 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 pound 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?

Bast. 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 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 son like him ;-
O, old sir Robert, father, on my knee
give heaven thanks, I was not like to thee,
K. John. Why, what a madcap hath heaven lent
us here!

Eli. He hath a trick of Coeur-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 eve hath well examined his parts,
And finds them perfect Richard.Sirrah, speak,
What doth move you to cla m your brother's land?!
Bast. 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;-

Bast. Well, sir, by this you cannot get my land;
Your tale must be, how he employ'd my mother.
Rob. And once despatch'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:
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
His lauds 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,
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 hazards of all husbands
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 ?

(1) Whether. (2) Trace, outline,
(3) Dignity of appearance.

In sooth, good friend, your father might have kept
This call, 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 that child which is not his?
Bast. 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 Faulcon
bridge,

And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land;
Or the reputed son of Coeur-de-lion,
Lord of thy presence, and no land beside?

Bast. Madam, an if my brother had my shape,
And I had his, sir Robert his, like him ;
And if my legs were two such riding-rods,
My arms such cel-skins stuff'd; my face so thin,
That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose,
Lest men should say, Look, where three-farthings
goes!

And, to his shape, were heir to all this land,
Would I might never stir from off this place,
I'd give it every foot to have this face;

I would not be sir Nob in any case.

Eli. I like thee well; Wilt thou forsake thy for

tune,

Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me?
I am a soldier, and now bound to France.
Bast. Brother, take you my land, I'll take my

chance:

Your face hath got five hundred pounds 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 you go before me thither.
Bast. Our country manners give our betters way.
K. John. What is thy name?

Bast. Philip, my liege; so is my name begun;
Philip, good old sír Robert's wife's eldest son.
K. John. From henceforth bear his name whose

form thou bear'st:

Kneel thou down Philip, but arise more great;
Arise sir Richard, and Plantagenet.

Bast. Brother, by the mother's side, give me
your hand;

My father gave me honour, your's gave land :-
Now blessed be the hour, by night or day,
When I was got, sir Robert was away.

I

Eli. The very spirit of Plantagenet!-
am thy grandame, Richard; call me so.

Bast. 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.
Bast. Brother, adieu; Good fortune come to thee!
For thou wast got i'the way of honesty.

[Exeunt all but the Bastard.
A foot of honour better than I was;
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 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,

Till your strong hand shall help to give him strength,
To make a more requital to your love.

Aust. The peace of heaven is theirs, that lift
their swords

In such a just and charitable war.

Whiles we, God's wrathful agent, do correct
Their proud contempt that beat his peace to heaven

K. Phi. Peace be to England; if that war retura
From France to England, there to live in peace!
England we love; and, for that England's sake,
With burden of our armour here we sweat:
This toil of ours should be a work of thine;
But thou from loving England art so far,
That thou hast under-wrought his lawful king,
Cut off the sequences of posterity,
Outfaced infant state, and done a rape

K. Phi. Well then, to work: our cannon shall Upon the maiden virtue of the crown.
be bent

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. Phi. 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.
Chat. Then turn your forces from this paltry siege,
And stir them up against a 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 along is come the mother-queen,
An Até, stirring him to blood and strife;
With her her 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 fierce 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. Phi. How much unlook'd for is this expedi-

tion!

Aust. By how much unexpected, by so much
We must awake endeavour for defence;
For courage mounteth with occasion:
Let them alone be welcome then, we are prepar'd.
Enter King John, Elinor, Blanch, the Bastard,
Pembroke, and forces,

K. John. Peace be to France; if France in
peace permit

Our just and lineal entrance to our own!
If not; bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven!

(1) Best stations to over-awe the town.

(2) Immediate, expeditious.

(3) The goddess of revenge.

Look here upon thy brother Geffrey's face;-
These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his :
This little abstract doth contain that large,
Which died in Geffrey; and the hand of time
Shall draw this brief into as huge a volume.
That Geffrey was thy elder brother born,
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 com.
mission, France,

To draw my answer from thy articles?

K. Phi. From that supernal judge, that stirs good thoughts

In any breast of strong authority,

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

K. John. Alack, thou dost usurp authority.
K. Phi. Excuse; it is 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.
My boy a bastard! By my soul, I think,
It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother.
His father never was so true begot;

Eli. There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy
father.

Const. There's a good grandam, boy, that would blot thee.

Aust. Peace!

you,

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

Blanch. O, well did he become that lion's robe,
That did disrobe the lion of that robe!

As great Alcides' shoes upon an ass :—
Bast. It lies as sightly on the back of him,
But, ass, I'll take that burden from your back;
Or lay on that, shall make your shoulders crack.
Aust. What cracker is this same, that deafs our

ears

(4) Mischief.

(6) Succession,

(8) Celestial,

Austria wears a lion's skin.

K. Phi. Lewis, determine what we shall do Our trumpet call'd you to this gentle parle.

straight.

Lew. Women and fools, break off your confer

ence.

King John, this is the very sum of all,-
England, and Ireland, Anjou, Touraine, Maine,
In right of Arthur do I claim of thee:

Wilt thou resign them, and lay down thy arms?
K. John. My life as soon:-I do defy thee,
France.

Arthur of Bretagne, yield thee to my hand;
And, out of my dear love, I'll give thee more
Than e'er the coward hand of France can win :
Submit thee, boy.

Eli.

Come to thy grandam, child.
Const. Do, child, go to it' grandam, child;
Give grandam kingdom, and it' grandam will
Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig:
There's a good grandam.
Arth.

Good my mother, peace!
I would, that I were low laid in my grave;
I am not worth this coil' that's made for me.
Eli. His mother shames him so, poor boy, he

weeps.

Const. Now shame upon you, whe'r2 she does,

or no!

His grandam's wrongs, and not his mother's shames,
Draw those heaven-moving pearls from his poor
eyes,

Which heaven shall take in nature of a fee;
Ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be brib'd
To do him justice, and revenge on you.

Eli. Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and
earth!

Const. Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and

earth!

Call not me slanderer; thou, and thine, usurp
The dominations, royalties, and rights,

Of this oppressed boy: This is thy eldest son's son,
Infortunate in nothing but in thee;
Thy sins are visited in this poor child;
The canon of the law is laid on him,
Being but the second generation

Removed from thy sin-conceiving womb.
K. John. Bedlam, have done.
Const.

I have but this to
That he's not only plagued for her sin,
But God hath made her sin and her the plague
On this removed issue, plagu'd for her,
And with her plague, her sin; his injury

Her injury, the beadle to her sin;

All punish'd in the person of this child,
And all for her; A plague upon her!

K. John. For our advantage;-Therefore, hear

us first..

These flags of France, that are advanced here
Before the eye and prospect of your town,
Have hither march'd to your endamagement:
The cannons have their bowels full of wrath;
And ready mounted are they, to spit forth
Their iron indignation 'gainst your walls:
All preparation for a bloody siege,

And merciless proceeding by these French,
Confront your city's eyes, your winking gates;
And, but for our approach, those sleeping stones,
That as a waist do girdle you about,

By the compulsion of their ordnance
By this time from their fixed beds of lime
Had been dishabited, and wide havoc made
For bloody power to rush upon your peace.
But, on the sight of us, your lawful king,-
Who painfully, with much expedient march,
Have brought a countercheck before your gates,
To save unscratch'd your city's threaten'd cheeks,-
Behold, the French, amaz'd, vouchsafe a parle :
And now,
instead of bullets wrapp'd in fire,

To make a shaking fever in your walls,
They shoot but calm words, folded up in smoke,
To make a faithless error in your ears:
Which trust accordingly, kind citizens,
And let us in, your king; whose labour'd spirits,
Forwearied in this action of swift speed,
Crave harbourage within your city walls.

K. Phi. When I have said, make answer to us
both.

Lo, in this right hand, whose protection
Is most divinely vow'd upon the right
Of him it holds, stands young Plantagenet;
Son to the elder brother of this man,
And king o'er him, and all that he enjoys:
For this down-trodden equity, we tread

In warlike march these greens before your town:
Being no further enemy to you,

Than the constraint of hospitable zeal,
In the relief of this oppressed child,
Religiously provokes. Be pleased then
To pay that duty, which you truly owe,
say,-To him that owes it; namely, this young prince :
And then our arms, like to a muzzled bear,
Save in aspéct, have all offence seal'd up;
Our cannons' malice vainly shall be spent
Against the invulnerable clouds of heaven;
And, with a blessed and unvex'd retire,
With unhack'd swords, and helmets all unbruis'd,
We will bear home that lusty blood again,
Which here we came to spout against your town,
And leave your ch ldren, wives, and you, in peace.
But if you fondly pass our proffer'd offer,
'Tis not the rondure' of your old-fac'd walls
Can hide you from our messengers of war;
Though all these English, and their discipline,
Were harbour'd in their rude circumference.
Then, tell us, shall your city call us lord,
In that behalf which we have challeng'd it?
Or shall we give the signal to our rage,
And stalk in blood to our possession?

Eli. Thou unadvised scold, I can produce
A will, that bars the title of thy son.
Const. Ay, who doubts that? a will! a wicked will;
A woman's will; a canker'd grandam's will!
K. Phi. Peace, lady; pause, or be more tempe-

rate:

It ill beseems this presence, to cry aim3
To these ill-tuned repetitions.-
Some trumpet summon hither to the walls
These men of Angiers; let us hear them speak,
Whose title they admit, Arthur's or John's.
Trumpets sound. Enter Citizens upon the walls.
1 Cit. Who is it, that hath warn'd us to the walls?
K. Phi. "Tis France, for England.
K. John.
England, for itself:
You men of Angiers, and my loving subjects,-
K. Phi. You loving men of Angiers, Arthur's
subjects,

(1) Bustle. (2) Whether. (3) To encourage.

1 Cit. In brief, we are the king of England's
subjects;

For him, and in his right, we hold this town.
K. John. Acknowledge then the king, and let
me in.

1 Cit. That can we not: but he that proves the

king,