But this is worshipful society,
And fits the mounting spirit, like myself :
For he is but a bastard to the time,
That doth not finack of observation;
(And so am I, whether I smack, or rio)
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 :
8 Which though I will not practise to deceive;
Yet, to avoid deceit, I mean to learn ;
For it fhail strew the footsteps of my rising.-
9 But who comes in fuch hafte, in riding robes?
What woman-post is this ? hath she no husband,
That will take pains 'to blow a horn before her ?

Enter lady Faulconbridge and Fames Gurney.
O me! it is my mother:--How now, good lady?
What brings you here to court so hastily.

Lady. Where is tlaat slave, thy brother where is he? That holds in chase mine honour up and down?

Phil. My brother Robert ? old fir Robert's fon? 2 Colbrand the giant, that same mighty man? Is it fir Robert's son, that you seek fo?

Lady. Sir Robert's fon! Ay, thou unreverend boy, Sir Robert's fon: Why scoru'st thou at sir Robert ? He is fir Robert's fan, and so art.thou.

& libich, thoug? &c.] The construction will be mended, if initead of chichibough, we read this though. JOHNSON,

9 But who comes &c.---] Milton, in his tragedy, introduces Dalilah with such an interrogatory exclamation. JOHNSON.

to bloco a born ] He means, that a woman who travelled about like a poll, was likely to horn her husband.

JOHNSON. i Colbrand - ] Colbrand was a Danisli giant, whom Guy of Warwick discomited in the presence of king Athelitan. The combat is very pompoully de cribed by Drayton in his Polyolbion.

Johnson.

Phil. James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave a

while ? Gur. Good leave ', good Philip. Phil. - Philip ?- sparrow !--James,

3 Good leave, &c.] Good leave means a ready assint. So, in K. Hen. VI. P. III. act III. sc. ü:

“ 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. 4 Philip!-Sparrow !-James,] I think the poet wrote:

Philip! spare me, James, i. e. don't affront me with an appellation that comes from a family which I disdain. WARBURTON.

The old reading is far more agreeable to the character of th speaker. Dr. Gray observes, that Skelton has a poem to the m mory of Philip Sparrow; and Mr. Pope in a fort note remark that a Sparrow is called Philip. Johnson.

Gascoigne has likewise a poem entitled, The Praise of Phir Sparrow; and in Jack Drum's Entertainment, 1601, is the fol lowing passage :

6. The birds sit chirping, chirping, &c.”

Philip is treading, treading, &c." Again, in the Northern Lass, 1633 :

" A bird whose pastime made me glad,

“ And Pbilip 'twas my Sparrow." Again, in Magnificence an ancient Interlude by Skelton, published by Rastell : • With me in kepynge such a Phylyp Sparowe.”

Steevens. The following quotation seems to confirm Mr. Pope's explana, tion. In the Widow, see Dodf. Old Plays, vol. VI. p. 38: “ Phil. I would my letter, wench, were here again,

" I'd know him wiser ere I sent him one;

" And travel some five year first. « Viol. So he had need, inethinks,

" To understand the words; methinks the words
56 Themselves should make him do't, had he but the per-

severance
“ Of a cock-sparrow that will come at, Philip,
“ And cannot write nor read, poor fool; this coxcomb,
“ He can do both, and your name's but Philippa,

“And yet to see, if he can come when he's call'd.” *The Bastard therefore means : Philip! Do you take me for a spare row, James? HAWKINS.

There's toys abroad ; anon I'll tell thee more.

[Exit James Madam, I was not old fir Robert's fon; Sir Robert might have eat his part in meUpon 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; Weknow his handy-work: Therefore, good mother, To whom am I beholden for these limbs? Sir Robert never holp to make this leg.

Lady.. Hast thou conspired with thy brother too, That for thine own gain should'st defend mine ho

nour? What means this scorn, thou most untoward knave? Phil. 7 Knight, knight, good mother, — Bafilisco like :

What!

třey may

5 There's toys abroad; &c.]' i. e. rumours, idle reports. So, int B. Jonson's Sejanus :

66 Tongs, mere toys, 66 What wisdom's in the streets.' So, in a postscript to a letter from the countess of Essex to Dr. Forman, in relation to the trial of Anne Turner for the murder of fir Tho. Overbury:

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 fast:}:
This thought occurs in Heywood's Dialogues upon Proverbs, 1562/:

- he may his parte on good fridaie eate,
" And fait never the wurs, for ought he shall geare.'

STEEVENS. ? Knight, knight, good mother,Bafilifco- like :) Thus muit this passage be pointed; and, to come at the humour of it, I must elear up an old circumstance of stage-history. Faulconbridge's words here carry a concealed piece of satire on a stupid drama of that age, printed in 1599, and called Soliman and Perseda. In: this piece there is the character of a bragging cowardly knight, called Bafilisco. His pretenfion to valour is so blown, and seen through, that Piston, a buffoon-fervant in the play, jumps upon his back, and will not disengage him, till he makes Bafilisco swear

upon

What! I am dubid; I have it on my shoulder,
But, mother, I am not fir Robert's fon;
I have disclaim'd fir 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. Haft thou deny'd thyself a Faulconbridge ? Phil. As faithfully as I deny the devil.

Lady. King Richard Coeur-de-lion was thy father ; 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. Phil. Now, by this light, were I to get again, Madam, I would not with a better father.

Some fins do bear their privilege on earth, And so doth yours; your fault was not your folly:

upon his dudgeon dagger to the contents, and in the terms he dictates to him : as, for instance :

“ Baf. O, I swear, I swear.
“ Pift. By the contents of this blade.
“ Baf. By the contents of this blade.

Pift. I, the aforesaid Bafilisco. * Baf. I, the aforesaid Bafilisco, knight, good fellow, knight,

knight ** Pift. Knave, good fellow, knave, knave.”

So that it is clear, our poet is sneering at this play; and makes Philip, when his mother calls him knavi, throw off that reproach by humourously laying claim to his new dignity of knighthood; as Bafilisco arrogantly inlifts on his title of knight in the passage above quoted. The old play is an execrable bad one ; and, I suppose, was sufficiently exploded in the representation : which might maké this circumstance lo well known, as to become the butt for a stagefarcasm. THEOBALD.

The character of Bafilifco is mentioned in Nash's Have with you to Saffron Walden, &c. printed in 1596. STEEVENS.

* Some fins--) There are fins, that whatever be determined of them above, are not much censured on earth. Johnson.

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 did'ít 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 fin :
Who says, it was, he lyes; I say, 'twas not.

[Exeunt.

1

ACT II.

SCENE I.

Before the walls of Angiers in France. Enter Philip king of France, Lewis the dauphin, the arch,

duke of Austria, Constance, and Arthur. Lewis. Before Angiers well met, brave Austria.com Arthur, that great fore-runner of thy blood,

? Needs must you lay your heart at his dispose, &c.

Against whose fury and unmatched force

The arless lion could not wage the fight, &c.] Shakespeare here alludes to the old metrical romance of Richard Cæur de lion, wherein this once celebrated monarch is related to have acquired his distinguishing appellation, by having plucked out a lion's heart to whose fury he was exposed by the duke o Austria, for having flain his son with a blow of his fift. From this ancient romance the story has crept into some of our old chronicles : but the original passage may be seen at large in the intro, duction to the third vol, of Reliques of ancient English Poetry.

PERCY. Richard,