BRAKENBURY and the KEEPER exit.
What, shall I stab him as he sleeps?
What, should I stab him while he sleeps?
100No. He’ll say ’twas done cowardly, when he wakes.
No. When he wakes up, he’ll say we killed him like cowards.
Why, he shall never wake until the great Judgment Day.
When he wakes up! Why, he won’t wake up till Judgment Day.
Why, then he’ll say we stabbed him sleeping.
Okay, so that’s when he’ll say we stabbed him in his sleep.
The urging of that word “judgment” hath bred a kind of remorse in me.
That word “judgment” makes me feel a bit guilty.
Not to kill him, having a warrant, but to be damned for killing him, from the which no warrant can defend me.
Not of killing him, because I have a warrant for it, but of being damned for killing him, which no warrant can protect me from.
I thought you were resolved to do this.
So I am—to let him live.
I am resolved—to let him live.
110I’ll back to the duke of Gloucester and tell him so.
I’ll go back to the duke of Gloucester and tell him so.
Nay, I prithee stay a little. I hope this passionate humor of mine will change. It was wont to hold me but while one tells twenty.
Please, just wait a minute. I’m hoping my holy mood will pass. It usually only lasts about twenty seconds.
115Faith, some certain dregs of conscience are yet within me.
Actually, I’m still feeling some pangs of conscience.