Dick. Why dost thou quiver, man?t 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 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-shedding," * 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 and the help of a hatchet.] I suppose, to cut him down after he has been hanged, or perhaps to cut off his head. The article (a hatchet) was supplied by the editor of the second folio. Malone. 4 Why dost thou_quiver, man? &c.] Otway has borrowed this thought in Venice Preserved: "Spinosa. You are trembling, sir. "Renault. 'Tis a cold night indeed, and I am aged, "Full of decay and natural infirmities." Peck, in his Memoirs of Milton, p. 250, gravely assures us that Lord Say's account of himself originates from the following ancient charm for an ague: "" - Pilate said unto Jesus, why shakest thou? And Jesus answered, the ague and not fear provoketh me. Steevens. Mr. Steevens, no doubt, satisfied himself that Otway borrowed the thought "you are trembling sir," from this passage ;—but a man of his education and indefatigable research, ought not to have rested here.-He might have traced this wonderful thought, or something very like it, to him who first observed the trembling produced by cold, fear, ague, or palsy! Am. Ed. 5 These hands are free from guiltless blood-shedding,] I formerly imagined that the word guiltless was misplaced, and that the poet wrote These hands are guiltless, free from blood-shedding. But change is unnecessary. Guiltless is not an epithet to bloodshedding, but to blood. These hands are free from shedding guiltless or innocent blood. So, in King Henry VIII: "For then my guiltless blood must cry against them." Malone. 6 he shall die, an it be but for pleading so well for his life This sentiment is not merely designed as an expression of fe * 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 pray ers, * God should be so obdurate as yourselves, * How would it fare with your departed souls? * And therefore yet relent, and save my life. *Cade. Away with him, and do as I command ye. [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 6 cious 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. 7 -a familiar under his tongue;] A familiar is a dæmon who was supposed to attend at call. So, in Love's Labour's Lost: "Love is a familiar; there is no angel but love." Steevens. 8 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. See W. Wyrcester, p. 470. Ritson. 9 shall pay to me her maidenhead &c.] Alluding to an ancient usage on which Beaumont and Fletcher have founded their play called The Custom of the Country. See Mr. Seward's note at the beginning of it. See also Cowell's Law Dict. in voce Marchet, &c. &c. &c. Steevens. Cowell's account of this custom has received the sanction of several eminent antiquaries; but a learned writer, Sir David Dalrymple, controverts the fact, and denies the actual existence of the custom. See Annals of Scotland. Judge Blackstone, in his Commentaries, is of opinion it never prevailed in England, though he supposes it certainly did in Scotland. Reed. See Blount's GLOSSOGRAPHIA, 8vo. 1681, in v. Marcheta. Hector Boethius and Skene both mention this custom as existing in Scotland till the time of Malcolm the Third, A. D. 1057. Malone. in capite; and we charge and command, that their wives be as free as heart can wish, or tongue can tell.2 • Dick. My lord, when shall we go to Cheapside, and 'take up commodities upon our bills?3 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 giv 1 in capite;] This equivoque, for which the author of the old play is answerable, is too learned for Cade. Malone. 2 or tongue can tell.] After this, in the old play, Robin enters to inform Cade that London bridge is on fire, and Dick enters with a serjeant; i. e. a bailiff; and there is a dialogue consisting of seventeen lines, of which Shakspeare has made no use whatsoever. Malone. 3 • take up commodities upon our bills;] Perhaps this is an equivoque alluding to the brown bills, or halberds, with which the commons were anciently armed. Percy. Thus, in the original play: "Nick. But when shall we take up those commodities which you told us of? "Cade. Marry, he that will lustily stand to it, shall take up "these commodities following, Item, a gown, a kirtle, a petti"coat, and a smocke." If The Whole Contention, &c. printed in 1600, was an imperfect transcript of Shakspeare's Second and Third Part of King Henry VI, (as it has hitherto been supposed to be) we have here another extraordinary proof of the inventive faculty of the transcriber.It is observable that the equivoque which Dr. Percy has taken notice of, is not found in the old play, but is found in Shakspeare's Much Ado about Nothing: "Ber. We are likely to prove a good commodity, being taken up of these men's bills. "Con. A Commodity in question, I warrant you." See Vol. IV, p. 244, n. 4. Malone. 4 Let them kiss one another,] This is from The Mirrour for Magistrates, in the legend of Jack Cade: With these two heads I made a pretty play, "For pight on poles I bore them through the strete, "And for my sport made each kisse other swete." Farmer. It is likewise found in Holinshed, p. 634: "and as it were in a spite caused them in every street to kisse together." Steevens « So also in Hall, Henry VI, folio 78. Malone. 'ing 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 par* ley, 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 Who loves the king, and will embrace his pardon, Clif. What say ye, countrymen? &c.] The variation in the orìginal play is worth nothing: "Why countrymen, and warlike friends of Kent, "That you in troops do muster thus yourselves, "All. A Clifford, a Clifford." [They forsake Cade. Here we have precisely the same versification which we find in all the tragedies and historical dramas that were written before the time of Shakspeare. Malone. 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 hanged with your pardons about your necks? Hath my sword therefore broke through Lon'don 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 recovered your an'cient 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 -God's curse 'light upon you all! ، 6 All. "We'll follow Cade, we 'll follow Cade. "That thus you do exclaim-you'll go with him I see them lording it in London streets, Better, ten thousand base-born Cades miscarry, • Henry hath money, you are strong and manly; 6 Villageois!] Old copy-Villiago. Theobald. cy; Malone. Corrected by Mr. 7 Henry hath money,] Dr. Warburton reads-Henry hath merbut he does not seem to have attended to the speaker's drift, which is to lure them from their present design by the hope of French plunder. He bids them spare England, and go to France, |