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But truth is truth; large lengths of feas and shores
Between my father and my mother lay,
(As I have heard my father speak himself)
When this fame lufty 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 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 he did play falfe, the fault was hers; Which fault lies 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 claim'd 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 mult have your father's land. Rob. Shall then my father's will be of no force To difpoffefs that child, which is not his ? Phil. Of no more force to difpoffefs me, Sir, Than was his will to get me, as I think.

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

Or the reputed fon of Caur-de-lion, 'Lord of thy prefence, and no land befide? Phil. Madam, and if my brother had my fhape,

"This concludes.] This is a decifive argument. As your father, if he liked him, could not have been forced to refign him,

fo, not liking him, he is not at liberty to reject him.

8 Lord of THY prefence, and no land befide?] Lord of And

I

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, * That in my ear I durft not ftick a rofe, Left men should fay, Look, where three farthings

goes!

thy prefence can fignify only, Master of thyfelf; and it is a ftrange expreffion to fignify even that. However that he might be, without parting with his land. We fhould read,

Lord of THE presence,i. e. Prince of the Blood.

WARBURTON.

Lord of thy prefence may fignify fomething more diftinct than mafter of thyself. It means mafter of that dignity, and grandeur of appearance, that may fufficiently diftinguish thee from the vulgar without the help of fortune.

Lord of his prefence apparently fignifies, great in his own person, and is used in this fenfe by King John in one of the following fcenes.

The

9 And I had his, Sir Robert bis, like him.] This is obfcure and ill expreffed. meaning is: If I had his shape Sir Robert's- -as be bas.

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. So Donne.

Who now lives to age.
Fit to be call'd Methufalem

his page?
my Face fo thin,
That in mine Ear I durft not
fick a Rofe,

Left men faculd fay, Lack, where

three farthings goes!] In this very obfcure paffage our Poet is anticipating the Date of another kind; humorously to rally a thin face, eclipfed, as it were. by a full-blown Rofe. 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 threefarthing Pieces. She at one and the fame Time, coined Shillings, Six 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 Rofe behind, and without the Refe. The Shilling, Groat, Two pence, Penny, and Half-penny had it not: The other intermediate Coins, viz. the Six-pence, Three-pence, Three-half-pence, and Threefaithings had the Refe.

THEOBALD. * That in mine ear Idu-fi xo' flick

a rofe] The fticking Rofes about them was then all the court-fafhion, as appears from this paffage of the Confeffion Catholique du S. de Sanry, 1. 2. c. 1. Je luy ay appris à mettre des ROSES par tous les coins, i. e. in every place about him, fays the Speaker, of one to whom he had taught all the court fashions. WARBURTON. And

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'ft.

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 spirit of Plantagenet !

I am thy grandam; Richard call me fo.

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 honefly-what then?

Something about, a little from, &c.] This fpeech compofed of allufive and proverbial fen

Some

tences, is obfcure.
1 am, favs
the fpritely knight, year grand-
fon, a little irregularly, but every
man cannot get what he wishes
the legal way. He that dares
not go about his defigns by day
muit make his motions in the right;
be, to whom the door is thut,

muft

Something about, a little from the right;
In at the window, or elfe 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 landlefs Knight makes thee a landed 'Squire. Come, Madam, and come, Richard; we muft fpeed 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

4

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

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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 question now:
And then comes anfwer" like an ABC-book:
O Sir, fays anfwer, at your best command,
At your employment, at your fervice, Sir:
No, Sir, fays queftion, I, fweet Sir, at yours,
7 And fo e'er anfwer knows what queftion 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 spoke and wrote it, an absty 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 he 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 flories, the traveller complies, and will fcarce give him leave to make his queftion, 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 at. Read SERVING infead of fuving, and all this nonfenfe is

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

question would be at, my tra"veller ferves in his dialogue of "compliment, which is his ftand"ing difh at all tables; then he 66 comes to talk of the Alps and A

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penines, &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 pleafant one to denote that this was his worship's fecond course. What follows fhews the romantic turn of the voyagers of that time; how greedily their relations were fwallowed, which he calls fweet poifon for the age's tooth and how acceptable it made men at court-For it shall firew the footfleps of my rifing. And yet the Oxford Editor fays, by this fweet 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 neceflary.

The

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