And make the meanest of you earls and dukes?
Alas, he hath no home, no place to fly to;
Nor knows he how to live but by the spoil,
Unless by robbing of your friends and us.
Were 't not a shame, that whilst you live at jar,
The fearful French, whom you late van-
quished,

Should make a start o'er seas and vanquish
you?

Methinks already in this civil broil

I see them lording it in London streets,
Crying 'Villiago!' unto all they meet.

50

Better ten thousand base-born Cades miscarry,
Than you should stoop unto a Frenchman's

mercy.

To France, to France, and get what you have
lost;

Spare England, for it is your native coast:
Henry hath money, you are strong and manly;
God on our side, doubt not of victory.

All. A Clifford! a Clifford! we 'll follow the
king and Clifford.

Cade. Was ever feather so lightly blown to and fro as this multitude? The name of Henry 60 the Fifth hales them to an hundred mischiefs and makes them leave me desolate. I see them lay their heads together to surprise me. My sword make way for me, for here is no staying. In despite of the devils and hell, have through the very middest of you! and heavens and honor be witness that no want of resolution in me, but only my

followers' base and ignominious treasons,
make me betake me to my heels.

70

[Exit.

Buck. What, is he fled? Go some, and follow him;
And he that brings his head unto the king
Shall have a thousand crowns for his reward.
[Exeunt some of them.
Follow me, soldiers: we'll devise a mean
To reconcile you all unto the king.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IX

Kenilworth Castle.

Sound trumpets. Enter King, Queen, and
Somerset, on the terrace.

King. Was ever king that joy'd an earthly throne,
And could command no more content than I?
No sooner was I crept out of my cradle
But I was made a king, at nine months old.
Was never subject long'd to be a king
As I do long and wish to be a subject.

Enter Buckingham and Clifford.

Buck. Health and glad tidings to your majesty! King. Why, Buckingham, is the traitor Cade surprised?

Or is he but retired to make him strong?

Enter, below, multitudes, with halters about their necks.

Clif. He is fled, my lord, and all his powers do yield;

10

And humbly thus, with halters on their necks, Expect your highness' doom, of life or death. King. Then, heaven, set ope thy everlasting gates, To entertain my vows of thanks and praise!

Soldiers, this day have you redeem'd your lives, And show'd how well you love your prince and country:

Continue still in this so good a mind,

And Henry, though he be infortunate, Assure yourselves, will never be unkind: And so, with thanks and pardon to you all, 20 I do dismiss you to your several countries. All. God save the king! God save the king! Enter Messenger.

Mess. Please it your grace to be advertised
The Duke of York is newly come from Ire-
land,

And with a puissant and mighty power
Of gallowglasses and stout kernes

Is marching hitherward in proud array,
And still proclaimeth, as he comes along,
His arms are only to remove from thee

26. "gallowglasses," native Irish soldiers, armed with pole-axes, and noted as being "grim of countenance, tall of stature, big of limb, lusty of body, well and strongly timbered."-C. H. H.

"Of gallowglasses and stout kernes"; Hanmer reads, "Of desp'rate gallowglasses," &c.; Capell, “Of nimble g.," &c.; Dyce, "Of savage g.," &c.; "stout"; Mitford, "stout Irish”; “kernes"; Keightley, "kernes, he"; Vaughan, "kernes supplied."—I. G.

29. “arms”; F. 1, “Armes"; Ff. 2, 3, 4, “Armies.”

The Duke of Somerset, whom he terms a

30

traitor. King. Thus stands my state, 'twixt Cade and York distress'd;

Like to a ship that, having 'scaped a tempest,
Is straightway calm'd and boarded with a
pirate:

But now is Cade driven back, his men dis-
persed;

And now is York in arms to second him.

I pray thee, Buckingham, go and meet him,
And ask him what's the reason of these arms.
Tell him I'll send Duke Edmund to the
Tower;

And, Somerset, we will commit thee thither,
Until his army be dismiss'd from him.
Som. My lord,

40

I'll yield myself to prison willingly, Or unto death, to do my country good. King. In any case, be not too rough in terms; For he is fierce and cannot brook hard lan

guage.

Buck. I will, my lord; and doubt not so to deal

As all things shall redound unto your good.

33. "calm'd," the reading of F. 4; F. 1, "calme"; F. 2, "claimd"; F. 3, "claim'd"; Beckett, "cramp'd"; Walker, "chased."-I. G.

34. "But" is here not adversative. "It was only just now.

H. N. H.

36. "I pray thee, Buckingham, go and meet him"; Staunton, “Go, I pray thee, B.," &c.; Rowe reads, "go and meet with him”; Malone, "to go and meet him"; Steevens (1793), "go forth and meet him"; Collier (Collier MS.), "then go and meet him"; Dyce, "go thou and meet him."-I. G.

King. Come, wife, let's in, and learn to govern better;

For yet may England curse my wretched reign.

[Flourish. Exeunt.

Kent.

SCENE X

Iden's garden.

Enter Cade.

Cade. Fie on ambition! fie 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 laid 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 10 man's stomach this hot weather. And I think this word 'sallet' was born to do me

1. "Fie on ambition"; so the later Ff.; F. 1, "Ambitions.”—I. G. 9. Of course Cade is punning on the word sallet, which meant a helmet as well as a preparation of herbs. In illustration of the text, Mr. Collier produces an apt passage from an Interlude written as early as 1537, where the hero, Thersites, applies to Mulciber for a suit of armor, and Mulciber pretends to misunderstand him:

"Thersites. Nowe, I pray Jupiter, that thou dye a cuckold:
I mean a sallet with which men do fyght.

Mulciber. It is a small tastinge of a mannes might,
That he should for any matter

Fyght with a few herbes in a platter."-H. N. H.