15
CADE Fear not that, I warrant thee. Come, let’s march
towards London. Exeunt dragging off the bodies.
4.4 Enter the KING with a supplication, and the QUEEN with Suffolk’s head, the Duke of BUCKINGHAM and the Lord SAYE.
QUEEN [aside]
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;
5
But where’s the body that I should embrace?
BUCKINGHAM
What answer makes your grace to the rebels’ supplication?
KING I’ll send some holy bishop to entreat,
For God forbid so many simple souls
Should perish by the sword. And I myself,
10
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 [aside]
Ah, barbarous villains! Hath this lovely face
Ruled like a wandering planet over me
15
And could it not enforce them to relent,
That were unworthy to behold the same?
KING
Lord Saye, Jack Cade hath sworn to have thy head.
SAYE Ay, but I hope your highness shall have his.
KING How now, madam?
20
Still lamenting and mourning for Suffolk’s death?
I fear me, love, if that I had been dead
Thou wouldest not have mourned so much for me.
QUEEN
No, my love, I should not mourn but die for thee.
Enter a Messenger.
KING
How now? What news? Why com’st thou in such haste?
25
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.
30
His army is a ragged multitude
Of hinds and peasants, rude and merciless.
Sir Humphrey Stafford and his brother’s death
Hath given them heart and courage to proceed.
All scholars, lawyers, courtiers, gentlemen,
35
They call false caterpillars and intend their death.
KING O, graceless men! They know not what they do.
BUCKINGHAM My gracious lord, retire to Killingworth
Until a power be raised to put them down.
QUEEN Ah, were the Duke of Suffolk now alive,
40
These Kentish rebels would be soon appeased.
KING Lord Saye, the traitors hateth thee,
Therefore away with us to Killingworth.
SAYE So might your grace’s person be in danger.
The sight of me is odious in their eyes;
45
And therefore in this city will I stay
And live alone, as secret as I may.
Enter another Messenger.
2 MESSENGER
Jack Cade hath almost gotten London Bridge;
The citizens fly and forsake their houses;
The rascal people, thirsting after prey,
50
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 Come, Margaret. God, our hope, will succour us.
QUEEN [aside]
My hope is gone, now Suffolk is deceased.
55
KING Farewell, my lord. Trust not the Kentish rebels.
BUCKINGHAM Trust nobody, for fear you be betrayed.
SAYE The trust I have is in mine innocence,
And therefore am I bold and resolute. Exeunt.
4.5 Enter Lord SCALES aloft upon the Tower walking. Then enters two or three Citizens below.
SCALES How now? Is Jack Cade slain?
1 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.
5
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 I will send you Matthew Gough.
10
Fight for your king, your country and your lives!
And so farewell, for I must hence again.
Exeunt severally.
4.6 Enter Jack 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, at 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
5
calls me other than Lord Mortimer.
Enter a Soldier running.
SOLDIER Jack Cade! Jack Cade!
CADE Knock him down there. [They kill him.]
BUTCHER If this fellow be wise, he’ll never call ye Jack
Cade more. I think he hath a very fair warning. [Reads
10
soldier’s message.] 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.
15
Exeunt with the body.
4.7 Alarums. Matthew Gough is slain and all the rest. Then enter Jack CADE with his company.
CADE So, sirs: now go some and pull down the Savoy.
Others to th’Inns of Court; down with them all!
BUTCHER I have a suit unto your lordship.
CADE Be it a lordship, thou shalt have it for that word.
BUTCHER Only that the laws of England may come out
5
of your mouth.
NICK [aside] ’Mass, ’twill be sore law then, for he was
thrust in the mouth with a spear and ’tis not whole yet.
WEAVER [aside] Nay, Nick, it will be stinking law, for his
breath stinks with eating toasted cheese.
10
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.
NICK [aside] Then we are like to have biting statutes,
unless his teeth be pulled out.
15
CADE And henceforward all things shall be in common.
Enter a Messenger.
MESSENGER My lord, a prize, a prize! Here’s the Lord
Saye which sold the towns in France; he that made us
pay one-and-twenty fifteens, and one shilling to the
pound, the last subsidy.
20
Enter GEORGE with the Lord SAYE.
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
25
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,
30
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
35
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
40
read thou hast hanged them, when indeed only for
that cause they have been most worthy to live. Thou
dost ride on a foot-cloth, dost thou not?
SAYE What of that?
CADE Marry, thou ought’st not to let thy horse wear a
45
cloak when honester men than thou go in their hose
and doublets.
BUTCHER And work in their shirts too; as myself, for
example, that am a butcher.
SAYE You men of Kent –
50
BUTCHER What say you of Kent?
SAYE Nothing but this: ’tis bona terra, mala gens.
CADE Away with him, away with him! He speaks Latin.
SAYE Hear me but speak, and bear me where you will.
Kent, in the Commentaries Caesar writ,
55
Is termed the civil’st place of all this isle;
Sweet is the country, because full of riches,
The people liberal, valiant, active, wealthy;
Which makes me hope you are not void of pity.
I sold not Maine, I lost not Normandy,
60
Yet to recover them would lose my life.
Justice with favour have I always done;
Prayers and tears have moved me, gifts could never.
When have I aught exacted at your hands,
Kent to maintain, the King, the realm and you?
65
Large gifts have I bestowed on learned clerks
Because my book preferred me to the King:
And seeing ignorance is the curse of God,
Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven,
Unless you be possessed with devilish spirits,
70
You cannot but forbear to murder me.
This tongue hath parleyed unto foreign kings
For your behoof –
CADE Tut, when struck’st thou one blow in the field?
SAYE Great men have reaching hands; oft have I struck
75
Those that I never saw, and struck them dead.
GEORGE O monstrous coward! What, to come behind
folks?
SAYE
These cheeks are pale with watching for your good.
CADE Give him a box o’th’ ear, and that will make ’em
80
red again.
SAYE Long sitting to determine poor men’s causes
Hath made me full of sickness and diseases.
CADE Ye shall have a hempen caudle then and the help
of hatchet.
85
BUTCHER Why dost thou quiver, man?
SAYE The palsy and not fear provokes me.
CADE Nay, he nods at us, as who should say, ‘I’ll be even
with you.’ I’ll see if his head will stand steadier on a
pole, or no. Take him away and behead him.
90
SAYE Tell me, wherein have I offended most?
Have I affected wealth or honour? Speak.
Are my chests filled up with extorted gold?
Is my apparel sumptuous to behold?
Whom have I injured, that ye seek my death?
95
These hands are free from guiltless bloodshedding,
This breast from harbouring foul deceitful thoughts.
O, let me live!
CADE [aside] I feel remorse in myself with his words,
but I’ll bridle it. He shall die, an it be but for pleading
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so well for his life. – Away with him! He has a familiar
under his tongue; he speaks not i’God’s name. Go,
take him away, I say, and strike off his head presently;
and then break into his son-in-law’s house, Sir James
Crowmer, and strike off his head, and bring them both
105
upon two poles hither.
ALL It shall be done.
SAYE Ah, countrymen, if when you make your prayers
God should be so obdurate as yourselves,
How would it fare with your departed souls?
110
And therefore yet relent and save my life!
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 226
