The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

Such terrible impression made my dream.

  ⌈BRACKENBURY⌉

  No marvel, lord, though it affrighted you;

  I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it.

  CLARENCE

  Ah, Brackenbury, I have done these things,

  That now give evidence against my soul,

  For Edward’s sake; and see how he requites me.

  Keeper, I pray thee, sit by me awhile.

  My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep.

  ⌈BRACKENBURY⌉

  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 two Murderers

  FIRST MURDERER Ho, who’s here?

  BRACKENBURY

  What wouldst thou, fellow? And how cam’st thou

  hither?

  SECOND MURDERER I would speak with Clarence, and I came hither on my legs.

  BRACKENBURY What, so brief?

  FIRST MURDERER ‘Tis better, sir, than to be tedious. (To Second Murderer) Let him see our commission, and talk no more.

  Brackenbury reads

  BRACKENBURY

  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.

  ⌈He throws down 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. Exit Brackenbury

  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 pray thee. Stay a little. I hope this passionate humour of mine will change. It was wont to hold me but while one tells twenty.

  ⌈He counts to twenty⌉

  FIRST MURDERER How dost thou feel thyself now? SECOND MURDERER Some certain dregs of conscience are yet within me.

  FIRST MURDERER Remember our reward, when the deed’s done.

  SECOND MURDERER ‘Swounds, 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, shamefaced 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 ‘Swounds, ’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?

  FIRST MURDERER

  A man, as you are.

  CLARENCE But not as I am, royal.

  FIRST MURDERER Nor you as we are, loyal.

  CLARENCE

  Thy voice is thunder, but thy looks are humble.

  FIRST 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?

  SECOND MURDERER

  To, to, to—

  CLARENCE To murder me.

  BOTH MURDERERS 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

  Unripped‘st the bowels of thy sov’reign’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 ye 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 pow’rful 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

  If you do 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.

  FIRST MURDERER

  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

  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.

  FIRST MURDERER

  Why, so he doth, when he delivers you

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

  SECOND 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 murd’ring me?

  O sirs, consider: they that set you on

  To do this deed will hate you for the deed.

  SECOND MURDERER (to First)

  What shall we do?

  CLARENCE

  Relent, and save your souls.

  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.

  A begging prince, what beggar pities not?

  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? As you would beg

  Were you in my distress—

  SECOND MURDERER Look behind you, my lord!

  FIRST MURDERER (stabbing Clarence)

  Take that, and that! If all this will not serve,

  I’ll drown you in the malmsey butt within.

  Exit with Clarence’s body

  SECOND MURDERER

  A bloody deed, and desperately dispatched!

  How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands

  Of this most grievous, guilty murder done.

  Enter First Murderer

  FIRST MURDERER

  How now? What mean‘st thou, that thou help’st me not?

  By heaven, 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. Exit

  2.1 Flourish. Enter King Edward, sick, Queen Elizabeth, Lord Marquis Dorset, Lord Rivers, Lord Hastings, Sir William Catesby, the Duke of Buckingham ⌈and Lord Gray⌉

  KING EDWARD

  Why, so! Now have I done a good day’s work.

  You peers, continue this united league.

  I every day expect an embassage

  From my redeemer to redeem me hence,

  And more in peace my soul shall part to heaven

  Since I have made my friends at peace on earth.

  Hastings and Rivers, take each other’s hand.

  Dissemble not your hatred; swear your love.

  RIVERS

  By heaven, my soul is purged from grudging hate,

  And with my hand I seal my true heart’s love.

  ⌈He takes Hastings’ hand⌉

  LORD HASTINGS

  So thrive I, as I truly swear the like.

  KING EDWARD

  Take heed you dally not before your king,

  Lest he that is the supreme King of Kings

  Confound your hidden falsehood, and award

  Either of you to be the other’s end.

  LORD HASTINGS

  So prosper I, as I swear perfect love.

  RIVERS

  And I, as I love Hastings with my heart.

  KING EDWARD (to Elizabeth)

  Madam, yourself is not exempt from this,

  Nor your son Dorset;—Buckingham, nor you.

  You have been factious one against the other.

  Wife, love Lord Hastings, let him kiss your hand—

  And what you do, do it unfeignedly.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH (giving Hastings her hand to kiss)

  There, Hastings. I will never more remember

  Our former hatred: so thrive I, and mine.

  KING EDWARD

  Dorset, embrace him. Hastings, love Lord Marquis.

  DORSET

  This interchange of love, I here protest,

  Upon my part shall be inviolable.

  LORD HASTINGS And so swear I.

  They embrace

  KING EDWARD

  Now, princely Buckingham, seal thou this league

  With thy embracements to my wife’s allies,

  And make me happy in your unity.

  BUCKINGHAM (to Elizabeth)

  Whenever Buckingham doth turn his hate

  Upon your grace, but with all duteous love

  Doth cherish you and yours, God punish me

  With hate in those where I expect most love.

  When I have most need to employ a friend,

  And most assured that he is a friend,

  Deep, hollow, treacherous, and full of guile

  Be he unto me. This do I beg of heaven,

  When I am cold in love to you or yours.

  They embrace

  KING EDWARD

  A pleasing cordial, princely Buckingham,

  Is this thy vow unto my sickly heart.

  There wanteth now our brother Glouces
ter here,

  To make the blessèd period of this peace.

  Enter Sir Richard Ratcliffe and Richard Duke of Gloucester

  BUCKINGHAM And in good time,

  Here comes Sir Richard Ratcliffe and the Duke.

  RICHARD GLOUCESTER

  Good morrow to my sovereign King and Queen.—

  And princely peers, a happy time of day.

  KING EDWARD

  Happy indeed, as we have spent the day.

  Brother, we have done deeds of charity,

  Made peace of enmity, fair love of hate,

  Between these swelling wrong-incensed peers.

  RICHARD GLOUCESTER

  A blessed labour, my most sovereign lord.

  Among this princely heap if any here,

  By false intelligence or wrong surmise,

  Hold me a foe,

  If I unwittingly or in my rage

  Have aught committed that is hardly borne

  By any in this presence, I desire

  To reconcile me to his friendly peace.

  ‘Tis death to me to be at enmity.

  I hate it, and desire all good men’s love.—

  First, madam, I entreat true peace of you,

  Which I will purchase with my duteous service.—

  Of you, my noble cousin Buckingham,

  If ever any grudge were lodged between us.—

  Of you, Lord Rivers, and Lord Gray of you,

  That all without desert have frowned on me.—

  Dukes, earls, lords, gentlemen, indeed of all!

  I do not know that Englishman alive

  With whom my soul is any jot at odds

  More than the infant that is born tonight.

  I thank my God for my humility.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH

  A holy day shall this be kept hereafter.

  I would to God all strifes were well compounded.—

  My sovereign lord, I do beseech your highness

  To take our brother Clarence to your grace.

  RICHARD GLOUCESTER

  Why, madam, have I offered love for this,

  To be so flouted in this royal presence?

  Who knows not that the gentle Duke is dead?

  The others all start

  You do him injury to scorn his corpse.

  ⌈RIVERS⌉

  Who knows not he is dead? Who knows he is?

  QUEEN ELIZABETH

  All-seeing heaven, what a world is this?

  BUCKINGHAM

  Look I so pale, Lord Dorset, as the rest?

  DORSET

  Ay, my good lord, and no one in the presence

  But his red colour hath forsook his cheeks.