KING JOHN. ACT I. SCENE I. Northampton. A Room of State in the Palace. Enter KING JOHN, QUEEN ELINOR, PEMBROKE, ESSEX, 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 behavior,' to the majesty, The borrowed majesty of England here. Eli. A strange beginning;-borrowed majesty ! Arthur Plantagenet, lays most lawful claim To Ireland, Poictiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine; K. John. What follows, if we disallow of this? To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld. 1 In my behavior probably means "In the words and action I am now going to use." 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. K. John. Bear mine to him, and so depart in peace. [Exeunt CHATILLON and PEMBroke. This might have been prevented and made whole, 2 Which now the manage of two kingdoms must 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; Enter the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, who whispers Essex. My liege, here is the strangest controversy, [Exit Sheriff. That e'er I heard. Shall I produce the men? 1 i. e. gloomy, dismal. 2 i. e. conduct, administration. Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FAULCONBRIDge, and This expedition's charge.-What men are you? 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; 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? 1 Shakspeare, in adopting the character of Philip Faulconbridge from the old play, proceeded on the following slight hint: "Next them a bastard of the king's deceased, A hardie wild-head, rough and venturous." The character is compounded of two distinct personages. "Sub illius temporis curriculo Falcasius de Brente, Neusteriensis, et spurius ex parte matris, atque Bastardus, qui in vili jumento manticato ad Regis paulo ante clientelam descenderat. Mathew Paris.-Holinshed says that "Richard I. had a natural son named Philip, who, in the year following, killed the Viscount de Limoges to revenge the death of his father." Perhaps the name of Faulconbridge was suggested by the following passage in the continuation of Harding's Chronicle, 1543, fol. 24, 6:-" One Faulconbridge, th' erle of Kent his bastarde, a stoute-hearted man." Bast. I know not why, except to get the land. And were our father, and this son like him ;- I give Heaven thanks, I was not like to thee. us here! Eli. He hath a trick 2 of Coeur-de-lion's face; The accent of his tongue affecteth him. Do you not read some tokens of my son K. John. Mine eye hath well examined his parts, Bast. Well, sir, by this you cannot get my land; Your tale must be how he employed my mother. Rob. And once despatched 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 sojourned at my father's; Where how he did prevail, I shame to speak. But truth is truth; large lengths of seas and shores 1 Whether. 2 Shakspeare uses the word trick generally in the sense of "a peculiar air, or cast of countenance or feature." 3 The Poet makes Faulconbridge allude to the silver groats of Henry VII. and Henry VIII., which had on them a half-face or profile. In the reign of John, there were no groats at all, the first being coined in the reign of Edward III. Between my father and my mother lay, K. John. Sirrah, your brother is legitimate; 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,2 and no land beside? Bast. Madam, an if my brother had my shape, And I had his, sir Robert his,3 like him; 2 Lord of thy presence means possessor of thy own dignified and manly appearance, resembling thy great progenitor. 3 Sir Robert his, for "Sir Robert's;" his, according to a mistaken notion formerly received, being the sign of the genitive case. |