Bru.

Put him to choler straight.

Go about it.—

[Exit Edile.

He hath been used

Ever to conquer, and to have his worth 1

Of contradiction. Being once chafed, 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 knave 2 by the volume.-The honor'd

gods

Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice Supplied with worthy men! plant love among us! Throng our large temples with the shows of peace, And not our streets with war!

1 Sen.

Men. A noble wish.

Amen, amen!

Re-enter EDILE, with Citizens.

Sic. Draw near, ye people.

Edile. List to your tribuncs; audience! Peace, I say.

1 His full quota or proportion.

2 i. e. will bear being called a knave

Cor. First, hear me speak.

Both Tri.

Well, say.-Peace, ho.

Cor. Shall I be charged no farther than this

present?

Must all determine here?

If

you submit you to the people's voices,
Allow their officers, and are content
To suffer lawful censure for such faults
As shall be proved 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.

Scars to move laughter only.

Men.

Scratches with briers,

Consider farther,
That when he speaks not like a citizen,
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.1

Com.

Well, well, no more.

Cor. What is the matter,

That being pass'd for consul with full voice,

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

1 Rather than import ill will to you.

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

Sic. We charge you, that you have contrived to take

From Rome all season'd office,1 and to wind

Yourself into a power tyrannical;

For which you are a traitor to the people.

Cor. How! traitor?

Men.

Nay; temperately. Your promise.

Cor. The fires i' the lowest hell fold in the

people!

Call me their traitor? Thou injurious tribune!
Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths,
In thy hands clutch'd as many millions, in
Thy lying tongue both numbers;—I would say,
Thou liest, unto thee, with a voice as free
As I do pray the gods.

Sic.

Mark you this, people?

Cit. To the rock, to the rock with him!

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,

—even this,

Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying
Those whose great power must try him;
So criminal, and in such capital kind,
Deserves the extremest death.

Bru.

But since he hath

1 All office established by time.

Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,
Vagabond exile, flaying: pent to linger
But with a grain a day, I would not buy
Their mercy at the price of one fair word;

Nor check my courage for what they can give,
To have 't with saying, Good morrow!

For that he has,

Sic.
As much as in him lies, from time to time

1

Envied against 1 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. I' the people's name,
I say, it shall be so.

1 Maliciously opposed.

2 Not only.

Cit. It shall be so, it shall be so; let him away. He's banish'd, and it shall be so.

Com. Hear me, my masters, and my common

friends ;

Sic. He's sentenced: no more hearing.

Com.

Let me speak:

I have been consul, and can show from 1 Rome
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? Bru. There's no more to be said, but he is 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 2 of curs! whose breath I

hate

As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves 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 rumor shake your hearts!
Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
Fan you into despair! Have the power still