Act 4, Scene 2

Blackheath.

[Enter GEORGE BEVIS and JOHN HOLLAND.]
George Bevis
2163 Come, and get thee a sword, though made of
2164 a lath; they have been up these two days.
John Holland
2165 They have the more need to sleep now, then.
George Bevis
2166 I tell thee, Jack Cade the clothier means to dress the
2167 commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new nap upon it.
John Holland
2168 So he had need, for 't is threadbare. Well, I say
2169 it was never merry world in England since gentlemen came up.
George Bevis
2170 O miserable age! virtue is not regarded in
2171 handicraftsmen.
John Holland
2172 The nobility think scorn to go in leather aprons.
George Bevis
2173 Nay, more, the king's council are no good workmen.
John Holland
2174 True; and yet it is said, labour in thy vocation,
2175 which is as much to say as, let the magistrates be labouring
2176 men; and therefore should we be magistrates.
George Bevis
2177 Thou hast hit it; for there's no better sign of a brave
2178 mind than a hard hand.
John Holland
2179 I see them! I see them! There's Best's son, the
2180 tanner of Wingham,—
George Bevis
2181 He shall have the skin of our enemies, to make dog's-
2182 leather of.
John Holland
2183 And Dick the butcher,—
George Bevis
2184 Then is sin struck down like an ox, and iniquity's
2185 throat cut like a calf.
John Holland
2186 And Smith the weaver,—
George Bevis
2187 Argo, their thread of life is spun.
John Holland
2188 Come, come, let's fall in with them.
[Drum. Enter CADE, DICK the Butcher, SMITH the Weaver, and a Sawyer, with infinite numbers.]
Jack Cade
2189 We John Cade, so term'd of our supposed father,—
[Aside.]
Dick the Butcher
2190 Or rather, of stealing a cade of herrings.
Jack Cade
2191 For our enemies shall fall before us, inspired with the
2192 spirit of putting down kings and princes,—Command silence.
Dick the Butcher
2193 Silence!
Jack Cade
2194 My father was a Mortimer,—
[Aside.]
Dick the Butcher
2195 He was an honest man and a good bricklayer.
Jack Cade
2196 My mother a Plantagenet,—
[Aside.]
Dick the Butcher
2197 I knew her well; she was a midwife.
Jack Cade
2198 My wife descended of the Lacies,—
[Aside.]
Dick the Butcher
2199 She was, indeed, a pedler's daughter, and sold
2200 many laces.
[Aside.]
Smith the Weaver
2201 But now of late, not able to travel with her
2202 furred pack, she washes bucks here at home.
Jack Cade
2203 Therefore am I of an honourable house.
[Aside.]
Dick the Butcher
2204 Ay, by my faith, the field is honourable; and
2205 there was he born, under a hedge, for his father had never a
2206 house but
2207 the cage.
Jack Cade
2208 Valiant I am.
[Aside.]
Smith the Weaver
2209 A' must needs; for beggary is valiant.
Jack Cade
2210 I am able to endure much.
[Aside.]
Dick the Butcher
2211 No question of that; for I have seen him whipped
2212 three market-days together.
Jack Cade
2213 I fear neither sword nor fire.
[Aside.]
Smith the Weaver
2214 He need not fear the sword, for his coat is of
2215 proof.
[Aside.]
Dick the Butcher
2216 But methinks he should stand in fear of fire,
2217 being burnt i' the hand for stealing of sheep.
Jack Cade
2218 Be brave, then; for your captain is brave, and vows
2219 reformation. There shall be in England seven halfpenny loaves
2220 sold for a penny; the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops; and
2221 I will make it felony to drink small beer. All the realm shall be
2222 in common; and in Cheapside shall my palfry go to grass; and
2223 when I am king, as king I will be,—
All
2224 God save your majesty!
Jack Cade
2225 I thank you, good people;—there shall be no money; all shall
2226 eat and drink on my score, and I will apparel them all in one
2227 livery, that they may agree like brothers and worship me their
2228 lord.
Dick the Butcher
2229 The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.
Jack Cade
2230 Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this a lamentable thing, that
2231 of the skin of an innocent lamb should be made parchment, that
2232 parchment, being scribbl'd o'er, should undo a man? Some say the
2233 bee stings; but I say 't is the bee's wax, for I did but seal
2234 once to a thing, and I was never mine own man since.—How now!
2235 who's there?
[Enter some, bringing in the Clerk of Chatham.]
Smith the Weaver
2236 The clerk of Chatham; he can write and read and cast
2237 accompt.
Jack Cade
2238 O monstrous!
Smith the Weaver
2239 We took him setting of boys' copies.
Jack Cade
2240 Here's a villain!
Smith the Weaver
2241 Has a book in his pocket with red letters in 't.
Jack Cade
2242 Nay, then, he is a conjurer.
Dick the Butcher
2243 Nay, he can make obligations and write court-hand.
Jack Cade
2244 I am sorry for 't.
2245 The man is a proper man, of mine honour;
2246 unless I find him guilty, he shall not die.—Come hither, sirrah,
2247 I must examine thee; what is thy name?
Clerk of Chartham
2248 Emmanuel.
Dick the Butcher
2249 They use to write it on the top of letters.—'T will go
2250 hard with you.
Jack Cade
2251 Let me alone.—Dost thou use to write thy name? or hast
2252 thou a mark to thyself, like a honest, plain-dealing man?
Clerk of Chartham
2253 Sir, I thank God, I have been so well brought up that I
2254 can write my name.
All
2255 He hath confess'd; away with him! he's a villain and a
2256 traitor.
Jack Cade
2257 Away with him, I say! hang him with his pen and inkhorn
2258 about his neck.
[Exit one with the Clerk.]
[Enter MICHAEL.]
Michael
2259 Where's our general?
Jack Cade
2260 Here I am, thou particular fellow.
Michael
2261 Fly, fly, fly! Sir Humphrey Stafford and his brother
2262 are hard by, with the king's forces.
Jack Cade
2263 Stand, villain, stand, or I'll fell thee down. He shall be
2264 encountered with a man as good as himself; he is but a knight,
2265 is a'?
Michael
2266 No.
Jack Cade
2267 To equal him, I will make myself a knight presently.—
[Kneels.]
Jack Cade
2268 Rise up Sir John Mortimer.—
[Rises.]
Jack Cade
2269 Now have at him!
[Enter SIR HUMPHREY STAFFORD and his Brother, with drum and soldiers.]
Sir Humphrey Stafford
2270 Rebellious hinds, the filth and scum of Kent,
2271 Mark'd for the gallows, lay your weapons down;
2272 Home to your cottages, forsake this groom.
2273 The king is merciful, if you revolt.
William Stafford
2274 But angry, wrathful, and inclin'd to blood,
2275 If you go forward; therefore yield, or die.
Jack Cade
2276 As for these silken-coated slaves, I pass not;
2277 It is to you, good people, that I speak,
2278 OVer whom, in time to come, I hope to reign,
2279 For I am rightful heir unto the crown.
Sir Humphrey Stafford
2280 Villain, thy father was a plasterer;
2281 And thou thyself a shearman, art thou not?
Jack Cade
2282 And Adam was a gardener.
William Stafford
2283 And what of that?
Jack Cade
2284 Marry, this: Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March,
2285 Married the Duke of Clarence' daughter, did he not?
Sir Humphrey Stafford
2286 Ay, sir.
Jack Cade
2287 By her he had two children at one birth.
William Stafford
2288 That's false.
Jack Cade
2289 Ay, there's the question; but I say 't is true.
2290 The elder of them, being put to nurse,
2291 Was by a beggar-woman stolen away,
2292 And, ignorant of his birth and parentage,
2293 Became a bricklayer when he came to age.
2294 His son am I; deny it, if you can.
Dick the Butcher
2295 Nay, 't is too true; therefore he shall be king.
Smith the Weaver
2296 Sir, he made a chimney in my father's house, and the bricks
2297 are alive at this day to testify it; therefore deny it not.
Sir Humphrey Stafford
2298 And will you credit this base drudge's words,
2299 That speaks he knows not what?
All
2300 Ay, marry, will we; therefore get ye gone.
William Stafford
2301 Jack Cade, the Duke of York hath taught you this.
[Aside.]
Jack Cade
2302 He lies, for I invented it myself.—Go to, sirrah,
2303 tell the king from me that, for his father's sake, Henry the
2304 Fifth, in whose time boys went to span-counter for French crowns,
2305 I am content he shall reign; but I'll be protector over him.
Dick the Butcher
2306 And furthermore, we'll have the Lord Say's head for
2307 selling the dukedom of Maine.
Jack Cade
2308 And good reason; for thereby is England mained, and fain to go
2309 with a staff, but that my puissance holds it up. Fellow kings, I
2310 tell you that that Lord Say hath gelded the commonwealth and made
2311 it an eunuch; and more than that, he can speak French, and
2312 therefore he is a traitor.
Sir Humphrey Stafford
2313 O gross and miserable ignorance!
Jack Cade
2314 Nay, answer if you can: the Frenchmen are our enemies;
2315 go to, then, I ask but this: can he that speaks with the tongue
2316 of an enemy be a good counsellor, or no?
All
2317 No, no; and therefore we'll have his head.
William Stafford
2318 Well, seeing gentle words will not prevail,
2319 Assail them with the army of the king.
Sir Humphrey Stafford
2320 Herald, away; and throughout every town
2321 Proclaim them traitors that are up with Cade;
2322 That those which fly before the battle ends
2323 May, even in their wives' and children's sight,
2324 Be hang'd up for example at their doors.—
2325 And you that be the king's friends, follow me.
[Exeunt the two Staffords, and soldiers.]
Jack Cade
2326 And you that love the commons follow me.
2327 Now show yourselves men; 't is for liberty.
2328 We will not leave one lord, one gentleman;
2329 Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon,
2330 For they are thrifty honest men and such
2331 As would, but that they dare not, take our parts.
Dick the Butcher
2332 They are all in order and march toward us.
Jack Cade
2333 But then are we in order when we are most out of
2334 order.—Come, march forward.
[Exeunt.]

Reading mode

Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 2163cultural context
“get thee a sword, though made of a lath”
A lath is a thin strip of wood. Bevis is joking that any weapon will do for a peasant army. Swords made of lath were the prop-weapons of stage clowns and comic Vice figures in popular morality plays, so the line simultaneously mocks the ragtag rebellion — real soldiers carry steel.
TLN 2166wordplay
“Jack Cade the clothier means to dress the commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new nap upon it”
Bevis packs in three cloth-trade puns. 'Dress' means both 'reform' and 'prepare cloth for use.' 'Turn' means both 'change' and 'turn the nap' — the fuzzy surface of woolen fabric — to refresh a worn garment. 'Set a new nap' means restore a fresh surface, as a clothier would revive threadbare wool. The joke is that Cade promises a total makeover of England using the vocabulary of his trade.
TLN 2174biblical allusion
“labour in thy vocation, which is as much to say as, let the magistrates be labouring men; and therefore should we be magistrates”
Holland twists the Protestant doctrine that every Christian should serve God faithfully in their own 'calling' or 'vocation' — a central Reformation idea drawn from 1 Corinthians 7:20 ('Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called'). Holland deliberately misreads it: if the text says 'labour in your calling,' then magistrates should be labouring men, and labouring men should therefore be magistrates. The joke turns Reformation theology into a charter for social levelling.
TLN 2187classical allusion
“Argo, their thread of life is spun”
'Argo' is Bevis's mangled version of Latin 'ergo' ('therefore'). The joke doubles as a classical allusion: since Smith is a weaver, Bevis says their thread of life is now 'spun' — a nod to the Fates of Greek myth, three goddesses who spun, measured, and cut the thread of each person's lifespan. Atropos, the third Fate, cut the thread at death.
TLN 2189historical topical
“We John Cade, so term'd of our supposed father”
Cade opens with mock-royal 'We' — the formal plural used by monarchs — and then claims to be named 'Cade' only after his supposed father, hinting his real surname is Mortimer. The Mortimers were the family through whom the Duke of York traced his claim to the throne (via the female line of Edward III's second surviving son). By pretending to be a Mortimer, Cade is providing York with a disposable pretender: if the revolt succeeds, York benefits; if it fails, Cade takes the blame.
historical Jack Cade's Rebellionhistorical Edward III and his seven sons
TLN 2196historical topical
“My mother a Plantagenet”
Plantagenet was the royal dynasty that had ruled England from Henry II (1154) through Richard III (1485). Cade claims royal blood through his mother, which Dick immediately deflates: she was a midwife. 'The Lacies' (TLN 2198), the family Cade claims for his wife, were a real Anglo-Norman noble house, and 'laces' (TLN 2200) is a pun on the name: she merely sold ribbons at market.
historical The Wars of the Roses
TLN 2214wordplay
“his coat is of proof”
'Proof' in armor means tested and hardened against sword-blows — 'proof-armor' could not be cut. Smith jokes that Cade's 'coat' is already proof against swords because it is the scarred hide of a man who has been publicly flogged (whipped at the whipping-post), which hardens the skin. Dick then adds a second layer: he has been branded on the hand ('burnt i' the hand') for stealing sheep, so he should fear fire, not steel.
TLN 2219historical topical
“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”
Cade's promises are a comic utopian manifesto targeting real grievances. Bread prices and ale-measure were regulated by the Assize of Bread and Ale — a medieval statute enforcing standard loaf sizes and pot-measures. A 'three-hooped pot' was a standard tankard marked by three iron hoops to show approved measure; Cade promises to increase the hoops (and thus the drink). 'All the realm shall be in common' echoes the 1381 Peasants' Revolt demand for the abolition of private property.
historical Jack Cade's Rebellion
TLN 2229historical topical
“The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers”
Dick the Butcher's line is 2 Henry VI's most-quoted sentence. In context it is not random violence: Cade immediately connects lawyers to parchment (legal documents), which could bind a man to a debt or tenancy for life. The rebels hate the written law because it is the mechanism by which landlords, creditors, and the crown control the illiterate poor. Cade adds that it is the beeswax seal on a legal document — not the sting — that has enslaved him: he 'sealed once to a thing' (signed a bond) and was never his own man again.
historical Jack Cade's Rebellion
TLN 2241cultural context
“Has a book in his pocket with red letters in 't”
Smith says the Clerk carries a book with red lettering — which in this period meant a printed almanac, a legal primer, or a service book, since red ink was used for headings, feast days, and rubrics in liturgical texts (hence 'red-letter day'). Cade immediately calls it proof of conjuring. For the rebels, any writing or printed book is a sign of dangerous, elite knowledge — the same logic that makes the Clerk's literacy a death sentence.
TLN 2248biblical allusion
“Emmanuel”
'Emmanuel' (or 'Immanuel') is a Hebrew name meaning 'God is with us,' used in Isaiah's prophecy of the messiah (Isaiah 7:14) and taken up in the Gospel of Matthew as a name for Jesus (Matthew 1:23). Dick points out that clerks routinely headed their letters 'Emmanuel' as a pious formula, invoking divine assistance — a standard scribal convention. Cade treats the name as further damning evidence of the Clerk's dangerous learning.
TLN 2251cultural context
“hast thou a mark to thyself, like a honest, plain-dealing man”
An illiterate person who could not write their name used a 'mark' — a personal symbol such as a cross or a simple drawn device — as a legal signature. Cade regards this as the honorable, honest practice of a plain working man, against the suspicious pretension of actually writing your own name. The joke inverts normal values: literacy becomes a vice, illiteracy a virtue.
TLN 2282biblical allusion
“And Adam was a gardener”
Stafford calls Cade's father a plasterer and Cade himself a shearman (cloth-cutter), as proof he has no royal blood. Cade answers that Adam — the first man, ancestor of all humanity — was a gardener: if all men descend from a gardener, no one can claim to be better by birth. The line echoes the famous levelling rhyme associated with the 1381 Peasants' Revolt: 'When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?' meaning that before there were social classes all men were equal labourers.
biblical The serpent in the Garden of Eden
TLN 2284historical topical
“Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, Married the Duke of Clarence' daughter”
Cade recites the genealogy York has provided him. Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, was the nephew of an earlier Edmund Mortimer who had married Philippa, daughter of Lionel of Clarence, Edward III's second surviving son. This makes the Mortimer line senior in descent to the house of Lancaster, and therefore the basis of York's claim to the crown. Cade claims to be this Mortimer's stolen son — a fabrication, but one built on a real and contested genealogy.
historical Edward III and his seven sonshistorical Jack Cade's Rebellion
TLN 2304cultural context
“boys went to span-counter for French crowns”
Span-counter was a children's street game in which players pitched coins toward a wall, the winner being whoever landed a coin within a hand-span of another. 'French crowns' were gold coins. Cade is saying that under Henry V — who conquered France — French gold was so abundant in England that even boys played pitch-and-toss with it. The remark sets up his offer to Henry VI: Cade will tolerate him as king, but only as Cade's own protectorate.
TLN 2329archaic vocab
“such as go in clouted shoon”
'Clouted shoon' means patched or hobnailed shoes — heavy work-boots with iron studs (clouts) nailed to the sole to prevent wear. It is a vivid marker of the manual laboring class: gentlemen and nobles wear soft leather shoes, while ploughmen and craftsmen wear the iron-studded kind. Cade is telling his followers to spare only people of their own class.