Being once gangren'd, is not then respected
For what before it was?

Bru. We'll hear no more:

380

Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence;

Lest his infection, being of catching nature,

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 process;
Lest parties (as he is beloved) 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?
Our ædiles smote! ourselves resisted!-Come-

39°

Men. Consider this;-He hath been bred î' the wars Since he could draw a sword, and is ill school'd In boulted language; meal and bran together 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.

400

Bru

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 :

411

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

Cor. Let them pull all about mine ears; present 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,

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
To buy or sell with groats; to shew bare heads

420

In congregations, to yawn, be still, and wonder,
When one but of my ordinance stood up

To speak of peace, or war. [To VOL.] I talk of you;
Why did you wish me milder? Would you have me
False to my nature? Rather say, I play

The man I am.

431

Vol. O, sir, sir, sir!

I would have had you put your power

well on,

Before you had worn it out.

Cor. Let go.

Vol. You might have been enough the man you

are,

With striving less to be so: Lesser had been

The thwartings of your dispositions, if

You had not shew'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, with the Senators.

441

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

thing too rough;

You must return, and mend it,

Sen. There's no remedy;

Unless, by not so doing, our good city

Cleave in the midst, and perish.

Vol. Pray, be counsell'd:

I have a heart as little apt as your's,

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

H

45

Men

Men. Well said, noble woman:

Before he should thus stoop to the herd, but that
The violent fit o' the time craves it as physick
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;

460

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

470

480

Which your heart prompts you to; but with such

words

That are but rooted in your tongue, 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 shew our general lowts
How you can frown, than spend a fawn upon 'em,
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;

490

500

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 the ears), waving thy head,
With often, thus, correcting thy stout heart,
Now humble as the ripest mulberry,
That will not hold the handling: Or, say to them,

Hij

509

Thou