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For we have nothing else to ask, but that
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Which you deny already: yet we will ask;
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That, if you fail in our request, the blame
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May hang upon your hardness: therefore hear us.
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CORIOLANUS:
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Aufidius, and you Volsces, mark; for we'll
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Hear nought from Rome in private. Your request?
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VOLUMNIA:
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Should we be silent and not speak, our raiment
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And state of bodies would bewray what life
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We have led since thy exile. Think with thyself
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How more unfortunate than all living women
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Are we come hither: since that thy sight,
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which should
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Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance
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with comforts,
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Constrains them weep and shake with fear and sorrow;
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Making the mother, wife and child to see
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The son, the husband and the father tearing
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His country's bowels out. And to poor we
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Thine enmity's most capital: thou barr'st us
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Our prayers to the gods, which is a comfort
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That all but we enjoy; for how can we,
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Alas, how can we for our country pray.
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Whereto we are bound, together with thy victory,
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Whereto we are bound? alack, or we must lose
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The country, our dear nurse, or else thy person,
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Our comfort in the country. We must find
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An evident calamity, though we had
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Our wish, which side should win: for either thou
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Must, as a foreign recreant, be led
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With manacles thorough our streets, or else
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triumphantly tread on thy country's ruin,
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And bear the palm for having bravely shed
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Thy wife and children's blood. For myself, son,
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I purpose not to wait on fortune till
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These wars determine: if I cannot persuade thee
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Rather to show a noble grace to both parts
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Than seek the end of one, thou shalt no sooner
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March to assault thy country than to tread--
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Trust to't, thou shalt not--on thy mother's womb,
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That brought thee to this world.
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VIRGILIA:
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Ay, and mine,
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That brought you forth this boy, to keep your name
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Living to time.
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Young MARCIUS:
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A' shall not tread on me;
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I'll run away till I am bigger, but then I'll fight.
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CORIOLANUS:
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Not of a woman's tenderness to be,
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Requires nor child nor woman's face to see.
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I have sat too long.
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VOLUMNIA:
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Nay, go not from us thus.
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If it were so that our request did tend
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To save the Romans, thereby to destroy
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The Volsces whom you serve, you might condemn us,
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As poisonous of your honour: no; our suit
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Is that you reconcile them: while the Volsces
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May say 'This mercy we have show'd;' the Romans,
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'This we received;' and each in either side
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Give the all-hail to thee and cry 'Be blest
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For making up this peace!' Thou know'st, great son,
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The end of war's uncertain, but this certain,
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That, if thou conquer Rome, the benefit
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Which thou shalt thereby reap is such a name,
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Whose repetition will be dogg'd with curses;
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Whose chronicle thus writ: 'The man was noble,
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But with his last attempt he wiped it out;
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Destroy'd his country, and his name remains
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To the ensuing age abhorr'd.' Speak to me, son:
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Thou hast affected the fine strains of honour,
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To imitate the graces of the gods;
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To tear with thunder the wide cheeks o' the air,
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And yet to charge thy sulphur with a bolt
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That should but rive an oak. Why dost not speak?
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Think'st thou it honourable for a noble man
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Still to remember wrongs? Daughter, speak you:
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He cares not for your weeping. Speak thou, boy:
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Perhaps thy childishness will move him more
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Than can our reasons. There's no man in the world
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More bound to 's mother; yet here he lets me prate
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Like one i' the stocks. Thou hast never in thy life
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Show'd thy dear mother any courtesy,
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When she, poor hen, fond of no second brood,
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Has cluck'd thee to the wars and safely home,
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Loaden with honour. Say my request's unjust,
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And spurn me back: but if it be not so,
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Thou art not honest; and the gods will plague thee,
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That thou restrain'st from me the duty which
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To a mother's part belongs. He turns away:
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Down, ladies; let us shame him with our knees.
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To his surname Coriolanus 'longs more pride
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