More than a Pretty Face: Lady Percy's First Lines
Carley Becker
Kate Percy is more than a pretty face. Based on a real person by the name of Elizabeth Mortimer, Lady Percy's character and historical figure are of a noble lineage, Elizabeth's brother:
Edmond was sonne to Earle Roger whiche was sonne to Lady Philip daughter to Lionell Duke of [Clarence], the third sonne to kyng Edwarde the third, whiche Edmonde at kyng Richardes going into Irelande was proclaimed heire apparant to the croune and realme, whose Aunt called Elinor [Elizabeth] this Lorde Henry Percie had Maried. (Hall, 20)
In the Henry plays, rather than the aunt, Lady Percy is the sister of Lord Edmund Mortimer, who is "proclaimed / By Richard, that dead is, the next of blood" (I.iii.148-9). "The claim of the Mortimer family thus derives its authority from a female disruption of the male succession," historically through the line of Lady Philippa (Simmons, 442).
At first glance, a reader may assume that Kate is a slave to her husband. In the middle ages, "[w]omen were regarded as weak, irrational and subject to temptation" (Ward, 2-3). In bugging her husband over his whereabouts, Kate could all too easily be seen as a whining, paranoid wife. She asks, "What is it carries you away?" and her husband replies with a flippant, "Why, my horse, my love, my horse" (II.iii.80,81). Annoyed with his sarcastic, non-answer, Kate exclaims, "Out, you mad-headed ape" (II.iii.82), furthering the image of a clingy, short-tempered maniac—or, in medieval terms, a woman.
However, "the Shakespeare text resists misogyny with temporizing ironies" (Simmons, 445). When studied in a deeper historical context, Kate's first lines show less of a woman fawning over her husband, and more of an intelligent, politically-savvy female figure. Her first few lines are as follows:
At first glance, a reader may assume that Kate is a slave to her husband. In the middle ages, "[w]omen were regarded as weak, irrational and subject to temptation" (Ward, 2-3). In bugging her husband over his whereabouts, Kate could all too easily be seen as a whining, paranoid wife. She asks, "What is it carries you away?" and her husband replies with a flippant, "Why, my horse, my love, my horse" (II.iii.80,81). Annoyed with his sarcastic, non-answer, Kate exclaims, "Out, you mad-headed ape" (II.iii.82), furthering the image of a clingy, short-tempered maniac—or, in medieval terms, a woman.
However, "the Shakespeare text resists misogyny with temporizing ironies" (Simmons, 445). When studied in a deeper historical context, Kate's first lines show less of a woman fawning over her husband, and more of an intelligent, politically-savvy female figure. Her first few lines are as follows:
O my good lord, why are you thus alone?
For what offense have I this fortnight been
A banished woman from my Harry's bed?
Tell me, sweet lord, what is 't 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 sit'st alone?
Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks
And given my treasures and my rights of thee
To thick-eyed musing and curst melancholy? (II.iii.39-48)
Taking her lineage into consideration, Kate's speech can be seen in a new perspective. When King Henry IV refuses to pay the ransom for Edmund Mortimer's return from Wales, Kate's estate may be at risk as well, as "[p]rimogeniture, the right of the eldest son to the bulk of the estate, co-existed with what has been called 'diverging devolution' whereby provision of some kind was made for all family members" (Leyser, 119). While the Lady correctly "guesses that Hotspur is planning to make Mortimer king" (Mitchell & Wright 122), at this point in "early October 1402 the king…began to confiscate his [Mortimer's] estates (granting several of them to the king's sons) and seized his plate and jewels" (Tout, 1). Conceivably, Elizabeth's, and thus Kate's, family possessions are literally slipping away.
Kate also wonders, "For what offense have I this fortnight been / A banished woman from my Harry's bed? / Tell me, sweet lord, what is 't that takes from thee / Thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep?" (II.iii.39-43). This question has two hidden allusions to missing kingship. The first is to "Harry's bed" (II.iii.41). Instead of her husband's bedside, Kate may instead be referring to the bed in the king's castle. Harry is another name for Henry, such as in the case of Henry IV, and Kate feels it is unfair that her family is not on the throne.
Secondly, the line can be taken as subtle sarcasm. Just like Hotspur is flippant when saying that his horse carries him away, Kate uses joking cynicism, asking what reason her husband could possibly have for not sleeping well. After all, it is "the head that wears the crown" that should lie "uneasy" and neither Mortimer nor Hotspur is adorned with that particular headpiece (Henry IV, Part 2, III.i.31). Kate is not a whining, doting wife, but a woman craving a power that she feels was unjustly taken from her.
Kate also wonders, "For what offense have I this fortnight been / A banished woman from my Harry's bed? / Tell me, sweet lord, what is 't that takes from thee / Thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep?" (II.iii.39-43). This question has two hidden allusions to missing kingship. The first is to "Harry's bed" (II.iii.41). Instead of her husband's bedside, Kate may instead be referring to the bed in the king's castle. Harry is another name for Henry, such as in the case of Henry IV, and Kate feels it is unfair that her family is not on the throne.
Secondly, the line can be taken as subtle sarcasm. Just like Hotspur is flippant when saying that his horse carries him away, Kate uses joking cynicism, asking what reason her husband could possibly have for not sleeping well. After all, it is "the head that wears the crown" that should lie "uneasy" and neither Mortimer nor Hotspur is adorned with that particular headpiece (Henry IV, Part 2, III.i.31). Kate is not a whining, doting wife, but a woman craving a power that she feels was unjustly taken from her.