* Are my chests fill'd up with extorted gold? * Is my apparel sumptuous to behold?

* Whom have I injur'd, that ye seek my death? * These hands are free from guiltless blood-shedding 14,

*This breast from harbouring foul deceitful thoughts. O, let me live!

* Cade. I feel remorse in myself with his words: * but I'll bridle it; he shall die, an it be but for * pleading so well for his life. Away with him! *he has a familiar 15 under his tongue; he speaks * not o'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 16, and strike off his head, and bring them both upon 'two poles hither.

*

All. It shall be done.

Say. Ah, countrymen! if when you make

prayers,

your

* God should be so obdurate 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 some, with LORD SAY.

The proudest peer in the realm shall not wear a head on his shoulders, unless he pay me tribute;

14 i. e. these hands are free from shedding guiltless or innocent blood.

15 A demon who was supposed to attend at call. So in Love's Labour's Lost: :

'Love is a familiar; there is no angel but love.'

16 It was William Crowmer, sheriff of Kent, whom Cade put to death. Lord Say and he had been previously sent to the Tower, and both, or at least the former, convicted of treason at Cade's mock commission of Oyer and Terminer at Guildhall. See W. of Wyrcester, p. 470.

there shall not a maid be married, but she shall pay to me her maidenhead ere they have it17: • Men shall hold of me in capite; and we charge and command, that their wives be as free as heart can wish, or tongue can tell.

Dick. My lord, when shall we go to Cheapside, and take up commodities upon our bills 18? Cade. Marry, presently. All. O brave!

Re-enter Rebels, with the Heads of LORD SAY and his Son-in-law.

Cade. But is not this braver?-Let them kiss one another 19, for 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 spoil of the city until night: for with these borne before us, instead of maces, will we ride through the streets; and, at every corner, have them kiss.-Away! [Exeunt.

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17 Alluding to an ancient usage, on which Beaumont and Fletcher have founded their play called The Custom of the Country. See Cowel's Law Dictionary, or Blount's Glossographia, 1681, in voce Marcheta. Blackstone is of opinion that it never prevailed in England, though he supposes it certainly did in Scotland. Boetius and Skene both mention this custom as existing in the time of Malcom III. A. D. 1057. Sir D. Dalrymple controverts the fact, and denies the actual existence of the custom; as does Whitaker in his History of Manchester. There are several ancient grants from our early kings to their subjects, written in rude verse, and empowering them to enjoy their lands as 'free as heart can wish or tongue can tell.' The authenticity of them, however, is doubtful. See Blount's Jocular Tenures.

18 An equivoque alluding to the halberts or bills borne by the rabble. Shakspeare has the same quibble in Much Ado about Nothing, Act iii. Sc. 3.

19 This may be taken from the Legend of Jack Cade in The Mirror for Magistrates, as Dr. Farmer observes; but both Hall and Holinshed mention the circumstance.

Alarum.

SCENE VIII. Southwark.

Enter CADE, and all his Rabblement. *Cade. Up Fish Street! down Saint Magnus' *Corner! kill and knock down! throw them into * Thames !—[A Parley sounded, then a Retreat.] * 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, with Forces.

'Buck. 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 pronounce free pardon to them all, • That will forsake thee, and go home in peace. Clif. What say ye, countrymen? will ye relent, 'And yield to mercy, whilst 'tis offer'd you; 'Or let a rabble lead you to your deaths?

Who 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 he his weapon at us, and pass by.

́All. God save the king! God save the king!

Cade. What, Buckingham, and Clifford, are ye so brave?--And you, base peasants, do ye believe him? will you needs be hanged with your 'pardons about your necks? Hath my sword there'fore broke through London Gates, that you should 'leave me at the White Hart in Southwark? I thought, ye would never have given out these arms, till you had recovered your ancient free

dom: but you are all recreants, and dastards; * and delight to live in slavery to the nobility. Let them break your backs with burdens, take your houses over your heads, ravish your wives and daughters before your faces; For me, I will • make shift for one; and so-God's curse 'light . upon you all!

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All. We'll follow Cade, we'll follow Cade.

Clif. 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 meanest of you earls and dukes?
Alas, he hath no home, no place to fly to;

• Nor knows he how to live, but by the spoil,
Unless by robbing of your friends, and us.
Wer't not a shame, that whilst you live at jar,
The fearful French, whom you late vanquished,
Should make a start o'er seas, and vanquish you?
Methinks, already, in this civil broil,

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'I see them lording it in London streets,

Crying-Villageois! unto all they meet.

• Better, ten thousand base-born Cades miscarry, 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:

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• Henry hath money, you are strong and manly; God on our side, doubt not of victory.

'All. A 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 hales them to a hundred mischiefs, and 'makes them leave me desolate. I see them lay their heads together, to surprise me: my sword make way for me, for here is no staying.-In despight of the devils and hell, have through the very midst of you! and heavens and honour be

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⚫ witness, that no want of resolution in me, but only "my followers' base and ignominious treasons, makes me betake me to my heels.

[Exit. 'Buck. 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 mean

To reconcile you all unto the king.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IX. Kenelworth Castle.

Enter KING HENRY, QUEEN MARGARET, and
SOMERSET, on the Terrace of the Castle.
*K. Hen. Was ever king that joy'd 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 old1:
*Was never subject long'd to be a king,
As I do long and wish to be a subject.

Enter BUCKINGHAM and CLIFFORD.

* Buck. Health, and glad tidings, to your majesty! * K. Hen. Why, Buckingham, is the traitor, Cade, surpris'd?

* Or is he but retir'd to make him strong?

Enter, below, a great number of CADE's Followers, with Halters about their Necks.

Clif. He's fled, my lord, and all his powers do yield;

And humbly thus, with halters on their necks,

So all the historians agree; and yet in Part I. Act iii. Sc. 4, King Henry is made to say:

'I do remember how my father said❜-a plain proof that the whole of that play was not written by the same hand as this.