you must 3 Bru. Ay, sp (No impediment between) but that To oppose his hatred full. – Welcome home! Cast your election on him. [To Lartius. Sic. Say, you chose him Enter Sicinius and BRUTUS. Sic. Pass no further. Men. The matter? Com.Hath he not pass'd the nobles, and the commons? 1 Sen. Tribunes, give way; he shall to the marAnd nobly nam’d so, being censor twice, ket-place. Was his great ancestor. Bru. The people are incens'd against him. Sic. Stop, Cor. Are these your herd ? – And straight disclaim their tongues? What are your That he's your fixed enemy, and revoke offices ? Your sudden approbation. You being their mouths, why rule you not their Bur. Say, you ne'er had done't, teeth? (Ilarp on that still,) but by our putting on: Have you not set them on? And presently, when you have drawn your number, Men. Be calm, be calm! Repair to the Capitol. Cor. It is a purpos'd thing, and grows by plot, Cit. We will so: almost all (Several speak. To curb the will of the nobility :Repent in their election. [Exeunt Citizens. Suffer it, and live with such as cannot rule, Bru. Let them go on; Nor ever will be rul’d. This mutiny were better put in hazard, Bru. Call't not a plot: Than stay, past doubt, for greater: The people cry, you mock'd them; and, of late, If, as his nature is, he fall in rage When corn was given them gratis, you repin'd; With their refasal, both observe and answer Scandal'd the suppliants for the people ; call’d them The vantage of his anger. Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness. Cor. Why, this was known before. Cor. You are like to do such business. Bru. Not unlike, Each way, to better yours. Cor. Why then should I be consul? By yon clouds, Your fellow-tribune. To where you are bound, you must inquire your way, Our swifter composition. Which you are out of, with a geutler spirit; Men. Let's be calm. Com. The people are abus'd: – Set on!-- This That we shall hardly in our ages see palt'ring Their banners wave again. Becomes not Rome: nor has Coriolanus Deserv'd this so dishonour'd rub, laid falsely Cor. Tell me of corn ! This was my speech, and I will speak't again; Cor. Spoke he of me? Meil. Not now, not now. Lart. Ile did, my lord. 1 Sen. Not in this heat, sir, now. Cor. How? what? Cor. Now, as I live, I will. - My nobler friends, Lart. How often he had met you, sword to sword: I crave their pardons :That, of all things upon the earth, he hated For the mutable, rank-scented many, let them Your person most: that he would pawn his fortunes Regard me as I do not flatter, and To hopeless restitution, so he might Therein behold themselves : I say again, Be cali’d your vanquisher. In soothing them, we nonrish 'gaiust our senate Cor, At Antium lives he? The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition, Lart. At Antium. Which we ourselves have ploughid for, sow'd and Cor. I wish, I had a cause to seek him there, scatter'd, A By mingling them with us, the honour'd number; How shall this bosom multiplied digest To Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that The senate's courtesy? Let deeds express Sp Which they have given to beggars. What's like to be their words :- We did request it ; S Men. Well, no more. We are the greater poll, and in true fear C 1 Sen. No more words, we beseech you. They gave us our demands. - Thus we debase Cor. How! no more? The nature of our seats, and make the rabble As for my country I have shed my blood, Call our cares, fears : which will in time break ope Not fearing ontward force, so shall my lungs The locks o'the senate, and bring in the crows W Coin words till their decay, against those meazels, To peck the eagles. Which we disdain should tetter us, yet sought Men, Come, enough! TI The very way to catch them. Bru. Enough, with over-measure. 1 Bru. You speak o'the people, Cor. No, take more: As if you were a god to punish, not What may be sworn by, both divine and human, A man of their infirmity. Seal what I end withal ! - This double worship TH Sic, "Twere well, Where one part does disdain with cause, the other TI Men. What, what? his choler ? Cannot conclude, but by the yea and no Of general ignorance, it must omit T By Jove, 'twould be my mind. To unstable slightness: purpose so barr’d, it follows, lc That shall remain a poison where it is, You that will be less fearful, than discreet; Not poison any further. That love the fundamental part of state, More than you doubt the change of’t; that prefer To jump a body with a dangerous physic, That's sure of death without it, at once plack out Cor. Shall! The multitudinous tongue, let them not lick () good, but most unwise patricians, why, The sweet which is their poison: your dishonour You grave, but reckless senators, have you thus Mangles true judgment, and bereaves the state Of that integrity which should become it; Bru. He has said enough. As traitors do. What should the people do with these bald tribunes? Let what is meet, be said it must be meet, And throw their power i’the dust. Bru. The Aediles, ho!-- Let him be apprehended! Neither supreme, how soon confusion Sic. Go, call the people ; [Exit Brutus.) in whose May enter 'twixt the gap of both, and take name, myself The one by the other. Attach thee, as a traitorons innovator, A foe to the public weal. Obey, I charge thee, Sen. et Put. We'll surety him. Com. Aged sir, hands off! Out of thy garments ! Sic. Help, ye, citizens! Re-enter Beutus, with the Aediles, and a rabble of Citizens. Men. On both sides more respect. Sic. Here's he, that would [They'all bustle about Coriolanus, Men. What is about to be? I am out of breath; 1 Several spest. To the people, - Coriolanus, patience! - I could beat forty of them. Men. I could myself Take up a brace of the best of them: yea, the two Com. But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetic; Sic. You are at point to lose your liberties : And manhood is call’d foolery, when it stands Marcius would have all from you ; Marcius, Against a falling fabric. — Will you hence, Whom late you have nam’d for consul. Before the tag return? whose rage doth reud Like interrupted waters, and o’erbear What they are us’d to bear. I'll try whether my old wit be in request With those that have but little; this must be patch'd With cloth of any colour. (Exeunt Coriolanus, Cominius, and Others. Cit. You so remain. 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, Or Jove for his power to thunder. His heart's his mouth: In heaps and piles of ruin. What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent; And, being angry, does forget that ever He heard the name of death. (A noise within. Men. I would they were in Tyber! - What, the of present death. vengeance, Could he not speak them fair? Sic. Where is this 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, Which he so sets at nought. 1 Cit. He shall well know, Cit. He shall, sure on't. Several speak together. Men. Sir, - With modest warrant. Sic. Sir, how comes it, that you Have holp to make this rescue ? As I do know the consul's worthiness, diles, and the people, are all beat in. Sic. Consul!- what consul? Men. Go, get you to your house; be gone, away! Men. The consul Coriolanus. All will be naught else. Bru. He a consul! Cit. No, no, no, no, no. Men. If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours, good people, Men. Shall it be put to that? I may be heard, I'd crave a word or two; The which shall turn you to no further harm, Sic. Speak briefly then ; For we are peremptory, to dispatch Were but one danger; and, to keep him here, That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam, Should now eat up her own! have me Cor. Let go. Sic. He's a disease, that must be cut away. Why did you wish me milder? Would you Men. O, he's a limb, that has but a disease; No False to my nature? Rather say, I play Mortal, to cut it off; to cure it, easy. The man I am. 01 1 What has he done to Ronie, that's worthy death? Vol. O, sir, sír, sir, Go Killing our enemies? The blood he hath lost, I would have had you put your power well on, An (Which, I dare voueh, is more than that he hath, Before you had worn it out. TIL By many an ounce,) he dropp'd it for his country: Ac And, what is left, to lose it by his country, rol. You might have been enough the man you are, | MC Were to us all, that do't, and sufl'er it, With striving less to be so : lesser had been W A brand to the end o’the world, | The thwartings of your dispositions, if TE Sic. This is clean kam. You had not show'd them how you were dispos'd, NO Bru. Merely awry. When he did love his country, Ere they lack'd power to cross you. TI It honour'd him. Cor. Let them hang. HE Men. The service of the foot Vol. Ay, and burn too. W Being once gangren’d, is not then respected Enter Menerius, and Senators. In For what before it was? Men. Come, come, you have been too rough, sone T Bru. We'll hear no more: thing too rough; Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence; You must return, and mend it. Lest his infection, being of catching nature, 1 Sen. There's no remedy ; E Spread further. Unless, by not so doing, our good city Men. One word more, one word ! Cleave in the midst, and perish. Vol. Pray be counsel'd: To better vantage. Men, Well said, noble womad; Bru. If it were so, Before he should'thus stoop to the herd, but that Sic. What do ye talk? The violent fit o'the time craves it as physic Have we not had a taste of his obedience? For the whole state, I would put mine armour on, Men. Consider this; — He has been bred i'the wars Cor. What must I do? Men. Repent what you have spoke Cor. For ihem? -- I cannot do it to the godo; (In peace) to his utmost peril. Must I then do't to them? 1 Sen. Noble tribunes, V ol. You are too absolute; It is the humane way: the other course Though therein you can never be too noble, Will prove too bloody; and the end of it But when extremities speak. I have heard you say, Unknown to the beginning. Honour and policy, like unsever'd friends, $ic. Noble Menenius, l'the war do grow together: grant that, and tell me, Be you then as the people's oficer: In peace, what each of them by th’ other lose, Masters, lay down your weapons. That they combine not there. Bru. Go not home. Cor. Tush, tush! Sic. Meet on the market-place. We'll attend you Men. A good demand. there: Vol. If it be honour, in your wars, to seem Where, if you bring not Marcius, we'll proceed The same you are not, (which, for your best ends, In our first way. Yoc adopt your policy,) how is it less, or worse, Men. I'll bring him to you: That it shall hold companionship in peace Let me desire your company. [To the Senators.] With honour, as in war; since that to both He must come, It stands in like request ? Or what is worst will follow. Cor. Why force you this? 1 Sen., Pray you, let's to him! [Lxeunt. vol. Because that now it lies you on to speak To the people; not by your own instruction, But with such words that are but roted in Now, this no more dishonours you at all, Than to take in a town with gentle words, Which else would put you to your fortane, 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 ; llow you can frown, than spend a fawn upon thera, When one but of my ordinance stood up Of what that want might ruin. Men. Noble lady! Not what is dangerous present, but the loss 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 belov'd (Exit. Which often, thus, correcting thy stout heart, Com. Away, the tribunes do attend you : arm yourself That humble, as the ripest mulberry, To answer mildly; for they are prepar'd Let them accuse me by invention, I Men. Ay, but mildly. Cor. Well, mildly be it then; mildly! [Exeunt. SCENE UJI.- The same. The Forum. Enter Sicixius and BRUTUS. Bru. In this point charge him home, that he affects Tyrannical power: if he evade us there, And that the spoil, got on the Autiates, Enter an Aedile. Aed. He's coming, Bru. How accompanied ? Med. With old Menenius, and those senators That always favour'd him. Sic. Have you a catalogue Of all the voices that we have procur'd, Set down by the poll? Sic. Have you collected them by tribes ? ded. I have. Sic. Assemble presently the people hither : And when they hear me say, It shall be so should grind it, I'the right and strength o'the commons, be it either And throw it against the wind. To the market- For death, for fine, or banislıment, then let them, place : If I say, fine, cry fine; if death, cry death; Insisting on the old prerogative And i'the truth o'the cause. Aed. I shall inform them. Bru. And when such time they have began to cry, Enforce the present execution Of what we chance to sentence. Aed. Very well. Sic. Made them be strong, and ready for this hint, When we shall hap to give't them. Bru. Go about it. - (Exit Aellile. Small as an eunuch, or the virgin voice 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 looks and Patricians. Sic. Well, here he comes. Men. Calmly, I do beserch yon. Cor. Ay, as an ostler, that for the poorest piece Will bear the knave by the volume. — The honour'd gods 1 Sen. Amen, amen! Men. A noble wish. * a |