quarto edition of the play, published in 1991, that it had then been "sundry times publikely acted by the Queene's Majesties Players, in the honourable Citie of London." The author in his Prologue, addressed To the Gentlemen Readers," sets forth the intention of his play :—

You that, with friendly grace of smoothed brow,
Have entertained the Scythian Tamburlaine,
And given applause unto an infidel,
Vouchsafe to welcome (with like curtesie)

A warlike Christian and your countryman.

For Christ's true faith endured he many a storm,

And set himself against the Man of Rome;

Until base treason by a damned wight
Did all his former triumphs put to flight.
Accept of it (sweet gentles) in good sort,
And think it was prepared for your disport.

Read in connection with the changes afterwards made in
the form of the play, this Prologue throws a strong light.
on the development of Shakespeare's dramatic motives.
For it is plain that the author of The Troublesome Raigne
was of the school of Marlowe, and composed his play on
the Machiavellian principles favoured by that great poet;
a fact that stands out in prominent relief when the
criginal sketch of the Bastard Falconbridge is contrasted
with the finished character as it appears in King John. In
the later play the Bastard is represented as a humourist,
who sees through the show of things, like Jaques, and
who conceals strong, and sometimes noble, feelings under
blant and cynical forms of speech. But in The Trouble-
some Raigne Falconbridge is utterly devoid of humour.
may be observed that the entire episode of Falconbridge
is brought into connection with the History of King John
quite arbitrarily, and yet so strongly was the imagination
of the poet possessed with the idea of virtu, of which the
Bastard is the embodiment, that this personage is made
to play a leading part among the historical actors
When be first comes into the presence of the King the
is represented as being in a reverie, divided between
ambition and prudence:

It

Fond man, ah, whither art thou carried?
How are thy thoughts ywrapt in Honour's heaven
Forgetful what thou art, and whence thou comest?
Thy father's land cannot maintain these thoughts;
These thoughts are far unfitting Fauconbridge:
And well they may; for why this mounting mind
Doth soar too high to stoop to Fauconbridge.
Why how now? knowest thou where thou art?
And knowest thou who expects thine answer here?
Wilt thou upon a frantic madding vein

Go lose thy land, and say thyself base-born?
No, keep thy land, though Richard were thy sire:
Whate'er thou think'st say thou art Fauconbridge.
Speak man, be sudden, who thy father was
PHILIP. Please it your worship, Sir Robert-

JOHN.

Philip, that Fauconbridge cleaves to thy jaws;
It will not out, I cannot, for my life,

Say I am son unto a Fauconbridge.

The resolution itself is one that would have been approved by the Guise and Mortimer of Marlowe; but the process by which it is arrived at is characteristic of the younger poet, who is capable of seeing things on both sides. Marlowe would not have conceived the conflict in the Bastard's mind: he would have brought him into the royal presence with his mind resolved.

Again the Prologue to The Troublesome Raigne shows that, apart from this general view of virtù, the poet intended to make the play an historical illustration of the Machiavellian doctrine. John, usurper though he was, was to be treated as a Protestant hero, according to the precedent set in Bale's King Johan, and with the hope of securing the sympathies of an audience still heated with the recent experience of the Spanish Armada. To a certain extent the poet carried out his intention, as may be seen from the following soliloquy of John, when he has been deserted by the Barons after the murder of Arthur:

Then, John, there is no way to keep thy crown,

But firmly to dissemble with the Pope :

That hand that gave the wound must give the salve
To cure the hurt else quite incurable.

Thy sins are far too great to be the man

T' abolish Pope and Popery from the realm;

But in thy seat, if I may guess at all,

A king shall reign that shall suppress them all.
Peace, John, here comes the Legate of the Pope;
Dissemble thou, and whatsoe'er thou sayst,

Yet with thy heart wish their confusion.

Practically this speech amounts to a confession of failure on the part of the dramatist. He was trying to combine two incompatible things, Machiavellism and Protestantism. He had announced that John was to be the hero of the play, but when working out his idea he found it equally impossible to represent Lackland as a man of real virtù, or the murderer of Arthur as a good Protestant. Popular as the play was, the poet was dissatisfied with it, and when he recast it obviously in the full maturity of his genius-while he retained the entire historical framework, even to the succession of the original scenes,1 and all the dramatis persona, he completely altered the philosophical aspect of the drama. The process by which he effected this transformation was a miracle of art and judgment. All trace of an intention to illustrate the doctrine of individual virtù was removed; all references to John's anticipation of Protestantism disappeared; the centre of interest was shifted from the King to the person and fortunes of Arthur. By these means the character of John was exhibited in its true light, and the human interest of the action was vastly increased; Constance, who, in The Troublesome Raigne, had appeared merely as a scolding woman, like the rival Queens in Richard III, now appealed with immortal eloquence to the hearts of the audience as a bereaved mother; the comparatively cold and Seneca-like dialogue between Arthur and Hubert was replaced by scenes of infinite pathos; the offensive buffoonery in the scene of the Bastard's visit to the Monastery-inserted to gratify the anti-Papal taste of the audience was omitted; the self-seeking virtù of the Bastard himself was expanded into the energy of resolute and resourceful patriotism. Though King John, even in its present form, cannot be reckoned a 1 See Appendix, p. 463.

Fond man, ah, whither art thou carried?
How are thy thoughts ywrapt in Honour's heaven
Forgetful what thou art, and whence thou comest?
Thy father's land cannot maintain these thoughts;
These thoughts are far unfitting Fauconbridge:
And well they may; for why this mounting mind
Doth soar too high to stoop to Fauconbridge.
Why how now? knowest thou where thou art?
And knowest thou who expects thine answer here ?
Wilt thou upon a frantic madding vein

Go lose thy land, and say thyself base-born?
No, keep thy land, though Richard were thy sire:
Whate'er thou think'st say thou art Fauconbridge.
Speak man, be sudden, who thy father was
PHILIP. Please it your worship, Sir Robert-

JOHN.

Philip, that Fauconbridge cleaves to thy jaws;
It will not out, I cannot, for my life,

Say I am son unto a Fauconbridge.

The resolution itself is one that would have been approved by the Guise and Mortimer of Marlowe; but the process by which it is arrived at is characteristic of the younger poet, who is capable of seeing things on both sides. Marlowe would not have conceived the conflict in the Bastard's mind: he would have brought him into the royal presence with his mind resolved.

Again the Prologue to The Troublesome Raigne shows that, apart from this general view of virtù, the poet intended to make the play an historical illustration of the Machiavellian doctrine. John, usurper though he was, was to be treated as a Protestant hero, according to the precedent set in Bale's King Johan, and with the hope of securing the sympathies of an audience still heated with the recent experience of the Spanish Armada. Το a certain extent the poet carried out his intention, as may be seen from the following soliloquy of John, when he has been deserted by the Barons after the murder of Arthur :—

Then, John, there is no way to keep thy crown,

But firmly to dissemble with the Pope :

That hand that gave the wound must give the salve

To cure the hurt else quite incurable.

Thy sins are far too great to be the man

T'abolish Pope and Popery from the realm ;