Effex. My Liege, here is the strangest controversy, Come from the country to be judg'd by you, That e'er I heard : fhail I produce the men ?

K. John. Let them approach
Our abbies and our priories Mall pay
This expedition's charge-What men are you?
Enter Robert Faulconbridge, and Philip, his brother,

Phil. Your faithful subject, I, a gentleman
Born in Northamptonshire, and eldeft ron,
As I suppose, to Robert Faulconbridge,
A foldier, by the honour-giving-hand
Of Caur-de-lion knighted in the field.

K. John. What art thou ?
Robert. The son and heir to that fame Faulconbridge.

K. John. Is that the elder, and art thou the heir ? You came not of one mother then, it seems ?

Phil. Most certain of one mother, mighty King,
That is well known; and, as I think, one father:
But for the certain knowledge of that truth,
I

put you o'er to heav'n, and to my mother; of that I doubt, as all men's children may.

Eli. Outon thee, rude man! thou doft shame thy mother And wound her honour with this diffidence,

Phil. I, Madam? no, I have no reason for it;
That is my brother's plea, and none of mine ;
The which if he can prove, he pops me out
At least from fair five hundred pound a year :
Heav'n guard my mother's honour, and my land!

K.Job. A good blunt fellow; why, being younger bord, Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance ?

Phil. I know not why, except to get the land ;
But, once, he flander'd me with bastardy :
But whether I be as true begot or no,
That still I lay upon my mother's head;
But that I am as well begot, my Liege,
(Fair fall the bones, that took the pains for me!)
Compare our faces, and be judge yourself.
If old Sir Robert did beget us both,
And were our father, and this son like him ;

O old Sir Robert, father, on my knee
I give heav'n thanks, I was not like to thee.
K.John.Why, li hata mad-cap hath heav'n lent us here?

Eli. He hach a trick of Cæur-de-lion's face,
The accent of his toogue 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: firrah, 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 ? (2) A half-fac'd grüat, five hundred pound a year!

Rob. My gracious Liege, when that my father liv'de Your brother did employ my father much;

Phil. Well, Sir, by this you cannot get my land.
Your tale must be, how he imploy'd my mother.

Rob. And once dispatch'd him in an embafly
To Germany ; there with the Emperor
To treat of high affairs touching that time :

Th’advantage of his absence took the King,
And in the mean time fojourn’d at my father's ;
Where, how he did prevail, I shame to speak :

(2) With half that face.] But why with half that face? There is no question but the Poet wrote, as I have restor'd the text, Witb tbat balf-face-Mr. Pape, perhaps, will be angry with me for discovering an Anachronism of our Poet's, in the next line; where he alludes to a coin not truck till the year 1504, in the reign of King Henry VII. viz. a groat, which, as well as the half groat, bear but half-faces impress’d. Vide Stow's Survey of London, p. 47. Holingshed, Camden's Remains, &c. The Poet 'neers at the meagre sharp visage of the elder brother, by comparing him to a filver groat, that bore the King's face in profíle, lo stew'd but half the face. The groats of all our Kings of Enge: tand, and, indeed, all their other coins of filver, one or two only ex. cepted, bad a full face crown'd; till Henry VII, at the time abovemention'd, coin'd groats and half groats, as also some shillings, with half-faces; that is, faces in profile, as all our coin has now. The first groats of King Henry VIII. were like these of his father; tho'afterwarde he return'd to the broad faces again. These groats with the impresion in profile, are undoubtedly here alluded to: though, as I said, the Poet is knowingly guilty of an Anachronism in it: for, in the time of King Jubn there were no groats at all: they being fisht, as far as appears, coin'd in the reign of King Edward IIL

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 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 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 the did play false, 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 say, 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 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 dispoffefs that child, which is not his?

Phil. Of no more force to dispossess me, Sir, Than was his will to get me, as I think.

Eli. Whether hadít thou rather be a Faulconbridge, And, like thy brother, to enjoy thy land : Or the reputed son of Cæur-de-lion, Lord of thy presence, and no land beside ?

Phil. Madam, and 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 ftaft; my face so thin, (3)

That in mine ear I durft not stick a rose,
Left men should say, "look, where three-farthings goes!
And to his shape 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 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.

Phil. 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. Phil. Our country manners give our betters way. K. John. What is thy name?

Phil. Philip, my Liege, so is my name begun; Philip, good old Sir Robert's wife's eldest fon. K.John. From henceforth bear his name, whose form

thou bear'ft: Kneel thou down Philip, but rise up more great; Arise Sir Richard, and Plantagenet.,

In this very obscure passage our Poet is anticipating the date of ano. ther coin; humorously to rally a thin face, eclipsed, as it were, by a full-blown rose. We must observé, to explain this allufion, that Queen Elizabetb was the first, and indeed the only, Prince who coin'd in England three-half-pence, and three-farthing pieces. She at one and the fame time, coin'd shillings, fix-pences, groats, three-pences, twopences, three-half-pence, pence, three-farthings, and half-pence : And these pieces all had her head, and were alternately with the role behind, and without the role. The shilling, groat, two-pence, penny, and half-penny had it not: the other intermediate coins, viz. the fix-pence, three-pence, three-half-pence, and three-farthings had the rose. This accurate distinction I owe to the favour and communication of the worthy and ingenious Martin Folkes, Esq;. l'll venture to advance one observation, before I have done with this subject, that as each of the lesser of these pieces were hardly to be distinguish'd in fize from that immediately next to it in value ; it was the common practice to deface the role upon the leffer coin, to make it pass for that next above it in price. And this serves to give light to a passage of Beauwont'and Flescher in their Scornful Lady. He had a bastard, his own toward iffue, whipt, and then cropt, for washing out the rofes in ihree-fartbings to make them pence.

Pbil. Brother by th’mother's fide, give me your hand;
My father gave me honour, yours gave land.
Now bleffed 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 fo.

Phil. Madam, by chance, but not by truth; what tho'?
Something about, a little from the right,

In at the window, or else o'er the hatch:
Who dares not' ftir by day, must walk by night,

And have is have, however men do catch;
Near or far off, well won is still well-fhot ;
And I am I, howe'er I was begot.

K. John. Go, Faulconbridge, now haft thou thy desire;
A landless Knight makes thee a landed 'fquire :
Come, Madam; and come, Richard; we must speed
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. (Exe. all but Phil.
A foot of honour better than I was,
But many a many foot of land the worse!
Well, now can I make any Joun a Lady.
Good-den, Sir Richard, - Godamercy, 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 unfociable
For your converfing. Now your traveller,
He and his tooth-pick at my worship's mess;
And when my knightly fomach is fuffic'd,
Why then I fuck my teeth, and catechife
My picqued man of countries ;~My dear Sir, (4)
(Thus leaning on mine elbow, I begin)
ì shall beseech you, that is question now;
And then comes answer like an A B C-book :
O Sir, says answer, at your best command,

(4) My piked man of countries.] Thus Mr. Pope exhibits this paffage, and interprets the word, formal, bearded. The old copies give it us, picked, by a light corruption in the spelling; but the Author certainly design'd, picqued; (from the Frercb verb, se piquer) i. e. touchy, tart, apprehensive, upon his guard.

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