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? The borrow'd majesty of England here. Eli. A strange beginning;-borrow'd majesty! K. John. Silence, good mother; hear the embassy. Chat. Philip of France, in right and true behalf 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: 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? 1 In my behaviour,] In my behaviour means, I think, in the words and action that I am now going to use. MALONE. Chat. The proud control of fierce and bloody 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 furthest limit of my embassy. 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 sullen presage of your own decay,An honourable conduct let him have: Pembroke, look to't: Farewell, Chatillon. [Exeunt CHATILLON and PEMBROKE. This might have been prevented, and made whole, Which now the manage2 2 of two kingdoms must K. John. Our strong possession, and our right, for us. right; Or else it must go wrong with So much my conscience whispers in your ear; Enter the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, who whispers ESSEX. Essex. My liege, here is the strangest controversy, 2 the manage] i. e. conduct, administration. Come from the country to be judged by you, Our abbies, and our priories, shall pay [Exit Sheriff. Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, and PHILIP, his bastard Brother. 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, That is well known; and, as I think, one father: But, for the certain knowlege 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 whe'r I be as true begot, or no, 3 But whe'r-] Whe'r for whether. That still I lay upon my mother's head; And were our father, and this son like him; 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 Cœur-de-lion's face, 4 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, Bast. Well, sir, by this you cannot get my land; 4 He hath a trick of Cœur-de-lion's face,] By a trick, in this place, is meant some peculiarity of look or motion. 5 With that half-face-] The poet sneers at the meagre sharp visage of the elder brother, by comparing him to a silver groat, that bore the king's face in profile, so showed 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 crowned; till Henry VII. at the time above-mentioned, coined groats, and halfgroats, as also some shillings, with half faces, i. e. faces in profile, as all our coin has now. And in the meantime sojourn'd at my father's; 6 (As I have heard my father speak himself,) K. John. Sirrah, your brother is legitimate; Bast. Of no more force to dispossess me, sir, Eli. Whether hadst thou rather, be a Faulcon bridge, And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land; 6 took it on his death,] i. e. entertained it as his fixed opinion, when he was dying. |