1

If old Sir Robert did beger us Both,
And were our father, and this son 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 Caur-de-lion's face,
The accent of his tongue affecteth him :
Do you not read some tokens of my Son
In the large composition of this man?
K. John. Mine cye hath well examined his

parts, And finds them perfect Richard : sirrah, 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 imploy 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 Embassie
To Germany; there with the Emperor
To treat of high affairs touching that time :

(2) With half that Face] But why with half that Face ? There is, no Question but the Poet wrote, as I have restord the Text, With that half-face Mr. Pope, perhaps, will be angry with me for discovering an Anachronism of our Poet's, in the next Line ; where he alludes to a Coin not struck till the Year 1504, in the Reign of K. Henry VII. viz. a Groat, which, as well as the half Groat, bare but half-faces impress d. Vid. Stow's Survey of London, p. 47. Holingshed, Camden's Remains, &c. The Poet sneers at the meagre sharp Visage of the Elder Brother

, by comparing him to a filver Groat, that bore the King's Face in Profile, so shew'd but half the Face. The Groats of all our Kings of England, and, indeed, all their other Coins of Silver, one or two only excepted, had a full Face crown'd; till Henry VII, at the Time above-mention'd, coin'd Groats and half Groats, as also some Shillings, with half Faces; that is, Faces in Profile, as all our Coin has pow. The first Groats of K. Henry VIII. were like these of his Fa. ther; tho' afterwards he return’d to the broad Faces again. These Groats, with the Impression in Profile, are undoubtedly here alluded to: tho', as I said, 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 firft, as far as appears, coin'd in the Reign of K. Edward III.

Th'ad

Th'advantage of his absence took the King,
And in the mean time sojourn'd at my father's;
Where, how he did prevail, I shame to speak :
But truth is truth ; large lengths of seas and shores
Between my father and my mother lay,
(As I have heard my father speak himself)
When this same 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 son, 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 falle, the fault was hers;
Which fault lyes on the hazard of all husbands,
That marry wives. Tell me, how if my brother,
Who, as you say, took pains to get this son,
Had of your father claim'd this son for his?
In sooth, good friend, your father might have kept
This calf, bred from his cow, from all the world.
In sooth, 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 son did get your father's heir,
Your father's heir muit have your father's land.

Rob. Shall then my father's will be of no force
To dispossess that child, which is not his ?

Phil. Of no more force to dispossess me, Sir,
Than was his will to get me, as I think.
Eli

. Whether hadft rhou rather be a Faulconbridge,
And, like thy brother, to enjoy thy land:
Or the reputed Son of Geur-de-lion,
Lord of thy presence, and no land beside?

Pbil. Madam, and if my brother had my shape,
And I had his, Sir Robert his, like him;
And if my legs were two such riding rods,

My

My arms such Eel-skins ftuft; my Face so thin, (3)
That in mine ear I durft not stick a rose,
Left men should say, “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

case.
Eli. I like thee well; wilt thou forsake thy fortune,
Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me?
I am a soldier, 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 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,
Pbil. Our country manners give our betters way.
K. John. What is thy name?

Phil. Philip, my Liege, so is my name begun;
Pbilip, good old Sir Robert's wife's eldest son.

(3)

my Face fo thin,
That in mine Ear I durft not stick a Rose,

Left Men should say, Look, where three-farthings goes ! ]
In this very obscure Passage our Poet is anticipating the Date of ano.
ther Coin ; humourously to rally a thin Face, eclipfed, as it were, by a
full-blown Rose. We must observe, to explain this Allusion, that Queen
Elizabeth was the first, and indeed the only, Prince who coin'd in
England three-half-pence, and three-farthing Pieces. She at one and
the same time, coin'd Shillings, Six-pences, Groats, Three-pences, Two-
pences, Three-half-pence, Pence, Three-farthings, and Half-pence ;
And these Pieces all had her Head, and were alternately with the Rose
behind, and without the Rose. The Shilling, Groat, Two-Pence, Pen.
ny, and Half-penny had it not: the other intermediate Coins, viz. the
Six-pence, Three-pence, Three-half-pence, and Three-farthings had the
Rofé. This accurate Distinction I owe to the Favour and Communica-
tion of the worthy and ingenious Martin Folkes, Esq;. I'll venture to
advance one Observation, before I have done with this Subject, that as
each of the lefser of these Pieces were hardly to be distinguish'd in Size
from that immediately next to it in Value; it was the common prac-
tice to deface the Roje upon the lesser Coin, to make it pass for that next
above it in Price. And this serves to give Light to a Passage of Beau-
mont and Fletcher in their Scornful Lady.
He had a Bastard, his own toward Ilue, whipt, and then cropt, for

washing out the Rases in Three-farthings to make them Pence.

K. Joba.

K. John. From henceforth bear his Name, whose form

thou bear'ft: Kneel thou down Philip, but rise up more great ; Arise Sir Richard, and Plantagenet.

Pbil. Brother by th’mother's side, give me your huad;
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.

Eli. The very spirit of Plantagenet !
I am thy grandam; Richard, call me so.

Pbil. Madam, by chance, but not by truth; what tho'? Something about, a little from the right,

In at the window, or else o'er the hatch: Who dares not ftir by day, must walk by night,

And have is have, however men do catch; Near or far off, well won is still well-shot; And I am I, howe'er I was begot.

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.

Phil. Brother, adieu; good fortune come to thee, For thou was got i'th' way of honesty. [Ex. all but Phil.

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, -Godamercy, fellow;
And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter ;
For new-made honour doth forget mens names:
'Tis too respective and unsociable
For your conversing Now your traveller,
He and his tooth-pick at my Worship’s mess ;
And when my knightly stomach is suffic'd,
Why then I suck my teeth, and catechise
My picqued man of Countries ; – My dear Sir, (4)

a

(4) My piked Man of Countries.] Thus Mr. Pope exhibits this Pasfage, and interprets the Word, formal, bearded. The old Copies give it ús, picked, by a slight Corruption in the Spelling ; but the Author certainly design'd, picqued; (from the French Verb, te piquer) i. e. touchy, tart, apprehenlive, upon his Guard.

(Thus

King JoĦN.
(Thus leaning on mine elbow, I begin)
I shall beseech you, — that is Question now;
And then comes answer like an ABC-book :
O. Sir, says Answer, at your beft command,
At your employment, at your service, Sir: -
No, Sir, says Question, I, sweet Sir, at yours,
And so e'er Anfwer knows what Question would, ()
Serving in dialogue of Compliment ;
And talking of the Alps and Apennines,
The Pyrenean and the river Po;
It draws towards supper in conclusion, so.
But this is worshipful society,
And fits the mounting spirit like my

self:
For he is but a baftard to the time,
That doth not fmack of observation ;
(And so am I, whether I smack or no:)
And not alone in habit and device,
Exterior form, outward accoutrement ;
But from the inward motion to deliver

(5) And so i'er Answer knows what Question would,

(Saving in Dialogue] In this fine Speech Faulconbridge would thew the Advantages and Prerogatives of Men of Worship. He particularly observes, that he has the Traveller at Command.(And here we must remember the Time our Author wrote in; when Travellers, by the daily Discovery of new Worlds, were in the greatett Etimation.). At the first Intimation of his Desire to hear strange Stories, the Traveller complies, and the Answer comes as easy as an A, b, c, book. Now, Sir, says the Knight, this is my Question: The over-ready Traveller will scarce give him Leave to make it, but, e'er Answer knows what Queftion would, What then? Why, according to the Stupidity of the hitherto receiv'd Reading, it grows towards Suppertime. And is not this worshipful Society? To spend all the Time be, twixt Dinner and Supper, before either of them knows what the other would be at. So absurdly is the Sense vitiated, by putting the three Lines in a Parenthefas; which, we may suppose, was frit occafion'd by their Blunder in the Word, Saving, instead of the true Word, Serving: Now my Emendation gives the Text this Turn; “ And e'er Answer “ knows what the Question would be at, my Traveller ferves in his “ Dialogue of Compliment, which is his standing Dish at all Tables, “ then he comes to talk of the Alpes and Apennines, &c. and by the s time this Discourse concludes, it draws towards Supper. here is Sense and Humour ; and the Phrase of serving in is a very humourous one, to fignify that this was his Worship’s fecond Course.

Mr. Warburton.

All now

Sweety