SCENE X. Kent. Iden's Garden.1 Enter CADE. *CADE. Fye on ambition! fye on myself; that * have a fword, and yet am ready to famish! These * five days have I hid me in these woods; and durft not peep out, for all the country is lay'd for *me; but now am I fo hungry, that if I might *have a leafe of my life for a thousand years, I *could ftay no longer. Wherefore, on a brick-* wall have I climbed into this garden; to fee if I can eat grafs, or pick a fallet another while, which *is not amifs to cool a man's ftomach this hot * weather. And, I think, this word fallet was born * to do me good: for, many a time, but for a fal*let, my brain-pan had been cleft with a brown 2 1 Kent. Iden's Garden.] Holinfhed, p. 635, fays: 66 -agentleman of Kent, named Alexander Eden, awaited fo his time, that he tooke the faid Cade in a garden in Suffer, so that there he was flaine at Hothfield," &c. Instead of the foliloquy with which the present scene begins, the quarto has only this stage direction. Enter Jacke Cade at one doore, and at the other M. Alexander Eyden and his men; and Jack Cade lies down picking of hearbes, and eating them. STEEVENS. This Iden was, in fact, the new sheriff of Kent, who had followed Cade from Rochester. W. Wyrcefter, p. 472. 2 RITSON. but for a fallet, my brain-pan &c.] A fallet by corruption from cælata, a helmet, (fays Skinner,) quia galeæ cælate fuerunt. POPE. I do not fee by what rules of etymology, fallet can be formed from cælata. Is it not rather a corruption from the French falut, *bill; and, many a time, when I have been dry, and bravely marching, it hath ferved me inftead * of a quart-pot to drink in; and now the word *fallet muft ferve me to feed on. Enter IDEN, with Servants. <IDEN. Lord, who would live turmoiled in the court, taken, I suppose, from the scriptural phrase, the helmet of fal vation? Brain-pan, for fkull, occurs, I think, in Wicliff's tranflation of Judges xix, 53. WHALLEY. In the ancient MS. romance of The Sowdon of Babyloyne, p. 39, we have a fimilar phrase: "Such a stroke, the him there raught, "The brayne fterte oute of his hede pan." STEEVENS. So, in Caxton's Chronicle: "Anone he [Cade] toke fir Umfreyes falade and his briganteins fmyten fulle of gilte nailles, and alfo his gilt fpores, and arraied him like a lord and a capitayne." RITSON. Again, in Sir Thomas North's tranflation of Plutarch: "One of the company feeing Brutus athirft alfo, he ran to the river for water, and brought it in his fallet.". Again, ibid: "Some were driven to fill their fallets and murrians with water." Again, in The longer thou liveft the more Fool thou art, 1570: "This will beare away a good rappe, "As good as a fallet to me verilie." STEEVENS. Salade has the fame meaning in French, as appears from a line in La Pucelle d'Orleans: "Devers la place arrive un Ecuyer "Portant falade, avec lance doreé." M. MASON. Minfheu conjectures that it is derived" à falut, Gal. because it keepeth the head whole from breaking." He adds, "alias Salade dicitur, a G. falade, idem; utrumque vero celando, quod caput tegit." The word undoubtedly came to us from the French. In the Stat. 4 and 5 Ph. and Mary, ch. 2, we find-" twentie baquebuts, and twentie morians or falets." MALONE. And may enjoy fuch quiet walks as these? This small inheritance, my father left me, 'Contenteth me, and is worth a monarchy. 'I feek not to wax great by others' waning ;3 'Or gather wealth, I care not with what envy ;4 'Sufficeth, that I have maintains my state, And fends the poor well pleafed from my gate. 'CADE. Here's the lord of the foil come to seize 'me for a stray, for entering his fee-fimple without leave. Ah, villain, thou wilt betray me, and get a thousand crowns of the king for carrying my 'head to him; but I'll make thee eat iron like an ' oftrich, and swallow my fword like a great pin, ere ' thou and I part. IDEN. Why, rude companion, whatsoe'er thou be, 'I know thee not; Why then should I betray thee? 'Is't not enough, to break into my garden, And, like a thief, to come to rob my grounds, 3 by others' waning;] The folio reads-warning. Corrected by Mr. Pope. Is in the preceding line was fupplied by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. 4 Or gather wealth, I care not with what envy ;] Or accumulate riches, without regarding the odium I may incur in the acquifition, however great that odium may be. Envy is often ufed in this fenfe by our author and his contemporaries. It may, however, have here its more ordinary acceptation. This speech in the old play ftands thus : "Good lord, how pleasant is this country life! "Nor would I change this pleasure for the court." Here furely we have not a hafty tranfcript of our author's lines, but the diftinct compofition of a preceding writer. The verfification must at once ftrike the ear of every person who has perused any of our old dramas. MALONE. 'Climbing my walls in fpite of me the owner, 'But thou wilt brave me with these faucy terms? CADE. Brave thee? ay, by the best blood that ever was broached, and beard thee too.5 Look on me well: I have eat no meat these five days; yet, come thou and thy five men, and if I do not leave you all as dead as a door nail, I pray God, I may never eat grafs more, IDEN. Nay, it fhall ne'er be faid, while Eng- That Alexander Iden, an efquire of Kent, Oppofe thy ftedfast-gazing eyes to mine," 'See if thou canft outface me with thy looks. 'Set limb to limb, and thou art far the leffer; Thy hand is but a finger to my fift; 6 Thy leg a ftick, compared with this truncheon; My foot fhall fight with all the strength thou haft; 'And if mine arm be heaved in the air, 'Thy grave is digg'd already in the earth. 'As for more words, whofe greatness answers words, 'Let this my fword report what speech forbears.8 5 and beard thee too.] See Vol. XI. p. 365, n.7. 6 STEEVENS. as dead as a door-nail.] See King Henry IV. P. II. A&t V. fc. iii. Vol. XII. STEEVENS. 7 Oppofe thy ftedfaft-gazing eyes to mine, &c.] This and the following nine lines are an amplification by Shakspeare on these three of the old play : "Look on me, my limbs are equal unto thine, "And every way as big: then hand to hand "I'll combat with thee. Sirra, fetch me weapons, As for more words, whofe greatness answers words, Hanmer, and after him, Dr. Warburton, read; *CADE. By my valour, the moft complete cham* pion that ever I heard.-'Steel, if thou turn thể edge, or cut not out the burly-boned clown in 'chines of beef ere thou fleep in thy fheath, I be 'feech God' on my knees, thou mayeft be turned As for more words, let this my fword report (Whofe greatness answers words) what speech forbears. It feems to be a poor praise of a sword, that its greatness anfwers words, whatever be the meaning of the expreffion. The old reading, though somewhat obfcure, feems to me more capable of explanation. For more words, whofe pomp and tumour may anfwer words, and only words, I fhall forbear them, and refer the rest to my fword. JOHNSON. So, in The Third Part of King Henry VI: "I will not bandy with thee, word for word, "But buckle with thee blows, twice two for one." More (As for more words) was an arbitrary and unneceffary addition made by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. How an unnecessary addition? The measure is incomplete without it. STEEVENS. The introduction of the monofyllable more, in my opinion, injures the fenfe though it improves the metre. Were I to introduce any word for that purpose, I should choose to read-As for mere words, inftead of more words. M. MASON. 9 I befeech God-] The folio reads-I befeech Jove. This heathen deity, with whom Cade was not likely to be much acquainted, was undoubtedly introduced by the editor of the folio to avoid the penalty of the ftatute, 3 Jac. I. ch. 21. In the old play, 1600, he fays, "I befeech God thou might'ft fall into fome Smith's hand, and be turned to hobnails." This the editor of the fecond edition of the quarto play, no date, but printed in 1619, changed (from the fame apprehenfion) to " I would thou might'ft fall," &c. Thefe alterations fully confirm my note on King Henry V. A&t IV. fc. iii. [where the King fwears "by Jove."]-Contrary to the general rule which I have obferved in printing this play, I have not adhered in the present instance to the reading of the folio; because I am confident that it proceeded not from Shakspeare, but his editor, who, for the reafon already given, makes Falstaff say to Prince Henry-" I knew ye as well as he that made ye," instead of" By the Lord, I knew ye," &c. MALONE. |