PERSONS REPRESENTED

KING JOHN.
PRINCE HENRY: SON TO THE KING.
ARTHUR: DUKE OF BRETAGNE, NEPHEW TO THE KING.
PEMBROKE.

ESSEX.
SALISBURY.
THE LORD BIGOT.
HUBERT DE BURGH.

SON TO SIR ROBERT ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE:

FAULCONBRIDGE. PHILIP THE BASTARD, AFTERWARDS

HIS HALF-BROTHER. RICHARD PLANTAGENET: JAMES GURNEY: SERVANT TO LADY FAULCONBRIDGE. PETER OF POMFRET : A PROPHET.

PHILIP: KING OF FRANCE.
LEWIS: THE DOLPHIN.

LYMOGES : DUKE OF AUSTRIA.
CARDINAL PANDULPH : THE POPE'S LEGATE.
MELUN: A FRENCH LORD.
CHATILLON: AMBASSADOR FROM FRANCE.

ELINOR: MOTHER TO KING John.
CONSTANCE: MOTHER TO ARTHUR.
BLANCH OF SPAIN: NIECE TO KING John.
LADY FAULCONBRIDGE.

LORDS, CITIZENS OF ANGIERS, SHERIFF, HERALDS, OFFICERS,

SOLDIERS, MESSENGERS, ATTENDANTS.

SCENE-England and France.

THE LIFE AND DEATH

OF KING JOHN

ACT I

SCENE I. A Palace in England.

Enter KING JOHN, QUEEN ELINOR, PEMBROKE, ESSEX,

SALISBURY, and others, with CHATILLON.

10

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 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;
For, ere thou canst report I will be there,
I dependencies.

? compulsion.

20

ACT I
Sc. I

30

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 manage 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
So much my conscience whispers in your ear,
Which none but Heaven and you and I shall hear.

and me:

41

Enter a Sheriff.
Essex. My Liege, here is the strangest controversy

Come from the country to be judg’d by you,

That e'er I heard : shall I produce the men ?
K. John. Let them approach.

Our Abbeys and our Priories shall pay
This expedition's charge.

50

Enter 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 Cordelion' 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.