first hearing he was a man-child
than
    now in first seeing he had proved himself a man.
  VIRGILIA. But had he died in the business, madam, how then?
  VOLUMNIA. Then his good report should have been my son; I
therein
    would have found issue. Hear me profess sincerely: had I a
dozen
    sons, each in my love alike, and none less dear than thine
and my
    good Marcius, I had rather had eleven die nobly for their
country
    than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.

                        Enter a GENTLEWOMAN

  GENTLEWOMAN. Madam, the Lady Valeria is come to visit you.
  VIRGILIA. Beseech you give me leave to retire myself.
  VOLUMNIA. Indeed you shall not.
    Methinks I hear hither your husband's drum;
    See him pluck Aufidius down by th' hair;
    As children from a bear, the Volsces shunning him.
    Methinks I see him stamp thus, and call thus:
    'Come on, you cowards! You were got in fear,
    Though you were born in Rome.' His bloody brow
    With his mail'd hand then wiping, forth he goes,
    Like to a harvest-man that's task'd to mow
    Or all or lose his
SCENE III.
Rome. MARCIUS' house

Enter VOLUMNIA and VIRGILIA, mother and wife to MARCIUS;
they set them down on two low stools and sew

  VOLUMNIA. I pray you, daughter, sing, or express yourself in a
more
    comfortable sort. If my son were my husband, I should
freelier
    rejoice in that absence wherein he won honour than in the
    embracements of his bed where he would show most love. When
yet
    he was but tender-bodied, and the only son of my womb; when
youth
    with comeliness pluck'd all gaze his way; when, for a day of
    kings' entreaties, a mother should not sell him an hour from
her
    beholding; I, considering how honour would become such a
person-
    that it was no better than picture-like to hang by th' wall,
if
    renown made it not stir- was pleas'd to let him seek danger
where
    he was to find fame. To a cruel war I sent him, from whence
he
    return'd his brows bound with oak. I tell thee, daughter, I
    sprang not more in joy at