It is very probable, as I have
said, that the first sketch was his; when one of Cade's followers
declares that Cade's "breath stinks," we are reminded that Coriolanus
spoke in the same terms of the Roman rabble. But though it is his own
work, Shakespeare evidently takes it up again with the keenest interest,
for he adds inimitable touches. For instance, in the first scene, where
the two rebels, George Bevis and John Holland, talk of Cade's rising and
his intention to set a "new nap upon the commonwealth," George's remark:
"Oh, miserable age! virtue is not regarded in handicraftsmen"--
an addition, and may be compared with Falstaff's:
"there is no virtue extant."
John answers:
"The nobility think scorn to go in leather aprons,"
which is in the first sketch.
But George's reply--
"Nay, more; the King's Council are no good workmen"--
is only to be found in the revised version. The heightened humour of
that "Oh, miserable age! virtue is not regarded in handicraftsmen,"
assures us that the reviser was Shakespeare.
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