K. John. A good blunt fellow; why, being

younger born,

Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance?

Phi. I know not why, except to get the land;
But once he flandered me with bastardy:
But whether I be as true begot or no,
That ftill I lay upon my mother's head;
But that I am as well begot, my Liege,
(Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me!)
Compare our faces, and be judge yourself.
If old Sir Robert did beget us both,

And were our father, and this fon like him;
O old Sir Robert, father, on my knee

I give Heaven thanks I was not like to thee.
K. John. Why, what a mad-cap hath Heaven
lent us here?

Eli. He hath a trick of Coeur-de-lion's face,
The accent of his tongue affecteth him:
Do you not read fome tokens of my fon
In the large compofition of this man?

K. John. Mine eye hath well examined his parts, And finds them perfect Richard. Sirrah, fpeak, What doth move you to claim your brother's land?

Phi. Because he hath a half-face, like my father, With that half-face would he have all my land? (2)

(2) With half that face! But why with half that face! There is no question but the Poet wrote, as I have restored the text, With that half-face.Mr Pope, perhaps, will be angry with me for difcovering an anachronism of our Poet's in the next line; where he alludes to a coin not struck till the year 1504, in the reign of King Henry VII. viz. a groat, which, as well as the half groat, bear but half-faces impreffed. Vide Stow's Survey of London, p. 47. Holingshed, Camden's Remains, &c. The Peet fneers at the meagre fharp vifage of the elder brother, by comparing him to a filver groat, that bore the King's face in profile, fo fhewed but half the face. The groats of all our Kings of England, and indeed all their other coins of filver, one or two only excepted, had

A half-faced groat, five hundred pound a year! Rob. My gracious Liege, when that my father lived,

Your brother did employ my father much;

Phi. Well, Sir, by this you cannot get my land. Your tale must be, how he employed my mother. Rob. And once dispatched him in an embaffy To Germany, there with the Emperor To treat of high affairs touching that time: Th' advantage of his abfence took the King, And in the mean time fojourned at my father's; Where, how he did prevail, I fhame to fpeak: But truth is truth; large length of feas and thores Between my father and my mother lay, (As I have heard my father speak himiclf) When this fame lulty gentleman was got. Upon his death-bed he by will bequeathed His lands to me; and took it on his death, That this, my mother's fon, 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 falfe, the fault was hers;

now.

a full face crowned; till Henry VII. at the time abovementioned, coined groats and half groats, as alfo fome fillings, with half-faces; that is, faces in profile, as all our coin has The first groats of King Henry VIII. were like thofe of his father; though afterwards he returned to the broad faces again. Thefe groats with the impreffion in profile, are undoubtedly here alluded to: though, as I faid, the Poet is knowingly guilty of an anachronifm in it; for, in the time of King John, there were no groats at all; they being first, as far as appears, coined in the reign of King Edward III.

Which fault lyes on the hazard of all hufbands
That marry wives. Tell me, how if my brother,
Who, as you fay, took pains to get this fon,
Had of your father claimed this fon for his?
In footh, good friend, your father might have kept
This calf, bred from his cow, from all the world;
In footh, he might: then, if he were my brother's,
My brother might not claim him; nor your father,
Being none of his, refufe him; this concludes,
My mother's fon 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 difpoflefs that child which is not his?

Phi. Of no more force to difpoffefs me, Sir,
Than was his will to get me, as I think.

Eli. Whether hadit thou rather be a FaulconAnd, like thy brother, to enjoy thy land; [bridge, Or the reputed fon of Coeur-de-lion,

Lord of thy prefence, and no land befide?

Phi. Madam, and if my brother had my shape, And I had his, Sir Robert his, like him;

And if my legs were two fuch riding rods,
My arms fuch eel-fkins ftuft; my face fo thin, (3)

(3)

my face fo thin,

That in mine car I durft not fick a rofe,

Left men should fay, Look where three-farthings goes!] In this very obfcure paffage our Poet is anticipating the date of another coin; humorously to rally a thin face, eclipf ed, as it were, by a full-blown refe. We must obferve, to explain this allufion, that Queen Elizabeth was the firft, and indeed the only prince who coined in England three-half-pence, and theree-farthing pieces. She, at one and the fame time, coined fhillings, fix pences, groats, three pences, two pences, three-half-pence, pence, three farthings, and half pence: and thefe pieces all had her head, and were alternately with the rose behind, and without the rafe. The filling, groat, two pence, penny, and half penny, had it not: the other intermediate coins, viz. the fix pence, three pence, three-half pence, and three farthings had the rofe. This accurate dif

That in mine ear I durft not flick a rofe, [goes!
Lett men thould fay, Look where three-farthings
And to his fhape were heir to all this land;
Would I might never itir from off this place
I'd give it every foot to have this face:
I would not be Sir Nobbe in any cafe.

Eli. I like thee well; wilt thou forfake thy forBequeath thy land to him, and follow me? [tune, I am a foldier, and now bound to France.

Phi. 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.
Phi Our country manners give our betters way.
K. John. What is thy name?

Phi. Philip, my Liege, fo is my name begun; Philip, good old Sir Robert's wife's eldelt fon. K. John. From henceforth bear his name, whofe form thou beareft:

Kneel thou down Philip, but rife up more great; Arife Sir Richard, and Plantagenet. [hand; Phi. Brother by th' mother's fide, give me your My father gave me honour, yours gave land.

tinction I owe to the favour and communication of the worthy and ingenious Martin Folks, Efq. I'll venture to advance one obfervation, before I have done with this fubject that as each of the leffer of thefe pieces were hardly to be diftinguithed in fize from that immediately next to it in value, it was the common practice to detace the re upon the leffer coin, to make it pafs for that next above it in price. And this ferves to give light to a pailage of Beaumont and Fletcher in their Scornful Lady:

He had a baftard, his own toward iffue, whipt, and then cropt, for wathing out the rofe in three-farthings to make them pence.

Now blessed be the hour, by night or day,
When I was got, Sir Robert was away.
Eli. The very fpirit of lantagenet!
I am thy grandam; Richard, call me fo.
Phi. Madam, by chance, but not by truth; what
Something about, a little from the right,

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

[defire, K. John. Go, Faulconbridge, now hast thou thy A landlefs Knight makes thee a landed 'íquire: Come, Madam; and come, Richard; we must speed For France, for France; for it is more than need. Phi. Brother, adieu; good fortune come to thee, For thou was got i' th' way of honesty.

[Exe. all but Phi.
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 Richard, 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. Now your traveller,
He and his tooth-pick at my worthip's mefs;
And when my knightly ftomach is fufficed,
Why then I fuck my teeth, and catechise
My piqued man of countries;-My dear Sir; (4)
(Thus, leaning on mine elbow, I begin)

(4) My piked man of countries;] Thus Mr Pope exhibits this paffage, and interprets the word, formal bearded. The old copies give it us, piked, by a fight corruption in the spelling; but the Author certainly defigned, piquea; (from the French verb, fe fiquer) i. e. touchy, tart, apprehenfive, upon his guard.