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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, 120
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, 125
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 Faulconbridge,
And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land,

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,

130

135

134. rather ... Faulconbridge] rather,—be Capell; be? a Vaughan conj. 138. an iƒ] The Folios read and if for an if continually.

119. lies on the hazards, etc.] is among the risks all husbands must

run.

137. Lord of thy presence]" continuing to possess precisely the same figure and face which you now have " (Vaughan). As Vaughan points out, "whether" proposes two alternatives -to be like the legitimate son and

possess land, or to be reputed the son of Coeur-de-lion, keeping his present appearance, and having no land. The phrase will also bear the meaning of "Lord from thy very appearance," that is, "your mere appearance would tell people that you were nobly born." But compare II. i. 367 infra.

And I had his, sir Robert's his, like him;

140

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,

Would I might never stir from off this place,

145

I would give it every foot to have this face;
I would not be sir Nob 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.

139. sir Robert's his] This is treated by Schmidt and Mr. Moore-Smith as a double genitive. It may be so explained, and be quite in keeping with the Bastard's colloquial roughness of speech. Vaughan would read “just Sir Robert's shape," or "just Sir Robert his." The meaning is obvious -"if my brother had my shape and I had his." Again, we may suppose the Bastard to be literally pointing the finger of scorn at his brother at the words "his, like him."

140. riding-rods] switches. Compare Cotgrave," Houssine: a switch,

...

a riding rod of holly; an holly wand." Compare Two Angry Women (1597), ii. 53: "And if he give her [a horse] but a nod, She thinks it is a riding rod."

141. eel-skins] Compare 2 Henry IV. II. ii. 351: "You might have thrust him and all his apparel into an eel skin."

143. three farthings] Pieces of this value were coined in Elizabeth's reign for the first and last time in the history of English coinage. As the smaller coins were of values closely approximating to one another, the odd and alternate pieces were dis

150

tinguished by a rose or rosette behind the head of the queen. The threefarthings was so marked (see Hawkins, Silver Coins of England, 2nd ed., under "Elizabeth"), hence the point of the allusion in Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady, ш. ii. :—

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'He had a bastard, his own
toward issue,

Whipp'd and then cropp'd,
For washing out the roses in
three-farthings

.. land]

To make 'em pence." 144. And, to his shape, and in addition to having his appearance were heir to all this land that is in question. The "this," which Vaughan would alter, with great probability, to "his," may be a colloquialism.

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145. Would stir] Compare The Merry Wives of Windsor, v. v. 199: "If I did not think it had been Anne Page, would I might never stir."

147. I would not] The first Folio reads It would not, which Delius retains, believing that it refers to "face."

147. Nob] diminutive of Robert, used contemptuously by the Bastard.

Bast. 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.
Bast. Our country manners give our betters way.
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.

155

K. John. From henceforth bear his name whose form thou bear'st:

Kneel thou down Philip, but rise more great,

Arise sir Richard and Plantagenet.

160

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 grandam, Richard; call me so.

165

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:

170

161. Kneel... great] The line is defective. Pope, rise up; Steevens, arise; Keightley, to rise.

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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.

175

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.

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180

[Exeunt all but Bastard.

184

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!"-"God-a-mercy, fellow!"—
And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter;
For new-made honour doth forget men's names;

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183. many a many] Hanmer reads many, many a," and Collier, ed. 2 (Collier MS.), many, ah ! many a.' The emendations are needless, for a many was often used where we use many a, e.g. Massinger's Virgin Martyr, ii. 2: Honesty is some fiend, and frights him hence; A many courtiers love it not"; Edward III.

III.

66

iii. 162 (Temple ed.): "As 'twere a many over-ridden jades"; ibid. iii. 4 (stage-direction); "Enter a many Frenchmen flying." This passage, like so many others, is quite in keeping with the Bastard's character and needs no emendation.

184. Joan] Used as a common noun. "A generic name for a female rustic" (New Eng. Dict.). It was a common peasant name. Compare Gosson's Schoole of Abuse (Arber's Reprints, No. iii. p. 35): "Every

John and his Joan"; and Love's
Labour's Lost, III. i. 207:
"Some
men must love my lady and some
Joan."

185. Good den] good-evening, good-even, good-e'en, good-den, and sometimes "god-den,' e.g. Henry V. III. ii. 89: "God-den to your worship, good captain James.'

185. God-a-mercy] This was the salutation of a superior to an inferior. This perhaps is most plainly seen in Arden of Feversham, where there are many examples.

187. For new-made honour, etc.] new-made honour doth forget men's names; to remember them is to do them too much honour, and is too sociable for one who has suddenly been promoted to a high position. The Bastard then goes on to suppose himself seated at dinner with a tra

190

'Tis too respective and too sociable
For your conversion. Now your traveller,
He and his toothpick at my worship's mess,
And when my knightly stomach is sufficed,
Why then I suck my teeth and catechize
My picked man of countries: "My dear sir,"
Thus, leaning on mine elbow, I begin,
"I shall beseech you"-that is question now;
And then comes answer like an Absey book:
"O sir," says answer, "at your best command;
At your employment; at your service, sir:"
"No, sir," says question, "I, sweet sir, at yours:
And so, ere answer knows what question would, 200
Saving in dialogue of compliment,

And talking of the Alps and Apennines,

The Pyrenean and the river Po,

195

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203. Pyrenean] Perennean F 1; Pyrennèan Ff 2, 3, 4; Pyreneans Collier, ed. 2 (Collier MS.).

velled man. Holt White, followed
by Mr. Wright, believes "" picked
man of countries" to mean "travelled
fop," while Steevens and others take
"of countries " as equivalent to
"about countries" and depending
upon "catechize." The toothpick
was a sign of travelled foppishness.
The 66 mess seems to have been a
table laid for four, guests at a great
dinner being arranged in fours (see
Dyce-Littledale). Malone takes "at
my worship's mess to mean "At
that part of the table where I, as a
knight, shall be placed," that is,
above the salt (ibid.). The "Absey
book"
was the A B C book or primer,
which often included the Catechism.
193. picked] finikin. Compare Lyly,
Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 277, line 27):
"then they used to woo in plain
terms, now in piked sentences."

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201. Saving] Theobald, after a conjecture of Warburton's, reads Serving. Vaughan, in Notes and Queries (1882) suggests Sharing or Halving or Salving; while in his 1886 edition he says: "The line should certainly run: Salving in dialogue of compliment'"; the idea being that the two speakers were merely soothing one another by bandying compliments. If we take the line as it stands-" Before the answering man knows what the questioner would, except in so far as customary complimentary retorts are concerned". we leave "And so" in the air; but having regard to the looseness of structure of the whole speech, this may not be impossible. We may shuffle out of the difficulty by suspecting a dropped line.

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