Imatges de pàgina
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And if my legs were two fuch riding-rods,
My arms fuch eelskins ftuff'd; my face fo thin,
That in mine ear I durft not stick a rofe,

Left men should fay, Look, where three-farthings
goes! 8

His according to a mistaken notion formerly received, being the fign of the genitive cafe. As the text before stood there was a double genitive. MALONE.

my face fo thin,

That in mine ear I durft not flick a rofe,

Left men fhould fay, Look, where three-farthings goes!] In this very obfcure paffage our poet is anticipating the date of another coin; humoroufly 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 coined in England three-half-pence, and three-farthing pieces. She coined fhillings, fix-pences, groats, three-pences, two-pences, threehalf-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. THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald has not mentioned a material circumftance relative to these three-farthing pieces, on which the propriety of the allufion in fome measure depends; viz. that they were made of filver, and confequently extremely thin. From their thinnefs they were very liable to be cracked. Hence Ben Jonfon, in his Every Man in his Humour, fays, "He values me at a crack'd threefarthings." MALONE.

So, in The Shoemaker's Holiday, &c. 1610:

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"

Here's a three-penny piece for thy tidings." "Firk. "Tis but three-half-pence I think: yes, 'tis three-pence; I smell the rose." STEEVENS.

The flicking rofes about them was then all the court-fashion, as appears from this paffage of the Confeffion Catholique du S. de Sancy, L. II. c. i: " Je luy ay appris à mettre des rofes par tous les coins," i. e. in every place about him, fays the fpeaker, of one to whom he had taught all the court-fashions. WARBURTON.

The rafes ftuck in the ear, were, I believe, only rofes compofed of ribbands. In Marston's What you will, is the following paffage: "Dupatzo the elder brother, the fool, he that bought the halfpenny ribband, wearing it in his ear," &c.

Again, in Every Man out of his Humour: “

-This ribband

in my ear, or fo." Again, in Love and Honour, by Sir W. D'Avenant, 1649:

And, to his shape, were heir to all this land," 'Would I might never ftir from off this place, I'd give it every foot to have this face;

I would not be fir Nob in any case.*

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.

BAST. Brother, take you my land, I'll take
chance:

"A lock on the left fide, fe rarely hung
"With ribbanding," &c.

my

I think I remember, among Vandyck's pictures in the Duke of Queensbury's collection at Ambrofbury, to have feen one, with the lock neareft the ear ornamented with ribbands which terminate in rofes; and Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, fays, "that it was once the fashion to stick real flowers in the ear.

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At Kirtling, in Cambridgeshire, the magnificent refidence of the firft Lord North, there is a juvenile portrait (fuppofed to be of Queen Elizabeth) with a red rofe fticking in her ear. STEEVENS. Marston in his Satires, 1598, alludes to this fashion as fantastical: "Ribbanded eares, Grenada nether-stocks."

And from the epigrams of Sir John Davies, printed at Middleburgh, about 1598, it appears that fome men of gallantry in our author's time fuffered their ears to be bored, and wore their miftrefs's filken fhoe-ftrings in them. MALONE.

9 And, to his fhape, were heir to all this land,] There is no noun to which were can belong, unless the perfonal pronoun in the line Laft but one be understood here. I fufpect that our author wroteAnd though his shape were heir to all this land,Thus the fentence proceeds in one uniform tenour. Madam, an if my brother had my shape, and I had his-and if my legs were, &c.— and though his shape were heir, &c. I would give. MALONE. The old reading is the true one. "To his fhape" means in addition to it. So, in Troilus and Creffida:

"The Greeks are ftrong, and skilful to their strength,
"Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant."
STEEVENS.

I would not be fir Nob-] Sir Nob is ufed contemptuously for Sir Robert. The old copy reads-It would not be. The correction was made by the editor of the fecond folio. I am not fure that it is neceflary. MALONE.

Your face hath got five hundred pounds a year; Yet fell your face for fivepence, and 'tis dear.Madam, I'll follow you unto the death.❜

ELI. Nay, I would have you go before me thither.

BAST. Our country manners give our betters way. K. JOHN. What is thy name?

BAST. Philip, my liege; fo is my name begun;
Philip, good old fir Robert's wife's eldest fon.
K. JOHN. From henceforth bear his name whose
form thou bear'st:

Kneel thou down Philip, but arife more great;
Arife fir Richard, and Plantagenet.'

BAST. Brother by the 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, fir Robert was away.

3

unto the death.] This expreffion (a Gallicifm,-à la mort) is common among our ancient writers. STEEVENS.

but arife more great;] The old copy reads only-rise. Mr. Malone conceives this to be the true reading, and that " more is here used as a diffyllable." I do not fupprefs this opinion, though I cannot concur in it. STEEVENS.

5 Arife fir Richard, and Plantagenet.] It is a common opinion, that Plantagenet was the furname of the royal house of England, from the time of King Henry II.; but it is, as Camden obferves in his Remaines, 1614, a popular mistake. Plantagenet was not a family name, but a nick-name, by which a grandfon of Geffrey, the first Earl of Anjou was distinguished, from his wearing a broomftalk in his bonnet. But this name was never borne either by the firft Earl of Anjou, or by King Henry II. the fon of that Earl by the Emprefs Maude; he being always called Henry Fitz-Emprefs; his fon, Richard Coeur-de-lion; and the prince who is exhibited in the play before us, John fans-terre, or lack-land. MALONE.

ELI. The very spirit of Plantagenet !I am thy grandame, Richard; call me fo.

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 ftir by day, muft walk by night;
And have is have, however men do catch:
Near or far off, well won is still well fhot;
And I am I, howe'er I was begot.

Madam, by chance, but not by truth: What though?] I am your grandfon, madam, by chance, but not by honesty-what then? JOHNSON.

8 Something about, a little from the right, &c.] This speech, compofed of allufive and proverbial fentences, is obfcure. I am, fays the fpritely knight, your grandfon, a little irregularly, but every man cannot get what he wishes the legal way. He that dares not go about his defigns by day, muft make his motions in the night; he, to whom the door is fhut, muft climb the window, or leap the hatch. This, however, fhall not deprefs me; for the world never enquires how any man got what he is known to poffefs, but allows that to have is to have, however it was caught, and that he who wins, foot well, whatever was his fkill, whether the arrow fell near the mark, or far off it. JOHNSON.

9 In at the window, &c.] Thefe expreffions mean, to be born out of wedlock. So, in The Family of Love, 1608:

Woe worth the time that ever I gave fuck to a child that came in at the window!"

So, in Northward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: "kindred that comes in o'er the hatch, and failing to Weftminster," &c.

Such another phrafe occurs in Any Thing for a quiet Life: then you keep children in the name of your own, which The fufpects came not in at the right door." Again, in The Witches of Lancashire, by Heywood and Broome, 1634; "It appears then by your difcourfe that you came in at the window.”—“ I would not have you think I fcorn my grannam's cat to leap over the hatch." Again: to efcape the dogs hath leaped in at a window."- "Tis thought you came into the world that way,because you are a baftard." STEEVENS.

--

K. JOHN. Go, Faulconbridge; now haft thou thy defire,

A landlefs knight makes thee a landed 'fquire.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 waft 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. Well, now can I make any Joan a lady Good den,' fir Richard,-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 refpective, and too fociable, For your converfion.

Now your traveller,—

A foot of honour-] A ftep, un pas. JOHNSON.

Good den,] i. e. a good evening. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "God ye good den, fair gentlewoman." STEEVENS.

fir Richard,] Thus the old copy, and rightly. In A& IV. Salisbury calls him Sir Richard, and the King has juft knighted him by that name. The modern editors arbitrarily read, Sir Robert. Faulconbridge is now entertaining himself with ideas of greatnefs, fuggefted by his recent knighthood.—Good den, fir Richard, he fuppofes to be the falutation of a vaffal, God-a mercy, fellow, his own fupercilious reply to it, STEEVENS.

5 'Tis too refpective, and too fociable,

For your converfion.] Refpective is respectful, formal. So, in The Cafe is Altered, by Ben Jonfon, 1609: "I pray you, fir; you are too refpective in good faith."

Again, in the old comedy called Michaelmas Term, 1607: "Seem refpective, to make his pride fwell like a toad with dew." Again, in The Merchant of Venice, A& V:

"You fhould have been refpective," &c.

For your converfion, is the reading of the old copy, and may be right. It seems to mean, his late change of condition from a private gentleman to a knight. STEEVENS.

Mr. Pope, without neceffity, reads-for your converfing. Our author has here, I think, ufed a licence of phrafeology that he

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