(iV. i. 45.)
Are these utterances mere pretence? And have not his last farewells the genuine note of cordiality and good will? If we could imagine that he would bring himself to address those whom he afterwards called the “dastard nobles” as “my friends of noble touch,” it would still be impossible to believe him guilty of cold-hearted deceit to Virgilia and Volumnia.
Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and
My friends of noble touch, when I am forth
Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you, come.
While I remain above the ground, you shall
Hear from me still, and never of me aught
But what is like me formerly.
(iV. i. 48.)
It would not be like the former champion of Rome to return as its assailant; but we may take it that at this moment he is expecting to carve his way to glory in a different world and perhaps eventually be recalled to his country, but in any case to proceed merely on the old lines in so far as that is possible, and meanwhile to be reported of, as Menenius continues, “worthily as any ear can hear.”