Cade. My father was a Mortimer,

Dick. He was an honest man, and a good brick

layer.

Cade. My mother a Plantagenet,-
Dick. I knew her well, she was a midwife.

[Aside.

[Aside.

Cade. My wife descended of the Lacies,Dick. She was, indeed, a pedlar'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 cage. [Aside.

*Cade. Valiant I am.

* Smith. 'A must needs; for beggary is valiant. [Aside.

Cade. I am able to endure much.

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 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 palfry go to grass. And, when I am king, (as king 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. H'as 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, on 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 inkhorn about his neck.

[Exeunt some with the Clerk.

Enter Michael.

'Mich. Where's our general?

'Cade. 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; Rise up sir John Mortimer. Now have ' at him.

Enter Sir Humphrey Stafford, and William hisbrother, with drum and forces.

* Staff. 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. Staff. 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.

Staff. Villain, thy father was a plasterer; And thou thyself, a shearman, Art thou not? Cade. And Adam was a gardener.

'W. Staff. And what of that?

Cade. Marry, this :-Edmund Mortimer, earl of March,

Married the duke of Clarence' daughter; Did he not? Staff Ay, sir.

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

(1) I pay them no regard.

Cade. Ay, there's the question; but, 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. 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.

Staff. 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. Staff. Jack Cade, the duke of York hath taught you this.

* Cade. He lies, for I invented it myself. [Aside.] -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.

4

Cade. And good reason; for thereby is England maimed, and fain to go with a staff, but that my puissance holds it up. Fellow kings, I tell you, 'that my 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.

Staff. O gross and miserable ignorance!

'Cade. Nay, answer, if you can: The French"men are 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. *W. Staff. Well, seeing gentle words will not prevail,

* Assail them with the army of the king.

VOL. V.

H

Staff. 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 the two Staffords, and forces. * 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 ;1 *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. SCENE III-Another part of Blackheath. Alarums. The two parties enter and fight, and both the Staffords are slain.

'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 license to kill for a hundred lacking one.

'Dick. I desire no more.

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

(1) Shoes.