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Men. I'll keep you company.--Will you along?
Bru. We stay here for the people.
Sic. Fare you well.

[Exeunt CORIOL. and MENEN. He has it now; and by his looks, methinks,

'Tis warm at his heart.

Bru. With a proud heart he wore

1 Cit. I twice five hundred and their friends to piece 'em.

Bru. Get you hence instantly; and tell those
friends,--

They have chose a consul, that will from them take
Their liberties; make them of no more voice
Than dogs, that are as often beat for barking,

His humble weeds: Will you dismiss the people? As therefore kept to do so.

Re-enter CITIZENS.

Sic. Let them assemble;
And, on a safer judgment, all revoke

Sic. How now, my masters? have you chose Your ignorant election: Enforce his pride,

this man?

1 Cit. He has our voices, Sir.

Bru. We pray the gods, he may deserve your

loves.

2 Cit. Amen, Sir: To my poor unworthy noHe mock'd us, when he begg'd our voices. [tice, 3 Cit. Certainly,

He flouted us downright.

1 Cit. No, 'tis his kind of speech, he did not

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says

He us'd us scornfully he should have show'd us
His marks of merit, wounds receiv'd for his
country.

Sic. Why, so he did, I am sure.
Cit. No; no man saw 'em.

[Several speak. 3 Cit. He said he had wounds, which he could show in private;

And with his hat, thus waving it in scorn,
I would be consul, says he aged custom,
But by your voices, will not so permit me ;
Your voices therefore: When we granted that,
Here was,-I thank you for your voices,-thank
[your voices,
Your most sweet voices :-now you have left
I have no further with you:Was not this
mockery?

you,

Sic. Why, either you were ignorant to see't?
Or, seeing it, of such childish friendliness
To yield your voices?

Bru. Could you not have told him,

As you were lesson'd,-When he had no power,
But was a petty servant to the state,
He was your enemy; ever spake against
Your liberties, and the charters that you bear
I'the body of the weal: and now, arriving
A place of potency, and sway o'the state,
If he should still malignantly remain
Fast foe to the plebeii, your voices might
Be curses to yourselves? You should have said,
That, as his worthy deeds did claim no less
Than what he stood for, so his gracious nature
Would think upon you for your voices, and
Translate his malice towards you into love,
Standing your friendly lord.

Sic. Thus to have said,

As you were fore-advis'd, had touch'd his spirit,
And tried his inclination; from him pluck'd
Either his gracious promise, which you might,
As cause had call'd you up, have held him to;
Or else it would have gall'd his surly nature,
Which easily endures not article

Tying him to aught: so, putting him to rage,
You should have ta'en the advantage of his choler,
And pass'd him unelected.

Bru. Did you perceive,

He did solicit you in free contempt,

When he did need your loves; and do you think,
That his contempt shall not be bruising to you,
When he hath power to crush? Why, had your

bodies

No heart among you? Or had you tongues to cry
Against the rectorship of judgement?

Sic. Have you,

Ere now, denied the asker? and, now again,

On him, that did not ask, but mock, bestow

Your su'd-for tongues?

3 Cit. He's not confirm'd, we may deny him
yet.

2 Cit. And will deny him:

I'll have five hundred voices of that sound.

Plebeians.

And his old hate unto you: besides, forget not
With what contempt he wore the humble weed;
How in his suit he scorn'd you but your loves,
Thinking upon his services, took from you
The apprehension of his present portance, t
Which, gibingly, ungravely he did fashion
After the inveterate hate he bears you.
Bru. Lay

A fault on us, your tribunes; that we labour'd
(No impediment between) but that you must
Cast your election on him.

Sic. Say, you chose him

More after our commandment, than as guided
By your own true affections and that, your minds
Pre-occupied with what you rather must do
Than what you should, made you against the
grain

To voice him consul: Lay the fault on us.
Bru. Ay, spare us not. Say, we read lectures
to you,
How youngly he began to serve his country,
How long continued: and what stock he
springs of,
[came
The noble house o'the Marcians; from whence
That Ancus Marcius, Numa's daughter's son,
Who, after great Hostilius, here was king:
Of the same house Publius and Quintus were,
That our best water brought by conduits hither;
And Censorinus, darling of the people,
And nobly nam'd so, being Censor twice,
Was his great ancestor.

Sic. One thus descended,

That hath beside well in his person wrought
To be set high in place, we did commend
To your remembrances: but you have found,
Scaling his present bearing with his past,
That he's your fixed enemy, and revoke
Your sudden approbation.

Bru. Say, you ne'er had don't,
(Harp on that still,) but by our putting on: §
And presently, when you have drawn your num-
Repair to the Capitol.
[ber,
Cit. We will so almost all [Several speak.
Repent in their election. [Exeunt CITIZENS.

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Com. They are worn, lord consul, so, That we shall hardly in our ages see Their banners wave again.

Cor. Saw you Aufidius?

Lart. On safe-guard he came to me; did curse

Against the Volsces, for they had so vilely Yielded the town: he is retir'd to Antium.

Cor. Spoke he of me?

Lart. He did, my lord.

Cor. How? what?

Com. The people are abus'd-Set on.-This

palt'ring

Becomes not Rome; nor has Coriolanus
Dcserv'd this so dishonour'd rub, laid falsely t

and 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 noble friends, I crave their pardous :

Lart. How often he had met you, sword to For the mutable, rank-scented many, let them sword:

That, of all things upon the earth, he hated Your person most: that he would pawn his

tunes

To hopeless restitution, so he might Be call'd your vanquisher.

Mar. At Antium lives he?

Lart. At Antium.

for

Cor. I wish I had a cause to seek him there, To oppose his hatred fully.-Welcome home. [To LARTIUS. Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS. Behold! these are the tribunes of the people, The tongues o'the common mouth. I do despise

them :

For they do prank + them in authority, Against all noble sufferance.

Sic. Pass no further.

Cor. Ha! what is that?

Bru. It will be dangerous to

Go on: no further.

Cor. What makes this change?

Men. The matter?

Com. Hath he not pass'd the nobles, and the commons?

Bru. Cominius, no.

Cor. Have I had children's voices?

1 Sen. Tribunes, give way; he shall to the market-place.

Bru. The people are incens'd against him.
Sic. Stop,

Or all will fall in broil.

Cor. Are these your herd?

Must these have voices, that can yield them now,

And straight disclaim their tongues ?-What are your offices?

You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth?

Have you not set them on?

Men. Be calm, be calin.

Cor. It is a purpos'd thing, and grows by plot, To curb the will of the nobility:

Suffer it, and live with such as cannot rule,
Nor ever will be rul'd.

Bru. Call't not a plot :

The people cry, you mock'd them; and, of late, When corn was given them gratis, you repin'd; Scandal'd the suppliants for the people; call'd

them

Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness.
Cor. Why, this was known before.
Bru. Not to them all.

Cor. Have you inform'd them since ?
Bru. How! I inform them!

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,

Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me
Your fellow-tribune.

Sic. You show too much of that,

For which the people stir: If you will pass

To where you are bound, you must inquire your

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Men. Well, no more.

1 Sen. No more words, we beseech you.
Cor. How no more?

As for my country I have shed my blood
Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs
Coin words till their decay, against those inea-
zels, ||

Which we disdain should tetter¶ us, yet sought
The very way to catch them.

Bru. You speak o'the people,

As if you were a god to punis. not

A man of their infirmity.

Sic. 'Twere well,

We let the people know't.

Men. What, what? his choler?

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Most palates theirs. They choose their magis-
And such a one as he, who puts his shall,
His popular stall, 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 storehouse gratis, as 'twas us'd Sometime in Greece,

Men. Well, well, no more of that.

Cor. (Though there the people had more ab
solute power,)

I say, they nourish'd disobedience, fed
The ruin of the state.

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Cockle is a weed which grows up with corn. Seab The smallest fish. ft According to law. 11 Thoughtless.

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the war,

Even when the navel of the state was touch'd,
They 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 accusa-
tion

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 this 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
ope

The locks o'the senate, and bring in the crows
To peck the eagles.-

Men. Come, enough.

Bru. Enough, with over-measure.
Cor. No, take more:

What may be sworn by, both divine and human,
Seal what I end withal -This double worship-
Where one part does disdain with cause, the
other
[wisdom
Insult without all reason; where gentry, title,
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,

Nothing is done to purpose: Therefore, beseech

you,

You that will be less fearful than discreet;
That love the fundamental part of state,
More than you doubt the change oft; that
prefer

A noble life before a long, and wish

To jump a body with a dangerous physic
That's sure of death without it,-at once pluck
out

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 which 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

answer

As traitors do.

Sen. & Pat. We'll surety him.

Com. Aged Sir, hands off.

Cor. Hence, rotten thing, or I shall shake thy

bones

Out of thy garments.

Sic. Help, ve citizens.

Re-enter BRUTUS, with the EDILES, and a
Rabble of CITIZENS.

Men. On both sides more respect.
Sic. Here's he, that would
Take from you all your power.
Bru. Seize him, Ediles.

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:
[bunes
Confusion's near: I cannot speak :-You, tri-
To the people,-Coriolanus, patience :-
Speak, good Sicinius.

Sic. Hear me, people ;-Peace.
Cit. Let's hear our tribune :-Peace.

speak, speak.

Speak,

Sic. You are at point to lose your liberties:
Marcius would have all from you; Marcius,
Whom late you have nam'd for consul.
Men. Fie, fie, fie!

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. True,

The people are the city.

Bru. By the consent of all, we were establish'd The people's magistrates.

Cit. You so remain.

Men. And so are like to do.

Cor. That is the way to lay the city flat;
To bring the roof to the foundation;
And bury all, which yet distinctly ranges,
In heaps and piles of ruins.

Sic. This deserves death.

Bru. Or let us stand to our authority,
Or let us lose it :-We do here pronounce,
Upon the part o'the people, in whose power
We were elected theirs, Marcius is worthy
Of present death.

Sic. Therefore, lay hold of him;

Bear him to the rock Tarpeian, and from thence
Into destruction cast him.

Bru. Ediles, seize him.

Cit. Yield, Marcius, yield.
Men. Hear me one word.

'Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word.
Edi. Peace, peace.

Men. Be that you seem, truly your country's friend,

And temperately proceed to what you would

Cor. Thou wretch! despite o'erwhelm thee !-Thus violently redress. What should the people do with these bald tri

bunes?

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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.

[him,

Cor. No: I'll die here. [Drawing his Sword. There's some among you have beheld me fight. ing; [me.

Come, try upon yourselves what you have seen
Men. Down with that sword,-Tribunes, with-

draw a while.

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Cor. On fair ground,

I could beat forty of them.

Men. I could myself

Take up a brace of the best of them; yea, the
two tribunes.

Com. But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetic ;
And manhood is call'd foolery, when it stands
Against a falling fabric.-Will you hence,
Before the tag return? whose rage doth rend
Like interrupted waters, and o'erbear
What they are used to bear.

Men. 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.
Com. Nay, come away.

[patch'd
[Exeunt COR. COM. 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,
Or Jove for his power to thunder. His heart's
[vent;
his mouth :
What his breast forges, that his tongue must
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 a-bed?

The which shall turn you to no further harm,
Than so much loss of time.

Sic. Speak briefly then;

For we are peremptory to despatch

This viperous traitor: to eject him hence,
Were but one dauger; and, to keep him here,
Our certain death; therefore it is decreed,
He dies to-night.

Men. 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. Oh! 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 coun-
And, what is left, to lose it by his country, [try :
Were to us all, that do't, and suffer it,

A brand to the end o'the world.
Sic. This is clean kam. +

Bru. Merely awry: when he did love his
country,

It honour'd him.

Men. The service of the foot,

Being ouce 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 matere,
Spread further.

Men. One word more, one word.
This tiger-footed rage, when it shall find
The harm of unscann'd swiftness, will, too late,
Tie leaden pounds to his heels. Proceed by pro-

cess;

Lest parties (as he is belov'd) break out,
And sack great Rome with Romans.

Bru. If it were so,

Sic. What do ye talk?

Have we not had a taste of his obedience?

Men. I would they were in Tyber !-What, the Our Ediles smote? ourselves resisted?-Come :

vengeance,

Could he not speak them fair?

Re-enter BRUTUS and SICINIUS, with the

Rabble.

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Men. Consider this:-He has been bred i'the

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[Several speak together. In our first way.

Men. I'll bring him to you :

Let me desire your company. [To the SENATORS

Men. Do not cry, havoc, where you should He must come,

but hunt

With modest warrant.

Sic. Sir, how comes it, that you

Have holp to make this rescue ?

Men. Hear me speak :

As I do know the consal's worthiness,
So can I name his faults :-

Sic. Consul!-what consul?
Men. The consul Coriolanus.
Bru. He a consul!

Cit. No, no, no, no, no.

Men. If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours,
good people,

I may be heard, I'd crave a word or two;

The lowest of the populace, tag, rag, and bobtail.
T Be sure on't. The signal for slaughter.

Or what is worst will follow.

1 Sen. Pray you, let's to him.

[Exeunt

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With striving less to be so: Lesser had been
The thwartings of your dispositions, if

You had not show'd them how you were dispos'd

Ere they lack'd power to cross you.

Cor. Let them hang.

Vol. Ay, and burn too.

Enter MENENIUS and SENATORS.

And you will rather show our general lowts
How you can frown, than 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: yon may salve so,
Not what is dangerous present, but the loss
Of what is past.

Vol. I pr'ythee now, my son,

Go to them, with this bonnet in thy hard;
And thus far having stretch'd it (here be with
them,)

ness

Thy knee bussing the stones, for in such busi-
[rant
Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the igno-
More learned than the ears,) waving thy head,
Which often, thus, correcting thy stout heart,
That humble, as the ripest mulberry,
Now 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, forsooth, hereafter theirs, so far
As thou hast power and person.

Men. This but done,

Even as she speaks, why, all their hearts were

yours:

Men. Come, come, you have been too rough, For they have pardons, being ask'd, as free

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 counsel'd:

I have a heart as little apt as yours,

But yet a brain, that leads my use of anger
To better vantage.

Men. Well said, noble woman:

Before he should thus stoop to the herd, but that
The violent fit o'the time craves it as physic
For the whole state, I would put mine armour on
Which I can scarcely bear.

Cor. What must I do?

Men. Return to the tribunes.
Cor. Well,

What then? what then?

Men. Repent what you have spoke.

Cor. For them?-I cannot do it to the gods; Must I then do't to them?

Vol. You are too absolute;

Though therein you can never be too noble,
But when extremities speak. I have heard you

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Cor. Tush, tush!

Men. A good demand.

Vol. If it be honour, in your wars, to seem
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 you this?

Vol. Because that now it lies you on to speak
To the people; not by our own instruction,
Nor by the matter which your heart prompts you
to,

But with such words that are but roted in
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: 1 am, in this,
Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles;

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As words to little purpose.

Vol. Pr'ythee now,

Go, and be rul'd: although, I know, thou hadst

rather

Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf,

Than flatter him in a bower. Here is Cominius.

Enter COMINIUS.

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
[place :-
And throw it against the wind.-To the market-
You have put me now to such a part, which never
I shall discharge to the life.

grind it,

Com. Come, come, we'll prompt you.

Vol. I pr'ythee now, sweet son, as thou hast

said,

My praises made thee first a soldier, so
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 epirit! 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-boy's tears take
The glasses of my sight! A beggar's tongue [up
Make motion through my lips; and my arm'd

knees,

Which bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his
That hath receiv'd an alms-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

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