I pray you, daughter, sing; or express yourself in a more comfortable sort.
-Volumnia
Coriolanus Act I, Scene 3, Line 1
Since this is the first we see of Volumnia, Coriolanus’s mother and an important figure in this play, I’m going to give you her whole opening piece. She’s speaking to her daughter-in-law Virgilia, Coriolanus’s wife. Virgilia is worried about her husband who is off at war. Volumnia, not so much. It’s a little long, but pretty easy.
I pray you, daughter, sing; or express yourself in a more comfortable sort. If my son were my husband, I would freeller rejoice in that absence wherein he won honour than in the embracements of his bed where he would show most love. When yet he was but tender-bodied and the only son of my womb, when youth with comeliness plucked all gaze his way, when for a day of kings’ entreaties a mother should not sell him an hour from her beholding, I, considering how honour would become such a person, that it was no better than picture-like to hang by the wall, if renown made it not stir, 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. I tell thee, daughter, I sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child than now in first seeing he had proved himself a man.
So this is Volumnia (I can’t think of any female person I know who would like to have that name) speaking about her son. I think Will is trying to immediately lets us know what she’s all about, because she’s pivotal in this play, especially near the end. She comes off right away, at least to me, as a pretty cold-hearted bitch. She seems more fit to be a general than a mother, don’t you think? Just for the heck of it, let’s compare Volumnia to another of Shakespeare’s mothers, Constance, in King John. We heard from Constance back in January 2017 (wow, was it that long ago?). Here’s the link:
What do you think? There’s a little bit of difference
between the two mothers, eh?
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