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 head9,

  And thither I will send you Matthew Gough10.

  Fight for your king, your country, and your lives:

  And so, farewell, for I must hence again.

  Exeunt

  [Act 4 Scene 6]

  running scene 16

  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, of2 the

  city’s cost, the Pissing Conduit3 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 all

  [Act 4 Scene 7]

  running scene 17

  Alarums. Matthew Gough is slain, and all the rest [of his followers with him]. Then enter Jack Cade, with his company [including Dick, Smith and Holland]

  CADE    So, sirs: now go some and pull down the Savoy1:

  others to the Inns of Court2: down with them all.

  DICK    I have a suit unto your lordship.

  CADE    Be it a lordship4, thou shalt have it for that word.

  DICK    Only that the laws of England may come out of

  your mouth.

  Aside

  HOLLAND    Mass, ’twill be sore law, then; for he was.

  thrust in the mouth with a spear, and ’tis not whole8 yet.

  Aside

  SMITH    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.

  Aside

  HOLLAND    Then we are like to have biting14 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 Saye which

  sold the towns18 in France. He that made us pay one and twenty

  fifteens, and one shilling to the pound, the last subsidy19.

  Enter George [Bevis], with the Lord Saye

  To saye

  CADE    Well, he shall be beheaded for it ten times.—

  Ah, thou say, thou serge, nay, thou buckram21 lord! Now art

  thou within point-blank22 of our jurisdiction regal. What canst

  thou answer to my majesty for giving up of Normandy unto

  Mounsieur Basimecu24, the Dauphin of France? Be it known

  unto thee by these presence25, even the presence of Lord

  Mortimer, that I am the besom26 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 printing30

  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 usually33 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 to39

  live. Thou dost ride on a foot-cloth40, dost thou not?

  SAYE    What of that?

  CADE    Marry42, thou ought’st not to let thy horse wear a

  cloak, when honester men than thou go in their hose and43

  doublets.

  DICK    And work in their shirt too, as myself, for example,

  that am a butcher.

  SAYE    You men of Kent—

  DICK    What say you of Kent?

  SAYE    Nothing but this: ’tis ‘bona terra, mala gens’49.

  CADE    Away with him, away with him! He speaks Latin.

  SAYE    Hear me but speak, and bear51 me where you will:

  Kent, in the commentaries Caesar writ52,

  Is termed the civil’st place of this isle:

  Sweet is the country, because full of riches:

  The people liberal55, valiant, active, wealthy:

  Which makes me hope you are not void of pity.

  I sold not Maine, I lost not Normandy,

  Yet to recover them would lose my life.

  Justice with favour59 have I always done:

  Prayers and tears have moved me, gifts could never.

  When have I aught exacted61 at your hands,

  Kent to maintain, the king, the realm and you?

  Large gifts have I bestowed on learnèd clerks63,

  Because my book preferred me64 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,

  You cannot but forbear68 to murder me:

  This tongue hath parleyed unto69 foreign kings

  For your behoof70—

  CADE    Tut, when struck’st thou one blow in the field71?

  SAYE    Great men have reaching72 hands: oft have I struck

  Those that I never saw and struck them dead.

  BEVIS    O monstrous coward! What, to come behind74 folks?

  SAYE    These cheeks are pale for watching75 for your good.

  CADE    Give him a box o’th’ear and that will make ’em red

  again.

  SAYE    Long sitting to determine poor men’s causes78

  Hath made me full of sickness and diseases.

  CADE    Ye shall have a hempen caudle80, then, and the help

  of hatchet81.

  DICK    Why dost thou quiver, man?

  SAYE    The palsy83, and not fear, provokes me.

  CADE    Nay, he nods at us, as who should say, ‘I’ll be even84

  with you.’ I’ll see if his head will stand steadier on a pole, or

  no: take him away, and behead him.

  SAYE    Tell me: wherein have I offended most?

  Have I affected88 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?

  These hands are free from guiltless bloodshedding92,

  This breast from harbouring foul deceitful thoughts.

  O, let me live!

  Aside

  CADE    I feel remorse95 in myself with his words: but.

  I’ll bridle it: he shall die, an it be but96 for pleading so well for

  Aloud

  his life.— Away with him: he has a familiar97 under.

  his tongue: he speaks not a98 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 Cromer, and strike off his head,

  and bring them both upon two poles hither.

  ALL    It shall be done.

  SAYE    Ah, countrymen, if when you make your prayers,

  God should be so obdurate104 as yourselves,

  How would it fare with your departed souls?

  And therefore yet relent, and save my life.

  CADE    Away with him, and do as I command ye.

  Exeunt one or two with the Lord Saye

  The proudest peer in the realm shall not wear a head on his

  shoulders, unless he pay me tribute109: there shall not a maid

  be married, but she shall pay to me her maidenhead110 ere they

  have it: men shall hold of me in capite111. And we charge and

  command that their wives be as free112 as heart can wish or

  tongue can tell.

  DICK    My lord, when shall we go to Cheapside and take up

  commodities upon our bills115?

  CADE    Marry, presently.

  ALL    O, brave117!

  Enter one with the heads [of Saye and Cromer on poles]

  CADE    But is not this braver? Let them kiss one another, for

  The heads are made to kiss

  they loved well when they were alive. Now.

  part them again, lest they consult about the.

  giving up of some more towns in France. Soldiers, defer the

  spoil122 of the city until night: for with these borne before us,

  instead of maces123, will we ride through the streets, and at

  every corner have them kiss. Away!

  Exeunt

  [Act 4 Scene 8]

  running scene 17 continues

  Alarum and retreat. Enter again Cade and all his rabblement

  CADE    Up Fish Street, down St Magnus’ Corner1, kill and

  knock down: throw them into Thames!

  Sound a parley

  What noise is this I hear? Dare any be so bold to sound

  retreat or parley, when I command them kill?

  Enter Buckingham and old Clifford

  BUCKINGHAM    Ay, here they be that dare and will disturb thee:

  Know, Cade, we come ambassadors from the king

  Unto the commons whom thou hast misled,

  And here pronounce8 free pardon to them all

  That will forsake thee and go home in peace.

  CLIFFORD    What say ye, countrymen? Will ye relent

  And yield to mercy whilst ’tis offered you,

  Or let a rabble lead you to your deaths?

  Who13 loves the king and will embrace his pardon,

  Fling up his cap, and say ‘God save his majesty!’

  Who hateth him, and honours not his father,

  Henry the Fifth, that made all France to quake,

  Shake he17 his weapon at us and pass by.

  ALL    God save the king! God save the king!

  CADE    What, Buckingham and Clifford, are ye so brave19?—

  To the rabble

  And you, base peasants, do ye believe him? Will.

  you needs be hanged with your pardons about your necks?

  Hath my sword therefore broke through London gates, that

  you should leave me at the White Hart23 in Southwark? I

  thought ye would never have given out24 these arms till you

  had recovered your ancient freedom. But you are all recreants25

  and dastards26, and delight to live in slavery to the nobility. Let

  them break your backs with burdens, take your houses over

  your heads, ravish28 your wives and daughters before your

  faces. For me, I will make shift for one29, and so God’s curse

  light upon you all.

  They run to Cade again

  ALL    We’ll follow Cade, We’ll follow Cade!

  CLIFFORD    Is Cade the son of Henry the Fifth,

  That thus you do exclaim you’ll go with him?

  Will he conduct you through the heart of France,

  And make the meanest35 of you earls and dukes?

  Alas, he hath no home, no place to fly to:

  Nor knows he how to live but by the spoil37,

  Unless by robbing of your friends and us.

  Were’t not a shame, that whilst you live at jar39,

  The fearful40 French, whom you late vanquishèd,

  Should make a start41 o’er seas and vanquish you?

  Methinks already in this civil broil42

  I see them lording it in London streets,

  Crying. ‘Villiago!’44 unto all they meet.

  Better ten thousand base-born Cades miscarry45

  Than you should stoop unto a Frenchman’s mercy.

  To France, to France, and get what you have lost:

  Spare England, for it is your native coast:

  Henry hath money, you are strong and manly:

  God on our side, doubt not of victory.

  ALL    A51 Clifford, a Clifford! We’ll follow the king and Clifford.

  CADE    Was ever feather so lightly blown to and fro as this

  multitude? The name of Henry the Fifth hales53 them to an

  hundred mischiefs, and makes them leave me desolate. I see

  them lay their heads together to surprise55 me. My sword make

  way for me, for here is no staying: in despite56 of the devils and

  hell, have through57 the very middest of you: and heavens and

  honour be witness, that no want of resolution in me, but

  only my followers’ base and ignominious treasons, makes

  me betake me60 to my heels.

  Exit

  BUCKINGHAM    What, is he fled? Go, some, and follow him,

  And he that brings his head unto the king

  Shall have a thousand crowns for his reward.

  Exeunt some of them

  Follow me, soldiers: we’ll devise a mean64

  To reconcile you all unto the king.

  Exeunt all

  [Act 4 Scene 9]

  running scene 18

  Sound Trumpets. Enter King [Henry VI], Queen [Margaret] and Somerset on the terrace [above]

  KING HENRY VI    Was ever king that joyed1 an earthly throne,

  And could command no more content than I?

  No sooner was I crept out of my cradle

  But I was made a king at nine months old.

  Was never subject longed to be a king

  As I do long and wish to be a subject.

  Enter Buckingham and Clifford

  BUCKINGHAM    Health and glad tidings to your majesty.

  KING HENRY VI    Why, Buckingham, is the traitor Cade surprised8?

  Or is he but retired9 to make him strong?

  Enter [below] Multitudes with halters about their necks

  CLIFFORD    He is fled, my lord, and all his powers10 do yield,

  And humbly thus with halters on their necks,

  Expect your highness’ doom12 of life or death.

  KING HENRY VI    Then, heaven, set ope13 thy everlasting gates,

  To entertain14 my vows of thanks and praise.

  Soldiers, this day have you redeemed your lives,

  And showed how well you love your prince and country:

  Continue still in this so good a mind,

  And Henry, though he be infortunate18,

  Assure yourselves, will never be unkind:

  And so, with thanks and pardon to you all,

  I do dismiss you to your several countries21.

  ALL    God save the king! God save the king!

  Enter a Messenger

  MESSENGER    Please it your grace to be advertisèd23

  The Duke of York is newly24 come from Ireland,

  And with a puissant25 and a mighty power

  Of galloglasses and stout kerns26

  Is marching hitherward in proud array27,

  And still28 proclaimeth, as he comes along,

  His arms are only to remove from thee

  The Duke of Somerset, whom he terms a traitor.

  KING HENRY VI    Thus stands my state31, ’twixt Cade and York distressed,

  Like to a ship that, having scaped a tempest,

  Is straightway calmed33 and boarded with a pirate.

  But now is Cade driven back, his men dispersed,

  And now is York in arms to second35 him.

  I pray thee, Buckingham, go and meet him,

  And ask him what’s the reason of37 these arms:

  Tell him I’ll send Duke Edmund38 to the Tower,

  And, Somerset, we will commit thee thither,

  Until his army be dismissed from him.

  SOMERSET    My lord,

  I’ll yield myself to prison willingly,

  Or unto death, to do my country good.

  KING HENRY VI    In any case, be not too rough in terms44,

  For he is fierce and cannot brook45 hard language.