SCENE III. Warkworth. Before the castle. The Second part of King Henry the Fourth  Shakespeare homepage  |  Henry IV, part 2  | Act 2, Scene 3 

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 Enter NORTHUMBERLAND, LADY NORTHUMBERLAND, and LADY PERCY  NORTHUMBERLAND  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  I have given over, I will speak no more: 

 Do what you will; your wisdom be your guide. 

 NORTHUMBERLAND  Alas, sweet wife, my honour is at pawn; 

 And, but my going, nothing can redeem it. 

 LADY PERCY  O yet, for God's sake, go not to these wars! 

 The time was, father, that you broke your word, 

 When you were more endeared 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 honours 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 practised 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 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 honour 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, 

 To-day might I, hanging on Hotspur's neck, 

 Have talk'd of Monmouth's grave. 

 NORTHUMBERLAND  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  O, fly to Scotland, 

 Till that the nobles and the armed commons 

 Have of their puissance made a little taste. 

 LADY PERCY  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 suffer'd: 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. 

 NORTHUMBERLAND  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. 



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