Brakenbury

Why looks your grace so heavily to-day?

Clarence

O, I have passed a miserable night,

So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights,

That, as I am a Christian faithful man,

I would not spend another such a night,

Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days,

So full of dismal terror was the time!

Brakenbury

What was your dream, my lord? I pray you tell me.

Clarence

Methoughts that I had broken from the Tower,

And was embarked to cross to Burgundy;

And, in my company, my brother Gloucester;

Who from my cabin tempted me to walk

Upon the hatches: thence we looked toward England,

And cited up a thousand heavy times,

During the wars of York and Lancaster

That had befallen us. As we paced along

Upon the giddy footing of the hatches,

Methought that Gloucester stumbled; and, in falling,

Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard,

Into the tumbling billows of the main.

O Lord! methought, what pain it was to drown!

What dreadful noise of waters in my ears!

What sights of ugly death within my eyes!

Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wracks;

A thousand men that fishes gnawed upon;

Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,

Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,

All scattered in the bottom of the sea:

Some lay in dead men's skulls; and, in the holes

Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept,

As 'twere in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems,

That wooed the slimy bottom of the deep,

And mocked the dead bones that lay scattered by.

Brakenbury

Had you such leisure in the time of death

To gaze upon these secrets of the deep?

Clarence

Methought I had; and often did I strive

To yield the ghost: but still the envious flood

Stopped in my soul, and would not let it forth

To find the empty, vast and wandering air;

But smothered it within my panting bulk,

Who almost burst to belch it in the sea.

Brakenbury

Awaked you not in this sore agony?

Clarence

No, no, my dream was lengthened after life;

O, then began the tempest to my soul.

I passed, methought, the melancholy flood,

With that sour ferryman which poets write of,

Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.

The first that there did greet my stranger soul,

Was my great father-in-law, renowned Warwick;

Who spake aloud, “What scourge for perjury

Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?”

And so he vanished: then came wandering by

A shadow like an angel, with bright hair

Dabbled in blood; and he shrieked out aloud,

“Clarence is come; false, fleeting, perjured Clarence,

That stabbed me in the field by Tewksbury;

Seize on him, Furies, take him unto torment!”

With that, methoughts, a legion of foul fiends

Environed me, and howled in mine ears

Such hideous cries, that with the very noise

I trembling waked, and for a season after

Could not believe but that I was in hell,

Such terrible impression made my dream.

Brakenbury

No marvel, lord, though it affrighted you;

I am afraid ( methinks) to hear you tell it.

Clarence

Ah, Keeper, Keeper, 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 avenged 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 sleeps.

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 titles 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 camest 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.

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 from the meaning.

There lies the Duke asleep, and there the keys

I'll to the king; and signify to him

That thus I have resigned to you my charge.

First Murderer

You may, sir, 'tis a point of wisdom Fare you well.

Second Murderer

What, shall I stab him as he sleeps?

First Murderer

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

Second Murderer

Why he shall never wake until the great Judgement Day.

First Murderer

Why, then he'll say we stabbed him sleeping.

Second Murderer

The urging of that word “judgement” hath bred a kind of remorse in me.

First Murderer

What, art thou afraid?

Second Murderer

Not to kill him, having a warrant, 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 Gloucester, and tell him so.

Second Murderer

Nay, I prithee, stay a little: I hope this passionate humour of mine 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 Gloucester's purse.

First Murderer

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 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 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

'Zounds, 'tis even now at my elbow, persuading me not to kill the duke.

Second Murderer

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

First Murderer

I am strong-framed, he cannot prevail with me.

Second Murderer

Spoke like a tall man that respects thy reputation. Come, shall we fall to work?

First Murderer

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

Second Murderer

O excellent device! and make a sop of him.

First Murderer

Soft! he wakes:

Second Murderer

Strike!

First Murderer

No, we'll reason with him.

Clarence

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

Second Murderer

You shall have wine enough, my lord, anon.

Clarence

In God's name, what art thou?

Second Murderer

A man, as you are.

Clarence

But not, as I am, royal.

Second Murderer

Nor you, as we are, loyal.

Clarence

Thy voice is thunder, but thy looks are humble.

Second Murderer

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

Clarence

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

To, to, to —

Clarence

To murder me?

Both.

Ay, ay.

Clarence

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?

First Murderer

Offended us you have not, but the king.

Clarence

I shall be reconciled to him again.

Second Murderer

Never, my lord; therefore prepare to die.

Clarence

Are you drawn forth among a world of men

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 pronounced

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.

First Murderer

What we will do, we do upon command.

Second Murderer

And he that hath commanded is our king.

Clarence

Erroneous vassals! the great King of kings

Hath in the table of his law commanded

That thou shalt do no murder: will you 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.

Second Murderer

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.

First Murderer

And, like a traitor to the name of God,

Didst break that vow; and with thy treacherous blade

Unripedst the bowels of thy sovereign's son.

Second Murderer

Whom thou wast sworn to cherish and defend.

First Murderer

How canst thou urge God's dreadful law to us,

When thou hast broke it in such dear degree?

Clarence

Alas! for whose sake did I that ill deed?

For Edward, for my brother, for his sake:

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,

O, know you yet, he doth it publicly:

Take not the quarrel from his powerful arm;

He needs no indirect or lawless course

To cut off those that have offended him.

First Murderer

Who made thee, then, a bloody minister,

When gallant-springing brave Plantagenet,

That princely novice, was struck dead by thee?

Clarence

My brother's love, the devil, and my rage.

First Murderer

Thy brother's love, our duty, and thy faults,

Provoke us hither now to slaughter thee.

Clarence

O, if you love my brother, hate not me;

I am his brother, and I love him well.

If you are hired for meed, go back again,

And I will send you to my brother Gloucester,

Who shall reward you better for my life

Than Edward will for tidings of my death.

Second Murderer

You are deceived, your brother Gloucester hates you.

Clarence

O, no, he loves me, and he holds me dear:

Go you to him from me.

Both.

Ay, so we will

Clarence

Tell him, when that our princely father York

Blessed his three sons with his victorious arm,

And charged us from his soul to love each other,

He little thought of this divided friendship:

Bid Gloucester think of this, and he will weep.

First Murderer

Ay, millstones; as he lessoned us to weep.

Clarence

O, do not slander him, for he is kind.

First Murderer

Right,

As snow in harvest. Come, you deceive yourself,

'Tis he that sends us to destroy you here.

Clarence

It cannot be; for he bewept my fortune,

And hugged me in his arms, and swore with sobs,

That he would labour my delivery.

Second Murderer

Why, so he doth, when he delivers you

From this earth's thraldom to the joys of heaven.

First Murderer

Make peace with God, for you must die, my lord.

Clarence

Have you that holy feeling in your souls,

To counsel me to make my peace with God,

And are you yet to your own souls so blind,

That you will war with God by murdering me?

O, sirs, consider, they that set you on

To do this deed will hate you for the deed.

Second Murderer

What shall we do?

Clarence

Relent, and save your souls.

Which of you, if you were a prince's son,

Being pent from liberty, as I am now,

If two such murderers as yourselves came to you,

Would not entreat for life?

First Murderer

Relent? No: 'tis cowardly and womanish.

Clarence

Not to relent is beastly, savage, devilish.

My friend, I spy some pity in thy looks:

O, if thine eye be not a flatterer,

Come thou on my side, and entreat for me,

As you would beg, were you in my distress:

A begging prince what beggar pities not?

Second Murderer

Look behind you, my lord.

First Murderer

Take that and that: if all this will not do, Stabs him.

I'll drown you in the malmsey-butt within. Exit, with the body.

Second Murderer

A bloody deed, and desperately dispatched!

How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands

Of this most grievous murder! Re-enter First Murderer

First Murderer

How now! what mean'st thou, that thou help'st me not?

By heavens, the duke shall know how slack you have been!

Second Murderer

I would he knew that I had saved his brother!

Take thou the fee, and tell him what I say;

For I repent me that the duke is slain. Exit.

First Murderer

So do not I: go, coward as thou art.

Well, I'll go hide the body in some hole,

Till that the duke give order for his burial:

And when I have my meed, I will away;

For this will out, and then I must not stay.