William Shakespeare: The Life and Death of King Richard III

ACT I. 4. SCENE IV. London. A Room in the Tower. (continued)

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 Gloster's purse.

FIRST MURDERER.
So, 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-
faced 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 turned 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 thee sigh.

FIRST MURDERER.
I am strong-framed; 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 throw him in the malmsey-butt in the next room.