Bast. I know not why, except to get the land. But once he slandered me with bastardy: But whe'r' I be as true begot, or no, That still I lay upon my mother's head; And were our father, and this son like him ;- I give Heaven thanks, I was not like to thee. K. John. Why, what a madcap hath Heaven lent us here! Eli. He hath a trick 2 of Coeur-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 eye hath well examined his parts, And finds them perfect Richard.- -Sirrah, speak, What doth move you to claim your brother's land? Bast. Because he hath a half-face, like my father; With that half face would he have all my land. A half-faced groat five hundred pound a year! Rob. My gracious liege, when that my father lived, Your brother did employ my father much;— Bast. Well, sir, by this you cannot get my land; Your tale must be how he employed my mother. Rob. And once despatched him in an embassy To Germany, there, with the emperor, To treat of high affairs touching that time. The advantage of his absence took the king, And in the mean time sojourned at my father's; Where how he did prevail, I shame to speak. But truth is truth; large lengths of seas and shores 1 Whether. 2 Shakspeare uses the word trick generally in the sense of “a peculiar air, or cast of countenance or feature." 3 The Poet makes Faulconbridge allude to the silver groats of Henry VII. and Henry VIII., which had on them a half-face or profile. In the reign of John, there were no groats at all, the first being coined in the reign of Edward III. Between my father and my mother lay, K. John. Sirrah, your brother is legitimate; Bast. Of no more force to dispossess me, sir, Eli. Whether hadst thou rather, be a Faulconbridge, And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land; Or the reputed son of Coeur-de-lion, 2 Lord of thy presence, and no land beside? Bast. Madam, an if my brother had my shape, And I had his, sir Robert his,3 like him; 1 i. e. "this is a decisive argument." 2 Lord of thy presence means possessor of thy own dignified and manly appearance, resembling thy great progenitor. 3 Sir Robert his, for "Sir Robert's;" his, according to a mistaken notion formerly received, being the sign of the genitive case. And if my legs were too such riding-rods; Lest men should say, Look, where three-farthings! goes! 2 And, to his shape, were heir to all this land, 'Would, I might never stir from off this place, I'd give it every foot to have this face; I would not be sir Nob3 in any case. Eli. I like thee well. Wilt thou forsake thy fortune, Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me? Bast. Brother, take you my land; I'll take my chance. Your face hath got five hundred pounds a year; Eli. Nay, I would have you go before me thither. 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: Bast. Brother, by the mother's side, give me your hand; My father gave me honor, yours gave land. 1 Queen Elizabeth coined threepenny, threehalfpenny, and threefarthing pieces; these pieces all had her head on the obverse, and some of them a rose on the reverse. Being of silver, they were extremely thin; and hence the allusion. The roses stuck in the ear, or in a lock near it, were generally of riband; but Burton says that it was once the fashion to stick real flowers in the ear. Some gallants had their ears bored, and wore their mistresses' silken shoestrings in them. 2 To his shape, i. e. in addition to it. 4 The old copy reads rise. 3 Robert. 5 Plantagenet was not a family name, but a nickname, by which a grandson of Geoffrey, the first earl of Anjou, was distinguished, from his wearing a broomstalk in his bonnet. Now blessed be the hour by night or day, Eli. The very spirit of Plantagenet!- Bast. Madam, by chance, but not by truth. What though? Something about, a little from the right, 1 In at the window, or else o'er the hatch: Near or far off, well won is still well shot; K. John. Go, Faulconbridge; now hast thou thy desire; A landless knight makes thee a landed squire.- [Exeunt all but the Bastard. A foot of honor better than I was; But many a many foot of land the worse. For your conversion. Now your traveller,— 6 1 These expressions were common in the time of Shakspeare for being born out of wedlock. 2 Good evening. 3 Respective does not here mean respectful, as the commentators have explained it, but considerative, regardful. 4 Change of condition. 5 It is said, in All's Well that Ends Well, that "a traveller is a good thing after dinner." In that age of newly-excited curiosity, one of the entertainments at great tables seems to have been the discourse of a traveller. To use a toothpick seems to have been one of the characteristics of a travelled man who affected foreign fashions. 6 "At my worship's mess" means at that part of the table where I, as a knight, shall be placed." Your worship" was the regular address to a knight or esquire, in Shakspeare's time, as "your honor" was to a lord. And when my knightly stomach is sufficed, At your employment; at your service, sir.- And talking of the Alps, and Apennines, It draws towards supper in conclusion so. 3 And fits the mounting spirit, like myself. Enter LADY FAULCONBRIDGE and JAMES GURNEY. O me! it is my mother.-How now, good lady? What brings you here to court so hastily? My picked man of countries may be equivalent to my travelled fop: picked generally signified affected, overnice, or curious in dress. 2 An ABC or absey-book, as it was then called, is a catechism. 3 i. e. he is accounted but a mean man, in the present age, who does not show by his dress, deportment, and talk, that he has travelled and made observations in foreign countries. |