Page 2813 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

MENENIUS

Ha? Martius coming home?

VOLUMNIA
Ay, worthy Menenius, and with most prosperous approbation.

MENENIUS
Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee. [100] Hoo! Martius coming home?

VIRGILIA and VALERIA
Nay, ’tis true.

VOLUMNIA
Look, here’s a letter from him. The state hath another, his wife another, and I

think there’s one at home for you. [105]

MENENIUS

I will make my very house reel tonight. A letter for me?

VIRGILIA
Yes, certain, there’s a letter for you, I saw’t.

MENENIUS
A letter for me! It gives me an estate of seven years’ health, in which time I
will make a lip at [110] the physician. The most sovereign prescription in
Galen is but empiricutic and, to this preservative, of no better report than a

horse-drench. Is he not wounded? He was wont to come home wounded.

VIRGILIA

O, no, no, no. [115]

VOLUMNIA
O, he is wounded, I thank the gods for’t.

MENENIUS
So do I too − if it be not too much. Brings ’a victory in his pocket, the wounds
become him.