C

SCENE II.

Blackheath.

Enter GEORGE BEVIS and JOHN HOLLAND.

• Geo. Come, and get thee a sword,2 though made of a lath; they have been up these two days†.

John. They have the more need to sleep now then. Geo. I tell thee,3 Jack Cade the clothier means to "dress the commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new 'nap upon it.

4

John. So he had need, for 'tis threadbare. Well, I say, it was never merry world in England, since gentlemen came up.5

*Geo. O miserable age! Virtue is not regarded in handycrafts-men.

John. The nobility think scorn to go in leather aprons. *Geo. Nay more, the king's council are no good workmen.

* John. True; And yet it is said,-Labour in thy vo*cation: which is as much to say, as,-let the magis*trates be labouring men; and therefore should we be * magistrates.

*

* Geo. Thou hast hit it: for there 's no better sign of a brave mind, than a hard hand.

* John. I see them! I see them! There's Best's son, * the tanner of Wingham;

2

get thee a sword,] The quarto reads-Come away, Nick, and put a long staff in thy pike, &c.

Steevens

So afterwards, instead of "Cade the Clothier," we have in the quarto" Cade the dyer of Ashford." See the notes above referred Malone.

to.

3 I tell thee,] In the original play this speech is introduced more naturally. Nick asks George "Sirra George, what 's the matter?" to which George replies, “Why marry, Jack Cade,

the dyer of Ashford here," &c. Malone.

十一

they have been up these two days.] The country had

risen in arms. Am. Ed.

4 Well, I say, it was never merry world in England, &c.] The same phrase was used by the Duke of Suffolk in the time of Henry VIII: "Then stept forth the Duke of Suffolke from the King, and spake with a hault countenance these words: It was never merry in England (quoth hee) while we had any Cardinals among us," &c. Stowe's Chronicle, Fo. 1631, p. 546. Reed.

5

since gentlemen came up.] Thus we familiarly say-a fashion comes up. Steevens.

*Geo. He shall have the skins of our enemies, to * make dog's leather of.

John. And Dick the butcher,"

*Geo. Then is sin struck down like an ox, and ini*quity'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, so termed of our supposed 'father,

Dick. Or rather, of stealing a cade of herrings.7

[Aside.

Cade. for our enemies shall fall before us, in

6 And Dick the butcher,] In the first copy thus:

Why there's Dick the butcher, and Robin the sadler, and Will that come a wooing to our Nan last Sunday, and Harry and Tom, and Gregory that should have your parnell, and a great sort more, is come from Rochester and from Maidstone, and Canterbury, and all the towns hereabouts, and we must all be lords, or squires, as soon as Jack Cade is king. See p. 139, n. 6; p. 145, n. 8; p. 218, n. 1. and p. 223, n. 1. Malone.

7 -a cade of herrings.] That is, A barrel of herrings. I suppose the word keg, which is now used, is cade corrupted. Johnson.

A cade is less than a barrel. The quantity it should contain is ascertained by the accounts of the Celeress of the Abbey of Berking. "Memorandum that a barrel of herryng shold contene a thousand herryngs, and a cade of herryng six hundreth, six score to the hundreth." Mon. Ang. I, 83. Malone.

Nash speaks of having weighed one of Gabriel Harvey's books against a cade of herrings, and ludicrously says, "That the rebel Jacke Cade was the first that devised to put redde herrings in cades, and from him they have their name." Praise of the Red Herring, 1599. Cade, however, is derived from Cadus, Lat. a cask or barrel. Steevens.

8 — our enemies shall 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 passage, I think, should be regulated thus:

"Cade. We John Cade, so termed of our supposed father, for our enemies shall fall before us;

"Dick. Or rather of stealing a cade of herrings.

"Cade. Inspired with the spirit," &c. Tyrwhitt.

In the old play the corresponding passage stands thus:

spired with the spirit of putting down kings and princes,

-Command silence.

Dick. Silence!

Cade. My father was a Mortimer,

Dick. He was an honest man, and a good bricklayer.

• Cade. My mother a Plantagenet,

[Aside. • Dick. I knew her well, she was a midwife. [Aside. Cade. My wife descended of the Lacies, Dick. She was, indeed, a pedlar's daughter, and sold many laces. [Aside. Smith. But, now of late, not able to travel with her 'furr'd pack, she washes bucks here at home. [Aside. Cade. Therefore am I of an honourable house. Dick. Ay, by my faith, the field is honourable;1 and there was he born, under a hedge; for his father had never a house, but the cage.2

[Aside.

"Cade. I John Cade, so named for my valiancy,"Dick. Or rather for stealing of a cade of sprats." The transposition recommended by Mr. Tyrwhitt is so plausible, that I had once regulated the text accordingly. But Dick's quibbling on the word of (which is used by Cade, according to the phraseology of our author's time, for by, and as employed by Dick, signifies-on account of,) is so much in Shakspeare's manner, that no change ought, I think, to be made. If the words "Or rather of stealing," &c. be postponed to-" For our enemies shall fall before us," Dick then, as at present, would assert-that Cade is not so called on account of a particular theft; which indeed would correspond sufficiently with the old play; but the quibble on the word of, which appears very like a conceit of Shakspeare, would be destroyed. Cade, as the speeches stand in the folio, proceeds to assign the origin of his name without paying any regard to what Dick has said.

Of is used again in Coriolanus, in the sense which it bears in Cade's speech: "We have been called so of many." i. e. by many. Malone.

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-furred 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 "more was meant than meets the ear."

Malone.

1 the field is honourable;] Perhaps a quibble between field in its heraldick, and in its common acceptation, was designed. Steevens.

2

but the cage.] A cage was formerly a term for a prison. See Minsheu, in v. We yet talk of jail-birds. Malone.

*Cade. Valiant I am.

* Smith, 'A must needs; for beggary is valiant.

Cade. I am able to endure much.

[Aside.

Dick. No question of that; for I have seen him whipp'd three market days together.

Cade. I fear neither sword nor fire.

[Aside.

Smith. He need not fear the sword, for his coat is of proof.3 [Aside. Dick. But, methinks, he should stand in fear of fire, being burnt i' the hand for stealing of sheep. [Aside.

Cade. Be brave then; for your captain is brave, and vows reformation. There shall be, in England, seven half-penny loaves sold for a penny: the three-hoop'd pot shall have ten hoops ;4 and I will make it felony, to drink small beer: all the realm shall be in common, and in Cheapside shall my palfry go to grass. And, when I am king, (as king I will be).

All. God save your majesty!

Cade. I thank you, good people there shall be no money; all shall eat and drink on my score; and I will

There is scarce a village in England which has not a temporary place of confinement, still called The Cage. Steevens.

3

for his coat is of proof] A quibble between two senses of the word; one as being able to resist, the other as being welltried, that is, long worn

4

Hanmer.

the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops;] In The Gul's Horn-Booke, a satirical pamphlet by Deckar, 1609, hoops are mentioned among other drinking measures: his hoops, cans, half-cans," &c. And Nash, in his Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication to the Devil, 1595, says: "I believe hoopes in quart pots were invented to that end, that every man should take his hoope, and no

It appears from a passage in Cynthia's Revels, by Ben Jonson, that "burning of cans" was one of the offices of a city magisstrate. I suppose he means burning such as were not of statutable measure. Steevens.

An anonymous commentator supposed, perhaps with more truth, that "the burning of cans" was, marking them with a redhot iron, which is still practised by the magistrate in many country boroughs, in proof of their being statutable measure.-These cans it should be observed, were of wood. Henley.

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there shall be no money;] To mend the world by banishing money is an old contrivance of those who did not consider that the quarrels and mischiefs which arise from money, as the

apparel them all in one livery, that they may agree ‹ like brothers, and worship me their lord.

'Dick. The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. Cade. Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this a lamentable thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should be made parchment? that parchment, being scribbled o'er, should undo a man? Some say, the bee stings: but I say, 'tis the bee's wax, for I did but seal once to a thing, and I was never mine own man since. How now? who's there?

Enter some, bringing in the Clerk of Chatham.7

Smith. The clerk of Chatham: he can write and read, and cast accompt.

Cade. O monstrous!

Smith. We took him setting of boys' copies.

Cade. Here's a villian!

Smith. H'as a book in his pocket, with red letters in 't. Cade. Nay, then he is a conjurer.

Dick. Nay, he can make obligations, and write courthand.

Cade. I am sorry for 't: the man is a proper man, on ‹ mine honour ; unless I find him guilty, he shall not die.

sign or ticket of riches, must, if money were to cease, arise immediately from riches themselves, and could never be at an end till every man was contented with his own share of the goods of life. Johnson.

6 Is not this a lamentable thing, &c.] This speech was transposed by Shakspeare, it being found in the old play in a subsequent scene.

Malone.

7- the clerk of Chatham.] The person whom Shakspeare makes clerk of Chatham should seem to have been one Thomas Bayly, a reputed necromancer, or fortune-teller, at Whitechapel. He had formerly been a bosom friend of Cade's, and of the same profession. W. Wyrcester, p. 471. Ritson.

8 We took him &c.] We must suppose that Smith had taken the Clerk some time before, and left him in the custody of those who now bring him in. In the old play Will the weaver enters with the Clerk, though he has not long before been conversing with Cade. Perhaps it was intended that Smith should go out after his speech-ending, "for his coat is of proof:" but no Exit is marked in the old copy. It is a matter of little consequence. It is, I think, most probable that Will was the true name of this character, as in the old play, (so Dick, George, John, &c.) and that Smith, the name of some low actor, has crept into the folio by mistake. Malone.