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. 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? 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 muft be, how he imploy'd my mother. Rob. And once difpatch'd him in an embaffie 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 shame to speak,

With half that Face.] But why with balf that Face? There in no Question but the Poet wrote, as I have restored the Text, With that half-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 ftruck till the Year 1504, in the Reign of King Henry VII. viz. a Groat, which, as well as the half Groat, bare but half Faces imprefs'd. Vide Stow's Survey of London, p. 47. Hollingshed, Cambden's Remains, &c. The Poet fneers at the meagre fharp Vifage of the elder Brother, by comparing him to a Silver Groat, that bore the King's Face in Profile, fo fhew'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-mentioned, coined Groats and half Groats, as alfo fome Shillings, 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; though afterwards he returned to the broad Faces again. These Groats, with the Impreffion in Profile, are undoubtedly here alluded to: though, as I faid, the Poet is knowingly guilty of an Anachronifm in it: for, in the Time of King John there were no Groats at all: they being firft, as far as appears, coined in the Reign of King Edward III. THEOBALD. Dd 4

But

But truth is truth; large lengths of feas and shores
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 he did play falfe, 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, refufe 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 Caur-de-lion,

Lord of thy prefence, and no land befide?
Phil. Madam, and if my brother had my fhape,

7 This concludes.] This is a decifive argument. As your father, if he liked him, could not have been forced to refign him,

fo, not liking him, he is not at liberty to reject him.

8 Lord of THY prefence, and no land befide ?] Lord of And

And I had his, Sir Robert his, like him;
And if my legs were two such riding rods,
My arms fuch eel-fkins ftuft; ' my face fo thin,
* That in my ear I durft not stick a rofe,

Left men fhould fay, Look, where three farthings goes!

And to his fhape 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 eldeft fon.

K. John. From henceforth bear his name, whofe form thou bear't.

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

Phil. Brother by th' mother's fide, give me your hand;

My father gave me honour, your's gave land.
Now bleffed be the hour, by night or day,
When I was got, Sir Robert was away!
Eli. The very fpirit of Plantagenet!

I am thy grandam; Richard call me fo.

2

Phil. Madam; by chance, but not by truth; what

tho' ?

Madam, by chance, but not by truth; what the?) I am your grandfon, Madam, by chance, but not by hnefty-what then?

Something about, a little from, &c] This fpeech compofed of allufive and proverbial fen

Some

tences, is obfcure. I am, fays the fpritely knight, your grandJen, a little irregularly, but every man cannot get what he wishes the legal way. He that dares not go about his defigns by day must make his motions in the night; he, to whom the door is fhut,

muft

Something about, a little from the right;
In at the window, or elfe o'er the hatch,
Who dares not ftir by day, muft walk by night,
And have his have, however men do catch;
Near or far off, well won is ftill well fhot;
And I am I, howe'er I was begot.

K. John. Go, Faulconbridge, now haft thou thy
defire;

A landlefs Knight makes thee a landed 'Squire. Come, Madam, and come, Richard; we muft fpeed 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.

[Exeunt all but Philip,

SCENE III.

A foot of honour better than I was,
But many a many foot of land the worfe!
Well, now can I make any Joan a lady.
Good den, Sir Robert, -Godamercy, fellow;
And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter;
For new-made honour doth forget men's names:
'Tis too refpective and unfociable

4

For your converfing. Now your traveller,
" He and his tooth-pick at my worship's mess;

muft climb the window, or leap
the hatch. This, however, fhall
not deprefs me; for the world
never enquires how any man got
what he is known to poffefs, but
allows that to have is to have,
however it was caught, and that
he who wins hot well, whatever
was his fkill, whether the arrow
fell near the mark, or far off it.
3 A foot of honour.] Aftep,
un pas.

4 Now your traveller.] It is

faid in All's well, that ends well, that a traveller is a good thing after dinner. In that age of newly-excited curiofity, one of the entertainments at great tables feems to have been the difcourfe of a traveller.

5 He and his tooth-pick.] It has been already remarked, that to pick the tooth, and wear a piqued beard, were, in that time, marks of a man affecting foreign fashions.

And