England since gentlemen came up.

George Bevis. O miserable age! Virtue is not regarded in
handicraftsmen.

John. The nobility think scorn to go in leather aprons."

When Jack Cade, alias Wat Tyler, comes on the scene, he shows himself to
be a braggart and a fool. He says:

"Be brave then, for your captain is brave and vows
reformation. There shall be in England seven half-penny
loaves sold for a penny; the three-hooped pot shall have ten
hoops, and I will make it a felony to drink small beer. All
the realm shall be in common, and in Cheapside shall my
palfrey go to grass. And when I am king asking I will be--

All. God save your majesty!

Cade. I thank you, good people--there shall be no money; all
shall eat and drink on my score, and I will apparel them all
in one livery, that they may agree like brothers and worship
me their lord."
(Henry VI., Part 2, Act 4, Sc. 2.)

The crowd wishes to kill the clerk of Chatham because he can read,
write, and cast accounts. (Cade. "O monstrous!") Sir Humphrey Stafford
calls them

"Rebellious hinds, the filth and scum of Kent,
Marked for the gallows."
(Ib.)

Clifford succeeds without much difficulty in turning the enmity of the
mob against France, and Cade ejaculates disconsolately, "Was ever a
feather so lightly blown to and fro as this multitude?" (Ib., Act 4, Sc.
8.) In the stage directions of this scene, Shakespeare shows his own
opinion of the mob by writing, "Enter Cade and his rabblement." One
looks in vain here as in the Roman plays for a suggestion that poor
people sometimes suffer wrongfully from hunger and want, that they
occasionally have just grievances, and that their efforts to present
them, so far from being ludicrous, are the most serious parts of
history, beside which the struttings of kings and courtiers sink into
insignificance.

One of the popular songs in Tyler's rebellion was the familiar couplet:

"When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?"

Shakespeare refers to it in "Hamlet," where the grave-diggers speak as
follows:

"First Clown. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentleman
but gardners, ditchers and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's
profession.

Second Clown. Was he a gentleman?

First Clown. He was the first that ever bore arms.

Second Clown. Wh