Born in Northamptonshire; and eldest son, Rob. The son and heir to that same Faulconbridge. K. John. Is that the elder, and art thou the heir? You came not of one mother then, it seems. Bast. 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 heaven, and to my mother; Of that I doubt, as all men's children may. Eli. Out on thee, rude man! thou dost shame thy mother, And wound her honour with this diffidence. Bast. 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, 'a pops me out At least from fair five hundred pound a year; Heaven guard my mother's honour, and my land! K. John. A good blunt fellow:-Why, being younger born, Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance? Bast. I know not why, except to get the land. And were our father, and this son like him;- I give heaven thanks, I was not like to thee. 6 Whether. K. John. Why, what a madcap hath heaven lent us here! Eli. He hath a trick of Coeur-de-lion's face, Do you not read some tokens of K. John. Mine eye hath well examined his parts, And finds them perfect Richard.Sirrah, speak, What doth move you to claim your brother's land? Bast. Because he hath a half-face, like my father; With that half face would he have all my land: A half-faced groats five hundred pound a year! Rob. My gracious liege, when that my father liv'd, Your brother did employ my father much; Bast. Well, sir, by this you cannot get my land; Your tale must be how he employ'd my mother. Rob. And once despatch'd him in an embassy To Germany, there, with the emperor, To treat of high affairs touching that time: The advantage of his absence took the king, And in the mean time sojourn'd at my father's; Where how he did prevail, I shame to speak: But truth is truth; large lengths of seas and shores 9 7 Shakspeare uses the word trick generally in the sense of a peculiar air or cast of countenance or feature.' Thus in All's Well that Ends Well, Act i. Sc. 1: 'Of every line and trick of his sweet favour.' And in King Henry IV. Part 1.:- That thou art my son, I have partly thy mother's word, partly mine own opinion; but chiefly a villanous trick of thine eye.' 8 The poet makes Faulconbridge allude to the silver groats of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. which had on them a half-face or profile. In the reign of John there were no groats at all, the first being coined in the reign of Edward III. The same contemptuous allusion occurs in The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601 : "You half-fac'd groat, you thick cheek'd chitty face.' 9 This is Homeric, and is thus rendered by Chapman in the first Iliad : hills enow, Between my father and my mother lay Full fourteen weeks before the course of time. K. John. Sirrah, your brother is legitimate ; 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 Cœur-de-lion, 11 Lord of thy presence 11, and no land beside? 10 i. e. this is a decisive argument.' 11 Lord of thy presence means possessor of thy own dignified and manly appearance, resembling thy great progenitor. In Sir Henry Bast. Madam, an if my brother had my shape, And I had his, Sir Robert his 12, like him: And if my legs were too 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 13 goes! And, to 14 his shape, were heir to all this land, Eli. I like thee well; Wilt thou forsake thy fortune, Bast. Brother, take you my land, I'll take my Your face hath got five hundred pounds a year; Eli. Nay, I would have you go Wotton's beautiful poem of The Happy Man we have a line resembling this: 'Lord of himself, though not of lands, And having nothing yet hath all.' 12 Sir Robert his for 'Sir Robert's;' his, according to a mistaken notion formerly received, being the sign of the genitive case. 13 Queen Elizabeth coined threepenny, threehalfpenny, and threefarthing pieces; these pieces all had her head on the obverse, and some of them a rose on the reverse. Being of silver, they were extremely thin; and hence the allusion. The roses stuck in the ear, or in a lock near it, were generally of ribbon; but Burton says that it was once the fashion to stick real flowers in the ear. Some gallants had their ears bored and wore their mistresses' silken shoestrings in them. 14 To his shape, i. e. in addition to it. VOL. IV. G G 15 Robert. Bast. Philip, my liege; so is my name begun; Philip, good old Sir Robert's wife's eldest son. K. John. From henceforth bear his name whose form thou bear'st: 16 Kneel thou down, Philip, but arise more great: Arise Sir Richard, and Plantagenet 17. Bast. Brother, by the mother's side, give me your hand; My father gave me honour, yours gave land :- Something about, a little from the right, In at the window, or else o'er the hatch 18: 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. 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. [Exeunt all but the Bastard. A foot of honour better than I was; But many a many foot of land the worse. 16 The old copy reads rise. 17 Plantagenet was not a family name, but a nick-name, by which a grandson of Geoffrey, the first Earl of Anjou, was distinguished from his wearing a broom-stalk in his bonnet. 18 These expressions were common in the time of Shakspeare for being born out of wedlock. |