BEVIS
Come, and get 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 , 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 threadbare. Well, I say it was never merry world in England since gentlemen came up.
BEVIS
O miserable age! Virtue is not regarded in handicraftsmen.
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 vocation,” which is as much to say as, “Let the magistrates be labouring men;” and therefore should we be magistrates.
BEVIS
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.
CADE
We, John Cade, so termed of our supposed father—
DICK
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
He was an honest man and a good bricklayer.
CADE
My mother a Plantagenet—
DICK
I knew her well; she was a midwife.
CADE
My wife descended of the Lacies—
DICK
She was indeed a pedler’s daughter, and sold many laces.
SMITH
But now of late, not able to travel with her furred pack, she washes bucks here at home.
CADE
Therefore am I of an honourable house.
DICK
Ay, by my faith, the field is honourable; and there was he born, under a hedge, for his father had never a house but the cage.
CADE
Valiant I am.
SMITH
He must needs; for beggary is valiant.
CADE
I am able to endure much.
DICK
No question of that; for I have seen him whipped three market-days together.
CADE
I fear neither sword nor fire.
SMITH
He need not fear the sword, for his coat is of proof.
DICK
But he should stand in fear of fire, being burnt i’ th’ 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 , should undo a man? Some say the bee stings, but I say 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?
SMITH
The clerk of Chartham. He can write and read and cast account.
CADE
O, monstrous!
SMITH
We took him setting of boys’ copies.
CADE
Here’s a villain!
SMITH
H’as 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 , , I must examine . What is name?
CLERK
Emmanuel.
DICK
They use to write it on the top of letters. ’Twill go hard with you.
CADE
Let me alone. use to write name? Or a mark to thyself, like a honest, plain-dealing man?
CLERK
Sir, I thank God, I have been so well brought up that I can write my name.
ALL
He confessed. Away with him! He’s a villain and a traitor.
CADE
Away with him, I say! Hang him with his pen and inkhorn about his neck.
MICHAEL
Where’s our general?
CADE
Here I am, 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 down. He shall be encountered with a man as good as himself. He is but a knight, is he?
MICHAEL
No.
CADE
To equal him, I will make myself a knight .
Rise up Sir John Mortimer.
Now have at him!
STAFFORD
Rebellious hinds, the filth and scum of Kent,
Marked for the gallows, lay your weapons down;
Home to your cottages, forsake this groom.
The King is merciful, if you revolt.
BROTHER
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.
STAFFORD
Villain, father was a plasterer,
And thyself a shearman, art not?
CADE
And Adam was a gardener.
BROTHER
And what of that?
CADE
Marry, this: Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March,
Married the Duke of Clarence’ daughter, did he not?
STAFFORD
Ay, sir.
CADE
By her he had two children at one birth.
BROTHER
That’s false.
CADE
Ay, there’s the question; but I say 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, 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.
STAFFORD
And will you credit this base drudge’s words,
That speaks he knows not what?
ALL
Ay, marry, will we; therefore get gone.
BROTHER
Jack Cade, the Duke of York taught you this.
CADE
He lies, for I invented it myself.—Go to, , 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, we’ll have the Lord Saye’s head for selling the dukedom of Maine.
CADE
And good reason, for thereby is England mained and to go with a staff, but that my puissance holds it up. Fellow kings, I tell you that that Lord Saye gelded the commonwealth and made it an eunuch; and more than that, he can speak French, and therefore he is a traitor.
STAFFORD
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.
BROTHER
Well, seeing gentle words will not prevail,
Assail them with the army of the King.
STAFFORD
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 hanged up for example at their doors.
And you that be the King’s friends, follow me.
CADE
And you that love the commons follow me.
Now show yourselves men; 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.