1    Come, leave your tears: a brief farewell: the beast
2    With many heads butts me away. Nay, mother,
3    Where is your ancient courage? you were used
4    To say extremity was the trier of spirits;
5    That common chances common men could bear;
6    That when the sea was calm all boats alike
7    Show'd mastership in floating; fortune's blows,
8    When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves
9    A noble cunning: you were used to load me
10   With precepts that would make invincible
11   The heart that conn'd them.

12   O heavens! O heavens!

13   Nay! prithee, woman,--

14   Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome,
15   And occupations perish!

16   What, what, what!
17   I shall be loved when I am lack'd. Nay, mother.
18   Resume that spirit, when you were wont to say,
19   If you had been the wife of Hercules,
20   Six of his labours you'ld have done, and saved
21   Your husband so much sweat. Cominius,
22   Droop not; adieu. Farewell, my wife, my mother:
23   I'll do well yet. Thou old and true Menenius,
24   Thy tears are salter than a younger man's,
25   And venomous to thine eyes. My sometime general,
26   I have seen thee stem, and thou hast oft beheld
27   Heart-hardening spectacles; tell these sad women
28   'Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes,
29   As 'tis to laugh at 'em. My mother, you wot well
30   My hazards still have been your solace: and
31   Believe't not lightly--though I go alone,
32   Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen
33   Makes fear'd and talk'd of more than seen--your son
34   Will or exceed the common or be caught
35   With cautelous baits and practise.

36   My first son.
37   Whither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius
38   With thee awhile: determine on some course,
39   More than a wild exposture to each chance
40   That starts i' the way before thee.

41   O the gods!

42   I'll follow thee a month, devise with thee
43   Where thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of us
44   And we of thee: so if the time thrust forth
45   A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send
46   O'er the vast world to seek a single man,
47   And lose advantage, which doth ever cool
48   I' the absence of the needer.

49   Fare ye well:
50   Thou hast years upon thee; and thou art too full
51   Of the wars' surfeits, to go rove with one
52   That's yet unbruised: bring me but out at gate.
53   Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and
54   My friends of noble touch, when I am forth,
55   Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you, come.
56   While I remain above the ground, you shall
57   Hear from me still, and never of me aught
58   But what is like me formerly.

59   That's worthily
60   As any ear can hear. Come, let's not weep.
61   If I could shake off but one seven years
62   From these old arms and legs, by the good gods,
63   I'ld with thee every foot.

64   Give me thy hand: Come.