intensity of pathos still strange to the Shakespeare of Henry VI. and of Richard III. The situation of Margaret after Tewkesbury, of Elizabeth after the murders in the Tower, resemble that of Constance; but Margaret utters her passion for vengeance more poignantly than the agony of her loss, and Elizabeth's outraged motherhood finds expression merely in sullen resentment. Constance is the Juliet of maternal love. Love for Arthur dominates her whole being, and the agony of bereavement finds utterance through phrases that burn in the fire of an imagination familiar with wild grief. Arthur's situation similarly recalls that of the young princes. The Arthur of the Troublesome Reign does, in fact, bear himself like the young Duke of York in Richard III., boldly bearding his dangerous uncle, and incurring reproof from Elinor for his vehemence ('Peace, Arthur, peace,' etc., Troublesome Reign, p. 240). Shakespeare has endowed his Arthur not with the charm of precocious talent, but with the pathos and shrinking tenderness of childhood: 'I am not worth this coil that's made for me'; and, instead of incurring reproof, it is he who, almost in Elinor's words, appeals to his own fiery advocate to cease pleading: 'Good my mother, peace! Of the death of the princes we have in the earlier play no more than a brief though exquisite picture; but Arthur's perilous captivity is displayed in the most tender and sympathetic dramatic detail; and the pathos of the scene is derived, not from an accumulation of harrowing details, as to some extent it is in the grim finale of Edward II., but from the ideal loveliness of childlike character which unfolds itself under the stress of Hubert's threat.

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF

KING JOHN

SCENE I.

ACT I.

KING JOHN's palace.

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

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 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,

I. Chatillon. In Ff he is called 'the Chattylion of France.' Like English words in -ion, the name could be either of three or of four syllables.

3. my behaviour, the tone and character which I here assume.

7. in right and true behalf, on behalf of the just claims.

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.

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 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. 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

IO.

territories, feudal de

pendencies.

17. control, constraint.

22. my embassy, my com

mission as envoy.

29. conduct, escort.

ΙΟ

20

30

30. Chatillon (four syllables).

With very easy arguments of love,

Which now the manage 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.

Essex. My liege, here is the strangest con-
troversy

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 charge.

Enter ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, and PHILIP his bastard brother.

40

What men are you

?

50

Bast. 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 Cordelion knighted in the field.

K. John. What art thou?

Rob. The son and heir to that same Faulconbridge.

K. John. Is that the elder, and art thou the

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

Eli. He hath a trick of Cordelion'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?

62. put you o'er, refer you. 68. a', he.

85. trick, trait.

86. affecteth, resembles.

бо

70

80