VIRGINIUS. O man, O mould, O muck, O clay! O hell, O hellish hound, O false Judge Appius, rabbling[208] wretch, is this thy treason found? Woe worth the man that gave the seed, whereby ye first did spring! Woe worth the womb that bare the babe to mean this bloody thing! Woe worth the paps that gave thee suck, woe worth the fosters eke: Woe worth all such as ever did thy health or liking seek! O, that these gravèd hairs[209] of mine were covered in the clay! _Here entereth_ VIRGINIA. Let patience, dear father mine, your rigour something stay: Why do you wail in such a sort? why do you weep and moan? VIRGINIUS. O daughter dear and only heir, my life is near begone, And all for love of thee. VIRGINIA. Ah, gods, how may this be? Dear father, do withdraw your dread, and let me know the cause: Myself will aid with life or death without demur or pause. Then tender your child that craveth this bound.[210] VIRGINIUS. O, hearken, dear daughter, attend thou my sound. Judge Appius, prick’d forth with filthy desire, Thy person as leman doth greatly require; And no kind of entreaty, no fear, nor no shame, Will he hear alleged, defending[211] the same. And straight without staying, in pain of my death, I must bring thee thither. Wherefore stop my breath. O sisters; I search, I seek, and I crave No more at your hands but death for to have, Rather than see my daughter deflow’red, Or else in ill sort so wildly devour’d. VIRGINIA. O father, O friendship, O fatherly favour, Whose dulcet words so sweetly do savour, On knees I beseech thee to grant my request, In all things according as liketh thee best. Thou knowest, O my father, if I be once spotted, My name and my kindred then forth will be blotted: And if thou, my father, should die for my cause, The world would accompt me guilty in cause. Then rather, dear father, if it be thy pleasure, Grant me the death; then keep I my treasure, My lamp, my light, my life undefiled, And so may Judge Appius of [my] flesh be beguiled. This upon my knees with humble behest, Grant me, O father, my instant request. VIRGINIUS. Then rise up, my daughter: my answer do note From mouth of thy father, whose eyes do now float. O daughter, O dear, O darling, O dame, Dispatch me, I pray thee, regard not my name: But yet as thou sayest, sith remedy none, But leman thou must be, if I were gone, And better it is to die with good fame, Than longer to live to reap us but shame: But if thou do die no doubt is at all, But presently after myself follow shall, Then end without shame, so let us persever, With trump of good fame, so die shall we never. [_Virginia here kneeleth._ Then, tender arms, complect the neck: do dry thy father’s tears, You nimble hands, for woe whereof my loving heart it wears.