All. God save the King! God save the King? Cade. What, Buckingham and Clifford, are ye so brave?-And you base peasants, do ye believe him? will you needs be hanged with your pardons about your necks? Hath my sword therefore broke through London gates, that you should leave me at the White Hart in Southwark? I thought ye would never have given out these arms till you had recovered your ancient freedom: but you are all recreants and dastards, and delight to live in slavery to the nobility. Let them break your backs with burdens, take your houses over your heads, ravish your wives and daughters before your faces: for me, I will make shift for one: and so, God's curse 'light upon you all!

All. We'll follow Cade; we'll follow Cade!
Clif. Is Cade the son of Henry the fifth,
That thus you do exclaim you'll go with him?
Will he conduct you through the heart of France,
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.
Wer't not a shame that, whilst you live at jar,
The fearful French, whom you late vanquishéd,
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" Villageois !" unto all they meet.
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 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 despight of the devils and hell, have through the very midst of you! and heavens and honour be witness that no want of resolution in me, but only my followers' base and ignominious treasons, makes me betake me to my heels. [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.

Enter KING HENRY, QUEEN MARGARET, and
SOMERSET, on the terrace of the Castle.
K. Hen. Was ever king that 'joyed 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 longed 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!
K. Hen. Why, Buckingham, is the traitor Cade
surprised;

Or is he but retired to make him strong?

Enter below a great number of CADE's Followers, with halters about their necks.

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

And humbly thus, with halters on their necks, Expect your highness' doom of life or death.

K. Hen. Then heaven set ope thy everlasting

gates,

To entertain my vows of thanks and praise!—
Soldiers, this day have you redeemed your lives,
And shewed how well you love your prince and
country:

Continue still in this so good a mind,
And Henry, though he be unfortunate,
Assure yourselves will never be unkind.
And so, with thanks and pardon to you all,
I do dismiss you to your several countries.
All. God save the King! God save the King!

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. Please it your grace to be advertised The Duke of York is newly come from Ireland; And with a puissant and a 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 The Duke of Somerset, whom he terms a traitor. K. Hen. Thus stands my state 'twixt Cade and York distressed: Like to a ship that, having 'scaped a tempest, Is straightway calmed and boarded with a pirate. But now is Cade driven back, his men dispersed: And now is York in arms to second him.

I pray thee, Buckingham, go forth 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 dismissed from him.

I'll yield myself to prison willingly,

Or unto death, to do my country good.

K. Hen. In any case be not too rough in terms: For he is fierce, and cannot brook hard language. Buck. I will, my lord: and doubt not so to deal As all things shall redound unto your good.

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

For yet may England curse my wretched reign. [Exeunt.

SCENE X.-Kent. 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 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 sallet, my brain-pan had been cleft with a brown bill and many a time, when I have been dry VOL. III. 2 s

and bravely marching, it hath served me instead of a quart-pot to drink in: and now the word sallet must serve me to feed on.

Enter IDEN, with Servants.

Iden. Lord, who would live turmoiléd 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;
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, whatso'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 to 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-nail, 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 famished man.
Oppose thy stedfast 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 my arm be heavéd in the air,
Thy grave is digged already in the earth.

As for words, whose greatness answers words,
Let this my sword report what speech forbears.

Cade. By my valour, the most complete champion that ever I heard!-Steel, if thou turn the edge, or cut not out the burley-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 mon

strous 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.

Cude. 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.

Iden. How much thou wrong'st me Heaven be my judge.

Die, damnéd 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 hell. 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.

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 and oxen could I spend my fury!
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 awhile,
Till Henry be more weak, and I more strong.-
[Aside.

Buckingham, I pr'y thee pardon me,
That I have given no answer all this while :
My mind was troubled with deep melancholy.
The cause why I have brought this army hither
Is to remove proud Somerset from the King,
Seditious to his grace and to the state.

Buck. That is too much presumption on thy part:

But if thy arms be to no other end,
The King hath yielded unto thy demand:

The Duke of Somerset is in the Tower.

York. Upon thine honour is he prisoner?
Buck. Upon mine honour he is prisoner.
York. Then, Buckingham, I do dismiss my

powers.

Soldiers, I thank you all: disperse yourselves:
Meet me to-morrow in Saint George's field,
You shall have pay and every thing you wish.-
And let my sovereign, virtuous Henry,
Command my eldest son, nay all my sons,
As pledges of my fealty and love,
I'll send them all as willing as I live:
Land, goods, horse, armour, anything I have
Is his to use, so Somerset may die.

Buck. York, I commend this kind submission: We twain will go into his highness' tent.

Enter KING HENRY, attended.

K. Hen. Buckingham, doth York intend no
harm to us,

That thus he marcheth with thee arm in arm?
York. In all submission and humility,
York doth present himself unto your highness.
K. Hen. Then what intend these forces thou
dost bring?

York. To heave the traitor Somerset from hence;

And fight against that monstrous rebel Cade, Who since I heard to be discomfited.

Enter IDEN, with CADE's head.

Iden. If one so rude and of so mean condition May pass into the presence of a king, Lo I present your grace a traitor's head; The head of Cade, whom I in combat slew. K. Hen. The head of Cade?-Great God, how just art thou!

O let me view his visage being dead,

That living wrought me such exceeding trouble. Tell me, my friend, art thou the man that slew him?

Iden. I was, an 't like your majesty.

K. Hen. How art thou called, and what is thy

degree?

Iden. Alexander Iden, that's my name: A poor esquire of Kent, that loves his King. Buck. So please it you, my lord, 't were not

amiss

He were created knight for his good service.
K. Hen. Iden, kneel down: [He kneels.] Riso

up a knight.

We give thee for reward a thousand marks;
And will that thou henceforth attend on us.

Iden. May Iden live to merit such a bounty, And never live but true unto his liege!

K. Hen. See, Buckingham! Somerset comes with the Queen :

Go bid her hide him quickly from the duke.
Enter QUEEN MARGARET and SOMERSET.
Q. Mar. For thousand Yorks he shall not
hide his head,

But boldly stand and front him to his face.

York. How now! is Somerset at liberty? Then York unloose thy long-imprisoned thoughts. And let thy tongue be equal with thy heart. Shall I endure the sight of Somerset ?False King! why hast thou broken faith with me, Knowing how hardly I can brook abuse? King did I call thee? no, thou art not King; Not fit to govern and rule multitudes, Which dar'st not, no, nor canst not, rule a traitor. That head of thine doth not become a crown; Thy hand is made to grasp a palmer's staff, And not to grace an awful princely sceptre. That gold must round engirt these brows of mine; Whose smile and frown, like to Achilles' spear, Is able with the change to kill and cure. Here is a hand to hold a sceptre up, And with the same to act controlling laws. Give place: by Heaven, thou shalt rule no more O'er him whom Heaven created for thy ruler.