ACT II.

SCENE I. Cheapside.

[Enter three or four Apprentices of trades, with a pair of cudgels.] HARRY. Come, lay down the cudgels. Ho, Robin, you met us well at

Bunhill, to have you with us a Maying this morning.

ROBIN. Faith, Harry, the head drawer at the Miter by the great Conduit called me up, and we went to breakfast into St. Anne lane. But come, who begins? in good faith, I am clean out of practise. When wast at Garrets school, Harry?

HARRY. Not this great while, never since I brake his ushers head, when he played his scholars prize at the Star in Bread-street. I use all to George Philpots at Dowgate; he's the best backswordman in England.

KIT. Bate me an ace of that, quoth Bolton.

HARRY. I'll not bate ye a pin on 't, sir; for, by this cudgel, tis true. KIT. I will cudgel that opinion out of ye: did you break an ushers head,

sir?

HARRY. Aye, marry, did I, sir.

KIT. I am very glad on 't: you shall break mine too, and ye can. HARRY. Sirrah, I prithee, what art thou?

KIT. Why, I am a prentice as thou art; seest thou now? I'll play with

thee at blunt here in Cheapside, and when thou hast done, if thou beest angry, I'll fight with thee at sharp in Moore fields. I have a sword to serve my turn in a favor. . . . come Julie, to serve . . . .

SCENE II. Saint Martins-le-Grand.

[Enter Lincoln, two Bettses, Williamson, Sherwin, and other, armed; Doll in a shirt of mail, a headpiece, sword, and buckler; a crew attending.]

CLOWN. Come, come; we'll tickle their turnips, we'll butter their boxes. Shall strangers rule the roost? yes; but we'll baste the roost. Come, come; a flaunt, a flaunt!

GEORGE. Brother, give place, and hear John Lincoln speak.

CLOWN. Aye, Lincoln my leader, And Doll my true breeder, With the rest of our crew, Shall ran tan tarra ran; Do all they what they can. Shall we be bobbed, braved? no: Shall we be held under? no; We are freeborne, And do take scorn To be used so.

DOLL. Peace there, I say! hear Captain Lincoln speak; keep silence, till we know his mind at large.

CLOWN. Then largely deliver; speak, bully: and he that presumes to interrupt thee in thy oration, this for him.

LINCOLN. Then, gallant bloods, you whose free souls do scorn To bear the inforced wrongs of aliens, Add rage to resolution, fire the houses Of these audacious strangers. This is St. Martins, And yonder dwells Mutas, a wealthy Piccardy, At the Green Gate, De Barde, Peter Van Hollocke, Adrian Martine, With many more outlandish fugitives. Shall these enjoy more privilege than we In our own country? let's, then, become their slaves. Since justice keeps not them in greater awe, We be ourselves rough ministers at law.

CLOWN. Use no more swords, nor no more words, but fire the houses; brave captain courageous, fire me their houses.

DOLL. Aye, for we may as well make bonfires on May day as at midsummer: we'll alter the day in the calendar, and set it down in flaming letters.

SHERWIN. Stay! No, that would much endanger the whole city, Whereto I would not the least prejudice.

DOLL. No, nor I neither; so may mine own house be burned for company. I'll tell ye what: we'll drag the strangers into More fields, and there bombast them till they stink again.

CLOWN. And that's soon done; for they smell for fear already.

GEORGE. Let some of us enter the strangers' houses, And, if we find them there, then bring them forth.

DOLL. But if ye bring them forth ere ye find them, I'll ne'er allow of that.

CLOWN. Now, Mars, for thy honor, Dutch or French, So it be a wench, I'll upon her.

[Exeunt some and Sherwin.]

WILLIAMSON. Now, lads, sure shall we labor in our safety. I hear the Mayor hath gathered men in arms, And that Shreeve More an hour ago rised Some of the Privy Counsel in at Ludgate: Force now must make our peace, or else we fall; 'Twill soon be known we are the principal.

DOLL. And what of that? if thou beest afraid, husband, go home again, and hide they head; for, by the Lord, I'll have a little sport, now we are at it.

GEORGE. Let's stand upon our swords, and, if they come, Receive them as they were our enemies.

[Enter Sherwin and the rest.]

CLOWN. A purchase, a purchase! we have found, we ha found-- DOLL. What?

CLOWN. Nothing; not a French Fleming nor a Fleming French to be found; but all fled, in plain English.

LINCOLN. How now! have you found any? SHERWIN. No, not one; they're all fled.

LINCOLN. Then fire the houses, that, the Mayor being busy About the quenching of them, we may escape; Burn down their kennels: let us straight away, Least this day prove to us an ill May day.

CLOWN. Fire, fire! I'll be the first: If hanging come, tis welcome; that's the worst.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE III. The Guildhall.

[Enter at one door Sir Thomas More and Lord Mayor; at another door Sir John Munday hurt.]

LORD MAYOR. What, Sir John Munday, are you hurt?

SIR JOHN. A little knock, my lord. There was even now A sort of prentices playing at cudgels; I did command them to their masters' houses; But now, I fear me, they are gone to join With Lincoln, Sherwin, and their dangerous train.

MORE. The captains of this insurrection Have taken themselves to arms, and came but now To both the Counters, where they have released Sundry indebted prisoners, and from thence I hear that they are gone into St. Martins, Where they intend to offer violence To the amazed Lombards: therefore, my lord, If we expect the safety of the city, Tis time that force or parley do encounter With these displeased men.

[Enter a Messenger.]

LORD MAYOR. How now! what news?

MESSENGER. My lord, the rebels have broke open Newgate, From whence they have delivered many prisoners, Both felons and notorious murderers, That desperately cleave to their lawless train.

LORD MAYOR. Up with the drawbridge, gather some forces To Cornhill and Cheapside:--and, gentlemen, If diligence be weighed on every side, A quiet ebb will follow this rough tide.

[Enter Shrewsbury, Surrey, Palmer, and Cholmley.]

SHREWSBURY. Lord Mayor, his majesty, receiving notice Of this most dangerous insurrection, Hath sent my lord of Surrey and myself, Sir Thomas Palmer and our followers, To add unto your forces our best means For pacifying of this mutiny. In God's name, then, set on with happy speed! The king laments, if one true subject bleed.

SURREY. I hear they mean to fire the Lombards' houses: Oh power, what art thou in a madman's eyes! Thou makest the plodding idiot bloody- wise.

MORE. My lords, I doubt not but we shall appease With a calm breath this flux of discontent: To call them to a parley, questionless--

PALMER. May fall out good: tis well said, Master More.

MORE. Let's to these simple men; for many sweat Under this act, that knows not the law's debt Which hangs upon their lives; for silly men Plod on they know not how, like a fool's pen, That, ending, shows not any sentence writ, Linked but to common reason or slightest wit: These follow for no harm; but yet incur Self penalty with those that raised this stir. A God's name, on, to calm our private foes With breath of gravity, not dangerous blows!

SCENE IV. St. Martin's Gate.

[Enter Lincoln, Doll, Clown, George Betts, Williamson, others; and a Sergeant at Arms.]

LINCOLN. Peace, hear me: he that will not see a red herring at a Harry groat, butter at elevenpence a pound, meal at nine shillings a bushel, and beef at four nobles a stone, list to me.

GEORGE. It will come to that pass, if strangers be suffered. Mark him.

LINCOLN. Our country is a great eating country; ergo, they eat more in our country than they do in their own.

CLOWN. By a halfpenny loaf, a day, troy weight.

LINCOLN. They bring in strange roots, which is merely to the undoing of poor prentices; for what's a sorry parsnip to a good heart?

WILLIAMSON. Trash, trash; they breed sore eyes, and tis enough to infect the city with the palsey.

LINCOLN. Nay, it has infected it with the palsey; for these bastards of dung, as you know they grow in dung, have infected us, and it is our infection will make the city shake, which partly comes through the eating of parsnips.

CLOWN. True; and pumpkins together.

SERGEANT. What say ye to the mercy of the king? Do ye refuse it?

LINCOLN. You would have us upon this, would you? no, marry, do we not; we accept of the king's mercy, but we will show no mercy upon the strangers.

SERGEANT. You are the simplest things that ever stood In such a question.

LINCOLN. How say ye now, prentices? prentices simple! down with him!

ALL. Prentices simple! prentices simple!

[Enter the Lord Mayor, Surrey, Shrewsbury, More.] LORD MAYOR. Hold! in the king's name, hold!

SURREY. Friends, masters, countrymen--

LORD MAYOR. Peace, how, peace! I charge you, keep the peace!

SHREWSBURY. My masters, countrymen--

WILLIAMSON. The noble earl of Shrewsbury, let's hear him. GEORGE. We'll hear the earl of Surrey.

LINCOLN. The earl of Shrewsbury. GEORGE. We'll hear both.

ALL. Both, both, both, both!

LINCOLN. Peace, I say, peace! are you men of wisdom, or what are you?

SURREY. What you will have them; but not men of wisdom.

ALL. We'll not hear my lord of Surrey; no, no, no, no, no! Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury!

MORE. Whiles they are o'er the bank of their obedience, Thus will they bear down all things.

LINCOLN. Sheriff More speaks; shall we hear Sheriff More speak?

DOLL. Let's hear him: a keeps a plentyful shrievaltry, and a made my brother Arthur Watchins Seriant Safes yeoman: let's hear Shrieve More.

ALL. Shrieve More, More, More, Shrieve More!

MORE. Even by the rule you have among yourselves, Command still audience.

ALL. Surrey, Surrey! More, More! LINCOLN: Peace, peace, silence, peace. GEORGE. Peace, peace, silence, peace.

MORE. You that have voice and credit with the number Command them to a stillness.

LINCOLN. A plague on them, they will not hold their peace; the dual cannot rule them.

MORE. Then what a rough and riotous charge have you, To lead those that the dual cannot rule?-- Good masters, hear me speak.

DOLL. Aye, by th' mass, will we, More: th' art a good housekeeper, and I thank thy good worship for my brother Arthur Watchins.

ALL. Peace, peace.

MORE. Look, what you do offend you cry upon, That is, the peace: not one of you here present, Had there such fellows lived when you were babes, That could have topped the peace, as now you would, The peace

wherein you have till now grown up Had been ta'en from you, and the bloody times Could not have brought you to the state of men. Alas, poor things, what is it you have got, Although we grant you get the thing you seek?

GEORGE. Marry, the removing of the strangers, which cannot choose but much advantage the poor handicrafts of the city.

MORE. Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise Hath chid down all the majesty of England; Imagine that you see the wretched strangers, Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage, Plodding tooth ports and costs for transportation, And that you sit as kings in your desires, Authority quite silent by your brawl, And you in ruff of your opinions clothed; What had you got? I'll tell you: you had taught How insolence and strong hand should prevail, How order should be quelled; and by this pattern Not one of you should live an aged man, For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought, With self same hand, self reasons, and self right, Would shark on you, and men like ravenous fishes Would feed on one another.

DOLL. Before God, that's as true as the Gospel.

LINCOLN. Nay, this is a sound fellow, I tell you: let's mark him.

MORE. Let me set up before your thoughts, good friends, On supposition; which if you will mark, You shall perceive how horrible a shape Your innovation bears: first, tis a sin Which oft the apostle did forewarn us of, Urging obedience to authority; And twere no error, if I told you all, You were in arms against your God himself.

ALL. Marry, God forbid that!

MORE. Nay, certainly you are; For to the king God hath his office lent Of dread, of justice, power and command, Hath bid him rule, and willed you to obey; And, to add ampler majesty to this, He hath not only lent the king his figure, His throne and sword, but given him his own name, Calls him a god on earth. What do you, then, Rising gainst him that God himself installs, But rise against God? what do you to your souls In doing this? O, desperate as you are, Wash your foul minds with tears, and those same hands, That you like rebels lift against the peace, Lift up for peace, and your unreverent knees, Make them your feet to kneel to be forgiven! Tell

me but this: what rebel captain, As mutinies are incident, by his name Can still the rout? who will obey a traitor? Or how can well that proclamation sound, When there is no addition but a rebel To qualify a rebel? You'll put down strangers, Kill them, cut their throats, possess their houses, And lead the majesty of law in line, To slip him like a hound. Say now the king (As he is clement, if th' offender mourn) Should so much come to short of your great trespass As but to banish you, whether would you go? What country, by the nature of your error, Should give you harbor? go you to France or Flanders, To any German province, to Spain or Portugal, Nay, any where that not adheres to England,-- Why, you must needs be strangers: would you be pleased To find a nation of such barbarous temper, That, breaking out in hideous violence, Would not afford you an abode on earth, Whet their detested knives against your throats, Spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God Owed not nor made not you, nor that the claimants Were not all appropriate to your comforts, But chartered unto them, what would you think To be thus used? this is the strangers case; And this your mountanish inhumanity.

ALL. Faith, a says true: let's do as we may be done to.

LINCOLN. We'll be ruled by you, Master More, if you'll stand our friend to procure our pardon.

MORE. Submit you to these noble gentlemen, Entreat their mediation to the king, Give up yourself to form, obey the magistrate, And there's no doubt but mercy may be found, If you so seek. To persist in it is present death: but, if you Yield yourselves, no doubt what punishment You in simplicity have incurred, his highness In mercy will most graciously pardon.

ALL. We yield, and desire his highness' mercy. [They lay by their weapons.]

MORE. No doubt his majesty will grant it you: But you must yield to go to several prisons, Till that his highness' will be further known.

ALL. Most willingly; whether you will have us.

SHREWSBURY. Lord Mayor, let them be sent to several prisons, And there, in any case, be well intreated.-- My lord of Surrey, please you to take horse, And ride to Cheapside, where the aldermen Are with their

several companies in arms; Will them to go unto their several wards, Both for the stay of furth mutiny, And for the apprehending of such persons As shall contend.

SURREY. I go, my noble lord. [Exit Surrey.]

SHREWSBURY. We'll straight go tell his highness these good news; Withal, Shrieve More, I'll tell him how your breath Hath ransomed many a subject from sad death.

[Exit Shrewsbury and Cholmley.]

LORD MAYOR. Lincoln and Sherwin, you shall both to Newgate; The rest unto the Counters.

PALMER. Go guard them hence: a little breath well spent Cheats expectation in his fairest event.

DOLL. Well, Sheriff More, thou hast done more with thy good words than all they could with their weapons: give me thy hand, keep thy promise now for the king's pardon, or, by the Lord, I'll call thee a plain coney-catcher.

LINCOLN. Farewell, Shrieve More; and as we yield by thee, So make our peace; then thou dealst honestly.

CLOWN. Aye, and save us from the gallows, else a devil's double honestly!

[They are led away.]

LORD MAYOR. Master Shrieve More, you have preserved the city From a most dangerous fierce commotion; For, if this limb of riot here in St. Martins Had joined with other branches of the city That did begin to kindle, twould have bred Great rage; that rage much murder would have fed. Not steel, but eloquence hath wrought this good: You have redeemed us from much threatened blood.

MORE. My lord and brethren, what I here have spoke, My country's love, and next the city's care, Enjoined me to; which since it thus prevails, Think, God hath made weak More his instrument To thwart sedition's violent intent. I think twere best, my lord, some two hours hence We meet at the Guildhall, and there determine That thorough every ward the watch be clad In armor, but especially proud That at the city gates selected men,

Substantial citizens, do ward tonight, For fear of further mischief.

LORD MAYOR. It shall be so: But yond me thinks my lord of Shrewsbury.

[Enter Shrewsbury.]

SHREWSBURY. My lord, his majesty sends loving thanks To you, your brethren, and his faithful subjects, Your careful citizens.--But, Master More, to you A rougher, yet as kind, a salutation: A knights creation is this knightly steel. Rise up, Sir Thomas More.

MORE. I thank his highness for thus honoring me.

SHREWSBURY. This is but first taste of his princely favor: For it hath pleased his high majesty (Noting your wisdom and deserving merit) To put this staff of honor in your hand, For he hath chose you of his Privy Council.

MORE. My lord, for to deny my sovereign's bounty Were to drop precious stones into the heaps Whence they first came; To urge my imperfections in excuse, Were all as stale as custom: no, my lord, My service is my kings; good reason why,-- Since life or death hangs on our sovereign's eye.

LORD MAYOR. His majesty hath honored much the city In this his princely choice.

MORE. My lord and brethren, Though I depart for court my love shall rest With you, as heretofore, a faithful guest. I now must sleep in court, sound sleeps forbear; The chamberlain to state is public care: Yet, in this rising of my private blood, My studious thoughts shall tend the city's good.

[Enter Crofts.]

SHREWSBURY. How now, Crofts! what news?

CROFTS. My lord, his highness sends express command That a record be entered of this riot, And that the chief and capital offenders Be thereon straight arraigned, for himself intends To sit in person on the rest tomorrow At Westminster.

SHREWSBURY. Lord Mayor, you hear your charge.-- Come, good Sir Thomas More, to court let's hie; You are th' appeaser of this mutiny.

MORE. My lord, farewell: new days begets new tides; Life whirls

bout fate, then to a grave it slides. [Exeunt severally.]