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: K. JOHN. What follows, if we disallow of this? 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; [Exeunt CHATILLON and PEMBROKE. K. JOHN. Our strong possession, and our right, 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 FAULCONBRIDGE, 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 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 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, 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. 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 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 where 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 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; a With that half-face would he have all my land: A half-fac'd groat, five hundred pound a-year! (1) 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. The advantage of his absence took the king, And in the mean time sojourn'd at my father's; With that half-face-] This is a correction of Theobald's; the folio, 1623, reading, "with half that face." b And took it, on his death,-] Steevens is the only one of the commentators who notices this expression; and he interprets it to mean, "entertained it as his fixed opinion, when he was dying." We believe it was a common form of speech, and signified that he swore, or took oath, upon his death, of the truth of his belief. Thus Falstaff, "Merry Wives of Windsor," Act II. Sc. 2, says, and when mistress Bridget lost the handle of her fan, 66 Where how he did prevail, I shame to speak; 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; 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 | BAST. Of no more force to dispossess me, sir, ELI. Whether hadst thou rather be a Faulconbridge, And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land; c 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, That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose, [goes; (2) Lest men should say, Look, where three farthings| And, to his shape, were heir to all this land, Would I might never stir from off this place, I'd give it every foot to have this face; I would not be sir Nobd in any case. [fortune, ELI. I like thee well. Wilt thou forsake thy Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me? I am a soldier, and now bound to France. BAST. Brother, take you my land, I'll take my chance : Your face hath got five hundred pound a year; ELI. Nay, I would have you go before me thither. BAST. Philip, my liege; so is my name begun; Philip, good old sir Robert's wife's eldest son. K. JOHN. From henceforth bear his name whose form thou bearest : Kneel thou down Philip, but arise ‡ more great; BAST. Brother-by the mother's side, give me your hand; cases. e Lord of thy presence,-] Queen Elinor, prepossessed by Philip's gallant bearing and likeness to her son, frames her question so as to discover whether he prefers to rest his claim to future distinction as the heir of Faulconbridge, or as the supposed son of Coeur-de-lion:-"Would you rather be a Faulconbridge, resembling your brother, but possessed of five hundred pounds a-year in land; or the reputed son of King Richard, with similar personal endowments to his, and no land at all?" : My father gave me honour, yours gave land :- ELI. The very spirit of Plantagenet !— Something about, a little from the right, In at the window, or else o'er the hatch :* K. JOHN. Go, Faulconbridge: now hast thou thy desire; A landless knight makes thee a landed squire.— Come, madam,-and come, Richard: we must speed, For France, for France! for it is more than need. BAST. Brother, adieu: good fortune come to thee! For thou wast got i' the way of honesty. For your conversion. Now, your traveller,— d I would not be sir Nob-] So the second folio, 1632; the first has, "It would." e In at the window, or else o'er the hatch :] Proverbial sayings applied to illegitimate children;-"Woe worth the time that ever I gave suck to a child that came in at the window!"-The Family of Love, 1608. So, also, in "The Witches of Lancashire," by Heywood and Broome, 1634:-". It appears you came in at the window."-"I would not have you think I scorn my grannam's cat to leap over the hatch." f Too respective,-] Too mindful, considerate, retrospective; and not, I believe, as Steevens interprets it, "respectful," "formal." g My picked man-] See Note (d), p. 82, of the present volume. h Like an A B C book:] These letters are printed as they were pronounced, Absey, in the old copies. An Absey, or A B C book, was a book to teach the young their letters, catechism, &c. :"In the A B C of bokes the least, Yt is written, Deus charitas est." It draws toward supper in conclusion so. For it shall strew the footsteps of my rising.- Enter LADY FAULCONBRIDGE and JAMES How now, good lady? That holds in chase mine honour up and down? LA. FAULC. Sir Robert's son ! ay, thou unreverend boy, Sir Robert's son: why scorn'st thou at sir Robert? He is sir Robert's son, and so art thou. BAST. James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave a while? What! I am dubb'd; I have it on my shoulder. BAST. As faithfully as I deny the devil. By long and vehement suit I was seduc'd e Which was so strongly urg'd, past my defence. And they shall say, when Richard me begot, a Colbrand the giant,-] This was the Danish giant whom the renowned Guy of Warwick overcame in the presence of Athelstan. A description of the combat will be found in Drayton's "Polyclbion." Twelfth Song. b Good leave,-] "Good leave," Steevens says, "means a ready assent." e Philip!-sparrow!] The sparrow was very early known by the name Sir Richard disdains, perhaps from its note, to which Catullus alludes: "Sed circumsiliens modo huc, modo illuc, Thus, in Lyly's "Mother Bombie:" Skelton, too, has a long poem, the title of which is "Phyllyp Sparowe." a There's toys abroad;] Toys may mean here rumours, idle reports, and the like; or tricks, devices, &c.; for Shakespeare uses the word with great latitude. e Thou art the issue-] The old copy has, "That art," &c.; for which Rowe substituted Thou, &c. Some alteration was certainly required; but this is not satisfactory I am half persuaded the misprint to be corrected is in the preceding line, and that we ought to read, "Heaven lay not my transgression to thy charge She had a moment before confessed that Richard Coeur-de-lion was his father; and "Thou art the issue" is a needless repetition of the avowal. |