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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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, –Command silence.
DICK Silence!
CADE My father was a Mortimer,–
DICK [Aside] He was an honest man,
and a good bricklayer.
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.
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.
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
whipped three market-days together.
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
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
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
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?
[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 I am sorry for’t: the man is a proper man,
of mine honour; unless I find him guilty, he shall not die.
Come hither, sirrah, I must examine thee: what is thy name?
Clerk Emmanuel.
CADE Dost thou use to write thy name? or
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.
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.
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’?
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,
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.
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;
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?
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,
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.
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?
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, 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 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.
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?
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;
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.
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.
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