Page:The Palace of Pleasure, Volume 1 (1890).djvu/136

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MARTIUS CARIOLANUS.

(O I, curfed creature !) if I had neuer had childe, Rome had not been now aflailed. If I had neuer brought sorth a sonne, I fhould haue laied mine old bones and ended my life in a free countrie. But I coulde neuer haue fufteined, or fuffred more miferie, then is nowe fallen vnto mee, nor neuer more dimonour, then to beholde thee in pitifull plight, a traytour to thy natife soile. And as I am the moste wretched wight of all mothers, so I truft I fhal not long continue in that state. If thou precede in this enterprife, either sodaine death, or perpetuall shame bee thy rewarded When his mother had ended these woordes, the whole traine of gentlewo men, brake into pitifull teares : bitterly bewayling the state of their Countrie, whiche at lengthe did mitigate the ftomacke of Co- riolanus. And when he had imbraced his wife and children, hee difmifTed them. Then hee withdrewe the Volfcian campe from the citie, and out of the Romaine Prouince. Vpon the difpleafure of whiche fa&e, he died. It is fayd that when he was an old man, hee vsed many times to fpeake and vtter this fen- tence. " That verie miferable it is, for an olde man to Hue in banimement." The Remains dif- daigned not to attribute to women, their due prayfe : for in memorie of this de- liuerie of their Countrie, they ere&ed a Temple, sortunae Muliebri, to Womens fortune.


APPIUS