SCENE Blackheath. 11. Enter George Bevis and John Holland. 8 GEO. Come, and get thee a fword, though made of a lath; they have been up thefe two days. JOHN. They have the more need to fleep now then. GEO. I tell thee," Jack Cade the clothier means to drefs the commonwealth, and turn it, and fet a new nap upon it. JOHN. So he had need, for 'tis threadbare. Well, I fay, it was never merry world in England, fince gentlemen came up.2 GEO. O miferable age! Virtue is not regarded * in handycrafts-mén. JOHN. The nobility think scorn to go in lea⚫ther aprons. GEO. Nay more, the king's council are no good workmen. * JOHN. True; and yet it is faid,-Labour in get thee a fword.] The quarto reads-Come away Nick and put a long staff in thy pike, &c. STEEVENS. So afterwards, inftead of "Cade the clothier," we have in the quarto Cade the dyer of Afhford." See the notes above referred to: MALONE. 9 I tell thee, In the original play this fpeech is introduced more naturally. Nick afks George "Sirra George, what's the matter?" to which George replies, Why marry, 1k Cade, the dyer of Afhford here," &c. MALONE. 66 fince gentlemen came up. ] Thus we familiarly fay-a fafbion comes up. STEEVENS. *thy vocation: which is as much to fay, as,-let the magiftrates be labouring men; and therefore *fhould we be magiftrates. *GEO. Thou haft hit it: for there's no better * fign of a brave mind, than a hard hand. * JOHN. I fee them! I fee them! There's Beft's fon, the tanner of Wingham;- GEO. He fhall have the skins of our enemies, *to make dog's leather of. JOHN. And Dick the butcher,3. GEO. Then is fin ftruck down like an ox, and iniquity's throat cut like a calf. * JOHN. And Smith the weaver :— *GEO. Argo, their thread of life is spun. * JOHN. Come, come, let's fall in with them. Drum. Enter CADE, DICK the butcher, SMITH the weaver, and others in great number. CADE. We John Cade, fo term'd of our fuppofed father, DICK. Or rather, of ftealing a cade of herrings. 2 And Dick the butcher, ] In the firft copy thus: Why there's Dick the butcher, that came a wooing to our Nan laft [Afide. and Robin the fadler, and Will Sunday, and Harry and Tom, and Gregory that should have your parnell, and a great fort more, is come from Rochester and from Maidstone, and Canterbury, and all the towns hereabouts, and we must all be lords, or Squires, as foon as Jack Cade is king. See p. 190. n. 8; p. 198, n. 2; p. 294, n. 4, and p. 300 n. 6, MALONE. 3 . a cade of herrings..] That is, A barrel of herrings. I fuppofe the word keg, which is now ufed, is cade corrupted. JOHNSON. A cade is lefs than a barrel. The quantity it should contain is afcertained by the accounts of the Celerefs of the Abbey of Berking. Memorandum that a barrel of herryng fhold contene a thoufand 'CADE. for our enemies fhall fall before us, 4 inspired with the fpirit of putting down kings and princes, Command filence. DICK. Silence ! CADE. My father was a Mortimer, herryngs, and a cade of herryng fix hundreth, fix score to the hundreth,' Mon. Ang. I. 83. MALONE. Nafh fpeaks of having weighed one of Gabriel Harvey's books against a cade of herrings, and ludicrously fays, " That the rebel Jacke Cade was the firft that devised to put redde herrings in cades, and from him they have their name." Praife of the Red Herring, 1599. Cade, however, is derived from Cadus, Lat. a cask or barrel. STEEVENS. 4 our enemies fhall fall before us, ] He alludes to his name Cade, from cado, Lat. to fall. He has too much learning for his character. JOHNSON. We John Cade, &c. ] This paffage, I think, fhould by regulated thus: Cade. We John Cade, fo term'd of our fuppofed father, for our enemies fhall fall before us;~~ Dick. Or rather of ftealing a cade of herrings. Cade. Infpired with the spirit, &c. TYRWHITT. In the old play the corresponding paffage stands thus: Cade. I John Cade, fo named for my valiancy,— Dick. Or rather for ftealing of a cade of sprats. The tranfpofition recommended by Mr. Tyrwhitt is fo plaufible; that I had once regulated the text accordingly. But Dick's quibbling on the word of (which is ufed by Cade, according to the phrafeology of our author's time, for by, and as employed by Dick figaifies on account of.) is fo much in Shakspeare's manner, that no change ought, I think, to be made. If the words "Or rather of flealing," &c. be poftponed to-" For our enemies fhall fall: before us," Dick then, as at prefent, would affert that Cade is not so called on account of a particular theft; which indeed would correfpond fufficiently with the old play: but the quibble on the word of, which appears very like a conceit of Shakspeare, would be deftroyed. Cade, as the fpeeches ftand in the folio, proceeds to affign the origin of his name without paying any regard to what Dick has faid.. Of is used again in Coriolanus, in the fenfe which it bears in Cade's fpeech: We have been call'd fo of many." i. e. by many. MALONE. Dick He was an honeft man, and a good brick layer. [Afide. CADE. My mother a Plantagenet, DICK. I knew her well, she was a midwife. [Afide. CADE. My wife defcended of the Lacies.DICK. She was, indeed, a pedlar's daughter, and fold many laces. [Afide. SMITH. But, now of late, not able to travel with ' her furr'd pack, she washes bucks here at home. [Afide. 5 CADE. Therefore am I of an honourable houfe. DICK. 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. [Afide. *CADE. Valiant I am. 6 * SMITH. 'A muft needs; for beggary is valiant. [Afide. CADE. I am able to endure much. DICK. No queftion of that; for I have seen him whipp'd three market days together. [Afide. - 4 —— furr'd pack, ] A wallet or knapsack of skin with the hair outward. JOHNSON, In the original play the words are-" and now being not able to occupy her furred pack," under which perhaps › meant than meets the ear." MALONE. 5 more was the field is honourable ;] Perhaps a quibble between field in its heraldic, and in its common acceptation, was defigned. 6 STEEVENS. but the cage. A cage was formerly a term for a prison. See Minfheu, in v. We yet talk of jail-birds. MALONE. There is fcarce a village in England which has not a temporary place of confinement, ftill called The Cage. STEEVENS. CADE. I fear neither fword nor fire. SMITH. He need not fear the fword, for his coat is of proof.? 7 [Afide. DICK. But, methinks, he fhould ftand in fear of fire, being burnt i'the hand for stealing of sheep. [Afide. CADE. Be brave then; for your captain is brave, and vows reformation. There fhall be, in England, feven half-penny loaves fold for a penny: the threehoop'd pot fhall have ten hoops; and I will make it felony, to drink small beer: all the realin shall be in common, and in Cheapfide fhall my paifry go to grafs. And, when I am king, (as, king I will be) ALL. God fave your majesty! 8 CADE. I thank you, good people: there fhall be no money; all fhall eat and drink on my 7 9 - for his coat is of proof. ] A quibble between two fenfes of the word; one as being able to refift, the other as being well tried, that is, long worn. HANMER. 8 the three-hoop'd pot shall have ten hoops; ] In The Gul's Horn-Booke, a fatirical pamphlet by Deckar, 1609, hoops are mentioned among other drinking measures: " his hoops, cans, halfcans," &c. And Nafh, in his Pierce Pennileffe his Supplication to the Devil, 1595, fays: "I believe hoopes in quart pots were invented to that end, that every man should take his hoope, and no more." It appears from a paffage in Cynthia's Revels, by Ben Jonson, that burning of cans" was one of the offices of a city magiftrate. I fuppofe he means burning fuch as were not of ftatutable measure, STEFVENS. An anonymous commentator fuppofes, perhaps with more truth, that the burning of cans" was marking them with a red-bot iron, which is fill pradifed by the magiftrate in many country boroughs, in proof of their being ftatutable measure.-Thefe cans, it fhould be obferved, were of wood. HENLEY. 9 there fhall be no money;] To mend the world by banishing money is an old contrivance of those who did not confider that the quarrels and mifchiefs which arife from money, as the figa or ticket of riches, muft, if money were to cease, arife immediately |