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And damn'd be him that first cries, Hold, enough.

[Exeunt, fighting. Retreat. Flourish. Re-enter with Drum and Colours, Malcolm, old Siward, Rosse, Lenox, Angus, Cathness, Menteth, and Soldiers.

Mal. I would, the friends we miss were safe arriv'd.
Siw. Some must go off: and yet, by these I see,

So great a day as this is cheaply bought.

Mal. Macduff is missing, and your noble son.

Rosse. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt:

He only liv'd but till he was a man ;

The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd

In the unshrinking station where he fought,

But like a man he died.

Siw.

Then he is dead?

Rosse. Ay, and brought off the field: your cause of sorrow Must not be measur'd by his worth, for then

It hath no end.

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They say he parted well, and paid his score:

So God be with him.-Here comes newer comfort.

Re-enter Macduff, with Macbeth's head on a pole. Macd. Hail, king! for so thou art: Behold, where stands The usurper's cursed head: the time is free:

see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl,

That speak my salutation in their minds;
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine,-

Hail, king of Scotland!

All. King of Scotland, hail !

Mal. We shall not spend a large expense of time,

Before we reckon with your several loves,

[Flourish.

And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen,
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland,

In such an honour nam'd. What's more to do,
Which would be planted newly with the time,-
As calling home our exil'd friends abroad,
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny;
Producing forth the cruel ministers

Of this dead butcher, and his fiend-like queen;
Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands
Took off her life :--This, and what needful else
That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace,
We will perform in measure, time, and place :
So thanks to all at once, and to each one,

Whom we invite to see us crown d at Scone. [Flourish. Exeunt.

KING JOHN.

King John.

Persons Represented.

PRINCE HENRY, his Son; afterwards
King Henry III.

ARTHUR, Duke of Bretagne, Son of
Geffrey, late Duke of Bretagne, the
elder Brother of King John.
WILLIAM MARESHALL, Earl of Pem-
broke.

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
Faulconbridge.

PETER of Pomfret, a Prophet.

PHILIP, King of France.
LEWIS, the Dauphin.
ARCHDUKE 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 Castile, and Niece to
King John.

LADY FAULCONBRIDGE, Mother to
the Bastard, and Robert Faul-
conbridge.

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

SCENE. Sometimes in England, and sometimes in France.

Act First.

SCENE I.-NORTHAMPTON. A ROOM OF STATE IN THE PALACE. Enter King John, Queen Elinor, Pembroke, Essex, Salisbury, and others, with Chatillon.

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.

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?
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.

Eli. What now, my son? have I 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, and made whole,
With very easy arguments of love;

Which now the manage1 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.

Essex. My liege, here is the strangest controversy,

Come from the country to be judged by you,

That e'er I heard: Shall I produce the men?

K. John. Let them approach,

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?

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.

1 Administration.

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 whe'r 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,
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 trick1 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,
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:
With that half-face would he have all my land:
A half-faced groat2 five hundred pound a year!
Rob. My gracious liege, when that my father liv'd,
Your brother did employ my father much;
And once despatch'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;
Where how he did prevail, I shame to speak;
But truth is truth; large lengths of seas and shores
Between my father and my mother lay,
(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;
And, if he were, he came into the world
Full fourteen weeks before the course of time.

1 Tracing.

2 Sneeringly comparing his meagre visage to the half profile on the silver groat.

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 false, the fault was hers;
Which fault lies on the hazards of all husbands
That marry wives. Tell me, how if my brother
Had of your father claim'd this son for his?

In sooth, good friend, your father might have kept him;
In sooth, 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,-
Your father's heir must 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 Faulconbridge, And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land;

Or the reputed son of Coeur-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,

That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose,

Lest men should say, Look, where three-farthings goes!
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 Nob in any case.

Eli. I like thee well; Wilt thou forsake thy fortune, 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 pounds a year;

Yet sell your face for five pence, and, 'tis dear.

Madam, I'll follow you unto the death.

Eli. Nay, I would have you go before me thither.
Bast. Our country manners give our betters way.
K. John. What is thy name?

Bast. Philip, my liege; so is my name begun

Philip, good old Sir Robert's wife's eldest son.

K. J. From henceforth bear his name whose form thou bear'st:

Kneel thou down Philip, but arise more great:

Arise Sir Richard, and Plantagenet.

Bast. Brother, by my mother's side, give me your hand;

My father gave me honour, yours gave land.

Eli. The very spirit of Plantagenet !

I am thy grandame, Richard; call me so.

Bast. Madam, by chance, but not by truth: What though?

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

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