King John: The Bastard's Completed Rhymes

In King John, I noticed the Bastard completing others' rhymes, by which I mean he plays off another character's final line to form a rhyming couplet.  That is, his first line rhymes with another character's unrhymed closing line.

Here's where it happens.

Act I - KING JOHN'S palace.

Two instances, both involving Queen Elinor.

The Bastard first finishes off Queen Elinor's line, expressly accepting her invitation to spurn his right of  inheritance, following with a couplet of his own, and then a second acceptance (essentially to follow her in to battle).

QUEEN ELINOR: I like thee well: wilt thou forsake thy fortune,
Bequeath thy land to him and follow me?
I am a soldier and now bound to France.  (1.1.154) 

BASTARD: Brother, take you my land, I'll take my chance. (1.1.155)
Your face hath got five hundred pound a year,
Yet sell your face for five pence and 'tis dear.
Madam, I'll follow you unto the death.

(1.1.152-58)

And again once he's been knighted Sir Richard Plantagenet, though his rhyme scheme thereafter launches as ababcc, a more complicated pattern.

QUEEN ELINOR: The very spirit of Plantagenet!
I am thy grandam, Richard; call me so. (1.1.173) 

BASTARD: Madam, by chance but not by truth; what though? (1.1.174)Something about, a little from the right,
In at the window, or else o'er the hatch:
Who dares not stir by day must walk by night,
And have is have, however men do catch:
Near or far off, well won is still well shot,
And I am I, howe'er I was begot.

(1.1.172-80)

Act II - France. Before Angiers.

He finishes off Austria's line. 

The Bastard's needling on the lion theme gets to Austria, and the Bastard makes it into a couplet to mock him.

BASTARD [To AUSTRIA]: Sirrah, were I at home,
At your den, sirrah, with your lioness
I would set an ox-head to your lion's hide,
And make a monster of you. 

AUSTRIA:                              Peace! no more. (2.1.305) 

BASTARD: O tremble, for you hear the lion roar. (2.1.306)

(2.1.301-06).  This is a much less formal setting than Act I, and from here on out, the Bastard's quips do not lead into rhymed couplets of his own.  He's just jumping in with little zingers here and there.

Act III, scene 1 - The French King's pavilion.

He finishes off Austria's line. 

Just typical of their relationship, really.

AUSTRIA: Do so, King Philip; hang no more in doubt. (3.1.229) 

BASTARD: Hang nothing but a calf's-skin, most sweet lout. (3.1.230)

Act V, scene 3 - The field of battle.

He finishes off the Dauphin's line.

Now that he no longer has the Dauphin to kick around, the Bastard needs to find a new butt for his mockery.

LEWIS (DAUPHIN): Strike up our drums, to find this danger out. (5.2.182) 

BASTARD: And thou shalt find it, Dauphin, do not doubt. (5.2.183)

Is Turn-About Fair Play? 

I found only one instance where another character seizes the initiative to turn the Bastard's closing line into a rhyming couplet.  This takes place in Act II.

At this point, the new plan is for France and England to join forces against the city as a common enemy (rather than letting the citizens sit back and eat popcorn while they battle it out amongst themselves).  The Bastard is utterly delighted in the plan to attack the city from three directions, as France and Austria are to attack the city from opposite sides and thus may potentially injure each other.  First Citizen hijacks his final line by completing the rhyme, introducing an idea for a deeper alliance (marrying the Dauphin to King John's niece) to spare the city.

BASTARD: O prudent discipline! From north to south:
Austria and France shoot in each other's mouth:
I'll stir them to it. Come, away, away! (2.1.432) 

FIRST CITIZEN: Hear us, great kings: vouchsafe awhile to stay, (2.1.433)
And I shall show you peace and fair-faced league;
Win you this city without stroke or wound;
Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds,
That here come sacrifices for the field:
Persever not, but hear me, mighty kings.

(2.1.430-38)