CADE. Knock him down there.' [They kill him.

SMITH. If this fellow be wife, he'll never call you Jack Cade more; I think, he hath a very fair K warning.

DICK. My lord, there's an army gather'd together in Smithfield.

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CADE. Come then, let's go fight with them: But, firft, go and fet London-bridge on fire; and, if you can, burn down the Tower too. Come, let's away. [Excunt.

SECNE VII.

The fame. Smithfield.

Alarum. Enter, on one fide, CADE and his company; on the other, Citizens, and the king's forces, headed by Matthew Gough. They fight; the citizens are routed, and Matthew Gough is fain.

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CADE. So, firs:Now go fome and pull down the Savoy; others to the inns of court; down with them all.

7 Knock him down there.] So, in Holinfhed, p. 634: "He alfo put to execution in Southwark diverfe perfons, fome for breaking his ordinance, and other being his old acquaintance, left they fhould bewraie his bafe linage, difparaging him for his ufurped furname of Mortimer." STEEVENS.

- Jet London-bridge on fire;] At that time London-bridge was made of wood. After that, (fays Hall) he entered London and cut the ropes of the draw-bridge. The houfes on Londonbridge were in this rebellion burnt, and many of the inhabitants perished. MALONE.

9 Matthew Gough. experience in feats of chivalrie, fpent his time in fervice of the p. 635. STEEVENS.

"A man of great wit and much the which in continuall warres had king and his father. Holinfhed,

go fome and pull down the Savoy; ] This trouble had been

DICK. I have a fuit unto your lordship.

CADE. Be it a lordship, thou fhall have it for that word.

• DICK. Only, that the laws of England may come out of your mouth.

3

JOHN. Mafs, 'twill be fore law then; for he was thrust in the mouth with a fpear, and 'tis not 'whole yet. [Afide. SMITH. Nay, John, it will be stinking law; for his breath ftinks with eating toafted cheese.

[Afide.

⚫ CADE. I have thought upon it, it fhall be fo. Away, burn all the records of the realm; my mouth fhall be the parliament of England. *JOHN. Then we are like to have biting statutes, unless his teeth be pull'd out.

[Afide.

faved Cade's reformers by his predeceffor Wat Tyler. It was never re-edifyed, till Henry VII. founded the hofpital. RITSON.

3 that the laws of England may come out of your mouth.] Tis alludes to what Holinfhed has related of Wat Tyler, p. 432. "It was reported, indeed, that he should faie with great pride, putting his bands to his lips, that within four daies all the laws of England should come foorth of his mouth.

TYRWHITT.

'twill he fore law then; ] This poor jeft has already occurred in The Tempeft, fcene the laft:

"You'd be king of the ifle, firrah?

-

"I should have been a fore one then. "

STEEVENS.

- Away, burn all the records of the realm; Little more then half a century had elapfed from the time of writing this play, before a fimilar propofal was actually made in parliament. Bishop Burnet in his life of Sir Matthew Hale fays; "Among the other extravagant motions made in this parliament (i. e. One of Oliver Cromwell's) one was to deftroy all the records in the Tower, and to settle the nation on a new foundation; fo he (Sir M. Hale) took this province to himself, to fhow the madnefs of this propofition, the injuftice of it, and the mifchiefs that would follow on it; and did it with fuch clearness and ftrength of reafon as not only fatisfied all fober perfons (for it may be fuppofed that was foon done) but Ropt even the mouths of the frantic people themselves." REED,

* CADE. And henceforward all things fhall be

in common.

6

Enter a Meffenger.

MES. My lord, a prize! a prize! here's the lord Say, which fold the towns in France; * he that made us pay one and twenty fifteens, and one fhilling to the pound, the last subsidy.

6

Enter George Bevis, with the Lord SAY.

'CADE. Well, he fhall be beheaded for it ten times. Ah, thou fay, thou ferge, nay, thou buckram lord: now art thou within point-blank

one and twenty fifteens, ]This capteine (Cade) affured them if either by force or policie they might get the king and queene into their hands, he would cause them to be honourably ufed, and take fuch order for the punishing and reforming of the mifdemeanours of their bad councellours, that neither fifteens fhould hereafter be demanded, nor anie impofitions or taxes be fpoken of. Holinfhed. Vol. II. p. 632. A fifteen was the fifteenth part of all the moveables or perfonal property of each fubje&.

MALONE.

thou fay, thou ferge,] Say was the old word for filk: on this depends the series of degradation, from Say to ferge, from fergo to buckram. JOHNSON.

This word occurs in Spenfer's Faerie Queen, B. I. c. iv;

All in a kirtle of difcolour'd Jay

"He clothed was.

Again, in his Perigot and Cuddy's Roundelay:

And in a kirtle of green Jay."

It appears, however, from the following paffage in The Faery Queen, B. III. c. ii, that fay was not filk:

"His garment neither was of filk nor fay." STEEVENS. It appears from Minfheu's DICT. 1617, that say was a kind of ferge. It is made entirely of wool. There is a confiderable manufadory of Jay at Sudbury near Colchefter. This ftuff is frequently dyed green, and is yet used by fome mechanicks in aprons.

MALONE.

of our jurifdiction regal. What canft thou anfwer to my majefty, for giving up of Normandy unto mounfieur Bafimecu, the dauphin of France ? Be it known unto thee by thefe prefence, even the prefence of lord Mortimer, that I am the befom that must sweep the court clean of fuch filth as • thou art. Thou haft moft traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm, in erecting a grammarfchool: and whereas, before, our fore-fathers had no other books but the fcore and the tally, thou haft caufed printing to be used; and, contrary

9

mounfieur Bafimecu,] Shakspeare probably wrote Baifermycu, or, by a defigned corruption, Bafemycu, in imitation of his original, where also we find a word half French, half English, – Monfieur Buffminecu."

2

MALONE.

-

printing to be used; ] Shakspeare is a little too early with this accufation. JOHNSON.

Shakspeare might have been led into this miftake by Daniel, in the fixth book of his Civil Wars, who introduces printing and artillery as contemporary inventions :

Let there be found two fatal inftruments, "The one to publish, th' other to defend "Impious contention, and proud difcontents; "Make that inftamped characters may fend "Abroad to thousands thoufand men's intents; "And, in a moment, may dispatch much more "Than could a world of pens perform before. Shakspeare's abfurdities may always be countenanced by thofe of writers nearly his contemporaries.

In the tragedy of Herod and Antipater, by Gervafe Markham and William Sampfon who were both scholars, is the following paffage : Though cannons roar, yet you must not be deaf.

་

Spenfer mentions cloth made at Lincoln during the ideal reign of K. Arthur, and has adorn'd a caftle at the fame period with cloth of Arras and of Toure." Chaucer introduces guns in the time of Antony and Cleopatra, and (as Mr. Warton has obferved) Salvator Rofa places a cannon at the entrance of the tent of Holofernes. STEEVENS.

Mr Meerman, in his Origines Typographica, hath availed himself of this paffage in Shakspeare, to fupport his hypothefis, that

1

3

to the king, his crown, and dignity, thou haft built a paper-mill. It will be proved to thy face, that thou haft men about thee, that ufually talk of a noun, and a verb; and fuch abominable ⚫ words, as no chriflian ear can endure to hear. Thou haft appointed juftices of peace, to call poor men before them about matters they were not able to anfwer. Moreover, thou haft put them in prison; and, because they could not read, thou haft hang'd them; 5 when, indeed, only for that cause they have been moft worthy to live. Thou doft ride on a foot-cloth, doft thou not?

SAY. What of that?

CADE. Marry, thou ought'ft not to let thy horfe wear a cloak,' when honefter men than thou go in

their hofe and doublets.

printing was introduced into England (before the time of Caxton) by Frederic Corfellis, a workman from Haerlem, in the time of Heury VI. BLACKTSTONE.

3

is the

contrary to the king, his crown, &c.] "Against the peace of the faid lord the now king, his crown, and diguity, regular language of indictments. MALONE.

4

to call poor men before them about matters they were not able to answer. The old Play reads, with more humour," to hang honeft men that fleal for their living." MALONE because they could not read, thou haft is, they were hanged because they could not clergy. JOHNSON.

5

6

hang'd them; ] That claim the benefit of

Thou dost ride on a foot-cloth,] A footcloth was a horfe with housings which reached as low as his feet. So, in the tragedy of Muleaffes the Turk, 1610:

"I have feen, fince my coming to Florence, the fon of a pedlar mounted on a foolcloth.

STEEVENS.

A foot-cloth was a kind of housing, which covered the body of the borse, and almoft reached the ground. It was fometimes made

of velvet, and bordered with gold lace.