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?

1. The play of "KING JOHN " forms the first of Shakespeare's historical plays in chronological succession of English kings' reigns, and first in order of succession as printed in the 1623 Folio. There it forms the fifteenth play in the volume; and is divided from the preceding fourteen by a blank page at their conclusion. There is mention of this play in Francis Mere's list of Shakespeare's productions, 1598; but the date of its composition is unknown, and there has been no previous copy discovered before the one in the first Folio. An old drama, entitled "The Troublesome Raigne of John, King of England," &c., first printed in 1591, afforded the ground-work for Shakespeare's play; but he remodelled it after his own masterly fashion; rejecting some of the incidents, while modifying others, and wholly vitalising the characters. The original sketch upon which he founded the finely-drawn character of Philip Falconbridge, for instance, is of the most inferior pattern; while Constance and her son he has so far altered from the truth of history, with regard to age and

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

personal circumstance, as shall more perfectly suit the truth of poetic and dramatic fitness. The craft, with meanness, of King John; the craft, with insolence, of Pandulph; the craft, with spite, of Elinor; the vacillation of Philip Augustus, the French king; the youthful generosity of spirit in the Dauphin; the passion of Constance; the pathos of Arthur; the rugged exterior with touch of better nature in Hubert, down to the baronial independence of the Earls Pembroke and Salisbury, while even these two subordinate personages are distinguished the one from the other, by the superior refinement of the latter-all combine to make "King John" one of the poet's most interestingly characterised plays among his dramatic histories. 2. In my behaviour. Through me,' or, according to what I am about to declare as his representative.' 3. Control. Constraint, compulsion.

4. Sullen. Here, as elsewhere, used by Shakespeare for 'gloomy,' 'dismal,' 'doleful.'

With very easy arguments of love;

Which now the manages of two kingdoms must With fearful bloody issue arbitrate.

hear.

Enter the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, who whispers ESSEX.

Essex. My liege, here is the strangest controversy,

Come from the country to be judged by you,
That e'er I heard: shall I produce the men?
K. John. Let them approach. [Exit Sheriff.
Our abbeys and our priories shall pay
This expedition's charge.

Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FALCONBRIDGE,
and PHILIP h.s bastard Brother
What men are you?
Bast. Your faithful subject I, a gentleman
Born in Northamptonshire, and eldest son,
As I suppose, to Robert Falconbridge,—
A soldier, by the honour-giving hand
Of Coeur-de-Lion knighted in the field.

K. John. Who art thou?

Rob. The son and heir to that same Falconbridge.

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 :-

5. Manage. As employed in the present passage, this word combines figurative allusion to an encounter in the tilt-yard, and the sense of management,' 'conduct,' 'administration,' 'government.' See Note 119, Act v., "Love's Labour's Lost."

6. If he can prove, 'a pops me out. An old and familiar ab. breviation of 'he' was "'a." See Note 49. Act in., "Much Ado." 7. Wher. A contraction of 'whether,' used for the sake of metre by other writers besides Shakespeare; and formerly sometimes spelt' where.'

8. Hath heaven lent us here! It has been proposed to change "lent" for 'sent' here; whereas, the phrase is peculiarly Shakespearian, he having employed it several times elsewhere.

9. A trick of Cœur-de-Lion's face. Shakespeare sometimes uses "trick" to signify an expression, a look, a characteristic peculiarity of aspect. See Note 21, Act i., "All's Well."

10. Affecteth. 'Inclines in resemblance towards;' has much affinity with.'

11. The large composition of this man? This expression finely brings to the eye those magnificent proportions of manly strength that characterised Richard I., and which helped to

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 land! my 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,-
Oh, old Sir Robert, father, on my knee

I give Heaven thanks I was not like to thee!
K. John. Why, what a madcap hath Heaven
lent us here !8

Eli. He hath a trick of Cœur-de-Lion's face;' The accent of his tongue affecteth 10 him: Do you not read some tokens of my son In the large composition of this man ?11

K. John. Mine eye hath well examinèd his parts, And finds them perfect Richard.—Sirrah, speak, What doth move you to claim your brother's land?

Bast. Because he hath a half-face, like my father, With that half-face would he have all my land: 12 A half-fac'd groat 13 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. Rob. And once despatch'd him in an embassy To Germany, there, with the emperor,

make him the heroic ideal of his English hearts. Those who can remember (as the Editors can) the gallant bearing and grand limbs of Charles Kemble in this part, will feel that they have seen stalwart Philip Falconbridge truly personified.

12. With that half-face would he, &c. The Folio prints 'with halfe that face would he,' &c. Theobald made the requisite transposition.

13. A half-fac'd groat. A silver groat with the king's profile on it; the custom previously having been to give the monarch's countenance as a full face. See Note 140, Act v., "Love's Labour's Lost." Because these coins were first issued in Henry VII.'s reign, Shakespeare has been accused of anachronism in introducing their mention in the time of King John: just as, before, his allusion to fire-arms, in the words "the thunder of my cannon," is pointed out as an error in chronology, because gunpowder was not invented till a century after. But Shakespeare in his plays made use of that which could most directly present vividness of general truth to his audience's minds, and made minutiae of precise details subservient to his more important purpose.

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 lands to me; and took it, on his death,14
That this, my mother's son, was none of his ;
And if he were, he came into the world

Act I

Scene I

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; 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 Falconbridge,

Falstaff says, 'When Mistress Bridget lost the handle of her fan, I took 't upon mine honour thou hadst it not;" and in the First Part of "Henry IV.," Act v., scene 4, Sir John says.: "I'll take it upon my death, I gave him this wound."