Enter Lincoln, Doll, Clown, George Betts, Williamson, others [a crowd of armed Prentices*] More could enter here
Enter a Sergeant-at-Arms
Do you refuse it?
Enter Lord Mayor, Surrey, Shrewsbury More could enter here
Thus will they bear down all things.
More speak?
Command still audience!59
65 Command them to a stillness.
The devil cannot rule them!
To lead those that the devil cannot rule.—
70 Good masters, hear me speak. To the Prentices
That is the peace. Not one of you here present
Had there such fellows lived when you were babes
That could have topped78 the peace as now you would,
The peace wherein you have till now grown up
80 Had been ta’en from you, and the80 bloody times
Could not have brought you to the state of men.
Alas, poor things, what is it you have got
Although we grant83 you get the thing you seek?
Hath chid down88 all the majesty of England.
Imagine that you see the wretched strangers,
90 Their babies at their backs, with their poor luggage
Plodding to th’ports and coasts for transportation,
And that you sit as kings in your desires,
Authority quite silenced by your brawl
And you in ruff of your opinions clothed.
95 What had you got? I’ll tell you: you had taught
How insolence and strong hand96 should prevail,
How order should be quelled, and by this pattern
Not one of you should live an agèd man,
For other ruffians, as99 their fancies wrought
100 With selfsame hand, self100 reasons and self right,
Would shark on101 you, and men like ravenous fishes
Would feed on one another.
105 mark him.
One supposition, which if you will mark
You shall perceive how horrible a shape
Your innovation109 bears: first, ’tis a sin
110 Which oft th’apostle110 did forewarn us of,
Urging obedience to authority.
And ’twere no error if I told you all
You were in arms gainst God.
For to the king God hath his office116 lent
Of dread,117 of justice, power and command,
Hath bid him rule, and willed you to obey.
And to add ampler majesty to this,
120 He hath not only lent the king his figure,120
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 gainst God? What do you to your souls
125 In doing this? O, desperate as you are,
Wash your foul126 minds with tears, and those same hands
That you like rebels lift against the peace
Lift up128 for peace, and your unreverent knees,
Make them your feet. To kneel to be forgiven
130 Is safer wars than ever you can make
Whose discipline is riot.
In,132 in, to your obedience! Why, even your hurly
Cannot proceed but by obedience.
Tell me but this: what rebel captain,
135 As mut’nies are incident,135 by his name
Can still the rout?136 Who will obey a traitor?
Or how can well that proclamation sound
When there is no addition138 but ‘a rebel’
To qualify a rebel? You’ll put down139 strangers,
140 Kill them, cut their throats, possess140 their houses,
And lead the majesty of law in lyam141
To slip142 him like a hound. Alas, alas! Say now the king,
As he is clement143 if th’offender mourn,
Should so much come too short of your great trespass
145 As but145 to banish you. Whither would you go?
What country, by the nature of your error,
Should give you harbour? Go you to France or Flanders,
To any German province, Spain or Portugal —
Nay, anywhere that not adheres to149 England —
150 Why, you must needs150 be strangers. Would you be pleased
To find a nation of such barbarous151 temper
That breaking out in hideous violence
Would not afford you an abode on earth,
Whet their detested knives against your throats,
155 Spurn155 you like dogs, and like as if that God
Owed156 not nor made not you nor that the elements
Were157 not all appropriate to your comforts
But chartered158 unto them? What would you think
To be thus used?159 This is the strangers’ case,
160 And this your mountainish inhumanity.
Entreat their mediation to the king,
Give up yourself to form,167 obey the magistrate,
And there’s no doubt but mercy may be found,
If you so seek it.
MS = unique manuscript of The Book of Sir Thomas More (signatures 8r–9v)
Ed = a correction introduced by a later editor
21 SD Sergeant-at-Arms = Ed. Placed at the opening direction in MS 48 Although the theatrical scribe deleted Shakespeare’s “all” in the middle of this line, the dramatist may have intended that the first half of the line be spoken by part of the mob, with the second half spoken by the other 97 order = Ed. MS = orderd 130 Is…obedience these lines were deleted by the theatrical scribe who then interlined “tell me but this” 160 mountainish = MS. Some editors read momtanish and suggest a possible form of Mohammetanish, meaning “un-Christian”