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.

K. HEN. How now, madam!

Still lamenting and mourning for Suffolk's death?"
I fear me, love, if that I had been dead,
Thou wouldest not have mourn'd 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?

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.

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 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,

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."

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.

b

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, pap 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; as a hempen caudle, which Cade promises with it, signified, death by the rope. The latter slang occurs, also, in the old play called," The Downfal! of Robert, Earl of Huntingdon," Act V. Sc. 1:

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

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.

SAY. Tell me wherein have I offended most? Have I affected wealth or honour ?-speak. Are my 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, I 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 you make your
prayers,

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

And here pronounce free pardon to them all
That will forsake thee, and go home in peace.

CLIF. What say ye, countrymen? will ye relent,
And yield to mercy, whilst 't is offer'd you;
Or let a rebel lead you to your deaths?
Who loves the king, and will embrace his pardon,
Fling up his cap, and say-God save his majesty!
Who hateth him, and honours not his father,
Henry the fifth, that made all France to quake,
Shake he his weapon at us, and pass by.

ALL. God save the king! God save the king! CADE. What, Buckingham, and Clifford, are ye so brave?-And you, base peasants, do ye believe him? will you needs be hanged with your pardons about your necks? Hath my sword therefore broke through London Gates, that you should leave me at the White Hart in Southwark? I thought ye would never have given out these arms, till you had recovered your ancient freedom: but you are all recreants and dastards, and delight to live in slavery to the nobility. Let them break your backs with burdens, take your houses over your heads, ravish your wives and daughters before your faces; for me,-I will make shift for one; and so-God's curse light upon you all!

Mr. Collier's and Mr. Singer's annotator. The folios have, "Or let a rabble," &c.

e Have given out, &c.] Have given up, have relinquished. To give out, in the sense of resign or surrender, is yet current amor.g the vulgar.