Enter SIR HUMPHREY and WILLIAM STAFFORD, with drum and soldiers SIR HUMPHREY 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. WILLIAM STAFFORD But angry, wrathful, and inclined to blood, If you go forward; therefore yield, or die. CADE As for these silken-coated slaves, Ipass 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. SIR HUMPHREY Villain, thy father was a plasterer;And thou thyself a shearman, art thou not? CADE And Adam was a gardener. WILLIAM STAFFORD And what of that? CADE Marry, this: Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March.
Married the Duke of Clarence' daughter, did he not? SIR HUMPHREY Ay, sir. CADE By her he had two children at one birth. WILLIAM STAFFORD 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 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. SIR HUMPHREY And will you credit this base drudge's words, That speaks he knows not what? ALL Ay, marry, will we; therefore get ye gone. WILLIAM STAFFORD Jack Cade, the Duke of York hath taught you this. CADE [Aside] He lies, for I invented it myself.
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, well have the Lord Say's head for selling the dukedom of Maine. CADE And good reason; for thereby is England mained, 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 an eunuch:
and more than that, he can speak French; and therefore he is a traitor. SIR HUMPHREY 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, or no? ALL No, no; and therefore we'll have his head. WILLIAM STAFFORD Well, seeing gentle words will not prevail, Assail them with the army of the king. SIR HUMPHREY 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 WILLIAM STAFFORD and SIR HUMPHREY, and soldiers 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;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 to the fight, wherein SIR HUMPHREY and WILLIAM STAFFORDare slain. Enter CADE and the rest CADE Where's ****, 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 licence to kill for a hundred lacking one. DICK I desire no more. CADE And, to speak truth, thou deservest no less. This monument of the victory will I bear;Putting on SIR HUMPHREY'S brigandine 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. DICK If we mean to thrive and do good, break open the gaols and let out the prisoners. CADE Fear not that, I warrant thee. Come, let's march towards London.
Exeunt SCENE IV. London. The palace. Enter KING HENRY VI with a supplication, and the QUEEN with SUFFOLK'S head, BUCKINGHAM and Lord SAY QUEEN MARGARET 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? BUCKINGHAM What answer makes your grace to the rebels'
supplication? KING HENRY VI I'll send some holy bishop to entreat;For God forbid so many ****** 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. QUEEN MARGARET 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? KING HENRY VI Lord Say, Jack Cade hath sworn to have thy head. SAY Ay, but I hope your highness shall have his. KING HENRY VI How now, madam!
Still lamenting and mourning for Suffolk's death?
I fear me, love, if that I had been dead, Thou wouldst not have mourn'd so much for me. QUEEN MARGARET No, my love, I should not mourn, but die for thee.
Enter a Messenger KING HENRY VI How now! what news? why comest thou in such haste? Messenger 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:
Sir Humphrey Stafford and h is brother's death Hath given them heart and courage to proceed: