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KING

JOHN*

DRAMATIS PERSONA.

King JOHN.
Prince Henry, fon to the
King,

Arthur, Duke of Bretagne,
and nephew to the King.

Pembroke,
Effex,
Salisbury, English Lords.
Hubert,
Bigot,
Philip Faulconbridge, baf-
tard fon to Richard I.
Robert Faulconbridge, fup-
posed brother to the bastard.
James Gurney, fervant to
the Lady Faulconbridge.
Peter of Pomphret, a prophet.
Philip, King of France.
Lewis, the Dauphin.

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Archduke of Austria.

Cardinal Pandulpho, the
Pope' Legate.
Melun, a French Lord:
Chatilion, Ambassador from
France to King John.-
Elinor, Queen-mother of
England.
Conftance, mother to Arthur.
Blanch, daughter to Alphon-
So King of Caftile, and
niece to K. John.
Lady Faulconbridge, mother
to the bastard and Robert
Faulconbridge.
Citizens of Angier, heralds
Executioners, Messengers.
Soldiers, and other atten
dants.

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The SCENE, Sometimes in England, and fometimes in

France.

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Enter King John, Queen Elinor, Pembroke, Essex, and

Salisbury, with Chatilion.

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* The troublesome reign of King John was written in two parts by W.

Shakespear and W. Rowley, and printed 1611.

is entirely different, and infinitely superior to it.

But the presont play
Mr. Pope.

The

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The borrow'd Majesty of England here.

Eli. A strange beginning; borrow'd Majesty!
K. John. Silence, good mother; hear the embafly.
Chat. Philip of France, in right and true behalf

Of thy deceased brother Geffrey's fon,

Arthur Plantagenet, lays lawful claim
To this fair island and the territories;
To Ireland, Poitiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine;
Defiring thee to lay afide the fword,
Which sways ufurpingly these several titles,
And put the fame into young Arthur's hand,
Thy nephew, and right-royal fovereign.

K. John. What follows if we difallow of this? Chat. The proud controul of fierce and bloody war, T' inforce these rights fo forcibly with-held.

K. John. Here have we war for war, and blood for blood,

Controulment for controulment; so answer France. Chat. Then take my King's defiance from my mouth, The farthest limit of my embaffy.

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 fullen presage of your own decay. An honourable conduct let him have; Pembroke, look to't; farewel Chatilion.

[Exeunt Chat. and Pem.

Eli. What now, my fon, have I not ever said,
How that ambitious Canstance 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 issue arbitrate.

K. John. Our strong poffeffion, and our right for us-
Eli. Your strong poffeffion much more than your

right,

Or else it must go wrong with you and me;

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So much my confcience whispers in your ear
Which none but heav'n, and you, and I shall hear.
Effex. My Liege, here is the strangest controversy
Come from the country to be judge'd by you,
That e'er I heard: thall I produce the men?

K. John. Let them approach...

Our abbies and our priories shall pay

This expedition's charge. What men are you?

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Enter Robert Faulconbridge, and Philip his brother the

bastard.

Phil. Your faithful fubject, I, a gentleman
Born in Northamptonshire, and eldest fon,
As I suppose, to Robert Faulconbridge,
A foldier, by the honour-giving hand
Of Cœur-de-lion knighted in the field.
K. John. What art thou?

Rob. The fon and heir to that fame Faulconbridge. K. John. Is that the elder, and art thou the heir ? You came not of one mother, then, it seems.

Phil. 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 heav'n, and to my mother; Of that I doubt, as all mens' children may. Eli. Out on thee, rude man! thou dost shame thy : mother,

And wound her honour with this diffidence.

T

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Phil. 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, he pops me out At least from fair five hundred pound a-year? Heav'n guard my mother's honour, and my land!!! K. John. A good blunt fellow; why, being younger

borni

Doth headay claim to thine inheritance?
Phikid know not why, except to get the land;

But once he flander'd me with bastardy:
But whether i be true begot or no,

That ftill day upon my mother's head;

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But

But that I am as well begot, my Liege,прав
(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 heav'n thanks I was not like to thee.

K. John. Why, what a mad-cap hath heav'n lent

us here?

Eli. He hath a trick of Cœur-de-lion's face,

The accent of his tongue affecaeth him:
Do you not read fome tokens of my fon
In the large compofition of this man ?

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4

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?.. Phil. Because he hath a half-face like my father, With that half-face would he have all my land? A half-face'd groat, five hundred pound a-year! Rob. My gracious Liege, when that my father liv'd, Your brother did employ my father much? Phil. 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 abfence took the King, And in the mean time fojourn'd at my father's; Where, how he did prevail, I shame to speak: But truth is truth; large lengths of feas and fhores Between my father and my mother lay, (As I have heard my father speak himself), When this same lusty gentleman was got. Upon his deathbed he by will bequeath'd His lands to me; and took it on his death, That this, my mother's fon, 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

And if she did play false, the fault was her's;
Which fault lies on the hazard 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 fou for his?
In footh, good friend, your father might have kept
This calf, bred from his cow, from all the world.
In footh he might. Then, if lre were my brother's;
My brother might not claim him; nor your father,
Being none of his, refuse him. This concludes,
My mother's fon did get your father's heir,
Your father's heir must have your father's land.

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Rob. Shall then my father's will be of no force! To dispossess that child which is not his! A Phil. 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 Faulconbridge, And, like thy brother, to enjoy thy land; Or the reputed son of Cœur-de-lion, Lord of the prefence *, and no land beside ?...

Phil. Madam, and if my brother had my shape,

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And I had his, Sir Robert his, like him;
And if my legs were two fuch riding rods,
My arms fuch eel-skins stuff'd; my face so thin,
That in mine ear I durst not stick a rofe †,
Left men should fay, "Look, where three farthings

goes †!

" And to his shape were heir to all this land;" 'Would I might never ftir from off this place, I'd give it ev'ry foot to have this face.

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The ticking roses about them, was then all the court fashion. † We must observe, to explain this allufion, that Q Elifabeth was the first, and indeed the only prince, who coined in England three-halfpence and three farthing pieces. She at one and the fame time coined Thillings, 6x-pences, groats, three-pences, two-pences, three- halfpente, pence, three farthings, and halfpence. And these pieces all had beg head, and were alie nately with the rose benind, and without the rufe. The shilling, groat, two-pence, penny, and halfpenny, had it not. The other intermediate coins, viz, the fixpence, threepence, threehal pence, and threefarthings, had the rofe. Mr. Theobald.

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