A CT 1. SCENE I. Northampton. A room of state in the palace. Enter king John, queen Elinor, Pembroke, Essex, and Salisbury, with Chatillon. K. John. Now, say, Chatillon, what would France with us? Chat. Thus, after grecting, speaks the king of France, In 5 The Troublefome Reign of King Fohn was written in two parts, by W. Shakespeare and W. Rowley, and printed 1611. But the present play is intirely different, and infinitely fuperior to it. Pope. The edition of s6n1 has no mention of Rowley, nor in the account of Rowley's works is any mention made of his conjunction with Shakespeare in any play. King fohn was reprinted in two parts in 1622. The first edition that I have found of this play in its present form, is that of 1623, in fol. The edition of 1591 I have not seen. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson mistakes when he says there is no mention in Rowley's works of any conjunction with Shakespeare: the Birth of Merlin is ascribed to them jointly ; though I cannot believe Shake. speare had any thing to do with it. Mr. Capell is equally miitaken when he says (pref. p. 15.) that Rowley is called his partner in the title-page of the Merry Devil of Edmonton. There must have been foine tradition, however erroneous, upon which Mr. Pope's account was founded; I make no doubt that Rowley wrote the finit King John: and when Shakelpeare's play was called for, and could not be procured from the players, a pi. ratical bookseller reprinred the old one, with W. Sh. in the title, page. FARMER. Hall, Holinsed, Stowe, &c. are closely followed not only in B 2. the In my behaviour", to the majesty, Eli. A strange beginning ;-borrow'd majesty! Chat. Philip of France, in right and true behalf K. John. What follows, if we disallow of this war, the conduct, but sometimes in the expresions throughout the following historical dramas; viz. Macbeth, this play, Richard II. Henry IV. 2 parts, Henry V. Henry VI. 3 parts, Richard III. and Henry VIII " A booke called The Hystorie of Lord Faulconbridge, bastard Son to Richard Cordelion," was entered at Stationers' Hall, Nov. 29. 1614; but I have never met with it, and therefore know not whether it was the old black letter history, or a play on the fame subject. For the original K. John, see Six old Plays on which Shakespeare founded &c. published by S. Leacroft, Charing-Cross. STEEVENS. Though this play hath the title of The Life and Death of King John, yet the action of it begins at the thirty-fourth year of his life; and takes in only fome transactions of his reign at the time of his demise, being an interval of about seventeen years. THEOBALD. In behaviour, ] The word behaviour seems here to have a signification that I have never found in any other author. The king of France, says the envoy, thus /peaks in my behaviour to the majesty of England; that is, the king of France speaks in the character which I here assume. I once thought that these two lines, in my behaviour, &c. had been uttered by the ambassador as part of his master's message, and that behaviour had meant the "conduct of the king of France towards the king of England ; but the ambassador's speech, as continued after the interruption, will not admit this meaning. Johnson. 1 controul -] Opposition, from controller. Johnson. To 6 my To inforce these rights so forcibly withheld. blood, Controulment for controulment; 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, 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 Chat. and Pem. 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 66 And. 8 Here have we war for war, and blood for blood, Controulment for controulment; &c.] King John's reception of Chatillon not a little resembles that which Andrea meets with from the king of Portugal in the first part of Feronimo &c. 1605 : " And. Thou shalt pay tribute, Portugal, with blood. -I bid you STEEVỀNS. ? Be thou as lightning —] The fimile does not suit well: the lightning indeed appears before the thunder is heard, but the lightning is destructive, and the thunder innocent. Johnson. fullen prefage] By the epithet sullen, which cannot be applied to a trumpet, it is plain that our author's imagination had now suggested a new idea. It is as if he had faid, be a trumpet to alarm with our invasion, be a bird of ill omen to croak out the prognostick of your own ruin. Johnson. • the manage -] i. c. conduct, administration. So, in K. Rich. II: B 3 • for 2 With fearful bloody issue arbitrate. K. John. Our strong poffefsion, and our right, for US. me : Eli. Your strong poffeffion, much more than your right; Or else it must go wrong with and Elsex 3. Ellex. 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.- [Exit sheriff Our abbies, and our priories, shall pay Re-enter soeriff with Robert Faulconbridge, and Philip, his brother 4. This expedition's charge.-What men are you Pbil. Your faithful subject I, a gentleman, 2 anson for the rebels STEEVENS, 3 Enter the sheriff of Northamptonshire, &c.) This stage direction I have taken from the old quarto. STEEVENS. - and Philip, his brother.] Though Shakespeare adopted this character of Philip Faulconbridge from the old play, it is not improper to mention that it is compounded of two diftinct personages. Matthew Paris fays :-"Sub illius temporis curriculo, Falcahus de Brente, Neuiterienfis, et fpurius ex parte matris, atque Baitardus, qui in vili jumento manticato ad Regis paulo ante clientelam descenderat, &c." Matt. Paris, in his Hiftory of the Monks of St. Albans, calls hiin Falco, but in his General History, Falcafius de Brente, as above, Holinthed says, 66 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,” STEEVENS. Born Born in Northamptonshire ; and eldest son, K. John. What art thou ? K. John. Is that the elder, and art thou the heir ? You came not of one inother then, it seems. Phil. Moft certain of one mother, mighty king, That is well known; and, as I thịnk, 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 thce, rude man! thou dost shame thy mother, And wound her honour with this diffidence. Phil. 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, Phil. I know not why, except to get the land. s But for the certain knoruledge of that truth, mother; Of that I doubt, as all men's children may.) The resemblance between this sentiment and that of Telemachus in the first book of the Odyley, is apparent. The paflage is thus translated by Chapman : 66 My mother, certaine, sayes I am his fonue; By any child, the sure truth of his fire." Mr. Pope has observed that the like sentiment is found in Euripi. des, Menander, and Ariftotle. Shakespeare expresses the same doubt in several of his other plays. STEEVENS. That ту В 4 |