ARKCODEX
Act IV, Scene 2
1Blackheath.
2Enter George Bevis and John Holland.
3BevisCome, and get thee a sword, though made of a lath: they have been up these two days.
4HollandThey have the more need to sleep now, then.
5BevisI tell thee, Jack Cade the clothier means to dress the commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new nap upon it.
6HollandSo he had need, for ’tis threadbare. Well, I say it was never merry world in England since gentlemen came up.
7BevisO miserable age! virtue is not regarded in handicrafts-men.
8HollandThe nobility think scorn to go in leather aprons.
9BevisNay, more, the king’s council are no good workmen.
10HollandTrue; 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.
11BevisThou hast hit it; for there’s no better sign of a brave mind than a hard hand.
12HollandI see them! I see them! there’s Best’s son, the tanner of Wingham—
13BevisHe shall have the skin of our enemies, to make dog’s-leather of.
14HollandAnd Dick the Butcher—
15BevisThen is sin struck down like an ox, and iniquity’s throat cut like a calf.
16HollandAnd Smith the weaver—
17BevisArgo, their thread of life is spun.
18HollandCome, come, let’s fall in with them.
19Drum. Enter Cade, Dick the Butcher, Smith the Weaver, and a Sawyer, with infinite numbers.
20CadeWe John Cade, so termed of our supposed father—
21DickAside. Or rather, of stealing a cade of herrings.
22CadeFor our enemies shall fall before us, inspired with the spirit of putting down kings and princes—Command silence.
23DickSilence!
24CadeMy father was a Mortimer—
25DickAside. He was an honest man, and a good bricklayer.
26CadeMy mother a Plantagenet—
27DickAside. I knew her well; she was a midwife.
28CadeMy wife descended of the Lacies—
29DickAside. She was, indeed, a peddler’s daughter, and sold many laces.
30SmithAside. But now of late, notable to travel with her furred pack, she washes bucks here at home.
31CadeTherefore am I of an honourable house.
32DickAside. 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.
33CadeValiant I am.
34SmithAside. A’ must needs; for beggary is valiant.
35CadeI am able to endure much.
36DickAside. No question of that; for I have seen him whipped three market-days together.
37CadeI fear neither sword nor fire.
38SmithAside. He need not fear the sword; for his coat is of proof.
39DickAside. But methinks he should stand in fear of fire, being burnt i’ the hand for stealing of sheep.
40CadeBe 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—
41AllGod save your majesty!
42CadeI 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.
43DickThe first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.
44CadeNay, 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?
45Enter some, bringing forward the Clerk of Chatham.
46SmithThe clerk of Chatham: he can write and read and cast accompt.
47CadeO monstrous!
48SmithWe took him setting of boys’ copies.
49CadeHere’s a villain!
50SmithHas a book in his pocket with red letters in’t.
51CadeNay, then, he is a conjurer.
52DickNay, he can make obligations, and write court-hand.
53CadeI 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?
54ClerkEmmanuel.
55DickThey use to write it on the top of letters: ’twill go hard with you.
56CadeLet me alone. Dost thou use to write thy name? or hast thou a mark to thyself, like an honest plain-dealing man?
57ClerkSir, I thank God, I have been so well brought up that I can write my name.
58AllHe hath confessed: away with him! he’s a villain and a traitor.
59CadeAway with him, I say! hang him with his pen and ink-horn about his neck. Exit one with the Clerk.
60Enter Michael.
61MichaelWhere’s our general?
62CadeHere I am, thou particular fellow.
63MichaelFly, fly, fly! Sir Humphrey Stafford and his brother are hard by, with the king’s forces.
64CadeStand, 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’?
65MichaelNo.
66CadeTo equal him, I will make myself a knight presently. Kneels. Rise up Sir John Mortimer. Rises. Now have at him!
67Enter Sir Humphrey Stafford and his Brother, with drum and soldiers.
68StaffordRebellious 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.
69BrotherBut angry, wrathful, and inclined to blood,
If you go forward; therefore yield, or die.
70CadeAs 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.
71StaffordVillain, thy father was a plasterer;
And thou thyself a shearman, art thou not?
72CadeAnd Adam was a gardener.
73BrotherAnd what of that?
74CadeMarry, this: Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March,
Married the Duke of Clarence’ daughter, did he not?
75StaffordAy, sir.
76CadeBy her he had two children at one birth.
77BrotherThat’s false.
78CadeAy, 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.
79DickNay, ’tis too true; therefore he shall be king.
80SmithSir, he made a chimney in my father’s house, and the bricks are alive at this day to testify it; therefore deny it not.
81StaffordAnd will you credit this base drudge’s words,
That speaks he knows not what?
82AllAy, marry, will we; therefore get ye gone.
83BrotherJack Cade, the Duke of York hath taught you this.
84CadeAside. 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.
85DickAnd furthermore, well have the Lord Say’s head for selling the dukedom of Maine.
86CadeAnd 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.
87StaffordO gross and miserable ignorance!
88CadeNay, 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?
89AllNo, no; and therefore we’ll have his head.
90BrotherWell, seeing gentle words will not prevail,
Assail them with the army of the king.
91StaffordHerald, 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 the two Staffords, and soldiers.
92CadeAnd 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.
93DickThey are all in order and march toward us.
94CadeBut then are we in order when we are most out of order. Come, march forward. Exeunt.