SHAKESPEARE, CORIOLANUS, ACT V. Sc. 3.

CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA.

VOL. EVEN he, your wife, this lady, and myself,

COR.

Are suitors to you.

I beseech you peace :

Or, if you'ld ask, remember this before:

The thing I have forsworn to grant may never

Be held by you denials. Do not bid me
Dismiss my soldiers, or capitulate

Again with Rome's mechanics: tell me not

Wherein I seein unnatural desire not

VOL.

Your colder reasons.

O, no more, no more!
You have said you will not grant us anything;
For we have nothing else to ask, but that
Which you deny already yet we will ask;
That, if you fail in our request, the blame
May hang upon your hardness: therefore hear us.

COR. Aufidius, and you Volsces, mark; for we'll

Hear nought from Rome in private. Your request? VOL. Should we be silent and not speak, our raiment And state of bodies should bewray what life We have led since thy exile. Think with thyself How more unfortunate than all living women

Are we come hither: since that thy sight, which should

Χάρις χάριν γάρ ἐστιν ἡ τίκτουσ ̓ ἀεί.

ΒΟΛ. Κεῖνος δὲ χἤδε, σὴ δάμαρ, καγὼ τρίτη ἱκετεύομέν σε προστρόποις ἑδραῖς, τάδε.

ΚΟΡ. οὐ σιγ ̓ ἀνέξεσθ'; εἰ δ ̓ ὅμως αἰτεῖν μέ τι βούλεσθ', ὁρᾶτε μὴ τόδ' ἐκφύγῃ φρένας· ἃ μὴ τελεῖν ἐξώμοσ' οὐκ ἐῶντα, μὴ νομίζεθ ̓ ὑμῶν νῦν μ' ἀπαρνεῖσθαι λίτας καὶ μὴ κελεύσητ ̓ ἔνθα μ' ἀπολῦσαι στράτον, ἢ τοῖς βαναύσοις ἐς λόγους ἐλθεῖν πάλιν· μηδ' ἐκδιδάσκεθ ̓ ὡς φρονῶ φύσιν πάρα· μηδ', ἀνδρὸς ὀρθῶς ζωπυρουμένου φρένας, ὀργὰς ἐμὰς σβέσητε τοῖς ψυχροῖς λόγοις. ΒΟΛ. ἅλις γ' ἅλις μοι πόλλ' ἄγαν ἤδη θροεῖς· τὰ πάντα φαίνεις ἀντίκρυς ἀρνούμενος. τί γάρ ποτ' ἄλλο πλὴν τόδ', ἁποφὰς ἔχεις, ζητοῦμεν ἡμεῖς ; ἀλλ ̓ ὅμως ζητητέον, ἵν', ἣν ἁμαρτάνωμεν, ἀξίως τρόπους ἔφλης ἀτέγκτους αὐτός· ὥστ ̓ ἀκουστέον. ΚΟΡ. ὦ συστράτηγε κἄνδρες, εισακούετε

κεῖθεν γὰρ οὐδὲν κλέψεται πεπραγμένον. ΒΟΛ. ἐξ οὗ μὲν ἐκπέπτωκας, οἷον ἐν πόλει βίον διατρίψαντες ἐνθάδ' ἥκομεν, κεἰ σῖγα μὴ λέγοιμεν, ἑρμηνεῖς τοροὶ στολαί τ' ἂν εἶεν δυσπινῆ τε σώματα. αὐτὸς δὲ σαυτῷ συμβαλοῦ τόδ', οἵνεκα πάσων ὅσαιπερ ζῶσιν ἀθλιώταται

ἔσμεν γυναίκων· καὶ τὸ σὸν γὰρ ὄμμ ̓, ὃ δὴ

Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with comforts Constrains them weep and shake with fear and

sorrow;

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
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,
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
Triumphantly tread on thy country's ruin,
And bear the palm for bravely shed

Thy wife and children's blood. For myself, sou,
I purpose not to wait on Fortune till

These wars determine: if I cannot persuade thee
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,

ἡμῖν ὑπερχαίρουσιν ὀφθάλμους ἔδει
τέγγειν, χορῶν τε χάρματ' ἐνθεῖναι φρεσὶν,
πάλιν τίθησι κλαυθμὸν οὐ χαρᾶς ὑπο,
σείει τε θύμον δείμασίν τε καὶ δυαῖς.
μήτηρ γὰρ υἱὸν, νυμφίον γυνὴ, τέκνον
σὲ τὸν τεκόντα σπλάγχνα γῆς ἐπόψεται
διασπαράττοντ ̓ αὐτὸν αὐτούργῳ χερί.
φεῦ, φεῦ.

πάτραν δὲ μισῶν σὸν διαφθείρεις γένος.
θεοὺς γὰρ προσειπεῖν πῶς ἔτ ̓ ἐν λιταῖς πάρα
σοῦ γ ̓ οὐκ ἐῶντος, χάρμα τοῖς ἄλλοις τυχόν ;
πῶς ἂν γὰρ ἡμεῖς ἂν θεοῖς πάτρας ὕπερ
εὐχοίμεθ', εἰ καὶ δεῖ μάλισθ', ὕπερ τε σῆς
· νίκης, ὃ δεῖ μάλιστα; τοίγαρ ἢ πάτρας
στερησόμεσθα, τῆς φίλης ἡμῖν τροφῆς,
ἢ σου, μόνην ἣν ἐνθάδ' οἴδαμεν χάριν.
κακὸν δ ̓ ἂν εἴη περιφανὲς τόδ', αἵρεσιν
καίπερ λαβοῦσιν, ὑποτέροις ῥέψει θεός.
γενήσεται γὰρ ἕν γε τοῖν δυοῖν, σύ γε
ἤτοι πεδαῖσι δεδεμένος πόλιν κάτα
ὁδοιπορήσεις ὥς τις αἰχμάλωτος, ἢ
γῆν λαξ πατήσεις τήνδ' ἀδηρίτῳ θράσει
καὶ καλλινίκοις εἶ κλάδοις ἐστεμμένος,
βάψας σὺν ἔγχος φιλτάτων ἐν αἵματι.
ἔγωγε, τέκνον, οὐ Τύχης ὑπηρετῶ,
ἕως ἂν ἤδε πᾶσα παύσηται μάχη
ἢν μή σε πείσω, μᾶλλον ἢ καθαιρέτην
ἑνὸς γενέσθαι, συγχαρίζεσθαι στρατοῖν
ἀμφοῖν ἅμ ̓, ὡς ἄνδρ ̓ ὄντα γενναῖον πρέπει,
ἔν σοι λέγω τόδ', οὐκ ἐφορμήσει φθάσας
τὴν πάτριδ ̓ ὧδε πρότερον—εὖ τόδ ̓ ἴσθι γἢ
μητρὸς πατήσεις, ἢ σ' ἔτικτε, γαστέρα.

F. MADAN.

DE SENECTUTE (ad fin.).

:

O PRÆCLARUM diem, cum ad illud divinum animorum concilium cœtumque proficiscar; cumque ex hac turba et colluvione discedam! proficiscar enim non ad eos solum viros, de quibus ante dixi, sed etiam ad Catonem meum ; quo nemo vir melior natus est, nemor pietate præstantior; cujus a me corpus crematum est; quod contra decuit ab illo meum : animus vero non me deserens, sed respectans, in ea profecto loca discessit, quo mihi ipse cernebat esse veniendum: quem ego meum casum fortiter ferre visus sum: non quod æquo animo ferrem sed me ipse consolabar, existimans non longinquum inter nos digressum et discessum fore. His mihi rebus, Scipio (id enim te cum Lælio admirare solare dixisti), levis est senectus, nec solum non molesta sed etiam jucunda : •quod si in hoc erro, quod animos hominum immortales esse credam, lubenter erro; nec mihi hunc errorem, quo delector, dum vivo, extorqueri volo: sin mortuus (ut quidam minuti philosophi censent) nihil sentiam, non vereor ne hunc errorem meum mortui philosophi irrideant: quod si non sumus immortales futuri, tamen extingui homini suo tempore optabile est. Nam habet natura, ut aliarum ominum rerum, sic vivendi modum: senectus autem peractio ætatis est tamquam fabulæ; cujus defatigationem fugere debemus, præsertim adjuncta satietate. Hæc habui de senectute quæ dicerem: ad quam utinam perveniatis! ut ea, quæ ex me audistis, re experti, probare possitis.

CICERO.