Enter another Messenger.

* 2 Mess. Jack Cade hath gotten London-bridge; the citizens

* Fly and forsake their houses:

* The rascal people, thirsting after prey,
* Join with the traitor; and they jointly swear,
*To spoil the city, and your royal court.

*Buck. Then linger not, my lord; away, take horse.

*K. Hen. Come, Margaret; God, our hope, will

succour us.

* Q. Mar. My hope is gone, now Suffolk is deceas'd.

* K. Hen. Farewell, my lord; [To Lord SAY.] trust not the Kentish rebels.

* Buck. Trust no body, for fear you be betray'd. Say. The trust I have is in mine innocence, And therefore am I bold and resolute.

SCENE V.

The same. The Tower.

[Exeunt.

Enter Lord SCALES, and Others, on the Walls. Then enter certain Citizens, below.

Scales. How now? is Jack Cade slain?

1 Cit. No, my lord, nor likely to be slain; for they have won the bridge, killing all those that withstand them: The lord mayor craves aid of your honour from the Tower, to defend the city from the rebels.

Scales. Such aid as I can spare, you shall command;

But I am troubled here with them myself,

The rebels have assay'd to win the Tower.

But get you to Smithfield, and gather head,
And thither I will send you Matthew Gough:
Fight for your king, your country, and your lives;
And so farewell, for I must hence again. [Exeunt.

Enter JACK CADE, and his Followers. He strikes his Staff on London-stone.

Cade. Now is Mortimer lord of this city. And here, sitting upon London-stone, I charge and command, that, of the city's cost, the pissing-conduit run nothing but claret wine this first year of our reign. And now, henceforward, it shall be treason for any that calls me other than-lord Mortimer.

Enter a Soldier, running.

Sold. Jack Cade! Jack Cade!

Cade. Knock him down there. [They kill him. *Smith. If this fellow be wise, he'll never call you * Jack Cade more; I think, he hath a very fair * warning.

Dick. My lord, there's an army gathered together in Smithfield.

Gade. Come then, let's go fight with them: But, first, go and set London-bridge on fire; and, if you can, burn down the Tower too. Come, let's away.

[Exeunt.

Alarum. Enter, on one side, CADE and his Company; on the other, Citizens, and the King's Forces, headed by MATTHEW GOUGH. They fight; the Citizens are routed, and MATTHEW GOUGH is slain.

Cade. So, sirs:-Now go some and pull down the Savoy; others to the inns of court; down with them all.

Dick. I have a suit unto your lordship.

Cade. Be it a lordship thou shalt have it for that

word.

• Dick. Only, that the laws of England may 'come out of your mouth.

'John. Mass, 'twill be sore law then; for he was 'thrust in the mouth with a spear, and 'tis not 'whole yet. [Aside. Smith. Nay, John, it will be stinking law; for ' his breath stinks with eating toasted cheese. [Aside.

Cade. I have thought upon it, it shall be so. 'Away, burn all the records of the realm; my 'mouth shall be the parliament of England.

* John. Then we are like to have biting statutes, * unless his teeth be pulled out.

[Aside. * Cade. And henceforward all things shall be in

common.

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. My lord, a prize, a prize! here's the lord Say, which sold the towns in France;

he that

* made us pay one and twenty fifteens, and one *shilling to the pound, the last subsidy.

Enter GEORGE BEVIS, with the Lord SAY.

• Cade. Well, he shall be beheaded for it ten times.-Ah, thou say, thou serge,' nay, thou 'buckram lord! now art thou within point-blank of our jurisdiction regal. What canst thou answer to my majesty, for giving up of Normandy unto 'monsieur Basimecu, the dauphin of France? Be it 'known unto thee by these presence, even the presence ' of lord Mortimer, that I am the besom that must 'sweep the court clean of such filth as thou art. 'Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of 'the realm, in erecting a grammar-school: and whereas, before, our fore-fathers had no other books but 'the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing ' to be used; and, contrary to the king, his crown, and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill. It will 'be proved to thy face, that thou hast men about thee, that usually talk of a noun, and a verb; and 'such abominable words, as no Christian ear can en'dure to hear. Thou hast appointed justices of peace, to call poor men before them about matters they were not able to answer. Moreover, thou 'hast put them in prison; and because they could 'not read, thou hast hanged them; when, indeed, 'only for that cause they have been most worthy to 'live. Thou dost ride on a foot-cloth,' dost thou not?

6

8

one and twenty fifteens,] A fifteen was the fifteenth part of all the moveables or personal property of each subject. 7 thou say, thou serge,] Say was the old word for silk; on this depends the series of degradation, from say to serge, from serge to buckram.

8 printing to be used;] Shakspeare is a little too early with this accusation.

9 ·because they could not read, thou hast hanged them:] That is, they were hanged because they could not claim the benefit of clergy.

Thou dost ride on a foot-cloth,] A foot-cloth was a kind of

Say. What of that?

Cade. Marry, thou oughtest not to let thy horse wear a cloak, when honester men than thou go in their hose and doublets.

* Dick. And work in their shirt too; as myself, * for example, that am a butcher. Say. You men of Kent,

Dick. What say you of Kent?

Say. Nothing but this: 'Tis bona terra, mala gens.

Cade. Away with him, away with him! he speaks 'Latin.

* Say. Hear me but speak, and bear me where you will.

'Kent, in the commentaries Cæsar writ, 'Is term'd the civil'st place of all this isle: 'Sweet is the country, because full of riches; The people liberal, valiant, active, wealthy; Which makes me hope you are not void of pity. 'I sold not Maine, I lost not Normandy; * Yet, to recover them, would lose my life. * Justice with favour have I always done;

* Prayers and tears have mov'd me, gifts could never. * When have I aught exacted at your hands, * Kent to maintain, the king, the realm, and you? * Large gifts have I bestow'd on learned clerks, * Because my book preferr'd me to the king: * And-seeing ignorance is the curse of God, * Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven,— * Unless you be possess'd with devilish spirits,

* You cannot but forbear to murder me.

housing, which covered the body of the horse, and almost reached the ground. It was sometimes made of velvet, and bordered with gold lace.

2

to let thy horse wear a cloak,] This is a reproach truly characteristical. Nothing gives so much offence to the lower ranks of mankind, as the sight of superfluities merely ostentatious.