Lady Percy: The Woman Left Behind
First appears: Act 2, Scene 3
Kate Percy is one of Shakespeare's most vivid brief portraits. Her scene with Hotspur in Act 2, Scene 3 (where she demands to know what he is planning and he refuses to tell her anything while clearly adoring her) is a precise study in a marriage between two extremely stubborn people.
Hotspur is going somewhere she cannot follow, and he knows she knows it. He keeps deflecting; she keeps pressing. The deflection is a kind of tenderness, since he does not want to worry her. This makes it worse.
She has a farewell scene in Act 3, Scene 1 when Hotspur marches toward Shrewsbury, and then she disappears from Part 1. In Henry IV Part 2, she returns to mourn him in a speech that is among the finest things in either play.
Key Scenes
Famous Quotes
“O, yet, for God's sake, go not to these wars!”
Lady Percy — Act 2, Scene 3
“Lie still, ye thief, and hear the lady sing in Welsh.”
Lady Percy — Act 3, Scene 1