Eli. A ftrange beginning; borrow'd Majefty! Arthur Plantagenet, lays lawful claim Which fways ufurpingly thefe feveral titles; 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. This might have been prevented, and made whole Which now the manage of two kingdoms muft K. John. Our ftrong poffeffion, and our right for us.- Or else it must go wrong with you and me; 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, 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; Phil. I know not why, except to get the land; 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. Mine eye hath well examined his parts, 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. (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 Full fourteen weeks before the course of time: K. John. Sirrah, your brother is legitimate; Phil. Of no more force to difpoffefs me, Sir, 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; (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! 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; 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. |