• And I had his, Sir Robert his, like him;
And if my legs were two fuch riding rods,
My arms fuch eel-skins ftuft; my face fo thin,
* That in my ear I'durft not stick a rose,

Left men fhould fay, Look, where three farthings goes!

And to his fhape were heir to all this land;
'Would, I might never ftir from off this place,
I'd give it ev'ry foot to have this face,
I would not be Sir Nobbe in any cafe.

}

Eli. I like thee well. Wilt thou forfake thy fortune, Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me? I am a foldier, and now bound to France.

Phil. Brother, take you my land, I'll take my

chance;

Your face hath got five hundred pound a year,
Yet fell 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.
Phil. Our country manners give our betters way.
K. John. What is thy name?

Phil. Philip, my Liege, fo is my name begun; Philip, good old Sir Robert's wife's eldest fon.

K. John. From henceforth bear his name, whofe form thou bear'it.

Kneel thou down Philip, but rife up more great; Arife Sir Richard and Plantagenet.

Phil. Brother by th' mother's fide, give me your hand;

My father

gave me honour, your's gave land.
Now bleffed be the hour, by night or day,
When I was got, Sir Robert was away!
Eli. The very fpirit of Plantagenet!

I am thy grandam; Richard call me fo.

2

2

Phil. Madam; by chance, but not by truth; what

tho' ?

Madam, by chance, but not by truth; what tho' ?] I am your grandfon, Madam, by chance, but not by honefty-what then?

Something about, a little from,

&c.] This fpeech compofed of allufive and proverbial fen

Some

tences, is obfcure. I am, fays the fpritely knight, your grandJon, a little irregularly, but every man cannot get what he wishes the legal way. He that dares not go about his defigns by day mult make his motions in the night; he, to whom the door is fhut,

muft

Something about, a little from the right;

1

In at the window, or else o'er the hatch, Who dares not ftir by day, muft walk by night, And have his have, however men do catch; Near or far off, well won is ftill well fhot; And I am I, howe'er I was begot.

K. John. Go, Faulconbridge, now haft thou thy defire;

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. Phil. Brother, adieu; good fortune come to thee, For thou was got i'th' way of honesty.

[Exeunt all but Philip.

SCENE III.

3 A foot of honour better than I was,
But many a many foot of land the worfe!
Well, now can I make any Joan a lady.
Good den, Sir Robert,

-Godamercy, fellow;
And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter;
For new-made honour doth forget men's names:
'Tis too refpective and unfociable

For your converfing. 4 Now your traveller,
5 He and his tooth-pick at my worship's mefs;

must climb the window, or leap
the hatch. This, however, fhall
not deprefs me; for the world
never enquires how any man got
what he is known to poffefs, but
allows that to have is to have,
however it was caught, and that
he who wins hot well, whatever
was his skill, whether the arrow
fell near the mark, or far off it.
3 A foot of honour.] A step,

un pas.
4 Now your traveller.]

It is

faid in All's well, that ends well, that a traveller is a good thing after dinner. In that age of newly-excited curiofity, one of the entertainments at great tables feems to have been the difcourfe of a traveller.

5 He and his tooth-pick.] It has been already remarked, that to pick the tooth, and wear a piqued beard, were, in that time, marks of a man affecting foreign fashions.

And

6

And when my knightly ftomach is fuffic'd,
Why then I fuck my teeth, and catechise
My piked man of countries ;-My dear Sir,
(Thus leaning on mine elbow, I begin)
I fhall befeech you- that is queftion now:
And then comes anfwer like an ABC-book:
O Sir, fays anfwer, at your beft command,
At your employment, at your fervice, Sir:
No, Sir, fays queftion, I, fweet Sir, at yours,
And fo e'er anfwer knows what question would,
Saving in dialogue of compliment;
And talking of the Alps and Apennines,

6 Like an a, b, c book.] An a, b, c book, or, as they fpoke and wrote it, an absey book, is a catechism.

7 And fo e'er answer knows what question would, SAVING in dialogue of compli

ment;] In this fine fpeech, Faulconbridge would fhew the advantages and prerogatives of men of worship. He obferves, particularly, that be has the traveller at command (people at that time, when a new world was difcovering, in the higheft eftimation). At the firft intimation of his defire, to hear ftrange ftories, the traveller complies, and will fcarce give him leave to make his question, but e'er anfwer knows what question would -What then, why, according to the prefent reading, it grows towards fupper-time: And is not this worshipful fociety? To fpend all the time between dinner and fupper before either of them knows what the other would be

avoided; and the account stands thus, "E'er anfwer knows what

66

66

66

queftion would be at, my tra"veller ferves in his dialogue of compliment, which is his ftanding difh at all tables; then he comes to talk of the Alps and Apenines, &c. and, by the time this "difcourfe concludes, it draws

towards fupper." All this is fenfible and humorous; and the phrafe of ferving in is a very pleasant one to denote that this was his worship's fecond courfe. What follows fhews the romantic turn of the voyagers of that time; how greedily their relations were swallowed, which he calls fweet poison for the age's tooth and how acceptable it made men at court-For it fall trew the footsteps of my rifing. And yet the Oxford Editor fays, by this sweet poison is meant flattery. WARBURTON.

This paffage is obfcure; but fuch an irregularity and perplexity runs thro' the whole fpeech, that I think this emendation not neceffary.

The

The Pyrenean and the river Po;

It draws towards fupper in conclufion, fo.
But this is worshipful fociety,

And fits the mounting fpirit like myself:
For he is but a baftard to the time,
That doth not finack of observation;
[And fo am I, whether I fmack or no :]
And not alone in habit and device,
Exterior form, outward accoutrement;
But from the inward motion to deliver
Sweet, fweet, fweet poifon for the age's tooth;
" Which tho' I will not practife to deceive,
Yet, to avoid deceit, I mean to learn;
For it fhall ftrew the footsteps of my rifing.
9 But who comes in fuch hafte, in riding robes?
What woman-poft is this? hath fhe no husband,
That will take pains to blow a horn before her?
O me! it is my mother; now, good lady,
What brings you here to court fo haftily?

SCENE

IV.

Enter Lady Faulconbridge, and James Gurney.

Lady. Where is that flave, thy brother, where is he, That holds in chafe mine honour up and down? Phil. My brother Robert, old Sir Robert's fon, 2 Colbrand the giant, that fame mighty man, Is it Sir Robert's fon, that you feek fo?

Lady. Sir Robert's fon? ay, thou unrev'rend boy,

? But who comes here.] Mil ton, in his tragedy, introduces Dallilab with fuch an interroga tory exclamation.

To blow a born.] He means,

that a woman who travelled about like a post was likely to horn her husband.

2 Colbrand was a Danish giant, whom Guy of Warwick discomfited in the prefence of king Athelftan. The combat is very pompously described by Drayton in his Polyolbion,