K. Sir Newton and Lord Mayor,
This wrong that I am offered,
This open and unnatural injury,
A king to be thus hardly handled
Of his own people, and no other foes,
But such as have been brought up and bred in his
Own bosom: nourished with his tender care.
To be thus robbed of honour and of friends;
Thus daunted with continual frights and fears;
Haled on to what mishap I cannot tell;
More hard mishap than had of like been mine.
Had I not marked been to be a king.
L. Mayor. It shall become your grace, most gracious lord,
To bear the mind in this afflicted time,
As other kings and lords hath done before,
Armed with sufferance and magnanimity:
The one to make you resolute for chance,
The other forward in your resolution.
The greatest wrong this rout hath done your grace,
Amongst a many other wicked parts,
Is in frighting your worthy lady mother,
Making foul slaughter of your noblemen,
Burning up books and matters of records,
Defacing houses of hostelity:[446]
Saint John's in Smithfield, the Savoy, and such like,
And beating down, like wolves, the better sort.
The greatest wrong in my opinion is,
That in honour doth your person touch,
I mean they call your majesty to parley,
And overbear you with a multitude,
As if you were a vassal, not a king.
O wretched minds of vile and barbarous men,
For whom the heavens have secret wreak in store.
But, my lord (with reverence and with pardon too),
Why comes your grace into Smithfield near the crew,
Unarm'd and guarded with so small a train?
K. If clemency may win their raging minds
To civil order, I'll approve it first.
They shall perceive I come in quiet wise,
Accompanied with the Lord Mayor here alone,
Besides our guard that doth attend on us.
L. Mayor. May it please your grace
That I shall raise the streets, to guard your majesty
Through Smithfield as you walk?
King. No, Lord Mayor, 'twill make them more outrageous,
And be a mean to shed a world of blood:
I more account the blood of Englishmen than so.
But this is the place I have appointed them
To hear them speak, and have adventured
To come among this foul, unruly crew.
And lo, my lord, see where the people comes!
Enter Jack Straw, Wat Tyler, Tom Miller, Parson Ball, and Hob Carter.
J. S. My masters, this is the king, come away,
'Tis he that we would speak withal.
King. Newton, desire that one may speak for all,
To tell the sum of their demand at full.
New. My masters, you that are th' especial men,
His majesty requires you all by me,
That one may speak and tell him your demand;
And gently here he lets you know by me,
He is resolved to hear him all at large.
King. Ay, good my friends, I pray you heartily,
Tell us your minds as mildly as you can;
And we will answer you so well to all,
As you shall not mislike in anything.
J. S. We come to revenge your officer's ill-demeanour,
And though we have killed him for his knavery,
Now we be gotten together, we will have wealth and liberty. [Cry all: Wealth and liberty!