■ Make remain is an old manner of speaking, which means no more than remain.

Mf. Spies of the Volces

Held me in chafe, that I was forc'd to wheel
Three or four miles about; else had I, fir,
Half an hour fince brought my report.
Enter Marcius.

Com. But how prevail'd you?

[think

Mar. Will the time ferve to tell? I do not Where is the enemy? Are you lords o' the field? If not, why cease you 'till you are fo?

[fide

Com. Marcius, we have a difadvantage fought, And did retire, to win our purpose.

Mar. How lies their battle? Know you on what They have plac'd their men of trust?

Com. As I guess, Marcius,

Their bands i' the vaward are the Antiates,
Of their best truft: o'er them Aufidius,
Their very heart of hope.

Mar. I do beseech you,

By all the battles wherein we have fought, 35 By the blood we have shed together, by the vows We have made to endure friends, that you directly Set me against Aufidius, and his Antiates: And that you not delay 3 the prefent; but, Filling the air with swords advanc'd4, and darts, 40 We prove this very hour.

Com. Though I could wish

You were conducted to a gentle bath,

And balms applied to you, yet dare I never Deny your afking; take your choice of thofe 45 That beft can aid your action.

Confound is here used in the sense of—to expend. Let flip. 4 i. e. fwords lifted high.

Mar. Thofe are they

That moft are willing:-If any such be here,
(As it were fin to doubt) that love this painting
Wherein you fee me smear'd; if any fear

50 Leffer his perfon than an ill report;
If any think, brave death outweighs bad life,
And that his country's dearer than himself;
Let him, alone, or so many, so minded,
Wave thus, to express his difpofition,
55 And follow Marcius.

[Waving bis band..
[They all fhout, and wave their fwords, take bime
up in their arms, and caft up their caps.
O me, alone! Make you a fword of me?
If thefe fhews be not outward, which of you
60 But is four Volces? None of you, but is

Able to bear against the great Aufidius
A fhield as hard as his. A certain number,

223

2 i. e. remitting his ransom. 3 Delay for Though

Titus Lartius, baving fet a guard upon Corioli, going with a drum and trumpet toward Ceminius and Caius Marcius, enters with a Lieutenant, other Soldiers, and a Scout.

Lart. So, let the ports be guarded: Keep
your duties,

As I have fet them down. If I do fend, dispatch
Thofe centuries to our aid; the reft will ferve
For a fhort holding: if we lose the field,
We cannot keep the town.

Lieu. Fear not our care, fir.

Lart. Hence, and fhut your gates upon us Our guider, come; to the Roman camp conduct

us.

SCENE

VIII.

The Field of Battle.

[Excunt. 25

Alarum. Enter Marcius and Aufidius.

Yet cam'ft thou to a morfel of this feast,
Having fully din'd before.

Enter Titus Lartius, with bis power, from the purfuit.

Lart. O general,

Here is the fteed, we the caparisons +!
Had'ft thou beheld→→→→

Mar. Pray now, no more: my mother,
Who has a charter to extol her blood,
When the does praise me, grieves me.

I have done as you have done; that's, what I can;
Induc'd, as you have been; that's for my country:
He, that has but effected his good will,
Hath overta'en mine act.

Com. You shall not be

The grave of your deferving; Rome must know
The value of her own: 'twere a concealment
Worfe than a theft, no less than a traducement,
To hide your doings; and to filence that,

Mar. I'll fight with none but thee; for I do 30 Which to the fpire and top of praifes vouch'd,

hate thee

Worfe than a promife-breaker.

Auf. We hate ai.ke;

Not Afrack owns a ferpent, I abhor

More than thy fame and envy: Fix thy foot.

Mar. Let the first budger die the other's flave, And the gods doom him after!

Auf. If I fly, Marcius,

Halloo me like a hare.

Mar. Within thefe three hours, Tullus,
Alone I fought in your Corioli walls, fblood,
And made what work I pleas'd: 'Tis not my
Wherein thou feeft me mask'd; for thy revenge,
Wrench up thy power to the highest.
Auf. Wert thou the Hector,
That was the whip of your bragg'd progeny,
Thou should'ft not 'fcape me here.-

[Here they fight, and certain Volces come to
the aid of Aufidius. Marcius fights till they
be driven in breathless.

Officious, and not valiant!-you have fham'd me
In your condemned feconds.

[Exeunt fighting.

Flourish, Alarum. A retreat is founded. Enter at ene door, Cominius quith the Romans; at another door, Marcius, with his arm in a scarf, &c.

Com. If I should tell thee o'er this thy day's work,

35

40

145

50

55

Mar. May these fame inftruments, which you [fhall Never found more! When drums and trumpets I' the field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be 60 Made all of falfe-fac'd foothing! When steel grows

▾ Coriolanus may mean, that as all the foldiers have offered to attend him on this expedition, and he wants only a part of them, he will fubmit the selection to four indifferent perfons, that he himself may escape the charge of partiality.

2 i. e. the gates. 3i. e. thrown into grateful trepidation.

The meaning is,-1 his man performed the action, and we only filled up the fhew,

$ That is,

not be remembered.

Soft

Soft as the parafite's filk, let him' be made
A coverture for the wars !-No more, I fay;
For that I have not wash'd my nofe that bled,
Or foil'd fome debile wretch, which,without note,
Here's many else have done,-you fhout me forth
In acclamations hyperbolical;

As if I lov'd my little fhould be dieted

In praises fauc'd with lyes.

Com. Too modest are you;

More cruel to your good report, than grateful
To us that give you truly by your patience,
If 'gainst yourself you be incens'd, we'll put you
(Like one that means his proper harm) in manacles,
Then reafon fafely with you.-Therefore, be it
known,

As to us, to all the world, that Caius Marcius
Wears this war's garland: in token of the which,
My noble steed, known to the camp, I give him,
With all his trim belonging; and, from this time,
For what he did before Corioli, call him,
With all the applause and clamour of the hoft,
Caius Marcius Coriolanus.-

Bear the addition nobly ever!

[Flourish. Trumpets found, and drums.

Omnes. Caius Marcius Coriolanus !

Cor. I will go wash;

And when my face is fair, you fall perceive
Whether I blufh, orno: Howbeit, I thank you :-

I mean to ftride your steed; and, at all times,
To undercreft your good addition 2,
To the fairness of my power 3.

Com. So, to our tent:

Where, ere we do repofe us, we will write
To Rome of our fuccefs.-You, Titus Lartius,
Muft to Corioli back: fend us to Rome
The best 4, with whom we may articulate 5,
For their own good, and ours.

Lart. I fhall, my lord.

Cor. The gods begin to mock me. I that now
Refus'd most princely gifts, am bound to beg
Of my lord general.

Com. Take it: 'tis yours.-What is't?
Cor. I fometime lay, here in Corioli,

5

10

15

Be free, as is the wind. Deliver him, Titus.
Lart. Marcius, his name?

Cor. By Jupiter, forgot :

I am weary: yea, my memory is tir'd.-
Have we no wine here?

Com. Go we to our tent:

The blood upon your visage dries; 'tis time
It fhould be look'd to: come.

A ficurif.

SCENE

The Camp of the Volces.

Carnets.

X.

[Excunt.

Enter Tullus Aufidius blody,

with two or three Soldiers.

Auf. The town is ta'en!

Sol. "Twill be deliver'd back on good condition.
Auf. Condition !—

I would, I were a Roman; for I cannot,
Being a Volce, be that I am.-Condition!
What good condition can a treaty find

20I' the part that is at mercy? Five times, Marcius,
I have fought with thee; fo often haft thou beat me;
And would'st do so, I think, fhould we encounter
As often as we eat.-By the elements,

25

30

If e'er again I meet him beard to beard,
He is mine, or I am his: Mine emulation
Hath not that honour in't, it had; for where

I thought to crush him in an equal force,
True fword to fword, I'll potch at him some way;
Or wrath, or craft, may get him.

Sol. He's the devil,

[poifon'd, Auf. Bolder, though not so subtle: My valour's With only fuffering ftain by him; for him Shall flie out of itself: nor fleep nor fanctuary, Being naked, fick; nor fane, nor capitol, 35 The prayers of priests, nor times of facrifice, Embarquements 7 all of fury, shall lift up Their rotten privilege and cuftom 'gainst My hate to Marcius: where I find him, were it At home, upon my brother's guard, even there, 40 Against the hofpitable canon, would I

At a poor man's houfe; he us'd me kindly :

He cry'd to me; I saw him prifoner;

45

Auf. I am attended at the cypress grove :

But then Aufidius was within my view,

To give my poor hoft freedom."

And wrath o'erwhelm'd my pity: I request you

Com. O, well begg'd!

Were he the butcher of my fon, he should

Him for it. The personal bim is not unfrequently ufed by our author, and other writers of his age, inftead of it, the neuter. 2 A phrase from heraldry, fignifying, that he would endeavour to fupport 4 i. e. the chief men of Corioli.

his good opinion of him. 3 i. e. in proportion equal to my power.

3i.e. enter into articles. • Petch is a word used in the midland counties for a rough, violent push.

1

Embarquements mean not only an embarkation, but an embargoing, or impediment.

[A&t 2. Scene 1.

HE augurer tells me, we shall have
news to-night.

Bru. Good, or bad?

Men. Not according to the prayer of the people, for they love not Marcius.

Sic. Nature teaches beafts to know their friends.
Men. Pray you, who does the wolf love?
Sic. The lamb.

Men. Ay, to devour him; as the hungry plebeians would the noble Marcius.

Bru. He's a lamb indeed, that baes like a bear. Men. He's a bear indeed, that lives like a lamb. You two are old men; tell me one thing that I fhall afk you.

Both. Well, fir.

[converfes more with the buttock of the night, than with the forehead of the morning. What I think, I utter; and spend my malice in my 5 (I cannot call you Lycurguffes) if the drink you breath: Meeting two fuch wealsmen as you are, give me, touch my palate adverfly, I make a crooked face at it. I can't fay, your worships have deliver'd the matter well, when I find the ass in and though I must be content to bear with those compound with the major part of your fyllables: that fay you are reverend grave men; yet they lye deadly, that tell you you have good faces. If you fee this in the map of my microcofm, follows it, can your biffon 3 conspectuities glean out of this that I am known well enough too? What harm character, if I be known well enough too?

15

Bru. Come, fir, come, we know you well enough. Men. You know neither me, yourselves, nor any thing. You are ambitious for poor knaves'

Men. In what enormity is Marcius poor, that 20 caps and legs: you wear out a good wholesome you two have not in abundance?

Bru. He's poor in no one fault, but ftor'd with all.

Sic. Efpecially, in pride.

Bru. And topping all others in boasting. Men. This is ftrange now: Do you two know how you are cenfur'd here in the city, I mean of us o' the right hand file? Do you?

Bru. Why, how are we cenfur'd?

forenoon, in hearing a caufe between an orangewife and a faffet-feller; and then rejourn the controverfy of three-pence to a fecond day of audience. When you are hearing a matter between 25 party and party, if you chance to be pinch'd with the cholic, you make faces like mummers: fet up the bloody flag against all patience 4, and, in roar. ing for a chamber-pot, difmifs the controverfy bleeding, the more entangled by your hearing:

Men. Because you talk of pride now,-Will you 30 all the peace you make in their caufe, is, calling not be angry?

Both. Well, well, fir, well.

Men. Why, 'tis no great matter; for a very little thief of occafion will rob you of a great deal of patience; give your difpofitions the reins, and be 35 angry at your pleasures; at the least, if you take it as a pleasure to you, in being fo. You blame Marcius for being proud?

Bru. We do it not alone, fir.

both the parties knaves: you are a pair of strange

ones.

Bru, Come, come, you are well understood to bencher in the Capitol. be a perfecter giber for the table, than a necessary

Men. Our very priests must become mockers, if they fhall encounter fuch ridiculous fubjects as you are. When you speak beft unto the purpose, it is not worth the wagging of your beards; and

Men. I know, you can do very little alone; for 40 your beards deserve not fo honourable a grave, as your helps are many; or elfe your actions would grow wondrous fingle: your abilities are too infant-like, for doing much alone. You talk of pride: Oh, that you could turn your eyes towards the napes of your necks, and make but an inte-45 'rior furvey of your good felves! O, that you could! Bru. What then, fir?

Men. Why, then you should difcover a brace of as unmeriting, proud, violent, testy magiftrates, (alias, fools) as any in Rome.

1501

Sic. Menenius, you are known well enough too. Men. I am known to be a humourous patrician, and one that loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in't: faid to be fomething) imperfect, in favouring the first complaint; hafty, 55 and tinder-like, upon too trivial motion: one that

to ftuff a botcher's cushion, or to be entomb'd in
an afs's, pack-faddle. Yet you must be faying,
Marcius is proud; who, in a cheap estimation, is
though, peradventure, fome of the best of them
worth all your predeceffors, fince Deucalion;
were hereditary hangmen. Good-e'en to your
worfhips: more of your converfation would in-
fect my brain, being the herdsmen of the beaftly
plebeians: I will be bold to take my leave of you.
Enter Valumnia, Virgilia, and Valeria.
How now, my fair as noble ladies, (and the moon,
were the earthly, no nobler) whither do you fol-
low your eyes so fast?

approaches; for the love of Juno, let's go.
Vol. Honourable Menenius, my boy Marcius
Men. Ha! Marcius coming home?

Alluding to the fable, which fays, that every man has a bag hanging before him, in which he puts his neighbour's faults, and another behind him, in which he ftows his own. down than an early rifer. 3 i. e. blind. 4 i, e. declare war against patience.

Rather a late lier