Page 2923 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

How more unfortunate than all living women
Are we come hither; since that thy sight, which should
Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with comforts,
Constrains them weep and shake with fear and sorrow, [100]

Making the mother, wife, and child to see
The son, the husband, and the father tearing
His country’s bowels out. And to poor we
Thine enmity’s most capital. Thou barr’st us

Our prayers to the gods, which is a comfort [105]
That all but we enjoy. For how can we,
Alas, how can we for our country pray,
Whereto we are bound, together with thy victory,

Whereto we are bound? Alack, or we must lose
The country, our dear nurse, or else thy person, [110]
Our comfort in the country. We must find
An evident calamity, though we had

Our wish, which side should win. For either thou
Must as a foreign recreant be led
With manacles through our streets, or else [115]
Triumphantly tread on thy country’s ruin,

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

That brought thee to this world.

VIRGILIA
Ay, and mine, [125]
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.