madam? K. Hen. How now, madam? Still Lamenting, and mourning for Suffolk's death? 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 'Jack Cade proclaims himself lord Mortimer, And vows to crown himself in Westminster. Of hinds and peasants, rude and merciless; ' 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 Enter another Messenger. * 2 Mess. Jack Cade hath gotten London bridge: the citizens * Fly and forsake their houses; *The rascal people, thirsting after prey, * Join with the traitor; and they jointly swear *To spoil the city and your royal court. *Buck. Then linger not, my lord; away, take horse. *K. Hen. Come, Margaret; God, our hope, will succor us. Q. Mar. My hope is gone, now Suffolk is deceased. * K. Hen. Farewell, my lord; [To LORD SAY.] trust not the Kentish rebels. * Buck. Trust nobody, for fear you 6 be betrayed. Say. The trust I have is in mine innocence, And therefore am I bold and resolute. [Exeunt. SCENE V. The same. The Tower. Enter LORD SCALES, and others, on the walls. Then enter certain Citizens, below. 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 honor 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 assayed to win the Tower. But get you to Smithfield, and gather head, And thither will I send you Matthew Gough. Fight for your king, your country, and your lives; And so farewell, for I must hence again. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. The same. Cannon Street. Enter JACK CADE and his Followers. He strikes his staff on London-stone. Cade. Now is Mortimer lord of this city. And here, sitting upon London-stone, I charge and command, that, of the city's cost, the pissing-conduit run nothing but claret wine this first year of our reign. And now, henceforward, it shall be treason for any that calls me other than-lord Mortimer. * Enter a Soldier, running. Sold. Jack Cade! Jack Cade! Cade. Knock him down there. [They kill him.1 *Smith. If this fellow be wise, he'll never call you Jack Cade more; I think he hath a very fair *warning. Dick. My lord, there's an army gathered together in Smithfield. 2 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 away. SCENE VII. The same. [Exeunt. Smithfield. Alarum. Enter, on one side, CADE and his Company; on the other, Citizens, and the King's Forces, headed by MATTHEW GOUGH.3 They fight; the Citizens are routed, and MATTHEW GOUGH is slain. Cade. So, sirs.-Now go some and pull down the 1 "He also put to execution in Southwarke diverse persons, some for breaking this ordinance, and other being his old acquaintance, lest they should bewray his base lineage, disparaging him for his usurped name of Mortimer."-Holinshed, p. 634. 2 At that time London bridge was of wood; the houses upon it were actually burnt in this rebellion. Hall says, "he entered London, and cut the ropes of the drawbridge." 3 Holinshed calls Mathew Gough "a man of great wit and much expe 1 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. 6 Dick. Only, that the laws of England may come 'out of your mouth.2 เ '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,3 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.-Ay, 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 continuall warres had spent his See also W. of Wyrcestre, p. rience in feats of chivalrie, the which in time in serving of the king his father." 357; and the Paston Letters, vol. i. p. 42. 1 "This trouble had been saved Cade's reformers by his predecessor Wat Tyler. It was never rebuilt till Henry VI. founded the hospital." 2 "It was reported, indeed, that he should saie with great pride that within four daies all the laws of England should come foorth of his mouth."— Holinshed, p. 432. 3 A fifteen was the fifteenth part of all the movables, or personal property, of each subject. 4 Say is a kind of thin woollen stuff or serge. 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; 2 when, indeed, only for that cause, they have been most 'worthy to live. Thou dost ride on a foot-cloth,3 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.* 1 Shakspeare is a little too early with this accusation. Yet Meerman, in his Origines Typographicæ, has availed himself of this passage to support his hypothesis that printing was introduced into England by Frederic Corsellis, one of Coster's workmen, from Haerlem, in the time of Henry VI. 2 i. e. they were hanged because they could not claim the benefit of clergy. 3 A foot-cloth was a kind of housing, which covered the body of the horse; it was sometimes made of velvet and bordered with gold lace. 4 After this line the old play proceeds thus: Cade. Bonun terrum, What's that? Dick. He speaks French. Will. No, 'tis Dutch. Nick. No, 'tis Outalian: I know it well enough. |