That doth not fmack of obfervation; For it shall strew the footsteps of my rifing.But who comes in fuch hafte, in riding robes? What woman-poft is this? hath fhe no hufband, 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 flave, thy brother? where is he? That holds in chase mine honour up and down? BAST. My brother Robert? old fir Robert's fon? deportment, and his talk, that he has travelled, and made obfervations in foreign countries. The old copy in the next line ́reads— fmoak. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. Which, though-] The conftruction will be mended, if inftead of which though, we read this though. JOHNSON. 5 But who comes-] Milton, in his tragedy, introduces Dalilah with fuch an interrogatory exclamation. JOHNSON. 6 — to blow a horn-] He means, that a woman who travelled about like a poft, was likely to horn her husband. 7 JOHNSON. James Gurney.] Our author found this name in perusing the hiftory of King John; who not long before his victory at Mirabeau over the French, headed by young Arthur, feized the lands and caftle of Hugh Gorney, near Butevant in Normandy. MALONE. Colbrand the giant, that same mighty man? LADY F. Sir Robert's fon! Ay, thou unreverend boy, Sir Robert's fon: Why fcorn'ft thou at fir Robert? He is fir Robert's fon; and so art thou. BAST. James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave a while? GUR. Good leave," good Philip. BAST. Philip?-fparrow!'-James, 8 Colbrand-] Colbrand was a Danish giant, whom Guy of Warwick discomfited in the prefence of King Athelftan. The combat is very pompously described by Drayton in his Polyolbion. JOHNSON. 9 Good leave, &c.] Good leave means a ready affent. So, in K. Henry VI. Part III. A&t III. fc. ii: "K. Edw. Lords, give us leave: I'll try this widow's wit. "Glo. Ay, good leave have you, for you will have leave.” STEEVENS. Philip? Sparrow!] Dr. Grey obferves, that Skelton has a poem to the memory of Philip Sparrow; and Mr. Pope in a fhort note remarks that a fparrow is called Philip. JOHNSON. Gafcoigne has likewife a poem entitled, The Praife of Phil Sparrow; and in Jack Drum's Entertainment, 1601, is the following paffage: "The birds fit chirping, chirping, &c. Again, in The Northern Lafs, 1633: "A bird whofe paftime made me glad, "And Philip 'twas my Sparrow.' Again, in Magnificence, an ancient Interlude, by Skelton, published by Raftell: "With me in kepynge such a Phylyp Sparowe." STEEVENS. The Bastard means: Philip! Do you take me for a sparrow? The fparrow is called Philip from its note. 66 - cry "Phip phip the Sparrowes as they fly." HAWKINS. Lyly's Mother Bombie. There's toys abroad; anon I'll tell thee more. Madam, I was not old fir Robert's fon; To whom am I beholden for these limbs? LADY F. Haft thou conspired with thy brother too, That for thine own gain should'st defend mine honour? What means this scorn, thou most untoward knave? From the found of the fparrow's chirping, Catullus in his Elegy on Lefbia's Sparrow, has formed a verb: "Sed circumfiliens modo huc, modo illuc, "Ad folam dominam ufque pipilabat." HOLT WHITE. 3 There's toys abroad; &c.] i. e. rumours, idle reports. So, in Ben Jonfon's Sejanus : Toys, mere toys, "What wisdom's in the ftreets." Again, in a poftfcript of a letter from the Countefs of Effex to Dr. Forman, in relation to the trial of Anne Turner for the murder of Sir Tho. Overbury: 66 they may tell my father and mother, and fill their ears full of toys." State Trials, Vol. I. p. 322. STEEVENS. might have eat his part in me Upon Good-friday, and ne'er broke his faft:] This thought occurs in Heywood's Dialogues upon Proverbs, 1562: he may his parte on good Fridaie eate, STEEVENS. (to confefs!)] Mr. M. Mafon regards the adverb to, as an error of the prefs: but I rather think, to confefs, means-to come to confeffion. "But, to come to a fair confeffion now, (fays the Baftard,) could he have been the instrument of my production?” BAST. Knight, knight, good mother, Bafilifco 6 like: " What! I am dubb'd; I have it on my shoulder. Then, good my mother, let me know my father; BAST. As faithfully as I deny the devil. 6 Knight, knight, good mother,Bafilifco-like:] Thus must this paffage be pointed; and to come at the humour of it, I must clear up an old circumftance of ftage-hiftory. Faulconbridge's words here carry a concealed piece of fatire on a ftupid drama of that age, printed in 1599, and called Soliman and Perfeda. In this piece there is a character of a bragging cowardly knight, called Bafilifco. His pretenfion to valour is fo blown, and feen through, that Piston, a buffoon-fervant in the play, jumps upon his back, and will not difengage him, till he makes Bafilifco fwear upon his dudgeon dagger to the contents, and in the terms he dictates to him; as, for inftance: "Baf. O, I fwear, I swear. Pift. By the contents of this blade, Baf. By the contents of this blade, Pift. I, the aforefaid Bafilifco, "Baf. I, the aforefaid Bafilifco,-knight, good fellow, knight. "Pift. Knave, good fellow, knave, knave." So that it is clear, our poet is fneering at this play; and makes Philip, when his mother calls him knave, throw off that reproach by humorously laying claim to his new dignity of knighthood; as Bafilifco arrogantly infifts on his title of knight in the paffage above quoted. The old play is an execrable bad one; and, I fuppofe, was fufficiently exploded in the reprefentation: which might make this circumftance fo well known, as to become the butt for a stagefarcafm. THEOBALD. The character of Bafilifco is mentioned in Nafh's Have with you to Saffron Walden, &c. printed in the year 1596. STEEVENS. LADY F. King Richard Coeur-de-lion was thy father; By long and vehement suit I was feduc'd Which was so strongly urg'd, past my defence. 7 Thou art-] Old copy-That art. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. & Some fins-] There are fins, that whatever be determined of them above, are not much cenfured on earth. JOHNSON. 9 Needs muft you lay your heart at his difpofe,Against whofe fury und unmatched force The awless lion could not wage the fight, &c.] Shakspeare here alludes to the old metrical romance of Richard Caur-de-lion, wherein this once celebrated monarch is related to have acquired his distinguishing appellation, by having plucked out a lion's heart to whofe fury he was expofed by the Duke of Auftria, for having flain his fon with a blow of his fift. From this ancient romance the ftory has crept into fome of our old chronicles; but the original paffage may be feen at large in the introduction to the third volume |