KING JOHN.

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE.

THIS play was probably written in the year 1596. The action comprehends some of the principal events which occurred from the 34th year of King John's life to the time of his demise; or, during his short reign of seventeen years. Shakspeare has in some respects closely adhered to the old historians and chroniclers; but the Duke of Austria was not accessary to the death of Richard Coeur-de-lion; neither was John himself poisoned by a monk. However the gross licentiousness of the latter---his utter disregard of even the appearances of religion--and his habitual ridicule of the church, might favour such a supposition, it is certain that he died partly of grief, and partly of chagrin, at Newark. These incongruities, with the outline of Faulconbridge's character, our poet very likely derived from some previous dramatic production. With respect to the unfor tunate Arthur, when be first fell into the power of his uncle, he was confined in the castle of Falaise, and the perfidious monarch endeavoured in vain to procure his assassination. He was afterwards conducted to the castle of Rouen, where Jobu resided, and uever afterwards heard of. The manner of his death is uncertain; but it is generally believed that the barbarous tyrant stabbed him with his own hand. Dr. Johnson says of this tragedy: "Though not written with the utmost power of Shakspeare, it is varied with a very pleasing interchange of incidents and characters: the lady's grief is very affecting; and the character of the Bastard contains that mixture of greatness and levity, which this author delighted to exhibit." The latter is, indeed, as odd a personage as any author ever drew; and his language is as peculiar as his ideas; but the scene in which John so darkly proposed to Hubert the murder of his innocent nephew, is beyond the commendation of criticism. Art could add little to its perfection; no change in dramatic taste can injure it; and time itself cau subtract nothing from its beauties.------Colly Cibber altered this drama, though not for the best.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

KING JOHN.

PETER of Pomfret, a Prophet.

PRINCE HENRY, his Son; afterwards King|PHILIP, King of France.
Henry 111.

ARTHUR, Duke of Bretagne, Son of Geffrey,
late Duke of Bretagne, the elder
Brother of King John.
WILLIAM MARESHALL, Earl of Pembroke.
GEFFREY FITZ-PETER, Earl of Essex, Chief
Justiciary of England.

WILLIAM LONGSWORD, Earl of Salisbury.
ROBERT BIGOT, Earl of Norfolk.
HUBERT DE BURGH, Chamberlain to the
King.

ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, Son of Sir Robert
Faulconbridge.

PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE, his Half-brother,
bastard Son to King Richard the
First.
JAMES GURNEY, Servant to Lady Faulcon-
bridge.

LEWIS, the Dauphin.
ARCH-DUKE of Austria.

CARDINAL PANDULPH, the Pope's legate.
MELUN, a French Lord.
CHATILLON, Ambassador from France to King

John.

ELINOR, the Widow of King Henry II. and
Mother of King John.

CONSTANCE, Mother to Arthur.
BLANCH, Daughter to Alphonso, King of Cas-
tile, and Niece to King John.
LADY FAULCONBRIDGE, Mother to the Bustard,
and Robert Faulconbridge.

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

SCENE, Sometimes in England, and sometimes in France.

ACT I.

SCENE 1.-Northampton.-A Room of State in the Palace.

K. John. Silence, good mother; hear the embassy.

Chat. Philip of France, in right and true beOf thy deceased brother Geffrey's son, (half Arthur Plantagenet, lays most lawful claim Enter King JOHN, Queen ELINOR, PEMBROKE, To this fair island, and the territories; ESSEX, SALISBURY, and others, with CHA-To Ireland, Poictiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine:

TILLON.

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.

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,

Eli. A strange beginning;-borrow'd ma- To enforce these rights se forcibly withheld. jesty!

In the manner I now do.

K. John. Here have we war for war, and blood for blood, Controlment for controlinent: so answer France.

Chat. Then take my king's deflance from my | (Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me !)
mouth,
Compare our faces, and be judge yourself.
If old Sir Robert did beget us both,

The furthest limit of my embassy.

K. John. Bear mine to him and so depart in And were our father, and his son like him ;

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 1 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,
whole,

With very easy arguments of love;
Which now the manage

and made

of two kingdoms must With fearful bloody issue arbitrate. 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;
Which none but heaven, and you and I, shall
hear.

Enter the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, who
whispers ESSEX.

Esser. My liege, here is the strangest con

troversy,

[Exit Sheriff.

Come from the country to be judg'd by you,
That ere I heard: Shall I produce the men ?
K. John. Let them approach.—
Our abbies, and our priories, shail pay
Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FAULCON-
BRIDGE, and PHILIP, his bastard Brother.
This expedition's charge.-What men are you?
Bast. Your faithful subject I, a gentleman,
Born in Northamptonshire; and eldest son,
As I suppose, to Robert Faulconbridge;
A soldier, by the honour-giving hand
Of Coeur-de-lion knighted in the field.
K. John. What art thou?

Rob. The son and heir to that same Faulcon.
bridge.

K. John. Is that the elder, and art thou the beir?

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 honour with this diffidence.
Bast. 1, madam? no, I have no reason for it;
That is my brother's plea, and none of miue;
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 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 whe'r I be as true-bégot, or no,
That still lay upon my mother's heau;
But, that I am as well-begot, my liege,
•Conduct, administration.
Whether.

O old Sir Robert, father, on my knee

I give heaven thanks, I was not like to thee.
K. John. Why, what a mad-cap 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,
[speak,
And finds them perfect Richard. -- Sirrab,
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-faced groat five hundred pounds 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 mo

ther,

Rob. And once despatch'd him in an embassy
To Germany, there, with the emperor,
To treat of high affairs touching that time:
And in the mean time sojourn'd at my father's;
The advantage of bis absence took the king,
Where how he did prevail, I shame to speak :
But truth is truth; large lengths of seas and
Between my father and my mother lay, [shores
(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,
That this, my mother's son, was none of his;
Full fourteen weeks before the course of time.
And if he were, he came into the world
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 he did play false, the fault was her's;
Which fault lies on the hazards 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 son for his ?
In sooth, good friend, your father might have
kept

This calf, bred from his cow, from all the
world;

In sooth he might: then, if he were my bro-
ther's,
My brother might not claim him: nor your
(father,
Being none of his, refuse him: This con-
cludes,-

My mother's son did get your father's heir;
Your father's heir inust 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 Faul-

conbridge,

And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land;
Or the reputed son of Cœur-de-lion,
Lord of thy presence, and no land beside ?
Bast. Madam, an if my brother had my

shape,

And I had his, Sir Robert his, like him;
And if my legs were two such riding-rods,
My arms such eel-skins stuff'd; my face so
thin,