་ ་ ་ I * DICK. And work in their fhirt too; as myself, for example, that am a butcher. SAY. You men of Kent, DICK. What fay you of Kent? SAY. Nothing but this: 'Tis bona terra, mola CADE. Away with him, away with him! hẹ speaks Latin. * SAY. Hear me but speak, and bear me where you will. Kent, in the commentaries Cæfar writ, Is term'd the civil'ft place of all this ifle: " Sweet is the country, becaufe full of riches; The people liberal, valiant, active, wealthy; Which makes me hope you are not void of pity. I fold not Maine, I loft not Normandy: chara&eriftical. Nothing gives fo much offence to the lower ranki of mankind, as the fight of fuperfluiues merely oftentatious. ceeds thus: JOHNSON. bona terra, mala gens. ] After this line the quarto pro "Cade. Bonum terrum, what's that? "Dick. He fpeaks French. "Will. No, 'tis Dutch. "Nick, No, 'tis Outalian: I know it well enough. Holinfhed has likewife ftigmatized the Kentish meu, p. 677The Kentish-men, in this feason (whose minds be ever moveable at the change of princes) &c. STEEVENS. 9 Is term'd the civilst place of all this ifle: ] So, in Cæfar's Comment. B. V. " Ex his omnibus funt humaniffimi qui Cantium” incolunt: " The paffage is thus tranflated by Arthur Golding, 1590. Of all the inhabitants of this ille, the civileft are the Kentishfolke. STEEVENS. So, in Lyly's Euphues and his England, 1580, a book which the author of The Whole Contention, &c. probably, and Shakspeare certainly, had read: "Of all the inhabitants of this ifle the Kentish men are the civileft." MALONE. * Yet, to recover them, would lofe my life. Prayers and tears have mov'd me, gilts could never. When have I aught exacted at your hands, * Kent to maintain, the king, the realm, and you? * Large gifts have I beftow'd on learned clerks, * Because my book preferr'd me to the king: *And-feeing ignorance is the curfe of God, * Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to hea 3 2 Yet, to recover them, &c.] I fufped that here as in a paffage in K. Henry V. (See a note on K. Henry V. A& IV. fc. iii. Vol. XIII.) Yet was mifprinted for Yea. MALONE. 3 When have I aught exacled at your hands, Kent 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.] This paffage I know not well how to explain. It is pointed [in the old copy ] lo as to make Say declare that he preferred clerks to maintain Kent and the king. This is not very clear; and, befides, he gives in the following line another reason of his bounty, that learning raised him, and therefore he fupported learning. I am inclined to think Kent flipped into this paffage by chance, and would read: When have I aught exacted at your hand, But to maintain the king, the realm, and you? JOHNSON. I concur with Dr. Johnson in believing the word Kent to have been fhuffled into the text by accident. Lord Say, as the paffage ftands in the folio, not only declares he had preferred men of learning to maintain Kent, the king, the realm, but adds tautologically you; for it should be remembered that they are Kentish men to whom he is now fpeaking. I would read, Bent to maintain, &c. i. e. Arenuously refolved to the utmoft, to &c. STEEVENS. The punctuation to which Dr. Johnfon alludes, is that of the folio: When have I aught exa&ed at your hands? Kent to maintain, the king, the realm, and you, Large gifts, have I beftow'd on learned clerks, &c. I have pointed the paffage differently, the former pun&uation appearing to me to render it nonfenfe. I fufped, however, with the preceding editors, that the word Kent is a corruption. MALONE, * Unless you be poffefs'd with devilifh fpirits, * You cannot but forbear to murder me. *This tongue hath parley'd unto foreign kings *For your behoof, * CADE. Tut! when ftruck'ft thou one blow in * the field? SAY. Great men have reaching hands: oft have I ftruck *Those that I never faw, and ftruck them dead. GEO. O monftrous coward! what, to come be hind folks? 4 SAY. Thefe cheeks are pale for watching for your good. *CADE. Give him a box o'the ear, and that will * make 'em red again. SAY. Long fitting to determine poor men's caufes *Hath made me full of fickness and difeafes. *CADE. Ye fhall have a hempen caudle then, and the pap of a hatchet, 5 for watching That is, in confequence of watching, So Sir John Davies: And fhuns it fill, although for thirft the die. ' The fecond folio and all the modern editions read- with watching. MALONE. 5 the pap of a hatchet. ] Old copy the help of a hatchet. But we have here, as Dr. Farmer obferved to me, a frange corruption. The help of a hatchet is little better than nonfeuse, and it is almost certain our author originally wrote pap with a hatchet; alluding to Lyly's pamphlet with the fame title, which made its appearance about the time when this play is fuppofed to have been written. STEEVENS. We should certainly read the pap of a hatchet; and are much indebted to Dr. Farmer for so just and happy an emendation. There is no need, however, to fuppofe any allufion to the title of a pamphlet: It has doubtless been a cant phrafe. So, in Lyly's Mother DICK. Why doft thou quiver, man? 6 SAY. The palfy, and not fear, provoketh me. CADE. Nay, he nods at us; as who fhould fay, I'll be even with you. I'll fee if his head will ftand fteadier on a pole, or no: Take him away, and behead him. SAY. Tell me, wherein I have offended moft? *Have I affected wealth, or honour; fpeak? *Are my chefts fill'd up with extorted gold? Is my apparel fumptuous to behold? * Whom have I injur'd, that ye feek my Thefe hands are free from guiltlefs blood-fhed ding," death? *This breaft. from harbouring foul deceitful thoughts. * O, let me live! Bombie: they giue us pap with a spoone before we can speake and when wee fpeake for that we loue, pap with a hatchet. RITSON. and the help of a hatchet.] I suppose, to cut him down after he has been hanged, or perhaps to cut off his head. The article (a hatchet) was fupplied by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. 6 Why dost thou quiver, man? &c.] Otway has borrowed this thought, in Venice preferved: Spinofa. You are trembling, fir... "Renault. 'Tis a cold night indeed, and I am aged, "Full of decay and natural infirmities." STEEVENS. 7 Thefe hands are free from guiltless blood-fhedding, I formerly imagined that the word guiltless was mifplaced, and that the poet Thefe hands are guiltless, free from blood-fhedding. But change is unneceffary. Guiltless is not an epithet to bloodShedding, but to blood. Thefe hands are free from shedding guiltlefs or innocent blood. So, in King Henry VIII: For then my guiltless blood must cry againft them. MALONE, * 8 *CADE. I feel remorfe in myfelf with his words; * but I'll bridle it; he fhall die, an it be but for pleading fo well for his life. Away with him! he has a familiar under his tongue; 9 he fpeaks not o'God's name. Go, take him away, I fay, and ftrike off his head prefently; and then break into his fon-in-law's houfe, Sir James Cromer,* and ftrike off his head, and bring them both upon two poles hither. ALL. It fhall be done. SAY. Ah, countrymen! if when you make your prayers, God fhould be fo obdurate as yourselves, How would it fare with your departed fouls? And therefore yet relent, and fave my life. *CADE. Away with him, and do as I command [Exeunt fome, with Lord SAY. The proudest peer in the realm fhall not wear a head on his fhoulders, unless he pay me tribute; there fhall not a maid be married, but fhe fhall ye. he fhall die, an it be but for pleading fo well for his life. ] This fentiment is not merely defigned as an expreffion of ferocious triumph, but to mark the eternal enmity which the vulgar bear to thofe of more liberal education and fuperior ránk. The vulgar ere always ready to depreciate the talents which they behold with envy, and infult the eminence which they despair to reach. 9 STEEVENS. --a familiar under his tongue; ] A familiar is a dæmon who was fuppofed to attend at call. So, in Love's Labour's Loft: "Love is a familiar; there is no angel but love: 2 STEEVENS. Sir James Cromer,] It was William Crowmer, sheriff of Kent, whom Cade put to death. Lord Say and he had been previously fent to the Tower, and both, or at leaft the former, canvided of treafon, at Cade's mock commiffion of oyer and terminer at Guildhall. See W. Wyrcefter, p. 470. RITSON. |
