1 Murd. No; he'll say, 'twas done cowardly, when he wakes.

2 Murd. When he wakes! why, fool, he shall never wake until the great judgment day.

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, this holy humour of mine 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

our reward, thy conscience flies out.

to give us

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

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

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 shamefaced 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 sigh11.

11

1 Murd. I am strong-fram'd, he cannot prevail with me.

2 Murd. Spoke like a tall 12 fellow, that respects his reputation. Come, shall we fall to work?

1 Murd. Take him over the costard 13 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.

1 Murd. No, we'll reason 14 with him.

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

11 One villain says, Conscience is at his elbow, persuading him not to kill the duke. The other says, take the devil into thy mind, who will be a match for thy conscience, and believe it not. Perhaps conscience is here personified, as in Launcelot's dialogue in the Merchant of Venice; but however that may be, Shakspeare would have used him for it without scruple.

12 i. e. a bold courageous fellow. Vide note on The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i. Sc. 5, p. 202.

13 Head. See Love's Labour's Lost, Act iii. Sc. 1, note 10. 14 ì. e. talk with him. Thus in The Merchant of Venice:I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday.'

1 Murd. 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.

4

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?

1 Murd. Offended us you have not, but the king. 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, To slay the innocent? What is my offence? Where is the evidence that doth accuse me? What lawful quest 15 have given their verdict up

15 Quest was the term for a jury. A quest of twelve men, Duodecim viratus.' Baret. In Hamlet we have crowners quest law.'

Shakspeare has followed the current tale of his own time. But the truth is, that Clarence 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.

Unto the frowning judge? or who pronounc'd
The bitter sentence of poor Clarence' death?
Before I be convict by course of law,

To threaten me with death is most unlawful.
I charge you, as you hope to have redemption
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'dst the bowels of thy sovereign's son.

2 Murd. Whom thou wast sworn to cherish and

defend.

1 Murd. How canst thou urge God's dreadful

law to us,

When thou hast broke it in such dear 17 degree?

Clar. Alas! for whose sake did I that ill deed? For Edward, for my brother, for his sake:

16 This line was altered, and the subsequent line omitted, by the editors of the folio, to avoid the penalty of the statute, 3 Jac. I. c. 21.

17 See note on Twelfth Night, Act v. Sc. 1.

He sends you not to murder me for this;
For in that sin he is as deep as I.
If God will be avenged for the deed,
know you, that he doth it publickly;

0,

Take not the quarrel from his powerful arm;
He needs no indirect nor lawless course,
To cut off those that have offended him.

1 Murd. Who made thee then a bloody minister, When gallant springing, brave Plantagenet 18, That princely novice 19, was struck dead by thee? Clar. My brother's love, the devil, and my rage. 1 Murd. Thy brother's love, our duty, and thy fault,

Provoke us hither now to slaughter thee.

Clar. If you do love my brother, hate not me; I am his brother, and I love him well.

If

you are hired for meed 20, go back again, And I will send you

Who shall reward

to my

brother Gloster;

you better for my life,

Than Edward will for tidings of my death.

2 Murd. You are deceiv'd, your brother Gloster hates you 21.

18 Blooming Plantagenet, a prince in the spring of life. 19 Youth, one yet new to the world.

20 Reward.

21 Walpole rightly suggested, from the Chronicle of Croyland, that the true cause of Gloster's hatred to Clarence was, that Clarence was unwilling to share with his brother that moiety of the estate of the great of earl of Warwick, to which Gloster became entitled on his marriage with the younger sister of the duchess of Clarence, Lady Anne Neville, who had been betrothed to Edward prince of Wales. This is fully confirmed by a letter from Sir John Paston to his brother, dated Feb. 14, 1471-2:- Yesterday the king, the queen, my lords of Clarence and Gloucester went to Shene to pardon; men say, not all in charity. The king entreateth my lord of Clarence for my lord of Gloucester; and, as it is said, he answereth, that he may well have my lady his sister-in-law, but they shall part no livelihood, as he saith; so, what will fall, can I not say.' Paston Letters, vol. ii. p. 91.