The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

Home > Fiction > The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works > Page 266
The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works Page 266

by William Shakespeare


  Perhaps prevail more than we can with power.

  SHREWSBURY

  Believe me but your honour well advises.

  Let us make haste, or I do greatly fear

  Some to their graves this morning’s work will bear.

  Exeunt

  Sc. 4 Enter Lincoln, Betts, Williamson, Doll. Enter Lincoln, [George] Betts, [Clown Betts,] Williamson, Sherwin, and other, armed; Doll in a shirt of mail, a headpiece, sword and buckler; a crew attending

  [Original Text (Munday)]

  [Addition Il (Heywood)]

  CLOWN BETTS Come, come, we’ll tickle their turnips, we’ll butter their boxes! Shall strangers rule the roast? Yes, but we’ll baste the roast. Come, come, aflaunt, aflaunt!

  GEORGE BETTS

  Brother, give place, and hear John Lincoln speak.

  CLOWN BETTS

  Ay, Lincoln, my leader,

  And Doll, my true breeder,

  With the rest of our crew

  Shall ran-tan-tarra-ran.

  Do all they what they can,

  Shall we be bobbed, braved?—No!

  Shall we be held under?—No)

  We are free born

  And do take scorn

  To be used so.

  DOLL

  Peace there, I say! Hear Captain Lincoln speak.

  Keep silence till we know his mind at large.

  CLOWN BETTS [to Lincoln] Then largely deliver. Speak, bully, and he that presumes to interrupt thee in thy oration, this for him!

  LINCOLN

  Then gallant bloods, you whose free souls do scorn

  To bear the enforced wrongs of aliens,

  Add rage to resolution. Fire the houses

  Of these audacious strangers. This is St Martin’s,

  And yonder dwells Meautis, a wealthy Picardy,

  At the Green Gate;

  De Barde, Peter van Hollak, Adrian Martin,

  With many more outlandish fugitives.

  Shall these enjoy more privilege than we

  In our own country? Let’s then become their slaves.

  Since justice keeps not them in greater awe,

  We’ll be ourselves rough ministers at law.

  CLOWN BETTS

  Use no more swords,

  Nor no more words,

  But fire the houses,

  Brave Captain Courageous,

  Fire me their houses.

  DOLL Ay, for we may as well make bonfires on May Day as at Midsummer. We’ll alter the day in the calendar, and set it down in flaming letters.

  SHERWIN

  Stay, no, that would much endanger the whole city,

  Whereto I would not the least prejudice.

  DOLL No, nor I neither: so may mine own house be burned for company. I’ll tell ye what: we’ll drag the strangers into Moorfields, and there bumbaste them till they stink again.

  CLOWN BETTS And that’s soon done, for they smell for fear already.

  GEORGE BETTS

  Let some of us enter the strangers’ houses,

  And, if we find them there, then bring them forth.

  DOLL But if ye bring them forth ere ye find them, I’ll ne’er allow of that. so

  CLOWN BETTS

  Now Mars for thy honour,

  Dutch or French,

  So it be a wench,

  I’ll upon her.

  [Exeunt Sherwin, Clown Betts, and others]

  LINCOLN WILLIAMSON

  Now, lads, how shall we labour in our safety?

  I hear the Mayor hath gathered men in arms,

  And that Sheriff More an hour ago received

  Some of the Privy Council in at Ludgate.

  Force now must make our peace, or else we fall.

  ’Twill soon be known we are the principal.

  DOLL And what of that? If thou beest afraid, husband, go home again and hide thy head, for, by the Lord, I’ll have a little sport now we are at it.

  GEORGE BETTS

  Let’s stand upon our swords, and if they come

  Receive them as they were our enemies.

  Enter Sherwin, [Clown Betts,] and the rest

  CLOWN BETTS A purchase, a purchase! We have found, we ha’ found—

  DOLL What?

  CLOWN BETTS Nothing. Not a French Fleming nor a Fleming French to be found, but all fled, in plain English.

  LINCOLN ⌈to Sherwin⌉

  How now, have you found any?

  SHERWIN No, not one, they’re all fled.

  LINCOLN

  Then fire the houses, that, the Mayor being busy

  About the quenching of them, we may scape.

  Burn down their kennels! Let us straight away,

  Lest this day prove to us an ill May Day.

  Exeunt all but Clown

  CLOWN BETTS

  Fire, fire! I’ll be the first.

  If hanging come, ’tis welcome; that’s the worst.

  Exit

  [Addition II (Heywood)]

  [Addition II (playhouse scribe)]

  Sc. 5 Enter at one door Sir Thomas More and Lord Mayor; at another door Sir John Munday, hurt

  LORD MAYOR What, Sir John Munday, are you hurt?

  SIR JOHN

  A little knock, my lord. There was even now

  A sort of prentices playing at cudgels.

  I did command them to their masters’ houses,

  But one of them, backed by the other crew,

  Wounded me in the forehead with his cudgel;

  And now, I fear me, they are gone to join

  With Lincoln, Sherwin, and their dangerous train.

  MORE

  The captains of this insurrection

  Have ta‘en themselves to arms, and came but now

  To both the Counters, where they have released

  Sundry indebted prisoners, and from thence

  I hear that they are gone into St Martin’s,

  Where they intend to offer violence

  To the amazed Lombards. Therefore, my lord,

  If we expect the safety of the city,

  ’Tis time that force or parley do encounter

  With these displeased men.

  Enter a Messenger

  LORD MAYOR

  How now, what news?

  MESSENGER

  My lord, the rebels have broke open Newgate,

  From whence they have delivered many prisoners, zo

  Both felons and notorious murderers

  That desperately cleave to their lawless train.

  LORD MAYOR

  Up with the drawbridge! Gather some forces

  To Cornhill and Cheapside. And, gentlemen,

  If diligence be used on every side,

  A quiet ebb will follow this rough tide.

  Enter Shrewsbury, Surrey, Palmer; Cholmley

  SHREWSBURY

  Lord Mayor, his majesty, receiving notice

  Of this most dangerous insurrection,

  Hath sent my lord of Surrey and myself,

  Sir Thomas Palmer, and our followers

  To add unto your forces our best means

  For pacifying of this mutiny.

  In God’s name, then, set on with happy speed.

  The King laments if one true subject bleed.

  SURREY

  I hear they mean to fire the Lombards’ houses.

  O power, what art thou in a madman’s eyes!

  Thou mak’st the plodding idiot bloody-wise.

  MORE

  My lords, I doubt not but we shall appease

  With a calm breath this flux of discontent.

  PALMER

  To call them to a parley questionless

  May fall out good. ’Tis well said, Master More.

  MORE

  Let’s to these simple men, for many sweat

  Under this act that knows not the law’s debt

  Which hangs upon their lives. For silly men

  Plod on they know not how; like a fool’s pen

  That, ending, shows not any sentence writ

  L
inked but to common reason or slightest wit.

  These follow for no harm, but yet incur

  Self penalty with those that raised this stir.

  I’ God’s name on, to calm our private foes

  With breath of gravity, not dangerous blows.

  Exeunt

  Sc. 6 Enter Lincoln, Doll, Clown [Betts,] George Betts, Williamson, [Sherwin,] others: [Citizens,] [armed]

  [Addition II (playhouse scribe)]

  [Addition II (Shakespeare)]

  LINCOLN Peace, hear me! He that will not see a red herring at a Harry groat, butter at eleven pence a pound, meal at nine shillings a bushel, and beef at four nobles a stone, list to me.

  OTHER GEORGE BETTS It will come to that pass if strangers be suffered. Mark him.

  LINCOLN Our country is a great eating country; argo they eat more in our country than they do in their own.

  OTHER CLOWN BETTS By a halfpenny loaf a day, troy weight.

  LINCOLN They bring in strange roots, which is merely to the undoing of poor prentices. For what’s a sorry parsnip to a good heart?

  OTHER WILLIAMSON Trash, trash. They breed sore eyes, and ’tis enough to infect the city with the palsy.

  LINCOLN Nay, it has infected it with the palsy, for these bastards of dung—as you know, they grow in dung—have infected us, and it is our infection will make the city shake. Which partly comes through the eating of parsnips.

  OTHER CLOWN BETTS True, and pumpkins together.

  Enter ⌈a Sergeant-at-arms⌉

  SERGEANT

  What say ye to the mercy of the King?

  Do you refuse it?

  LINCOLN You would have us upon th’ hip, would you? No, marry, do we not. We accept of the King’s mercy, but we will show no mercy upon the strangers.

  SERGEANT You are the simplest things that ever stood In such a question.

  LINCOLN How say you now, prentices? Prentices ‘simple’? Down with him!

  ALL CITIZENS Prentices simple? Prentices simple?

  Enter the Lord Mayor, Surrey, Shrewsbury, [More, Palmer]

  SHREWSBURY MAYOR

  Hold, in the King’s name, hold!

  SURREY Friends, masters, countrymen—

  LORD MAYOR

  Peace ho, peace! I charge you keep the peace.

  SHREWSBURY My masters, countrymen—

  SHERWIN WILLIAMSON The noble Earl of Shrewsbury! Let’s hear him.

  GEORGE BETTS We’ll hear the Earl of Surrey.

  LINCOLN The Earl of Shrewsbury!

  GEORGE BEETS We’ll hear both.

  ALL CITIZENS Both, both, both, both!

  LINCOLN Peace, I say, peace! Are you men of wisdom, or what are you?

  SURREY

  What you will have them, but not men of wisdom.

  SOME CITIZENS We’ll not hear my lord of Surrey.

  OTHER CITIZENS No, no, no, no, no! Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury!

  MORE

  Whiles they are o’er the bank of their obedience

  Thus will they bear down all things.

  LINCOLN Sheriff More speaks. Shall we hear Sheriff More speak?

  DOLL Let’s hear him. A keeps a plentiful shrievaltry, and a made my brother, Arthur Watchins, Sergeant Safe’s yeoman. Let’s hear Sheriff More!

  ALL CITIZENS Sheriff More, More, More, Sheriff More!

  MORE

  Even by the rule you have among yourselves,

  Command still audience.

  SOME CITIZENS Surrey, Surrey!

  OTHER CITIZENS More, More!

  LINCOLN and GEORGE BETTS Peace, peace, silence, peace!

  MORE

  You that have voice and credit with the number,

  Command them to a stillness.

  LINCOLN A plague on them, they will not hold their peace. The devil cannot rule them.

  MORE

  Then what a rough and riotous charge have you

  To lead those that the devil cannot rule.—

  Good masters, hear me speak.

  DOLL Ay, by th’ mass will we, More. Thou’rt a good housekeeper, and I thank thy good worship for my brother Arthur Watchins.

  ALL THE OTHER CITIZENS Peace, peace!

  MORE

  Look what you do offend you cry upon;

  That is, the peace. Not one of you here present,

  Had there such fellows lived when you were babes

  That could have topped the peace as now you would,

  The peace wherein you have till now grown up

  Had been ta’en from you, and the bloody times

  Could not have brought you to the state of men.

  Alas, poor things! What is it you have got

  Although we grant you get the thing you seek?

  GEORGE BETTS Marry, the removing of the strangers, which cannot choose but much advantage the poor handicrafts of the city.

  MORE

  Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise

  Hath chid down all the majesty of England.

  Imagine that you see the wretched strangers,

  Their babies at their backs, with their poor luggage,

  Plodding to th’ ports and coasts for transportation,

  And that you sit as kings in your desires,

  Authority quite silenced by your brawl,

  And you in ruff of your opinions clothed:

  What had you got? I’ll tell you: you had taught

  How insolence and strong hand should prevail,

  How order should be quelled. And by this pattern

  Not one of you should live an aged man;

  For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought,

  With selfsame hand, self reasons, and self right,

  Would shark on you, and men, like ravenous fishes,

  Would feed on one another.

  DOLL Before God, that’s as true as the gospel.

  GEORCE BETTS LINCOLN Nay, this’ a sound fellow, I tell you. Let’s mark him.

  MORE

  Let me set up before your thoughts, good friends,

  One supposition, which if you will mark

  You shall perceive how horrible a shape

  Your innovation bears. First, ‘tis a sin

  Which oft th’apostle did forewarn us of,

  Urging obedience to authority;

  And ‘twere no error if I told you all

  You were in arms ’gainst God.

  ALL CITIZENS Marry, God forbid thatl

  MORE Nay, certainly you are. no

  For to the king God hath His office lent

  Of dread, of justice, power, and command;

  Hath bid him rule, and willed you to obey.

  And, to add ampler majesty to this,

  He hath not only lent the king His figure,

  His throne and sword, but given him His own name:

  Calls him a god on earth. What do you, then,

  Rising ‘gainst him that God Himself installs,

  But rise ’gainst God? What do you to your souls

  In doing this? O, desperate as you are,

  Wash your foul minds with tears, and those same hands

  That you, like rebels, lift against the peace,

  Lift up for peace; and your unreverent knees,

  Make them your feet. To kneel to be forgiven

  Is safer wars than ever you can make

  Whose discipline is riot.

  In, in, to your obedience! Why, even your hurly

  Cannot proceed but by obedience.

  Tell me but this: What rebel captain,

  As mutinies are incident, by his name

  Can still the rout? Who will obey a traitor?

  Or how can well that proclamation sound

  When there is no addition but ‘a rebel’

  To qualify a rebel? You’ll put down strangers,

  Kill them, cut their throats, possess their houses,

  And lead the majesty of law in lyam

  To slip him like a hound. Alas, alas! Say now the King,

  As he is clement if th’offen
der mourn,

  Should so much come too short of your great trespass

  As but to banish you: whither would you go?

  What country, by the nature of your error,

  Should give you harbour? Go you to France or

  Flanders,

  To any German province, Spain or Portugal,

  Nay, anywhere that not adheres to England:

  Why, you must needs be strangers. Would you be

  pleased

  To find a nation of such barbarous temper

  That, breaking out in hideous violence,

  Would not afford you an abode on earth,

  Whet their detested knives against your throats,

  Spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God

  Owed not nor made not you, nor that the elements

  Were not all appropriate to your comforts,

  But chartered unto them? What would you think

  To be thus used? This is the strangers’ case,

  And this your mountainish inhumanity.

  ALL CITIZENS Faith, a says true. Let us do as we may be done by.

  ALL CITIZENS LINCOLN We’ll be ruled by you, Master More, if you’ll stand our friend to procure our pardon.

  MORE

  Submit you to these noble gentlemen,

  Entreat their mediation to the King,

  Give up yourself to form, obey the magistrate,

  And there’s no doubt but mercy may be found

  If you so seek it.

  [Addition 11 (Shakespeare)]

  [Original Text (Munday)]

  ALL CITIZENS We yield, and desire his highness’ mercy. They lay by their weapons

  MORE

  No doubt his majesty will grant it you.

  But you must yield to go to several prisons

  Till that his highness’ will be further known.

  ALL CITIZENS Most willingly, whither you will have us.

  SHREWSBURY

  Lord Mayor, let them be sent to several prisons,

  And there, in any case, be well entreated.

  My lord of Surrey, please you to take horse

  And ride to Cheapside, where the aldermen

  Are with their several companies in arms.

  Will them to go unto their several wards,

  Both for the stay of further mutiny

  And for the apprehending of such persons

  As shall contend.

  SURREY

  I go, my noble lord.

  Exit

  SHREWSBURY

  We’ll straight go tell his highness these good news.

 

‹ Prev