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 sullen1 presage of your own decay.An honorable conduct let him have ;Pembroke, look to't. Farewell, Chatillon. [Exeunt CHATILLON and Pembroke. Eli. What now, my son? have I not ever said, 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. 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 abbeys, and our priories, shall pay [Exit Sheriff. Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, and 1 i. e. gloomy, dismal. 2 i. e. conduct, administration. PHILIP, his bastard Brother.1 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; Eli. Out on thee, rude man! thou dost shame thy mother, And wound her honor with this diffidence. Bast. I, madam? no, I have no reason for it; That is my brother's plea, and none of mine. K. John. A good blunt fellow. Why, being young er born, Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance? 1 Shakspeare, in adopting the character of Philip Faulconbridge from the old play, proceeded on the following slight hint: "Next them a bastard of the king's deceased, The character is compounded of two distinct personages. "Sub illius temporis curriculo Falcasius de Brente, Neusteriensis, et spurius ex parte matris, atque Bastardus, qui in vili jumento manticato ad Regis paulo ante clientelam descenderat. Mathew Paris. - Holinshed says that "Richard I. had a natural son named Philip, who, in the year following, killed the Viscount de Limoges to revenge the death of his father." Perhaps the name of Faulconbridge was suggested by the following passage in the continuation of Harding's Chronicle, 1543, fol. 24, 6:-" One Faulconbridge, th' erle of Kent his bastarde, a stoute-hearted man." Bast. I know not why, except to get the land. But once he slandered me with bastardy: 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; The accent of his tongue affecteth him. K. John. Mine eye hath well examined his parts, Rob. My gracious liege, when that my father lived, Your brother did employ my father much; Bast. Well, sir, by this you cannot get my land; Your tale must be how he employed my mother. Rob. And once despatched 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 sojourned at my father's ; Where how he did prevail, I shame to speak. But truth is truth; large lengths of seas and shores 1 Whether. 2 Shakspeare uses the word trick generally in the sense of "a peculiar air, or cast of countenance or feature." 3 The Poet makes Faulconbridge allude to the silver groats of Henry VII. and Henry VIII., which had on them a half-face or profile. In the reign of John, there were no groats at all, the first being coined in the reign of Edward III. Between my father and my mother lay, K. John. Sirrah, your brother is legitimate; Rob. Shall then my father's will be of no force, 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 Faulcon bridge, And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land; Lord of thy presence, and no land beside ? Bast. Madam, an if my brother had my shape, And I had his, sir Robert his,3 like him; 1. i. e. "this is a decisive argument." 2 Lord of thy presence means possessor of thy own dignified and manly appearance, resembling thy great progenitor. 3 Sir Robert his, for "Sir Robert's;" his, according to a mistaken notion formerly received, being the sign of the genitive case. And if my legs were too such riding-rods; That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose, Lest men should say, Look, where three-farthings1 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 Nob3 in any case. Eli. I like thee well. Wilt thou forsake thy fortune, Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me? Bast. Brother, take you my land; I'll take ту chance. Your face hath got five hundred pounds 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. form thou bear'st. Kneel thou down, Philip, but arise * more great: Bast. Brother, by the mother's side, give me your hand; My father gave me honor, yours gave land. 1 Queen Elizabeth coined threepenny, threehalfpenny, and threefarthing pieces; these pieces all had her head on the obverse, and some of them a rose on the reverse. Being of silver, they were extremely thin; and hence the allusion. The roses stuck in the ear, or in a lock near it, were generally of riband; but Burton says that it was once the fashion to stick real flowers in the ear. Some gallants had their ears bored, and wore their mistresses' silken shoestrings in them. 2 To his shape, i. e. in addition to it. 4 The old copy reads rise. 3 Robert. 5 Plantagenet was not a family name, but a nickname, by which a grandson of Geoffrey, the first earl of Anjou, was distinguished, from his wearing a broomstalk in his bonnet. |