no mother near to comfort him or to clamour to unheeding ears on his behalf. In his re-creation of the characters of Constance and Arthur the genius of Shakespeare especially asserts itself. The Arthur of The Troublesome Raigne is hardly self-consistent; he is in early youth, yet he is not without a certain knowledge of the world, some craft, and not a little of political ambition. Shakespeare makes him a comparatively passive centre for the tug this way and that of rival political powers, and he thus deepens the pathos of the situation. All the eloquent grief of Constance in her interview with Salisbury, all her pomp of woe, and all her energy of despair when Arthur is separated from her may be said to be Shakespeare's creation. Nothing in the old play resembles her rhetoric of sorrow, nor is there anything really resembling those fluctuations of passion rising from a uniformity of woe, like waves that leap and are tossed back by the gale, while yet the whole tide sets towards an iron coast of death. That outcry of forlorn weakness, with its invocation of the strength of the universe which must refuse to support the fraud and cruelty of men- -'A widow cries; be husband to me, heavens !'is wholly the word of Shakespeare's genius. But the later scene, when Constance and the French king meet, after Arthur has been dispatched to England, has its germ in the old play. Each dramatist desires to suggest in words the aspect of the afflicted mother, as she is seen approaching. 'Your face,' exclaims King Philip in the words of Shakespeare's predecessor, 'imports a tragic tale that's yet untold.' These words are not without suggestive power; but compare them with Shakespeare's line-Look, who comes here! a grave unto a soul!'

There is another remarkable scene in King John which is derived from a mere hint found in The Troublesome Raigne-that in which King John first insinuates and then less obscurely suggests to Hubert the murder of Arthur. These are the lines of the old play which Shakespeare so strikingly developed :

Hubert de Burgh take Arthur here to thee,
Be he thy prisoner: Hubert keep him safe,
For on his life doth hang thy sovereign's crown,
But in his death consists thy sovereign's bliss;
Then Hubert as thou shortly hear'st from me
So use the prisoner I have given in charge.

Shakespeare's King John, amid flatteries and vague promises addressed to the boy's keeper, creates, as it were, an evil mist under cover of which Hubert may already in thought commit the crime-'I had a thing to say, but I will fit it with some better time '-'I had a thing to say, but let it go.' And then creeping forward in the darkness of his suggestion, the king breathes the words

Good Hubert! Hubert, Hubert, throw thine eye
On yon young boy.

At last the words form themselves on John's pale lipsDeath,' and 'A grave', and, in the relief from the tension of the moment, the king, who is no lover of 'that idiot, laughter', could even be merry.

KING JOHN.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

PRINCE HENRY, Son to the King.

ARTHUR, Duke of Britaine, Nephew to the King.

THE EARL OF PEMBROKE.

THE EARL OF ESSEX.

THE EARL OF SALISBURY.

THE LORD BIGOT.

HUBERT De Burgh.

ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, Son to Sir Robert Faulconbridge. PHILIP THE Bastard, his half-brother.

JAMES GURNEY, Servant to Lady Faulconbridge.

PETER OF POMFRET, a Prophet.

PHILIP, King of France.

LEWIS, the Dauphin.

LYMOGES, Duke of Austria.

CARDINAL PANDULPH, the Pope's Legate.

MELUN, a French Lord.

CHATILLON, Ambassador from France.

QUEEN ELINOR, Mother to King John.

CONSTANCE, Mother to Arthur.

BLANCH OF SPAIN, Niece to King John.

LADY FAULCONBRIDGE.

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

SCENE. Sometimes in England, and sometimes in France.

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF

KING JOHN

ACT I.

SCENE I.-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?

CHATILLON. Thus, after greeting, speaks the King of France,

In my behaviour, to the majesty,

The borrow'd majesty of England here.

ELINOR. A strange beginning; ' borrow'd majesty!' KING JOHN. Silence, good mother; hear the embassy. CHATILLON. 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.

KING JOHN.
CHATILLON.

war,

8

12

What follows if we disallow of this? 16
The proud control of fierce and bloody

To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld.

KING JOHN.

Here have we war for war, and blood

20

for blood, Controlment for controlment: so answer France. CHATILLON. Then take my king's defiance from my mouth,

The furthest limit of my embassy.

KING 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.

24

28

[Exeunt CHATILLON and Pembroke.

32

ELINOR. 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.

KING JOHN.

for us.

36

Our strong possession and our right

ELINOR. 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, who whispers ESSEX.

40

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? KING JOHN. Let them approach.

Our abbeys and our priories shall pay

This expedition's charge.

45

[Exit Sheriff..

48

Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE and PHILIP, his

Bastard Brother.

What men are you?

THE BASTARD. Your faithful subject I, a gentle

man