He Is But a Bastard to the Time: Status and Service in The Troublesome Raigne of John and Shakespeare's King John | II.
II.
The Bastard's social trajectory can be traced through developments in his speech as he moves through King John. His choice of career, a choice made when he avows bastardy and thus enters the ranks of the attending nobility, takes him from a relatively low position in the hierarchy of rank—that of a country landholder resident on the land—to the much higher one of trusted royal servant. A crucial element in the Bastard's changing character is the fact that instead of being claimed by a mystical nobility, he claims (or professes) nobility and simultaneously acquires his rank and takes on the profession of servant to the crown. Eleanor does not merely recognize him as Richard the Lion-hearted's son, she offers him a job and the offer actually precedes formal recognition of his royal parentage: "I like thee well, wilt thou forsake thy fortune, / Bequeath thy land to him and follow me? / I am a soldier and bound to France" (K, 1.1.148-50). He...
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