Act 3, Scene 2

Before LORD HASTING'S house.

[Enter a MESSENGER.]
Messenger
1696 My lord, my lord!—
[Knocking.]
[Within.]
Lord Hastings
1697 Who knocks?
Messenger
1698 One from the Lord Stanley.
[Within.]
Lord Hastings
1699 What is't o'clock?
Messenger
1700 Upon the stroke of four.
[Enter HASTINGS.]
Lord Hastings
1701 Cannot my Lord Stanley sleep these tedious nights?
Messenger
1702 So it appears by that I have to say.
1703 First, he commends him to your noble self.
Lord Hastings
1704 What then?
Messenger
1705 Then certifies your lordship that this night
1706 He dreamt the boar had razed off his helm:
1707 Besides, he says there are two councils held;
1708 And that may be determin'd at the one
1709 Which may make you and him to rue at the other.
1710 Therefore he sends to know your lordship's pleasure,—
1711 If you will presently take horse with him,
1712 And with all speed post with him toward the north,
1713 To shun the danger that his soul divines.
Lord Hastings
1714 Go, fellow, go, return unto thy lord;
1715 Bid him not fear the separated councils:
1716 His honour and myself are at the one,
1717 And at the other is my good friend Catesby;
1718 Where nothing can proceed that toucheth us
1719 Whereof I shall not have intelligence.
1720 Tell him his fears are shallow, without instance:
1721 And for his dreams, I wonder he's so simple
1722 To trust the mockery of unquiet slumbers:
1723 To fly the boar before the boar pursues
1724 Were to incense the boar to follow us,
1725 And make pursuit where he did mean no chase.
1726 Go, bid thy master rise and come to me;
1727 And we will both together to the Tower,
1728 Where, he shall see, the boar will use us kindly.
Messenger
1729 I'll go, my lord, and tell him what you say.
[Exit.]
[Enter CATESBY.]
Sir William Catesby
1730 Many good morrows to my noble lord!
Lord Hastings
1731 Good morrow, Catesby; you are early stirring:
1732 What news, what news, in this our tottering state?
Sir William Catesby
1733 It is a reeling world indeed, my lord;
1734 And I believe will never stand upright
1735 Till Richard wear the garland of the realm.
Lord Hastings
1736 How! wear the garland! dost thou mean the crown?
Sir William Catesby
1737 Ay, my good lord.
Lord Hastings
1738 I'll have this crown of mine cut from my shoulders
1739 Before I'll see the crown so foul misplac'd.
1740 But canst thou guess that he doth aim at it?
Sir William Catesby
1741 Ay, on my life; and hopes to find you forward
1742 Upon his party for the gain thereof:
1743 And thereupon he sends you this good news,—
1744 That this same very day your enemies,
1745 The kindred of the queen, must die at Pomfret.
Lord Hastings
1746 Indeed, I am no mourner for that news,
1747 Because they have been still my adversaries:
1748 But that I'll give my voice on Richard's side
1749 To bar my master's heirs in true descent,
1750 God knows I will not do it to the death.
Sir William Catesby
1751 God keep your lordship in that gracious mind!
Lord Hastings
1752 But I shall laugh at this a twelve month hence,—
1753 That they which brought me in my master's hate,
1754 I live to look upon their tragedy.
1755 Well, Catesby, ere a fortnight make me older,
1756 I'll send some packing that yet think not on't.
Sir William Catesby
1757 'Tis a vile thing to die, my gracious lord,
1758 When men are unprepar'd and look not for it.
Lord Hastings
1759 O monstrous, monstrous! and so falls it out
1760 With Rivers, Vaughan, Grey: and so 'twill do
1761 With some men else that think themselves as safe
1762 As thou and I; who, as thou knowest, are dear
1763 To princely Richard and to Buckingham.
Sir William Catesby
1764 The princes both make high account of you,—
[Aside.]
Sir William Catesby
1765 For they account his head upon the bridge.
Lord Hastings
1766 I know they do, and I have well deserv'd it.
[Enter STANLEY.]
Lord Hastings
1767 Come on, come on; where is your boar-spear, man?
1768 Fear you the boar, and go so unprovided?
Lord Stanley (Derby)
1769 My lord, good morrow; and good morrow, Catesby:—
1770 You may jest on, but, by the holy rood,
1771 I do not like these several councils, I.
Lord Hastings
1772 My lord, I hold my life as dear as you do yours;
1773 And never in my days, I do protest,
1774 Was it so precious to me as 'tis now;
1775 Think you, but that I know our state secure,
1776 I would be so triumphant as I am?
Lord Stanley (Derby)
1777 The lords at Pomfret, when they rode from London,
1778 Were jocund and suppos'd their states were sure,—
1779 And they, indeed, had no cause to mistrust;
1780 But yet, you see, how soon the day o'ercast!
1781 This sudden stab of rancour I misdoubt;
1782 Pray God, I say, I prove a needless coward.
1783 What, shall we toward the Tower? the day is spent.
Lord Hastings
1784 Come, come, have with you.—Wot you what, my lord?
1785 To-day the lords you talk'd of are beheaded.
Lord Stanley (Derby)
1786 They, for their truth, might better wear their heads
1787 Than some that have accus'd them wear their hats.—
1788 But come, my lord, let's away.
[Enter a Pursuivant.]
Lord Hastings
1789 Go on before; I'll talk with this good fellow.
[Exeunt STANLEY and CATESBY.]
Lord Hastings
1790 How now, sirrah! how goes the world with thee?
Pursuivant
1791 The better that your lordship please to ask.
Lord Hastings
1792 I tell thee, man, 'tis better with me now
1793 Than when thou mett'st me last where now we meet:
1794 Then was I going prisoner to the Tower,
1795 By the suggestion of the queen's allies;
1796 But now, I tell thee,—keep it to thyself,—
1797 This day those enemies are put to death,
1798 And I in better state than e'er I was.
Pursuivant
1799 God hold it, to your honour's good content!
Lord Hastings
1800 Gramercy, fellow: there, drink that for me.
[Throwing him his purse.]
Pursuivant
1801 I thank your honour.
[Exit.]
[Enter a PRIEST.]
Priest
1802 Well met, my lord; I am glad to see your honour.
Lord Hastings
1803 I thank thee, good Sir John, with all my heart.
1804 I am in your debt for your last exercise;
1805 Come the next Sabbath, and I will content you.
[Enter BUCKINGHAM.]
Duke of Buckingham
1806 What, talking with a priest, lord chamberlain!
1807 Your friends at Pomfret, they do need the priest;
1808 Your honour hath no shriving work in hand.
Lord Hastings
1809 Good faith, and when I met this holy man,
1810 The men you talk of came into my mind.—
1811 What, go you toward the Tower?
Duke of Buckingham
1812 I do, my lord, but long I cannot stay there;
1813 I shall return before your lordship thence.
Lord Hastings
1814 Nay, like enough, for I stay dinner there.
[Aside.]
Duke of Buckingham
1815 And supper too, although thou knowest it not.—
1816 Come, will you go?
Lord Hastings
1817 I'll wait upon your lordship.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1706historical topical
“the boar had razed off his helm”
Stanley's dream is heraldic code: 'the boar' is Richard, whose personal badge was a white boar worn by all his retainers. 'Razed off his helm' means scraped or cut the crest from his helmet — in the dream-logic of the play, a warning that Richard intends to take Stanley's head. The heraldic image runs through the whole play; Richmond will later call Richard 'the wretched, bloody, and usurping boar' (5.2).
historical The White Boar (Richard's Badge)
TLN 1720archaic vocab
“his fears are shallow, without instance”
'Instance' here means proof, evidence, or concrete example. Hastings is dismissing Stanley's alarm as having nothing solid behind it — 'his fears are groundless, without any supporting evidence.' The word commonly carried this legal-sounding sense of a specific case or cited example in Elizabethan English.
TLN 1722cultural context
“mockery of unquiet slumbers”
Hastings calls prophetic dreams mere 'mockery' — a deceptive imitation, an illusion without substance. The Elizabethan debate over dreams distinguished between divine warnings sent by God and vain images thrown up by an unsettled mind ('unquiet slumbers'). Hastings confidently takes Stanley's dream for the second kind. The irony is savage: Stanley's dream is the most accurate prophecy in the scene.
TLN 1727rhetorical device
“both together to the Tower, / Where, he shall see, the boar will use us kindly”
Hastings's assurance that 'the boar' (Richard) will 'use us kindly' — treat them well — at the Tower is devastating dramatic irony. The audience knows that Hastings is walking to his death: at the council in the Tower (3.4) Richard will have him arrested and beheaded the same day. Every confident word Hastings speaks in this scene will be contradicted within hours.
historical More's History of King Richard III
TLN 1735archaic vocab
“Till Richard wear the garland of the realm”
'Garland' is a euphemism for the crown. Catesby, sounding out Hastings on Richard's behalf, cannot yet say 'crown' openly, so he uses this softer word — which Hastings immediately and correctly decodes ('dost thou mean the crown?'). A garland of laurel or flowers was a classical emblem of victory and sovereignty, making 'garland' a natural metonym for kingship.
TLN 1738rhetorical device
“I'll have this crown of mine cut from my shoulders”
Hastings means 'I would rather be beheaded than see the crown placed on Richard's head.' He uses 'this crown of mine' to mean his own head (the head being the 'crown' of the body). The grim pun — head as crown, beheading as removing a crown — is unconscious foreshadowing: Richard will indeed have Hastings's head cut from his shoulders at the council a few hours later.
historical More's History of King Richard III
TLN 1745historical topical
“kindred of the queen, must die at Pomfret”
Pomfret (Pontefract) Castle in Yorkshire was a notorious royal prison; Richard II was murdered there in 1400. The 'kindred of the queen' are Queen Elizabeth's relatives from her first marriage: her brother Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers, her son Lord Richard Grey, and Sir Thomas Vaughan — all arrested by Richard in 3 Henry VI and held at Pomfret, where they are executed this same day. Queen Margaret had foretold all three deaths in 1.3.
historical Holinshed's Chronicles
TLN 1765historical topical
“they account his head upon the bridge”
Catesby, in an aside that Hastings cannot hear, clarifies what Richard and Buckingham 'make high account of' in Hastings: they are counting his head as already set on London Bridge. It was the Elizabethan practice to mount the severed heads of executed traitors on poles on London Bridge as a public warning — a gruesome landmark familiar to anyone entering the city from the south.
TLN 1770archaic vocab
“by the holy rood”
'Rood' is an Old English word for a cross or crucifix, specifically the cross of Christ. 'By the holy rood' is an oath sworn on that cross, equivalent to 'I swear to God' or 'as God is my witness.' It was a common Elizabethan oath, though by Shakespeare's day it was already acquiring an old-fashioned, slightly quaint ring.
TLN 1804cultural context
“I am in your debt for your last exercise; / Come the next Sabbath, and I will content you”
'Exercise' was a standard term for a religious sermon or devotional service. Hastings owes the priest payment for a recent sermon or private chaplaincy service and promises to pay him 'the next Sabbath' — next Sunday. The meeting is purely routine and cheerful. The savage irony is that there will be no next Sabbath for Hastings: he will be beheaded at the Tower council this same morning, before the day is out.
TLN 1808rhetorical device
“Your honour hath no shriving work in hand”
'Shriving' is the act of hearing confession and granting absolution — the priest's role in the sacrament of penance. Buckingham's remark appears to compliment Hastings ('you have no need of a priest, unlike your doomed enemies'), but it is a venomous aside-in-plain-sight: Hastings is the one who actually needs shriving, because he will be dead by the end of the day. Buckingham knows this; Hastings does not.
TLN 1814rhetorical device
“I stay dinner there”
Hastings casually mentions he will stay at the Tower for the midday meal ('dinner'). Buckingham's aside immediately follows: 'And supper too, although thou knowest it not.' In Elizabethan usage, 'dinner' was the main meal at midday and 'supper' was the evening meal. Buckingham knows Hastings will be dead before evening — but his irony also carries a darker edge: dead men do not eat supper. It is the scene's final, chilling punch-line.
historical More's History of King Richard III