Eli. A ftrange beginning; borrow'd Majefty!
K. John. Silence, good mother; hear the embaffy.
Chat. Philip of France, in right and true behalf
Of thy deceased brother Geffry's fon,

Arthur Plantagenet, lays lawful claim
To this fair illand, and the territories:
To Ireland, Poitiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine:
Defiring thee to lay afide the fword,

Which fways ufurpingly thefe feveral titles;
And put the fame into young Arthur's hand,
Thy nephew, and right-royal Sovereign.

K. John. What follows, if we difallow of this? Chat. The proud controul of fierce and bloody war, T'inforce these rights fo forcibly with-held.

K. John. Here have we war for war, and blood for blood, Controulment for controulment; fo answer France. Chat. Then take my King's defiance from my mouth, The fartheft limit of my embaffy.

K. John. Bear mine to him, and fo depart in peace. Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France, For ere thou can't report, I will be there, The thunder of my cannon fhall be heard. So, hence! be thou the trumpet of our wrath, And fullen prefage of your own decay. An honourable conduct let him have, Pembroke, look to't; farewel, Chatilion.

[Exit Chatilion and Pembroke.
Eli. What now, my fon, have I not ever faid,
How that ambitious Conftance would not cease,
Till she had kindled France and all the world,
Upon the right and party of her fon

This might have been prevented, and made whole
With very eafy arguments of love;

Which now the manage of two kingdoms muft
With fearful, bloody iffue arbitrate.

K. John. Our ftrong poffeffion, and our right for us.-
Eli. Your ftrong poffeffion much more than your right,

Or else it must go wrong with you and me;
So much my confcience whifpers in your ear,
Which none but heav'n, and you, and I fhall hear.

Effex. My Liege, here is the ftrangeft controverfy,, Come from the country to be judg'd by you, That e'er I heard: fhail I produce the men? K. John. Let them approach

Our abbies and our priories fhall pay

This expedition's charge-What men are you?

Enter Robert Faulconbridge, and Philip, his brother.. Phil. Your faithful fubject, I, a gentleman. Born in Northamptonshire, and eldeft fon, As I fuppofe, to Robert Faulconbridge, A foldier, by the honour-giving-hand Of Coeur-de-lion knighted in the field. K. John. What art thou?

Robert. The fon and heir to that fame Faulconbridges. K. John. Is that the elder, and art thou the heir ?: You came not of one mother then, it feems ?

Phil. Moft certain of one mother, mighty King,
That is well known; and, as I think, one father:
But for the certain knowledge of that truth,
I put you o'er to heav'n, and to my mother;
Of that I doubt, as all men's children may.

Eli. Outon thee, rude man! thou doft shame thy mother,, And wound her honour with this diffidence.

Phil. I, Madam? no, I have no reafon for it;
That is my brother's plea, and none of mine;
The which if he can prove, he pops me out
At least from fair five hundred pound a year:
Heav'n guard my mother's honour, and my land!
K.Job. A good blunt fellow; why, being younger born,,
Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance?

Phil. I know not why, except to get the land;
But, once, he flander'd 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 yourfelf..
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 heav'n thanks, I was not like to thee.
K.John.Why, what a mad-cap hath heav'n 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: firrah, speak,
What doth move you to claim your brother's land?
Phil. Because he hath a half-face, like my father,
With that half-face would he have all my land? (2)
A half-fac'd groat, five hundred pound a year!

Rob. My gracious Liege, when that my father liv'd, Your brother did employ my father much;

Phil. Well, Sir, by this you cannot get my land.
Your tale must be, how he imploy'd my mother.
Rob. And once dispatch'd 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 fojourn'd at my father's;
Where, how he did prevail, I fhame to speak:

(2) With half that face.] But why with balf that face? There is no question but the Poet wrote, as I have reftor'd the text, With that balf-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 truck 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 impress'd. Vide Stow's Survey of London, p. 47. Holingfhed, Camden's Remains, c. The Poet neers at the meagre fharp vifage of the elder brother, by comparing him to a filver groat, that bore the King's face in pro file, fo fhew'd but half the face. The groats of all our Kings of Engband, and, indeed, all their other coins of filver, cne or two only exsepted, had a full face crown'd; till Henry VII, at the time abovemention'd, coin'd groats and half groats, as alfo fome fhillings, with half-faces; that is, faces in profile, as all our coin has now. The first groats of King Henry VIII. were like thefe of his father; tho' afterwards he return'd 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 Anachronism in it: for, in the time of King John there were no groats at all: they being first, as far as appears, soin'd in the reign of King Edward III,

But

But truth is truth; large lengths of feas and fhores
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 she did play false, the fault was hers;
Which fault lies on the hazard of all husbands,
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, refuse 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 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 Coeur-de-lion,

Lord of thy prefence, and no land befide?

Phil. 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 cel-fkins fluft; my face fo thin, (3)

(3)

my face fo thin,

That in mire ear I durft not flick a rofe,

Left men should say, look, where three farthings goes!]

That

:

That in mine ear I durf not ftick a rofe,

Left men fhould fay, "look, where three-farthings goes!
And to his shape 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, whose form thou bear'ft:

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

In this very obfcure paffage our Poet is anticipating the date of another coin; humorously to rally a thin face, eclipfed, as it were, by a full-blown rofe. We muft obferve, to explain this allufion, that Queen Elizabeth was the firft, and indeed the only, Prince who coin'd in England three-half-pence, and three-farthing pieces. She at one and the fame time, coin'd fhillings, fix-pences, groats, three-pences, twopences, three-half-pence, pence, three-farthings, and half-pence: And these pieces all had her head, and were alternately with the refe: behind, and without the rofe. The fhilling, 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 diftinction I owe to the favour and communication of the worthy and ingenious Martin Folkes, Efq;. I'll venture to advance one obfervation, before I have done with this fubject, that as each of the leffer of these pieces were hardly to be distinguish'd in fize from that immediately next to it in value; it was the common practice to deface the rofe upon the leffer coin, to make it pass for that next above it in price. And this ferves to give light to a paffage of Beauwont and Fletcher in their Scornful Lady.

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