• And I had his, Sir Robert his, like him; Left men fhould fay, Look, where three farthings goes! thy prefence can fignify only, Mafter of thyself; 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 distinguish thee from the vulgar without the help of fortune. Lord of bis prefence apparently fignifies, great in his own perfon, and is used in this fenfe by King Fohn in one of the following fcenes. 9 And I had his, Sir Robert bis, like him.] This is obfcure and ill expreffed. The meaning is: If I had his fhapeSir Robert's- -as he has. 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 erroneoufly, to be a contraction of his. So Donne. three farthings gres!] 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 Refe. We muft 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 Threefa things had the Refe. THEOBALD. * That in mine ear Idu fto flick a rofe] The fticking Rofes about them was then all the court-fashion, as appears from this paffage of the Confeffion Catholique du S. de Sancy, 1. 2. c. I. Je luy ay appris à mettre des ROSES par tous les coins, i. e. in every place obout 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; } 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, Eli. Nay, I would have you go before me thither. 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. 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, -Godamercy, fellow; For your converfing. 4 Now your traveller, must climb the window, or leap un pas. 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, 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. And fits the mounting fpirit like myself: 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, |