presently; rise

up

' him.1

sir John Mortimer. Now have at

Enter SIR HUMPHREY STAFFORD, and WILLIAM his Brother, with drum and Forces.

*

Staf. Rebellious hinds, the filth and scum of Kent, *Marked for the gallows,-lay your weapons down; * Home to your cottages; forsake this groom.*The king is merciful, if you revolt.

*W. Staf. But angry, wrathful, and inclined to blood, * If you go forward; therefore yield, or die.

Cade. As for these silken-coated slaves, I pass not; 2 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,

Married the duke of Clarence' daughter: did he not? Staf. Ay, sir.

Cade. By her, he had two children at one birth.

W. Staf. That's false.

Cade. Ay, there's the question; but, I say, 'tis

true.

The elder of them, being put to nurse,

Was by a beggar-woman stolen 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.

1 After this speech, in the old play, are the following words :

"Is there any more of them that be knights?

Tom. Yea, his brother.

Cade. Then kneel down, Dick Butcher; rise up sir Dick Butcher Sound up the drum."

2 I care not, I pay them no regard.

"Transform me to what shape you can,

I pass not what it be." Drayton's Quest of Cynthia.
51

VOL. IV.

เ

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.

*Staf. And will you credit this base drudge's words, *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 that lord Say hath gelded the commonwealth, and 'made it a eunuch; and more than that, he can 'speak French, and therefore he is a traitor.

6

Staf. O gross and miserable ignorance!
Cade. Nay, answer, if you can.
The Frenchmen

are our enemies: go to, then, I ask but this; Can he that speaks with the tongue of an enemy, be a good 'counseller, 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.

6

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 hanged 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

me.

*

* Now show yourselves men; 'tis for liberty. * We will not leave one lord, one gentleman. Spare none, but such as go in clouted shoon; * For they are thrifty, honest men, and such *As would (but that they dare not) take our parts. * Dick. They are all in order, and march toward us. *Cade. But then are we in order, when we are most out of order. Come, march forward. [Exeunt.

SCENE III. Another Part of Blackheath.

Alarums. 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 license to kill for a hundred lacking one, a week.1

• Dick. I desire no more.

*Cade. And, to speak truth, thou deservest no less. * This monument of the victory will I bear; 2 and the bodies shall be dragged at my horse's 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 jails, and let out the prisoners.

1 The last two words, a week, were added by Malone from the old play It is necessary to render the passage intelligible. In the reign of Elizabeth, butchers who had interest at court, frequently obtained a dispensation to kill a certain number of beasts a week during Lent; of which indulgence, the wants of invalids who could not subsist without animal food, was made the pretence.

2 Here Cade must be supposed to take off Stafford's armor. So Holinshed:-"Jack Cade, upon his victory against the Staffords, apparelled himself in sir Humphrey's brigandine, set full of gilt nails, and so in glory returned again toward London."

*

*Cade. Fear not that, I warrant thee. Come, let's march towards London.

[Exeunt.

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 bishop1 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

* Ruled, 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.

6

Say. Ay, but I hope your highness shall have his.

1 Shakspeare has here fallen into another inconsistency, by sometimes following Holinshed instead of the old play. He afterwards forgets this holy bishop; and in scene the eighth we find only Buckingham and Clifford were sent, conformably to the old play. Holinshed mentions that the archbishop of Canterbury and the duke of Buckingham were sent.

K. Hen. How now, madam? Still

Lamenting, and mourning for Suffolk's death?
I fear, my love, if that I had been dead,

Thou wouldest not have mourned so much for me. Q. Mar. No, my love, I should not mourn, but die for thee.

Enter a Messenger.

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

Mes. 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. * K. Hen. O graceless men! they know not what they do.1

Buck. My gracious lord, retire to Kenelworth, Until a power be raised to put them down.

* Q. Mar. Ah! were the duke of Suffolk now

alive,

*These Kentish rebels would be soon appeased. 'K. Hen. Lord Say, the traitors hate thee; Therefore away with us to Kenelworth.

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.

Instead of this line the old copy has :

"Go bid Buckingham and Clifford gather
An army up, and meet with the rebels."