And so am I, - - whether I smack or no,—
And not alone in habit and device,
Exterior form, outward accoutrement,
But from the inward motion, to deliver

Sweet, sweet, sweet poison for the age's tooth:
Which, though I will not practise to deceive,

Yet, to avoid deceit, I mean to learn ;

25

24

For it shall strew the footsteps of my rising.
But who comes in such haste in riding-robes?
What woman-post is this? hath she no husband,
That will take pains to blow a horn before her? 26

Enter Lady FALCONBRIDGE and JAMES GURNEY.
O me! it is

mother. my

How now, good lady!

What brings you here to Court so hastily?

Lady F. Where is that slave, thy brother? where is he That holds in chase mine honour up and down?

Bast. My brother Robert? old Sir Robert's son?

24 Something of obscurity here, perhaps. But I take the infinitive to deliver as depending upon I am. Motion is motive, or moving power; and " inward motion" is an honest, genuine impulse or purpose in antithesis to the mere externals spoken of just before. So that Sir Richard means that he is going to humour the world in his outward man, and at the same time be thoroughly sound within; or that he will appear what the age craves, and yet be what he ought.

25 The which, in this latter member of the sentence, I understand as referring to the whole sense of the preceding member. The speaker means to learn the arts of popularity, and to practise them, not hollowly, that he may cheat the people, or play the demagogue, but from the heart, and that he may be an overmatch for the cheats and demagogues about him. The Poet here prepares us for the honest and noble part which Falconbridge takes in the play; giving us an early inside taste of this most downright and forthright humourist, who delights in a sort of righteous or inverted hypocrisy, talking like a knave, and acting like a hero.

26 A double allusion, to the horns blown by postmen, and to such horns as Lady Falconbridge has endowed her husband with. See vol. iii. page 212, note 7; and vol. iv. page 164, note 24.

Colbrand the giant,27 that same mighty man?

Is it Sir Robert's son that you seek so?

Lady F. Sir Robert's son! Ay, thou unreverend boy, Sir Robert's son: why scorn'st thou at Sir Robert?

He is Sir Robert's son; and so art thou.

Bast. James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave awhile?
Gur. Good leave, good Philip.

Bast. There's toys

Philip! sparrow ! 28 James, 29 abroad: anon I'll tell thee more.

[Exit GURNEY.

Madam, I was not old Sir Robert's son ;
Sir Robert might have eat his part in me
Upon Good-Friday, and ne'er broke his fast:
Sir Robert could do well: marry, to confess,
Could he get me? Sir Robert could not do it ;
We know his handiwork: therefore, good mother,
To whom am I beholding for these limbs ?
Sir Robert never holp to make this leg.

Lady F. Hast thou conspirèd with thy brother too,
That for thine own gain shouldst defend mine honour?
What means this scorn, thou most untoward knave?

Bast. Knight, knight, good mother, - Basilisco-like : 30

27 The famous Danish giant whom Guy of Warwick vanquished in the presence of King Athelstan. The History of Guy was a popular book.

28 The sparrow was called Philip, because its note resembles that name. So in Lyly's Mother Bombie: "Phip, phip, the sparrows as they fly." And Catullus, in his elegy on Lesbia's sparrow, formed the verb pipilabat, to express the note of that bird. The new Sir Richard tosses off the name Philip with affected contempt.

29 Toys sometimes means rumours or idle reports: here it probably means slight changes or novelties; alluding humorously to the changes in the speaker's name and rank.

30 Referring to the old play of Solyman and Perseda, 1599, in which there is a bragging, cowardly knight called Basilisco. Piston, a buffoon, jumps upon his back, and forces him to take an oath as "the aforesaid Basilisco "; whereupon he says, "I, the aforesaid Basilisco, — knight, good fellow, knight"; and Piston replies, “Knave, good fellow, knave."

What! I am dubb'd; I have it on my shoulder.
But, mother, I am not Sir Robert's son ;
I have disclaim'd Sir Robert; and my land,
Legitimation, name, and all is gone :

Then, good my mother,31 let me know my father;
Some proper 32 man, I hope: who was it, mother?
Lady F. Hast thou denied thyself a Falconbridge?
Bast. As faithfully as I deny the Devil.

Lady F. King Richard Coeur-de-lion was thy father:
By long and vehement suit I was seduced
To make room for him in my husband's bed.
Heaven lay not my transgression to thy charge,
That art the issue of my dear offence,

Which was so strongly urged, past my defence !
Bast. Now, by this light, were I to get again,
Madam, I would not wish a better father.
Some sins do bear their privilege on Earth,

And so doth yours; your fault was not your folly :
Needs must you lay your heart at his dispose,
Subjécted tribute to commanding love,
Against whose fury and unmatched force
The awless lion could not wage the fight,

Nor keep his princely heart from Richard's hand:
He that perforce robs lions of their hearts 33

May easily win a woman's. Ay, my mother,

81 We should say, "my good mother." Such inversions occur very often all through these plays. So we have "dread my lord," "sweet my sister," "gentle my brother," "gracious my mother," &c.

32 Proper is handsome, fine-looking; such being then the more common meaning of the word.

33 It is sayd that a lyon was put to Kynge Richarde, beynge in prison, to have devoured him; and, when the lyon was gapynge, he put his arm in his mouthe, and pulled the lyon by the harte so hard, that he slew the lyon; and therefore some say he is called Rycharde Cure de Lyon : but some say he is called Cure de Lyon because of his boldnesse and hardy stomake. RASTALL'S Chronicle.

With all my heart I thank thee for my father!
Who lives, and dares but say thou didst not well
When I was got, I'll send his soul to Hell.
Come, lady, I will show thee to my kin;
And they shall say, when Richard me begot,
If thou hadst said him nay, it had been sin :
Who says it was, he lies; I say 'twas not.

[Exeunt.

ACT II.

SCENE I. France. Before the Walls of Angiers.

Enter, on one side, PHILIP, King of France, LOUIS, CONSTANCE, ARTHUR, and Forces; on the other, the Archduke of AUSTRIA and Forces.

K. Phi. Before Angiers well met, brave Austria !

Arthur, that great forerunner of thy blood,
Richard, that robb'd the lion of his heart,
And fought the holy wars in Palestine,
By this brave Duke came early to his grave:1
And, for amends to his posterity,

At our importance2 hither is he come,

To spread his colours, boy, in thy behalf;
And to rebuke the usurpation

1 In point of fact, Leopold, the Duke of Austria who imprisoned Richard, died by a fall from his horse in 1195, four years before John came to the throne; and Richard fell by the hand of the Viscount of Limoges, one of his own vassals. But Shakespeare, following the old play, makes Limoges and Austria the same person. So in iii. 1: "O Limoges! ○ Austria! thou dost shame that bloody spoil." And in the old play: "The Bastard chaseth Lymoges the Austrich Duke, and maketh him leave the lyon's skin."

2 Importance for importunity; a frequent usage. See vol. v. page 239,

note 29.

Of thy unnatural uncle, English John:

Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither.
Arth. God shall forgive you Coeur-de-lion's death
The rather that you give his offspring life,
Shadowing their right under your wings of war:
I give you welcome with a powerless hand,
But with a heart full of unstainèd love : 3

Welcome before the gates of Angiers, Duke.

K. Phi. A noble boy! Who would not do thee right?
Aust. Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss,

As seal to this indenture 4 of my love;

That to my home I will no more return,

Till Angiers, and the right thou hast in France,
Together with that pale, that white-faced shore,
Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides,
And coops from other lands her islanders,
Even till that England, hedged in with the main,
That water-walled bulwark, still secure
And confident from foreign purposes, -
Even till that utmost corner of the West
Salute thee for her king: till then, fair boy,
Will I not think of home, but follow arms.

Const. O, take his mother's thanks, a widow's thanks,
Till your strong hand shall help to give him strength
To make a more 5 requital to your love!

3 We have an instance of similar language in Pericles, i. 1: "My unspotted fire of love." Also near the close of this play: "And the like tender of our love we make, to rest without a spot for evermore."

4 An indenture is, properly, a written contract drawn in duplicate on one piece of parchment, and then two copies cut with indentations, so as to guard against counterfeits. Setting the seal to such an instrument was the finishing stroke of the process, and made the contract good in law. — In the third line after, "that pale, that white-faced shore" refers to the chalky cliffs at Dover which from the opposite coast appear as a whitened wall.

5 More in the sense of greater. So in 1 Henry IV., iv. 3: "The more and less came in with cap and knee."