King John

King John

By William Shakespeare.

Table of Contents

1. Titlepage
2. Imprint
3. Dramatis Personae
4. King John
   1. Act I
      1. Scene I
   2. Act II
      1. Scene I
   3. Act III
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
      3. Scene III
      4. Scene IV
   4. Act IV
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
      3. Scene III
   5. Act V
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
      3. Scene III
      4. Scene IV
      5. Scene V
      6. Scene VI
      7. Scene VII
5. Colophon
6. Uncopyright

Imprint

This ebook is the product of many hours of hard work by volunteers for Standard Ebooks, and builds on the hard work of other literature lovers made possible by the public domain.

This particular ebook is based on a transcription produced for HathiTrust Digital Library and on digital scans available at the HathiTrust Digital Library.

The writing and artwork within are believed to be in the U.S. public domain, and Standard Ebooks releases this ebook edition under the terms in the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. For full license information, see the Uncopyright at the end of this ebook.

Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven project that produces ebook editions of public domain literature using modern typography, technology, and editorial standards, and distributes them free of cost. You can download this and other ebooks carefully produced for true book lovers at standardebooks.org.

Dramatis Personae

• King John

• Prince Henry, son to the king

• Arthur, Duke of Bretagne, nephew to the king

• The Earl of Pembroke

• The Earl of Essex

• The Earl of Salisbury

• The Lord Bigot

• Hubert de Burgh

• Robert Faulconbridge, to Sir Robert Faulconbridge

• Philip the Bastard, his half-brother

• James Gurney, servant to Lady Faulconbridge

• Peter of Pomfret, a prophet

• Philip, King of France

• Lewis, the Dauphin

• Lymoges, Duke of Austria

• Cardinal Pandulph, the Pope’s legate

• Melun, a French Lord

• Chatillon, ambassador from France to King John

• Queen Elinor, mother to King John

• Constance, mother to Arthur

• Blanch Of Spain, niece to King John

• Lady Faulconbridge

• Lords, citizens of Angiers, sheriff, heralds, officers, soldiers, messengers, and other attendants

Scene: Partly in England, and partly in France.

King John

Act I

Scene I

King John’s palace.

	Enter King John, Queen Elinor, Pembroke, Essex, Salisbury, and others, with Chatillon.
King John	Now, say, Chatillon, what would France with us?
Chatillon	Thus, after greeting, speaks the King of France In my behaviour to the majesty, The borrow’d majesty, of England here.
Elinor	A strange beginning: “borrow’d majesty!”
King John	Silence, good mother; hear the embassy.
Chatillon	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, 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.
King John	What follows if we disallow of this?
Chatillon	The proud control of fierce and bloody war, To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld.
King John	Here have we war for war and blood for blood, Controlment for controlment: so answer France.
Chatillon	Then take my king’s defiance from my mouth, The farthest limit of my embassy.
King 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 Chatillon and Pembroke.
Elinor	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 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 a Sheriff.
Essex	My liege, here is the strangest controversy Come from country to be judged by you That e’er I heard: shall I produce the men?
King John	Let them approach. Our abbeys and our priories shall pay This expedition’s charge.
	Enter 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 Faulconbridge, A soldier, by the honour-giving hand Of Cœur-de-lion knighted in the field.
King John	What art thou?
Robert	The son and heir to that same Faulconbridge.
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 whether 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