| [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. |
| 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, 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. |
| [Exeunt] |