.

Well, I must do't:
Away, my disposition, and possess me
Some harlot's spirit!

* * * *

I will not do't:
Lest I surcease to honor mine own truth,
And by my body's action, teach my mind
A most inherent baseness.

VOLUMNIA.

At thy choice, then:
To beg of thee, it is my more dishonor,
Than thou of them. Come all to ruin: let
Thy mother rather feel thy pride, than fear
Thy dangerous stoutness: for I mock at death
With as big heart as thou. Do as thou list--
Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck'dst it from me
But owe thy pride thyself.

CORIOLANUS.

Pray be content;
Mother, I am going to the market place--
Chide me no more.

When the spirit of the mother and the son are brought into immediate
collision, he yields before her; the warrior who stemmed alone the whole
city of Corioli, who was ready to face "the steep Tarpeian death, or at
wild horses' heels,--vagabond exile--flaying," rather than abate one jot
of his proud will--shrinks at her rebuke. The haughty, fiery,
overbearing temperament of Coriolanus, is drawn in such forcible and
striking colors, that nothing can more impress us with the real grandeur
and power of Volumnia's character, than his boundless submission to her
will--his more than filial tenderness and respect.

You gods! I prate,
And the most noble mother of the world
Leave unsaluted. Sink my knee i' the earth--
Of thy deep duty more impression show
Than that of common sons!

When his mother appears before him as a suppliant, he exclaims,--

My mother bows;
As if Olympus to a molehill should
In supplication nod.

Here the expression of reverence, and the magnificent image in which it
is clothed, are equally characteristic both of the mother and the son.

Her aristocratic haughtiness is a strong trait in Volumnia's manner and
character, and her supreme contempt for the plebeians, whether they are
to be defied or cajoled, is very like what I have heard expressed by
some high-born and high-bred women of our own day.

I muse my mother
Does not approve me further, who was wont
To call them woollen vassals; things created
To buy and sell with groats; t