IV. ii. 86, 87. The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. The proposal to kill lawyers seems to have been a feature, not of Cade's rebellion, but of the earlier one led by Wat Tyler in 1381.
IV. ii. 111, 112. They use to write it on the top of letters. Emmanuel ('God with us') was placed as a pious sentiment at the head of letters and other documents.
IV. iii. 6-8. the Lent shall be as long again as it is; and thou shalt have a licence to kill for a hundred lacking one. The eating of flesh during Lent was forbidden in Elizabeth's reign, and killing of beasts at that time was permitted only by special license to provide for invalids (supposedly) unable to dispense with flesh. A license to kill for ninety-nine a week during a doubled Lent would thus constitute a valuable monopoly. 'For' in line 8 may mean 'at the rate of,' allowing Dick to slaughter ninety-nine beasts a week.
IV. vii. 23. the Lord Say, which sold the towns in France. Lord Say had been associated with Suffolk in the cession of Anjou and Maine.
IV. vii. 24. he that made us pay one-and-twenty fifteens. Twenty-one fifteens is a humorous exaggeration. A frequent mode of raising revenue to cover unusual expenditures of the government was to impose a tax of one-fifteenth (sometimes one-tenth) on personal property. Compare note on I. i. 134. One of Cade's actual demands was 'that neither fifteens should hereafter be demanded, nor once anie impositions or taxes be spoken of.'
IV. vii. 39. the score and the tally. Tallies were the two halves of a stick, split and divided between creditor and debtor. Scores were the notches on the tallies which served to certify the transactions.
IV. vii. 39, 40. thou hast caused printing to be used. An anachronism, since the first book printed in England was not produced till 1477. (Cade's rebellion
