Complete Plays, The (266 page)

Enter some, bringing forward 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

Has 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 hither, sirrah, I must examine thee: what is thy name?

Clerk

Emmanuel.

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 ink-horn about his neck.

Exit one with the Clerk

Enter Michael

Michael

Where’s our general?

Cade

Here I am, thou 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 thee down. He shall be encountered with a man as good as himself: he is but a knight, is a’?

Michael

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 and William Stafford, with drum and soldiers

Sir Humphrey

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.

William Stafford

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.

Sir Humphrey

Villain, thy father was a plasterer;
And thou thyself a shearman, art thou not?

Cade

And Adam was a gardener.

William Stafford

And what of that?

Cade

Marry, this: Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March.
Married the Duke of Clarence’ daughter, did he not?

Sir Humphrey

Ay, sir.

Cade

By her he had two children at one birth.

William Stafford

That’s false.

Cade

Ay, 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.

Dick

Nay, ’tis 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.

Sir Humphrey

And will you credit this base drudge’s words,
That speaks he knows not what?

All

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

William Stafford

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, well 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.

Sir Humphrey

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.

William Stafford

Well, seeing gentle words will not prevail,
Assail them with the army of the king.

Sir Humphrey

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 hang’d up for example at their doors:
And you that be the king’s friends, follow me.

Exeunt William Stafford and Sir Humphrey, and soldiers

Cade

And 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.

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.

Exeunt

S
CENE
III. A
NOTHER
PART
OF
B
LACKHEATH
.

Alarums to the fight, wherein Sir Humphrey and William Stafford are slain. Enter Cade and the rest

Cade

Where’s Dick, the butcher of Ashford?

Dick

Here, sir.

Cade

They fell before thee like sheep and oxen, and thou behavedst thyself as if thou hadst been in thine own slaughter-house: therefore thus will I reward thee, the Lent shall be as long again as it is; and thou shalt have a licence to kill for a hundred lacking one.

Dick

I desire no more.

Cade

And, to speak truth, thou deservest no less. This monument of the victory will I bear;

Putting on Sir Humphrey’s brigandine

and the bodies shall be dragged at my horse’ heels till I do come to London, where we will have the mayor’s sword borne before us.

Dick

If we mean to thrive and do good, break open the gaols and let out the prisoners.

Cade

Fear not that, I warrant thee. Come, let’s march towards London.

Exeunt

S
CENE
IV. L
ONDON
. T
HE
PALACE
.

Enter King Henry VI with a supplication, and the Queen with Suffolk’s head, Buckingham and Lord Say

Queen Margaret

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:
But where’s the body that I should embrace?

Buckingham

What answer makes your grace to the rebels’ supplication?

King Henry VI

I’ll send some holy bishop to entreat;
For God forbid so many simple souls
Should perish by the sword! And I myself,
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 Margaret

Ah, barbarous villains! hath this lovely face
Ruled, like a wandering planet, over me,
And could it not enforce them to relent,
That were unworthy to behold the same?

King Henry VI

Lord Say, Jack Cade hath sworn to have thy head.

Say

Ay, but I hope your highness shall have his.

King Henry VI

How now, madam!
Still lamenting and mourning for Suffolk’s death?
I fear me, love, if that I had been dead,
Thou wouldst not have mourn’d so much for me.

Queen Margaret

No, my love, I should not mourn, but die for thee.

Enter a Messenger

King Henry VI

How now! what news? why comest thou in such haste?

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.
His army is a ragged multitude
Of hinds and peasants, rude and merciless:
Sir Humphrey Stafford and h is brother’s death
Hath given them heart and courage to proceed:
All scholars, lawyers, courtiers, gentlemen,
They call false caterpillars, and intend their death.

King Henry VI

O graceless men! they know not what they do.

Buckingham

My gracious lord, return to Killingworth,
Until a power be raised to put them down.

Queen Margaret

Ah, were the Duke of Suffolk now alive,
These Kentish rebels would be soon appeased!

King Henry VI

Lord Say, the traitors hate 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 another Messenger

Messenger

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.

Buckingham

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

King Henry VI

Come, Margaret; God, our hope, will succor us.

Queen Margaret

My hope is gone, now Suffolk is deceased.

King Henry VI

Farewell, my lord: trust not the Kentish rebels.

Buckingham

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

S
CENE
V. L
ONDON
. T
HE
T
OWER
.

Enter Scales upon the Tower, walking. Then enter two or three Citizens below

Scales

How now! is Jack Cade slain?

First 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.

Scales

Such aid as I can spare you shall command;
But I am troubled here with them myself;
The rebels have assay’d to win the Tower.
But get you to Smithfield, and gather head,
And thither I will send you Matthew Goffe;
Fight for your king, your country and your lives;
And so, farewell, for I must hence again.

Exeunt

S
CENE
VI. L
ONDON
. C
ANNON
S
TREET
.

Enter 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, of 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 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

S
CENE
VII. L
ONDON
. S
MITHFIELD
.

Alarums. Matthew Goffe is slain, and all the rest. Then enter Cade, with his company.

Cade

So, sirs: now go some and pull down the Savoy; others to the inns of court; down with them all.

Dick

I have a suit unto your lordship.

Cade

Be it a lordship, thou shalt have it for that word.

Dick

Only that the laws of England may come out of your mouth.

Holland

[Aside]
 
Mass, ’twill be sore law, then; for he was thrust in the mouth with a spear, and ’tis not whole yet.

Smith

[Aside]
 
Nay, John, it will be stinking law for his breath stinks with eating toasted cheese.