1 MURD. Why, then he'll say, we stabb'd him sleeping.

2 MURD. The urging of that word, judgment, hath bred a kind of remorse in me.

1 MURD. What? art thou afraid?

2 MURD. Not to kill him, having a warrant for it; but to be damn'd for killing him, from the which no warrant can defend me.

1 MURD. I thought, thou had'st been resolute. 2 MURD. SO I am, to let him live.

1 MURD. I'll back to the duke of Gloster, and tell him so.

2 MURD. Nay, I pr'ythee, stay a little: I hope, my holy humour3 will change; it was wont to hold me but while one would tell twenty.

1 MURD. How dost thou feel thyself now?

2 MURD. 'Faith, some certain dregs of conscience are yet within me.

1 MURD. Remember our reward, when the deed's done.

2 MURD. Come, he dies; I had forgot the reward.

1 MURD. Where's thy conscience now?

2 MURD. In the duke of Gloster's purse.

1 MURD. So, when he opens his purse to give us our reward, thy conscience flies out.

2 MURD. 'Tis no matter; let it go; there's few, or none, will entertain it.

3

1 MURD. What, if it come to thee again?

my HOLY humour-] Thus the early quarto. The folio has-" this passionate humour of mine," for which the modern editors have substituted compassionate, unnecessarily. Passionate, though not so good an epithet as that which is furnished by the quarto, is sufficiently intelligible. See vol. xv. p. 256, n. 4.

The second murderer's next speech proves that holy was the author's word. The player editors probably changed it, as they did many others, on account of the statute, 3 Jac. I. c. 21. A little lower, they, from the same apprehension, omitted the word 'faith. MALONE.

2 MURD. I'll not meddle with it, it is a dangerous thing, it makes a man a 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 one 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 all towns and cities for a dangerous thing; and every man, that means to live well, endeavours to trust to himself, and live without it.

1 MURD. 'Zounds, it is even now at my elbow, persuading me not to kill the duke.

2 MURD. Take the devil in thy mind, and believe him not: he would insinuate with thee, but to make thee sigh*.

1 MURD. I am strong-fram'd3, he cannot prevail with me.

6

2 MURD. Spoke like a tall fellow that respects his reputation. Come, shall we fall to work *?

* Quarto 1597, to this gear.

4 Take the devil in thy mind, and believe HIM not: he would insinuate with thee, &c.] One villain says, Conscience is at his elbows, persuading him not to kill the duke. The other says, take the devil into thy nearer acquaintance, into thy mind, who will be a match for thy conscience, and believe it not, &c. It is plain then, that him in both places in the text should be it, namely, conscience. WARBURTON.

Shakspeare so frequently uses both these pronouns indiscriminately, that no correction is necessary. STEEvens.

In The Merchant of Venice we have a long dialogue between Launcelot, his Conscience, and the Devil. But though conscience were not here personified. Shakspeare would have used him instead of it. He does so in almost every page of these plays. MALONE.

I

5 I am strong-FRAM'D,] Thus the folio. The quarto readsam strong in fraud. MALONE.

6 Spoke like a tall fellow,] The meaning of tall, in old English, is stout, daring, fearless, and strong. JOHNSON.

So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor:

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good soldiers, and tall fellows." STEEVENS.

1 MURD. Take him over the costard' with the hilts of thy sword, and then throw him into the malmsey-butt, in the next room.

2 MURD. O excellent device! and make a sop of him.

1 MURD. Soft! he wakes.

2 MURD. Strike.

8

1 MURD. No, we'll reason with him.

CLAR. Where art thou, keeper? give me a cup. of wine.

1 MUR. You shall have wine enough, my lord,

anon.

CLAR. In God's name, what art thou?
1 MURD. A man, as you are.
CLAR. But not, as I am, royal.

1 MURD. Nor you, as we are, loyal.

CLAR. Thy voice is thunder, but thy looks are humble.

1 MURD. My voice is now the king's, my looks mine own.

CLAR. How darkly, and how deadly dost thou speak, Your eyes do menace me: Why look you pale * ? Who sent you hither? Wherefore do you come?

BOTH MURD. To, to, to,

CLAR. To murder me?

BOTH MURD. Ay, ay.

CLAR. You scarcely have the hearts to tell me so, And therefore cannot have the hearts to do it. Wherein, my friends, have I offended you ?

7

1 MURD. Offended us you have not, but the king. * Quarto 1597 omits this line.

the COSTARD] i. e. the head; a name adopted from an apple shaped like a man's head. So, in Arden of Feversham, 1592:

See vol. iv. p. 327,

"One and two rounds at his costard." Hence likewise the term-costar-monger. n. 6. STEEVENS.

8

we'll reason-] We'll talk. JOHNSON.

So, in the Merchant of Venice:

"I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday." STEEvens.

CLAR. I shall be reconcil'd to him again.

2 MURD. Never, my lord; therefore prepare to die. CLAR. Are you call'd forth from out a world of men 9,

To slay the innocent? What is my offence?
Where is the evidence that doth accuse me?
What lawful quest, have given their verdict up
Unto the frowning judge? or who pronounc'd
The bitter sentence of poor Clarence' death?
Before I be convict by course of law 2,

To threaten me with death is most unlawful.
I charge you, as you hope to have redemption3

9 Are you CALL'D forth from out a world of men,] I think it may be better read :

"Are ye

cull'd forth-." JOHNSON.

The folio reads:

Are you drawn forth among a world of men."

I adhere to the reading now in the text. So, in Nobody and Somebody, 1598:

"Art thou call'd forth amongst a thousand men

"To minister this soveraigne antidote?" STEEVENS. The reading of the text is that of the quarto 1597. MALONE. I What lawful QUEST] Quest is inquest or jury. JOHNSON. So, in Hamlet:

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crowner's quest law." STEEVENS.

2 Before I be convict, &c.] Shakspeare has followed the current tale of his own time, in supposing that Clarence was imprisoned by Edward, and put to death by order of his brother Richard, without trial or condemnation. But the truth is, that he was tried and found guilty by his Peers, and a bill of attainder was afterwards passed against him. According to Sir Thomas More, his death was commanded by Edward; but he does not assert that the Duke of Gloster was the instrument. Polydore Virgil says, though he talked with several persons who lived at the time, he never could get any certain account of the motives that induced Edward to put his brother to death. See p. 54, n. 1. MALONE.

3

as you hope FOR ANY GOODNESS,] The quarto reads: As you hope to have redemption."

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I have adopted the former words, for the sake of introducing variety; the idea of redemption being comprized in the very next line. STEEVENS.

This arbitrary alteration was made, and the subsequent line was omitted, by the editors of the folio, to avoid the penalty of the stat. 3 Jac. c. 21.

For the sake of variety, however, Mr. Steevens follows neither

By Christ's dear blood shed for our grievous sins, That you depart, and lay no hands on me;

The deed you undertake is damnable.

1 MURD. What we will do, we do upon command. 2 MURD. And he, that hath commanded, is our king.

CLAR. Erroneous vassal! the great King of kings Hath in the table of his law commanded,

That thou shalt do no murder; Wilt thou then
Spurn at his edict, and fulfil a man's?

Take heed; for he holds vengeance in his hand,
To hurl upon their heads that break his law.

2 MURD. And that same vengeance doth he hurl on thee,

For false forswearing, and for murder too:
Thou didst receive the sacrament, to fight
In quarrel of the house of Lancaster *.

1 MURD. And, like a traitor to the name of God, Didst break that vow; and, with thy treacherous blade,

Unrip'st the bowels of thy sovereign's son.

* Quarto 1597, Thou didst receive the holy sacrament,

To fight in quarrel of the house of Lancaster.

copy. To obtain variety at the expense of the author's text, is surely a very dear purchase. Nor is the variety here obtained worth having; for the words, " as you hope to have redemption," do not supersede, but naturally introduce, the following line. I adhere, therefore, to Shakspeare's words, in preference to the arbitrary alteration made by a licenser of the press.

The reading adopted by Mr. Steevens is entirely his own. For the reviser of the folio, as I have observed above, got rid of all the words that might be construed as offending against the statute, and substituted-" as you hope for any goodness," instead of them; but Mr. Steevens, by inserting the substituted words, and also retaining the latter part of what had been struck out, has formed a sentence, not only without authority, but scarcely intelligible, at least if the preposition by is to be connected with the word goodness. If, on the other hand, he meant that the words" as you hope for any goodness," should be considered as parenthetical, (as he seems to have intended, by placing a point after goodness,) and that the construction should be-" I charge you, by Christ's dear blood, that you depart," then his deviation from our author's text is still greater. MALONE.