MELUN, a French lord.
CHATILLON, ambassador from
France to King John.

ELINOR, widow of King Henry
II. and mother to King
John.

HUBERT DE BURGH, chamber- CONSTANCE, mother to Arthur.

lain to the King. ROBERT FALCONBRIDGE, son to Sir Robert Falconbridge. PHILIP FALCONBRIDGE, his half-brother, bastard son to King Richard the First.

BLANCH, daughter to Alphon-
so, king of Castile, and
niece to King John.
LADY FALCONBRIDGE, mothe:
to the Bastard and Robert
Falconbridge.

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

SCENE-Sometimes in England, and sometimes ir

France.

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 behavior, 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,
T'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 furtherest 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 honorable 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. [aside to K. John] 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

This expedition's charge.

[Exit Sheriff.

Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FALCON BRIDGE, and PHILIP his 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 honor-giving hand
Of Coeur-de-lion knighted in the field.
K. John. What 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:

Of that I doubt, as all men's children may.

Eli. Out on thee, rude man! thou dost shame thy

mother

And wound her honor 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 honor 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 whêr 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

I 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 eye hath well examined 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:
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 dispatch'd him in an embassy
To Germany, there with the emperor
To treat of high affairs touching that time.
Th' 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,-