Kanpei monologue (Act 11) — Chushingura; Or, The Treasury of Loyal Retainers

Ah, I am ashamed to appear before you. I was prepared to kill myself if my desire could not be attained. Since the murder of my father-in-law will, you say, be a stain upon our lord’s name, I will tell you all. Hear me, gentlemen. Last night, on my way home after meeting Master Yagoro, I came across a wild boar in the dark running on the hill, and I sent two shots after it. I ran up to it and groped for it, and found that I had killed, not a boar, but a traveller. Great Heavens, thought I, I have made a terrible mistake! I felt in his bosom for some medicine, and caught hold of a pouch with this money in it. It was not right, I knew, but I felt that Heaven had given me the money; and so I ran off at once and handed it to Master Yagoro. And when I came home, I found that it was my father-in-law that I had killed and the money was the price of my wife’s virtue. When everything I do thus goes awry like the cross-bill’s beak, it shows that Kanpei’s knightly fortune has come to an end. Oh, sympathise with me, gentlemen.