and wealth of imagination, whereby he expresses the deepest passions of the human soul, and carries his readers along with him through the widest realms of human thought and interest. In his comedies of Much Ado about Nothing, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night, etc., we have examples of genuine humour not to be surpassed in the English, or, indeed, any other language. And in The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, As You Like It, etc., we have productions full of grace and grandeur, where the characters are blended together with the greatest art, and all are stamped with the unmistakable impress of his masterhand, making them the delight of all readers, young and old. In the words of Dryden he "raises himself as high above the rest of the poets" "Quantum lenta solent inter viburna cupressi." Besides his plays, Shakespeare gave to the world various other poems: Venus and Adonis, Lucrece, A Lover's Complaint, and The Passionate Pilgrim, together with one hundred and fifty-four Sonnets. READINGS FROM SHAKESPEARE. KING JOHN. INTRODUCTION. In this play the events cover nearly the whole reign of John, extending from A.D. 1199 to A.D. 1216, a period of usurpation and national degradation. It does not so much profess to give the annals of the reign historically as they actually occurred, as to present in a dramatic and imaginative view, the sad circumstances connected with the imprisonment and death of Prince Arthur, Duke of Bretagne, the king's nephew, and by many deemed the rightful heir to the throne. This prince was the son of John's dead brother, Geoffrey, the fourth son of Henry II.,-John himself being the fifth. By the influence of Queen Eleanor, however, the widow of Henry II., Richard I. was induced to name John, her favourite son, to be his successor; and thus the superior claims of Arthur, as the son of an elder brother, were quietly ignored. Constance, the mother of Arthur, thereupon prevailed upon the French king to aid her son, who, in virtue of his being Duke of Bretagne, was a vassal of that monarch, in the recovery of his crown. In the first scene of the play-with which the selection opens-we have an intimation of the whole plot, whose full meaning is gradually developed in the progress of the drama. In almost the first words, King John's royalty is spoken of as "borrowed majesty," and he is called upon by Chatillon, the ambassador of his great contemporary, Philip Augustus of France, to yield his kingdom up to the rightful heir, Arthur Plantagenet. John resents this with indignity, and, as if unconscious of any wrong to his nephew, and relying upon his "strong possession and his right," confidently hurls back a defiance to Philip, and proceeds to France with a powerful army. The opposing forces meet before the town of Angiers, the capital of Anjou, and demand its surrender, but the citizens will only deliver it up to the victorious army. A treaty is made between John and Philip, which proves but a hollow and unstable armistice, and the war is soon renewed. This war seals the fate of Arthur, who falls into the power of his victorious uncle-the young and rightful claimant of the crown in the perilous possession of the wicked usurper. John's possession of his young rival brought security to him, but it also brought the temptation to make assurance doubly sure by converting the custody of the prison into the inviolable custody of the grave. A prison-and death-and the career of Arthur of Brittany closes for ever. An impenetrable mystery hangs over his death; and all that we can see in its dark horror, is the guilt of King John. There are two scenes of matchless dramatic skill connected with it-the first, that appalling one in which the king commits Arthur to the deadly keeping of Hubert de Burgh; the other, that piteous one between Hubert and Arthur. The sequel of the reign is finely told in the play, when Cardinal Pandulph foretells the course of things. The appearance of Pandulph introduces another of the great contests of this distracted reign-the struggle between John and the papal power. This controversy turned on the election of the Primate of England, and John's refusal to admit Stephen Langton to the see of Canterbury. When the papal claim is asserted by the Cardinal, it is answered by John in a high strain of defiance. This brought upon John the penalty of excommunication, and upon the realm that more dreadful infliction, the papal interdict-the greatest effect of which was to stop all religious services. The Pope invoked the alliance of Philip of France to quell by invasion that resistance against which the mandates and penalties of Rome had proved unavailing. The abject spirit of John sank to its lowest state, under the dread of this danger. His crown was laid at the feet of Pandulph, and he surrendered his kingdom to receive it back and hold it as the vassal of the Pope. This completed the infamy of John, and national degradation was brought upon England. After this came the third great struggle of the reign, in which the confederate barons wrested from the reluctant king the Great Charter of English rights. After a reign of conflict and confusion and disgrace, John died a miserable and a suffering death. At the close of the tragedy, Shakespeare brings back the disaffected nobles to their allegiance: and by the voice of Faulconbridge-the very embodiment of patriotism and loyalty-he raises the mind from the weakness and degradation of the reign to a sense of England's power and independIn the high strain of that national self-confidence, which is the power that makes a people unconquerable, Faulconbridge tells the young Prince Henry and the nobles ence. "This England never did (nor never shall) But when it first did help to wound itself. Now these our princes are come home again, And we shall shock them: Nought shall make us rue, KING JOHN. (A.D. 1199-1216.) SCENE.-Sometimes in England, sometimes in France. PART I. ACT L., SCENE 1.-Chatillon demands the Crown for Arthur; the Challenge to War. SCENE.-Northampton. A Room of State in King John's Palace. Enter KING JOHN, QUEEN ELEANOR, PEMBROKE, SALISBURY, and others, with CHATILLON. King 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 borrowed majesty of England here. Ele. A strange beginning-borrowed majesty! K. John. Silence, good mother; hear the embassy. 10 15 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. 20 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; 25 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. 30 [Exeunt Chatillon and Pembroke. This might have been prevented, and made whole, •Which now the manage of two kingdoms must •With fearful bloody issue arbitrate. 35 K. John. Our strong possession, and our right for us. •Ele. Your strong possession, much more than your right; 40 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. K. John. Our abbeys, and our priories, shall pay This expedition's charge. 45 PART II. ACT II., SCENE I.-The cause of Arthur is espoused by the SCENE.-France. Before the Walls of Angiers. •Lew. Before Angiers well met, brave Austria.- •At our importance hither is he come, 50 To spread his colours, boy, in thy behalf; Of thy unnatural uncle, English John: Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither. Arth. God shall forgive you Coeur-de-lion's death, The rather, that you give his offspring life, 55 60 |