King John | Page 4

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. Our strong possession and our right for us.
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 the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, who whispers to 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?
KING JOHN. Let them approach.--
[Exit SHERIFF.]
Our abbeys and our priories shall pay This expedition's charge.

[Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE and PHILIP, his
bastard Brother.]
What men are you?
BASTARD. Your faithful subject I, a gentleman Born in
Northamptonshire, and eldest son, As I suppose, to Robert
Falconbridge,-- A soldier by the honour-giving hand Of Coeur-de-lion
knighted in the field.
KING JOHN. What art thou?
ROBERT. The son and heir to that same Falconbridge.
KING JOHN. Is that the elder, and art thou the heir? You came not of
one mother then, it seems.
BASTARD. 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.
ELINOR. Out on thee, rude man! thou dost shame thy mother, And
wound her honour with this diffidence.
BASTARD. 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!
KING JOHN. A good blunt fellow.--Why, being younger born, Doth he
lay claim to thine inheritance?
BASTARD. I know not why, except to get the land. But once he
slander'd me with bastardy: But whe'er 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!
KING JOHN. Why, what a madcap hath heaven lent us here!
ELINOR. He hath a trick of Coeur-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?
KING 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?

BASTARD. Because he hath a half-face, like my father; With half that
face would he have all my land: A half-fac'd groat five hundred pound
a-year!
ROBERT. My gracious liege, when that my father liv'd, Your brother
did employ my father much,--
BASTARD. Well, sir, by this you cannot get my land: Your tale must
be how he employ'd my mother.
ROBERT. And once despatch'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 meantime sojourn'd
at my father's; Where how he did prevail I shame to speak,-- But truth
is truth: large lengths 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.
KING 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 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