And in the meantime 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 lusty 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 false, the fault was hers;
Which fault lies on the hazards 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 must have your father's land.
Rob. Shall then my father's will be of no force,
To dispossess that child which is not his?

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 Faulcon

bridge,

--

And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land;

took it on his death,] i. e. entertained it as his fixed

opinion, when he was dying.

Or the reputed son of Coeur-de-lion,
Lord of thy presence, and no land beside?"

Bast. Madam, an if my brother had my shape,
And I had his, sir Robert his, like him; 8
And if my legs were two such riding-rods,
My arms such eel-skins stuff'd; my face so thin,
That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose,

Lest men should say, Look, where three-farthings goes??
And, to his shape, were heir to all this land,1
'Would I might never stir from off this place,
I'd give it every foot to have this face;

I would not be sir Nob2 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.

Bast. Brother, take you my land, I'll take my chance:
Your face hath got five hundred pounds 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.

7 Lord of thy presence, and no land beside?] Lord of his presence apparently signifies, great in his own person, and is used in this sense by king John in one of the following scenes.

8 And I had his, sir Robert his, like him;] This is obscure and illexpressed. The meaning is - If I had his shape, sir Robert's — as he has.

9

my face so thin,

That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose,

Lest men should say, Look, where three-farthings goes!] In this very obscure passage our poet is anticipating the date of another silver coin; humorously to rally a thin face, eclipsed, 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 coined in England three-half-pence, and three-farthing pieces. 1 And, to his shape, were heir to all this land,] "To his shape," means, in addition to the shape he had been just describing.

2 I would not be sir Nob-] Sir Nob is used contemptuously for sir Robert.

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 bear'st:

Kneel thou down Philip, but arise more great;†

Arise sir Richard, and Plantagenet.

3

Bast. Brother, by the mother's side, give me your hand;

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 grandame, Richard; call me so.

Bast. Madam, by chance, but not by truth: What though?

Something about, a little from the right,*

In at the window, or else o'er the hatch:

66

+" but rise more great;" - MAlone.

3 Arise, sir Richard, and Plantagenet.] It is a common opinion, that Plantagenet was the surname of the royal house of England, from the time of King Henry II., but it is, as Camden observes, in his Remaines, 1614, a popular mistake. Plantagenet was not a family_name, but a nick-name, by which a grandson of Geffrey, the first Earl of Anjou, was distinguished, from his wearing a broom stalk in his bonnet. But this name was never borne either by the first Earl of Anjou, or by King Henry II., the son of that earl by the Empress Maude; he being always called Henry Fitz-Empress; his son, Richard Cœur-de-lion; and the prince who is exhibited in the play before us, John sans-terre, or lack-land. MALONE.

+ Something about, a little from the right, &c.] This speech, composed of allusive and proverbial sentences, is obsure. I am, says the sprightly knight, your grandson, a little irregularly, but every man cannot get what he wishes the legal way. He that dares not go about his designs by day, must make his motions in the night; he, to whom the door is shut, must climb the window, or leap the hatch. This, however, shall not depress me; for the world never inquires how any man got what he is known to possess, but allows that to have is to have, however it was caught, and that he who wins, shot well, whatever was his skill, whether the arrow fell near the mark, or far off it. JOHNSON.

Who dares not stir 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. Bast. Brother, adieu; Good fortune come to thee! For thou wast got i'the way of honesty.

[Exeunt all but 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 dens, 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,

6

For your conversion. 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 picked man of countries :7 - My dear sir,
(Thus, leaning on my elbow, I begin,)
I shall beseech you- That is question now;
And then comes answer like an ABC-book : 8
O, sir, says answer, at your best command;
At your employment; at your service, sir:
No, sir, says question, I, sweet sir, at yours:

5 Good-den,] i. e. a good evening.

6 'Tis too respective, and too sociable,

For your conversion.] Respective, is respectful, formal. Conversion seems to mean, his late change of condition from a private gentleman to a knight. STEEVENS.

7 My picked man of countries:] i. e. my travell❜d fop.

8 like an ABC-book:] An ABC-book, or, as they spoke and wrote it, an absey-book, is a catechism.

And so, ere answer knows what question would,
(Saving in dialogue of compliment;

And talking of the Alps, and Appennines,
The Pyrenean, and the river Po,)

It draws toward supper in conclusion so.
But this is worshipful society,

And fits the mounting spirit, like myself:
For he is but a bastard to the time, 9
That doth not smack 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
Sweet, sweet, sweet poison for the age's tooth:
Which, though I will not practise to deceive,
Yet, to avoid deceit, I mean to learn;

For it shall strew the footsteps of my rising. -
But who comes in such haste, in riding robes?
What woman-post is this? hath she no husband,
That will take pains to blow a horn before her?

Enter Lady FAULCONBRIDGE, and JAMES GURNEY.
O me! it is my mother:- How now, good lady?
What brings you here to court so hastily?
Lady F. Where is that slave, thy brother? where
is he?

That holds in chase mine honour up and down?

Bast. My brother Robert? old sir Robert's son ?
Colbrand1 the giant, that same mighty man?
Is it Sir Robert's son, that seek so?
you

Lady F. 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.

9 For he is but a bastard to the time, &c.] He is accounted but a mean man in the present age.

1 Colbrand,] Colbrand was a Danish giant, whom Guy of Warwick discomfited in the presence of King Athelstan.