Act II · Scene III
Warkworth. Before the castle.
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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 timesAnd 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 fatherBring 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 sunIn the grey vault of heaven, and by his lightDid all the chivalry of England moveTo do brave acts: he was indeed the glassWherein 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 tardilyWould 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 warIn disadvantage; to abide a fieldWhere nothing but the sound of Hotspur's nameDid seem defensible: so you left him.Never, O never, do his ghost the wrongTo hold your honour more precise and niceWith 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 meWith new lamenting ancient oversights.But I must go and meet with danger there,Or it will seek me in another placeAnd find me worse provided.LADY
NORTHUMBERLAND
O, fly to Scotland,Till that the nobles and the armed commonsHave 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 enoughTo 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 mindAs 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