-
When yet he was but tender-bodied and the only son of my womb,
-
I, considering how honor would become such a person,
-
was pleased to let him seek danger,
-
where he was like to find fame.
-
To a cruel war I sent him,
-
from whence he returned, his brows bound with oak.
-
But had he died in the business, madam, how then?
-
Then
-
his good report should have been my son.
-
Hear me.
-
Had I a dozen sons,
-
I had rather eleven die nobly for their country,