TAMORA.
But when ye have the honey ye desire,
Let not this wasp outlive, us both to sting.
CHIRON.
I warrant you, madam, we will make that sure.
Come, mistress, now perforce we will enjoy
That nice-preserved honesty of yours.
LAVINIA.
O Tamora, thou bearest a woman’s face,—
TAMORA.
I will not hear her speak; away with her!
LAVINIA.
Sweet lords, entreat her hear me but a word.
DEMETRIUS.
Listen, fair madam: let it be your glory
To see her tears; but be your heart to them
As unrelenting flint to drops of rain.
LAVINIA.
When did the tiger’s young ones teach the dam?
O, do not learn her wrath; she taught it thee;
The milk thou suck’st from her did turn to marble;
Even at thy teat thou hadst thy tyranny.
Yet every mother breeds not sons alike.
[To Chiron.] Do thou entreat her show a woman’s pity.
CHIRON.
What, wouldst thou have me prove myself a bastard?
LAVINIA.
’Tis true the raven doth not hatch a lark.
Yet have I heard—O, could I find it now!—
The lion, moved with pity, did endure
To have his princely paws pared all away.
Some say that ravens foster forlorn children,
The whilst their own birds famish in their nests.
O, be to me, though thy hard heart say no,
Nothing so kind, but something pitiful.
TAMORA.
I know not what it means; away with her!