1.

She's dead as earth! lend me a looking-glass,
If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,
Why then she lives.

Kent. Is this the promis'd end?

Lear. This feather stirs, she lives; if it be so,
It is a chance which do's redeem all forrows
That ever I have felt.

Kent. O my good master!

Lear. Pr'ythee, away

Edg. 'Tis noble Kent your friend.

[Kneeling.

Lear. A plague upon you, murth'rers, traitors all!

I might have sav'd her; now she's gone for ever!

Cordelia, Cordelia, stay a little. Ha!
What is't thou say'st? her voice was ever soft,
Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman.
I kill'd the slave that was a hanging thee.

Gent. 'Tis true, my Lords, he did.

Lear. Did I not, fellow?

I've seen the day, with my good biting faulchion
I would have made them skip: I am old now,
And these same crosses spoil me. Who are you?
Mine eyes are none o'th' best. I'll tell you strait.

Kent. If fortune brag of two she lov'd and hated,
One of them we behold.

Lear. Are you not Kent?

Kent. The same; your servant Kent;

Where is your servant Caius?

Lear. 'Twas a good fellow, I can tell you that, He'd strike, and quickly too: he's dead and rotten. Kent. No, my good Lord, I am the very man, Lear. I'll fee that strait.

Kent. That from your first of difference and decay,

Have follow'd your fad steps.

Lear. You're welcome hither.

Kent. 'Twas no man else: all's cheerless, dark, and deadly:

Your eldest daughters have fore-done themselves,

And desp'rately are dead.

Lear. Ay, fo I think.

Alb. He knows not what he says, and vain is it

That we present us to him.

Edg. Very bootless.

Enter a Messenger.

Mef. Edmund is dead, my Lord.

Alb. That's but a trifle.

You Lords and noble friends, know our intent;
What comfort to this great decay may come,
Shall be apply'd. For us, we will resign,

During the life of this old Majesty,

To him our absolute power: to you, your rights, [To Edg.

With boot, and such addition as your honours
Have more than merited. All friends shall taste

The wages of their virtue, and all foes

The cup of their deservings.

Lear. O fee, fee

And my poor fool is hang'd: no, no, no life?

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life,

And thou no breath at all? thou'lt come no more,

Never, never, never, never, never,

Pray you, undo this button.

Thank you, Sir;

[He dies.

Do you fee this? look on her, look on her lips,

Look there, look there

Edg. He faints; my Lord!

Kent, Break, heart, I pr'ythee, break.

Edg. Look up, my Lord!

Kent. Vex not his Ghost: oh, let him pass! He hates him,

That would upon the rack of this rough world

Stretch him out longer.

Edg. He is gone indeed.

Kent. The wonder is he hath endur'd so long :

He but ufurpt his life.

Alb. Bear them from hence, our present business
Is general woe: friends of my foul, you twain,
Rule in this realm, and the gor'd state sustain.
Kent. I have a journey, Sir, shortly to go ;
My master calls me, I must not say no.

Alb. The weight of this sad time we must obey,

Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath born most; we that are young
Shall never fee so much, live e'er so long.

[Exeunt with a dead march.

2

THE

LIFE and DEATH

OF

King JOH Ν.

KING JOHN.

Prince HENRY, Son to the King.

ARTHUR, Duke of Bretagne, and Nephew to the King.

PEMBROKE,

ESSEX,

SALISBURY,

BIGOT,

English Lords.

HUBERT, an English Gentleman.

PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE, Bastard-Son to Richard the

First; afterwards knighted by the name of Sir Richard

Plantagenet.

1.

ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, Suppos'd Brother to the
Bastard.

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

PHILIP, King of France.
LEWIS, the Dauphin.
Arch-Duke of Austria.

PANDULPHO, the Pope's Legate.

MELUN, a French Lord.

CHATILION, Ambassador from France to King John.

ELINOR, Queen-Mother of England.
CONSTANCE, Mother to Arthur.

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

Lady Faulconbridge, Mother to the Bastard and Robert Faulconbridge.

Citizens of Angiers, Heralds, Executioner's, Messengers, Soldiers, and other Attendants,

The Scene fometimes in England, and fometimes in France.

THE

SCENE I.

The Court of England. Enter King John, Queen Elinor, Pembroke, Effex, and

K. John.

Salifoury, with Chatilion.

N

OW, fay, Chatilion, 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.

i

Eli. A strange beginning; borrow'd Majesty!
K. Jobn. Silence, good mother, hear the embaffie.
Chat. Philip of France, in right and true behalf

Of thy deceased brother Geffrey's Son,
Arthur Plantagenet, lays lawful claim

To this fair inand, and the territories:

*The troublesome reign of K. John was written in two parts by W. Shakespear and W. Rowley, and printed 1611. But the prefent Play is entirely different, and infinitely superior to it.

To