_Cade._ Well, he shall be beheaded for it ten times. Ah,   ·bdg020· thou say, thou serge, nay, thou buckram lord! now art thou within point-blank of our jurisdiction regal. What canst   [bdg022] thou answer to my majesty for giving up of Normandy unto   [bdg023] Mounsieur Basimecu, the dauphin of France? Be it known [bdg024] unto thee by these presence, even the presence of Lord Mortimer, [bdg025] that I am the besom that must sweep the court clean of such filth as thou art. Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar school: and whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used, ·bdg030· and, contrary to the king, his crown and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill. It will be proved to thy face that thou hast men about thee that usually talk of a noun and a verb, and such abominable words as no Christian ear can endure to hear. Thou hast appointed justices of peace, to call poor   [bdg035] men before them about matters they were not able to answer. Moreover, thou hast put them in prison; and because they   [bdg037] could not read, thou hast hanged them; when, indeed, only for that cause they have been most worthy to live. Thou dost ride in a foot-cloth, dost thou not?   [bdg040] _Say._ What of that? _Cade._ Marry, thou oughtest not to let thy horse wear a cloak, when honester men than thou go in their hose and doublets. _Dick._ And work in their shirt too; as myself, for example,   ·bdg045· that am a butcher. _Say._ You men of Kent,-- _Dick._ What say you of Kent?   [bdg048] _Say._ Nothing but this; ’tis ‘bona terra, mala gens.’   [bdg049] _Cade._ Away with him, away with him! he speaks Latin.   ·bdg050· _Say._ Hear me but speak, and bear me where you will.   [bdg051] Kent, in the Commentaries Cæsar writ, Is term’d the civil’st place of all this isle: Sweet is the country, because full of riches;   [bdg054] The people liberal, valiant, active, wealthy;   [bdg055] Which makes me hope you are not void of pity.   [bdg056] I sold not Maine, I lost not Normandy, Yet, to recover them, would lose my life.   [bdg058] Justice with favour have I always done; Prayers and tears have moved me, gifts could never.   ·bdg060· When have I aught exacted at your hands,   [bdg061] But to maintain the king, the realm and you? Large gifts have I bestow’d on learned clerks, Because my book preferr’d me to the king,   [bdg064] And seeing ignorance is the curse of God,   ·bdg065· Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven, Unless you be possess’d with devilish spirits, You cannot but forbear to murder me:   [bdg068] This tongue hath parley’d unto foreign kings For your behoof,--   [bdg070] _Cade._ Tut, when struck’st thou one blow in the field?   [bdg071] _Say._ Great men have reaching hands: oft have I struck Those that I never saw and struck them dead.   [bdg073]