Therefore, come you with us and (to his men, pointing

to the First Gentleman) let him go.

Exeunt all but the First Gentleman

Enter Whitmore with Suffolk’s head and body

WHITMORE

There let his head and lifeless body lie,

Until the Queen his mistress bury it. Exit

FIRST GENTLEMAN

O barbarous and bloody spectacle!

His body will I bear unto the King.

If he revenge it not, yet will his friends;

So will the Queen, that living held him dear.

Exit with Suffolk’s head and body

4.2 Enter two Rebels ⌈with long staves⌉

FIRST REBEL Come and get thee a sword, though made of a lath; they have been up these two days.

SECOND REBEL They have the more need to sleep now then.

FIRST REBEL I tell thee, Jack Cade the clothier means to dress the commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new nap upon it.

SECOND REBEL So he had need, for ‘tis threadbare. Well, I say it was never merry world in England since gentlemen came up.

FIRST REBEL O, miserable age! Virtue is not regarded in handicraftsmen.

SECOND REBEL The nobility think scorn to go in leather aprons.

FIRST REBEL Nay more, the King’s Council are no good workmen.

SECOND REBEL 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.

FIRST REBEL Thou hast hit it; for there’s no better sign of a brave mind than a hard hand.

SECOND REBEL I see them! I see them! There’s Best’s son, the tanner of Wingham—

FIRST REBEL He shall have the skins of our enemies to make dog’s leather of. SECOND REBEL And Dick the butcher—

FIRST REBEL Then is sin struck down like an ox, and iniquity’s throat cut like a calf.

SECOND REBEL And Smith the weaver—

FIRST REBEL Argo, their thread of life is spun.

SECOND REBEL Come, come, let’s fall in with them.

Enter Jack Cade, Dick the Butcher, Smith the

Weaver, a sawyer, ⌈and a drummer,⌉ with infinite

numbers, fall with long staves⌉

CADE We, John Cade, so termed of our supposed father—BUTCHER (to his fellows) Or rather of stealing a cade of herrings.

CADE For our enemies shall fall before us, inspired with the spirit of putting down kings and princes—command silence!

BUTCHER Silence!

CADE My father was a Mortimer—

BUTCHER (to his fellows) He was an honest man and a good bricklayer.

CADE My mother a Plantagenet—

BUTCHER (to his fellows) I knew her well, she was a midwife. CADE My wife descended of the Lacys—

BUTCHER (to his fellows) She was indeed a pedlar’s daughter and sold many laces.

WEAVER (to his fellows) But now of late, not able to travel with her furred pack, she washes bucks here at home. CADE Therefore am I of an honourable house.

BUTCHER (to his fellows) 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.

CADE Valiant I am—

WEAVER (to his fellows) A must needs, for beggary is valiant.

CADE I am able to endure much—

BUTCHER (to his fellows) No question of that, for I have seen him whipped three market days together.

CADE I fear neither sword nor fire.

WEAVER (to his fellows) He need not fear the sword, for his coat is of proof.

BUTCHER (to his fellows) But methinks he should stand in fear of fire, being burned i’th’ hand for stealing of sheep.

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 CADE’S FOLLOWERS 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.

BUTCHER 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 forth the Clerk of Chatham

WEAVER The Clerk of Chatham—he can write and read and cast account.

CADE O, monstrous!

WEAVER We took him setting of boys’ copies.

CADE Here’s a villain.

WEAVER He’s a book in his pocket with red letters in’t. CADE Nay, then he is a conjuror!

BUTCHER Nay, he can make obligations and write court hand.

CADE I am sorry for’t. The man is a proper man, of mine honour. Unless I find him guilty, he shall not die. Come hither, sirrah, I must examine thee. What is thy name?

CLERK Emmanuel.

BUTCHER They use to write that on the top of letters—‘twill go hard with you.

CADE Let me alone. (To the Clerk) 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 CADE’S FOLLOWERS 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. Exit one with the Clerk Enter a Messenger

MESSENGER Where’s our general? no CADE Here I am, thou particular fellow.

MESSENGER 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?

MESSENGER No.

CADE To equal him I will make myself a knight presently. He kneels and knights himself

Rise up, Sir John Mortimer. He rises

Now have at him! Enter Sir Humphrey Stafford and his brother, with a drummer and soldiers

STAFFORD (to Cade’s followers)

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.

STAFFORD’S BROTHER (to Cade’s followers)

But angry, wrathful, and inclined to blood,

If you go forward. Therefore, yield or die.

CADE (to his followers)

As for these silken-coated slaves, I pass not.

It is to you, good people, that I speak,

Over whom, in time to come, I hope to reign—

For I am rightful heir unto the crown.

STAFFORD

Villain, thy father was a plasterer

And thou thyself a shearman, art thou not?

CADE

And Adam was a gardener.

STAFFORD’S BROTHER And what of that?

CADE

Marry, this: Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March,

Married the Duke of Clarence’ daughter, did he not?