The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 5 of 9] · William Shakespeare
SCENE VII. _London. Smithfield_.
_Alarums._ MATTHEW GOFFE _is slain, and all the rest. Then enter_ JACK CADE, _with his company_. _Cade._ So, sirs: now go some and pull down the Savoy; [bdg001] others to the inns of court; down with them all. [bdg002] _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 ·bdg005· of your mouth. _Holl._ [_Aside_] Mass, ’twill be sore law, then; for he was [bdg007] thrust in the mouth with a spear, and ’tis not whole yet. _Smith._ [_Aside_] Nay, John, it will be stinking law; for his breath stinks with eating toasted cheese. [bdg010] _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. _Holl._ [_Aside_] Then we are like to have biting statutes, [bdg014] unless his teeth be pulled out. ·bdg015· _Cade._ And henceforward all things shall be in common. _Enter a_ Messenger. _Mess._ My lord, a prize, a prize! here’s the Lord Say, [bdg017] which sold the towns in France; he that made us pay one and [bdg018] twenty fifteens, and one shilling to the pound, the last subsidy. [bdg019] _Enter_ GEORGE BEVIS, _with the_ LORD SAY.
_Cade._ Tut, when struck’st thou one blow in the field? [bdg071] _Say._ Great men have reaching hands: oft have I struck Those that I never saw and struck them dead. [bdg073] _Geo._ O monstrous coward! what, to come behind folks? _Say._ These cheeks are pale for watching for your good. [bdg075] _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 [bdg080] help of hatchet. _Dick._ Why dost thou quiver, man? _Say._ The palsy, and not fear, provokes me. [bdg083] _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 ·bdg085· pole, or no. Take him away, and behead him. _Say._ Tell me wherein have I offended most? Have I affected wealth or honour? speak. Are my chests fill’d up with extorted gold? Is my apparel sumptuous to behold? ·bdg090· Whom have I injured, 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._ [_Aside_] I feel remorse in myself with his words; [bdg095] but I’ll bridle it: he shall die, an it be but for pleading so [bdg096] 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, [bdg098] I say, and strike off his head presently; and then break into his son-in-law’s house, Sir James Cromer, and strike [bdg100] off his head, and bring them both upon two poles hither.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.