SCENE X. Kent. Iden's Garden'.

Enter CADE.

Cade. Fye on ambition! fye on myself; that have a sword, and yet am ready to famish! These five days have I hid me in these woods; and durst not peep out, for all the country is lay'd for me: but now am I so hungry, that if I might have * a lease of my life for a thousand years, I could stay no longer. Wherefore, on a brick-wall have I climbed into this garden; to see if I can eat grass, or pick a sallet another while, which is not *amiss to cool a man's stomach this hot weather. And, I think, this word sallet was born to do me good: for, many a time, but for a sallet2, my brain-pan had been cleft with a brown bill; and, many a time, when I have been dry, and bravely marching, it hath served me instead of a quartpot to drink in; and now the word sallet must serve me to feed on.

Enter IDEN, with Servants.

• Iden. Lord, who would live turmoiled in the court,
And may enjoy such quiet walks as these?
This small inheritance, my father left me,
Contenteth me, and is worth a monarchy.
I seek not to wax great by others' waning;

1A gentleman of Kent, named Alexander Eden, awaited so his time, that he took the said Cade in a garden in Sussex, 80 that there he was slaine at Hothfield,' &c.-Holinshed, p. 635. This Iden was, in fact, the new sheriff of Kent, who had followed Cade from Rochester.-William of Wyrcester, p. 472.

2 A sallet is a helmet. Salade, Fr.; celata, Ital.; celada, Span. Etymologists differ in opinion on the origin of the word; some derive it from celare, Lat. to hide, or cover; others from the Low Latin, salattarius, which Isidore, in his Glossary, interprets portator armarium. The Teutonic schal, pointed out by Duchat, and adopted by Mr. Todd, is a less probable etymon. The word undoubtedly came to us from the French. Caxton, in his Chronicle, speaking of Cade, says, Anone he toke Sir Umfreyes salade and his briganteins smyten ful of gilte nailles, and also his gilt spores, and araied him like a lord and a captaine. In the statute 4 5 Phil. and Mary, c. 2, we find twenty harquebuts and twenty morians or salets."

Or gather wealth, I care not with what envy; • Sufficeth, that I have maintains my state,

And sends the poor well pleased from my gate. Cade. Here's the lord of the soil come to seize me for a stray, for entering his fee-simple without leave. Ah, villain, thou wilt betray me, and get a thousand crowns of the king for carrying my head to him; but I'll make thee eat iron like an ostrich, and swallow my sword like a great pin, ere thou and I part.

Iden. Why, rude companion, whatsoe'er thou be, 'I know thee not; Why then should I betray thee? Is't not enough, to break into my garden,

And, like a thief, to come and rob my grounds, Climbing my walls in spite of me the owner, But thou wilt brave me with these saucy terms? Cade. Brave thee? ay, by the best blood that ever was broached, and beard thee too. Look on me well: I have eat no meat these five days; yet, come thou and thy five men, and if I do not leave you all as dead as a door nail3, I pray God, I may never eat grass more.

Iden. Nay, it shall ne'er be said, while England
stands,

That Alexander Iden, an esquire of Kent,
Took odds to combat a poor famish'd man.
Oppose thy steadfast-gazing eyes to mine,
See if thou canst outface me with thy looks.
Set limb to limb, and thou art far the lesser;
Thy hand is but a finger to my fist;

Thy leg a stick, compared with this truncheon;
My foot shall fight with all the strength thou hast;
And if mine arm be heaved in the air,
Thy grave is digg'd already in the earth.
As for words, whose greatness answers words1,
Let this my sword report what speech forbears.

3 See note on the Second Part of King Henry IV. Act v. Sc. 3. 4 Johnson explains this, As for words, whose pomp and rumour may answer words, and only words, I shall forbear them,

Cade. By my valour, the most complete champion that ever I heard.-'Steel, if thou turn the edge, or cut not out the burly-boned clown in chines of beef ere thou sleep in thy sheath, I beseech God on my knees, thou mayest be turned to hobnails. [They fight; CADE falls.] 0, I am slain! famine, and no other, hath slain me: let ten thousand devils come against me, and give me but the ten meals I have lost, and I'd defy them all. Wither, garden; and be henceforth a burying-place to all that do dwell in this house, because the unconquered soul of Cade is fled.

Iden. Is't Cade that I have slain, that monstrous traitor?

Sword, I will hallow thee for this thy deed, And hang thee o'er my tomb, when I am dead": Ne'er shall this blood be wiped from thy point; *But thou shalt wear it as a herald's coat,

To emblaze the honour that thy master got. Cade. Iden, farewell; and be proud of thy victory: Tell Kent from me, she hath lost her best man, and exhort all the world to be cowards; for I, that never feared any, am vanquished by famine, not by valour. [Dies.

and refer the rest to my sword. King Henry VI. :

I will not bandy with

Thus in the Third Part of

thee word for word,

*But buckle with thee blows, twice two for one.

5 In the folio I beseech Jove' was substituted to avoid the penalty of the statute, 3 Jac. I. c. 2, against profane swearing. Cade was very unlikely to swear by Jove.

6 This sentiment is much more correctly expressed in the quarto:

Oh eword, I'll honour thee for this, and in my chamber
Shalt thou hang, as a monument to after age,

For this great service thou hast Joné to me.

Shakspeare, in new moulding this speech, has used the same mode of expression that he has employed in The Winter's Tale :If thou'lt see a thing to talk on, when thou art dead and rotten, come hither, i. e. for people to talk of. So again, in a subsequent scene of this play :

And dead men's cries do fill the empty air.' Which of the plays of Shakspeare do not furnish expressions equally bold with 'I will hang thee, to express 'I will have thee hung?.

Iden. How much thou wrong'st me', heaven

be my judge. Die, damned wretch, the curse of her that bare thee! And as I thrust thy body in with my sword, So wish I, I might thrust thy soul to hell8. Hence will I drag thee headlong by the heels Unto a dunghill, which shall be thy grave, And there cut off thy most ungracious head; Which I will bear in triumph to the king, Leaving thy trunk for crows to feed upon.

[Exit, dragging out the Body.

ACT V.

SCENE 1. The same.

Fields between Dartford

and Blackheath.

The King's Camp on one side. On the other, enter
YORK attended,
1 with Drum and Colours: his
Forces at some distance.

York. From Ireland thus comes York, to claim
his right,

And pluck the crown from feeble Henry's head: • Ring, bells, aloud; burn, bonfires, clear and bright, To entertain great England's lawful king.

Ah, sancta cta majestas! who would not buy thee dear? Let them obey, that know not how to rule; This hand was made to handle nought but gold:

7 Johnson erroneously interprets this, 8, in supposing that I am proud of my victory Iden evidently means that Cade wrongs him by undervaluing his prowess.

8 Not to dwell upon the wickedness of this horrid wish, with which Iden debases his character, the whole of this speech is wild and confused. The quarto is more favourable both to Iden's morality and language. This faulty amplification was owing to the desire of expanding a scanty thought in the old play. It can hardly be treated as an interpolation, however we may desire to think it such.

Vol. VI.

10*

6

I cannot give due action to my words,
Except a sword, or sceptre, balance it1.
A sceptre shall it have, have I a soul2;
On which I'll toss the flower-de-luce of France.
Enter BUCKINGHAM.

Whom have we here? Buckingham, to disturb me?
The king hath sent him, sure: I must dissemble.
Buck. York, if thou meanest well, I greet thee
well.

York. Humphrey of Buckingham, I accept thy
greeting.

Art thou a messenger, or come of pleasure?
Buck. A messenger from Henry, our dread liege,
To know the reason of these arms in peace;
Or why, thou-being a subject as I am,-
Against thy oath and true allegiance sworn,
Shouldst raise so great a power without his leave,
Or dare to bring thy force so near the court.
York. Scarce can I speak, my choler is

so great.

O, I could hew up rocks, and fight with flint,
I am so angry at these abject terms;
And now, like Ajax Telamonius,

On sheep or oxen could I spend my fury! 6 I am far better born than is the king: More like a king, more kingly in my thoughts:

But I must make fair weather yet a while, Till Henry be more weak, and I more strong.

O Buckingham, I pr'ythee, pardon me,

Aside.

That I have given no answer all this while; My mind was troubled with deep melancholy.

1 i. e. balance my hand.

2 York means to say If I have a soul, my hand shall not be without a sceptre. The following line in King Henry VIII. sup. ports this explanation:

Sir, as I have a soul, she is an angel.' Johnson wished to read :

"A sceptre shall it have, have I a sword.'