Drum. Enter CADE, DICK the Butcher, SMITH the Weaver, and others in great number.

Cade. We John Cade, so termed of our supposed father,Dick. Or, rather, of stealing a cade of herrings. [Aside. Cade. 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 bricklayer.

[Aside.

Cade. My mother a Plantagenet,

Dick. I knew her well; she was a midwife.

[Aside.

Cade. My wife descended of the Lacies,

Pick. 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 honorable house. Dick. Az, by my faith, the field is honorable; and there was he born, under a hedge; for his fathor had never a house, but the cage.

Cade. Valiant I am.

[Aside.

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.

[Aside.

Cade. I fear neither sword nor fire. 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 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)

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 honor; unless I find him guilty, he shall not die.Come hither, sirrah, I must examine thee. What is thy name?

Clerk. Emmanuel.

Diok. 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.

F

Enter SIR HUMPHREY STAFFORD and WILLIAM his Brother, with drum and Forces.

Staf. Rebellious hinds, the filth and scum of Kent, Marked for the gallows,-lay your weapons down; Home to your cottages; forsake this groom.The king is merciful, if you revolt.

W. Staf. But angry, wrathful, and inclined to blood, If you go forward; therefore yield, or die.

Cade. As for these silken-coated slaves, I pass 1pt; 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.

Staf. Villain, thy father was a plasterer;

And thou thyself a shearman, art thou not?
Cade. And Adam was a gardener.

W. Staf. And what of that?

Cade. Marry, this; - Edmund Mortimer, earl of March, Married the duke of Clarence' daughter: did he not? Staf. Ay, sir.

Cade. By her, he had two children at one birth.
W. Staf. 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 o 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.

Staf. 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.

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 that lord Say hath gelded

the commonwealth, and made it a eunuch; and more than that, he can speak French, and therefore he is a traitor. Staf. 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, cr no?

All. No, no; and therefore we'll have his head.
W. Staf. Well, seeing gentle words will not prevail,
Assail them with the army of the king.

Staf. 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 hanged 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 liborty.
We will not lave 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 ont
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, a week. Dick. I desire no more.

Cade. And, to speak truth, thou deservest no less. This monument of the victory will I bear; and the bodies shall be dragged at my horses' 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 jails, and let out the prisoners.

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

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. London. A Room in the Palace.

Enter KING HENRY, reading a supplication; the DUKE of BUCKINGHAM, and LORD SAY, with him; at a distance, QUEEN MARGARET, mourning over SUFFOLK's head.

Q. Mar. 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?

Buck. What answer makes your grace to the rebels' supplication?

K. Hen. 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.

Q. Mar. 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?

K. Hen. Lord Say, Jack Cade hath sworn to have thy head.
Say. Ay, but I hope your highness shall have his.
K. Hen. How now, madam? Still

Lamenting, and mourning for Suffolk's death?

I fear, my love, if that I had been dead,

Thou wouldest not have mourned so much for me.

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

thee.

Enter a Messenger.

K. Hen. How now! what news? why com'st thou in

such haste?

Mes. 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;