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 and me.

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

Enter a Sheriff.

40

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
This expedition's charge. -

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 Coeur-de-lion knighted in the field.

K. John. What art thou?
Rob.

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50

55

The son and heir to that same Faulcon

bridge.

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 kingThat 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.

61

Eli. Out on thee, rude man! thou dost shame

thy mother

And wound her honour with this diffidence.

65

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! 70 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 whether 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,

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 son like him, -
O old Sir Robert, father, on my knee
I give heaven thanks I was not like to thee!

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80

K. John. Why, what a madcap hath heaven lent

us here!

Eli. He hath a trick of Coeur-de-lion's face; 85 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, 90 What doth move you to claim your brother's land? Bast. Because he hath a half-face, like my

father.

With half that face would he have all my land;
A half-faced groat five hundred pound a year!

Rob. My gracious liege, when that my father

lived,

Your brother did employ my father much,

95

Bast. Well, sir, by this you cannot get my land; Your tale must be how he employ'd my mother.

Rob. And once dispatch'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,

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106

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

110

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.
Then, good my liege, let me have what is mine, —
My father's land, as was my father's will.

115

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, 120 Who, as you say, took pains to get this son, Had of your father claim'd this son for his? In sooth, good friend, your father might have kept This calf, bred from his cow, from all the world; 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: My mother's son 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 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.

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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's his, like him;

135

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

140

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 would give it every foot to have this face;
I would not be Sir Nob in any case.

Eli. I like thee well.

fortune,

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Wilt thou forsake thy

Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me?
I am a soldier, and now bound to France.

Bast.

150

Brother, take you my land, I 'll take my
chance.

Your face hath got five hundred pound a year,
Yet sell your face for five pence and 'tis dear.
Madam, I'll follow you unto the death.

154

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. John. From henceforth bear his name whose form thou bear'st.

Kneel thou down Philip, but rise more great,

Arise Sir Richard and Plantagenet.

160

Bast. Brother by the mother's side, give me your

hand;

My father gave me honour, yours gave land.