Page 140 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

Is that the elder, and art thou the heir?
You came not of one mother then, it seems.

BASTARD
Most certain of one mother, mighty king;
That is well known; and, as I think, one father: [60]
But for the certain knowledge of that truth

I put you o’er to heaven and to my mother:
Of that I doubt, as all men’s children may.

ELEANOR
Out on thee, rude man! thou dost shame thy mother
And wound her honour with this diffidence. [65]

BASTARD

I, madam? no, I have no reason for it;
That is my brother’s plea and none of mine;
The which if he can prove, a pops me out
At least from fair five hundred pound a year:
Heaven guard my mother’s honour, and my land! [70]

KING JOHN
A good blunt fellow. Why, being younger born,
Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance?

BASTARD
I know not why-except to get the land −
But once he slander’d me with bastardy:

But whe’r I be as true begot or no, [75]
That still I lay upon my mother’s head;
But that I am as well begot, my liege −
Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me! −
Compare our faces and be judge yourself.

If old Sir Robert did beget us both [80]
And were our father, and this son like him,
O old Sir Robert, father, on my knee

I give heaven thanks I was not like to thee!