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 farewell, for I must hence again. [Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

The Same. Cannon Street.

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

1

-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

reign. And now, henceforward, it shall be treason for any that calls me other than-lord Mortimer.

Enter a Soldier, running.

SOLD. Jack Cade! Jack Cade!

CADE. Knock him down there. [They kill him. *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 gathered together in Smithfield.

CADE. Come then, let's go fight with them: But, first, go and set London-bridge on fire; and, if

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 mammelles fournissaient d'hippocras; " and the Roman de Tirant-leBlanc affords such another circumstance: "Outre une statue de femme, des mammelles de laquelle jallissoit 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.

2 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.

3-set LONDON-BRIDGE on fire;] At that time Londonbridge was made of wood." After that, (says Hall,) he entered London and cut the ropes of the draw-bridge." The houses on London-bridge were in this rebellion burnt, and many of the inhabitants perished. MALONE.

you can, burn down the Tower too. Come, let's

away.

SCENE VII.

[Exeunt.

The Same. Smithfield.

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 GOUGH is slain.

CADE. So, sirs :-Now go some and pull down the Savoy"; others to the inns of court; down with them all.

DICK. I have a suit unto your lordship.

CADE. Be it a lordship thou shalt have it for that word.

4

* DICK. Only, that the laws of England may come out of your mouth ".

- Matthew Gough -] "A man of great wit and much experience in feats of chivalrie, the which in continuall warres had spent his time in serving of the king and his father." Holinshed, p. 635.

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 :

5

"Morte Matthei Goghe Cambria clamitat oghe!" See also the Paston Letters, 2d edit. vol. i. 42. 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.

6 that the laws of England may come out of your mouth.]

* 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, * unless his teeth be pulled out. [Aside. *CADE. And henceforward all things shall be in

common.

Enter a Messenger.

'MESS. My lord, a prize, a prize! here's the lord Say, which sold the towns in France; * he that * made us pay one and twenty fifteens, and one * shilling to the pound, the last subsidy.

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.

'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." STEEVENS.

66

8 — 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 reason as not only satisfied all sober persons (for it may be supposed that was soon done) but stopt even the mouths of the frantic people themselves." REED.

9 - one and twenty FIFTEENS,] This capteine (Cade) assured them-if either by force or policie they might get the

Enter GEORGE BEVIS, with the Lord SAY.

'CADE. Well, he shall be beheaded for it ten ' times.—Ah, thou say, thou serge', nay, thou buckram lord! now art thou within point-blank · of our jurisdiction regal. What canst thou answer to my majesty, for giving up of Normandy unto ' monsieur Basimecu, the dauphin of France? Be it known unto thee by these presence, even the presence of lord Mortimer, that I am the besom 'that must sweep the court clean of such filth as ' thou art. Thou hast most traitorously corrupted 'the youth of the realm, in erecting a grammarschool: and whereas, before, our fore-fathers had ⚫ no other books but the score and the tally, thou

king and queene into their hands, he would cause them to be honourably used, and take such order for the punishing and reforming of the misdemeanours of their bad councellours, that neither fifteens should hereafter be demanded, nor anie impositions or taxes be spoken of." Holinshed, vol. ii. p. 632. A fifteen was the fifteenth part of all the moveables or personal property of each subject. MALONE.

;

-thou SAY, thou serge.] Say was the old word for silk; on this depends the series of degradation, from say to serge, from serge to buckram. JOHNSON.

This word occurs in Spenser's Fairy Queen, b. i. c. iv. : "All in a kirtle of discolour'd say

"He clothed was."

Again, in his Perigot and Cuddy's Roundelay:

66

And in a kirtle of green say."

It appears, however, from the following passage in The Fairy Queen, b. iii. c. ii. that say was not silk:

66

His garment neither was of silk nor say." STEEVENS. It appears from Minsheu's Dict. 1617, that say was a kind of serge. It is made entirely of wool. There is a considerable manufactory of say at Sudbury near Colchester. This stuff is frequently dyed green, and is yet used by some mechanicks in aprons. MALONE.

2-monsieur BASIMECU,] Shakspeare probably wrote Baisermycu, or, by a designed corruption, Basemycu, in imitation of his original, where also we find a word half French, half English,— "Mounsier bus minc cue." MALONE.