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With that half face would he have all my land:
A half-fac'd groat five hundred pound a year!

Rob. My gracious liege, when that my father liv'ð,
Your brother did employ my father much ;-

Bast. Well, sir, by this you cannot get my land;
Your tale must be, how he employ'd my mother.
Rob. And once despatch'd hiin in an embassy
To Germany, there, with the emperor,
To treat of high affairs touching that time:
Th' advantage of his absence took the king,
And in the mean time sojourn'd at my father's;
Where how he did prevail, I shame to speak:
But truth is truth; large lengths of seas and shore:
Between my father and my mother lay,
(As I have heard my father speak himself,)
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,
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.

K 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,
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,
My brother might not claim him; nor your father,
Being none of his, refuse him: This concludes,-7
My mother's son did get your father's heir;
Your father's heir must have your father's land.

Rob. Shall then my father's will be of no force,

To dispossess that child which is not his ?

[6] The poet sneers at the meagre sharp visage of the younger brother, by comparing him to a silver groat, that bore the king's face in profile to shew but half the face. THEOBALD.

[7] This is a decisive argument. As your father, if he liked him, could not have been forced to resign him, so not liking him, he is not at liberty to reject him. JOHNSON.

Bast. Of no more force to dispossess me, sir, Than was his will to get me, as I think.

Eli. Whether hadst thou rather, be a Faulconbridge, And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land;

Or the reputed son of Coeur-de-lion,

Lord of thy presence, and no land beside ?

Bast. Madam, an if my brother had my shape, And I had his, sir Robert his9 like him;

And if my legs were two such riding-rods,

My arms such eel-skins stuff'd ; my face so thin,
That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose,'

Lest men should say, Look, where three-farthings goes !
And, to his shape, were heir to all this land,

'Would I might never stir from off this place, I'd give it every foot to have this face;

I would not be sir Nob in any case.

Eli. 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.

Bast. Brother, take you my land, I'll take my chance : Your face hath got five hundred pounds a year;

Yet sell your face for five-pence, and 'tis dear.-
Madam, I'll follow you unto the death.

Eli. Nay, I would have you go before me thither.
Bast. Our country manners give our betters way.
K. John. What is thy name?

Bast. Philip, my liege; so is my name begun;
Philip, good old sir Robert's wife's eldest son.

K. John. From henceforth bear his name whose form thou bear'st :

Kneel thou down Philip, but arise more great ;

[8] Lord of thy presence means, master of that dignity and grandeur of appearance that may sufficiently distinguish thee from the vulgar without the help of fortune.-Lord of his presence apparently signifies, great in his own person, and is used in this sense by King John in one of the following scenes. JOHNSON.

[9] Sir Robert his, for Sir Robert's, is agreeable to the practice of that time, when the 's added to the nominative was believed, I think erroneously, to be a contraction of his. JOHNSON.

[1] The sticking roses about them was then all the court fashion.

WARBURTON.

[2] In this very obscure passage our poet is anticipating the date of another coin; humorously to rally a thin face, eclipsed, as it were, by a full blown TOSC. We must observe, to explain this allusion, that Queen Elizabeth was the first, and indeed the only prince, who coined in England three-half-pence, and three-farthing pieces. She coined shillings, six-pences, groats, three-pences, two-pences, three-half-pence, pence, three farthings, and half-pence; and these pieces all had her head, and were alternately with the rose behind, and without the rose. THEOBALD.

Arise sir Richard, and Plantagenet.

Bast. Brother, by the mother's side, give me your hand; My father gave me honour, your's gave land :Now blessed be the hour, by night or day, When I was got, sir Robert was away!

Eli. The very spirit of Plantagenet !I am thy grandame, Richard; call me so.

Bast. Madam, by chance, but not by truth: What though?

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.

K. John. Go, Faulconbridge; now hast thou thy desire,
A landless knight makes thee a landed 'squire.
-Come, madam, and come, Richard; we must speed
For France, for France; for it is more than need.

Bast. Brother, adieu! Good fortune come to thee! For thou wast got 'i th' way of honesty.

[Exeunt all but the Bastard.

A foot of honours better than I was ;
But many a many foot of land the worse.
Well, now can I make any Joan a lady:
Good den, sir Richard,

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God-a-mercy, fellow;And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter : For new-made honour doth forget men's names; 'Tis too respective, and too sociable,

[3] It is a common opinion, that Plantagenet was the surname of the royal house of England, from the time of King Henry II but it is, as Camden observes, in his Remaines. 1614, a popular mistake. Plantagenet was not a family name, but a nick-name, by which a grandson of Geifrey, the first Earl of Anjou, was distinguished, from his wearing a broom-stalk in his bonnet. But this name was never borne either by the first Earl of Anjou, or by King Henry II. the son of that Earl by the Empress Maude, he being always called Heury Fitz-Empress; his son, Richard Cur-de-lion; and the prince who is exhibited in the play before us, John sans-terre, or lack-land. MALONE.

[4] This speech, composed of allusive and proverbial sentences, is obscure. am, says the sprightly knight, your grandson, a little irregularly, but every man cannot get what he wishes the legal way. He that dares not go about his designs by day, must make his motions in the night; he, to whom the door is shut, must climb the window, or leap the hatch This, however, shall not depress me; for the world never inquires how any man got what he is known to possess, but allows that to have is to have, however it was caught, and that he who wins, shot well, whatever was his skill, whether the arrow fell near the mark, or far off it. JOHNSON.

[5] A step, un pas. JOHNSON.

[] i. e. A good evening. STEEVENS

1

For your conversion. Now your traveller,'-
He and his tooth-pick at my worship's mess;8
And when my nightly stomach is suffic'd,
Why then I suck my teeth, and catechise
My picked man of countries :-My dear sir,
(Thus, leaning on mine elbow, I begin,)
I shall beseech you-That is question now;
And then comes answer like an ABC-book :-
O sir, says answer, at your best command;
At your employment; at your service, sir :—
No, sir, says question, I, sweet sir, at yours:
And so, ere answer knows what question would,
(Saving in dialogue of compliment;

And talking of the Alps, and Apennines,
The Pyrenean, and the river Po,)

It draws towards supper in conclusion so.
But this is worshipful society,

And fits the mounting spirit, like myself:
For he is but a bastard to the time,
That doth not smack of observation;
(And so am I, whether I smack, or no ;)
And not alone in habit and device,
Exterior form, outward accoutrement;
But from the inward motion to deliver
Sweet, sweet, sweet poison for the age's tooth:
Which, though I will not practise to deceive,
Yet, to avoid deceit, I mean to learn ;
For it shall strew the footsteps of my rising.-
But who comes in such haste, in riding robes ?1

[7] It is said, in All's well that ends well, that "a traveller is a good thing after dinner." In that age of newly excited curiosity, one of the entertainments at great tables seems to have been the discourse of a traveller. JOHNSON.

[8] It has been already remarked, that to pick the tooth, and wear a piqued beard, were, in that time, marks of a man's affecting foreign fashions. JOHNSON.

Among Gascoigne's poems I find one entitled, Councell given to Maister Bartholomew Withipoll a little before his latter Journey to Geane, 1572. The following lines, may, perhaps be acceptable to the reader who is curious enough to inquire about the fashionable follies imported in that age:

"Now, sir, if I shall see your mastership

"Come home disguis'd, and clad in quaint array;

"As with a pike-tooth byting on your lippe ;

"Your brave mustachios turn'd the Turkie way;

"A coptankt hat made on a Flemish blocke;

"A night gowne cloake down trayling to your toes;
"A slender slop close couched to your dock;
"A curtolde slipper, and a short silk hose," &c.

STEEVENS.

My picked man of countries is my travelled fop. HOLT WHITE.

Milton, in his tragedy, introduces Dalilah with such au interrogatory exclamation. JOHNSON.

2

VOL. V.

What woman-post is this? hath she no husband,
That will take pains to blow a horn before her ?

Enter Lady FAULCONBRIDGE and JAMES GURNEY.
O me! it is my mother :-How now, good lady?
What brings you here to court so hastily?

Lady F. Where is that slave, thy brother? where is he? That holds in chase mine honour up and down?

Bast. My brother Robert ? old sir Robert's son ? Colbrand the giant, that same mighty man?

Is it sir Robert's son, that you seek so? ..

Lady F. Sir Robert's son! Ay, thou unreverend boy, Sir Robert's son: Why scorn'st thou at sir Robert ? He is sir Robert's son; and so art thou.

Bast. James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave a while? Gur. Good leave, good Philip.

Bast. Philip ?-sparrow !-James,"

There's toys abroad; anon I'll tell thee more.

[Exit GURNEY.

-Madam, I was not old sir Robert's son ;
Sir Robert might have eat his part in me
Upon Good-Friday, and ne'er broke his fast:
Sir Robert could do well; Marry, (to confess!)
Could he get me? Sir Robert could not do it;
We know his handy-work :-Therefore, good mother,
To whom am I beholden for these limbs ?

Sir Robert never holp to make this leg.

Lady F. Hast thou conspired with thy brother too,
That for thine own gain should'st defend mine honour?
What means this scorn, thou most untoward knave?
Bast. Knight, knight, good mother,-Basilisco like:
What! I am dubb'd; I have it on my shoulder.
But, mother, I am not Sir Robert's son ;

I have disclaim'd sir Robert, and my land;
Legitimation, name, and all is gone:

Then, good, my mother, let me know my father;
Some proper man, I hope; Who was it, mother?
Lady F. Hast thou denied thyself a Faulconbridge?
Bast. As faithfully as I deny the devil.

Lady F. King Richard Coeur-de-lion was thy father;

[2] Colbrand was a Danish giant, whom Guy of Warwick discomfited in the presence of King Athelstan. The combat is very pompously described by Drayton, In his Polyolbion. JOHNSON

[3] The Bastard means: Philip! Do you take me for a sparrow? HAWKINS.

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