Sic. I do demand,

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 prov'd upon you.

Cor. I am content.

Men. Lo, citizens, he says, he is content :

The warlike service he has done, consider; think
Upon the wounds his body bears, which shew

Like graves i' the holy church-yard.

640

Cor. Scratches with briars, scars to move laughter

only.

Men. Consider further,

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.

Com. Well, well, no more.

Cor. What is the matter,

650

That being past for consul with full voice,

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

660

Sic. Answer to us.

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

Sic. We charge you, that you have contriv'd to take From Rome all season'd office, and to wind

Yourself into a power tyrannical;

For which, you are a traitor to the people.

Cor. How! Traitor ?

Men.

Men. Nay; temperately: Your promise.

Cor. The fires i' the lowest hell fold in the people! Call me their traitor!-Thou injurious tribune! 670 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?

All. To the rock with him! to the rock with him! Sic. Peace.

We need not lay new matter to his charge:

681

What you have seen him do, and heard him speak,
Beating your officers, cursing yourselves,
Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying
Those whose great power must try him; even this,
So criminal, and in such capital kind,

Deserves the extremest death.

Bru. But since he hath

Serv'd well for Rome

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

Cor. You!

690

Men. Is this the promise that you made your mo

ther?

Com. Know, I pray you

Cor. I'll know no further:

Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,
Vagabond exile, fleaing: 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 I

Sic. For that he has

(As much as in him lies) from time to time
Envy'd 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: I' the people's name,
I say, it shall be so.

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

700

710

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

Sic. He's sentenc'd: no more hearing.

Com. Let me speak :

I have been consul, and can shew from Rome,
Her enemies' marks upon me. I do love

My country's good, with a respect more tender, 720
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.

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.

All. It shall be so, it shall be so.

729

Cor. You common cry 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 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 but 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.

740

[Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, and others. The People shout, and throw up their Caps.

Ed. The people's enemy is gone, is gone 1

All. Our enemy is banish'd! he is gone! Hoo! hoo!

Sic. Go, see him out at gates, and follow him,

As he hath follow'd you, with all despight;

Give him deserv'd vexation. Attend us through the city. 3.

Let a guard

750

All.

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

come:

The gods preserve our noble tribunes!-Come.

[Exeunt.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Before the Gates of Rome. Enter CORIOLANUS, VoLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, with the Young Nobility of Rome.

Coriolanus.

COME, leave your tears; a brief farewel :—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
Shew'd mastership in floating: fortune's blows,
When most struck home, being gentle wounded,

craves

A noble cunning: you were us'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

10

Vol. Now the red pestilence strike all trades in

Rome,

And occupations perish!