Alas! how can we for our country pray,
Whereto we are bound, together with thy victory, 108
Whereto we are bound? Alack! or we must lose
The country, our dear nurse, or else thy person,
Our comfort in the country. We must find
An evident calamity, though we had 112
Our wish, which side should win; for either thou
Must, as a foreign recreant, be led
With manacles through our streets, or else
Triumphantly tread on thy country's ruin, 116
And bear the palm for having bravely shed
Thy wife and children's blood. For myself, son,
I purpose not to wait on Fortune till
These wars determine: if I cannot persuade thee 120
Rather to show a noble grace to both parts
Than seek the end of one, thou shalt no sooner
March to assault thy country than to tread—
Trust to 't, thou shalt not—on thy mother's womb, 124
That brought thee to this world.
Vir. Ay, and mine,
That brought you forth this boy, to keep your name
Living to time.
Boy. A' shall not tread on me:
I'll run away till I am bigger, but then I'll fight. 128
Cor. Not of a woman's tenderness to be,
Requires nor child nor woman's face to see,
I have sat too long. [Rising.]
Vol. Nay, go not from us thus,
If it were so, that our request did tend 132
To save the Romans, thereby to destroy
The Volsces whom you serve, you might condemn us,
109 or: either
113 which: in determining which
114 foreign recreant: one whose treachery has made him a foreigner
120 determine: end
122 end: destruction
129 Not . . . be: not to yield to womanly weakness
