That thus I have resign'd to you my charge.FIRST MURDERER.You may,sir;'tis a point of wisdom.Fare you well.Exeunt BRAKENBURY and KEEPER 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 judgment-day.FIRST MURDERER.Why,then he'll 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;but to be damn'd 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 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-fac'd 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 turn'd 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 the sigh.FIRST
MURDERER.I am strong-fram'd;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 chop him in 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.
