That doth not fmack 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, sweet, sweet poison for the age's tooth:
Which, though I will not practise to deceive,
Yet, to avoid deceit, I mean to learn;

For it shall strew the footsteps of my rifing.But who comes in fuch hafte, in riding robes? What woman-poft is this? hath she no husband, 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 fo hastily?

LADY F. Where is that slave, thy brother? where is he?

That holds in chafe 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.

JOHNSON.

James Gurney.] Our author found this name in perufing 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?
Is it fir Robert's fon, that you seek fo?

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 fo 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. sc. 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.

2 Philip?-Sparrow!] Dr. Grey obferves, that Skelton has a poem to the memory of Philip Sparrow; and Mr. Pope in a short note remarks that a fparrow is called Philip. JoHNSON.

Gafcoigne has likewise 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.

Philip is treading, treading," &c.

Again, in The Northern Lafs, 1633:

"A bird whose pastime made me glad,
"And Philip 'twas my Sparrow."

Again, in Magnificence, an ancient Interlude, by Skelton, published

by Raftell:

"With me in kepynge fuch a Phylyp Sparowe."

STEEVENS.

The Bastard means: Philip! Do you take me for a fparrow?

The fparrow is called Philip from its note.

66

66

HAWKINS.

Lyly's Mother Bombie.

3

There's toys abroad; ' anon I'll tell thee more.
[Exit Gurney.
Madam, I was not old fir Robert's fon;
Sir Robert might have eat his part in me
Upon Good-friday, and ne'er broke his faft: 4
Sir Robert could do well; Marry, (to confefs!) '
Could he get me? Sir Robert could not do it;
We know his handiwork :-Therefore, good mo-
ther,

To whom am I beholden for thefe limbs?
Sir Robert never holp to make this leg.

LADY F. Haft thou confpired with thy brother

too,

That for thine own gain should'st defend mine honour?

What means this fcorn, thou most untoward knave?

From the found of the fparrow's chirping, Catullus in his Elegy en 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: they may tell my father and mother, and fill their ears full of toys." State Trials, Vol. I. p. 322.

66

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:

5

he may his parte on good Fridaie eate,
"And faft never the wurs, for ought he shall geate."

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 inftrument of my production ?"

STEEVENS.

BAST. Knight, knight, good mother,Bafilifcolike: 6

What! I am dubb'd; 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 F. Haft thou denied thy felf a Faulcon-
bridge?

BAST. As faithfully as I deny the devil.

"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 Pifton, 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 suppose, was fufficiently exploded in the representation: 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 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 so strongly urg'd, past my defence.
BAST. Now, by this light, were I to get again,
Madam, I would not with a better father.

8

Some fins do bear their privilege on earth,
And fo doth yours; your fault was not your folly:
Needs muft you lay your heart at his difpofe,-
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 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 fend his foul to hell.

1 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 dispose,

Against whofe fury und unmatched force

The arlefs lion could not wage the fight, &c.] Shakfpeare here alludes to the old metrical romance of Richard Coeur-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 of Auftria, for having flain his fon with a blow of his fift. From this ancient romance the story has crept into fome of our old chronicles: but the original paffage may be feen at large in the introduction to the third volume of Reliques of ancient English Poetry. PERCY.