Читать книгу King Richard III - Уильям Шекспир, William Szekspir, the Simon Studio - Страница 6

  KEEPER. Why looks your Grace so heavily to-day?

  CLARENCE. O, I have pass'd a miserable night,

    So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights,

    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!

  KEEPER. What was your dream, my lord? I pray you

    tell me.

  CLARENCE. Methoughts that I had broken from the Tower

    And was embark'd to cross to Burgundy;

    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 heavy times,

    During the wars of York and Lancaster,

    That had befall'n us. As we pac'd 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.

    O Lord, methought what pain it was to drown,

    What dreadful noise of waters in my ears,

    What sights of ugly death within my eyes!

    Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wrecks,

    A thousand men that fishes gnaw'd upon,

    Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,

    Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,

    All scatt'red in the bottom of the sea;

    Some lay in dead men's skulls, and in the holes

    Where eyes did once inhabit there were crept,

    As 'twere in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems,

    That woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep

    And mock'd the dead bones that lay scatt'red by.

  KEEPER. Had you such leisure in the time of death

    To gaze upon these secrets of the deep?

  CLARENCE. Methought I had; and often did I strive

    To yield the ghost, but still the envious flood

    Stopp'd in my soul and would not let it forth

    To find the empty, vast, and wand'ring air;

    But smother'd it within my panting bulk,

    Who almost burst to belch it in the sea.

  KEEPER. Awak'd you not in this sore agony?

  CLARENCE. No, no, my dream was lengthen'd after life.

    O, then began the tempest to my soul!

    I pass'd, methought, the melancholy flood

    With that sour 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 spake aloud 'What scourge for perjury

    Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?'

    And so he vanish'd. Then came wand'ring by

    A shadow like an angel, with bright hair

    Dabbled in blood, and he shriek'd out aloud

    'Clarence is come-false, fleeting, perjur'd Clarence,

    That stabb'd me in the field by Tewksbury.

    Seize on him, Furies, take him unto torment!'

    With that, methoughts, a legion of foul fiends

    Environ'd me, and howled in mine ears

    Such hideous cries that, with the very noise,

    I trembling wak'd, and for a season after

    Could not believe but that I was in hell,

    Such terrible impression made my dream.

  KEEPER. No marvel, lord, though it affrighted you;

    I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it.

  CLARENCE. Ah, Keeper, Keeper, I have done these things

    That now give 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 aveng'd on my misdeeds,

    Yet execute Thy wrath in me alone;

    O, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children!

    Keeper, I prithee sit by me awhile;

    My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep.

  KEEPER. I will, my lord. God give your Grace good rest.

                                               [CLARENCE sleeps]

  BRAKENBURY. 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 imaginations

    They often feel a world of restless cares,

    So that between their tides and low name

    There's nothing differs but the outward fame.

  FIRST MURDERER. Ho! who's here?

  BRAKENBURY. What wouldst thou, fellow, and how cam'st

    thou 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. Let

    him see our commission and 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 from the meaning.

    There lies the Duke asleep; 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. 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.