Cor. Shall!

thus

O good, but most unwise patricians, why,
You grave, but reckless senators, have you
Given Hydra here to choose an officer,
That with his peremptory shall, being but
The horn and noise o'the monsters, wants not spirit
To say, he'll turn your current in a ditch,
And make your channel his? If he have power,
Then vail your ignorance; if none, awake
Your dangerous lenity. If you are learned,
Be not as common fools; if you are not,
Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians,
If they be senators: and they are no less,
When both your voices blended, the greatest taste
Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate;
And such a one as he, who puts his shall,
His popular shall, 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 store-house gratis, as 'twas us'd Sometime in Greece,

Men. Well, well, no more of that.

Where one part does disdain with cause, the other Insult without all reason; where gentry, title, wisdom,

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 of't; 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.

solute power,)

I say, they nourish'd disobedience, fed

The ruin of the state.

Bru. Why, shall the people give One, that speaks thus, their voice? Cor. I'll give my reasons,

More worthier than their voices. They know, the corn

Was not our recompense; resting well assur'd They ne'er did service for't: Being press'd to 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 accusation,
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,-

tribunes?

On whom depending, their obedience fails
To the greater bench: In a rebellion,

When what's not meet, but what must be, was law,
Then were they chosen; in a better hour,
Let what is meet, be said it must be meet,
And throw their power i'the dust.

Bru. Manifest treason.
Sic. This a consul? no.

Bru. The Ediles, ho!-Let him be apprehended.

Sic. Go, call the people; [Exit Brutus.] in whose name, myself

Attach thee, as a traitorous innovator,
A foe to the public weal: Obey, I charge thee,
And follow to thine answer.

Cor. Hence, old goat!
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, ye 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;
Confusion's near: I cannot speak:-You, tribunes
To the people,-Coriolanus, patience :-
Speak, good Sicinius.

Sic. Hear me, people ;-Peace.

Men. Go, get you to your house; be gone,

away,

All will be naught else.

2 Sen. Get you gone.
Cor. Stand fast;

We have as many friends as enemies.
Men. Shall it be put to that?

1 Sen. The gods forbid !

speak, speak.

liberties:

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

Men. Fye, fye, fye!

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.

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 ruin.

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.
Ed. Peace, peace.

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

And temperately proceed to what you would
Thus violently redress.

Bru. Sir, those cold ways,

That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonous Where the disease is violent :-Lay hands upon him,

And bear him to the rock.

Cor. No; I'll die here. [Drawing his sword. There's some among you have beheld me fighting; Come, try upon yourselves what you have seen

me.

Men. Down with that sword;-Tribunes, withdraw a while.

Bru. Lay hands upon him. Men. Help! help Marcius! help, You that be noble; help him, young, and old! Cit. Down with him, down with him!

In this mutiny, the Tribunes, the Ediles, and the people, are all beat in.

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 us'd 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 patch'd

With cloth of any colour.

Com. Nay, come away.

[Exeunt Coriolanus, Cominius, 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 his mouth:

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.
Here's goodly work!

2 Pat. I would they were a-bed!

Men. I would they were in Tyber!—What, the vengeance, Could he not speak them fair?

Re-enter BRUTUS and SICINIUS, with the Rabble.
Sic. Where is this viper,
That would depopulate the city, and
Be every man himself?

Men. You worthy tribunes,

Sic. Heshall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock With rigorous hands; he hath resisted law, And therefore law shall scorn him further trial Than the severity of the public power, Which he so sets at nought.

Sic. Peace.

Bru. If it were so,

Sic. What do ye talk?

Have we not had a taste of his obedience?
Our Ediles smote? ourselves resisted?-Come:-
Men. Consider this ;-He has been bred i'the

wars

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 consul'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 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 danger; 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. O, 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 country:
And, what is left, to lose it by his country,
Were to us all, that do't, and suffer it,

A brand to the end o'the world.

Sic. This is clean kam.

He throws without distinction. Give me leave,
I'll go to him, and undertake to bring him
Where he shall answer, by a lawful form,
(In peace) to his utmost peril.

1 Sen. Noble tribunes,

It is the humane way: the other course Will prove too bloody; and the end of it Unknown to the beginning.

Sic. Noble Menenius,

Be you then as the people's officer:-
Masters, lay down your weapons.

Bru. Go not home.

Sic. Meet on the market-place :-We'll attend you there :

Where, if you bring not Marcius, we'll proceed In our first way.

Men. I'll bring him to you:

Let me desire your company. [To the Senators.] He must come,

Or what is worst will follow.

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

[Exeunt.

SCENE II-A room in CORIOLANUS's house.

Enter CORIOLANUS, and Patricians.

Cor. Let them pull all about mine ears; pre

sent me

Death on the wheel, or at wild horses' heels;
Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock,
That the precipitation might down stretch
Below the beam of sight, yet will I still
Be thus to them.

Enter VOLUMNIA.

1 Pat. You do the nobler. Cor. I muse, my mother

Does not approve me further, who was wont To call them woollen vassals, things created

Cor. Let them hang.

Vol. Ay, and burn too.

Enter MENENIUS, and Senators.

Men. Come, come, you have been too rough, 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

say,

Honour and policy, like unsever'd friends,
I'the war do grow together: Grant that, and
tell me,

In peace, what each of them by the other lose,
That they combine not there.
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 your 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: I am in this,
Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles;
And you will rather show our general lowts

them,

For the inheritance of their loves, and safeguard Of what that want might ruin.

Men. Noble lady!—

Come, go with us; speak fair: you 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 hand; And thus far having stretch'd it, (here be with them,)

Thy knee bussing the stones, (for in such business
Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant,
More learned than their 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,