Alarum. Enter, on one side, CADE and his Company; on the other, Citizens, and the King's Forces, headed by MATTHEW GOUGH. They fight; the Citizens are routed, and MATTHEW GOUGH is slain.

Cade. So, sirs:-Now go some and pull down the Savoy; others to the inns of court; down with them all.

Dick. I have a suit unto your lordship.

Cade. Be it a lordship thou shalt have it for that word.

Dick. Only, that the laws of England may come out of your mouth.

John. Mass, 'twill be sore law then; for he was thrust in the mouth with a spear, and 'tis not < whole yet.

[Aside. Smith. Nay, John, it will be stinking law; for his breath stinks with eating toasted cheese. [Aside. Cade. I have thought upon it, it shall be so. Away, burn all the records of the realm; my 'mouth shall be the parliament of England.

* John. Then we are like to have biting statutes, * unless his teeth be pulled out. [Aside. * Cade. And henceforward all things shall be in * common.

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. My lord, a prize, a prize! here's the lord Say, which sold the towns in France; * he that * made us pay one and twenty fifteens, and one * shilling to the pound, the last subsidy.

Enter GEORGE BEVIS, with the Lord SAY.

Cade. Well, he shall be beheaded for it ten times,-Ah, thou say, thou serge, nay, thou 'buckram lord! now art thou within point-blank of our jurisdiction regal. What canst thou answer to my majesty, for giving up of Normandy unto ' monsieur Basimecu, the dauphin of France? Be it "known unto thee by these presence, even the presence ' of lord Mortimer, that I am the besom that must sweep the court clean of such filth as thou art. Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of "the realm, in erecting a grammar-school: and where6 as, before, our fore-fathers had no other books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used? and, contrary to the king, his crown and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill. It will be proved to thy face, that thou hast men about thee, that usually talk of a noun, and a verb; and ⚫ such abominable words, as no Christian ear can en'dure to hear. Thou hast appointed justices of peace, to call poor men before them about matters they were not able to answer. Moreover, thou hast put them in prison; and because they could not read, thou hast hanged them; when, indeed, 'only for that cause they have been most worthy to live. Thou dost ride on a foot-cloth,1 dost thou not?

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one and twenty fifteens,] A fifteen was the fifteenth part of all the moveables or personal property of each subject. thou say, thou serge,] Say was the old word for silk ; on this depends the series of degradation, from say to serge, from serge to buckram.

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printing to be used;] Shakspeare is a little too early with this accusation.

9 because they could not read, thou hast hanged them:] That is, they were hanged because they could not claim the benefit of clergy.

Thou dost ride on a foot-cloth,] A foot-cloth was a kind of

Say. What of that?

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Cade. Marry, thou oughtest not to let thy horse wear a cloak, when honester men than thou go in their hose and doublets.

*Dick. And work in their shirt too; as myself, * for example, that am a butcher. Say. You men of Kent,—

Dick. What say you of Kent?

Say. Nothing but this: "Tis bona terra, mala gens.

"Cade. Away with him, away with him! he speaks 'Latin.

* Say. Hear me but speak, and bear me where you will.

'Kent, in the commentaries Cæsar writ,

' 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.

housing, which covered the body of the horse, and almost reached the ground. It was sometimes made of velvet, and bordered with gold lace.

to let thy horse wear a cloak,] This is a reproach truly characteristical. Nothing gives so much offence to the lower ranks of mankind, as the sight of superfluities merely ostentatious.

* This tongue hath parley'd unto foreign kings *For your behoof,

*Cade. Tut! when struck'st thou one blow in * the field?

*Say. Great men have reaching hands: oft have I struck

* Those that I never saw, and struck them dead. *Geo. O monstrous coward! what, to come behind folks?

*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, provoketh 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 bc' head 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-shedding,+

*This breast from harbouring foul deceitful thoughts. 'O, let me live!

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for watching] That is, in consequence of watching. 4 These hands are free from guiltless blood-shedding,] Guiltless is not an epithet to blood-shedding, but to blood. These hands are free from shedding guiltless or innocent blood.

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* 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 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.

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.

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Dick. My lord, when shall we go to Cheapside, and take up commodities upon our bills?8

5 he shall die, an it be but for pleading so well for his life.] This sentiment is not merely designed as an expression of ferocious triumph, but to mark the eternal enmity which the vulgar bear to those of more liberal education and superior rank. The vulgar are always ready to depreciate the talents which they behold with envy, and insult the eminence which they despair to reach. STEEVENS. a familiar under his tongue;] A familiar is a dæmon who was supposed to attend at call.

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sir James Cromer,] It was William Crowmer, sheriff of Kent, whom Cade put to death. Lord Say and he had been previously sent to the Tower, and both, or at least the former, convicted of treason, at Cade's mock commission of oyer and terminer at Guildhall.

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