Shakespeare's Richard III Act 1 Scene 4 The Murder of Clarence

Richard III

Please see the bottom of this page for full explanatory notes.

ACT I SCENE IV London. A Room in the Tower.

	Enter CLARENCE and BRAKENBURY.
BRAKENBURY	Why looks your grace so heavily to-day?
CLARENCE	O, I have pass'd a miserable night,
	So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams,
	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? I long to hear you tell it.
CLARENCE	Methought that I had broken from the Tower,
	And was embark'd to cross to Burgundy;	10
	And, in my company, my brother Gloucester;
	Who from my cabin tempted me to walk
	Upon the hatches: thence we look'd toward England,
	And cited up a thousand fearful times,
	During the wars of York and Lancaster
	That had befall'n 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.	20
	Lord, Lord! methought, what pain it was to drown!
	What dreadful noise of waters in mine ears!
	What ugly sights of death within mine eyes!
	Methought I saw a thousand fearful wrecks;
	Ten thousand men that fishes gnaw'd upon;
	Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
	Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,
	All scatter'd in the bottom of the sea:
	Some lay in dead men's skulls; and, in those holes
	Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept,	30
	As 'twere in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems,
	Which woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep,
	And mock'd the dead bones that lay scatter'd by.
BRAKENBURY	Had you such leisure in the time of death
	To gaze upon the secrets of the deep?
CLARENCE	Methought I had; and often did I strive
	To yield the ghost: but still the envious flood
	Kept in my soul, and would not let it forth
	To seek the empty, vast and wandering air;
	But smother'd it within my panting bulk,	40
	Which almost burst to belch it in the sea.
BRAKENBURY	Awaked you not with this sore agony?
CLARENCE	O, no, my dream was lengthen'd after life;
	O, then began the tempest to my soul,
	Who pass'd, methought, the melancholy flood,
	With that grim 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 cried aloud, 'What scourge for perjury	50
	Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?'
	And so he vanish'd: then came wandering by
	A shadow like an angel, with bright hair
	Dabbled in blood; and he squeak'd out aloud,
	'Clarence is come; false, fleeting, perjured Clarence,
	That stabb'd me in the field by Tewksbury;
	Seize on him, Furies, take him to your torments!'
	With that, methoughts, a legion of foul fiends
	Environ'd me about, and howled in mine ears
	Such hideous cries, that with the very noise	60
	I trembling waked, and for a season after
	Could not believe but that I was in hell,
	Such terrible impression made the dream.
BRAKENBURY	No marvel, my lord, though it affrighted you;
	I promise, I am afraid to hear you tell it.
CLARENCE	O Brakenbury, I have done those things,
	Which now bear 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,	70
	Yet execute thy wrath in me alone,
	O, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children!
	I pray thee, gentle keeper, stay by me;
	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 imagination,	80
	They often feel a world of restless cares:
	So that, betwixt their tides and low names,
	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 cam'st you 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. Show
	him our commission; talk no more.	90
	[ A paper is delivered to BRAKENBURY who reads it.
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 of the meaning.
	There lies the duke alseep -- and there the keys,
	I'll to the king; and signify to him
	That thus I have resign'd to you my charge.
First Murderer	You may sir, 'tis a point of wisdom: fare you well.	100
	[ Exit BRAKENBURY.
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	Why, he shall never wake till
	the judgment-day.
First Murderer	Why, then he will say we stabb'd him sleeping.
Second Murderer	The urging of that word 'judgment' hath bred a kind
	of remorse in me.
First Murderer	What, art thou afraid?
Second Murderer	Not to kill him, having a warrant for it; but to be
	damned for killing him, from 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 my holy humour	120
	will change; 'twas wont to hold me but while one
	would tell 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 is done.
Second Murderer	'Zounds, he dies: I had forgot the reward.
First Murderer	Where is thy conscience now?	130
Second Murderer	In the Duke of Gloucester's purse.
First Murderer	So when he opens his purse to give us our reward,
	thy conscience flies out.
Second Murderer	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 cheques him;	140
	a man cannot lie with his neighbour's wife, but it
	detects him: 'tis a blushing shamefast 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 to live
	without it.
First Murderer	'Zounds, it is 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	150
	would insinuate with thee but to make thee sigh.
First Murderer	Tut, I am strong-fram'd, he cannot prevail with me.
Second Murderer	Spoke like a tail fellow that respects his
	reputation. Come, shall we to this gear?
First Murderer	Take him over the costard with the hilts of thy
	sword, and then throw him into the malmsey-butt
	in the next room.	160
Second Murderer	O excellent device! 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?	170
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--	180
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 reconcil'd to him again.
Second Murderer	Never, my lord; therefore prepare to die.	190
CLARENCE	Are you call'd forth from out a world of men
	To slay the innocent? What is my offence?
	Where are the evidence that do 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,	200
	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 the king.
CLARENCE	Erroneous vassal! the great King of kings
	Hath in the tables of his law commanded
	That thou shalt do no murder: and wilt thou, then,
	Spurn at his edict and fulfill a man's?	210
	Take heed; for he holds vengeance in his hands,
	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 holy 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
	Unrip'dst the bowels of thy sovereign's son.	220
Second Murderer	Whom thou wert sworn to cherish and defend.
First Murderer	How canst thou urge God's dreadful law to us,
	When thou hast broke it in so dear degree?
CLARENCE	Alas! for whose sake did I that ill deed?
	For Edward, for my brother, for his sake: Why, sirs,
	He sends ye not to murder me for this
	For in this sin he is as deep as I.
	If God will be revenged for this deed.
	O, know you yet, he doth it publicly,
	Take not the quarrel from his powerful arm;	230
	He needs no indirect nor 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 fault,
	Provoke us hither now to slaughter thee.
CLARENCE	Oh, if you love my brother, hate not me;
	I am his brother, and I love him well.	240
	If you be hir'd 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
	Bless'd his three sons with his victorious arm,
	And charged us from his soul to love each other,	250
	He little thought of this divided friendship:
	Bid Gloucester think of this, and he will weep.
First Murderer	Ay, millstones; as be lesson'd us to weep.
CLARENCE	O, do not slander him, for he is kind.
First Murderer	Right,
	As snow in harvest. Thou deceivest thyself:
	'Tis he that sends us to destroy you here.
CLARENCE	It cannot be; for when I parted with him,
	He hugg'd me in his arms, and swore, with sobs,
	That he would labour my delivery.
Second Murderer	Why, so he doth, now he delivers you	260
	From this world's thraldom to the joys of heaven.
First Murderer	Make peace with God, for you must die, my lord.
CLARENCE	Hast thou that holy feeling in thy soul,
	To counsel me to make my peace with God,
	And art thou yet to thy own soul so blind,
	That thou wilt war with God by murdering me?
	Ah, sirs, consider, he 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.
First Murderer	Relent! 'tis cowardly and womanish.	270
CLARENCE	Not to relent is beastly, savage, devilish.
	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?
	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?	280
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 dispatch'd!
	How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands
	Of this most grievous guilty murder done!
	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 thou art!
Second Murderer	I would he knew that I had sav'd his brother!
	Take thou the fee, and tell him what I say;	290
	For I repent me that the duke is slain.
	[ Exit
First Murderer	So do not I: go, coward as thou art.
	Now must I hide his body in some hole,
	Until the duke take order for his burial:
	And when I have my meed, I must away;
	For this will out, and here I must not stay.
	[ Exit

Richard III, Act 2, Scene 1

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Explanatory Notes for Act 1, Scene 4
From King Richard III. Ed. Brainerd Kellogg. New York: Clark & Maynard.

Abbreviations. — A.-S. = Anglo-Saxon: M.E. = Middle English (from the 13th to the 15th century) ; Fr. = French ; Ger. = German ; Gr. = Greek ; Cf. = compare (Lat. confer) ; Abbott refers to the excellent Shakespearean Grammar of Dr. Abbott; Schmidt, to Dr. Schmidt's invaluable Shakespeare Lexicon.

1. Heavily, sadly.

4. Faithful, as opposed to infidel or faithless.

5. Such a night. The a is inserted pleonastically here.

9. Methought. The reading of the folios is methoughts, the s having been incorrectly added to assimilate the termination to that of methinks.

27. Unvalued, invaluable.

37. To yield the ghost, to die. Envious, malignant, spiteful.

40. Bulk, body.

45. The melancholy flood is the river Styx, which flows seven times round the infernal regions.

46. Ferryman. Charon, whose task it is to convey in his boat the shades of the dead across the rivers of the lower world.

55. Fleeting, inconstant.

71. In me, on me.

80. Instead of the dreams they form but never realize.

94. Guiltless, innocent of, ignorant of.

119. Tell, count. A.-S. tellan, to number, talu, a number, narrative. Allied words are Dutch taal, speech; Icelandic tal, speech; German zahl, number.

141. Shamefast, modest. The word is now spelled shame-faced by a singular confusion with face, due to the fact that shame is commonly indicated by the face.

151. Insinuate, to meddle with.

155. Tall, stout, spirited.

158. Take him = strike him. Costard, a slang expression for the head.

160. According to Holinshed (Edward IV., p. 346, 1808 ed.), "finallie the duke was cast into the Tower, and therewith adiudged for a traitor, and priuilie drowned in a butt of malmesie."

166-176. The uses of thou and you may be seen very clearly in this passage. Thou is the customary address from superiors to inferiors, and is expressive, besides, of any excitement or sensibility, of familiar tenderness as well as of anger; of reverence as well as of contempt. Thus the constant address of Venus to Adonis in Shakespeare's poem is thou; of Adonis to Venus, you.

193. Evidence = the witnesses.

194. Quest, inquest or jury.

197. Convict, convicted.

215. Forswearing, perjury.

220. Unrip means simply to cut open.

220. Dear, used often as a kind of emphatic adjective, the sense being, in so great a degree.

229. For you the quartos read ye. Ye was originally the nominative form; you, the accusative. This distinction, though observed in our version of the Bible, was disregarded in the usage of Elizabethan writers.

234. Gallant-springing, putting forth the promise of beauty like buds opening in the Spring.

235. Novice, one new to anything, just entering on life.

236. This is love lor my brother.

238. Provoke, impel.

253. Millstones. To weep millstones was a common proverb = not to weep at all, to remain hard and unfeeling as a stone. Lesson'd, taught. Any noun or adjective, can be converted into a verb by the Elizabethan writers, generally in an active signification.

255. The reference is to Proverbs, 26:1 : "As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honor is not seemly for a fool." The first murderer understands kind in the sense of natural or foolish.

259. Labor, bring about.

263. Turning as he speaks to the second murderer.

How to cite the explanatory notes:
Shakespeare, William. Richard III. Ed. Brainerd Kellogg. New York: Clark & Maynard, 1886. Shakespeare Online. 22 Dec. 2011. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/richardiii_1_4.html >.

How to cite the sidebar:
Mabillard, Amanda. Notes on Shakespeare. Shakespeare Online. 22 Dec. 2011. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/richardiii_1_4.html >.

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"Macbeth, Richard III, were both villains, murderers. Both reached the thrones they occupied by wading through blood. In this respect they are like Iago. Yet, in their cases, Shakespeare uses but few soliloquies, and these very brief, while Iago constantly, and, in extenso, soliloquizes. Why this difference? Because between Macbeth and Richard III on the one hand, and Iago on the other, there is a radical difference. They accomplished their ends by means that were mostly open, undisguised, straightforward. Iago works not openly, but, like the mole, almost wholly underground, secretly. He trusts to deception to accomplish his purpose." (William Fleming, Shakespeare's Plots. p. 414.)

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