Enter Cominius.

Com. O, you have made good work!

Men.

What news? what news?

80

Com. You have holp to ravish your own daughters, and

To melt the city leads upon your pates;

To see your wives dishonor'd to your noses,— Men. What's the news? what's the news? Com. Your temples burned in their cement, and Your franchises, whereon you stood, confined Into an auger's bore.

Men.

Pray now, your news?— You have made fair work, I fear me.-Pray,

your news?

If Marcius should be join'd with Volscians,Com.

If!

He is their god: he leads them like a thing
Made by some other deity than nature,
That shapes man better; and they follow him,
Against us brats, with no less confidence
Than boys pursuing summer butterflies,
Or butchers killing flies.

Men.

90

You have made good work, You and your apron-men; you that stood so much

Upon the voice of occupation and
The breath of garlic-eaters!

94. "butterflies"; the repetition, otherwise irritating, of "flies" in the next line, makes it possible that Shakespeare used here the form "butterflee," found in Drayton, Mus. Elys. viii., rhyming with "be" (L.).-C. H. H.

98. "the breath of garlic-eaters"; to smell of garlic was a brand

Com. He'll shake your Rome about your ears.
Men.

As Hercules

Did shake down mellow fruit. You have made

fair work!

Bru. But is this true, sir?

Com.

Aye; and you'll look pale

Before you find it other. All the regions

Do smilingly revolt; and who resist

Are mock'd for valiant ignorance,

100

And perish constant fools. Who is 't can blame him?

Your enemies and his find something in him. Men. We are all undone, unless

The noble man have mercy.

Com.

Who shall ask it?
The tribunes cannot do 't for shame; the people
Deserve such pity of him as the wolf
Does of the shepherds: for his best friends, if

they

110

Should say 'Be good to Rome,' they charged
him even

As those should do that had deserved his hate,
And therein show'd like enemies.

Men.

'Tis true:

If he were putting to my house the brand
That should consume it, I have not the face

of vulgarity; as to smell of leeks was no less so among the Roman people.-H. N. H.

100. "shake down mellow fruit"; a ludicrous allusion to the apples of the Hesperides.—H. N. H.

105. "constant"; confirmed.-C. H. H.

112-114. "They charg'd and therein show'd," has here the force of “they would charge, and therein show.”—H. N. H.

To

say
'Beseech you, cease.' You have made
fair hands,

You and your crafts! you have crafted fair!
Com.
You have brought

A trembling upon Rome, such as was never
So incapable of help.

Both Tri.

Say not, we brought it. 120 Men. How! was it we? we loved him; but, like

beasts

And cowardly nobles, gave way unto your clus

ters,

Who did hoot him out o' the city.

Com.

But I fear
They 'll roar him in again. Tullus Aufidius,
The second name of men, obeys his points
As if he were his officer: desperation
Is all the policy, strength and defense,
That Rome can make against them.

Men.

Enter a troop of Citizens.

Here come the clusters.

131

And is Aufidius with him? You are they
That made the air unwholesome, when you cast
Your stinking greasy caps in hooting at
Coriolanus' exile. Now he's coming;
And not a hair upon a soldier's head

Which will not prove a whip: as many cox

combs

As you threw caps up will he tumble down,

And pay you for your voices. 'Tis no matter;
If he could burn us all into one coal,

We have deserved it.

Citizens. Faith, we hear fearful news.

First Cit.

For mine own part,

When I said, banish him, I said, 'twas pity. 140 Sec. Cit. And so did I.

Third. Cit. And so did I; and, to say the truth,

so did very many of us: that we did, we did
for the best; and though we willingly con-
sented to his banishment, yet it was against
our will.

Com. Ye're goodly things, you voices!

Men.

You have made

Good work, you and your cry! Shall's to the
Capitol?

Com. O, aye, what else?

[Exeunt Cominius and Menenius. Sic. Go, masters, get you home; be not dismay'd:

These are a side that would be glad to have 151
This true which they so seem to fear. Go home,
And show no sign of fear.

First Cit. The gods be good to us! Come, mas-
ters, let's home. I ever said we were i̇' the
wrong when we banished him.

Sec. Cit. So did we all.

But, come, let's home.

Bru. I do not like this news.

Sic. Nor I.

[Exeunt Citizens.

Bru. Let's to the Capitol: would half my wealth

Would buy this for a lie!

Sic.

161

Pray, let us go. [Exeunt.

SCENE VII

A camp, at a small distance from Rome.

Enter Aufidius with his Lieutenant.

Auf. Do they still fly to the Roman?

Lieu. I do not know what witchcraft 's in him, but
Your soldiers use him as the grace 'fore meat,
Their talk at table and their thanks at end;
And you are darken'd in this action, sir,
Even by your own.

Auf.

I cannot help it now,
Unless, by using means, I lame the foot

Of our design. He bears himself more proud-
lier,

Even to my person, than I thought he would
When first I did embrace him: yet his nature 10
In that 's no changeling; and I must excuse
What cannot be amended.

Lieu.

Yet I wish, sir-
I mean for your particular-you had not
Join'd in commission with him; but either
Had borne the action of yourself, or else
To him had left it solely.

Auf. I understand thee well; and be thou sure, When he shall come to his account, he knows not

What I can urge against him. Although it

seems,

And so he thinks, and is no less apparent 20
To the vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly,