Richard III by William Shakespeare
Act 1 - Scene 4
London. The Tower.
First Murderer : And, like a traitor to the name of God,
[p]Didst break that vow; and
with thy treacherous blade
[p]Unrip'dst the bowels of thy sovereign's
son.
Second Murderer : Whom thou wert sworn to cherish and defend.
First Murderer : How canst thou urge God's dreadful law to us,
[p]When thou hast broke
it in so dear degree?
First Murderer : Who made thee, then, a bloody minister,
[p]When gallant-springing
brave Plantagenet,
[p]That princely novice, was struck dead by thee?
First Murderer : Thy brother's love, our duty, and thy fault,
[p]Provoke us hither now
to slaughter thee.
Second Murderer : You are deceived, your brother Gloucester hates you.
Both : Ay, so we will.
First Murderer : Ay, millstones; as be lesson'd us to weep.
First Murderer : Right,
[p]As snow in harvest. Thou deceivest thyself:
[p]'Tis he that
sent us hither now to slaughter thee.
Second Murderer : Why, so he doth, now he delivers thee
[p]From this world's thraldom to
the joys of heaven.
First Murderer : Make peace with God, for you must die, my lord.
Second Murderer : What shall we do?
First Murderer : Relent! 'tis cowardly and womanish.
Second Murderer : Look behind you, my lord.
First Murderer : Take that, and that: if all this will not do,
[p][Stabs him]
[p]I'll
drown you in the malmsey-butt within.
Second Murderer : A bloody deed, and desperately dispatch'd!
[p]How fain, like Pilate,
would I wash my hands
[p]Of this most grievous guilty murder done!
First Murderer : How now! what mean'st thou, that thou help'st me not?
[p]By heavens,
the duke shall know how slack thou art!
Second Murderer : I would he knew that I had saved his brother!
[p]Take thou the fee,
and tell him what I say;
[p]For I repent me that the duke is slain.
First Murderer : So do not I: go, coward as thou art.
[p]Now must I hide his body in
some hole,
[p]Until the duke take order for his burial:
[p]And when I
have my meed, I must away;
[p]For this will out, and here I must not
stay.
[p][Flourish. Enter KING EDWARD IV sick, QUEEN]
[p]ELIZABETH,
DORSET, RIVERS, HASTINGS, BUCKINGHAM,
[p]GREY, and others]
Sir Robert Brakenbury : Why looks your grace so heavily today?
Sir Robert Brakenbury : What was your dream? I long to hear you tell it.
Sir Robert Brakenbury : Had you such leisure in the time of death
[p]To gaze upon the secrets
of the deep?
Sir Robert Brakenbury : Awaked you not with this sore agony?
Sir Robert Brakenbury : No marvel, my lord, though it affrighted you;
[p]I promise, I am
afraid to hear you tell it.
Sir Robert Brakenbury : I will, my lord: God give your grace good rest!
[p][CLARENCE
sleeps]
[p]Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours,
[p]Makes the
night morning, and the noon-tide night.
[p]Princes have but their
tides for their glories,
[p]An outward honour for an inward
toil;
[p]And, for unfelt imagination,
[p]They often feel a world of
restless cares:
[p]So that, betwixt their tides and low
names,
[p]There's nothing differs but the outward fame.
First Murderer : Ho! who's here?
Sir Robert Brakenbury : In God's name what are you, and how came you hither?
First Murderer : I would speak with Clarence, and I came hither on my legs.
Sir Robert Brakenbury : Yea, are you so brief?
Second Murderer : O sir, it is better to be brief than tedious. Show
[p]him our
commission; talk no more.
Sir Robert Brakenbury : I am, in this, commanded to deliver
[p]The noble Duke of Clarence to
your hands:
[p]I will not reason what is meant hereby,
[p]Because I
will be guiltless of the meaning.
[p]Here are the keys, there sits the
duke asleep:
[p]I'll to the king; and signify to him
[p]That thus I
have resign'd my charge to you.
First Murderer : Do so, it is a point of wisdom: fare you well.
Second Murderer : What, shall we stab him as he sleeps?
First Murderer : No; then he will say 'twas done cowardly, when he wakes.
Second Murderer : When he wakes! why, fool, he shall never wake till
[p]the
judgment-day.
First Murderer : Why, then he will say we stabbed him sleeping.
Second Murderer : The urging of that word 'judgment' hath bred a kind
[p]of remorse in
me.
First Murderer : What, art thou afraid?
Second Murderer : Not to kill him, having a warrant for it; but to be
[p]damned for
killing him, from which no warrant can defend us.
First Murderer : I thought thou hadst been resolute.
Second Murderer : So I am, to let him live.
First Murderer : Back to the Duke of Gloucester, tell him so.
Second Murderer : I pray thee, stay a while: I hope my holy humour
[p]will change; 'twas
wont to hold me but while one
[p]would tell twenty.
First Murderer : How dost thou feel thyself now?
Second Murderer : 'Faith, some certain dregs of conscience are yet
[p]within me.
First Murderer : Remember our reward, when the deed is done.
Second Murderer : 'Zounds, he dies: I had forgot the reward.
First Murderer : Where is thy conscience now?
Second Murderer : In the Duke of Gloucester's purse.
First Murderer : So when he opens his purse to give us our reward,
[p]thy conscience
flies out.
Second Murderer : Let it go; there's few or none will entertain it.
First Murderer : How if it come to thee again?
Second Murderer : I'll not meddle with it: it is a dangerous thing: it
[p]makes a man a
coward: a man cannot steal, but it
[p]accuseth him; he cannot swear,
but it cheques him;
[p]he cannot lie with his neighbour's wife, but
it
[p]detects him: 'tis a blushing shamefast spirit that
[p]mutinies
in a man's bosom; it fills one full of
[p]obstacles: it made me once
restore a purse of gold
[p]that I found; it beggars any man that keeps
it: it
[p]is turned out of all towns and cities for a
[p]dangerous
thing; and every man that means to live
[p]well endeavours to trust to
himself and to live
[p]without it.
First Murderer : 'Zounds, it is even now at my elbow, persuading me
[p]not to kill the
duke.
Second Murderer : Take the devil in thy mind, and relieve him not: he
[p]would insinuate
with thee but to make thee sigh.
First Murderer : Tut, I am strong-framed, he cannot prevail with me,
[p]I warrant
thee.
Second Murderer : Spoke like a tail fellow that respects his
[p]reputation. Come, shall
we to this gear?
First Murderer : Take him over the costard with the hilts of thy
[p]sword, and then we
will chop him in the malmsey-butt
[p]in the next room.
Second Murderer : O excellent devise! make a sop of him.
First Murderer : Hark! he stirs: shall I strike?
Second Murderer : No, first let's reason with him.
Second Murderer : You shall have wine enough, my lord, anon.
Second Murderer : A man, as you are.
Second Murderer : Nor you, as we are, loyal.
Second Murderer : My voice is now the king's, my looks mine own.
Both : To, to, to--
Both : Ay, ay.
First Murderer : Offended us you have not, but the king.
Second Murderer : Never, my lord; therefore prepare to die.
First Murderer : What we will do, we do upon command.
Second Murderer : And he that hath commanded is the king.
Second Murderer : And that same vengeance doth he hurl on thee,
[p]For false forswearing
and for murder too:
[p]Thou didst receive the holy sacrament,
[p]To
fight in quarrel of the house of Lancaster.
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Next: Act 2 - Scene 1
