SCENE II. Blackheath. The Second part of King Henry the Sixth  Shakespeare homepage  |  Henry VI, part 2  | Act 4, Scene 2 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE II. Blackheath. 

 Enter GEORGE BEVIS and JOHN HOLLAND  BEVIS  Come, and get thee a sword, though made of a lath; 

 they have been up these two days. 

 HOLLAND  They have the more need to sleep now, then. 

 BEVIS  I tell thee, Jack Cade the clothier means to dress 

 the commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new nap upon it. 

 HOLLAND  So he had need, for 'tis threadbare. Well, I say it 

 was never merry world in England since gentlemen came up. 

 BEVIS  O miserable age! virtue is not regarded in handicrafts-men. 

 HOLLAND  The nobility think scorn to go in leather aprons. 

 BEVIS  Nay, more, the king's council are no good workmen. 

 HOLLAND  True; and yet it is said, labour in thy vocation; 

 which is as much to say as, let the magistrates be 

 labouring men; and therefore should we be 

 magistrates. 

 BEVIS  Thou hast hit it; for there's no better sign of a 

 brave mind than a hard hand. 

 HOLLAND  I see them! I see them! there's Best's son, the 

 tanner of Wingham,-- 

 BEVIS  He shall have the skin of our enemies, to make 

 dog's-leather of. 

 HOLLAND  And Dick the Butcher,-- 

 BEVIS  Then is sin struck down like an ox, and iniquity's 

 throat cut like a calf. 

 HOLLAND  And Smith the weaver,-- 

 BEVIS  Argo, their thread of life is spun. 

 HOLLAND  Come, come, let's fall in with them. 



 Drum. Enter CADE, DICK the Butcher, SMITH the Weaver, and a Sawyer, with infinite numbers  CADE  We John Cade, so termed of our supposed father,-- 

 DICK  [Aside]  Or rather, of stealing a cade of herrings. 

 CADE  For our enemies shall fall before us, inspired with 

 the spirit of putting down kings and princes, 

 --Command silence. 

 DICK  Silence! 

 CADE  My father was a Mortimer,-- 

 DICK  [Aside]  He was an honest man, and a good 

 bricklayer. 

 CADE  My mother a Plantagenet,-- 

 DICK  [Aside]  I knew her well; she was a midwife. 

 CADE  My wife descended of the Lacies,-- 

 DICK  [Aside]  She was, indeed, a pedler's daughter, and 

 sold many laces. 

 SMITH  [Aside]  But now of late, notable to travel with her 

 furred pack, she washes bucks here at home. 

 CADE  Therefore am I of an honourable house. 

 DICK  [Aside]  Ay, by my faith, the field is honourable; 

 and there was he borne, under a hedge, for his 

 father had never a house but the cage. 

 CADE  Valiant I am. 

 SMITH  [Aside]  A' must needs; for beggary is valiant. 

 CADE  I am able to endure much. 

 DICK  [Aside]  No question of that; for I have seen him 

 whipped three market-days together. 

 CADE  I fear neither sword nor fire. 

 SMITH  [Aside]  He need not fear the sword; for his coat is of proof. 

 DICK  [Aside]  But methinks he should stand in fear of 

 fire, being burnt i' the hand for stealing of sheep. 

 CADE  Be brave, then; for your captain is brave, and vows 

 reformation. There shall be in England seven 

 halfpenny loaves sold for a penny: the three-hooped 

 pot; shall have ten hoops and I will make it felony 

 to drink small beer: all the realm shall be in 

 common; and in Cheapside shall my palfrey 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 

 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 forward the Clerk of Chatham  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 villain! 

 SMITH  Has 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 court-hand. 

 CADE  I am sorry for't: the man is a proper man, of mine 

 honour; unless I find him guilty, he shall not die. 

 Come hither, sirrah, I must examine thee: what is thy name? 

 Clerk  Emmanuel. 

 DICK  They use to write it on the top of letters: 'twill 

 go hard with you. 

 CADE  Let me alone. Dost thou use to write thy name? or 

 hast thou a mark to thyself, like an honest 

 plain-dealing man? 

 CLERK  Sir, I thank God, I have been so well brought up 

 that I can write my name. 

 ALL  He hath confessed: away with him! he's a villain 

 and a traitor. 

 CADE  Away with him, I say! hang him with his pen and 

 ink-horn about his neck. 



 Exit one with the Clerk 

 Enter MICHAEL  MICHAEL  Where's our general? 

 CADE  Here I am, thou particular fellow. 

 MICHAEL  Fly, fly, fly! Sir Humphrey Stafford and his 

 brother are hard by, with the king's forces. 

 CADE  Stand, villain, stand, or I'll fell thee down. He 

 shall be encountered with a man as good as himself: 

 he is but a knight, is a'? 

 MICHAEL  No. 

 CADE  To equal him, I will make myself a knight presently. 



 Kneels  Rise up Sir John Mortimer. 



 Rises  Now have at him! 



 Enter SIR HUMPHREY and WILLIAM STAFFORD, with drum and soldiers  SIR HUMPHREY  Rebellious hinds, the filth and scum of Kent, 

 Mark'd for the gallows, lay your weapons down; 

 Home to your cottages, forsake this groom: 

 The king is merciful, if you revolt. 

 WILLIAM STAFFORD  But angry, wrathful, and inclined to blood, 

 If you go forward; therefore yield, or die. 

 CADE  As for these silken-coated slaves, I pass not: 

 It is to you, good people, that I speak, 

 Over whom, in time to come, I hope to reign; 

 For I am rightful heir unto the crown. 

 SIR HUMPHREY  Villain, thy father was a plasterer; 

 And thou thyself a shearman, art thou not? 

 CADE  And Adam was a gardener. 

 WILLIAM STAFFORD  And what of that? 

 CADE  Marry, this: Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March. 

 Married the Duke of Clarence' daughter, did he not? 

 SIR HUMPHREY  Ay, sir. 

 CADE  By her he had two children at one birth. 

 WILLIAM STAFFORD  That's false. 

 CADE  Ay, there's the question; but I say, 'tis true: 

 The elder of them, being put to nurse, 

 Was by a beggar-woman stolen away; 

 And, ignorant of his birth and parentage, 

 Became a bricklayer when he came to age: 

 His son am I; deny it, if you can. 

 DICK  Nay, 'tis too true; therefore he shall be king. 

 SMITH  Sir, he made a chimney in my father's house, and 

 the bricks are alive at this day to testify it; 

 therefore deny it not. 

 SIR HUMPHREY  And will you credit this base drudge's words, 

 That speaks he knows not what? 

 ALL  Ay, marry, will we; therefore get ye gone. 

 WILLIAM STAFFORD  Jack Cade, the Duke of York hath taught you this. 

 CADE  [Aside]  He lies, for I invented it myself. 

 Go to, sirrah, tell the king from me, that, for his 

 father's sake, Henry the Fifth, in whose time boys 

 went to span-counter for French crowns, I am content 

 he shall reign; but I'll be protector over him. 

 DICK  And furthermore, well have the Lord Say's head for 

 selling the dukedom of Maine. 

 CADE  And good reason; for thereby is England mained, and 

 fain to go with a staff, but that my puissance holds 

 it up. Fellow kings, I tell you that that Lord Say 

 hath gelded the commonwealth, and made it an eunuch: 

 and more than that, he can speak French; and 

 therefore he is a traitor. 

 SIR HUMPHREY  O gross and miserable ignorance! 

 CADE  Nay, answer, if you can: the Frenchmen are our 

 enemies; go to, then, I ask but this: can he that 

 speaks with the tongue of an enemy be a good 

 counsellor, or no? 

 ALL  No, no; and therefore we'll have his head. 

 WILLIAM STAFFORD  Well, seeing gentle words will not prevail, 

 Assail them with the army of the king. 

 SIR HUMPHREY  Herald, away; and throughout every town 

 Proclaim them traitors that are up with Cade; 

 That those which fly before the battle ends 

 May, even in their wives' and children's sight, 

 Be hang'd up for example at their doors: 

 And you that be the king's friends, follow me. 



 Exeunt WILLIAM STAFFORD and SIR HUMPHREY, and soldiers  CADE  And you that love the commons, follow me. 

 Now show yourselves men; 'tis for liberty. 

 We will not leave one lord, one gentleman: 

 Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon; 

 For they are thrifty honest men, and such 

 As would, but that they dare not, take our parts. 

 DICK  They are all in order and march toward us. 

 CADE  But then are we in order when we are most 

 out of order. Come, march forward. 



 Exeunt  Shakespeare homepage  |  Henry VI, part 2  | Act 4, Scene 2 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene 