In sooth, good friend, your father might have kept BAST. Of no more force to dispossess me, sir, Than was his will to get me, as I think. ELI. Whether hadst thou rather be a Faulconbridge, And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land; BAST. Madam, an if my brother had my shape, [fortune, ELI. I like thee well. Wilt thou forsake thy Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me? I am a soldier, and now bound to France. BAST. Brother, take you my land, I'll take my chance : Your face hath got five hundred pound a year; Yet sell 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. BAST. Our country manners give our betters way. K. JOHN. What is thy name? BAST. Philip, my liege; so is my name begun; Philip, good old sir Robert's wife's eldest son. K. JOHN. From henceforth bear his name whose form thou bearest : Kneel thou down Philip, but arise ‡ more great; Arise sir Richard, and Plantagenet. BAST. Brother-by the mother's side, give me your hand; e Lord of thy presence,-] Queen Elinor, prepossessed by Philip's gallant bearing and likeness to her son, frames her question so as to discover whether he prefers to rest his claim to future distinction as the heir of Faulconbridge, or as the supposed son of Cœur-de-lion:-"Would you rather be a Faulconbridge, resembling your brother, but possessed of five hundred pounds a-year in land; or the reputed son of King Richard, with similar personal endowments to his, and no land at all?" | My father gave me honour, yours gave land :Now blessed be the hour, by night or day, When I was got, sir Robert was away. ELL. The very spirit of Plantagenet!-I am thy grandame, Richard; call me so. BAST. Madam, by chance, but not by truth. What though? Something about, a little from the right, e In at the window, or else o'er the hatch: K. JOHN. Go, Faulconbridge: now hast thou thy desire ; 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. BAST. Brother, adieu: good fortune come to thee! For thou wast got i' the way of honesty. [Exeunt all except the Bastard. A foot of honour better than I was; But many a many foot of land the worse. Well, now can I make any Joan a lady :— Good den, sir Richard.-God-a-mercy, fellow; And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter, For new-made honour doth forget men's names: 'Tis too respective, and too sociable, For your conversion. Now, your traveller,He and his toothpick at my worship's mess ; (3) And when my knightly stomach is suffic'd, Why then I suck my teeth, and catechise My picked man of countries: My dear sir, Thus, leaning on mine elbow, I begin, I shall beseech you that is Question now; And then comes Answer like an A B Ch book : O, sir, says Answer, at your best command; At your employment; at your service, sir :— No, sir, says Question, I, sweet sir, at yours: And so, ere Answer knows what Question would, (Saving in dialogue of compliment, And talking of the Alps and Apennines, The Pyrenean, and the river Po,) d I would not be sir Nob-] So the second folio, 1632; the first has, "It would." e In at the window, or else o'er the hatch :] Proverbial sayings applied to illegitimate children;-"Woe worth the time that ever I gave suck to a child that came in at the window!"-The Family of Love, 1608. So, also, in "The Witches of Lancashire," by Heywood and Broome, 1634:-". It appears you came in at the window."-"I would not have you think I scorn my grannam's cat to leap over the hatch." f Too respective,-] Too mindful, considerate, retrospective; and not, I believe, as Steevens interprets it, "respectful," "formal." g My picked man-] See Note (d), p. 82, of the present volume. h Like an A B C book:] These letters are printed as they were pronounced, Absey, in the old copies. An Absey, or A B C book, was a book to teach the young their letters, catechism, &c.:"In the A B C of bokes the least, Yt is written, Deus charitas est." It draws toward supper in conclusion so. But this is worshipful society, And fits the mounting spirit like myself: Enter LADY FAULCONBRIDGE and JAMES How now, good lady? That holds in chase mine honour up and down? LA. FAULC. Sir Robert's son! ay, thou unreverend boy, Sir Robert's son: why scorn'st thou at sir Robert? He is sir Robert's son, and so art thou. BAST. James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave a while? GUR. Good leave, good Philip. BAST. Philip -sparrow!-James, There's toys abroad; anon I'll tell thee more. [Exit GURN. Madam, I was not old sir Robert's son ; Sir Robert might have eat his part in me Upon Good-Friday, and ne'er broke his fast: Sir Robert could do well; Marry-to confess— Could het get me? Sir Robert could not do it; What! I am dubb'd; I have it on my shoulder. I have disclaim'd sir Robert, and my land ; BAST. As faithfully as I deny the devil. By long and vehement suit I was seduc'd BAST. Now, by this light, were I to get again a Colbrand the giant,-] This was the Danish giant whom the renowned Guy of Warwick overcame in the presence of Athelstan. A description of the combat will be found in Drayton's "Polyolbion," Twelfth Song. b Good leave,-] "Good leave," Steevens says, "means a ready assent." c Philip!-sparrow!-] The sparrow was very early known by the name Sir Richard disdains, perhaps from its note, to which Catullus alludes: "Sed circumsiliens modo huc, modo illuc, Thus, in Lyly's "Mother Bombie:" Skelton, too, has a long poem, the title of which is “Phyllyp Sparowe." d There's toys abroad;] Toys may mean here rumours, idle reports, and the like; or tricks, devices, &c.; for Shakespeare uses the word with great latitude. Thou art the issue-] The old copy has, "That art," &c.; for which Rowe substituted Thou, &c. Some alteration was certainly required; but this is not satisfactory. I am half persuaded the misprint to be corrected is in the preceding line, and that we ought to read, "Heaven lay not my transgression to thy charge She had a moment before confessed that Richard Coeur-de-lion was his father; and "Thou art the issue" is a needless repetition of the avowal. To spread his colours, boy, in thy behalf; Of thy unnatural uncle, English John: The rather, that you give his offspring life, AUST. Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss, As seal to this indenture of my love; That to my home I will no more return, Till Angiers, and the right thou hast in France, CONST. O, take his mother's thanks, a widow's thanks, Till your strong hand shall help to give him strength, To make a more requital to your love. AUST. The peace of heaven is theirs, that lift their swords In such a just and charitable war. K. PHI. Well, then, to work; our cannon shall be bent Against the brows of this resisting town.- CONST. Stay for an answer to your embassy, * An Até, stirring him to blood and strife: From France to England, there to live in peace! (*) First folio, Ace. he bids you then resign Your crown and kingdom indirectly held • Are expedient-] Expeditious, immediate. And this is Geffrey's. In the name of God To draw my answer from thy articles? K. PHI. From that supernal Judge that stirs good thoughts In any breast of strong authority, To look into the blots and stains of right. K. JOHN. Alack, thou dost usurp authority. son. ELL. Out, insolent! thy bastard shall be king, That thou mayst be a queen, and check the world! CONST. My bed was ever to thy son as true, ELI. There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy father. CONST. There's a good grandame, boy, that would blot thee. AUST. Peace! BAST. AUST. Hear the crier. What the devil art thou? BAST. One that will play the devil, sir, with you, An 'a may catch your hide and you alone.c You are the hare of whom the proverb goes, Whose valour plucks dead lions by the beard. I'll smoke your skin-coat, an I catch you right: Sirrah, look to't; i' faith, I will, i' faith. BLANCH. O, well did he become that lion's robe, That did disrobe the lion of that robe! BAST. It lies as sightly on the back of him, As great Alcides' shows upon an ass:—(2) a In any breast-] The first folio has beast; corrected in the edition of 1632. b That thou mayst be a queen, and check the world!] It has been doubted whether Shakespeare, who appears to have had cognizance of nearly every sport and pastime of his age, was acquainted with the ancient game of chess; we believe the present passage may be taken to settle the question decisively. The allusion is obviously to the Queen of the chess-board, which, in this country, was invested with those remarkable powers that lender her by far the most powerful piece in the game, somewhere about the second decade of the 16th century. c One that will play the devil, sir, with you, An'a may catch your hide and you alone.] The circumstance which more particularly awakens the wrath of Faulconbridge against Austria, namely, that after having caused the death of King Richard Coeur-de-lion, he now wore the f your con King John, this is the very sum of all,- Arthur of Bretagne, yield thee to my hand, ELI. Come to thy grandame, child. CONST. Do, child, go to it (3) grandame, child; Give grandame kingdom, and it grandame will Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig: There's a good grandame. ARTH. Good my mother, peace! I would that I were low laid in my grave; I am not worth this coil that's made for me. ELI. His mother shames him so, poor boy, he |