Arise sir Richard, and Plantagenet.3

Bast. Brother, by the mother's side, give me your hand; My father gave me honour, your's 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 grandame, Richard; call me so.

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:

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.4

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.

: Rast. Brother, adieu! Good fortune come to thee; For thou wast got i'the way of honesty.

[Exeunt all but the Bastard.

A foot of honours 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,6-God-a-mercy, 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 too sociable,

[3] It is a common opinion, that Plantagenet was the surname of the royal house of England, from the time of King Henry 11. 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 call ed Henry Fitz-Empress; his son, Richard Caur-de-lion; and the prince who is exhibited in the play before us, John sans-terre, or lack-land. MALONE.

[4] 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 enquires 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. JOHNS.

751 A step, un pas. JOHNSON.

[6] i, e. A good evening. STEEV.

8

For your conversion. Now your traveller,7-
He and his tooth-pick at my worship's mess;&
And when my knightly stomach is suffic'd,
Why then I suck my teeth, and catechise
My picked man of countries: 9My dear sir,
(Thus, leaning on mine elbow, I begin,)
I shall beeeech you-That is question now;
And then comes answer like an ABC-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,
(Saving in dialogue of compliment;

And talking of the Alps, and Apennines,
The Pyrenean, and the river Po,)

It draws towards supper in conclusion so.
But this is worshipful society,

And fits the mounting spirit, like myself:
For he is but a bastard to the time,
That doth not smack of observation;
(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 ;

For it shall strew the footsteps of my rising.-
But who comes in such haste, in riding robes ?

[7] It is said, in All's well that ends well, that "a traveller is a good thing after dinner." In that age of newly excited curiosity, one of the entertainments at great tables seems to have been the discourse of a traveller. JOHN. [8] It has been already remarked, that to pick the tooth, and wear a piqued beard, were, in that time, marks of a man's affecting foreign fashions. JOH. Among Gascoigne's poems I find one entitled, Councell given to Maister Bartholomew Withipoll a little before his latter Journey to Geane, 1572. The following lines may, perhaps be acceptable to the reader who is curious enough to enquire about the fashionable follies imported in that age: "Now, sir, if I shall see your mastership

"Come home disguis'd, and clad in quaint array ;-
"As with a pike-tooth byting on your lippe ;
"Your brave mustachios turn'd the Turkie way;
"A coptankt hat made on a Flemish blocke;

"A night-gowne cloake down trayling to your toes;
"A slender slop close couched to your dock;
"A curtolde slipper, and a short silk hose," &c.
[9] My picked man of countries is my travelled fop.

STEEV.

HOLT WHITE.

[] Milton, in his tragedy, introduces Dalilah with such an interrogatory exclamation.

JOHNS.

What woman-post is this? hath she no husband,
That will take pains to blow a horn before her?

Enter Lady FAULCONBRIDGE and JAMES GURNEY. O me! it is my mother :-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 ? Colbrand the giant, that same mighty man?2 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 a while? Gur. Good leave, good Philip.

Bast. Philip-sparrow !-James, 3

There's toys 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 handy-work :-Therefore, good mother,
To whom am I beholden for these limbs ?

Sir Robert never holp to make this leg.

Lady F. Hast thou conspired with thy brother too,
That for thine own gain should'st defend mine honour ?
What means this scorn, thou most untoward knave?
Bast. Knight, knight, good mother,-Basilisco like:
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, let me know my father;
Some proper man, I hope; Who was it, mother?
Lady F. Hast thou denied thyself a Faulconbridge?
Bast. As faithfully as I deny the devil.

Lady F. King Richard Cœur-de-lion was thy father;

[2] Colbrand was a Danish giant, whom Guy of Warwick discomfited in the presence of King Athelstan. The combat is very pompously described by Drayton, in his Polyolbion JOHNS,

[3] The Bastard means: Philip! Do you take me for a sparrow?

HAWKINS

་

By long and vehement suit I was seduc'd
To make room for him in my husband's bed :-
Heaven lay not my transgression to my charge!—
Thou art the issue of my dear offence,

Which was so strongly urg'd, 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,—
Subjected 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,
May easily win a woman's. Ay, my mother,
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 shew 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, the Archduke of Austria, and Forces; on the other,
PHILIP, King of France, and Forces; LEWIS, CONSTANCE,
ARTHUR, and Attendants.

Lewis.

BEFORE Angiers well met, brave Austria.-
Arthur, that great fore-runner of thy blood,
Richard, that robb'd the lion of his heart,5
And fought the holy wars in Palestine,

[4] There are sins that whatever be determined of them above, are not much censured on earth.

JOHNS.

[5] So, Rastal, in his Chronicle: "It is sayd that a lyon was put to kynge Richard, beynge in prison, to have devoured him, and when the lyon was gapynge he put his arme in his mouth, and pulled the lyon by the harte so hard that he slewe 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 boldness and hardy stomake." GREY.

By this brave duke came early to his grave:
And, for amends to his posterity,

At our importance hither is he come,
To spread his colours, boy, in thy behalf;
And to rebuke the usurpation

Of thy unnatural uncle, English John :

Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither.
Arthur. God shall forgive you Cœur-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 unstained love:
Welcome before the gates of Angiers, duke.

Lewis. A noble boy! Who would not do thee right?
Aust. Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss,
A seal to this indenture 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-fac'd shore, 6
Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides,
And coops from other lands her islanders,
Even till that England, hedg'd 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 requital to your love."

Aus. The peace of heaven is theirs, that lift their swords In such a just and charitable war.

K. Phil. Well then, to work; our cannon shall be bent
Against the brows of this resisting town.-
Call for our chiefest men of discipline,

To cull the plots of best advantages:8.
We'll lay before this town our royal bones,

Wade to the market-place in Frenchmen's blood,
But we will make it subject to this boy.

Const. Stay for an answer to your embassy,

[6] England is supposed to be called Albion from the white rocks facing France. JOHNS.

[7] More signified, in our author's time, greater. STEEV.

[8] i. e. to mark such stations as might most over-awe the town.

HENLEY.