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THE

(1) The LIFE and DEATH of

KING JOHN.

ACT T I.

SCENE, The Court of England.

Enter King John, Queen Elinor, Pembroke, Effex, and Salisbury, with Chatilion.

King JOHN.

OW, fay, Chatilion, what would France with us?

Chat. Thus, after greeting, fpeaks the

King of France,

In my behaviour, to the Majefty,

The borrow'd Majefty of England here.

Eli. A ftrange beginning; borrow'd Majefty!
K. John. Silence, good mother; hear the embaffie.

(1) The Life and Death -] Tho' this Play have this Title, yet the Action of it begins at the thirty-fourth Year of his Life; and takes in only fome Tranfactions of his Reign to the Time of his Demise, being an Interval of about seventeen Years.

P 2

Chat.

Chat. Philip of France, in right and true behalf
Of thy deceased brother Geffrey's fon,
Arthur Plantagenet, lays lawful claim
To this fair ifland, and the territories:
To Ireland, Poitiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine:
Defiring thee to lay afide the fword,

Which fways ufurpingly these feveral titles;
And put the fame into young Arthur's hand,
Thy nephew, and right-royal Sovereign.

K. John. What follows, if we disallow of this? Chat. The proud controul of fierce and bloody war, T' inforce thefe 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 embaffie.

K. John. Bear mine to him, and fo depart in peace.
Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France,
For ere thou canft report, I will be there,
The thunder of my cannon fhall be heard.
So, hence! be thou the trumpet of our wrath,
And fullen prefage of your own decay.
An honourable conduct let him have,
Pembroke, look to't; farewel, Chațilion.

[Exeunt Chat. and Pem.

Eli. What now, my fon, have I not ever said,
How that ambitious Conftance 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 eafy arguments of love;

Which now the manage of two kingdoms must

With fearful, bloody, iffue arbitrate.

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

Or else it must go wrong with and me;

you

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 ftrangest controverfie, Come from the country to be judg'd by you, That e'er I heard: fhall I produce the men? K. John. Let them approach.

Our abbies and our priories fhall pay

This expedition's charge-What men are you?
Enter Robert Faulconbridge, and Philip, his Brother.
Phil. Your faithful fubject, I, a gentleman
Born in Northamptonshire, and eldest son,
As I fuppofe, to Robert Faulconbridge,
A foldier, by the honour-giving hand
Of Coeur-de-lion knighted in the field.
K. John. What art thou?

Robert. 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 feems ?

Phil. Moft 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 doft fhame thy mother,

And wound her honour with this diffidence.

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 born,

Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance?

Phil. I 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 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 fon 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 Coeur-de-lion's face,
The accent of his tongue affecteth him :
Do you not read fome tokens of my fon
In the large compofition of this man?

K. John. Mine eye hath well examined his parts,
And finds them perfect Richard: Sirrah, fpeak,
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? (2) A half-fac'd groat, five hundred pound a year!

Rob. My gracious Liege, when that my father liv'd, Your brother did imploy my father much ;

(2) With half that Face] But why with half that Face? There is no Question but the Poet wrote, as I have reftor'd the Text, With that half-face-Mr. Pope, perhaps, will be angry with me for discovering an Anachronism of our Poet's, in the next Line; where he alludes to a Coin not ftruck till the Year 1504, in the Reign of King Henry VII. viz. a Groat, which as well as the half Groat, bare but half-faces impress’d. Vide Stow's Survey of London, p. 47. Holingfhed, Camden's Remains, &c. The Poet fneers at the meagre sharp Visage of the elder Brother, by comparing him to a Silver Groat, that bore the King's Face in Profile, fo fhew'd but half the Face: The Groats of all our Kings of England, and, indeed, all their other Coins of Silver, one or two only excepted, had a full Face crown'd; till Henry VII. at the Time above-mention'd, coin'd Groats and half Groats, as alfo fome Shillings, with half Faces, that is, Faces in Profile, as all our Coin has now. The firft Groats of King Henry VIII. were like these of his Father; tho' afterwards he return'd to the broad Faces again. Thefe roats, with the Impreffion in Profile, are undoubtedly here alluded to: tho', as I faid, the Poet is knowingly guilty of an Anachronism in it: for, in the Time of King John there were no Groats at all they being firft, as far as appears, coin'd in the Reign of King Edward III.

:

Phil. Well, Sir, by this you cannot get my land.
Your tale muft be, how he imploy'd my mother.
Rob. And once dispatch'd him in an embaffie
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 fhame to speak :
But truth is truth; large lengths of feas and shores
Between my father and my mother lay,

(As I have heard my father speak himself)
When this fame lufty 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 fon, was none of his
And if he were, he came into the world
Full fourteen weeks before the courfe 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 if she did play falfe, the fault was hers;
Which fault lyes on the hazard of all husbands,
That marry wives. Tell me, how if my brother,
Who, as you fay, took pains to get this fon,
Had of your father claim'd this fon 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 he 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.
Rob. Shall then my father's Will be of no force

To difpoffefs that child, which is not his ?
Phil. Of no more force to difpoffefs me, Sir,
Than was his will to get me, as I think.

Eli. Whether hadft thou rather be a Faulconbridge, And, like thy brother, to enjoy thy land:

Or the reputed fon. of Caur-de-lion,

P 4

Lord:

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