The dismissive and easily irritated Hotspur mocks his wife in a speech that satirizes the conventions and morals of the English middle class. Before the upcoming battle, Lady Mortimer sings a song to her husband as he lays his head in her lap. After Hotspur requests to hear his wife sing a song, she primly refuses, saying that she will not do it “in good sooth,” a phrase similar to “darn it” in contemporary English. Hotspur responds by making fun of her refusal to curse:
Not yours, in good sooth! Heart, you swear
like a comfit-maker’s wife! “Not you, in good
sooth,” and “as true as I live,” and “as God shall
mend me,” and “as sure as day”—
And givest such sarcenet surety for thy oaths
As if thou never walk’st further than Finsbury.
Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art,
A good mouth-filling oath, and leave “in sooth,”
And such protest of pepper-gingerbread
To velvet-guards and Sunday citizens.
He mocks and imitates her speech patterns, listing various cliched phrases that she uses regularly, including “as true as I live” and “as sure as day.” Using a simile, he notes that she swears like the wife of a candy-maker—a decidedly middle class profession—and insists that she learn to swear properly, “like a lady as thou art.”
His language here emphasizes class differences: nobles, he suggests, curse freely, but the women of the self-conscious middle classes refuse to use vulgarities. He jokingly states that it is as if she “never walk’st further than Finsbury,” referencing an area north of London that was home to many families of the emerging middle-class in England. Hotspur’s satirical comments emphasize both his elitism and his inability to communicate effectively with his wife.
Shakespeare’s history plays often bring together figures who represent various segments of British society, both economically and culturally. Henry IV Part 1 introduces Owen Glendower, the leader of the Welsh rebels and the play's principal representative of the nation of Wales. The irritable Hotspur satirizes Glendower and, by extension, Welsh culture, drawing from a number of stereotypical traits and characteristics:
Sometime he angers me
With telling me of the moldwarp and the ant,
Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies,
And of a dragon and a finless fish,
A clip-winged griffin and a moulten raven,
A couching lion and a ramping cat,
And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff
As puts me from my faith. I tell you what—
He held me last night at least nine hours
In reckoning up the several devils’ names
That were his lackeys. I cried “Hum,” and “Well, go to,”
But marked him not a word.
Hotspur expresses his annoyance with Glendower despite their alliance against King Henry IV. Hotspur notes that the Welsh leader “angers” him by talking too much about legends, folklore, and magic. Glendower, according to Hotspur, speaks at great length about the prophecies of “the dreamer Merlin,” dragons, griffins, demons, and other mystical beliefs that Hotspur dismisses as absurd and improbable. This satirical depiction of Glendower employs a number of derogatory early modern stereotypes that typically characterize the Welsh as a superstitious and backwards people who have retained many pagan or unchristian ideas.
