Page 142 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

When this same lusty gentleman was got.
Upon his death-bed he by will bequeath’d
His lands to me, and took it on his death [110]
That this my mother’s son was none of his;

And if he were, he came into the world
Full fourteen weeks before the course of time.
Then, good my liege, let me have what is mine,
My father’s land, as was my father’s will. [115]

KING JOHN

Sirrah, your brother is legitimate;
Your father’s wife did after wedlock bear him,
And if she did play false, the fault was hers;
Which fault lies on the hazards of all husbands
That marry wives. Tell me, how if my brother, [120]

Who, as you say, took pains to get this son,
Had of your father claim’d this son for his?
In sooth, good friend, your father might have kept

This calf, bred from his cow, from all the world;
In sooth he might; then, if he were my brother’s, [125]
My brother might not claim him; nor your father,
Being none of his, refuse him: this concludes;
My mother’s son did get your father’s heir;

Your father’s heir must have your father’s land.

ROBERT
Shall then my father’s will be of no force [130]
To dispossess that child which is not his?

BASTARD
Of no more force to dispossess me, sir,

Than was his will to get me, as I think.

ELEANOR

Whether hadst thou rather be a Faulconbridge,
And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land, [135]
Or the reputed son of Cœur-de-lion,
Lord of thy presence and no land beside?