'Is term'd the civil'st place of all this isle: 'Sweet is the country, because full of riches; 'The people liberal, valiant, active, wealthy; 'Which makes me hope you are not void of pity. 'I sold not Maine, I lost not Normandy; * Yet, to recover them, would lose my life. * Justice with favour have I always done; * Prayers and tears have mov'd me, gifts could never. * When have I aught exacted at your hands, * Kent to maintain, the king, the realm, and you? * Large gifts have I bestow'd on learned clerks, *Because my book preferr'd me to the king: And-seeing ignorance is the curse of God, Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven,—— * Unless you be possess'd with devilish spirits, * You cannot but forbear to murder me. *This tongue hath parley'd unto foreign kings * Cade. Tut! when struck'st thou one blow in * the field? Say. Great men have reaching hands: oft have * Those that I never saw, and struck them dead. * Say. These cheeks are pale for watching for your good. *Cade. Give him a box o'the ear, and that will * make 'em red again. * Say. 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 pap of a hatchet. 'Dick. Why dost thou quiver, man? Say. The palsy, and not fear, povoketh 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. * Say. Tell me, wherein I have offended most? *Have I affected wealth, or honour; speak? * Are my chests fill'd up with extorted gold? * Is my apparel sumptuous to behold? * Whom have I injur'd, that ye seek my death? *These hands are free from guiltless blood-shed ding, * This breast from harbouring foul deceitful thoughts. * O, let me live! * Cade. 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. Away with him! * he has a familiar under his tongue; he speaks * not o'God's name. 'Go, take him away, I say, and strike off his head presently; and then 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. It shall be done. *Say. Ah, countrymen! if when prayers, you make your God should be so obdurate as yourselves, * How would it fare with your departed souls? *And therefore yet relent, and save my life. ye. * Cade. Away with him, and do as I command [Exeunt some, with Lord Say. '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: 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. 'Dick. My lord, when shall we go to Cheapside, ' and take up commodities upon our bills? 'Cade. Marry, presently. All. O brave! Re-enter Rebels, with the heads of Lord Say and his son-in-law. 'Cade. But is not this braver?-Let them kiss ' one another, for they loved well, when they were 'alive. 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. SCENE VIII. SOUTHWARK. Alarum. Enter Cade, and all his rabblement. *Cade. Up Fish-street! down saint Magnus' * corner! kill and knock down! throw them into * Thames!- [A parley sounded, then a retreat. * What noise is this I hear? Dare any be so bold * to sound retreat or parley, when I command them * kill? Enter Buckingham, and old Clifford, with forces. 'Buck. 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. 'Clif. What say ye, countrymen? will ye relent, "And yield to mercy, whilst 'tis offer'd you; 'Or let a rabble 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. 'All. God save the king! God save the king! 'Cade. What, Buckingham, and Clifford, are ye so brave?-And you, base peasants, do ye believe him? will you needs be hang'd with your par 'dons 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 recover'd 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. We'll follow Cade, we'll follow Cade. 'Clif. 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? Alas, he hath no home, no place to fly to; 'Nor knows he how to live, but by the spoil, 'Unless by robbing of your friends, and us. 'Wer't not a shame, that, whilst you live at jar, The fearful French, whom you late vanquished, 'Should make a start o'er seas, and vanquish you? 'Methinks, already, in this civil broil, 'I see them lording it in London streets, Crying-Villageois! unto all they meet. Better, ten thousand base-born Cades miscarry, 'Than you should stoop unto a Frenchman's mercy. To France, to France, and get what you have lost; 'Spare England, for it is your native coast: Henry hath money, you are strong and manly; 'God on our side, doubt not of victory. |