And, for unfelt imaginations, They often feel a world of restless cares :9 Enter the Two Murderers. 1 MURD. HO! who's here? BRAK. What would'ft thou, fellów? and how cam'ft thou hither? 1 MURD. I would fpeak with Clarence, and I came hither on my legs. BRAK. What, so brief? 2 MURD. O, fir, 'tis better to be brief than tedious: Let him fee our commiffion; talk no more.' [A Paper is delivered to BRAKENBURY, who BRAK. I am, in this, commanded to deliver - for unfelt imaginations, They often feel a world of restless cares:] They often fuffer real miferies for imaginary and unreal gratifications. JOHNSON. Let him fee our commiffion; &c.] Thus the fecond folio. Other copies, with measure equally defective "Show him our commiffion, talk no more." STEEVENS. 2 Here are the keys; &c.] So the quarto, 1598. The folio reads: "There lies the duke asleep, and there the keys." MALONE. I'll to the king; and fignify to him, That thus I have refign'd to you my charge. 1 MURD. You may, fir; 'tis a point of wisdom; Fare you well. 2 MURD. What, fhall we 1 MURD. No; he'll fay, when he wakes. [Exit BRAKENBURY. stab him as he fleeps ? 'twas done cowardly, 2 MURD. When he wakes! why, fool, he thall never wake until the great judgment day. 1 MURD. Why, then he'll fay, we stabb'd him fleeping. 2 MURD. The urging of that word, judgment, hath bred a kind of remorfe in me. 1 MURD. What? art thou afraid? 2 MURD. Not to kill him, having a warrant for it; but to be damn'd for killing him, from the which no warrant can defend me. 1 MURD. I thought, thou had'ft been refolute. 2 MURD. So I am, to let him live. 1 MURD. I'll back to the duke of Glofter, and tell him fo. 2 MURD. Nay, I pr'ythee, ftay a little: I hope, this holy humour of mine 3 will change; it was wont to hold me but while one would tell twenty. 3 this holy humour of mine-] Thus the early quarto. The folio has-this paffionate humour of mine, for which the modern editors have fubftituted compaffionate, unneceffarily. Paffionate, though not fo good an epithet as that which is furnifhed by the quarto, is fufficiently intelligible. See Vol. X. p. 406, n. 4. The fecond murderer's next speech proves that holy was the author's word. The player editors probably changed it, as they did many others, on account of the Statute, 3 Jac. I. c. 21. Ă 1 MURD. How doft thou feel thyself now? 2 MURD. 'Faith, fome certain dregs of confcience are yet within me. 1 MURD. Remember our reward, when the deed's done. 2 MURD. Come, he dies; I had forgot the reward. 1 MURD. Where's thy confcience now? 2 MURD. In the duke of Glofter's purse. 1 MURD. So, when he opens his purfe to give us our reward, thy confcience flies out. 2 MURD. 'Tis no matter; let it go; there's few, or none, will entertain it. 1 MURD. What, if it come to thee again? 2 MURD. I'll not meddle with it, it is a dangerous thing, it makes a man a coward; a man cannot fteal, but it accufeth him; a man cannot fwear, but it checks him; a man cannot lie with his neighbour's wife, but it detects him: 'Tis a blushing fhame-faced fpirit, that mutinies in a man's bofom; it fills one full of obftacles: it made me once restore a purfe 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 truft to himfelf, and live without it. 1 MURD. 'Zounds, it is even now at my elbow, perfuading me not to kill the duke. 2 MURD. Take the devil in thy mind, and believe little lower, they, from the fame apprehenfion, omitted the word, faith. MALONE. him not he would infinuate with thee, but to make thee figh.4 1 MURD. I am ftrong-fram'd,5 he cannot prevail with me. 2 MURD. Spoke like a tall fellow, that refpects his reputation. Come, fhall we fall to work? 1 MURD. Take him over the coftard with the hilts of thy fword, and then throw him into the malmsey-butt, in the next room. 2 MURD. O excellent device! and make a sop of him. Take the devil in thy mind, and believe him not: he would infinuate with thee, &c.] One villain fays, Confcience is at his elbows, perfuading him not to kill the duke. The other fays, take the devil into thy nearer acquaintance, into thy mind, who will be a match for thy confcience, and believe it not, &c. It is plain then, that him in both places in the text should be it, namely, conscience. WARBURton. Shakspeare fo frequently uses both these pronouns indifcriminately, that no correction is neceffary. STEEVENS. In The Merchant of Venice we have a long dialogue between Launcelot, his Confcience, and the Devil. But though confcience were not here perfonified, Shakspeare would have used him inftead of it. He does fo in almoft every page of these plays. MALONE. 5 I am frong-fram'd,] Thus the folio. The quarto readsI am ftrong in fraud. MALONE. 6 Spoke like a tall fellow,] The meaning of tall, in old Englifh, is ftout, daring, fear lefs, and ftrong. JOHNSON. So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor: 7 good foldiers, and tall fellows." STEEVENS. the coftard-] i. e. the head; a name adopted from an apple shaped like a man's head. So, in Arden of Feverfham, 1592: "One and two rounds at his coftard." Hence likewife the term-coftar-monger. p. 56, n. 3. STEEVENS. See Vol. VII. 1 MURD. Soft! he wakes. 2 MURD. Strike. 1 MURD. No, we'll reafon with him. CLAR. Where art thou, keeper? give me a cup of wine. 1 MURD. You thall have wine enough, my lord, anon. CLAR. In God's name, what art thou? 1 MURD. A man, as you are. CLAR. But not, as I am, royal. 1 MURD. Nor you, as we are, loyal. CLAR. Thy voice is thunder, but thy looks are humble. 1 MURD. My voice is now the king's, my looks mine own. CLAR. How darkly, and how deadly doft thou speak! Your eyes do menace me: Why look you pale? BOTH MURD. Ay, ay. CLAR. You fcarcely have the hearts to tell me so, And therefore cannot have the hearts to do it. Wherein, my friends, have I offended you? 1 MURD. Offended us you have not, but the king. CLAR. I fhall be reconcil'd to him again. -we'll reafon-] We'll talk. JOHNSON. So, in The Merchant of Venice: "I reafon'd with a Frenchman yesterday." STEEVENS, |