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Home to your cottages, forsake this groom ;-
The king is merciful, if you revolt.

W. STAF. But angry, wrathful, and inclin❜d to blood,

If you go forward: therefore, yield or die. [not;
CADE. As for these silken-coated slaves, I pass
It is to you, good people, that I speak,
O'er whom, in time to come, I hope to reign;
For I am rightful heir unto the crown.

STAF. Villain, thy father was a plasterer;
And thou thyself a shearman,-art thou not?
CADE. And Adam was a gardener.
W. STAF. And what of that?

CADE. Marry, this :-Edmund Mortimer, earl of March, [not? Married the duke of Clarence' daughter-did he STAF. Ay, sir.

CADE. By her he had two children at one birth. W. STAF. That's false.

[true:

CADE. Ay, there's the question; but I say, 'tis The elder of them, being put to nurse, Was by a beggar-woman stol'n away; And, ignorant of his birth and parentage, Became a bricklayer when he came to age: His son am I; deny it if you can.

DICK. Nay, 'tis too true; therefore he shall be

king.

SMITH. Sir, he made a chimney in my father's house, and the bricks are alive at this day to testify it; therefore deny it not.

[words,

STAF. And will you credit this base drudge's That speaks he knows not what?

ALL. Ay, marry, will we; therefore get ye gone. W. STAF. Jack Cade, the duke of York hath taught you this.

CADE. He lies, for I invented it myself. [Aside. -Go to, sirrah, tell the king from me, that--for his father's sake, Henry the fifth, in whose time boys went to span-counter for French crowns,I am content he shall reign; but I'll be protector

over him.

DICK. And furthermore, we'll have the lord Say's head for selling the dukedom of Maine.

CADE. And good reason, for thereby is England maimed,* and fain to go with a staff, but that my puissance holds it up. Fellow kings, I tell you that lord Say hath gelded the commonwealth, and made it an eunuch; and, more than that, he can speak French, and therefore he is a traitor.

STAF. O gross and miserable ignorance! CADE. Nay, answer, if you can:- -the Frenchmen are our enemies; go to, then, I ask but this,

(*) Old text, main'd.

I pass not;] I care not, or, I regard not.

b Thou shalt have a licence to kill for a hundred lacking one a week.] The last two words are restored from "The Contention." In the reign of Elizabeth, butchers were prohibited from selling flesh-meat in Lent; "not," so the statute 5 Eliz. c. 5, expresses it, "for any superstition to be maintained in the choyce of meates,'

can he that speaks with the tongue of an enemy be a good counsellor or no?

ALL. No, no; and therefore we'll have his head. W. STAF. Well, seeing gentle words will not prevail,

Assail them with the army of the king.

STAF. Herald, away: and throughout every town,

Proclaim them traitors that are up with Cade;
That those, which fly before the battle ends,
May, even in their wives' and children's sight,
Be hang'd up for example at their doors :—
And you, that be the king's friends, follow me.

[Exeunt the two STAFFORDS, and Forces. CADE. And you, that love the commons, follow

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SCENE III.-Another part of Blackheath. Alarum. Alarum. The two parties enter and fight, and both the STAFFORDS are slain.

CADE. Where's Dick, the butcher of Ashford? DICK. Here, sir.

CADE. They fell before thee like sheep and oxen, and thou behavedst thyself as if thou hadst been in thine own slaughter-house: therefore thus will I reward thee, the Lent shall be as long again as it is; and thou shalt have a licence to kill for a hundred lacking one a week.b

DICK. I desire no more.

CADE. And, to speak truth, thou deservest no less. This monument of the victory will I bear; [Putting on part of Sir H. STAFFORD's armour.] and the bodies shall be dragged at my horse' heels till I do come to London, where we will have the mayor's sword borne before us.

DICK. If we mean to thrive and do good, break open the gaols, and let out the prisoners.

CADE. Fear not that, I warrant thee.-Come, let's march towards London. [Exeunt.

but for the double purpose of diminishing the consumption of flesh-meat (already restricted to four days in the week throughout the year), and of encouraging the fisheries, and augmenting the number of seamen. Sick and infirm people, however, unable to abstain from animal food, were dispensed by a licence from their bishop or curate, and certain butchers were specially privileged to supply a limited number each week.

377

SCENE IV.-London. A Room in the Palace.

Enter KING HENRY, reading a supplication; the DUKE of BUCKINGHAM and LORD SAY, with him at a distance QUEEN MARGARET, mourning over SUFFOLK's head.

Q. MAR. Oft have I heard that grief softens
the mind,

And makes it fearful and degenerate;
Think therefore on revenge, and cease to weep.
But who can cease to weep, and look on this?
Here may his head lie on my throbbing breast,
But where's the body that I should embrace?
BUCK. What answer makes your grace to the
rebels' supplication?

K. HEN. I'll send some holy bishop to entreat;
For God forbid, so many simple souls
Should perish by the sword! And I myself,
Rather than bloody war shall cut them short,
Will parley with Jack Cade their general.-
But stay, I'll read it over once again.

Q. MAR. Ah, barbarous villains! hath this lovely face

Rul'd, like a wandering planet, over me:
And could it not enforce them to relent,
That were unworthy to behold the same?

K. HEN. Lord Say, Jack Cade hath sworn to have thy head.

SAY. Ay, but I hope your highness shall have

his.

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K. HEN. How now! what news? why com'st thou in such haste?

MESS. The rebels are in Southwark: fly, my
lord!

Jack Cade proclaims himself lord Mortimer,
Descended from the duke of Clarence' house;
And calls your grace usurper, openly,
And vows to crown himself in Westminster.
His army is a ragged multitude

Of hinds and peasants, rude and merciless :
Sir Humphrey Stafford and his brother's death
Hath given them heart and courage to proceed;
All scholars, lawyers, courtiers, gentlemen,
They call-false caterpillars, and intend their death.

a Still lamenting and mourning for Suffolk's death?] Might we not read, Still mourning and lamenting Suffolk's death?"

K. HEN. O graceless men! they know not what they do.

BUCK. My gracious lord, retire to Kenilworth, Until a power be rais'd to put them down.

Q. MAR. Ah! were the duke of Suffolk now alive,

These Kentish rebels would be soon appeas'd. K. HEN. Lord Say, the traitor* hateth thee; Therefore, away with us to Kenilworth.

SAY. So might your grace's person be in danger; The sight of me is odious in their eyes; And therefore in this city will I stay, And live alone as secret as I may.

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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.

(*) Old text, traitors. (+) First folio omits, be.

[Exeunt.

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

CADE. 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 [Exeunt.

away.

SCENE VII.-The same. Smithfield.

Alarums. 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

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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 forefathers 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 endure 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,

a One-and-twenty fifteens,-] The impost called a fifteen, was the fifteenth part of all the personal property of each subject.

b The civil'st place of all this isle:] "Ex his omnibus longe sunt humanissimi qui Cantium incolunt."-Cæsar, "De Bello Gallico," Lib. v. This passage is translated by Arthur Golding, 1565, as follows:-" Of all the inhabitantes of this isle, the civilest are the Kentish folke."

e But to maintain-] In the folios,-" Kent to maintain," &c. The word "But" was substituted by Johnson.

d The help of a hatchet.] Farmer suggests that we ought to read "pap with a hatchet.' This was a cant phrase of Shakespeare's day, and Lily has adopted it in the title of his celebrated pamphlet, "Pap with an hatchet, alias, a fig for my godson; or crack me this nut, or a country cuff; that is, a sound box of the ear, et cætera;' he has again introduced it, too, in his "Mother

only for that cause they have been most worthy to live. Thou dost ride in a foot-cloth, dost thou not? 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. [will. SAY. Hear me but speak, and bear me where you 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, But 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. This tongue hath parley'd unto foreign kings For your behoof,

CADE. Tut! when struck'st thou one blow in the field? [I struck SAY. Great men have reaching hands: oft have Those that I never saw, and struck them dead. GEO. O monstrous coward! what, to come behind folks? [your good.

SAY. These cheeks are pale for watching for CADE. Give him a box o' the ear, and that will make 'em red again.

SAY. Long sitting to determine poor men's causes Hath made me full of sickness and diseases. CADE. Ye shall have a hempen caudle* then, and the help of a hatchet.

(*) Old copies, candle.

Bombie," 1594:-"They give us pap with a spoone before we can speake, and when wee speake for that we love, pup with a hatchet." So also in Dent's "Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven," under "Lying:"-" their purpose was to entangle him in his words, and to entrap him, that they might catch advantage against him, and so cut his throat, and give him pap with a hatchet." The pap of a hatchet meant, the stroke of the headsman's axe; a sa hempen caudle, which Cade promises with it, signified, death by the rope. The latter slang occurs, also, in the old play called," The Downfall of Robert, Earl of Huntingdon," Act V. Sc. 1:

"Here, Warman, put this hempen caudle o'er thy head.

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DICK. Why dost thou quiver, man? SAY. The palsy, and not fear, provokes me. CADE. Nay, he nods at us, as who should say, I'll be even with you. I'll see if his head will stand steadier on a pole, or no. Take him away,

and behead him.

my

SAY. Tell me wherein have I offended most? Have I affected wealth or honour ?-speak. Are chests fill'd up with extorted gold? Is my apparel sumptuous to behold? Whom have I injur'd, that ye seek my death? These hands are free from guiltless blood-shedding, This breast from harbouring foul deceitful thoughts. O, let me live!

CADE. [Aside.] I feel remorse in myself with his words but I'll bridle it: he shall die, an it be but for pleading so well for his life. Away with him! he has a familiar under his tongue; he speaks not o' God's name. Go, take him away, say, and strike off his head presently; and then break into his son-in-law's house, sir James Cromer, and strike off his head, and bring them both upon two poles hither.

ALL. It shall be done.

SAY. Ah, countrymen! if when

prayers,

you make your

God should be so obdurate as yourselves,
How would it fare with your departed souls?
And therefore yet relent, and save my life.

CADE. Away with him! and do as I command ye. [Exeunt some with LORD SAY.] The proudest peer in the realm shall not wear a head on his shoulders, unless he pay me tribute; there shall not a maid be married, but she shall pay to me her maidenhead ere they have it: men shall hold of me in capite; and we charge and command, that their wives be as free as heart can wish, or tongue can tell.

DICK. My lord, when shall we go to Cheapside, and take up commodities upon our bills? CADE. Marry, presently.

ALL. O brave!

Re-enter Rebels, with the heads of LORD SAY and his Son-in-law.

CADE. But is not this braver ?-Let them kiss one another, for they loved well when they were

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