KING JOHN
Page: 5

I am a soldier, and now bound to France.

BASTARD.
Brother, take you my land, I'll take my chance:
Your face hath got five hundred pound a-year;
Yet sell your face for fivepence and 'tis dear.--
Madam, I'll follow you unto the death.

ELINOR.
Nay, I would have you go before me thither.

BASTARD.
Our country manners give our betters way.

KING JOHN.
What is thy name?

BASTARD.
Philip, my liege, so is my name begun;
Philip, good old Sir Robert's wife's eldest son.

KING JOHN.
From henceforth bear his name whose form thou bear'st:
Kneel thou down Philip, but rise more great,--
Arise Sir Richard and Plantagenet.

BASTARD.
Brother by the mother's side, give me your hand:
My father gave me honour, yours gave land.--
Now blessed be the hour, by night or day,
When I was got, Sir Robert was away!

ELINOR.
The very spirit of Plantagenet!--
I am thy grandam, Richard; call me so.

BASTARD.
Madam, by chance, but not by truth; what though?
Something about, a little from the right,
In at the window, or else o'er the hatch;
Who dares not stir by day must walk by night;
And have is have, however men do catch:
Near or far off, well won is still well shot;
And I am I, howe'er I was begot.

KING JOHN.
Go, Falconbridge; now hast thou thy desire:
A landless knight makes thee a landed squire.--
Come, madam,--and come, Richard; we must speed
For France, for France, for it is more than need.

BASTARD.
Brother, adieu. Good fortune come to thee!
For thou wast got i' th' way of honesty.

[Exeunt all but the BASTARD.]

A foot of honour better than I was;
But many a many foot of land the worse.
Well, now can I make any Joan a lady:--
'Good den, Sir Richard:'--'God-a-mercy, fellow:'--
And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter:
For new-made honour doth forget men's names:
'Tis too respective and too sociable
For your conversion. Now your traveller,--
He and his toothpick at my worship's mess;--
And when my knightly stomach is suffic'd,
Why then I suck my teeth, and catechize
My picked man of countries:--'My dear sir,'--
Thus leaning on mine elbow I begin,--