• For God forbid, so many simple souls Should perish by the sword! And I myself, • Rather than bloody war shall cut them short, • Will parley with Jack Cade their general.— • But stay, I'll read it over once again. * Q. Mar. Ah, barbarous villains! hath this lovely face * Rul'd, like a wandering planet,3 over me; *And could it not enforce them to relent, * That were unworthy to behold the same? ‹ K. Hen. Lord Say, Jack Cade hath sworn to have thy head. Say. Ay, but I hope, your highness shall have his. Lamenting, and mourning for Suffolk's death? Thou wouldest not have mourn'd so much for me. Enter a Messenger. *K. Hen. How now! what news? why com'st thou in such haste? Mess. The rebels are in Southwark; Fly, my lord! And vows to crown himself in Westminster. Of hinds and peasants, rude and merciless: phrey duke of Buckingham, to common with him of his griefs and requests." This gave birth to the line before us; which our author afterwards forgot, having introduced in scene viii, only Buckingham and Clifford, conformably to the old play. Malone. 3 Rul'd like a wandering planet,] Predominated irresistibly over my passions, as the planets over the lives of those that are born under their influence. Johnson. The old play led Shakspeare into this strange exhibition; a queen with the head of her murdered paramour on her bosom, in the presence of her husband! Malone. 4 I fear, my love,] The folio has here-I fear me, love, which is certainly sense; but as we find "my love" in the old play, and these lines were adopted without retouching, I suppose the tran scriber's ear deceived him. Malone. Hath given them heart and courage to proceed: All scholars, lawyers, courtiers, gentlemen, They call-false caterpillars, and intend their death. * K. Hen. O graceless men! they know not what they do.5 Buck. My gracious lord, retire to Kenelworth, Until a power be rais'd to put them down. 6 * Q. Mar. Ah! were the duke of Suffolk now alive, *These Kentish rebels would be soon appeas'd. K. Hen, Lord Say, the traitors hate thee, Say. So might your grace's person be in danger; • And live alone as secret as I may. Enter another Messenger. 2 Mess. Jack Cade hath gotten London-bridge; the citizens * Fly and forsake their houses: * The rascal people, thirsting after prey, * Buck. Then linger not, my lord; away, take horse. *K. Hen. Come, Margaret; God, our hope, will suc cour us. * Q. Mar. My hope is gone, now Suffolk is deceas'd. * K. Hen. Farewel, my lord; [to Lord SAY] trust not the Kentish rebels. * Buck. Trust nobody, for fear you be betray'd.7 5 have 6 what they do.] Instead of this line, in the old copy we "Go, bid Buckingham and Clifford gather "An army up, and meet with the rebels." Malone. - retire to Kenelworth,] The old copy-Killingworth, which (as Sir William Blackstone observes) is still the modern pronunciation. Steevens. In the letter concerning Queen Elizabeth's entertainment at this place, we find, "the castle hath name of Kyllelingwoorth; but of truth, grounded upon faythfull story, Kenelwoorth.” 7 Farmer. ·be betray'd,] Be, which was accidentally omitted in the old copy, was supplied by the editor of the second folio. Malone. [Exeunt. Say. The trust I have is in mine innocence, And therefore am I bold and resolute. SCENE V. The same. The Tower. Enter Lord SCALES, and Others, on the Walls. Then enter certain Citizens, below. Scales. How now? Is Jack Cade slain? 1 Cit. 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 Gough: Fight for your king, your country, and your lives; And so farewel, for I must hence again. SCENE VI. The same. Cannon-Street. [Exeunt. Enter JACK CADE, and his followers. He 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, the pissing-conduit run nothing but claret-] This pissing conduit, I suppose, was the Standarde in Cheape, which, as Stowe relates," John Wels grocer, maior 1430, caused to be made with a small cesterne for fresh water, hauing one cocke continually running." "I have wept so immoderately and lauishly, (says Jacke Wilton) that I thought verily my palat had bin turned to the pissing conduit in London." Life, 1594. Ritson. Whatever offence to modern delicacy may be given by this imagery, it appears to have been borrowed from the French, to whose entertainments, as well as our streets, it was sufficiently familiar, as I learn from a very curious and entertaining work entitled Histoire de la Vie privée des Français, par M. le Grand D'Aussi, 3 Vols. 8vo. 1782. At a feast given by Phillippe-leBon there was exhibited "une statue de femme, dont les mam henceforward, it shall be treason for any that calls me other than lord Mortimer. Enter a Soldier, running. [They kill him. Sol. Jack Cade! Jack Cade! Cade. Knock him down there." * Smith. If this fellow be wise, he'll never call you * Jack Cade more; I think, he hath a very fair warning. Dick. My lord, there's an army gather'd 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. Alarum. Enter, on one side, 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 Gough2 is slain. Cade. So, sirs:-Now go some and pull down the Savoy ;3 others to the inns of court; down with them all. melles fournissaient de l'hippocras;" and the Roman de Tirant-leBlanc affords such another circumstance: "Outre une statue de femme, des mammelles de laquelle jaillissoit une liqueur, il y avait encore une jeune fille &c. Elle etoit nue, et tenoit ses mains baissées et serrées contre son corps, comme pour s'en couvrir. De dessous ses mains, il sortoit une fontaine de vin delicieux," &c. Again in another feast made by the Philippe aforesaid, in 1453, there was "une statue d'enfant nu, posé sur une roche, et qui, de sa broquette, pissait eau-rose." Steevens. 9 Knock him down there.] So, Holinshed, p. 634: "He also put to execution in Southwark diverse persons, some for breaking his ordinance, and other being his old acquaintance, lest they should bewraie his base linage, disparaging him for his usurped surname of Mortimer." Steevens. 1 set London-bridge on fire;] At that time London-bridge was made of wood. "After that, (says Hall) he entered London. and cut the ropes of the draw-bridge." The houses on Londonbridge were in this rebellion burnt, and many of the inhabitants perished. Malone. 2 Matthew Gough-]" A man of great wit and much experience in feats of chivalrie, the which in continuall warres had spent his time in service of the king and his father." Holinshed,. p. 635. 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.4 John. Mass, 'twill be sore law then ; for he was 'thrust in the mouth with a spear, and 'tis not whole yet. [Aside. Smith. Nay, John, it will be stinking law; for his breath stinks with eating toasted cheese. [Aside. • 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. *John. Then we are like to have biting statutes, un* less his teeth be pulled out. [Aside. In W. of Worcestre, p. 357, is the following notice of Matthew Gough: "Memorandum quod Ewenus Gough, pater Matthei Gough armigeri, fuit ballivus manerii de Hangmer juxta Whyte-church in North Wales; et mater Matthei Gough vocatur Hawys; et pater ejus, id est avus Matthei Gough ex parte matris, vocatur Davy Handmere; et mater Matthei Gough fuit nutrix Johannis domini Talbot, comitis de Shrewysbery, et aliorum fratrum et sororum suorum: "Morte Matthei Goghe Cambria clamitat oghe!" See also the Paston Letters, 2d edit. Vol. I, 42. 3 4 Steevens. go some and pull down the Savoy;] This trouble had been saved Cade's reformers by his predecessor Wat Tyler. It was never re-edifyed, till Henry VII founded the hospital. Ritson. that the laws of England may come out of your mouth.] This alludes to what Holinshed has related of Wat Tyler, p. 432: "It was reported, indeed, that he should saie with great pride, putting his hands to his lips, that within four daies all the laws of England should come foorth of his mouth." Tyrwhitt. 5 - 'twill be sore law then;] This poor jest has already occurred in The Tempest, scene the last: "You'd be king of the isle, sirrah ?– "I should have been a sore one then." 6 Steevens. Away, burn all the records of the realm;] Little more than half a century had elapsed from the time of writing this play, before a similar proposal was actually made in parliament. Bishop Burnet in his life of Sir Matthew Hale, says: "Among the other extravagant motions made in this parliament (i. e. one of Oliver Cromwell's) one was to destroy all the records in the Tower, and to settle the nation on a new foundation; so he (Sir M. Hale) took this province to himself, to show the madness of this proposition, the injustice of it, and the mischiefs that would follow on it; and did it with such clearness and strength of rea |