Dick. 4 They use to write it on the top of letters:

'twill go hard with you.

Cade. Let me alone. Doft thou ufe to write thy name? or haft thou a mark to thyself like an honest plain dealing man?

Clerk. Sir, I thank God, I have been fo well brought up, that I can write my name.

All. He hath confeft; away with him; he's a villain and a traitor.

Cade. Away with him, I fay; hang him with his pen and ink horn about his neck.

[Exit one with the clerk.

Enter Michael.

Mich. Where is our General ?

Cade. Here I am, thou particular fellow.

Mich. Fly, fly, fly; Sir Humphry Stafford and his brother are hard by with the King's forces.

Cade. Stand, villain, stand, or I'll fell thee down; he fhall be encounter'd with a man as good as himself. He is but a knight, is a'?

Mich. No.

Cade. To equal him, I will make my felf a knight prefently? rife up, Sir John Mortimer. Now have at him. Is there any more of them that be knights? Mich. Ay, his brother.

Cade. Then kneel down, Dick Butcher. Rife up, Sir Dick Butcher. Now found the drum.

up

SCENE III.

Enter Sir Humphry Stafford, and young Stafford, with drum and foldiers.

Staf. Rebellious hinds, the filth and fkum of Kent, Mark'd for the gallows, lay your weapons down, Home to your cottages, forfake this groom;

The King is merciful, if you revolt.

Y. Staf. But angry, wrathful, and inclin'd to blood, If you go forward; therefore yield, or die.

4 They ufe to write it on the top of letters :] i. e. of letters miffive, and fuch like publick acts. Sec Mabillon's Diplomata.

Cade.

Cade. As for these filken-coated flaves, 5 I pass net; 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 plaisterer,
And thou thy felf a fhearman, art thou not?
Cade. And Adam was a gardener.

Y. Staf. And what of that?

Cade. Marry, this.

Edmund Mortimer Earl of

March married the Duke of Clarence's daughter, did

he not?

Staf. Ay, Sir.

Cade. By her he had two children at one birth.
Y. Staf. That's falfe.

Cade. Ay, there's the queftion; but I fay, 'tis true: The elder of them being put to nurse,

Was by a beggar-woman ftol'n away;

And, ignorant of his birth and parentage,
Became a bricklayer when he came to age:
His fon am I; deny it if you can.

Dick, Nay, 'tis too true, therefore he shall be King. Weav. 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 bafe drudge's words, That fpeaks he knows not what?

All. Ay, marry, will we; therefore get you gone. Y. Staf. Jack Cade, the Duke of York hath taught you this.

Cade. He lies, for I invented it my felf. Go to, firrah, tell the King from me, that for his father's fake Henry the fifth (in whofe time boys went to fpancounter 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 felling the Dukedom of Maine.

Cade. And good reafon; for thereby is England maim'd, and fain to go with a staff, but that my puif

5

-I pass not ;] i. e. I regard not. A common phrase of that time. The Oxford Editor reads, I pass them.

fance

fance holds it up. Fellow-Kings, I tell you, that that Lord Say hath gelded the common-wealth, and made it an eunuch; and more than that, he can speak French, and therefore he is a traitor.

Staf. O grofs and miferable ignorance!

Cade. Nay, anfwer if you can: the Frenchmen are our enemies go to then; I ask but this; can he, that speaks with the tongue of the enemy, be a good counsellor or no?

All. No, no, and therefore we'll have his head.

Y. Staf. Well, feeing gentle words will not prevail, Affail 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 childrens' fight)
Be hang'd up for example at their doors;

And

you, that be the King's friends, follow me.

[Exeunt the two Staffords with their Train.
Cade. And you that love the commons, follow me.
Now fhew yourselves men, 'tis for liberty.
We will not leave one lord, one gentleman;
Spare none, but fuch as go in clouted fhoone,
For they are thrifty honeft men, and fuch

As would (but that they dare not) take our parts.
Dick. They are all in order, and march towards us.
Cade. But then are we in order, when we are most
out of order. Come, march forward.

[Exeunt Cade and his party. [Alarum to fight, wherein both the Staffords are lain. Re-enter Cade and the reft.

Cade. Where's Dick, the butcher of Afford?

Dick. Here, Sir.

Cade. They fell before thee like sheep and oxen, and thou behaved'ft thy felf as if thou hadft been in thine own flaughter houfe; therefore thus I will reward thee: the lent fhall be as long as it is, and thou fhalt have a licenfe to kill for a hundred lacking one.

Dick. I defire no more.

Cade. And to fpeak truth, thou deferv't no lefs.

This monument of the victory will I bear, and the bodies fhall be dragg'd at my horfe's heels, 'till I do come to London, where we will have the mayor's fword borne before us.

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

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

SCENE ÍV.

Changes to Black-Heath.

Enter King Henry with a fupplication, and Queen Margaret with Suffolk's head, the Duke of Buckingham, and the Lord Say.

Q. Mar.

FT have I heard, that grief foftens the mind,

OFT

And makes it fearful and degenerate;

Think therefore on revenge, and ceafe 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' fupplication?

K. Henry. I'll fend fome holy bishop to intreat; For God forbid, fo many fimple fouls

Should perifh by the fword. And I my felf,

Rather than bloody war fhould cut them short,
Will parly with Jack Cade their general.
But ftay, I'll read it over once again.

Q. Mar. Ah, barbarous villains! hath this lovely face

Rul'd like a wandring planet over me,
And could it not enforce them to relent,
That were unworthy to behold the fame?

K. Henry. Lord Say, Jack Cade hath fworn to have thy head.

Say Ay, but I hope, your highness shall have his.
K. Henry. How now, Madam?

Lamenting fill, and mourning Suffolk's death?

Ifear me, love, if that I had been dead,

Thou wouldeft not have mourn'd fo much for me.

Q Mar. My love, I fhould not mourn, but die for thee.

Enter a Melenger.

K. Henry. How now? what news? why com'ft thou in fuch hafte?

Mef. The rebels are in Southwark; fly, my Lord
Jack Cade proclaims himself Lord Mortimer,
Defcended from the Duke of Clarence' houfe,
And calls your Grace ufurper openly,
And vows to crown himself in Weftminfler.
His army is a ragged multitude

Of hinds and peasants, rude and merciless:
Sir Humphry Stafford and his brother's death
Hath given them heart, and courage to proceed:
All scholars, lawyers, courtiers, gentlemen,
They call falfe caterpillars, and intend their death.
K, Henry. O graceless men! they know not what
they do.

Buck. My gracious Lord, retire to Killingworth,
Until
a power be rais'd to put them down.

Q. Mar. Ah! were the Duke of Suffolk now alive, Thele Kentish rebels fhould be foon appeas'd.

K. Henry. Lord Say, the traitors hate thee,
Therefore away with us to Killingworth.

Say. So might your Grace's perfon be in danger:
The fight of me is odious in their eyes;
And therefore in this city will I ftay,

And live alone as fecret as I may.

Enter another Messenger.

2 Mef. Jack Cade hath gotten London-bridge,
The citizens fly him, and forfake their houses ;
The rafcal people, thirfting after prey,
Join with the traitor; and they jointly swear
To spoil the city and your royal court.

Buck. Then linger not, my lord; away, take horse.
K. Henry. Come, Margret, God our hope will fuc

cour us.

Q. Mar. My hope is gone, now Suffolk is deceas'd.

K. Henry,