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Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS.

Supplied with worthy men! plant love among us 1
Throng our large temples with the shows of peace,
And not our streets with war ?

1 Sen. Amen, amen! Men. A noble wish.

Re-enter EDILE, with CITIZENS.

Sic. Draw near, ye people.

Ed. List to your tribunes: audience: Peace, I say.

Cor. First, hear me speak.

Both Tri. Well, say.-Peace, ho.

Cor. Shall I be charg'd no further than this present?

Must all determine?

Sic. I do demand here,

If you subinit you to the people's voices,
Allow their officers, and are content

To suffer lawful censure for such faults
As shall be prov'd upon you?

Cor. I am content.

Men. Lo, citizens, he says, he is content:
The warlike service he has done, consider;
Think on the wounds his body bears, which show
Like graves i'the holy churchyard.

Cor. Scratches with briers.
Scars to move laughter only.

Men, Consider further,

Bru. In this point charge him home-that he That when he speaks not like a citizen,

affects

Tyrannical power: if he evade us there, Euforce him with his envy + to the people; And that the spoil, got on the Antiates, Was ne'er distributed.

Enter an EDILE.

What, will he come!

Ed. He's coming.

Bru. How accompanied?

Ed. 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?

Ed. I have: 'tis ready, here.

Sic. Have you collected them by tribes?
Ed. I have.

Sic. Assemble presently the people hither: And when they hear me say, It shall be so I'the right and strength o'the commons, be it either

For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them, If I say fine, cry fine; if death, cry death; Insisting on the old prerogative

And power i'the truth o'the cause.

Ed. 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. Very well.

You find him like a soldier: Do not take
His rougher accents for malicious sounds,
But, as I say, such as become a soldier,
Rather than envy you.

Com. Well, well, no more.

Cor. What is the matter,

That being pass'd for consul with full voice,

I am so dishonour'd, that the very hour
You take it off again?

Sic. Answer to us.

Cor. Say then: 'tis true, I ought so.

Sic. We charge you, that you have contriv'd to

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Sic. Peace.

We need not put new matter to his charge:
What you have seen him do, and heard him speak,
Beating your officers, cursing yourselves,

Sic. Make them be strong, and ready for this Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying

bint,

When we shall hap to give't them.
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 looks
With us to break his neck.

Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMINIUS,
SENATORS, and PATRICIANS.

Sic. Well, here he comes.
Men. Calmly, I do beseech you.

Cor. Ay, as an ostler, that for the poorest
piece

Will bear the knavet by the volume.-The honour'd gods

Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice

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Those whose great power must try him; even
[this,
So criminal, and in such capital kind,
Deserves the extremest death.

Bru. But since be hath

Serv'd well for Rome,-

Cor. What! do you prate of service?
Bru. I talk of that, that know it.
Cor. You?

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(As much as in him lies) from time to time
Envied against the people, seeking means
To pluck away their power: as now at last
Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence
Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers
That do distribute it-In the name o'the people,
And in the power of us the tribunes, we,
Even from this instant, banish him our city;
In peril of precipitation

From off the rock Tarpeian, never more

To enter our Rome gates: l'the people's name,
I say it shall be so.

Cit. It shall be so,

It shall be so; let hun away: he's banish'd;
And so it shall be.

Com. Hear me, my masters, and my common
friends-

Sic. He's sentenc'd no more hearing
Com. Let me speak:

Rome,

I have been consul, and can show from
Her enemies' marks upon me. I do love
My country's good, with a respect more tender,
More holy, and profound, than mine own life,
My dear wife's estimate, her womb's increase,
And treasure of my loins; then if I would
Speak that

Sic. We know your drift: Speak what?

A noble cunning: you were ns'd to load me
With precepts, that would make invincible
The heart that conn'd them.

Vir. O heavens! O heavens !
Cor. Nay, I pr'ythee, woman,—

Vol. Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome,

And occupations perish!

Cor. What, what, what!

I shall be lov'd when I am lack'd. Nay, mother,
Resume that spirit, when you were wont to say,
If you had been the wife of Hercules,

Six of his labours you'd have done, and sav'd
Your husband so much sweat.--Cominius,
Droop not; adieu :-Farewell, my wife! my mo
ther!

I'll do well yet.-Thou old and true Menenius,
Thy tears are salter than a younger man's,
And venomous to thine eyes.-My sometime
general,

I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld
Heart-hard'ning spectacles: tell these sad women,
'Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes, [well,
As 'tis to laugh at them.-My mother, you wot
My hazards still have been your solace and
Believe't not lightly, (though I go alone,
Like to a lonely dragon, that his feu

Bru. There's no more to be said, but he is Makes fear'd) and talk'd of more than seen your

banish'd,

As enemy to the people and his country:

It shall be so.

Cit. It shall be so, it shall be so.

Cor. You common cry of curs! whose breath

I hate

As reok o'the rotten fens, whose love I prize
As the dead carcasses of unburied men
That do corrupt my air, I banish you;
And here remain with your uncertainty !
Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!
Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
Fan you into despair! Have the power still
To banish your defenders; till, at length,
Your ignorance (which finds not till it feels,)
Making not reservation of yourselves,
(Still your own foes,) deliver you, as most
Abated captives, to some nation
That won you without blows! Despising,
For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
There is a world elsewhere.
[Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENENIUS,
SENATORS, and PATRICIANS,
Ed. The people's enemy is gone, is gone!
Cit. Our enemy's banish'd! he is gone! Hoo!
hoo!

[The people shout and throw up their Caps.
Sic. Go, see him out at gates, and follow him!
As he hath follow'd you, with all despite :
Give him deserv'd vexation. Let a guard
Attend us through the city.

Cit. Come, come, let us see him out at gates;

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ACT IV.
SCENE I.-The same.-Before a Gate of the
City.

Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA,
MENENIUS, COMINIUS, and several young
PATRICIANS.

Cor. Come, leave your tears; a brief farewell:
-the beast ¶

With many heads butts me away.-Nay, mother,
Where is your ancient courage you were us'd
To say, extremity was the trier of spirits;
That common chances common men could bear;
That, when the sea was calm, all boats alike
Show'd mastership in floating: fortune's blows,
When most struck home, being gentle wounded,

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As any ear can hear.-Come, let's not weep.-
If I could shake off but one seven years
From these old arms and legs, by the good gods,
I'd with thee every foot.

Cor. Give me thy hand :-
Come.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-The same.-A Street near the
Gate.

Enter SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and an EDILE.
Sic. Bid them all home: he's gone, and we'll
no farther.-

The nobility are vex'd, who, we see, have sided
In his behalf.

Bru. Now we have shown our power,
Let us seem humbler after it is done,
Than when it was a doing.

Sic. Bid them home:

Say their great enemy is gone, and they
Stand in their ancient strength.

Bru. Dismiss them home.

[Exit EDILE.

Enter VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, and MENENIUS
Here comes his mother.

Sic. Let's not meet her.

⚫ Foolish.

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Requite your love!

Men. Peace, peace: be not so loud.

Vol. If that I could for weeping, you should hear,

Nay, and you shall hear sonie.-Will you be gone? [To BRUTUS. Vir. You shall stay too; [To SICIN.] I would I had the power

To say so to my husband.

Sic. Are you mankind? Vol. Ay, fool; is that a shame ?-Note but this fool.

Was not a inan my father? Hadst thou foxship To banish him that struck more blows for Rome, Than thou hast spoken words?

Sic. O blessed heavens !

Vol. More noble blows, than ever thou wise words;

And for Rome's good.-I'll tell thee what ;—

Yet go :

Nay but thou shalt stay too :-I would my son
Were in Arabia, and thy tribe before him,
His good sword in his hand.

Sic. What then?

Vir. What then?

He'd make an end of thy posterity.

Vol. Bastards, and all.

you; but your favour is well appeared by your tongue. What's the news in Rome? I have a note from the Volscian state, to find you out there: You have well saved me a day's journey.

Rom. There hath been in Rome strange insurrection: the people against the senators, patricians, and nobles.

Vol. Hath been! Is it ended then? Our state thinks not so; they are in a most warlike preparation, and hope to come upon them in the heat of their division.

Rom. The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing would make it flame again. For the nobles receive so to heart the banishment of that worthy Coriolanus, that they are in a ripe aptness to take all power from the people, and to pluck from them their tribunes for ever. This lies glowing I can tell you, and is almost mature for the violent breaking out.

Vol. Coriolanus banished?
Rom. Banished, Sir.

Vol. You will be welcome with this intelligence, Nicanor.

Rom. The day serves well for them now. I have heard it said, the fittest time to corrupt a man's wife, is when she's fallen out with her husband. Your noble Tullus Aufidius will appear well in these wars, his great opposer, Coriolanus, being now in no request of his country.

Vol. He cannot choose. I am most fortunate thus accidentally to encounter you: You have ended my business, and I will merrily accom

Good man, the wounds that he does bear for pany you home.
Rome!

Men. Come, come, peace.

Sic. I would he had continu'd to his country As he began; and not unknit himself

The noble knot he made.

Bru. I would he had.

Rom. I shall, between this and supper, tell you most strange things from Rome; all tending to the good of their adversaries. Have you an army ready, say you?

Vol. A most royal one: the centurions and their charges distinctly billeted, already in the

Vol. I would he had! 'Twas you incens'd the entertainment, and to be on foot at an hour's

rabble:

Cats, that can judge as fitly of his worth,

As I can of those mysteries which heaveD will not have earth to know.

Bru. Pray, let us go.

Vol. Now pray, Sir, get you gone:

warning.

Rom. I am joyful to hear of their readiness, and am the man, I think, that shall set the in present action. So, Sir, heartily well met, and most glad of your company.

Vol. You take my part from me, Sir; 1 have

You have done a brave deed. Ere you go, hear the most cause to be glad of yours.

this:

As far as doth the Capitol exceed

The meanest house in Rome, so far my son,
(This lady's husband here, this, do you see,)
Whom you have banish'd, does exceed you all.
Bru. Well, well, we'll leave you.
Sic. Why stay we to be baited
With one that wants her wits?

Vol. Take my prayers with you.

I would the gods had nothing else to do,
[Exeunt TRIBUNES.
But to confirm my curses! Could I meet them
But once a day, it would unclog my heart
Of what lies heavy to't.

Men. You have told them home, And by my troth, you have cause. with me?

You'll sup

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Rom. Well, let us go together.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV-Antium.-Before AUFIDIUS's House.

Enter CORIOLANUS, in mean apparel, dis guised and muffled.

Cor. A goodly city is this Autium: City,
'Tis I that made thy widows: many an heir
Of these fair edifices 'fore my wars
Have I heard groan, and drop: then know me not
Lest that thy wives with spits, and boys with stones,
Enter a CITIZEN.

In puny battle slay me.-Save you, Sir.
Cit. And you.

Cor. Direct me, if it be your will,
Where great Aufidius lies: Is he in Antium?
Cit. He is, and feasts the nobles of the state
At his house this night.

Cor. Which is his house, 'beseech you?
Cit. This, here, before you.

Cor. Thank you, Sir: farewell.

[Erit CITIZEN.

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Enter another SERVANT.

[Exit.

2 Serv. Here, Sir: I'd have beaten him like a dog, but for disturbing the lords within.

Auf. Whence comest thou? what wouldest thou? Thy name?

Why speak'st not? Speak, man: What's tay

name?

Cor. If, Tullus,

[Unmuffling.
Not yet thou know'st me, and seeing me, dost not
Think me for the man I am, necessity
Commands me name myself.
Auf. What is thy name?

[SERVANTS retire.

Cor. A name unmusical to the Volscians' ears,
And harsh in sound to thine.

Auf. Say, what's thy name?
Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face
Bears a command in't: though thy tackle's torn,

2 Ser. Where's Cotus! my master calls for Thou show'st a noble vessel. What's thy name? him. Cotus !

Enter CORIOLANUS.

Cor. A goodly house: The feast smells well : but I

Appear not like a guest.

Re-enter the first SERVANT.

1 Serv. What would you have, friend? Whence are you? Here's no place for you: Pray, go to the door.

Cor. I have deserv'd no better entertainment In being Coriolanus.*

Re-enter second SERVANT.

2 Serv. Whence are you, Sir? Has the porter his eyes in his head, that he gives entrance to such companions? Pray, get you out.

Cor. Away!

2 Serv. Away? Get you away.'

Cor. Now thou art troublesome.

Cor. Prepare thy brow to frown: Know'st thou me yet?

Auf. I know thee not:-Thy name?

Cor. My name is Caius Marcius, who hath
done

To thee particularly, and to all the Volsces,
Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may
My surname, Coriolanus: The painful service,
The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood
Shed for my thankless country, are requited
But with that surname; a good memory,*
And witness of the malice and displeasure
Which thou should'st bear me: only that name
remains :

The cruelty and envy of the people,
Permitted by our dastard nobles, who
Have all forsook me, hath devour'd the rest;
And suffer'd me by the voice of slaves to be
Whoop'd out of Rome. Now, this extremity
Hath brought me to thy hearth; not out of hope,
Mistake me not, to save my life; for if

2 Serv. Are you so brave? I'll have you talked I had fear'd death, of all the men i'the world with anon.

Enter a third SERVANT. The first meets him. 3 Serv. What fellow's this?

1 Serv. A strange one as ever I looked on: cannot get him out o'the house: Pr'ythee, call my master to him.

I would have 'voided thee: but in mere spite,
To be full quit of those my banishers,
Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast
A heart of wreak in thee, that will revenge
IThine own particular wrongs, and stop those
maims t

3 Serv. What have you to do here, fellow ? Pray you, avoid the house

Cor. Let me but stand: I will not hurt your hearth.

3 Serv. What are you? Cor. A gentleman.

3 Serv. A marvellous poor one.

Cor. True, so I am.

3 Serv. Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other station; here's no place for you; pray you, avoid come.

Cor. Follow your function, go!

And batten + on cold bits. [Pushes him away. 3 Serv. What, will you not? Pr'ythee tell my master what a strange guest he has here.

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3 Serv. Where's that?

Cor. I' the city of kites and crows.

[Exit.

3 Serv. P'the city of kites and crows ?-What an ass it is!-Then thou dwellest with daws too? Cor. No, I serve not thy master.

3 Serv. How, Sir! do you meddle with my master?

Cor. Ay; 'tis an honester service than to meddle with thy mistress:

Thou prat'st, and prat'st; serve with thy trencher,
hence !
[Beats him away.
Enter AUFIDIUS and the second SERVANT.
Auf. Where is this fellow?

Having derived that name from Corioli.
Havin
Fellows. t Feed.

Of shame seen through thy country, speed thee
straight,

And make my misery serve thy turn: so use it,
That my revengeful services may prove
As benefits to thee; for I will fight
Against my canker'd country with the spleen
Of all the under fiends. But if so be
Thou dar'st not this, and that to prove more for-
tunes

Thou art tir'd, then, in a word, I also am
Longer to live most weary, and present
My throat to thee, and to thy ancient malice,
Which, not to cut, would show thee but a fool;
Since I have ever follow'd thee with hate,
Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country's breast;
And cannot live but to thy shame, unless
It be to do thee service.

Auf. O Marcius, Marcius,

Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart

[say,

A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter
Should from yon cloud speak divine things, and
'Tis true, I'd not believe them more than thee,
All noble Marcius.-Oh! let me twine
Mine arms about that body, where against
My grained ash an hundred times hath broke,
And scar'd the moon with splinters! Here I
clip

The anvil of my sword; and do contest,
As hotly and as nobly with thy love,
As ever in ambitious strength I did
Contend against thy valour. Know thou first,
I lov'd the maid I married; never man
Sigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here,
Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart,
Than when I first iny wedded mistress saw

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Bestride my threshold. Why, thon Mars! I tell
thee

We have a power on foot; and I had purpose
Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn,
Or lose mine arm for't: Thou hast beat me ont
Twelve several times, and I have nightly since
Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me;
We have been down together in my sleep
Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat,
And wak'd half dead with nothing.

Marcius,

Worthy

Had we no quarrel else to Rome, but that
Thou art thence banish'd, we would muster all
From twelve to seventy; and, pouring war
Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,

Like a bold flood o'er-beat. O come, go in,
And take our friendly senators by the hands;
Who now are here, taking their leaves of me,
Who am prepar'd against your territories,
Though not for Rome itself.

Cor. You bless me, gods!

2 Serv. An he had been cannibally given he might have broiled and eaten him too.

1 Serv. But more of thy news?

3 Serv. Why, he is so made on here within, as if he were son and heir to Mars: set at upper end o'the table: no question asked him by any of the senators, but they stand bald before him: Our general himself makes a mistress of him; sanctifies himself with's hand, and turns up the white o'the eye to his discourse. But the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i'the middle, and but one half of what he was yesterday; for the other was half, by the entreaty, and grant of the whole table. He'll go, he says, and sowle the porter of Rome gates by the ears: He will mow down all before him, and leave his passage polled.t

2 Serv. And he's as like to do't as any man I can imagine.

3 Serv. Do't? he will do't: For, look you, Sir, he has as many friends as enemies: which

Auf. Therefore, most absolute Sir, if thou friends, Sir, (as it were,) durst not (look you, wilt have

The leading of thine own revenges, take
The one half of my commission; and set down-
As best thou art experienc'd, since thou know'st
Thy country's strength and weakness,-thine
own ways:

Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,
Or rudely visit them in parts remote,
To fright them, ere destroy. But come in :
Let me commend thee first to those, that shall

Sir,) show themselves (as we term it,) his friends, whilst he's in directitude.

1 Serv. Directitude? what's that?

3 Serv. But when they shall see, Sir, his crest up again, and the man in blood, they will out of their burrows, like conies after rain, and revel all with him.

1 Serv. But when goes this forward?

3 Serv. To-morrow; to-day; presently. You shall have the drum struck up this afternoon :

be executed ere they wipe their lips.

Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes!tis, as it were, a parcel of their feast, and to
And more a friend than e'er an enemy;
Yet, Marcins, that was much. Your hand! Most
welcome!

2 Serv. Why then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad

[Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS. 1 Serv. [Advancing.] Here's a strange altera-makers. tion !

2 Serv. By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me, his clothes made a false report of him. 1 Serv. What an arm he has ! He turned me about with his finger and his thumb, as one would set up a top.

2 Serv. Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him: He had, Sir, a kind of face, methought,-I cannot tell how to term it. 1 Serv. He had so looking as it were,'Would I were hanged, but I thought there was more in him than I could think.

2 Serv. So did I, I'll be sworn: He is simply the rarest man i'the world.

1 Serv. I think he is: but a greater soldier

than he, you wot one.

2 Serv. Who? my master?

Serv. Nay, it's no matter for that.
Serv. Worth six of him.

1 Serv. Nay, not so neither; but I take him to be the greater soldier.

2 Serv. 'Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that for the defence of a towu, our general is excellent.

1 Serv. Ay, and for an assault too.

Re-enter third SERVANT.

3 Serv. O slaves, I can tell you news: news, you rascals.

1. 2. Serv. What, what, what? let's partake. 3 Serv. I would not be a Roman, of all nations: 1 had as lieve be a condeinned mau. 1. 2. Serv. Wherefore? wherefore?

3 Serv. Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general,-Caius Marcius.

1 Serv. Why do you say thwack our general? 3 Serv. I do not say, thwack our general; but he was always good enough for him.

2 Serv. Come, we are fellows and friends: he was ever too hard for him; I have heard him say so himself.

1 Serv. He was too hard for him directly, to say the truth on't: before Corioli, he scotched nia and notched him like a carbonado.]]

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1 Serv. Let me have war, say I: it exceeds peace, as far as day does night; it's spritely, waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy: mulled, ¶ deaf, sleepy, insensible: a getter of more bastard children, than war's a destroyer of men.

2 Serv. 'Tis so: and as wars, in some sort, may be said to be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of cuckolds. 1 Serv. Ay, and it makes men bate one another.

3 Serv. Reason; because they then less need one another. The wars for my money. I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volscians. They are rising, they are rising.

All. In, in, in, in.

[Exeunt.

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