| ACT IV SCENE II | Blackheath. | |
| [Enter GEORGE BEVIS and JOHN HOLLAND] |
| BEVIS | Come, and get thee a sword, though made of a lath; |
| they have been up these two days. |
| HOLLAND | They have the more need to sleep now, then. |
| BEVIS | I tell thee, Jack Cade the clothier means to dress |
| the commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new nap upon it. | 5 |
| HOLLAND | So he had need, for 'tis threadbare. Well, I say it |
| was never merry world in England since gentlemen came up. |
| BEVIS | O miserable age! virtue is not regarded in handicrafts-men. |
| HOLLAND | The nobility think scorn to go in leather aprons. |
| BEVIS | Nay, more, the king's council are no good workmen. | 10 |
| HOLLAND | True; and yet it is said, labour in thy vocation; |
| which is as much to say as, let the magistrates be |
| labouring men; and therefore should we be |
| magistrates. |
| BEVIS | Thou hast hit it; for there's no better sign of a | 15 |
| brave mind than a hard hand. |
| HOLLAND | I see them! I see them! there's Best's son, the |
| tanner of Wingham,-- |
| BEVIS | He shall have the skin of our enemies, to make |
| dog's-leather of. | 20 |
| HOLLAND | And Dick the Butcher,-- |
| BEVIS | Then is sin struck down like an ox, and iniquity's |
| throat cut like a calf. |
| HOLLAND | And Smith the weaver,-- |
| BEVIS | Argo, their thread of life is spun. | 25 |
| HOLLAND | Come, come, let's fall in with them. |
| [
Drum. Enter CADE, DICK the Butcher, SMITH the
Weaver, and a Sawyer, with infinite numbers
] |
| CADE | We John Cade, so termed of our supposed father,-- |
| DICK | [Aside] Or rather, of stealing a cade of herrings.
|
| CADE | For our enemies shall fall before us, inspired with |
| the spirit of putting down kings and princes, | 30 |
| --Command silence. |
| DICK | Silence! |
| CADE | My father was a Mortimer,-- |
| DICK | [Aside] He was an honest man, and a good
|
| bricklayer. | 35 |
| CADE | My mother a Plantagenet,-- |
| DICK | [Aside] I knew her well; she was a midwife.
|
| CADE | My wife descended of the Lacies,-- |
| DICK | [Aside] She was, indeed, a pedler's daughter, and
|
| sold many laces. | 40 |
| SMITH | [Aside] But now of late, notable to travel with her
|
| furred pack, she washes bucks here at home. |
| CADE | Therefore am I of an honourable house. |
| DICK | [Aside] Ay, by my faith, the field is honourable;
|
| and there was he borne, under a hedge, for his | 45 |
| father had never a house but the cage. |
| CADE | Valiant I am. |
| SMITH | [Aside] A' must needs; for beggary is valiant.
|
| CADE | I am able to endure much. |
| DICK | [Aside] No question of that; for I have seen him
| 50 |
| whipped three market-days together. |
| CADE | I fear neither sword nor fire. |
| SMITH | [Aside] He need not fear the sword; for his coat is of proof.
|
| DICK | [Aside] But methinks he should stand in fear of
|
| fire, being burnt i' the hand for stealing of sheep. | 55 |
| CADE | Be brave, then; for your captain is brave, and vows |
| reformation. There shall be in England seven |
| halfpenny loaves sold for a penny: the three-hooped |
| pot; shall have ten hoops and I will make it felony |
| to drink small beer: all the realm shall be in | 60 |
| common; and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to |
| grass: and when I am king, as king I will be,-- |
| ALL | God save your majesty! |
| CADE | I thank you, good people: there shall be no money; |
| all shall eat and drink on my score; and I will | 65 |
| apparel them all in one livery, that they may agree |
| like brothers and worship me their lord. |
| DICK | The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. |
| CADE | Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this a lamentable |
| thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should | 70 |
| be made parchment? that parchment, being scribbled |
| o'er, should undo a man? Some say the bee stings: |
| but I say, 'tis the bee's wax; for I did but seal |
| once to a thing, and I was never mine own man |
| since. How now! who's there? | 75 |
| [Enter some, bringing forward the Clerk of Chatham] |
| SMITH | The clerk of Chatham: he can write and read and |
| cast accompt. |
| CADE | O monstrous! |
| SMITH | We took him setting of boys' copies. |
| CADE | Here's a villain! | 80 |
| SMITH | Has a book in his pocket with red letters in't. |
| CADE | Nay, then, he is a conjurer. |
| DICK | Nay, he can make obligations, and write court-hand. |
| CADE | I am sorry for't: the man is a proper man, of mine |
| honour; unless I find him guilty, he shall not die. | 85 |
| Come hither, sirrah, I must examine thee: what is thy name? |
| Clerk | Emmanuel. |
| DICK | They use to write it on the top of letters: 'twill |
| go hard with you. |
| CADE | Let me alone. Dost thou use to write thy name? or | 90 |
| hast thou a mark to thyself, like an honest |
| plain-dealing man? |
| CLERK | Sir, I thank God, I have been so well brought up |
| that I can write my name. |
| ALL | He hath confessed: away with him! he's a villain | 95 |
| and a traitor. |
| CADE | Away with him, I say! hang him with his pen and |
| ink-horn about his neck. |
| [Exit one with the Clerk] |
| [Enter MICHAEL] |
| MICHAEL | Where's our general? |
| CADE | Here I am, thou particular fellow. | 100 |
| MICHAEL | Fly, fly, fly! Sir Humphrey Stafford and his |
| brother are hard by, with the king's forces. |
| CADE | Stand, villain, stand, or I'll fell thee down. He |
| shall be encountered with a man as good as himself: |
| he is but a knight, is a'? | 105 |
| MICHAEL | No. |
| CADE | To equal him, I will make myself a knight presently. |
[Kneels] |
| Rise up Sir John Mortimer. |
[Rises] |
| Now have at him! |
| [
Enter SIR HUMPHREY and WILLIAM STAFFORD, with
drum and soldiers
] |
| SIR HUMPHREY | Rebellious hinds, the filth and scum of Kent, | 110 |
| Mark'd for the gallows, lay your weapons down; |
| Home to your cottages, forsake this groom: |
| The king is merciful, if you revolt. |
| WILLIAM STAFFORD | But angry, wrathful, and inclined to blood, |
| If you go forward; therefore yield, or die. | 115 |
| CADE | As for these silken-coated slaves, I pass not: |
| It is to you, good people, that I speak, |
| Over whom, in time to come, I hope to reign; |
| For I am rightful heir unto the crown. |
| SIR HUMPHREY | Villain, thy father was a plasterer; | 120 |
| And thou thyself a shearman, art thou not? |
| CADE | And Adam was a gardener. |
| WILLIAM STAFFORD | And what of that? |
| CADE | Marry, this: Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March. |
| Married the Duke of Clarence' daughter, did he not? | 125 |
| SIR HUMPHREY | Ay, sir. |
| CADE | By her he had two children at one birth. |
| WILLIAM STAFFORD | That's false. |
| CADE | Ay, there's the question; but I say, 'tis true: |
| The elder of them, being put to nurse, | 130 |
| 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. |
| DICK | Nay, 'tis too true; therefore he shall be king. | 135 |
| 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. |
| SIR HUMPHREY | And will you credit this base drudge's words, |
| That speaks he knows not what? | 140 |
| ALL | Ay, marry, will we; therefore get ye gone. |
| WILLIAM STAFFORD | Jack Cade, the Duke of York hath taught you this. |
| CADE | [Aside] He lies, for I invented it myself.
|
| Go to, sirrah, tell the king from me, that, for his |
| father's sake, Henry the Fifth, in whose time boys | 145 |
| went to span-counter for French crowns, I am content |
| he shall reign; but I'll be protector over him. |
| DICK | And furthermore, well have the Lord Say's head for |
| selling the dukedom of Maine. |
| CADE | And good reason; for thereby is England mained, and | 150 |
| 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 an eunuch: |
| and more than that, he can speak French; and |
| therefore he is a traitor. | 155 |
| SIR HUMPHREY | 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 |
| counsellor, or no? | 160 |
| ALL | No, no; and therefore we'll have his head. |
| WILLIAM STAFFORD | Well, seeing gentle words will not prevail, |
| Assail them with the army of the king. |
| SIR HUMPHREY | Herald, away; and throughout every town |
| Proclaim them traitors that are up with Cade; | 165 |
| 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 WILLIAM STAFFORD and SIR HUMPHREY, and soldiers] |
| CADE | And you that love the commons, follow me. | 170 |
| 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. | 175 |
| 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] |
The Rebellion of Jack Cade