The Bastard (Philip Faulconbridge)
Play
Summary
Philip Faulconbridge, the illegitimate son of Richard Coeur-de-Lion, is the play's moral center, sardonic commentator, and most vigorous patriot. He enters as a blunt, witty outsider who cheerfully acknowledges his bastardy, rises to become a key military leader for England, and watches with clear-eyed scorn as the great powers around him practise "commodity" (self-interest). His final speech is the play's most famous statement of English patriotism.
Notable Quotations
"Mad world! mad kings! mad composition! / John, to stop Arthur's title in the whole, / Hath willingly departed with a part, / And France, whose armour conscience buckled on, / Whom zeal and charity brought to the field / As God's own soldier, rounded in the ear / With that same purpose-changer, that sly devil, / That broker that still breaks the pate of faith, / That daily break-vow, he that wins of all, / Of kings, of beggars, old men, young men, maids, / Who, having no external thing to lose / But the word 'maid,' cheats the poor maid of that, / That smooth-faced gentleman, tickling Commodity." *(2.1)*
"This England never did, nor never shall, / Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror, / But when it first did help to wound itself. / Now these her princes are come home again, / Come the three corners of the world in arms, / And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue, / If England to itself do rest but true." *(5.7)*