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 borrowed ^note majesty, of England here.

Eli.
A strange beginning: ‘borrowed ^note majesty!’

K. John.
Silence, good mother; hear the embassy.

Chat.
Philip of France, in right and true behalf
Of thy deceased brother ^note Geffrey's son,
Arthur Plantagenet, lays most ^note lawful claim
To this fair island and the territories,
To Ireland, Poictiers, Anjou ^note, Touraine ^note, 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 ^note: 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 ^note thou canst report I will be there, ^note
The thunder of my cannon shall be heard:
So hence! Be thou the trumpet of our wrath
And sullen ^note presage of your own decay.
An honourable conduct let him have:
Pembroke, look to't. Farewell, Chatillon. [Exeunt ^note 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 ^note 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. ^note

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 ^note charge. Enter ^note Robert Faulconbridge, and Philip his bastard brother.
What men are you? ^note

Bast. ^note
Your faithful subject I, a gentleman
Born in Northamptonshire and eldest son,
As I suppose, to Robert ^note Faulconbridge,
A soldier, by the honour-giving hand
Of Cœur-de-lion ^note knighted in the field.

K. John.
What ^note 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.

Bast.
Most certain of one mother, mighty king;
That 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.

Eli.
Out on thee, rude man! thou dost shame thy mother
And wound her honour with this diffidence.

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' ^note 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,
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 ^note I be as true ^note 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. ^note
If old Sir Robert did beget us both
And were our father and this son like him, ^note
O old Sir Robert, father, on my knee
I give heaven thanks I was not like to thee!

K. John.
Why, what a madcap hath heaven lent ^note us here!

Eli.
He hath a trick ^note of Cœur-de-lion's face;
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,
What doth move you to claim your brother's land?

Bast.
Because he hath a half-face, like my father.
With half that face ^note would he have all my land:
A half-faced groat five hundred pound a year! ^note

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 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
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 ^note 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 ^note
That this my mother's son was none of his;
And if ^note 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.

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 ^note of all husbands
That marry wives. Tell me, how if my brother,
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.
Whether ^note hadst thou rather be a Faulconbridge
And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land,
Or the reputed son of Cœur-de-lion,
Lord of thy ^note presence and no land beside?

Bast.
Madam, an if ^note my brother had my shape,
And I had his, sir Robert's ^note his, like him;
And if ^note 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
Lest men should say ‘Look, where three-farthings goes!’
And, to his ^note shape, were heir to all this ^note land,
Would I might never stir from off this place,
I would ^note give it every foot to have this face;
I ^note would not be sir Nob ^note in any case.

Eli.
I like thee well: wilt thou forsake thy fortune,
Bequeath thy land to him and follow me?
I am a soldier and now bound to France.

Bast.
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.

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 ^note:
Kneel thou down Philip, but rise ^note more great,

Arise sir Richard and Plantagenet.

Bast.
Brother by the mother's side, give me your hand:
My father gave me honour, yours gave land.
Now blessed be the hour, by night or day,
When I was got, sir Robert was away!

Eli.
The very spirit of Plantagenet!
I am thy grandam, Richard; ^note call me so.

Bast.
Madam, by chance but not by truth; what though? ^note
Something about, a little from the right,
  In at the window, or else o'er the hatch:
Who dares not stir by day must walk by night,
  And have is have, however men do catch:
Near or far off, well won is still well shot,
And I am I, howe'er I was begot.

K. John.
Go, Faulconbridge: now hast thou thy desire;
A landless knight makes thee a landed squire.
Come, madam, and come, Richard, we must speed
For France, for France, for it is more than need.

Bast.
Brother, adieu: good fortune come to thee!
For thou wast ^note got i' the way of honesty. [Exeunt all but Bastard. ^{note note}
A foot of honour better than I was;
But many a many ^note foot of land the worse.
Well, now can I make any Joan a lady.
‘Good den, sir Richard!’—‘God-a-mercy, fellow!’—
And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter;
For new-made honour doth forget men's names;
'Tis too respective and too ^note sociable ^note
For your conversion. ^note Now your traveller,

He and his toothpick at my worship's mess,
And when my knightly stomach is sufficed,
Why then I suck my teeth and catechize
My picked ^note man of ^note countries ^note: ‘My dear sir,’
Thus, leaning on mine elbow, I begin,
‘I shall beseech you’—that is question now ^note;
And then comes answer like an Absey book ^note:
‘O sir,’ says answer, ‘at your best command;
At your employment; at your service, sir:’
‘No, sir,’ says question, ‘I, sweet sir, at yours:’
And so, ere answer knows what question would,
Saving ^note in dialogue of compliment,
And talking of the Alps and Apennines,
The Pyrenean ^note and the river Po,
It draws toward ^note supper in conclusion so.
But this is worshipful society
And fits the mounting ^note spirit ^note like myself,
For he is but a bastard to the time
That doth not smack of observation;
And so am I, whether I smack ^note or no ^note;
And not alone in habit and device,
Exterior form, outward accoutrement,
But from the inward motion to deliver
Sweet, sweet, sweet poison for the age's tooth:
Which ^note, though I will not practise to deceive,
Yet, to avoid deceit, I mean to learn;
For it shall strew the footsteps of my rising.
But who comes in such haste in riding-robes?

What woman-post is this? hath she no husband
That will take pains to blow a horn before her? Enter ^note Lady Faulconbridge and James Gurney.
O me! it is ^note my mother. How now ^note, good lady!
What brings you here to court so hastily?

Lady F. ^note
Where is that slave, thy brother? where is he,
That holds in chase mine honour up and down?

Bast.
My brother Robert? old sir Robert's son?
Colbrand the giant, that same mighty man?
Is it sir Robert's son that you seek so?

Lady F.
Sir Robert's son! Ay, thou unreverend boy,
Sir Robert's son: why scorn'st ^note thou at sir Robert?
He is sir Robert's son, and so art thou.

Bast.
James Gurney ^note, wilt thou give us leave awhile?

Gur.
Good leave, good Philip.

Bast.
Philip! sparrow: ^note James,
There's toys abroad: anon I'll tell thee more. [Exit Gurney ^note.
Madam, I was not old sir Robert's son:
Sir Robert might have eat his part in me
Upon Good-Friday and ne'er broke his fast:
Sir Robert could do well: marry, to confess ^note,
Could he get me? ^note Sir Robert could not do it:
We know his handiwork: therefore, good mother,
To whom am I beholding ^note for these limbs?
Sir Robert never holp ^note to make this leg.

Lady F.
Hast thou conspired ^note with thy brother too,
That for thine own gain shouldst defend mine honour?
What means this scorn, thou most untoward knave?

Bast.
Knight, knight, good mother, Basilisco-like. ^note
What! ^note I am dubb'd! I have it on my shoulder.
But, mother, I am not sir Robert's son;
I have disclaim'd sir Robert and my land;
Legitimation, name and all is gone:
Then, good my mother, let me know my father;
Some proper man, I hope: who was it, mother?

Lady F.
Hast thou denied thyself a Faulconbridge?

Bast.
As faithfully as I deny the devil.

Lady F.
King Richard Cœur-de-lion was thy father:
By long and vehement suit I was seduced
To make room for him in my husband's bed:
Heaven lay not my transgression to my charge! ^note
Thou ^note art the issue of my dear offence,
Which was so strongly urged past my defence.

Bast.
Now, by this light, were I to get again,
Madam, I would not wish a better father.
Some sins do bear their privilege on earth,
And so doth yours; your fault was not your folly ^note:
Needs must you lay your heart at his dispose,
Subjected tribute to commanding love,
Against whose fury and unmatched force
The aweless lion could not wage the fight,
Nor keep his princely heart from Richard's hand ^note.
He that perforce robs lions of their hearts
May easily win a woman's. Ay ^note, my mother,
With all my heart I thank thee for my father!
Who lives and dares but say thou didst not well
When I was got, I'll send his soul to hell.
Come, lady, I will show thee ^note to my kin;

  And they shall say, when Richard me begot,
If thou hadst said him nay, it had been sin:
  Who says it was, he lies; I say 'twas not. [Exeunt. ^note

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