CLARENCE sleeps
Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours,
Makes the night morning, and the noon-tide
night.
Princes have but their tides for their glories,
An outward honour for an inward toil;
And, for unfelt imagination,
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
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.
BRAKENBURY
Yea, are you so brief?
Second Murderer
O sir, it is better to be brief than tedious. Show
him our commission; talk no more.
BRAKENBURY 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.
Here are the keys, there sits the duke asleep:
I'll to the king; and signify to him
That thus I have resign'd my charge to you.
First
Murderer
Do so, it is a point of wisdom: fare you well.
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
When he wakes! why, fool, he shall never wake till
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
of remorse in me.
First Murderer
What, art thou afraid?