BRAKENBURYNo marvel, lord, though it affrighted you;
I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it.
CLARENCE
Ah, Brakenbury, I have done these things
That now give evidence against my soul,
For Edward’s sake; and see how he requites me!—
O God! If my deep prayers cannot appease Thee,
But Thou wilt be aveng’d on my misdeeds,
Yet execute Thy wrath in me alone,—
O, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children!—
Keeper, I prithee sit by me awhile;
My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep.
BRAKENBURY
I will, my lord; God give your grace good rest!—
[CLARENCE reposes himself on a chair.]
Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours,
Makes the night morning and the noontide night.
Princes have but their titles for their glories,
An outward honour for an inward toil;
And, for unfelt imaginations,
They often feel a world of restless cares:
So that, between their tides and low name,
There’s nothing differs but the outward fame.
[Enter the two MURDERERS.]
FIRST MURDERER
Ho! who’s here?
BRAKENBURY
What wouldst thou, fellow, and how cam’st thou hither?
FIRST MURDERER
I would speak with Clarence, and I came hither on my legs.
BRAKENBURY
What, so brief?
SECOND MURDERER
‘Tis better, sir, than to be tedious.—Let him see our commission and talk no more.
[A paper is delivered to BRAKENBURY, who reads it.]
BRAKENBURY
I am, in this, commanded to deliver
The noble Duke of Clarence to your hands:—
I will not reason what is meant hereby,
Because I will be guiltless of the meaning.
There lies the Duke asleep,—and there the keys;
I’ll to the king and signify to him
That thus I have resign’d to you my charge.
FIRST MURDERER
You may, sir; ‘tis a point of wisdom: fare you well.
[Exit BRAKENBURY.]
SECOND MURDERER
What, shall we stab him as he sleeps?
FIRST MURDERER
No; he’ll say ‘twas done cowardly, when he wakes.
SECOND MURDERER
When he wakes! why, fool, he shall never wake until the great judgment-day.
FIRST MURDERER
Why, then he’ll say we stabb’d him sleeping.
SECOND MURDERER
The urging of that word “judgment” hath bred a kind of remorse in me.
FIRST MURDERER
What, art thou afraid?
SECOND MURDERER
Not to kill him, having a warrant for it; but to be damned for killing him, from the which no warrant can defend me.
FIRST MURDERER
I thought thou hadst been resolute.
SECOND MURDERER
So I am, to let him live.
FIRST MURDERER
I’ll back to the Duke of Gloster and tell him so.
SECOND MURDERER
Nay, I pr’ythee, stay a little: I hope my holy humour will change; it was wont to hold me but while one tells twenty.
FIRST MURDERER
How dost thou feel thyself now?
SECOND MURDERER
Faith, some certain dregs of conscience are yet within me.
FIRST MURDERER
Remember our reward, when the deed’s done.
SECOND MURDERER
Zounds, he dies: I had forgot the reward.
FIRST MURDERER
Where’s thy conscience now?
SECOND MURDERER
O, in the Duke of Gloster’s purse.
FIRST MURDERER
So, when he opens his purse to give us our reward, thy conscience flies out.
SECOND MURDERER
‘Tis no matter; let it go; there’s few or none will entertain it.
FIRST MURDERER
What if it come to thee again?
SECOND MURDERER
I’ll not meddle with it,—it makes a man coward; a man cannot steal, but it accuseth him; a man cannot swear, but it checks him; a man cannot lie with his neighbour’s wife, but it detects him: ‘tis a blushing shame-faced spirit that mutinies in a man’s bosom; it fills a man full of obstacles: it made me once restore a purse of gold that by chance I found; it beggars any man that keeps it: it is turned out of towns and cities for a dangerous thing; and every man that means to live well endeavours to trust to himself and live without it.
FIRST MURDERER
