William Shakespeare: King Henry VI, Second Part

ACT IV. 2. SCENE II. Blackheath.

[Enter GEORGE BEVIS and JOHN HOLLAND.]

GEORGE.
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 't is threadbare. Well, I say
it was never merry world in England since gentlemen came up.

BEVIS.
O miserable age! virtue is not regarded in
handicraftsmen.

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 skin 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.

[Drum. Enter CADE, DICK the Butcher, SMITH the Weaver,
and a Sawyer, with infinite numbers.]