Now humble as the ripest mulberry,
That will not hold the handling, [or] say to them."
By these slight corrections this place gains sense—a thing it never had before. All through the speech, it may be observed, Volumnia acts the part she would have her son perform. The transposition he had made in the first line—where the folio has 'Which often thus'—having perplexed the printer, he took 'humble' for a verb, and so introduced 'or' to try to make sense. (Introd. p. [67].) Mr. Dyce says "the passage now stands as Shakespeare wrote it." Why, then, has he not given us the sense of it?
"Even as she speaks, why all their hearts were yours."
"Must I with my base tongue give to my noble heart."
It might be better to omit the first 'my' and 'to.'
"Well, mildly be it then; mildly be it then."