Effex. My Liege, here is the ftrangeft controversy, Come from the country to be judg'd by you, That e'er I heard: fhall I produce the men? K. John. Let them approach Our abbies and our priories fhall pay This expedition's chargeWhat men are you? Robert. The fon 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 feems? Phil. Moft certain of one mother, mighty King, Eli. Out on 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; Phil. I know not why, except to get the land; That ftill I lay upon my mother's head; And were our father, and this fon like him; O old Sir Robert, father, on my knee I give heav'n thanks, I was not like to thee. K. John. Mine eye hath well examined his parts, Rob. My gracious Liege, when that my father liv'd, Your brother did employ my father much; Phil. Well, Sir, by this you cannot get my land. (2) With half that face.] But why with half that face? There is no queftion but the Poet wrote, as I have reftor'd the text, With that balf-face-Mr. Pape, perhaps, will be angry with me for discovering an Anachronifm 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, bear but half-faces imprefs'd. Vide Stow's Survey of London, p. 47. Holingshed, Camden's Remains, c. The Poet neers at the meagre fharp vifage of the elder brother, by comparing him to a filver groat, that bore the King's face in profile, to fhew'd but half the face. The groats of all our Kings of Eng- · tand, and, indeed, all their other coins of filver, one or two only excepted, had a full face crown'd; till Henry VII, at the time abovemention'd, coin'd groats and half groats, as alfo fome fhillings, 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; tho' afterwarde he return'd to the broad faces again. Thefe 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, coin'd in the reign of King Edward IIĻ But But truth is truth; large lengths of feas and fhores K. John. Sirrah, your brother is legitimate; Eli. Whether hadst thou rather be a Faulconbridge, And, like thy brother, to enjoy thy land: Or the reputed fon of Coeur-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 fuch riding rods, My arms fuch eel-fkins ftaft; my face fo thin, (3) That (3) my face fo thin, That in mire ear I durft not flick a role, Left men should say, look, where three-faithings goes!] That in mine ear I durft not stick a rose, Left men should fay, "look, where three-farthings goes! 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 eldest fon. K.John. From henceforth bear his name, whose form thou bear'ft: Kneel thou down Philip, but rise up more great; In this very obfcure paffage our Poet is anticipating the date of another coin; humorously to rally a thin face, eclipfed, as it were, by a full-blown rofe. We muft obferve, to explain this allufion, that Queen Elizabeth was the firft, 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 fhillings, fix-pences, groats, three-pences, twopences, three-half-pence, pence, three-farthings, and half-pence: And thefe pieces all had her head, and were alternately with the rose behind, and without the rofe. The fhilling, 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 rofe. This accurate diftinction I owe to the favour and communication of the worthy and ingenious Martin Folkes, Efq;. I'll venture to advance one obfervation, before I have done with this fubject, that as each of the leffer 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 rofe upon the leffer coin, to make it pafs for that next above it in price. And this ferves to give light to a passage of Beaumont and Fletcher in their Scornful Lady. He had a baftard, his own toward iffue, whipt, and then cropt, for washing out the rofes in three-farthings to make them pence. Phil. 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 fpirit 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: K.John. Go, Faulconbridge, now haft thou thy defire; Phil. Brother, adieu; good fortune come to thee, For thou was got i'th' way of honefty. [Exe. all but Phil. A foot of honour better than I was, But many a many foot of land the worfe! For your converfing. Now your traveller, I fhall befeech you, that is queftion now; And then comes anfwer like an A B C-book: O Sir, fays anfwer, 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 flight corruption in the fpelling; but the Author certainly defign'd, picqued; (from the French verb, se piquer) i, e. touchy, tart, apprehenfive, upon his guard. At |