Joh.
Now, say, Chatillion, what would France with us?

Cha.
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!

Joh.
Silence, good mother; hear the embassy.

Cha.
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: ^note
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.

Joh.
What follows, if we disallow of this?

Cha.
The proud controul of fierce and bloody war,
To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld.

Joh.
Here have we war for war, and blood for blood,
Controulment for controulment; so answer France.

Cha.
Then take my king's defiance from my mouth,
The farthest limit of my embassy.

Joh.
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:—Farewel, Chatillion. [Exeunt Pem. and Cha.

Eli.
What now, my son? have I not ever said,
How that ambitious Constance would not cease,
'Till she had kindl'd 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.

Joh.
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 the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, and whispers Essex.

Ess.
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?

Joh.
Let them approach.— [Exit Sheriff; and Re-enters, with Philip, the Bastard Faulconbridge, and Robert his Brother.
Our abbies, and our priories, shall pay
This expedition's ^note charge.—What men are you?

Bas.
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 knighted in the field.

Joh.
And what art thou?

Rob.
The son and heir to that same Faulconbridge.

Joh.
Is that † the elder, and art thou the heir?
You came not of one mother then, it seems.

Bas.
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.

Bas.
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!

Joh.
A good blunt fellow:—Why, being younger born,
Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance?

Bas.
I know not why, except to get the land.
But once he slander'd me with bastardy:
But whe'r 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.

Joh.
Why, what a mad-cap hath heaven lent us here!

Eli.
He hath a trick 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?

Joh.
Mine eye hath well examined his parts,
And finds them perfect Richard.—Sirrah, speak,
What doth move you to claim your brother's land?

Bas.
Because he hath a half-face, like my father:
With that ^note half-face14Q0533 would he have all my land;
A half-fac'd groat five hundred pound a year.

Rob.
My gracious liege, when that my father liv'd,
Your brother did employ my father much;—

Bas.
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 emperour, ^note
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,
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.

Joh.
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?

Bas.
Of no more force to dispossess me, sir,
Than was his will to get me, as I think.

Eli.
Whether 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 presence, and no land beside?

Bas.
Madam, an if my brother had my shape,
And I had his, sir Robert's his, like him;

And if my legs were two such riding-rods,
My arms such eel-skins stuft; 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 shape, were heir to all this land,
'Would I might never stir from off this place,
I'd give it every foot to have this † face;
I would not be sir Nob 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.

Bas.
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.

Bas.
Our country manners give our betters way.

Joh.
What is thy name?

Bas.
Philip, my liege; so is my name begun;
Philip, good old sir Robert's wife's eldest son.

Joh.
From henceforth bear his name whose form thou bear'st:
Kneel thou down Philip, but rise up more great;
Arise sir Richard, and Plantagenet. [knighting him.

Bas.
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 grandame, Richard; call me so.

Bas.
Madam, by chance, but not by truth:—What tho'?
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.

Joh.
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.

Bas.
Brother, adieu; Good fortune come to thee!
For thou wast got i'the way of honesty. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The same. Anti-room of the same. Enter Bastard.

Bas.
A foot of honour better than I was;
But many a many 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 ^note,14Q0534 and too sociable,
For your conversion. Now your traveller,—
He and his tooth-pick at my worship's mess;
And when my knightly stomach is suffic'd,
Why then I suck my teeth, and catechize
My piked man of countries:—My dear sir,
(Thus, leaning on mine elbow, I begin)
I shall beseech you,—That is Question now;
And then comes Answer like an a-b-c. book:—
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 in dialogue of compliment;
And talking of the Alps, and Apennines,
The Pyrenean ^note, and the river Po)
It draws toward supper in conclusion.
But this is worshipful society;
And fits the mounting spirit, like myself:
For he is but a bastard to the time,
That doth not smack ^note of observation;
(And so am I, whether I smack, or no)
And not alone in habit and device,
Exterior form, outward accoutrement;
But from the inward motion too, deliver ^note
Sweet, sweet, sweet poison for the age's tooth:
Which though I will not practise to deceive,
Yet, to avoid deceit, I mean to learn;
For it shall strew the foot-steps 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 Lady Faulconbridge, and Servant.
O me! it is my mother:—How now, good lady?
What brings you here to court so hastily?

Lad.
Where is that slave, thy brother? where is he?
That holds in chace mine honour up and down?

Bas.
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?

Lad.
Sir Robert's son! Ay, thou unreverend boy,
Sir Robert's son: Why scorn'st thou at sir Robert?
He is sir Robert's son; and so art thou.

Bas.
James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave a while?

Ser.
Good leave, good Philip.

Bas.
Philip! sparrow:14Q0535 James,
There's toys abroad; anon I'll tell thee more. [Exit Servant.
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,
Could he get me? sir Robert could not do it;
We know his handy-work: Therefore, good mother,
To whom am I beholding for these limbs?
Sir Robert never holp to make this leg.

Lad.
Hast thou conspired with thy brother too,
That for thine own gain should'st defend mine honour?
What means this scorn, thou most untoward knave?

Bas.
Knight, knight, good mother, Basilisco like:
What! I am dub'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?

Lad.
Hast thou deny'd thyself a Faulconbridge?

Bas.
As faithfully as I deny the devil.

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

Bas.
Now, by this light, were I to get again,
Madam, I would not wish a better father.
Some sins do bear their priviledge 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 awless lion could not wage the fight,
Nor keep his princely heart from Richard's hand:
He, that perforce robs lions of their hearts,
May easily win a woman's. Ah, 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 shew thee to my kin;
  And they shall say ^note, 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.

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