The “domestic” scenes of Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I ground the battles, plots and displays of knavery. The women - Lady Percy and Lady Mortimer - give consequences to the actions of the territorial, cock-fighting men. In II.iv, we see Hotspur at home with his playful wife, and we can for a moment forget his arrogance and excessive language as he takes on the role of husband and even shows a slight inclination towards exuberance. Kate, however, leads the activity of the scene and is the one who closes it; examining the play between the Percys, we see that Kate is a reflection of her husband and that she similarly reflects - but does not imitate or represent - his fate at the end of the play. The kind of love that Hotspur and Kate play for us has the appearance of a comic scene in a tragedy, as when, in Antony and Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen plays with her heroic soldier to force him to make an admission of 'love (in effect an abdication of power) that she wants to hear. In that scene the comedy arises from the dialogue and its numerous interruptions; the playfully sweet scene between the Percys is similarly laugh-inducing. Although Kate doesn't interrupt her husband's words, she gets most of the talking until Hotspur steps in to reassure her. She comes in and asks, “why are you so lonely?” (II.iv.31). Kate's concern when we meet her seems to be that of lying, like Penelope, relicta1; however, after another 25 lines in which Kate poetically describes the elements of war preoccupying her husband, we realize that her real concern is that "Some heavy business has [her] lord in hand, / And [she] must know , otherwise he does not love [her]” (II.iv.57-58). Twenty-six lines of almost epic verse: “Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin, / Of prisoner...... in the center of the card ... ...y enters the scene as a feminine reflection of the warrior husband. His loss in the domestic sphere is virtually complete, for his gain is small, conciliatory, and not what he originally desired of Hotspur's fate is debatable, but Hotspur receives no treaty from Hal, let alone the poor Kate manages to win. What we have in the end, then, is the contrast between the two victorious men ", "fragile life" and "proud titles" - from Hotspur; Hotspur attempts to make “Two stars keep [. . .] their movement in a sphere” allowing Kate to follow him wherever he goes (V.iv.76-78, 64). Kate, although reflecting Hotspur, as one whose "name in arms was now not as great as [Hotspur's]", represents the potential fate, insufficient as defeat, of Hal had he been the one defeated in the end (V.iv.69).