Henry VI, Part II by William Shakespeare (trending books to read TXT) 📕

Cade hath gotten London bridge:
The citizens fly and forsake their houses:
The rascal people, thirsting after prey,
Join with the traitor, and they jointly swear
To spoil the city and your royal court. Buckingham Then linger not, my lord; away, take horse. King Come, Margaret; God, our hope, will succour us. Queen My hope is gone, now Suffolk is deceased. King Farewell, my lord: trust not the Kentish rebels. Buckingham Trust nobody, for fear you be betray’d. Say

The trust I have is in mine innocence,
And therefore am I bold and resolute. Exeunt.

Scene V

London. The Tower.

Enter Lord Scales upon the Tower, walking. Then enter two or three Citizens below. Scales How now! is Jack Cade slain? First Citizen No, my lord, nor likely to be slain; for they have won the bridge, killing all those that withstand them: the lord mayor craves aid of your honour from the Tower to defend the city from the rebels. Scales

Such aid as I can spare you shall command;
But I am troubled here with them myself;
The rebels have assay’d to win the Tower.
But get you to Smithfield and gather head,
And thither I will send you Matthew Goffe;
Fight for your king, your country and your lives;
And so, farewell, for I must hence again. Exeunt.

Scene VI

London. Cannon Street.

Enter Jack Cade and the rest, and strikes his staff on London-stone. Cade Now is Mortimer lord of this city. And here, sitting upon London-stone, I charge and command that, of the city’s cost, the pissing-conduit run nothing but claret wine this first year of our reign. And now henceforward it shall be treason for any that calls me other than Lord Mortimer. Enter a Soldier, running. Soldier Jack Cade! Jack Cade! Cade Knock him down there. They kill him. Smith If this fellow be wise, he’ll never call ye Jack Cade more: I think he hath a very fair warning. Dick My lord, there’s an army gathered together in Smithfield. Cade Come, then, let’s go fight with them: but first, go and set London bridge on fire; and, if you can, burn down the Tower too. Come, let’s away. Exeunt. 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; 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. Holland Aside. Mass, ’twill be sore law, then; for he was 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. 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. Holland Aside. Then we are like to have biting statutes, unless his teeth be pulled out. Cade And henceforward all things shall be in common. Enter a Messenger. Messenger 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 Mounsieur 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 whereas, before, our forefathers 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 endure 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 in a foot-cloth, dost thou not? Say What of that? 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 Caesar writ,
Is term’d the civil’st place of 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 moved me, gifts could never.
When have I aught exacted at your hands,
But 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:
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