2 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.

Pray, let us go.

[Exeunt

SCENE VII.-A Camp; at a small distance from Rome.

Enter AUFIDIUS and 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 proudlier,
Even to my person, than I thought he would
When first I did embrace him: Yet his nature
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

To the vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly,
And shows good husbandry for the Volcian state;
Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon
As draw his sword: yet he hath left undone
That which shall break his neck, or hazard mine,
Whene'er we come to our account.

LIEU. Sir, I beseech you, think you he 'll carry Rome?

AUF. All places yield to him ere he sits down,
And the nobility of Rome are his:

The senators and patricians love him too:
The tribunes are no soldiers; and their people
Will be as rash in the repeal, as hasty

To expel him thence.

I think he'll be to Rome,

As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it
By sovereignty of nature. First he was
A noble servant to them; but he could not
Carry his honours even: whether 't was pride,
Which out of daily fortune ever taints
The happy man; whether defect of judgment,
To fail in the disposing of those chances
Which he was lord of; or whether nature,
Not to be other than one thing, not moving

From the casque to the cushion, but commanding peace
Even with the same austerity and garb

As he controll'd the war; but one of these

(As he hath spices of them all, not all,,

For I dare so far free him) made him fear'd,

So hated, and so banish'd; But he has a merit,

To choke it in the utterance. So our virtues
Lie in the interpretation of the time:

And power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair

To extol what it hath done.

One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;

Rights by rights fouler, strength by strengths do fail.

Come, let's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine,

Thou art poor'st of all; then shortly art thou mine. [Exeunt

ACT V.

SCENE I.-Rome. A public Place.

Enter MENENIUS, COMINIUS, SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and others. MEN. No, I'll not go: you hear what he hath said Which was sometime his general; who lov'd him In a most dear particular. He call'd me father: But what o' that? Go, you that banish'd him; A mile before his tent fall down, and knee The way into his mercy: Nay, if he coy'd To hear Cominius speak, I'll keep at home. COм. He would not seem to know me.

ΜΕΝ.

Do you hear?
COм. Yet one time he did call me by my name:
I urg'd our old acquaintance, and the drops
That we have bled together. Coriolanus
He would not answer to: forbad all names;
He was a kind of nothing, titleless,

Till he had forg'd himself a name i' the fire
Of burning Rome.

MEN.

Why, so; you have made good work

A pair of tribunes that have rack'd for Rome,

To make coals cheap: A noble memory!

COм. I minded him how royal 't was to pardon When it was less expected: He replied,

It was a bare petition of a state

To one whom they had punish'd.

ΜΕΝ.

Could he say less?

Very well:

COм. I offer'd to awaken his regard

For his private friends: His answer to me was,
He could not stay to pick them in a pile
Of noisome musty chaff: He said, 't was folly
For one poor grain or two to leave unburnt,
And still to nose the offence.

MEN. For one poor grain or two?

I am one of those; his mother, wife, his child,
And this brave fellow too, we are the grains:

You are the musty chaff; and you are smelt
Above the moon: We must be burnt for you.

SIC. Nay, pray be patient: If you refuse your aid
In this so never-heeded help, yet do not

Upbraid us with our distress. But, sure, if you
Would be your country's pleader, your good tongue,
More than the instant army we can make,

Might stop our countryman.

MEN.

SIC. Pray you, go to him.
MEN.

No; I'll not meddle.

What should I do?

BRU. Only make trial what your love can do For Rome, towards Marcius.

MEN. Well, and say that Marcius return me, As Cominius is return'd, unheard; what then?— But as a discontented friend, grief-shot

With his unkindness? Say 't be so?

SIC.
Yet your good will
Must have that thanks from Rome, after the measure,
As you intended well.

I think he 'll hear me. Yet, to bite his lip

And hum at good Cominius, much unhearts me.
He was not taken well: he had not din'd:
The veins unfill'd, our blood is cold, and then

We pout upon the morning, are unapt

To give or to forgive; but when we have stuff'd
These pipes, and these conveyances of our blood,
With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls

Than in our priest-like fasts: therefore I'll watch him
Till he be dieted to my request,

And then I'll set upon him.

BRU. You know the very road into his kindness, And cannot lose your way.

MEN.

Good faith, I'll prove him,

Speed how it will. I shall ere long have knowledge

Of my success.

Coм. I tell you, he does sit in gold, his eye

[Exit.

Red as 't would burn Rome; and his injury
The gaoler to his pity. I kneel'd before him;
"T was very faintly he said, "Rise;" dismiss'd me
Thus, with his speechless hand: What he would do,
He sent in writing after me,-what he would not;
Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions:
So that all hope is vain,

Unless his noble mother, and his wife;
Who, as I hear, mean to solicit him

For mercy to his country. Therefore, let's hence,
And with our fair entreaties haste them on.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-An advanced Post of the Volcian Camp before Rome. The Guard at their stations.

Enter to them MENENIUS.

1 G. Stay: Whence are you?

2 G.

Stand, and go back.

MEN. You guard like men; 't is well: But, by your leave. I am an officer of state, and come

To speak with Coriolanus.

1 G. ΜΕΝ.

From whence?

From Rome.

1 G. You may not pass, you must return: our general Will no more hear from thence.

2 G. You'll see your Rome embrac'd with fire, before You'll speak with Coriolanus.

MEN.
Good my friends,
If you have heard your general talk of Rome,
And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks
My name hath touch'd your ears: it is Menenius.
1 G. Be it so; go back: the virtue of your name
Is not here passable.

ΜΕΝ.

I tell thee, fellow,
Thy general is my lover: I have been

The book of his good acts, whence men have read
His fame unparallel'd, haply amplified;

For I have ever verified my friends

(Of whom he's chief) with all the size that verity Would without lapsing suffer: nay, sometimes,