Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

But this is worshipful fociety,

And fits the mounting fpirit, like my felf:
For he is but a baftard to the time,
That doth not finack of obfervation;
(And fo am I, whether I fmack, or no)
And not alone in habit and device,
Exterior form, outward accoutrement;
But from the inward motion to deliver
Sweet, fweet, fweet poifon for the age's tooth:
Which though I will not practise to deceive,
Yet, to avoid deceit, I mean to learn;

8

For it fhall ftrew the footsteps of my rifing.-
9 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?

[ocr errors]

Enter lady Faulconbridge and James Gurney.

O me! it is my mother:-How now, good lady?
What brings you here to court fo haftily?

2

Lady. Where is that flave, thy brother? where is he That holds in chafe mine honour up and down? Phil. My brother Robert? old fir Robert's fon? Colbrand the giant, that fame mighty man? Is it fir Robert's fon, that you feek fo?

Lady. 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 fo art thou.

Which though &c.] The conftruction will be mended, if inftead of which though, we read this though. JOHNSON.

9 But who comes &c.] Milton, in his tragedy, introduces Dalilah with fuch an interrogatory exclamation. JOHNSON. to blow a born-] He means, that a woman who travelled about like a poft, was likely to horn her husband.

JOHNSON. 2 Colbrand- 1 Colbrand was a Danish giant, whom Guy of Warwick difcomfited in the prefence of king Athelitan. The combat is very pompoutly defcribed by Drayton in his Polyolbion.

JOHNSON.

Phil. James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave a while?

Gur. Good leave', good Philip.

4

Phil. ↑ Philip ?—sparrow !-James,

3 Good leave, &c.] Good leave means a ready affent. So, in K. Hen. VI. P. III. act III. fc. ii:

"K. Ed. 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! fpare me, James,

i. e. don't affront me with an appellation that comes from a family which I difdain. WARBURTON.

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

Gafcoigne has likewife a poem entitled, The Praife of Phi Sparrow; and in Jack Drum's Entertainment, 1601, is the fol lowing paffage :

The birds fit chirping, chirping, &c."

"Philip is treading, treading, &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 following quotation feems to confirm Mr. Pope's explana tion. In the Widow, fee Dodf. Old Plays, vol. VI. p. 38: "Phil. I would my letter, wench, were here again,

"I'd know him wifer ere I fent him one;

"And travel fome five year first.

"Viol. So he had need, methinks,

"To understand the words; methinks the words
"Themselves fhould make him do't, had he but the per
feverance

"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 fee, if he can come when he's call'd." The Bastard therefore means: Philip! Do you take me for a spar row, James? HAWKINS.

[blocks in formation]

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

Madam, I was not old fir Robert's fon;

6

[Exit James

Sir Robert might have eat his part in me
Upon Good-friday, and ne'er broke his faft:
Sir Robert could do well; Marry, to confefs!
Could he get me? Sir Robert could not do it;
We know his handy-work:-Therefore, good mother,
To whom am I beholden for thefe limbs ?
Sir Robert never holp to make this leg.

Lady. Haft thou confpired with thy brother too, That for thine own gain fhould'ft defend mine ho

nour?

What means this fcorn, thou most untoward knave? Phil. Knight, knight, good mother,-Bafilifco like:

What!

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

"Toys, mere toys,

"What wisdom's in the streets."

So, in a postscript to a letter from the countess of Effex to Dr. Forman, in relation to the trial of Anne Turner for the murder of fir Tho. Overbury: “ - they may tell my father and mother, and fill their ears full of toys."' State Trials, vol. I. p. 322.

[ocr errors]

might have eat his part in me

Upon Good-Friday, and ne'er broke his faft:}

STEEVENS.

This thought occurs in Heywood's Dialogues upon Proverbs, 1562: he may his parte on good fridaie eate,

66

"And fast never the wurs, for ought he thall geate."
STEEVENS

7 Knight, knight, good mother,Bafilifco like: Thus mut this paffage be pointed; and, to come at the humour of it, I must clear up an old circumftance of stage-history. 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 the character of a bragging cowardly knight, called Bafilifco. His pretenfion to valour is fo blown, and feen through, that Pifton, a buffoon-fervant in the play, jumps upon his back, and will not difengage him, till he makes Bafilifco fwear

upon

What! I am dub'd; I have it on my fhoulder.
But, mother, I am not fir Robert's fon;
I have difclaim'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 thyfelf a Faulconbridge? Phil. As faithfully as I deny the devil.

Lady. King Richard Coeur-de-lion was thy father;
By long and vehement fuit I was feduc'd
To make room for him in my husband's bed:
Heaven lay not my tranfgreffion to my charge!
Thou art the iffue of my dear offence,

Which was fo ftrongly urg'd, paft 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 fo 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 inftance:

"Baf. O, I fwear, I swear.

[ocr errors]

Pift. By the contents of this blade,

"Baf. By the contents of this blade.

86 Pift. I, the aforefaid Bafilifco.

"Baf. I, the aforesaid Bafilisco, knight, good fellow, knight, 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 humouroufly 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 1596. STEEVENS.

Some fins-] There are fins, that whatever be determined of them above, are not much cenfured on carth. JOHNSON.

[blocks in formation]

Needs muft you lay your heart at his dispose,
Subjected tribute to commanding love,-
Against whofe 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 eafily win a woman's. Ay, my mother,
With all my heart I thank thee for my father!
Who lives and dares but fay, thou did't not well
When I was got, I'll fend his foul to hell.
Come, lady, I will fhew thee to my kin;

And they fhall fay, when Richard me begot,
If thou hadst faid him nay, it had been fin :
Who fays, it was, he lyes; I fay, 'twas not.

[Exeunt.

ACT II.

SCENE

I.

Before the walls of Angiers in France.

Enter Philip king of France, Lewis the dauphin, the archduke of Auftria, Conftance, and Arthur.

Lewis. Before Angiers well met, brave Austria,— Arthur, that great fore-runner of thy blood,

Needs muft you lay your heart at his difpofe, &c.
Against whofe fury and unmatched force

The awless lion could not wage the fight, &c.]

Shakespeare here alludes to the old metrical romance of Richard Cour de lion, wherein this once celebrated monarch is related to have acquired his diftinguishing appellation, by having plucked out a lion's heart to whofe fury he was expofed by the duke o 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 intro, duction to the third vol. of Reliques of ancient English Poetry.

PERCY.

Richard,

« ForrigeFortsett »