Enter a Messenger.

K. Hen. How now! what news? why com'st thou in such
haste?

Mess. 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 :

All scholars, lawyers, courtiers, gentlemen,

They call false caterpillars, and intend their death.

K. Hen. O graceless men! they know not what they do. Buck. My gracious lord, retire to Killingworth,

Until a power be rais'd to put them down.

2. Mar. Ah, were the Duke of Suffolk now alive, These Kentish rebels would be soon appeas'd!

K. Hen. Lord Say, the traitor Jack Cade hateth 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 a second Messenger.

Sec. Mess. My lord, 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.

Buck.

K. Hen.

Then linger not, my lord; away, take horse.

Come, Margaret; God, our hope, will succour us. 2. Mar. My hope is gone, now Suffolk is deceas'd. K. Hen. [To Lord Say.] Farewell, my lord: trust not the Kentish rebels.

Buck. 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.

Geo.

SCENE II.-Smithfield.

Enter GEORGE BEVIS and JOHN HOLLAND.

Come, and get thee a sword, though made of a lath : they have been up these two days.

John. They have the more need to sleep now, then. Geo. I tell thee, Jack Cade the clothier means to dress the commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new nap upon it.

John. So he had need, for 'tis threadbare. Well, I say it was never merry world in England since gentlemen came up. Geo. O miserable age! virtue is not regarded in handicrafts-men.

John. The nobility think scorn to go in leather aprons. Geo. Nay, more, the king's council are no good workmen. John. 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.

Geo. Thou hast hit it; for there's no better sign of a brave mind than a hard hand.

John. I see them! I see them!

tanner of Wingham,

There's Best's son, the

Geo. He shall have the skins of our enemies, to make dog'sleather of.

John. And Dick the butcher,—

Geo.

Then is sin struck down like an ox, and iniquity's throat cut like a calf.

John. And Smith the weaver,

Geo. Argo, their thread of life is spun.

John.

Drum.

Cade.

Come, come, let's fall in with them.

Enter CADE, DICK the Butcher, SMITH the Weaver, and others in great number.

We John Cade, so termed of our supposed father,Dick. [Aside.] Or rather, of stealing a cade of herrings.

Cade.

Command silence.

Dick. [Aside.] He was a good bricklayer.

Cade.

Dick.

Cade.

Dick.

laces.

Cade.

My mother a Plantagenet,

[Aside.] I knew her well; she was a midwife.
My wife descended of the Lacies,—

[Aside.] She was a pedlar's daughter, and sold many

Therefore am I of an honourable house.

Dick. [Aside.] The field is honourable; and there was he born, under a hedge.

Cade. Valiant I am.

Smith. [Aside.] Beggary is valiant.

Cade. I am able to endure much.

Dick.

[Aside.] I have seen him whipped three market

days together.

Cade. I fear neither sword nor fire.

Dick. [Aside.] 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 in 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.

Cade.

Dick.

'Has a book in his pocket with red letters in't. Nay, then, he is a conjurer.

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?

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 inkhorn about his neck. [Exeunt some with the Clerk.

Enter MICHAEL.

Mich.

Cade.

Where's our general?

Here I am, thou particular fellow.

Mich. 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?

Mich. 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 STAFFORD and WILLIAM his brother, with drum and Forces.

Staf. 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.

W. Staf. But angry, wrathful, and inclin'd 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,

O'er whom, in time to come, I hope to reign;

For I am rightful heir unto the crown.

Staf. Villain, thy father was a plasterer;

And thou thyself a shearman,-art thou not?
Cade. And Adam was a gardener.
W. Staf.

What of that?

Cade. Marry, this :-Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, Married the Duke of Clarence' daughter.

Staf.

Ay, sir.

Cade. By her he had two children at one birth.
W. Staf. That's false.

Cade.

Ay, there's the question; I say 'tis true :

The elder of them, being put to nurse,
Was by a beggar-woman stol'n 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.
Smith.

Nay, 'tis too true; therefore he shall be king.

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. Staf. And will you credit this base drudge's words,

That speaks he knows not what?

All. Ay, marry, will we; therefore get ye gone.

W. Staf. 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, we'll 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.

VOL. II

H