6 It is impossible, that I should die By such a lowly vassal as thyself. Thy words move rage, and not remorse, in me 15: I go of message from the queen to France; I charge thee, waft me safely cross the channel. Cap. Walter, 'Whit. Come, Suffolk, I must waft thee to thy death. 16 * Suf. Gelidus timor occupat artus 16;—'tis thee I fear. Whit. Thou shalt have cause to fear, before I leave thee. What, are ye daunted now? now will ye stoop? 1 Gent. My gracious lord, entreat him, speak him fair. 'Suf. Suffolk's imperial tongue is stern and rough, Us'd to command, untaught to plead for favour. Far be it, we should honour such as these With humble suit; no, rather let my head Stoop to the block, than these knees bow to any, 'Save to the God of heaven, and to my king; And sooner dance upon a bloody pole, Than stand uncover'd to the vulgar groom. 15 This line in the original play is properly given to the captain. What remorse (i. e. pity) could Suffolk be called upon to show to his assailant; whereas the captain might with propriety say to his captive, Thy haughty language exasperates me, instead of exciting my compassion. Mr. Boswell is, I believe, mistaken in asserting that remorse was used in the modern sense. At least I find no instance where it is so used by Shakspeare. 16 The source from whence this line has been extracted has not yet been discovered. The following lines are the nearest which have been found in the Classic Poets: 'Subitus tremor occupat artus.' Virg. Æn. v. 446, 'Ille quidem gelidos radiorum viribus artus. Ovid. Metam. iv. 247, Navitæ, confessu gelido pallore timorem.' De Tristib. El, iii. 113, * True nobility is exempt from fear: • More can I bear, than you dare execute 17. 6 Cap. Hale him away, and let him talk no more. Suf. Come, soldiers, show what cruelty ye can 18, my death may never be forgot! "That this Great men oft die by vile bezonians 19: A Roman sworder and banditto slave, • Stabb'd Julius Cæsar; savage islanders, Pompey the Great 20: and Suffolk dies by pirates. [Exit SUF. with WHIT. and Others. Cap. And as for these whose ransome we have set, It is our pleasure, one of them depart: Therefore come you with us, and let him go. [Exeunt all but the first Gentleman. Re-enter WHITMORE, with SUFFOLK's Body. • Whit. There let his head and lifeless body lie 21, • Until the queen his mistress bury it. 17 I am able now, methinks (Out of a fortitude of soul I feel), To endure more miseries, and greater far, Again in Othello : [Exit. King Henry VIII. "Thou hast not half the power to do me harm, As I have to be hurt.' 18 According to the Letter in the Paston Collection, already cited, the cutting off of Suffolk's head was very barbarously performed. 'One of the lewdest of the ship bade him lay down his head, and he should be fairly ferd [dealt] with, and dye on a sword; and took a rusty sword and smote off his head within half a dozen strokes.' 19 A bezonian is a mean low person. See note on King Henry IV. Part II. Act v. Sc. 3. 20 Pompey was killed by Achillas and Septimius at the moment that the Egyptian fishing boat in which they were reached the coast, his head being thrown into the sea, a circumstance sufficiently resembling Suffolk's death to bring it to the poet's memory; though his mention of it is not quite accurate. old play Pompey is not named. In the that 21 They laid his body on the sands of Dover, and some say his head was set on a pole by it.'-Paston Letters, vol. i. p. 41. 1 Gent. O barbarous and bloody spectacle! His body will I bear unto the king: If he revenge it not, yet will his friends: [Exit, with the Body. SCENE II. Blackheath. Enter GEORGE BEVIS and JOHN HOLLAND, 'Geo. 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 up1. * Geo. O miserable age! Virtue is not regarded * in handycrafts-men. 6 '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. 1 The same phrase was used by the duke of Suffolk to Wolsey and Campeggio in the reign of Henry VIII. With that stepped forth the duke of Suffolk from the king, and by his commandment spake these words, with a stout and hault countenance"It was never merry in England (quoth he) whilst we had cardinals among us."" Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, p. 167, ed. 1825. * John. I see them! I see them! There's Best's the tanner of Wingham; son, * Geo. He shall have the skins of our enemies, * to make dog's leather 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. Come, come, let's fall in with them. Drum. Enter CADE, DICK the Butcher, SMITH the Weaver, and Others in great number. • Cade. We John Cade, so termed of our sup'posed father, Dick. Or rather, of stealing a cade of herrings?. • Cade. [Aside. for our enemies shall fall before us, inspired with the spirit of putting down kings and princes,-Command silence. Dick. Silence! Cade. My father was a Mortimer.— Dick. He was an honest man, and a good brick layer. [Aside. [Aside. Cade. My mother a Plantagenet,'Dick. I knew her well, she was a midwife. 2 Tom Nashe speaks of having weighed one of Gabriel Harvey's books against a cade of herrings, and ludicrously says, That the rebel Jack Cade was the first that devised to put red herrings in cades, and from him they have their name.'-Lenten Stuffe, 1599.-Cade, however, is derived from cadus, Lat. a cask. We may add, from the accounts of the Celeress of the Abbey of Barking, in the Monasticon Anglicanum, a barrel of herryng shold contain a thousand herryngs, and a cade of herryng six hundred, six score to the hundred.' Cade, with more learning than should naturally fall to his character, alludes to his name from cado, to fall. Cade. My wife descended of the Lacies,— Dick. She was indeed, a pedler's daughter, and sold many laces. [Aside. 'Smith. But, now of late, not able to travel with 'her furred pack, she washes bucks here at home. [Aside. 'Cade. Therefore am I of an honourable house. Dick. Ay, by my faith, the field is honourable; and there was he born, under a hedge; for his father had never a house, but the cage3. [Aside. *Cade. Valiant I am. * Smith. 'A must needs; for beggary is valiant. Cade. I am able to endure much. [Aside. Dick. No question of that; for I have seen him whipped three market days together. Cade. I fear neither sword nor fire. [Aside. Smith. He need not fear the sword, for his coat is of proof*. [Aside. Dick. But, methinks, he should stand in fear of fire, being burnt i'the hand for stealing of sheep. [Aside. Cade. Be brave then; for your captain is brave, and vows reformation. There shall be, in England, seven half-penny loaves sold for a penny: the threehooped pot shall have ten hoops5; and I will make it felony, to drink small beer: all the realm shall be in common, and in Cheapside shall my palfry go 3 Little places of prison, set commonly in the market place, for harlots and vagabonds, we call cages.'-Baret. A quibble is most probably intended between two senses of the word; one as being able to resist, the other as being well tried, that is, long worn. 5 These drinking vessels of our ancestors were of wood. Nash, in his Pierce Pennilesse, 1595, says, 'I believe hoopes in quart pots were invented to that end, that every man should take his hoope, and no more.' |