K. John. A good blunt fellow :-Why, being younger born, Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance? Bast. I know not why, except to get the land. 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 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 fa ther; With that half-face" would he have all my land: A half-faced groat five hundred pound a year! 3 But whe'r-] Whe'r for whether. He hath a trick of Coeur-de-lion's face,] By a trick, in this place, is meant some peculiarity of look or motion. 5 With that half-face-] The poet sneers at the meagre sharp visage of the elder brother, by comparing him to a silver groat, that bore the king's face in profile, so showed 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 crowned; till Henry VII. at the time above-mentioned, coined groats, and half-groats, as also some shillings, with half faces, i. e. faces in profile, as all our coin has now. Rob. My gracious liege, when that my father liv'd, Your brother did employ my father much;— 6 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, took it, on his death,] i. e. entertained it as his fixed opinion, when he was dying. My mother's son did get your father's heir; 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- And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land; Lord of thy presence, and no land beside ?” 8 Bast. Madam, an if an 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 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 !9 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 Nob? in any case. 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 ill expressed. The meaning is—If I had his shape, sir Robert's-as he has. 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. And, to his shape, were heir to all this land,]" To his shape," means, in addition to the shape he had been just describing. Eli. I like thee well; Wilt thou forsake thy for tune, 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. way. K. John. What is thy name? Bast. Philip, my liege; so is my name begun; Kneel thou down Philip, but arise more great; Bast. Brother, by the mother's side, give me your hand; My father gave me honour, yours gave land :--- Eli. The very spirit of Plantagenet! 2 I would not be sir Nob-] Sir Nob is used contemptuously for Sir Robert. 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 Coeur-de-lion; and the prince who is exhibited in the play before us, John sans-terre, or lack-land. MAlone. I am thy grandame, Richard; call me so. Something about, a little from the right,* In at the window, or else o'er the hatch: 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 was got i'the way of honesty. 5 [Exeunt all but the Bastard. A foot of honour better than I was; 4 Something about, a little from the right, &c.] This speech, composed of allusive and proverbial sentences, is obscure. 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. 5 Good-den,] i. e. a good evening. |