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Henry IV, Part One
WHO Lady Elizabeth āKateā Percy, wife of Henry āHarry Hotspurā Percy.
WHERE Warkworth Castle, Northumberland, her home, c. 1403.
WHO ELSE IS THERE Her husband Harry Hotspur.
WHAT IS HAPPENING Harry Hotspur has just told his wife that he must leave her āwithin these two hoursā. Lady Percy questions her husband
as to why he spends so much time on his own, demands he tell her his plans and explain why he talks of war in his sleep.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
ā¢Ā Ā Hotspur says nothing in response to his wife. This could be a factor in driving on her speech.
ā¢Ā Ā We know from a later speech (see next page) how much Lady Percy loves and admires her husband.
ā¢Ā Ā There is a feeling here of a woman who has lost the relationship she once had with her husband. Her words might be tinged with grief, sadness, anger,
concern, love, desire, or a combination of any or all of these.
ā¢Ā Ā Lady Percy has lost sleep as she has watched over her husband. Decide how this might affect the scene.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Portia (Julius Caesar) is also distressed by her husbandās nocturnal behaviour and demands to know his secrets.
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Lady Elizabeth Percy
āO my good lord, why are you thus alone?
For what offence have I this fortnight been
A banishād woman from my Harryās bed?
Tell me, sweet lord, what isāt that takes from thee
Thy stomach, pleasure and thy golden sleep?
Why dost thou bend thine eyes upon the earth,
And start so often when thou sitāst alone?
Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks;
And given my treasures and my rights of thee
To thick-eyād musing and cursād melancholy?*
In thy faint slumbers I by thee have watchād,
And heard thee murmur tales of iron wars,
Speak terms of manage to thy bounding steed,
Cry āCourage! To the field!ā And thou hast talkād
Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tents,
Of palisadoes,* frontiers, parapets,
Of basilisks,* of cannon, culverin,*
Of prisonersā ransom, and of soldiers slain,
And all the currents of a heady fight.
Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war,
And thus hath so bestirrād thee in thy sleep,
That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow
Like bubbles in a late-disturbĆØd stream,
And in thy face strange motions have appearād,
Such as we see when men restrain their breath
On some great sudden hest.* O, what portents are these?
Some heavy business hath my lord in hand,
And I must know it, else he loves me not.ā
Ā
(Act 2, scene 3, lines 37ā64)
GLOSSARY
Ā
given my treasures and my rights of thee / To thick-eyād musing and cursād melancholy ā ignored my love and my rights as a wife because of your
depression
palisadoes ā defences made of pointed stakes
basilisks ā large cannons
culverin ā small cannon
hest ā command
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Henry IV, Part Two
WHO Lady Elizabeth āKateā Percy, wife of Henry āHarry Hotspurā Percy.
WHERE Warkworth Castle, Northumberland, c. 1403.
WHO ELSE IS THERE The Earl of Northumberland (father of her recently killed husband) and his wife.
WHAT IS HAPPENING Her husband, Harry Hotspur, has been killed in battle by Harry Monmouth (later Henry V), Hotspurās calls to his father, the Earl of Northumberland, having gone unanswered. The Earl has now joined the rebel army. Lady Percy and his wife (her mother-in-law) try to dissuade him from going.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
ā¢ Much of the speech paints a picture of her dead husband (referred to as Percy, Harry or Hotspur), bringing him to life.
ā¢ Imagine what Hotspurās āthickā voice sounded like and how that might colour Lady Percyās speech as she recollects it.
ā¢ She may be lost in the past as she talks of her husband and her marriage and then return to the present when she accuses Northumberland of having abandoned him.
ā¢ Do not forget that Northumberlandās wife is also present.
ā¢ Remember that Monmouth is the man who killed her husband.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Cleopatra (Antony and Cleopatra) speaks lovingly of the absent and later dead Antony.
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Lady Elizabeth Percy
āO yet, for Godās sake, go not to these wars!
The time was, father, that you broke your word
When you were more endearād to it than now;
When your own Percy, when my heartās dear Harry,
Threw many a northward look to see his father
Bring up his powers; but he did long in vain.
Who then persuaded you to stay at home?
There were two honours lost: yours and your sonās.
For yours, the God of heaven brighten it!
For his, it stuck upon him as the sun
In the grey vault of heaven, and by his light
Did all the chivalry of England move
To do brave acts. He was indeed the glass*
Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves.
He had no legs that practisād not his gait;
And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish,
Became the accents of the valiant;
For those that could speak low and tardily
Would turn their own perfection to abuse,
To seem like him. So that in speech, in gait,
In diet, in affections of delight,
In military rules, humours of blood,*
He was the mark and glass, copy and book,
That fashionād others. And him ā O wondrous him!
O miracle of men! ā him did you leave,
Second to n...
