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. But whe'r' I be as true begot, or no, (Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me!) If old Sir Robert did beget us both, bridge was suggested by the following passage in the continuation of Harding's Chronicle, 1543, fol. 24, 6:-" One Faulconbridge, th' erle of Kent his bastarde, a stoute-hearted man." 7 Whe'r, i. e. whether, contracted on account of the metre. And were our father, and this son like him ;— I give heaven thanks, I was not like to thee. K. John. Why, what a madcap hath heaven lent us here! Eli. He hath a trick of Cœur-de-lion's face, Do you not read some tokens of my son 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? my Bast. Because he hath a half-face, like my father; With that half face9 would he have all land: A half-faced groat 10 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, 8 Shakespeare 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 villainous trick of thine eye." 9 The old copy-" With half that face." Theobald made the manifestly requisite correction. 10 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 Huntingdon, 1601:— "You half-faced groat, you thick cheek'd chitty face." And in the mean time sojourn'd at my father's; (As I have heard my father speak himself), 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. 11 This is Homeric, and is thus rendered by Chapman in the first Iliad: "Hills enow, and farre-resounding seas Powre out their shades and deepes betweene." 12 i. e. this is the decision of both fact and law. Eli. Whether hadst thou rather, -be a Faulcon bridge, And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land; Or the reputed son of Coeur-de-lion, Lord of thy presence 13, and no land beside? Bast. Madam, an if my brother had my shape, Lest men should say, "Look, where three-farthings 15 goes!" And, to 16 his shape, were heir to all this land, 'Would, I might never stir from off this place, I'd give it every foot to have this face; I would not be sir Nob 17 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. Bast. Brother, take you my land, I'll take my chance: Your face hath got five hundred pounds a year, 13 Lord of thy presence, means possessor of thy own dignified and manly appearance, resembling thy great progenitor. In Sir Henry 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." 14 Sir Robert his for Sir Robert's; his, according to a mistaken notion formerly received, being the sign of the genitive case. 15 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 then mistresses' silken shoestrings in them. 16 To his shape, i. e. in addition to it. 17 Sir Nob, i. e. Robert. Old copy has, " Itould not." Yet sell your face for five pençe, and 'tis dear.— Eli. Nay, I would have you go before me thither. Bast. Philip, my liege; so is my name begun ; Kneel thou down, Philip, but rise more great: Bast. Brother, by the mother's side, give me your hand; land : My father gave me honour, yours gave Eli. The very spirit of Plantagenet!- : 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 20: 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. 19 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, i. e. planta genista, in his bonnet. 20 These expressions were common in the time of Shakespeare for being born out of wedlock. |