Act 4. Scene II

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