But to maintain the King, the realm, and you?
Large gifts have I bestowed on learned clerks
Because my book preferred me to the King,
And seeing ignorance is the curse of God,
Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.
Unless you be possessed with devilish spirits,
You cannot but forbear to murder me.
This tongue hath parleyed unto foreign kings
For your behoof—
CADE Tut, when struck’st thou one blow in the field?
SAYE
Great men have reaching hands. Oft have I struck
Those that I never saw, and struck them dead.
REBEL O monstrous coward! What, to come behind folks?
SAYE
These cheeks are pale for watching for your good—
CADE Give him a box o‘th’ ear, and that will make ’em red again.
⌈One of the rebels strikes Saye⌉
SAYE
Long sitting to determine poor men’s causes
Hath made me full of sickness and diseases.
CADE Ye shall have a hempen caudle, then, and the health o’th’ hatchet.
BUTCHER (to Saye) Why dost thou quiver, man?
SAYE
The palsy, and not fear, provokes me.
CADE Nay, he nods at us as who should say ‘I’ll be even with you’. I’ll see if his head will stand steadier on a pole or no. Take him away, and behead him.
SAYE
Tell me wherein have I offended most ?
Have I affected wealth or honour? Speak.
Are my chests filled up with extorted gold?
Is my apparel sumptuous to behold?
Whom have I injured, that ye seek my death?
These hands are free from guiltless bloodshedding,
This breast from harbouring foul deceitful thoughts.
O let me live!
CADE (aside) 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. (Aloud) Away with him—he has a familiar under his tongue; he speaks not a God’s name. Go, take him away, I say, to the Standard in Cheapside, and strike off his head presently; and then go to Mile End Green—break into his son-in-law’s house, Sir James Cromer, and strike off his head, and bring them both upon two poles hither.
ALL CADE’S FOLLOWERS It shall be done!
SAYE
Ah, countrymen, if, when you make your prayers,
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 ⌈the Butcher and⌉ one or two with the Lord Saye
The proudest peer in the realm shall not wear a head on his shoulders unless he pay me tribute. There shall not a maid be married but she shall pay to me her maidenhead, ere they have it. Married 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.
Enter a Rebel
REBEL O captain, London Bridge is afire!
CADE Run to Billingsgate and fetch pitch and flax and quench it.
Enter the Butcher and a Sergeant
SERGEANT Justice, justice, I pray you, sir, let me have justice of this fellow here.
CADE Why, what has he done?
SERGEANT Alas, sir, he has ravished my wife.
BUTCHER (to Cade) Why, my lord, he would have ’rested me and I went and entered my action in his wife’s proper house.
CADE Dick, follow thy suit in her common place. (To the Sergeant) You whoreson villain, you are a sergeant—you’ll take any man by the throat for twelve pence, and ’rest a man when he’s at dinner, and have him to prison ere the meat be out of his mouth. (To the Butcher) Go, Dick, take him hence: cut out his tongue for cogging, hough him for running, and, to conclude, brain him with his own mace.
Exit the Butcher with the Sergeant
REBEL My lord, when shall we go to Cheapside and take up commodities upon our bills?
CADE Marry, presently. He that will lustily stand to it shall go with me and take up these commodities following—item, a gown, a kirtle, a petticoat, and a smock.
ALL CADE’S FOLLOWERS O brave!
Enter two with the Lord Saye’s head and Sir James Cromer’s upon two poles
CADE But is not this braver? Let them kiss one another, for they loved well when they were alive.
⌈The two heads are made to kiss⌉
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 two with the heads. The others begin to follow⌉
Up Fish Street! Down Saint Magnus’ Corner! Kill and knock down! Throw them into Thames!
Sound a parley
What noise is this? Dare any be so bold to sound retreat or parley when I command them kill?
Enter the Duke of Buckingham and old Lord Clifford
BUCKINGHAM
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.
CLIFFORD
What say ye, countrymen, will ye relent
And yield to mercy whilst ‘tis offered you,
Or let a rebel 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.
They ⌈fling up their caps and⌉ forsake Cade
ALL CADE’S FoLLOwERS God save the King! God save the King!
CADE What, Buckingham and Clifford, are ye so brave? (To the rabble) And you, base peasants, do ye believe him? Will you needs be hanged with your pardons about your necks? Hath my sword, therefore, 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 freedom. 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.
ALL CADE’S FOLLOWERS We’ll follow Cade! We’ll follow Cade!
They run to Cade again
CLIFFORD
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?