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.
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 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 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.
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
Here’s a villain!
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. 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 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 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.
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, in whose time boys 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, an
d 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.
Exeunt
SCENE III. ANOTHER PART OF BLACKHEATH.
Alarums to the fight, wherein Sir Humphrey and William Stafford are slain. Enter Cade and the rest
Cade
Where’s Dick, the butcher of Ashford?
Dick
Here, sir.
Cade
They fell before thee like sheep and oxen, and thou behavedst thyself as if thou hadst been in thine own slaughter-house: therefore thus will I reward thee, the Lent shall be as long again as it is; and thou shalt have a licence to kill for a hundred lacking one.
Dick
I desire no more.
Cade
And, to speak truth, thou deservest no less. This monument of the victory will I bear;
Putting on Sir Humphrey’s brigandine
and the bodies shall be dragged at my horse’ heels till I do come to London, where we will have the mayor’s sword borne before us.
Dick
If we mean to thrive and do good, break open the gaols and let out the prisoners.
Cade
Fear not that, I warrant thee. Come, let’s march towards London.
Exeunt
SCENE IV. LONDON. THE PALACE.
Enter King Henry VI with a supplication, and the Queen with Suffolk’s head, Buckingham and Lord Say
Queen Margaret
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?
Buckingham
What answer makes your grace to the rebels’ supplication?
King Henry VI
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.
Queen Margaret
Ah, barbarous villains! hath this lovely face
Ruled, like a wandering planet, over me,
And could it not enforce them to relent,
That were unworthy to behold the same?
King Henry VI
Lord Say, Jack Cade hath sworn to have thy head.
Say
Ay, but I hope your highness shall have his.
King Henry VI
How now, madam!
Still lamenting and mourning for Suffolk’s death?
I fear me, love, if that I had been dead,
Thou wouldst not have mourn’d so much for me.
Queen Margaret
No, my love, I should not mourn, but die for thee.
Enter a Messenger
King Henry VI
How now! what news? why comest thou in such haste?
Messenger
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 h is brother’s death
Hath given them heart and courage to proceed:
All scholars, lawyers, courtiers, gentlemen,
They call false caterpillars, and intend their death.
King Henry VI
O graceless men! they know not what they do.
Buckingham
My gracious lord, return to Killingworth,
Until a power be raised to put them down.
Queen Margaret
Ah, were the Duke of Suffolk now alive,
These Kentish rebels would be soon appeased!
King Henry VI
Lord Say, the traitors hate thee;
Therefore away with us to Killingworth.
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.
Enter another Messenger
Messenger
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.
Buckingham
Then linger not, my lord, away, take horse.
King Henry VI
Come, Margaret; God, our hope, will succor us.
Queen Margaret
My hope is gone, now Suffolk is deceased.
King Henry VI
Farewell, my lord: trust not the Kentish rebels.
Buckingham
Trust nobody, for fear you be betray’d.
Say
The trust I have is in mine innocence,
And therefore am I bold and resolute.
Exeunt
SCENE V. LONDON. THE TOWER.
Enter Scales upon the Tower, walking. Then enter two or three Citizens below
Scales
How now! is Jack Cade slain?
First Citizen
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 honour 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 assay’d to win the Tower.
But get you to Smithfield, and gather head,
And thither I will send you Matthew Goffe;
Fight for your king, your country and your lives;
And so, farewell, for I must hence again.
Exeunt
SCENE VI. LONDON. CANNON STREET.
Enter Cade and the rest, and 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
Soldier
Jack Cade! Jack Cade!
Cade
Knock him down there.
They kill him
Smith
If this fellow be wise, he’ll never call ye Jack
Cade more: I think he hath a very fair warning.
Dick
My lord, there’s an army gathered together in
Smithfield.
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.
Exeunt
SCENE VII. LONDON. SMITHFIELD.
Alarums. Matthew Goffe is slain, and all the rest. Then enter Cade, with his company.
Cade
So, sirs: now go some and pull down the 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.
Dick
Only that the laws of England may come out of your mouth.
Holland
[Aside] Mass, ’twill be sore law, then; for he was thrust in the mouth with a spear, and ’tis not whole yet.
Smith
[Aside] Nay, John, it will be stinking law for his breath stinks with eating toasted cheese.
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.
Holland
[Aside] Then we are like to have biting statutes, unless his teeth be pulled out.
Cade
And henceforward all things shall be in common.
Enter a Messenger
Messenger
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 Bevis, with 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 Mounsieur 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, only for that cause they have been most worthy to live. Thou dost ride in a foot-cloth, dost thou not?
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