Henry IV, Pt. 2
Act II, Scene 3
Warkworth . Before Northumberland’s castle .
Alas, sweet wife, my honor is at pawn, and but my going, nothing can redeem it.
Alexandre Bida, 19th century
- Enter Northumberland ( Henry Percy ), his wife , Lady
- Northumberland , and Lady Percy , the wife to Harry Percy .
Earl of Northumberland
1 - 4- I pray thee , loving wife , and gentle daughter ,
- Give even way unto my rough affairs ;
- Put not you on the visage of the times ,
- And be like them to Percy troublesome .
Lady Northumberland
5 - 6- I have given over , I will speak no more ;
- Do what you will , your wisdom be your guide .
Earl of Northumberland
7 - 8- Alas , sweet wife , my honor is at pawn ,
- And but my going , nothing can redeem it .
Lady Percy
9 - 45- O yet for God’s sake , go not to these wars !
- The time was , father , that you broke your word
- When you were more endear’d to it than now ,
- When your own Percy , when my heart’s 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 honors lost , yours and your son’s :
- 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 practic’d 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 , humors of blood ,
- He was the mark and glass , copy and book ,
- That fashion’d others . And him , O wondrous him !
- O miracle of men ! Him did you leave ,
- Second to none , unseconded by you ,
- To look upon the hideous god of war
- In disadvantage , to abide a field
- Where nothing but the sound of Hotspur’s name
- Did seem defensible : so you left him .
- Never , O never , do his ghost the wrong
- To hold your honor more precise and nice
- With others than with him ! Let them alone .
- The Marshal and the Archbishop are strong .
- Had my sweet Harry had but half their numbers ,
- Today might I , hanging on Hotspur’s neck ,
- Have talk’d of Monmouth’s grave .
Northumberland
Christopher Saxton, 1579
Earl of Northumberland
46 - 51- Beshrew your heart ,
- Fair daughter , you do draw my spirits from me
- With new lamenting ancient oversights ,
- But I must go and meet with danger there ,
- Or it will seek me in another place ,
- And find me worse provided .
Lady Northumberland
52 - 54- O , fly to Scotland ,
- Till that the nobles and the armed commons
- Have of their puissance made a little taste .
Lady Percy
55 - 63- If they get ground and vantage of the King ,
- Then join you with them , like a rib of steel ,
- To make strength stronger ; but , for all our loves ,
- First let them try themselves . So did your son ,
- He was so suff’red ; so came I a widow ,
- And never shall have length of life enough
- To rain upon remembrance with mine eyes ,
- That it may grow and sprout as high as heaven ,
- For recordation to my noble husband .
Earl of Northumberland
64 - 70- Come , come , go in with me . ’Tis with my mind
- As with the tide swell’d up unto his height ,
- That makes a still - stand , running neither way .
- Fain would I go to meet the Archbishop ,
- But many thousand reasons hold me back .
- I will resolve for Scotland ; there am I ,
- Till time and vantage crave my company .
- Exeunt .
O yet for God’s sake, go not to these wars!
From: Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare
Mary Cowden Clarke, Charles Cowden Clarke, 1870