PORTIA.
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would not have lent a life-long credence to that voice of honor?
| “ | You are my true and honorable wife, |
| As dear to me as are the ruddy drops | |
| That visit this sad heart.” |
It is the same voice that tells the moral of his life in the last words—
| “Countrymen, |
| My heart doth joy, that yet in all my life, |
| I found no man but he was true to me.” |
It was not wonderful that it should be so.
Shakspeare, however, was not content to let Portia rest her plea for confidence on the essential nature of the marriage bond;
| “ | I grant I am a woman; but withal, |
| A woman that lord Brutus took to wife. | |
| I grant I am a woman; but withal, | |
| A woman well reputed—Cato's daughter. | |
| Think you I am no stronger than my sex, | |
| Being so fathered and so husbanded?” |
And afterwards in the very scene where Brutus is suffering under that “insupportable and touching loss,” the death of his wife, Cassius pleads—
| “ | Have you not love enough to bear with me, |
| When that rash humor which my mother gave me | |
| Makes me forgetful? | |
| Brutus.— | Yes, Cassius; and henceforth, |
| When you are over-earnest with your Brutus, | |
| He'll think your mother chides and leave you so.” |
As indeed it was a frequent belief among the ancients, as with our Indians, that the body was inherited from the mother, the soul from the father. As
