Cor. Say then: 'tis true, I ought so [to take Sic. We charge you, that you have contriv d 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. Nay; temperately; Your promise. Cor. The fires i' the lowest hell fold in the people! Call me their traitor!-Thou injurious tribune; 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, Serv'd well for Rome, Is this Know, The promise that you made your mother? From off the rock Tarpeian, never more Cit. It shall be so, it shall be so; let him away: He's banish'd, and it shall be so. [friends;Com. Hear me, my masters, and my common Sic. He's sentenc'd: no more hearing. Com. Let me speak: I have been consul, and can show from Rome, 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: I hate As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize [Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENENIUS, Senators, and Patricians, Ed. The people's enemy is gone, is gone! Cit. Our enemy's banish'd! he is gone! Hoo! hoo! [The People shout, and throw up their Caps. Sic. Go, see him out at gates, and follow him, As he hath follow'd you, with all despite; Give him deserv'd vexation. Let a guard Attend us through the city. Cit. Come, come, let us see him out at gates: The gods preserve our noble tribunes!-Come. [Exeunt. Art Fourth. [come: SCENE I. The same. Before a Gate of the City. Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, and several young Patricians. Cor. Come, leave your tears: a brief farewell:-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 hear; 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 Vir, O heavens! O heavens! men, 'Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes, [well, Vol. us, And we of thee: so, if the time thrust forth Cor. Nay, and you shall hear some.-Will you be To say so to my husband. Are you mankind? Vol. Ay, fool is that a shame ?-Note but this fool. Was not a man my father? Hadst thou foxship Sic. Vir. What then? What then? rabble; Cats, that can judge as fitly of his worth, Thou hast years upon thee; and thou art too full Of the wars' surfeits, to go rove with one That's yet unbruis'd: bring me but out at gate.Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and My friends of noble touch, when I am forth, Bid me farewell and smile. I pray you, come. While I remain above the ground, you shall Hear from me still; and never of me aught But what is like me formerly. Men. That's worthily As any ear can hear. Come, let's not weep.If I could shake off but one seven years From these old arms and legs, by the good gods, I'd with thee every foot. Cor. Come. Give me thy hand: [Exeunt. SCENE II. The same. A Street near the Gate. Enter SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and an Edile. Sic. Bid them all home: he's gone, and we'll no further. The nobility are vex'd, who, we see, have sided In his behalf. Bru. Now we have shown our power, Sic. Bid them home: Say, their great enemy is gone, and they Dismiss them home. As far as doth the Capitol exceed The meanest house in Rome: so far my son Why stay we to be baited Take my prayers with you.-I would the gods had nothing else to de, [Exeunt Tribunes. But to confirm my curses! Could I meet them But once a day, it would unclog my heart Of what lies heavy to't. Rom. There hath been in Rome strange in- Whose passions and whose plots have broke surrection: the people against the senators, patricians, and nobles. Vol. Hath been! Is it ended then? Our state thinks not so; they are in a most warlike preparation, and hope to come upon them in the heat of their division. Rom. The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing would make it flame again. For the nobles receive so to heart the banishment of that worthy Coriolanus, that they are in a ripe aptness, to take all power from the people, and to pluck from them their tribunes for ever. This lies glowing, I can tell you, and is almost mature for the violent breaking out. Vol. Coriolanus banished? Vol. You will be welcome with this intelligence, Nicanor. Rom. The day serves well for them now. I have heard it said, the fittest time to corrupt a man's wife, is when she has fallen out with her husband. Your noble Tullus Aufidius will appear well in these wars, with his great opposer, Coriolanus, being now in no request of his country. Vol. He cannot choose. I am most fortunate, thus accidentally to encounter you: You have ended my business, and I will merrily accompany you home. Rom. I shall, between this and supper, tell you most strange things from Rome; all tending to the good of their adversaries. Have you an army ready, say you? Vol. A most royal one: the centurions, and their charges, distinctly billeted, already in the entertainment, and to be on foot at an hour's warning. Kom. I am joyful to hear of their readiness, and am the man, I think, that shall set them in present action. So, sir, heartily well met, and most glad of your company. [Exeunt. Vol. You take my part from me, sir; I have the most cause to be glad of yours. Rom. Well, let us go together. SCENE IV. Antium. Before Aufidius's House. Enter CORIOLANUS, in mean Apparel, disguised and muffled. Cor. A goodly city is this Antium: City, 'Tis I that made thy widows; many an heir Of these fair edifices 'fore my wars Have I heard groan and drop: then know me not; [stones, Lest that thy wives with spits, and boys with In puny battle slay me.-Save you, sir. Cor. Cor. Which is his house, 'beseech you? Thank you, sir, farewell. [Exit Citizen. O, world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn, Whose double bosoms seem to wear one heart, Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal, and exercise, Are still together, who twinas 'twere in love their sleep To take the one the other, by some chance, And interjoin their issues. SCENE V. [Ecit. Cor. Away! 2 Serv. Away? Get you away. Cor. Now thou art troublesome. [with anon. 2 Serv. Are you so brave? I'll have you talked Enter a third Servant. The first meets him. 3 Serv. What fellow's this? 1 Serv. A strange one as ever I look'd on: I cannot get him out o' the house; Pr'ythee, call my master to him. 3 Serv. What have you to do here, fellow? Pray you, avoid the house. Cor. Let me but stand; I will not hurt your 3 Serv. What are you? [hearth. Cor. A gentleman. 3 Serv. A marvellous poor one. Cor. True, so I am. 3 Serv. Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other station; here's no place for you; pray you, avoid; come. Cor. Follow your function, go! And batten on cold bits. [Pushes him onay. 3 Serv. What, will you not? Pr'ythee, tell my master what a strange guest he has here. 2 Serv. And I shall. 3 Serv. Where dwellest thou? Cor. Under the canopy. 3 Serv. Under the canopy? Cor. Ay. 3 Serv. Where's that? Cor. I' the city of kites and crows. [Erit. 3 Serv. I' the city of kites and crows?-What an assitis!-Then thou dwellest with daws too? Cor. No, I serve not thy master. [master? 3 Serv. How, sir! Do you meddle with my Cor. Ay; 'tis an honester service than to meddle with thy mistress: Thou prat'st, and prat'st: serve with thy trencher, hence! [Beats him away. Enter AUFIDIUS and the second Servant. Auf. Where is this fellow? 2 Serv. Here, sir; I'd have beaten him like a dog, but for disturbing the lords within. thee, Auf. Whence comest thou? what wouldest Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart, thou? Thy name? [name? Than when I first my wedded mistress saw Why speak'st not? Speak, man: What's thy Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell Cor. If, Tullus, [Unmyfling. Not yet thou know'st me, and seeing me, dost not Think me for the man I am, necessity Commands me name myself. Auf. What is thy name? [Servants retire. Cor. A name unmusical to the Volcians' ears, And harsh in sound to thine. Auf. Auf. I know thee not: Thy name? The cruelty and envy of the people, We have a power on foot; and I had purpose Had we no quarrel else to Rome, but that You bless me, gods! Cor. The leading of thine own revenges, take own ways: Whether to knock against the gates of Rome, welcome! [Exeunt COR, and AUF. 1 Serv. [Advancing.] Here's a strange altera I had fear'd death, of all the men i' the world maims Of shame seen through thy country, speed thee And make my misery serve thy turn: so use it, Of all the under fiends. But if so be Thou art tir'd, then, in a word, I also am Auf. O, Marcius, Marcius, tion! 2 Serv. By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me, his clothes made a false report of him. 1 Serv. What an arm he has! He turned me about with his finger and his thumb, as one would set up a top. 2 Serv. Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him: He had, sir, a kind of face, methought,-I cannot tell how to term it. 1 Serv. He had so: looking as it were,'Would I were hanged, but I thought there was more in him than I could think. 2 Serv. So did I, I'll be sworn: He is simply the rarest man i' the world. 1 Serv. I think, he is: but a greater soldier than he, you wot one. 2 Serv. Who? my master? 1 Serv. Nay, it's no matter for that. 2 Serv. Worth six of him. 1 Serv. Nay, not so, neither; but I take him Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from to be the greater soldier. my heart A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter [say, 2 Serv. 'Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that: for the defence of a town, our general is excellent. 1 Serv. Ay, and for an assault too 3 Serv. O, slaves, I can tell you news; news, you rascals. 1, 2 Serv. What, what, what? let's partake. 3 Serv. I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lieve be a condemned man. 1. 2 Serv. Wherefore? wherefore? 3 Serv. Why,here's he that was wont to thwack our general,-Caius Marcius. 1 Serv. Why do you say, thwack our general? 3 Serv. I do not say, thwack our general; but he was always good enough for him. 2 Serv. Come, we are fellows, and friends: he was ever too hard for him: I have heard him say so himself. 1 Serv. He was too hard for him directly, to say the truth on't: before Corioli, he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado. 2 Serv. An he had been cannibally given, he might have broiled and eaten him too. 1 Serv. But, more of thy news? 3 Serv. Why, he is so made on here within, as if he were son and heir to Mars: set at upper end o' the table: no question asked him by any of the senators, but they stand bald before him. Our general himself makes a mistress of him; sanctifies himself with's hand, and turns up the white o' the eye to his discourse. But the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i' the middle, and but one half of what he was yesterday; for the other has half, by the entreaty and grant of the whole table. He'll go, he says, and sowle the porter of Rome gates by the cars: He will mow down all before him, and leave his passage polled. [I can imagine. 2 Serv. And he's as like to do't, as any man 3 Serv. Do't? he will do't: For, look you, sir, he has as many friends as enemies: which friends, sir (as it were), durst not (look you, sir) show themselves (as we term it) his friends, whilst he's in directitude. 1 Serv. Directitude? what's that? 3 Serv. But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again, and the man in blood, they will out of their burrows, like conies after rain, and revel all with him. 1 Serv. But when goes this forward? 3 Serv. To-morrow; to-day; presently. You shall have the drum struck up this afternoon: 'tis, as it were a parcel of their feast, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips. 2 Serv. Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers. 1 Serv. Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace, as far as day does night; it's sprightly, waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children, than wars a destroyer of men. 2 Serv. 'Tis so: and as wars, in some sort, may be said to be a ravisher: so it cannot be denied, but peace is a great maker of cuckolds. 1 Serv. Ay,and it makes men hate one another. 3 Serv. Reason, because they then less need one another. The wars for my money. I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volcians. They are rising, they are rising. All. In, in, in, in. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. Rome. A publick Place. Sic. We hear not of him, neither need we fear him; His remedies are tame i' the present peace And quietness o' the people, which before Were in wild hurry. Here do we make his friends Blush, that the world goes well; who rather had, Though they themselves did suffer by't, behold Dissentious numbers pestering streets, than see Our tradesmen singing in their shops, and going About their functions friendly. Enter MENENIUS. Bru. We stood to't in good time. Is this Menenius? Sic. Your Coriolanus, sir, is not much miss'd, But with his friends: the commonwealth doth stand: And so would do, were he more angry at it. Enter Three or Four Citizens. Bru. Now the gods keep you! [Exeunt Citizens. Sic. This is a happier and more comely time, Than when these fellows ran about the streets, Crying, Confusion. Caius Marcius was A worthy officer i' the war; but insolent, O'ercome with pride, ambitious past all thinkSelf-loving,Sic. Without assistance. Men. I think not so. Sic. We should by this, to all our lamentation, If he had gone forth consul, found it so. Bru. The gods have well prevented it, and Sits safe and still without him. [Rome Enter Edile. Ed. Worthy tribunes, There is a slave, whom we have put in prison, Reports,-the Volces with two several powers Are enter'd in the Roman territories; And with the deepest malice of the war Destroy what lies before them. [ing, And affecting one sole throne, Men. 'Tis Aufidius, Who, hearing of our Marcins' banishment, Thrusts forth his horns again into the world: Which were inshell'd, when Marcius stood for And durst not once peep out. Sic. Of Marcius? [Rome Come, what talk you [not be, Bru. Go see this rumourer whipp'd.-It canThe Volces dare break with us. |