A Sennet. Enter, with Lictors before them, COMINIUS the Consul, MENENIUS, CORIOLANUS, many other Senators, SICINIUS and BRUTUS. The Senators take their places; the Tribunes take theirs also by themselves.

Men. Having determin'd of the Volces, and
To send for Titus Lartius, it remains,

As the main point of this our after-meeting,
To gratify his noble service, that

Hath thus stood for his country: Therefore, please

you,

Most reverend and grave elders, to desire
The present consul, and last general

In our well-found successes, to report

A little of that worthy work perform'd

By Caius Marcius Coriolanus; whom

We meet here, both to thank, and to remember
With honours like himself.

1 Sen.

Speak, good Cominius: Leave nothing out for length, and make us think, Rather our state's defective for requital,

Than we to stretch it out. Masters o'the people,
We do request your kindest ears; and, after,
Your loving motion toward the common body,
To yield what passes here.

Sic.

We are convented

Upon a pleasing treaty; and have hearts

Inclinable to honour and advance.

The theme of our assembly.

Rather our state's defective for requital,

Than we to stretch it out.] i, e. Rather say that our means are too defective to afford an adequate reward for his services, than suppose our wishes to stretch out those means are defective.

9 Your loving motion toward the common body,] Your kind interposition with the common people.

Bru.

Which the rather
We shall be bless'd to do, if he remember
A kinder value of the people, than

He hath hereto priz'd them at.

Men..

That's off, that's off;'

I would you rather had been silent: Please you
To hear Cominius speak?

Bru.

Most willingly:

He loves your people;

But yet my caution was more pertinent,
Than the rebuke you give it.

Men.

Worthy Cominius, speak.-Nay, keep your place. [CORIOLANUS rises, and offers to go away.

1 Sen. Sit, Coriolanus; never shame to hear What you have nobly done.

Cor.

Your honours' pardon;

I had rather have my wounds to heal again,
Than hear say how I got them.

Bru.

My words dis-bench'd you not.

Sir, I hope,

No, sir: yet oft,

Cor. When blows have made me stay, I fled from words. You sooth'd not, therefore hurt not: But, your people,

I love them as they weigh.

Men.

Pray now, sit down. Cor. I had rather have one scratch my head i'

the sun,

When the alarum were struck, than idly sit

To hear my nothings monster'd.

Men.

[Exit CORIOLANUS. Masters o'the people,

That's off, that's off;] That is, that is nothing to the purpose.

Your multiplying spawn how can he flatter,2 (That's thousand to one good one,) when you now

see,

He had rather venture all his limbs for honour, Than one of his ears to hear it?-Proceed, Cominius.

Com. I shall lack voice: the deeds of Coriolanus Should not be utter'd feebly.-It is held,

That valour is the chiefest virtue, and
Most dignifies the haver: if it be,

The man I speak of cannot in the world
Be singly counterpois'd. At sixteen years,
When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he fought
Beyond the mark of others: our then dictator,
Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight,
When with his Amazonian chin+ he drove
The bristled lips before him: he bestrid

An o'er press'd Roman, and i̇' the consul's view
Slew three opposers: Tarquin's self he met,
And struck him on his knee: in that day's feats,
When he might act the woman in the scene,
He prov'd best man i' the field, and for his meed
Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil age
Man-enter'd thus, he waxed like a sea;

2 how can he flatter,] The reasoning of Menenius is this; How can he be expected to practise flattery to others, who abhors it so much, that he cannot hear it even when offered to himself?

3 When Tarquin made a head for Rome,] When Tarquin whọ had been expelled, raised a power to recover Rome,

4 his Amazonian chin-] i, e. his chin on which there was no beard.

5 And struck him on his knee:] This does not mean that he gave Tarquin a blow on the knee, but gave him such a blow as occa, sioned him to fall on his knee.

• When he might act the woman in the scene,] It has been more than once mentioned, that the parts of women were, in Shakspeare's time, represented by the most smooth-faced young men to be found among the players. But here is a great anachronism. There were no theatres at Rome for the exhibition of plays for about two hundred and fifty years after the death of Coriolanus.

And, in the brunt of seventeen battles since,
He lurch'd all swords o'the garland.
Before and in Corioli, let me say,

For this last,

I cannot speak him home: He stopp'd the fliers;
And, by his rare example, made the coward
Turn terror into sport: as waves before
A vessel under sail, so men obey'd,

And fell below his stem: his sword (death's stamp)
Where it did mark, it took; from face to foot
He was a thing of blood, whose every motion
Was timed with dying cries: alone he enter'd
The mortal gate" o'the city, which he painted
With shunless destiny, aidless came off,
And with a sudden reinforcement struck
Corioli, like a planet: Now all's his :
When by and by the din of war 'gan pierce
His ready sense: then straight his doubled spirit
Re-quicken'd what in flesh was fatigate,
And to the battle came he; where he did
Run reeking o'er the lives of men, as if
"Twere a perpetual spoil: and, till we call'd
Both field and city ours, he never stood
To ease his breast with panting.

Men.

Worthy man!

1 Sen. He cannot but with measure fit the ho

nours1

7 He lurch'd all swords o'the garland.] To burch, in Shakspeare's "To lurch all time, signified to win a maiden set at cards, &c. swords of the garland," therefore, was, to gain from all other warriors the wreath of victory, with ease, and incontestable superiority.

8

every motion

Was tim'd with dying cries.] The cries of the slaughtered regularly followed his motion, as musick and a dancer accompany each other.

9 The mortal gate-] The gate that was made the scene of death.

He cannot but with measure fit the honours ] That is, no

Which we devise him.

Com!!

Our spoils he kick'd at;
And look'd upon things precious, as they were
The common muck o'the world; he covets less
Than misery2 itself would give; rewards
His deeds with doing them; and is content
To spend the time, to end it.

Men.

Let him be call'd for.

1 Sen.

Off. He doth appear.

He's right noble;

Call for Coriolanus.

Re-enter CORIOLANUS.

Men. The senate, Coriolanus, are well pleas'd

I do beseech you,

Let me o'erleap that custom; for I cannot

Put on the gown, stand naked, and entreat them, For my wounds sake, to give their suffrage: please

Pray you, go fit you to the custom; and
Take to you, as your predecessors have,
Your honour with your form,3

honour will be too great for him; he will show a mind equal to any elevation.

Than misery] Misery for avarice; because a miser signifies avaricious,