politics without disapproving them, but frankly confesses that he is endeavouring to make his fortune by similar means, and wishes rather to belong to the deceivers than the deceived." Our commiseration is a little excited for the fallen and degraded monarch toward the close of the play. The death of the king and his previous suffering are not among the least impressive parts; they carry a pointed moral.

Malone places the date of the composition in 1596. Chalmers in 1598. It is mentioned by Meres in his list of Shakespeare's plays given in 1598, but may have been then a recent production. It was first printed in the folio of 1623.

KING JOHN:

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

PRINCE HENRY, his Son; afterwards King Henry III. ARTHUR, Duke of Bretagne, Son of Geffrey, late Duke of Bretagne, the elder Brother of King John.

WILLIAM MARESHALL, Earl of Pembroke.

GEFFREY FITZ-PETER, Earl of Essex, chief Justiciary of England.

WILLIAM LONGSWORD, Earl of Salisbury.

ROBERT BIGOT, Earl of Norfolk.

HUBERT DE BURGH, Chamberlain to the King.

ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, Son of Sir Robert Faulconbridge:
PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE, his Half-brother, Bastard Son to
King Richard the First.

JAMES GURNEY, Servant to Lady Faulconbridge.
PETER of Pomfret, a Prophet..

PHILIP, King of France.

LEWIS, the Dauphin.

ARCHDUKE OF AUSTRIA.

CARDINAL PANDULPH, the Pope's Legate.

MELUN, a French Lord.

CHATILLON, Ambassador from France to King John.

ELINOR, the Widow of King Henry II. and Mother of King John.

CONSTANCE, Mother to Arthur.

BLANCH, Daughter to Alphonso, King of Castile, and Niece to King John.

LADY FAULCONBRIDGE, Mother to the Bastard, and Robert Faulconbridge.

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

SCENE, sometimes in England, and sometimes in France.

SCENE I. Northampton. A Room of State in the Palace.

Enter KING JOHN, QUEEN ELINOR, PEMBROKE, ESSEX, SALISBURY, and others, with CHATILLON. King John.

OW, say, Chatillon, what would France with us?

Chat. Thus, after greeting, speaks the

king of France,

In my behaviour1, to the majesty,

The borrow'd majesty of England here.

Eli. A strange beginning;-borrow'd majesty!
K. John. Silence, good mother; hear the embassy.
Chat. 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;

1 In my behaviour, i. e. by me. "In the words and action I am now going to use." In the fifth act of this play the Bastard says to the French king:

"Now hear our English king,

For thus his royalty doth speak in me."

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.

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: 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 heard3: So, hence! Be thou the trumpet of our wrath, And sullen1 presage of your own decay.An honourable conduct let him have :Pembroke, look to't; Farewell, Chatillon.

[Exeunt CHATILLON and PEMBROKE. Eli. What now, my son? have I not ever said, How that ambitious Constance would not cease,

2 Control here means constraint or compulsion. In the second act of King Henry V. when Exeter demands of the King of France the surrender of his crown, the king answers, "Or else what follows?" and Exeter replies:

"Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown,

Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it."

3 I have before observed that the anachronism of anticipating the use of cannon was disregarded by the poet. It occurs again in Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 2.

✦ Sullen, i. e. gloomy, dismal. Thus in King Henry VI. Part II. Act i. Sc. 2:

"Why are thy eyes fixed on the sullen earth?"

And in King Richard II. Act i. Sc. 3:

"The sullen passage of thy weary steps."

So Milton in his Sonnet to his friend Lawrence:

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 5 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 the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, who whispers ESSEX.

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? K. John. Let them approach.- [Exit Sheriff. Our abbies and our priories shall pay

Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, and PHILIP, his bastard Brother 6.

This expedition's charge.-What men are you? Bast. Your faithful subject I, a gentleman, • Manage, i. e. conduct, administration. So in K. Richard II:"For the rebels

Expedient manage must be made, my liege."