Imatges de pàgina
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Of miracles than now? (Aloud.) And didst thou do As the voices bade thee -go to Vaucouleurs?

JOAN,

I prayed my father's leave to help my uncle
At Burey, to keep house in his wife's sickness;
He had faith in me, and took me to the captain.

And he?

ISAMBARD.

JOAN.

He had no faith. When I prayed still For a horse and arms and men to ride to the

Dauphin,1

He cracked a ribald jest, and laugh'd me off,

And bade my uncle whip and send me home.

And then I thought I would set forth alone,

And took Pierre Laxart's clothes and started thence;
But still I thought of home-of them in there,
And their grief when they heard that I was gone
Without their leave and blessing-and turned back.

ISAMBARD.

Ah! those were voices it was safe to follow.
Have a care, daughter, devils can take shape
And voice of angels; can breathe Satan's counsel

1 This is exactly the true account.

Into our hearts so sweet, it seems the saints: 'Tis pride o' the fiend!

JOAN.

You have known me, Father,

Since I could speak and spin. Have I been proud?

ISAMBARD.

Ever most gentle, humble, and obedient;

If Heaven sought instruments, 'tis in such lives
They should be found.

TOM TAYLOR.

JACK CADE'S REVOLT.

1450.

The Scene is at Blackheath.

Enter George Bevis and John Holland.

BEVIS.

Come, and get thee a sword, though made of a lath: they have been up these two days.

HOLLAND.

They have the more need to sleep now, then.

BEVIS.

I tell thee, Jack Cade the clothier, means to dress the Commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new nap

upon it.

HOLLAND.

So he had need, for 'tis threadbare.

Well, I say it

was never merry world in England since gentlemen came up.

BEVIS.

O miserable age! virtue is not regarded in handicrafts-men.

HOLLAND.

The nobility think scorn to go in leather aprons.

BEVIS.

Nay more, the king's council are no good workmen.

HOLLAND.

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.

BEVIS.

Thou hast hit it, for there's no better sign of a brave mind than a hard hand.

HOLLAND.

I see them! I see them! There's Best's son, the tanner of Wingham!

BEVIS.

He shall have the skins of our enemies to make dog's

leather of.

HOLLAND.

And Dick the butcher,

BEVIS.

Then is sin struck down like an ox, and iniquity's

throat cut like a calf.

HOLLAND.

And Smith the weaver.

BEVIS.

Argo,' their thread of life is spun.

HOLLAND.

Come, come, let's fall in with them.

Enter Cade, Dick the Butcher, Smith the Weaver, and a Sawyer, with infinite numbers.

CADE.

We, John Cade, so termed of our supposed father,

1 Meaning ergo, the Latin for therefore.

DICK (aside).

Or rather, of stealing a cade of herrings.

CADE.

For our enemies shall fall before us, inspired with the spirit of putting down kings and princes. Command silence!

Silence!

DICK (aside).

CADE.

My father was a Mortimer.

DICK (aside).

He was an honest man, and a good bricklayer,

CADE.

My mother a Plantagenet.

DICK (aside).

I knew her well: she was a nurse.

CADE.

My wife descended of the Lacies.

DICK (aside).

She was indeed a pedler's daughter, and sold many

laces.

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