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LYSANDER

She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes.

DEMETRIUS

And thus she moans, videlicet.—

THISBE

Asleep, my love?

What, dead, my dove?

O Pyramus, arise,

Speak, speak. Quite dumb?

Dead, dead? A tomb

Must cover thy sweet eyes.

These lily lips,

This cherry nose,

These yellow cowslip cheeks,

Are gone, are gone:

Lovers, make moan!

His eyes were green as leeks.

O Sisters Three,

Come, come to me,

With hands as pale as milk;

Lay them in gore,

Since you have shore

With shears his thread of silk.

Tongue, not a word:—

Come, trusty sword;

Come, blade, my breast imbrue;

And farewell, friends:—

Thus Thisbe ends;

Adieu, adieu, adieu.

[Dies.]

THESEUS

Moonshine and lion are left to bury the dead.

DEMETRIUS

Ay, and wall too.

BOTTOM

No, I assure you; the wall is down that parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two of our company?

THESEUS

No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse. Never excuse; for when the players are all dead there need none to be blamed. Marry, if he that writ it had played Pyramus, and hang'd himself in Thisbe's garter, it would have been a fine tragedy: and so it is, truly; and very notably discharged. But come, your Bergomask; let your epilogue alone.

[Here a dance of Clowns.]

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:—

Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.

I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn,

As much as we this night have overwatch'd.

This palpable-gross play hath well beguil'd

The heavy gait of night.—Sweet friends, to bed.—

A fortnight hold we this solemnity,

In nightly revels and new jollity.

[Exeunt.]

KING JOHN

This history play was written in 1596 and depicts the reign of the ‘Magna Carta’ king, who ruled England from 1199 to 1216. The play has similarities to another medieval play, The Troublesome Reign of King John, and many modern scholars believe it was a source and model for Shakespeare. Holinshed's Chronicles, John Foxe's Acts and Monuments and Matthew Paris's Historia Maior are also likely sources of the play.

King John

CONTENTS

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I. SCENE 1

ACT II. SCENE 1

SCENE 1

ACT III. SCENE 1.

SCENE 1.

SCENE 2.

SCENE 3.

SCENE 4.

ACT IV. SCENE 1.

SCENE 1.

SCENE 2.

SCENE 3.

ACT V. SCENE 1. England. KING JOHN'S palace

SCENE 1. England. KING JOHN'S palace

SCENE 2. England. The DAUPHIN'S camp at Saint Edmundsbury

SCENE 3.

SCENE 4.

SCENE 5.

SCENE 6.

SCENE 7.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

KING JOHN

PRINCE HENRY, his son

ARTHUR, DUKE OF BRITAINE, son of Geffrey, late Duke of

Britaine, the elder brother of King John

EARL OF PEMBROKE

EARL OF ESSEX

EARL OF SALISBURY

LORD BIGOT

HUBERT DE BURGH

ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, son to Sir Robert Faulconbridge

PHILIP THE BASTARD, his half-brother

JAMES GURNEY, servant to Lady Faulconbridge

PETER OF POMFRET, a prophet

KING PHILIP 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, widow of King Henry II and mother to

King John

CONSTANCE, Mother to Arthur

BLANCH OF SPAIN, daughter to the King of Castile

and niece to King John

LADY FAULCONBRIDGE, widow of Sir Robert Faulconbridge

Lords, Citizens of Angiers, Sheriff, Heralds, Officers,

Soldiers, Executioners, Messengers, Attendants

ACT I. SCENE 1

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 borrowed majesty, of England here.

ELINOR.

A strange beginning- 'borrowed 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,