Cor. So then the Volces stand but as at first: Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make Upon us again. [road Com. They are worn, lord consul, so, Their we shall hardly in our ages see That banners wave again.
Saw you Aufidius? Lart. On safeguard he came to me; and did
Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit;
Or never be so noble as a consul,
Nor yoke with him for tribune.
Men.
Let's be calm. Com. The people are abus'd:-Set on.-This palt'ring
Becomes not Rome; nor has Coriolanus
Deserv'd this so dishonour'd rub, laid falsely
I' the plain way of his merit.
Cor.
Tell me of corn!
This was my speech, and I will speak't again;
Men. Not now, not now.
1 Sen.
Not in this heat, sir now.
Cor. Now, as I live, I will.-My nobler friends,
I crave their pardons :-
For the mutable, rauk-scented many, let them
Regard me as I do not flatter, and
Therein behold themselves: I say again,
In soothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate
The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition,
Which we ourselves have plough'd for, sow'd
and scatter'd,
[ber;
By mingling them with us, the honour'd num-
Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that
Which they have given to beggars.
Mien.
Well, no more. 1 Sen. No more words, we beseech you. Cor.
That with his peremptory shall, being but
The horn and noise o' the monsters, wants not
spirit
To say, he'll turn your current in a ditch,
And make your channel his; If he have power,
Then vail your ignorance; if none, awake
Your dangerous lenity. If you are learned,
Be not as common fools; if you are not,
Let them have cushions by you. You are ple-
beians,
If they be senators: and they are no less,
When, both your voices blended, the greatest
taste
[trate;
Most palates theirs. They choose their magis-
And such a one as he, who puts his shall,
His popular shall, against a graver bench
Than ever frown'd in Greece! By Jove himself,
It makes the consuls base: and my soul akes,
To know, when two authorities are up,
Neither supreme, how soon confusion
May enter 'twixt the gap of both, and take
The one by the other.
Com.
Well-on to the market-place.
Cor. Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth
The corn o' the store-house gratis, as 'tis us'd
Sometime in Greece,
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Even when the naval of the state was touch'd, That would not thread the gates: this kind of service
Did not deserve corn gratis: being i' the war,
Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they show'd
Most valour, spoke not for them: The accusation
Which they have often made against the senate,
All cause unborn, could never be the native
Of our so frank donation. Well, what then?
How shall his bosom multiplied digest
The senate's courtesy? Let deeds express
What's like to be their words:- We did request it:
We are the greater poll, and in true fear
They gave us our demands:-Thus we debase
The nature of our seats, and make the rabble
Call our cares, fears: which will in time break
The locks o' the senate, and bring in the crows To peck the eagles.
Men. Come, enough. Bru. Enough, with overmeasure. Cor. No, take more: What may be sworn by, both divine and human, Seal what I end withal -This double worship,[other
Where one part does disdain with cause, the Insult without all reason; where gentry, title, wisdom
Cannot conclude, but by the yea and no
Of general ignorance,-it must omit
Real necessities, and give way the while
To unstable slightness: purpose so barr'd, it
follows,
[you,Nothing is done to purpose: Therefore, beseech You that will be less fearful than discreet; That love the fundamental part of state,
More than you doubt the change oft; that
A noble life before a long, and wish [prefer
To jump a body with a dangerous physick [out
That's sure of death without it,-at once pluck
The multitudinous tongue, let them not lick
The sweet which is their poison: your dishonour
Mangles true judgment, and bereaves the state
Of that integrity that should become it;
Not having the power to do the good it would,
For the ill which doth control it.
Bru.
He has said enough.
Sic. He has spoken like a traitor, and shall
As traitors do.
[answer
Cor. Thou wretch! despite o'erwhelm thee! What should the people do with these bald tribunes?
On whom depending, their obedience fails
To the greater bench: In a rebellion,
When what's not meet, but what must be, was
Then were they chosen; in a better hour [law
Let what is meet, be said it must be meet,
And throw their power i' the dust.
Bru. Manifest treason.
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Take from you all your power.
Bru.
Seize him, Ædiles.
Cit. Down with him, down with him!
[Several speak. 2 Sen. Weapons, weapons, weapons! [They all bustle about CORIOLANUS. Tribunes, patricians, citizens !-what ho!Sicinius, Brutus, Coriolanus, citizens!
Cit. Peace, peace, peace; stay, hold, peace! Men. What is about to be?-I am out of breath;
Confusion's near; I cannot speak:-You tri-
To the people,-Coriolanus, patience: [bunes
Speak, good Sicinius.
Sie.
Hear me, people;-Peace.
Cit. Let's hear our tribune :-Peace. Speak,
speak, speak.
Sic. You are at point to lose your liberties:
Mareius would have all from you; Marcius,
Whom late you have nam'd for consul.
Men.
Fye, fye, fye! This is the way to kindle, not to quench. 1 Sen. To unbuild the city, and to lay all flat. Sic. What is the city, but the people? Cit.
Cit. Yield, Marcius, yield. Men.
Hear me one word. Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word. Edi. Peace, peace.
[friend. Men. Be that you seem, truly your country's And temperately proceed to what you would Thus violently redress.
Bru. Sir, those cold ways, That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonous Where the disease is violent:-Lay hands upon And bear him to the rock. Cor.
[him, No; I'll die here. [Drawing his sword. There's some among you have beheld me fighting; [seen me. Come, try upon yourselves what you have Men. Down with that sword;-Tribunes withFru. Lay hands upon him. [draw awhile. Men. Help, help Marcius! help, You that be noble; help him, young and old! Cit. Down with him, down with him!
[In this Mutiny the Tribunes, the Ediles, and the People, are all beat in.
Men. Go, get you to your house; be gone, All will be naught else. Laway. Stand fast;
We have as many friends as enemies.
Men. Shall it be put to that? 1 Sen.
The gods forbid! I pr'ythee, noble friend, home to thy house; Leave us to cure this cause. Men. For 'tis a sore upon us, You cannot tent yourself: Begone, 'beseech you.: Com. Come, sir, along with us. Cor. I would they were barbarians (as they [are not, Though in Rome litter'd), not Romans (as they Though calv'd i' the porch of the Capitol)Men. Put not your worthy rage into your tongue; One time will owe another. Cor.
I could beat forty of them: Men.
Take up a brace of the best of them; yea, the two tribunes.
Com. But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetick; And manhood is call'd foolery, when it stands Against a falling fabrick,-Will you hence, Before the tag return? whose rage doth rend Like interrupted waters, and o'erbear What they are used to bear. Men.
And being angry, does forget that ever
He heard the name of death. [A noise within.
Here's goodly work!
2 Pat.
I would they were abed!
Men. I would they were in Tyber!-What,
Could he not speak them fair? [the vengeance,
Re-enter BRUTUS and SICINIUS, with the Rabble.
Sic.
Where is the viper,
That would depopulate the city, and
Be every man himself?
Men.
You worthy tribunes,--
Sic. He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock
With rigorous hands; he hath resisted law,
And therefore law shall scorn him further trial
Thau the severity of the public power,
Which he so sets at nought.
1 Cit.
He shall well know,
The noble tribunes are the people's mouths,
And we their hands.
Cit.
He shall, sure on't. [Several speak together.
He a consul? [good people,
Cit. No, no, no, no, no. Men. If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours, I may be heard, I'd crave a word or two; The which shall turn you to no further harm, Than so much loss of time. Sic. Speak briefly then; For we are peremptory, to dispatch This viperous traitor: to eject him hence, Were but one danger; and, to keep him here, Our certain death; therefore it is decreed, He dies to-night.
Now the good gods forbid,
That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude
Towards her deserved children is enroll'd
In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam
Should now eat up her own!
Sic. He's a disease that must be cut away.
Men. O, he's a limb, that has but a disease;
Mortal, to cut it off; to cure it, easy.
What has he done to Rome, that's worthy death?
Killing our enemies? The blood he hath lost
(Which, I dare vouch, is more than that he hath,
By many an ounce), he dropp'd it for his
country:
And, what is left, to lose it by his country,
Were to us all, that do 't, and suffer it,
A brand to the end of the world.
Sic.
This is clean kam.
Bru. Merely awry: when he did love his
It honour'd him.
[country,
Men.
The service of the foot
Being once gangren'd, is not then respected
For what before it was?
Bru.
We'll hear no more:-
Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence;
Lest his infection, being of catching nature,
Spread further.
'Pray you, be gone: I'll try whether my old wit be in request With those that have but little; this must be With cloth of any colour. [patch'd Com. Nay, come away. [Exeunt COR. Cos. and Others. 1 Pat. This man has marr'd his fortune. Men. His nature is too noble for the world; He would not flatter Neptune for his trident; This tiger-footed rage, when it shall find Or Jove for his power to thunder. His hearts' The harm of unscann'd swiftness, will, too late, his mouth; [vent; Tie leaden pounds to his heels. Proceed, by
What his breast forges, that his tongue must!
I'll bring him to you:
Let me desire your company. [To the Senators.]
He must come,
Or what is worst will follow. 1 Sen.
'Pray you, let's to him. [Exeunt. SCENE II. A Room in Coriolanus's House.
Enter CORIOLANUS and Patricians.
Cor. Let them pull all about mine ears; pre-
sent me
Death on the wheel, or at the wild horses' heels,
Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock,
That the precipitation might down stretch
Below the beam of sight, yet will I still
Be thus to them.
You do the nobler.
Cor. I muse, my mother
Does not approve me further, who was wont
To call them woollen vassals, things created
To buy and sell with groats; to show bare heads
In congregations, to yawn, be still, and wonder,
When one but of my ordinance stood up
To speak of peace, or war. I talk of you;
[To VOLUMNIA.
Why did you wish me milder? Would you have
False to my nature? Rather say, I play [me
The man I am.
Vol.
I would have had you put your power well on,
Before you had it worn out.
Cor.
Let go. [you are,
Vol. You might have been enough the man
With striving less to be so: Lesser had been
The thwartings of your dispositions, if
You had not shown them how you were dispos'd
Ere they lack'd power to cross you.
Cor.
Vol. Ay, and burn too.
Enter MENENIUS and Senators.
Men. Come, come, you have been too rough,
something too rough;
You must return, and mend it.
1 Sen.
There's no remedy;
Unless, by not so doing, our good city
Cleave in the midst, and perish.
Vol.
Pray be counsell'd:
I have a heart as little apt as yours,
Honour and policy, like unsever'd friends,
I' the war do grow together: Grant that, and
tell me,
In peace, what each of them by th' other lose,
That they combine not there.
Cor
Men.
A good demand.
Vol. If it be honour, in your wars, to seemn
The same you are not (which, for your best ends,
You adopt your policy), how is it less, or worse,
That it shall hold companionship in peace
With honour, as in war; since that to both
It stands in like request?
Cor.
Why force yon this?
Vol. Because that now it lies you on to speak
To the people: not by your own instruction,
Nor by the matter which your heart prompts you
But with such words that are but roted in [to,
Your tongue, though but bastards, and syllables
Of no allowance to your bosom's truth.
Now, this no more dishonours you at all,
Than to take in a town with gentle words,
Which else would put you to your fortune, and
The hazard of much blood.-
I would dissemble with my nature, where
My fortunes, and my friends, at stake, requir'd,
I should do so in honour: I am in this,
Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles;
And you will rather show our general lowts
How you can frown, then spend a fawn upon
them,
For the inheritance of their loves, and safeguard
Of what that want might ruin.
Men.
Noble lady!-
Come, go with us; speak fair: you may salve so,
Not what is dangerous present, but the loss
Of what is past.
Vol.
I pr'thee now, my son,
Go to them, with this bonnet in thy hand;
And thus far having stretch'd it (here be with
them),
Thy knee bussing the stones (for in such business
Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant
More learned than the ears), waving thy head,
Which often, thus correcting thy stout heart,
Now humble, as the ripest mulberry,
That will not hold the handling: Or, say to them,
Thou art their soldier, and being bred in broils,
Hast not the soft way, which, thou dost confess
Were fit for thee to use, as they to claim,
In asking their good loves; but thou wilt frame
Thyself, forsootli, hereafter theirs, so far
As thou hast power, and person.
Men.
This but done,
Even as she speaks, why, their hearts were
For they have pardons, being ask'd, as free
Com. I have been i' the market-place: and,
sir, 'tis fit
You make strong party, or defend yourself
By calmness, or by absence; all's in anger.
Men. Only fair speech.
Com.
I think, 'twill serve, if he
Can thereto frame his spirit.
Vol.
He must, and will:-
Pr'ythee, now, say, you will, and go about it.
Cor. Must I go show them my unbarb'd sconce?
Must I
With my base tongue, give to my noble heart
A lie, that it must bear? Well, I will do't:
Yet were there but this single plot to lose,
This mould of Marcius, they to dust should
grind it,
How accompanied?
Ed. With old Menenius, and those senators
That always favoured him.
Sic.
Have you a catalogue
Of all the voices that we have procur'd,
Set down by the poll?
Ad.
I have; 'tis ready, here.
Sic. Have you collected them by tribes?
Ed.
I have. Sic. Assemble presently the people hither: [place: And when they hear me say, It shall be so And throw it against the wind.-To the market-I' the right and strength of the commons, be it either You have put me now to such a part, which never For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them, I shall discharge to the life. If I say, fine, cry fine; if death, cry death; Com. Come, come, we'll prompt you. Insisting on the old prerogative Vol. I pr'ythee now, sweet son; as thou hast And power, i' the truth o' the cause. My praises made thee first a soldier, so, [said, To have my praise for this, perform a part Thou hast not done before.
Cor.
Well, I must do 't:
Away, my disposition, and possess me
Some harlot's spirit! My throat of war be turn'd,
Which quired with my drum, into a pipe
Small as an eunuch, or the virgin voice
That babies lulls asleep! The smiles of knaves
Tent in my cheeks; and school boys' tears take up
The glasses of my sight! A beggar's tongue
Make motion through my lips; and my arm'd
knees,
Who bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his
That hath receiv'd an almas!-I will not do 't:
Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth,
And, by my body's action, teach my mind'
A most inherent baseness.
Vol.
At thy choice then:
To beg of thee, it is my more dishonour,
Than thou of them. Come all to ruin; let
Thy mother rather feel thy pride, than fear
Thy dangerous stoutness; for I mock at death
With as big heart as thou. Do as thou list.
Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck'dst it from
But owe thy pride thyself.
[me;
Cor.
Pray, be content;
Mother, I am going to the market-place;
Chide me no more. I'll mountebank their loves,
Cog their hearts from them, and come home
I shall inform them. Bru. And when such time they have begun to cry,
Let them not cease, but with a din confus'd
Enforce the present execution
Of what we chance to sentence,
Ed.
Sic. Make them be strong, and ready for this
When we shall hap to give 't them. [hint,
Bru.
Go about it.-
[Exit Edile.
Put him to choler straight: He hath been us'd
Ever to conquer, and to have his worth
Of contradiction: Being once chaf'd, he cannot
Be rein'd again to temperance; then he speaks
What's in his heart; and that is there, which
With us to break his neck.
[looks
Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMINIUS,
Senators, and Patricians.
Sic, Well, here he comes.
Men.
Calmly, I do beseech you.
Will bear the knave by the volume.-The ho
Cor. Ay, as an ostler, that for the poorest piece
|