III.iv.47-80
STANLEY
We have not yet set down this day of triumph.
Tomorrow, in my judgment, is too sudden,
For I myself am not so well provided
As else I would be, were the day prolonged.Enter the Bishop of Ely.
ELY
Where is my lord the Duke of Gloucester?
I have sent for these strawberries.
HASTINGS
His Grace looks cheerfully and smooth this
morning.
There’s some conceit or other likes him well
When that he bids good morrow with such spirit.
I think there’s never a man in Christendom
Can lesser hide his love or hate than he,
For by his face straight shall you know his heart.
STANLEY
What of his heart perceive you in his face
By any livelihood he showed today?
HASTINGS
Marry, that with no man here he is offended,
For were he, he had shown it in his looks.
Enter Richard and Buckingham.
RICHARD
I pray you all, tell me what they deserve
That do conspire my death with devilish plots
Of damnèd witchcraft, and that have prevailed
Upon my body with their hellish charms?
HASTINGS
The tender love I bear your Grace, my lord,
Makes me most forward in this princely presence
To doom th’ offenders, whosoe’er they be.
I say, my lord, they have deservèd death.
RICHARD
Then be your eyes the witness of their evil.
⌜He shows his arm.⌝
Look how I am bewitched! Behold mine arm
Is like a blasted sapling withered up;
And this is Edward’s wife, that monstrous witch,
Consorted with that harlot, strumpet Shore,
That by their witchcraft thus have markèd me.
HASTINGS
If they have done this deed, my noble lord—
RICHARD
If? Thou protector of this damnèd strumpet,
Talk’st thou to me of “ifs”? Thou art a traitor.—
Off with his head. Now by Saint Paul I swear
I will not dine until I see the same.—
Lovell and Ratcliffe, look that it be done.—
The rest that love me, rise and follow me.
They exit.
Richard is absolutely transparent in his naked use of power in condemning Hastings to death; this is a ferocious display of power. “I will not dine till I see Hastings severed head!” It’s not surprising that everyone follows Richard out of the room after this. To have stayed would have been to risk suffering the same fate.
Richard is playing a particular part here, a role. He is acting. This is a recurring theme in Shakespeare, that all the world is a stage.