And wedded be thou to the hags of hell, Unto the daughter of a worthless king, With gobbets of thy mother's bleeding heart. By thee, Anjou and Maine were sold to France: The false revolting Normans, thorough thee, *Disdain to call us lord; and Picardy *Hath slain their governors, surpris'd our forts, And sent the ragged soldiers wounded home. The princely Warwick, and the Nevils all,Whose dreadful swords were never drawn in vain, * As hating thee, are rising up in arms: And now the house of York- thrust from the crown, By shameful murder of a guiltless king, Burns with revenging fire: whose hopeful colours And all by thee: Away! convey him hence. Suf. O that I were a god, to shoot forth thunder Upon these paltry, servile, abject drudges! Small things make base men proud: this villain here, Being captain of a pinnace13, threatens more 11 To betroth in marriage. This enumeration of Suffolk's crimes seems to have been suggested by the Mirror for Magistrates. See the Legend of William de la Pole. The rest of this speech is entirely Shakspeare's; there is no trace of it in the original play. 12 Edward III. bare for his device the rays of the sun dispersing themselves out of a cloud. Camden's Remaines. 13 A pinnace then signified a ship of small burthen, built for speed. Vide note on The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i. Sc. 3. Than Bargulus the strong Illyrian pirate14. 'Drones suck not eagles' blood, but rob bee-hives. It is impossible, that I should die By such a lowly vassal as thyself. Thy words move rage, and not remorse, in mel5: 'I go of message from the queen to France; I charge thee, waft me safely cross the channel. • Cap. Walter, Whit. Come, Suffolk, I must waft thee to thy death. Suf. Gelidus timor occupat artus16;-'tis thee Whit. Thou shalt have cause to fear, before I leave thee. What, are ye daunted now? now will ye stoop? 1 Gent. My gracious lord, entreat him, speak him fair. Suf. Suffolk's imperial tongue is stern and rough, 'Us'd to command, untaught to plead for favour. Far be it, we should honour such as these With humble suit; no, rather let my head Stoop to the block, than these knees bow to any, Save to the God of heaven, and to my king; And sooner dance upon a bloody pole, 14 Bargulus, Illyrius Latro, de quo est apud Theopompum, magnas opes habuit.-Cicero de Officiis, lib. ii. c. 11. Shakspeare, as Dr. Farmer has shown, might have met with this pirate in some of the translations of his time: he points out two in which he is mentioned. In the old play it is, Abradas the great Macedonian pirate.' 15 This line in the original play is properly given to the captain. What remorse (i. e. pity) could Suffolk be called upon to show to his assailant; whereas the captain might with propriety say to his captive, Thy haughty language exasperates me, instead of exciting my compassion. Mr. Boswell is. I believe, mistaken in asserting that remorse was used in the modern sense. At least I find no instance where it is so used by Shakspeare. 16 The source from whence this line has been extracted has not yet been discovered. The following lines are the nearest which have been found in the Classic Poets: Subitus tremor occupat artus.' Ille quidem gelidos radiorum viribus artus. Navitæ, confessu gelido pallore timorem.' Than stand uncover'd to the vulgar groom. More can I bear, than you dare execute17. Cap. Hale him away, and let him talk no more. Suf. Come, soldiers, show what cruelty ye can18, That this is my death may never be forgot!Great men oft die by vile bezonians 19: A Roman sworder and banditto slave, 'Murder'd sweet Tully; Brutus' bastard hand Stabb'd Julius Cæsar; savage islanders, [Exit SUF Pompey the Great20: and Suffolk dies by pirates. Exit SUF. with WHIT. and Others. nu viners Cap. And as for these whose ransome we have set, It is our pleasure, one of them depart:st Therefore come you with ith us, and let him go. [Exeunt all but the first Gentleman. Re-enter WHITMORE, with SUFFOLK'S Body. Whit. There let his head and lifeless body lie21, it. There Until the queen his mistress bury it. Gent. O barbarous and bloody spectacle! His body will I bear unto the king: [Exit. 17 I am able now, methinks (Out of a fortitude of soul I feel), To endure more miseries, and greater far, Again in Othello: King Henry VIII. Thou hast not half the power to do me harm, As I have to be hurt." 18 According to the Letter in the Paston Collection, already cited, the cutting off of Suffolk's head was very barbarously performed. One of the lewdest of the ship bade him lay down his head, and he should be fairly ferd [dealt] with, and dye on a sword; and took a rusty sword and smote off his head head within half a dozen strokes.' 19 A bezonian is a mean low person. See note on King Henry 1V. Part II. Act v. Sc. 3. 20 Pompey was killed by Achillas and Septimius at the moment that the Egyptian fishing boat in which they were reached the coast, his head being thrown into the sea, a circumstance sufficiently resembling Suffolk's death to bring it to the poet's memory; though his mention of it is not quite accurate. In the old play Pompey is not named. 21 They laid his body on the sands of Dover, and some say that bis head was set on a pole by it-Paston Letters, vol. i. p. 41. If he revenge it not, yet will his friends: So will the queen, that living held him dear. [Exit, with the Body. SCENE II. Blackheath. Enter GEORGE BEVIS and JOHN HOLLAND. Geo. Come, and get thee a sword, though made of a lath; they have been up these two days. John. They have the more need to sleep now 'then. • Geo. I tell thee, Jack Cade the clothier means to dress the commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new nap upon it. John. So he had need, for 'tis threadbare. Well, I say, it was never merry world in England, since gentlemen came up1. Geo. O miserable age! Virtue is not regarded in handycrafts-men. John. The nobility think scorn to go in leather 6 aprons. Geo. Nay more, the king's council are no good *workmen. * John.- True; And yet it is said, Labour in thy vocation; which is as much to say, as,-let the magistrates be labouring men; and therefore should we be magistrates. Geo. Thou hast hit it: for there's no better sign of a brave mind, than a hard hand. John. I see them! I see them! There's Best's son, the tanner of Wingham; *Geo. He shall have the skins of our enemies, *to make dog's leather of. John. And Dick the butcher, 1 The same phrase was used by the duke of Suffolk to Wolsey and Campeggio in the reign of Henry VIII. With that stepped forth the duke of Suffolk from the king, and by his commandment spake these words, with a stout and hault countenance"It was never merry in England (quoth he) whilst we had cardinals among us.""—Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, p. 167, ed. 1825. Geo. Then is sin struck down like an ox, and iniquity's throat cut like a calf. John. And Smith the weaver: *Geo. Argo, their thread of life is spun. John. Come, come, let's fall in with them. Drum. Enter CADE, DICK the Butcher, SMITH the Weaver, and Others in great number. " Cade. We John Cade, so termed of our supposed father, Dick. Or rather, of stealing a cade of herrings2. [Aside. Cade. for our enemies shall fall before us, inspired with the spirit of putting down kings and princes,-Command silence. Dick. Silence! Cade. My father was a Mortimer. Dick. He was an honest man, and a good brick layer. Cade. My mother a Plantagenet. [Aside. Dick. I knew her well, she was a midwife. [Aside. Cade. My wife descended of the Lacies,Dick. She was indeed, a pedler's daughter, and sold many laces. Aside. Smith. But, now of late, not able to travel with her furred pack, she washes bucks here at home. [Aside. • Cade. Therefore am I of an honourable house. Dick. Ay, by my faith, the field is honourable; 2 Tom Nashe speaks of having weighed one of Gabriel Harvey's books against a cade of herrings, and ludicrously says, That the rebel Jack Cade was the first that devised to put red herrings in cades, and from him they have their name -Lenton Stuffe, 1599.-Cade, however, is derived from cadus, Lat. a cask. We may add, from the accounts of the Celeress of the Abbey of Barking, in the Monasticon Anglicanum, a barrel of herryng shold contain a thousand herryngs, and a cade of herryng six hundred, six score to the hundred. Cade, with more learning than should naturally fall to his character, alludes to his name from cado, to fall. Vol. VI. 9* |