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Henry VI, Pt. 2: Act IV, Scene 10

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Henry VI, Pt. 2
Act IV, Scene 10

Kent. Iden’s Garden.

Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

Is’t Cade that I have slain, that monstrous traitor?

From: Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

Mary Cowden Clarke, Charles Cowden Clarke, 1870

  1. Enter Cade.

Jack Cade

1 - 14
  1. Fie on ambitions! Fie on myself, that have a sword, and yet
  2. am ready to famish! These five days have I hid me in these
  3. woods and durst not peep out, for all the country is laid
  4. for me; but now am I so hungry that, if I might have a lease
  5. of my life for a thousand years, I could stay no longer.
  6. Wherefore, on a brick wall have I climb’d into this garden,
  7. to see if I can eat grass, or pick a sallet another while,
  8. which is not amiss to cool a man’s stomach this hot weather.
  9. And I think this word ’sallet’ was born to do me good; for
  10. many a time, but for a sallet, my brain-pan had been cleft
  11. with a brown bill; and many a time, when I have been dry and
  12. bravely marching, it hath serv’d me instead of a quart pot
  13. to drink in; and now the word ‘sallet’ must serve me to feed
  14. on.
  1. He lies down picking of herbs and eating them.
  1. Enter Iden followed at a distance by his Servants.

Alexander Iden

15 - 22
  1. Lord, who would live turmoiled in the court
  2. And may enjoy such quiet walks as these?
  3. This small inheritance my father left me
  4. Contenteth me, and worth a monarchy.
  5. I seek not to wax great by others’ waning,
  6. Or gather wealth, I care not with what envy.
  7. Sufficeth that I have maintains my state
  8. And sends the poor well pleased from my gate.

Jack Cade

23 - 28
  1. Aside.
  2. Here’s the lord of the soil come to seize me for a stray,
  3. for entering his fee-simple without leave.—Ah, villain, thou
  4. wilt betray me, and get a thousand crowns of the King by
  5. carrying my head to him, but I’ll make thee eat iron like an
  6. ostrich, and swallow my sword like a great pin, ere thou and
  7. I part.

Alexander Iden

29 - 34
  1. Why, rude companion, whatsoe’er thou be,
  2. I know thee not, why then should I betray thee?
  3. Is’t not enough to break into my garden,
  4. And like a thief to come to rob my grounds,
  5. Climbing my walls in spite of me the owner,
  6. But thou wilt brave me with these saucy terms?

Jack Cade

35 - 39
  1. Brave thee? Ay, by the best blood that ever was broach’d,
  2. and beard thee too. Look on me well. I have eat no meat
  3. these five days, yet come thou and thy five men, and if I do
  4. not leave you all as dead as a doornail, I pray God I may
  5. never eat grass more.

Alexander Iden

40 - 52
  1. Nay, it shall ne’er be said, while England stands,
  2. That Alexander Iden, an esquire of Kent,
  3. Took odds to combat a poor famish’d man.
  4. Oppose thy steadfast-gazing eyes to mine,
  5. See if thou canst outface me with thy looks.
  6. Set limb to limb, and thou art far the lesser;
  7. Thy hand is but a finger to my fist,
  8. Thy leg a stick compared with this truncheon;
  9. My foot shall fight with all the strength thou hast,
  10. And if mine arm be heaved in the air,
  11. Thy grave is digg’d already in the earth.
  12. As for words, whose greatness answers words,
  13. Let this my sword report what speech forbears.

Jack Cade

53 - 61
  1. By my valor, the most complete champion that ever I heard!
  2. Steel, if thou turn the edge, or cut not out the burly-bon’d
  3. clown in chines of beef ere thou sleep in thy sheath, I
  4. beseech God on my knees thou mayst be turn’d to hobnails.
  5. Here they fight and Cade falls down.
  6. O, I am slain! Famine and no other hath slain me. Let ten
  7. thousand devils come against me, and give me but the ten
  8. meals I have lost, and I’d defy them all. Wither, garden,
  9. and be henceforth a burying-place to all that do dwell in
  10. this house, because the unconquer’d soul of Cade is fled.

Alexander Iden

62 - 67
  1. Is’t Cade that I have slain, that monstrous traitor?
  2. Sword, I will hallow thee for this thy deed,
  3. And hang thee o’er my tomb when I am dead.
  4. Ne’er shall this blood be wiped from thy point,
  5. But thou shalt wear it as a herald’s coat,
  6. To emblaze the honor that thy master got.

Jack Cade

68 - 71
  1. Iden, farewell, and be proud of thy victory. Tell Kent from
  2. me, she hath lost her best man, and exhort all the world to
  3. be cowards; for I, that never fear’d any, am vanquish’d by
  4. famine, not by valor.
  1. Dies.

Alexander Iden

72 - 80
  1. How much thou wrong’st me, heaven be my judge.
  2. Die, damned wretch, the curse of her that bare thee;
  3. And as I thrust thy body in with my sword,
  4. So wish I, I might thrust thy soul to hell.
  5. Hence will I drag thee headlong by the heels
  6. Unto a dunghill, which shall be thy grave,
  7. And there cut off thy most ungracious head,
  8. Which I will bear in triumph to the King,
  9. Leaving thy trunk for crows to feed upon.
  1. Exit dragging out the body, with his Servants.
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