Act 1, Scene 1

Northampton. A Room of State in the Palace.

[Enter KING JOHN, QUEEN ELINOR, PEMBROKE, ESSEX, SALISBURY, and others, with CHATILLON.]
King John
1 Now, say, Chatillon, what would France with us?
Chatillon
2 Thus, after greeting, speaks the King of France,
3 In my behaviour, to the majesty,
4 The borrow'd majesty of England here.
Queen Elinor
5 A strange beginning:—borrow'd majesty!
King John
6 Silence, good mother; hear the embassy.
Chatillon
7 Philip of France, in right and true behalf
8 Of thy deceased brother Geffrey's son,
9 Arthur Plantagenet, lays most lawful claim
10 To this fair island and the territories,—
11 To Ireland, Poictiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine;
12 Desiring thee to lay aside the sword
13 Which sways usurpingly these several titles,
14 And put the same into young Arthur's hand,
15 Thy nephew and right royal sovereign.
King John
16 What follows if we disallow of this?
Chatillon
17 The proud control of fierce and bloody war,
18 To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld.
King John
19 Here have we war for war, and blood for blood,
20 Controlment for controlment;—so answer France.
Chatillon
21 Then take my king's defiance from my mouth,
22 The farthest limit of my embassy.
King John
23 Bear mine to him, and so depart in peace:
24 Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France;
25 For ere thou canst report I will be there,
26 The thunder of my cannon shall be heard:
27 So, hence! Be thou the trumpet of our wrath,
28 And sullen presage of your own decay.—
29 An honourable conduct let him have:—
30 Pembroke, look to 't. Farewell, Chatillon.
[Exeunt CHATILLON and PEMBROKE.]
Queen Elinor
31 What now, my son! Have I not ever said
32 How that ambitious Constance would not cease
33 Till she had kindled France and all the world
34 Upon the right and party of her son?
35 This might have been prevented and made whole
36 With very easy arguments of love;
37 Which now the manage of two kingdoms must
38 With fearful bloody issue arbitrate.
King John
39 Our strong possession and our right for us.
Queen Elinor
40 Your strong possession much more than your right,
41 Or else it must go wrong with you and me:
42 So much my conscience whispers in your ear,
43 Which none but heaven and you and I shall hear.
[Enter the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, who whispers to Essex.]
Earl of Essex
44 My liege, here is the strangest controversy,
45 Come from the country to be judg'd by you,
46 That e'er I heard: shall I produce the men?
King John
47 Let them approach.—
[Exit SHERIFF.]
King John
48 Our abbeys and our priories shall pay
49 This expedition's charge.
[Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE and PHILIP, his bastard Brother.]
King John
50 What men are you?
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
51 Your faithful subject I, a gentleman
52 Born in Northamptonshire, and eldest son,
53 As I suppose, to Robert Falconbridge,—
54 A soldier by the honour-giving hand
55 Of Coeur-de-lion knighted in the field.
King John
56 What art thou?
Robert Faulconbridge
57 The son and heir to that same Falconbridge.
King John
58 Is that the elder, and art thou the heir?
59 You came not of one mother then, it seems.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
60 Most certain of one mother, mighty king,—
61 That is well known; and, as I think, one father:
62 But for the certain knowledge of that truth
63 I put you o'er to heaven and to my mother:—
64 Of that I doubt, as all men's children may.
Queen Elinor
65 Out on thee, rude man! thou dost shame thy mother,
66 And wound her honour with this diffidence.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
67 I, madam? no, I have no reason for it,—
68 That is my brother's plea, and none of mine;
69 The which if he can prove, 'a pops me out
70 At least from fair five hundred pound a-year:
71 Heaven guard my mother's honour and my land!
King John
72 A good blunt fellow.—Why, being younger born,
73 Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance?
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
74 I know not why, except to get the land.
75 But once he slander'd me with bastardy:
76 But whe'er I be as true begot or no,
77 That still I lay upon my mother's head;
78 But that I am as well begot, my liege,—
79 Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me!—
80 Compare our faces and be judge yourself.
81 If old Sir Robert did beget us both,
82 And were our father, and this son like him,—
83 O old Sir Robert, father, on my knee
84 I give heaven thanks I was not like to thee!
King John
85 Why, what a madcap hath heaven lent us here!
Queen Elinor
86 He hath a trick of Coeur-de-lion's face;
87 The accent of his tongue affecteth him:
88 Do you not read some tokens of my son
89 In the large composition of this man?
King John
90 Mine eye hath well examined his parts,
91 And finds them perfect Richard.—Sirrah, speak,
92 What doth move you to claim your brother's land?
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
93 Because he hath a half-face, like my father;
94 With half that face would he have all my land:
95 A half-fac'd groat five hundred pound a-year!
Robert Faulconbridge
96 My gracious liege, when that my father liv'd,
97 Your brother did employ my father much,—
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
98 Well, sir, by this you cannot get my land:
99 Your tale must be how he employ'd my mother.
Robert Faulconbridge
100 And once despatch'd him in an embassy
101 To Germany, there with the emperor
102 To treat of high affairs touching that time.
103 The advantage of his absence took the King,
104 And in the meantime sojourn'd at my father's;
105 Where how he did prevail I shame to speak,—
106 But truth is truth: large lengths of seas and shores
107 Between my father and my mother lay,—
108 As I have heard my father speak himself,—
109 When this same lusty gentleman was got.
110 Upon his death-bed he by will bequeath'd
111 His lands to me; and took it, on his death,
112 That this, my mother's son, was none of his;
113 And if he were, he came into the world
114 Full fourteen weeks before the course of time.
115 Then, good my liege, let me have what is mine,
116 My father's land, as was my father's will.
King John
117 Sirrah, your brother is legitimate;
118 Your father's wife did after wedlock bear him;
119 And if she did play false, the fault was hers;
120 Which fault lies on the hazards of all husbands
121 That marry wives. Tell me, how if my brother,
122 Who, as you say, took pains to get this son,
123 Had of your father claim'd this son for his?
124 In sooth, good friend, your father might have kept
125 This calf, bred from his cow, from all the world;
126 In sooth, he might; then, if he were my brother's,
127 My brother might not claim him; nor your father,
128 Being none of his, refuse him. This concludes,—
129 My mother's son did get your father's heir;
130 Your father's heir must have your father's land.
Robert Faulconbridge
131 Shall then my father's will be of no force
132 To dispossess that child which is not his?
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
133 Of no more force to dispossess me, sir,
134 Than was his will to get me, as I think.
Queen Elinor
135 Whether hadst thou rather be a Falconbridge,
136 And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land,
137 Or the reputed son of Coeur-de-lion,
138 Lord of thy presence and no land beside?
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
139 Madam, an if my brother had my shape
140 And I had his, Sir Robert's his, like him;
141 And if my legs were two such riding-rods,
142 My arms such eel-skins stuff'd, my face so thin
143 That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose
144 Lest men should say 'Look where three-farthings goes!'
145 And, to his shape, were heir to all this land,
146 Would I might never stir from off this place,
147 I would give it every foot to have this face;
148 I would not be Sir Nob in any case.
Queen Elinor
149 I like thee well: wilt thou forsake thy fortune,
150 Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me?
151 I am a soldier, and now bound to France.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
152 Brother, take you my land, I'll take my chance:
153 Your face hath got five hundred pound a-year;
154 Yet sell your face for fivepence and 'tis dear.—
155 Madam, I'll follow you unto the death.
Queen Elinor
156 Nay, I would have you go before me thither.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
157 Our country manners give our betters way.
King John
158 What is thy name?
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
159 Philip, my liege, so is my name begun;
160 Philip, good old Sir Robert's wife's eldest son.
King John
161 From henceforth bear his name whose form thou bear'st:
162 Kneel thou down Philip, but rise more great,—
163 Arise Sir Richard and Plantagenet.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
164 Brother by the mother's side, give me your hand:
165 My father gave me honour, yours gave land.—
166 Now blessed be the hour, by night or day,
167 When I was got, Sir Robert was away!
Queen Elinor
168 The very spirit of Plantagenet!—
169 I am thy grandam, Richard; call me so.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
170 Madam, by chance, but not by truth; what though?
171 Something about, a little from the right,
172 In at the window, or else o'er the hatch;
173 Who dares not stir by day must walk by night;
174 And have is have, however men do catch:
175 Near or far off, well won is still well shot;
176 And I am I, howe'er I was begot.
King John
177 Go, Falconbridge; now hast thou thy desire:
178 A landless knight makes thee a landed squire.—
179 Come, madam,—and come, Richard; we must speed
180 For France, for France, for it is more than need.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
181 Brother, adieu. Good fortune come to thee!
182 For thou wast got i' th' way of honesty.
[Exeunt all but the BASTARD.]
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
183 A foot of honour better than I was;
184 But many a many foot of land the worse.
185 Well, now can I make any Joan a lady:—
186 'Good den, Sir Richard:'—'God-a-mercy, fellow:'—
187 And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter:
188 For new-made honour doth forget men's names:
189 'Tis too respective and too sociable
190 For your conversion. Now your traveller,—
191 He and his toothpick at my worship's mess;—
192 And when my knightly stomach is suffic'd,
193 Why then I suck my teeth, and catechize
194 My picked man of countries:—'My dear sir,'—
195 Thus leaning on mine elbow I begin,—
196 'I shall beseech you'—that is question now;
197 And then comes answer like an ABC-book:—
198 'O sir,' says answer 'at your best command;
199 At your employment; at your service, sir:'—
200 'No, sir,' says question 'I, sweet sir, at yours:
201 And so, ere answer knows what question would,—
202 Saving in dialogue of compliment,
203 And talking of the Alps and Apennines,
204 The Pyrenean and the river Po,—
205 It draws toward supper in conclusion so.
206 But this is worshipful society,
207 And fits the mounting spirit like myself:
208 For he is but a bastard to the time,
209 That doth not smack of observation,—
210 And so am I, whether I smack or no;
211 And not alone in habit and device,
212 Exterior form, outward accoutrement,
213 But from the inward motion to deliver
214 Sweet, sweet, sweet poison for the age's tooth;
215 Which, though I will not practise to deceive,
216 Yet, to avoid deceit, I mean to learn;
217 For it shall strew the footsteps of my rising.—
218 But who comes in such haste in riding-robes?
219 What woman-post is this? hath she no husband
220 That will take pains to blow a horn before her?
[Enter LADY FALCONBRIDGE, and JAMES GURNEY.]
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
221 O me, 'tis my mother!—w now, good lady!
222 What brings you here to court so hastily?
Lady Faulconbridge
223 Where is that slave, thy brother? where is he
224 That holds in chase mine honour up and down?
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
225 My brother Robert? old Sir Robert's son?
226 Colbrand the giant, that same mighty man?
227 Is it Sir Robert's son that you seek so?
Lady Faulconbridge
228 Sir Robert's son! Ay, thou unreverend boy,
229 Sir Robert's son: why scorn'st thou at Sir Robert?
230 He is Sir Robert's son, and so art thou.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
231 James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave awhile?
James Gurney
232 Good leave, good Philip.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
233 Philip—sparrow!—James,
234 There's toys abroad:—anon I'll tell thee more.
[Exit GURNEY.]
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
235 Madam, I was not old Sir Robert's son;
236 Sir Robert might have eat his part in me
237 Upon Good-Friday, and ne'er broke his fast.
238 Sir Robert could do well: marry, to confess,
239 Could not get me; Sir Robert could not do it,—
240 We know his handiwork:—therefore, good mother,
241 To whom am I beholding for these limbs?
242 Sir Robert never holp to make this leg.
Lady Faulconbridge
243 Hast thou conspired with thy brother too,
244 That for thine own gain shouldst defend mine honour?
245 What means this scorn, thou most untoward knave?
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
246 Knight, knight, good mother,—Basilisco-like;
247 What! I am dubb'd; I have it on my shoulder.
248 But, mother, I am not Sir Robert's son:
249 I have disclaim'd Sir Robert and my land;
250 Legitimation, name, and all is gone:
251 Then, good my mother, let me know my father,—
252 Some proper man, I hope: who was it, mother?
Lady Faulconbridge
253 Hast thou denied thyself a Falconbridge?
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
254 As faithfully as I deny the devil.
Lady Faulconbridge
255 King Richard Coeur-de-lion was thy father:
256 By long and vehement suit I was seduc'd
257 To make room for him in my husband's bed:—
258 Heaven lay not my transgression to my charge!—
259 Thou art the issue of my dear offence,
260 Which was so strongly urg'd, past my defence.
Philip the Bastard (Faulconbridge)
261 Now, by this light, were I to get again,
262 Madam, I would not wish a better father.
263 Some sins do bear their privilege on earth,
264 And so doth yours; your fault was not your folly:
265 Needs must you lay your heart at his dispose,—
266 Subjected tribute to commanding love,—
267 Against whose fury and unmatched force
268 The aweless lion could not wage the fight
269 Nor keep his princely heart from Richard's hand:
270 He that perforce robs lions of their hearts
271 May easily win a woman's. Ay, my mother,
272 With all my heart I thank thee for my father!
273 Who lives and dares but say, thou didst not well
274 When I was got, I'll send his soul to hell.
275 Come, lady, I will show thee to my kin;
276 And they shall say when Richard me begot,
277 If thou hadst said him nay, it had been sin:
278 Who says it was, he lies; I say 'twas not.
[Exeunt.]

Reading mode

Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 4historical topical
“borrow'd majesty of England here”
Chatillon's phrase 'borrow'd majesty' is a direct challenge to John's title: France argues John holds the crown on loan, as a kind of placeholder, because his young nephew Arthur has the stronger hereditary claim. Elinor's sharp echo of the phrase ('A strange beginning: borrow'd majesty!') shows she recognizes the insult.
historical Holinshed's Chronicles
TLN 7historical topical
“Philip of France, in right and true behalf”
King Philip of France champions Arthur's claim to England, Ireland, Poitiers, Anjou, Touraine, and Maine — the Angevin territories held by John's father Henry II and his brother Richard I. This is the inheritance dispute at the heart of the play: Arthur is the son of John's older brother Geoffrey, and France argues primogeniture gives him priority over his uncle.
historical Holinshed's Chronicles
TLN 40historical topical
“strong possession much more than your right”
Elinor privately tells John the truth his public bluster papers over: what keeps him on the throne is military force and the fact of occupation, not a legal right he can defend. This distinction between 'possession' and 'right' runs through the entire play and was a genuine legal and moral problem of medieval kingship.
historical The king's two bodies
TLN 48historical topical
“Our abbeys and our priories shall pay”
John plans to finance the French campaign by taxing the Church's monasteries and priories. This detail is historically accurate and foreshadows his later conflict with the Pope: John repeatedly levied forced loans and seized Church revenues, which became one of the grounds for his excommunication.
TLN 55historical topical
“Coeur-de-lion knighted in the field”
'Coeur-de-lion' — French for 'Lion-Heart' — was the famous nickname of King Richard I (reigned 1189-1199), John's elder brother and the Bastard's true father. Richard earned it as a crusading warrior-king, a figure of legendary military valor who became a popular English hero.
TLN 69archaic vocab
“'a pops me out At least from fair five hundred pound a-year”
'Pops me out' means 'kicks me out' or 'ejects me' — a blunt, colloquial expression. Five hundred pounds a year was a substantial landed income, roughly the annual revenue of a minor gentleman's estate; the Bastard is calculating the inheritance dispute in economic terms as frankly as he does in personal ones.
TLN 75historical topical
“he slander'd me with bastardy”
In law, calling someone a bastard — illegitimate, born outside wedlock — was actionable as defamation ('slander') because it attacked both personal honor and the right to inherit. Robert's claim that Philip was not old Sir Robert's son is, simultaneously, a legal maneuver to void the Bastard's inheritance and a personal insult.
TLN 86archaic vocab
“He hath a trick of Coeur-de-lion's face”
'Trick' here means a distinctive feature or characteristic expression — a trace or cast of someone's face. Elinor is saying Philip carries Richard I's look; she recognizes her son's features in a stranger's face. 'Large composition' (TLN 89) means big, robust physical build.
TLN 93wordplay
“half-face, like my father”
The Bastard mocks Robert's thin, meager face by calling it a 'half-face' — then extends the pun to a 'half-faced groat.' A groat was an English silver coin worth four pence; the term 'half-faced' applied to coins showing only a side-profile of the monarch's face, thinner and worth less than a full-faced coin. Robert's half-face of a man wants the whole of five hundred pounds a year.
TLN 110historical topical
“Upon his death-bed he by will bequeath'd”
Robert explains that his father, on his deathbed, left the land to him by will and swore Philip was not his son — born fourteen weeks early ('before the course of time'), which Robert uses as evidence of conception while old Sir Robert was away in Germany. A deathbed will and a deathbed oath were considered especially solemn in law and religion; dying men were expected to speak truth before God.
TLN 117historical topical
“Sirrah, your brother is legitimate”
John rules that Philip is legally legitimate because he was born to a wife after her marriage, regardless of who the biological father was. The legal doctrine of the day held that a child born to a married woman was presumed her husband's — 'the fault was hers' if she strayed, not the child's status. John turns the whole case against Robert with sardonic wit: if Richard had claimed Philip, old Sir Robert could not have refused him; since Richard did not, the land follows the wife's heir.
TLN 135archaic vocab
“Whether hadst thou rather be a Falconbridge”
'Whether' here (pronounced 'whe'er' in the text) means 'which of the two' — it introduces a choice between alternatives, as in modern 'which would you prefer.' Elinor offers Philip a stark trade: keep the land and the Faulconbridge name, or give up the land and claim the great name of his true father, Coeur-de-lion. 'Lord of thy presence' means master of yourself, of your own bearing and manner.
TLN 141archaic vocab
“if my legs were two such riding-rods, My arms such eel-skins stuff'd”
The Bastard mocks Robert's physique: 'riding-rods' are thin, flexible crop-sticks used to urge a horse, here meaning stick-like legs; 'eel-skins stuff'd' means arms no thicker than an eel's skin stuffed with something, i.e. almost nothing. He is imagining if he had Robert's skinny body — and immediately rejects the thought.
TLN 148archaic vocab
“I would not be Sir Nob in any case”
'Nob' is a contemptuous nickname for Robert — a diminutive of Robert used dismissively, like 'Bobby' or 'Bob.' The Bastard is saying he would give every acre of land to keep his (Richard's) magnificent face rather than end up as a second-rate 'Sir Nob.' It clinches his choice: identity over property.
TLN 162historical topical
“Kneel thou down Philip, but rise more great,— Arise Sir Richard and Plantagenet”
John knights Philip on the spot, dubbing him Sir Richard Plantagenet — taking the name of his true father Richard I and the royal family name Plantagenet. Knighting was done by the sovereign touching the kneeling candidate's shoulders with a sword; the formula 'arise Sir [name]' is the traditional dubbing phrase. The Bastard gains rank but loses land in the same exchange.
TLN 171archaic vocab
“Something about, a little from the right, In at the window, or else o'er the hatch”
The Bastard says his kinship to Elinor came 'a little from the right' — obliquely, irregularly, through an unofficial entrance. 'In at the window, or else o'er the hatch' are proverbial images for entering by an unconventional route: a window instead of a door, over a half-door ('hatch') instead of through it — i.e., he is a granddaughter's bastard, not a proper grandson. He acknowledges the awkwardness cheerfully.
TLN 185cultural context
“now can I make any Joan a lady”
'Joan' was the stock name for a common, low-born woman — the female equivalent of 'Jack' for a common man. A newly made knight calling a country girl 'my lady' was a social joke about upward mobility: the Bastard can now give any plain woman a courtesy title by marrying her, since he is 'Sir Richard.' 'New-made honour doth forget men's names' (TLN 188) means that new knights are too grand to remember ordinary people.
TLN 189archaic vocab
“'Tis too respective and too sociable For your conversion”
'Respective' means attentive, careful, respectful of social niceties; 'sociable' means suited to polite social intercourse. The Bastard is mocking himself: remembering people's names and behaving like a good neighbor is beneath his new dignity — too middle-class for his new status. 'Your conversion' means 'the change you have undergone,' i.e. his elevation to knighthood.
TLN 191cultural context
“He and his toothpick at my worship's mess”
The Bastard imagines the social performance of a newly-minted gentleman entertaining an 'affected traveller' — a fashionable type who had toured the Continent and affected foreign manners. The toothpick was a recognizable emblem of Italianate affectation in Elizabethan England: picking one's teeth at table while leaning on one's elbow and affecting bored courtliness was a cliche of the pretentious well-traveled man. 'My worship' is the formal address for a knight.
TLN 208wordplay
“he is but a bastard to the time, That doth not smack of observation”
The Bastard redefines 'bastard': anyone who fails to be shrewdly opportunistic is a 'bastard to the time' — illegitimate in the age's own currency of self-interest. 'Smack of observation' means to have a taste for watching how the world works and playing along. The joke turns his own illegitimacy into a general social principle: the age itself is illegitimate, and only the cynically alert belong to it.
TLN 214rhetorical device
“Sweet, sweet, sweet poison for the age's tooth”
The triple 'sweet, sweet, sweet' is an anaphora — a deliberate repetition at the start of phrases for emphasis. 'Poison for the age's tooth' is an oxymoron: sweet things delight the palate; poison kills. The Bastard describes flattery and self-serving charm as a poison that tastes sweet — the defining rhetorical mode of an age that runs on 'commodity' (expedient self-interest). He will learn to recognize it by learning to deliver it.
TLN 226historical topical
“Colbrand the giant, that same mighty man”
Colbrand (or Colbrond) was a Danish giant who appears in the medieval English romance Guy of Warwick. Guy defeats him in single combat to save England from Danish tribute. The name had become a byword for a physically imposing figure. The Bastard sarcastically calls his slight brother Robert 'Colbrand the giant' — a mockery, since Robert is apparently unimpressive in stature.
TLN 236historical topical
“Sir Robert might have eat his part in me Upon Good-Friday, and ne'er broke his fast”
Good Friday was the Christian fast day commemorating the crucifixion of Christ, on which observant people ate nothing — or only the lightest of foods. The Bastard quips that old Sir Robert's share in him is so small it could be eaten on Good Friday without breaking the fast — meaning Robert contributed nothing to his making. It is a faintly sacrilegious joke deploying a holy day's abstinence as a comic measure of nothingness.
TLN 263rhetorical device
“Some sins do bear their privilege on earth”
The Bastard offers an unexpected absolution to his mother: some sins are so understandable, even so irresistible, that they carry their own pardon — they are 'privileged,' exempted from ordinary moral judgment. 'Your fault was not your folly' (TLN 264) separates moral responsibility from the inevitability of being overwhelmed: Lady Faulconbridge did not act foolishly; she was simply outmatched by a king. This is sophisticated moral reasoning — and deeply self-serving, since it is also his own justification for existing.
TLN 267archaic vocab
“Against whose fury and unmatched force The aweless lion could not wage the fight”
'Aweless' means without awe, fearless — a lion that fears nothing. The Bastard argues that Richard was so mighty that even a fearless lion could not fight him off, nor keep its 'princely heart' from him: Richard 'perforce robs lions of their hearts.' His point is hyperbolic consolation — a man who can overpower the king of beasts could 'easily win a woman's' heart, so his mother could hardly have resisted such a man.