The opening of the play brings before us a vivid picture of the condition of the working-class, and the temper it had engendered; and at the same time skilfully foreshadows the character of the hero.
"The hovels of the bond discovered. Jack Straw, Dick Pembroke, Roger Sutton (bondmen), dressed coarsely, with implements of labor, as if going to their work.
Straw. Of corn three stinted measures! And that doled
With scourge and curse! Rough fare, even for a bondman.
Pembroke. Yet must he feed, from this, his wife and children;
What if they starve? Courtnay cares not for that.
Sutton. His music is the lash! He makes him merry
With our miseries. Our lords are hot and harsh,
Yet are they milder than their mongrel minions.
Straw. I'd cheerly toil, were Courtnay yoked this day