What! I am dubb'd; I have it on my shoulder.
But, mother, I am not sir Robert's son;

I have disclaim'd sir 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 F. Hast thou denied thyself a Faulconbridge?
Bast. As faithfully as I deny the devil.

Lady F. 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,a
That art the issue of my dear offence,

Which was so strongly urg'd, past my defence.
Bast. Now, by this light, were I to get again,
Madam, I would not wish a better father.
Some sins do bear their privilege on earth,
And so doth yours: your fault was not your folly:
Needs must you lay your heart at his dispose,
Subjected tribute to commanding love,—
Against whose fury and unmatched force
The awless b 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 didst not well
When I was got, I'll send his soul to hell.
Come, lady, I will show thee to my kin;

And they shall say, when Richard me begot,
If thou hadst said him nay, it had been sin:

Who says it was, he lies; I say, 't was not.

a Heaven, &c. We have restored the reading of the old us more in Shakspere's manner than the customary text

copy,

"Heaven lay not my transgression to my charge.

Thou art the issue of my dear offence," &c.

[Exeunt.

which appears

to

Lady Faulconbridge is not invoking Heaven to pardon her transgression; but she says to her son,-for Heaven's sake, lay not (thou) my transgression to my charge that art the issue of it. The reply of Faulconbridge immediately deprecates any intention of upbraiding his mother.

b Awless-the opposite of awful; not inspiring awe.

VOL. IV.

S

ILLUSTRATIONS OF ACT I.

1 SCENE I.

"The thunder of my cannon shall be heard."

WE have the same anachronism in 'Hamlet' and in 'Macbeth.' It is scarcely necessary to tell our readers that gunpowder was invented about a century later than the time of John, and that the first battle-field in which cannon were used is commonly supposed to have been that of Cressy. And yet the dramatic poet could not have well avoided this literal violation of propriety, both here and in the second act, when he talks of "bullets wrapp'd in fire.” He uses terms which were familiar to his audience, to present a particular image to their senses. Had he, instead of cannon, spoken of the mangonell and the petraria,-the stone-flinging machines of the time of John,-he would have addressed himself to the very few who might have appreciated his exactness; but his words would have fallen dead upon the ears of the many. We have other anachronisms in this play, which we may as well dismiss at once, in connexion with the assertion of the principle upon which they are to be defended. In Act I. we have the "half-faced groat" of Henry VII. and the "three-farthing rose "of Elizabeth. The mention of these coins conveys a peculiar image, which must have been rejected if the poet had been bound by the same rules that govern an antiquary. So in the fifth act, where the Dauphin says he has "the best cards for the game," the poet had to choose between the adoption of an allusion full of spirit and perfectly intelligible, and the substitution of some prosaic and feeble form of speech that might have had the poor merit of not anticipating the use of playing cards in Europe by about a century and a half. We are not aware of any other passage in this play which has afforded "the learned" an opportunity (which they have not lost in speaking of these passages) of propounding the necessity of constructing a work of art upon the same principles of exactness that go to produce a perfect Chronological Table.

*

*

2 SCENE I. "A soldier, by the honour-giving hand

*

Of Coeur-de-lion knighted in the field."

St. Palaye, in his 'Memoirs of Chivalry,' says, "In warfare there was scarcely any important event which was not preceded or followed by a creation of knights. * Knighthood was conferred, on such occasions, in a manner at once expeditious and military. The soldier presented his sword, either by the cross or the guard, to the prince or the general from whom he was to receive the accoladethis was all the ceremonial."* It was in this manner,-in the absence of those processions and banquets that accompanied the investiture of knighthood during peace, -that four hundred and sixty-seven French gentlemen were made knights at the battle of Rosbecq, in 1382; and five hundred before the battle of Azincour, in 1415.† Our English chroniclers tell us that, in 1339, the armies of Edward III. and Philip of France, having approached near to each other, arranged themselves in order of battle, and fourteen gentlemen were knighted; but the armies separated without coming to an engagement, and a hare happening to pass between the two hosts, some merriment was produced, and the knights were called the knights of the

hare.* This is an example of the custom of knighting before a battle. At a later period we have an instance of knighting after a fight. Henry VIII., after the battle of Spurs, in 1514, made Sir John Pechye banneret and John Carré knight, both of them having done great service in the encounter. When the "honour-giving hand" of the first Richard created Robert Faulconbridge a knight "in the field," we are not told by the poet whether it was for the encouragement of valour or for the reward of service. But in Cymbeline' we have an example of the bestowing of the honour as the guerdon of bravery. The king, after the battle with the Romans, commands Belarius, Guiderius, and Arviragus, thus:

The half-face is the profile ;-and the allusion had probably become proverbial, for it occurs also in a play, 'The Downfal of Robert Earl of Huntington,' 1601,

"You half-fac'd groat, you thick-cheek'd chitty-face."

The profile of the sovereign is given in one or two of our early coins; but Henry VII. was the first king who made an extensive issue of coins with the halfface. The following is a copy of the "half-faced groat" of Henry VII.

4 SCENE I.-"Look, where three-farthings goes.”

The three-farthing silver piece of Elizabeth was, as the value may import. extremely thin;-and thus the allusion of Faulconbridge, "my face so thin." "It was once the fashion," says Burton (Anatomy of Melancholy"), "to stick real flowers in the ear;" and thus the thin face and the rose in the ear, taken together, were to be avoided

"Lest men should say, Look, where three-farthings goes ;"

for the three-farthing piece was not only thin, and therefore might be associated with the "thin face," but it bore a rose which assimilated with the rose in the ear. This coin was called the " three-farthing rose," and the following is a copy of

it:

5 SCENE I." Arise sir Richard, and Plantagenet.”

Shakspere, with poetical propriety, confers upon the Bastard the surname by which the royal house of Anjou was popularly known. Plantagenet was not the family name of that house, though it had been bestowed upon an ancestor of John from the broom in his bonnet-the Planta genista.

One of the characteristics of the "picked man of countries" was the use of a toothpick; while the Englishman who adhered to his own customs would "suck" his teeth. It is unnecessary to cite passages to show that the toothpick was considered a foreign frivolity. Gascoigne, Ben Jonson, Overbury, and Shirley, have each allusions to the practice.

7 SCENE I." Colbrand the giant."

In Drayton's 'Polyolbion,' the twelfth song, we have a long and sonorous description of the great battle between Colbrand the Danish giant and Guy of Warwick; of which the following extract will furnish an adequate notion :

"But after, when the Danes, who never wearied were,

Came with intent to make a general conquest here,

They brought with them a man deem'd of so wondrous might,

As was not to be match'd by any mortal wight:

For one could scarcely bear his ax into the field;

Which as a little wand the Dane would lightly wield:

And (to enforce that strength) of such a dauntless spirit,

A man (in their conceit) of so exceeding merit,

That to the English oft they offer'd him (in pride)
The ending of the war by combat to decide.

*

*

*

Then Colebrond for the Danes came forth in ireful red;
Before him (from the camp) an ensign first display'd
Amidst a guard of gleaves: then sumptuously array'd
Were twenty gallant youths, that to the warlike sound
Of Danish brazen drums, with many a lofty bound,
Come with their country's march, as they to Mars should dance.
Thus, forward to the fight, both champions them advance:

And each, without respect, doth resolutely choose

The weapon that he brought, nor doth his foes refuse.

The Dane prepares his ax, that pond'rous was to feel,
Whose squares were laid with plates, and riveted with steel,
And armed down along with pikes, whose harden'd points
(Forc'd with the weapon's weight) had power to tear the joints
Of cuirass or of mail, or whatsoe'er they took;

Which caus'd him at the knight disdainfully to look.

*

*

*

Then with such eager blows each other they pursue,
As every offer made should threaten imminent death;
Until, through heat and toil both hardly drawing breath,
They desperately do close. Look, how two boars, being set
Together side to side, their threat'ning tusks do whet,
And with their gnashing teeth their angry foam do bite,
Whilst still they should'ring seek each other where to smite;
Thus stood those ireful knights; till, flying back, at length
The palmer, of the two the first recovering strength,
Upon the left arm lent great Colebrond such a wound,
That whilst his weapon's point fell well-near to the ground,
And slowly he it rais'd, the valiant Guy again
Sent through his cloven scalp his blade into his brain.
When downward went his head, and up his heels he threw,
As wanting hands to bid his countrymen adieu."

The legends of Sir Guy were well known in Shakspere's time; and the fierce encounter between this redoubted champion and "Colbrande,” who fought

"On foote, for horse might heave him none,"

had been recited round many a hearth, from the old "histories." A curious specimen of the legends of Sir Guy and Sir Bevis, from a black-letter quarto of the middle of the sixteenth century, is given in Capell's 'School of Shakespeare.'

8 SCENE I." The awless lion could not wage the fight,

Nor keep his princely heart from Richard's hand.”

The reputation for indomitable courage, and prodigious physical strength, of Richard I., transferred this story from romance to history. Rastall gives it in his "Chronicle: "It is sayd that a lyon was put to Kynge Richarde, beynge in prison, to have devoured him, and when the lyon was gapynge, he put his arme in his mouthe, and pulled the lyon by the harte so hard, that he slew the lyon, and therefore some say he is called Rycharde Cure de Lyon; but some say he is called Cure de Lyon because of his boldenesse and hardy stomake." Our readers may compare this with the following extract from the old metrical romance of Richard Coeur-de-Lion :*

"The poet tells us that Richard, in his return from the Holy Land, having been discovered in the habit of a palmer in Almayne,' and apprehended as a spy, was by the King thrown into prison. Wardrewe, the King's son, hearing of Richard's great strength, desires the jailor to let him have a sight of his prisoners. Richard being the foremost, Wardrewe asks him, if he dare stand a buffet from his hand?' and that on the morrow be shall return him another. Richard consents, and receives a blow that staggers him. On the morrow, having previously waxed his hands, he waited his antagonist's arrival. Wardrewe accordingly, proceeds the story, 'held forth as a trewe man,' and Richard gave him such a blow on the cheek as broke his jaw-bone and killed him on the spot. The King, to revenge the death of his son, orders, by the advice of one Eldrede, that a lion kept purposely from food shall be turned loose upon Richard. But the King's daughter, having fallen in love with him, tells him of her father's resolution, and at his request procures him forty ells of white silk 'kerchers;' and here the description of the combat begins :

The kever-chefes he toke on honde,
And aboute his arme he wonde;
And thought in that ylke while,
To flee the lyon with some gyle:
And syngle in a kyrtyll he stode,
And abode the lyon fyers and wode.
With that came the jaylere,

And other men that wyth him were,

And the lyon them amonge;

His pawes were stiffe and stronge.

The chambre dore they undone,

And the lyon to them is gone.
Rycharde sayd, Helpe, Lorde Jesu!
The lyon made to him venu,
And wolde hym have all to rente:

Kynge Rycharde besyde hym glente.

The lyon on the breste hym spurned,

That aboute he tourned.

The lyon was ongry and megre,

And bette his tayle to be egre;

Percy's Reliques,' vol. iii., Introduction.