They would not thread the gates 4: this kind of
fervice

Did not deferve corn gratis: Being i' the war,
Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they fhew'd
5 Moft valour, fpoke not for them: The accufation
Which they have often made against the senate,
All caufe unborn, could never be the native 5
Of our fo frank donation. Well, what then?
How fhall this bofom multiplied digest

10 The fenate's courtesy? Let deeds express
What's like to be their words :-" We did re-
queft it ;-

"We are the greater poll, and in true fear
"They gave us our demands:"-Thus we debafe
15 The nature of our feats, and make the rabble

20

Call our cares, fears: which will in time break ope
The locks o' the senate, and bring in the crows
To peck the eagles

Men. Come, enough.

Bru. Enough, with over-measure.
Cor. No, take more :

What may be fworn by, both divine and human, Seal what I end withal!-This double worship,Where one part does difdain with caufe, the other 25 Infult without all reafon; where gentry, title, wisdom

Cannot conclude, but by the yea and no
Of general ignorance,-it muft omit
Real neceffities, and give way the while

[lows

Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians, 30 To unstable flightness: purpose so barr'd, it fol

If they be fenators: and they are no less,
When, both your voices blended, the greatest taste
Moft palates theirs 3. They choofe their magiftrate;
And fuch a one as he, who puts his fall,
His popular shall, against a graver bench
Than ever frown'd in Greece! By Jove himself,
It makes the confuls base: and my foul akes,
To know, when two authorities are up,
Neither fupreme, how foon confufion
May enter 'twixt the gap of both, and take
The one by the other.

Com. Well,-on to the market-place.

Cor. Whoever gave that counfel, to give forth The corn o' the ftore-house gratis, as 'twas us'd Sometime in Greece,

Men. Well, well, no more of that.

Cor. (Though there the people had more abfolute power)

I fay, they nourish'd difobedience, fed

The ruin of the state.

Sic. He has fpoken like a traitor, and fhall an-
As traitors do.

Cor. Thou wretch! defpight o'erwhelm thee!
What should the people do with thefe bald tribunes?
50 On whom depending, their obedience fails
To the greater bench: In a rebellion,
When what's not meet, but what must be, was law,
Then were they chosen; in a better hour,
Let what is meet, be faid, it must be meet,
55 And throw their power i' the duft.

Bru. Manifest treafon.

Sic. This a conful? no.

Bru. The ædiles, ho! Let him be apprehended.

2 Alluding to his

1 A minnow is one of the smallest river fish, called in fome counties a pink. having called him Triton before. 3 Meaning, that fenators and plebeians are equal, when the highest tafte is best pleased with that which pleafes the lowest. 4 That is, pass them. 5 Or, natural parent. 6 i. e. fear. 7 To jump anciently fignified to jolt, to give a rude concuffion to any thing. To jump a body may therefore mean, to put it into a violent agitation or commotion. place foundness, uniformity, confiftency.

8

Integrity is in this

Sic.

Tribunes, patricians, citizens !--what ho!-
Sicinius, Brutus, Coriolanus, citizens !

15 There's fome among you have beheld me fighting;
Come, try upon yourselves what you have feen me.
Men. Down with that fword;-Tribunes, with-
Bru. Lay hands upon him.
Men. Help, Marcius! help,

[draw a while.

[They all bustle about Coriolanus. 20 You that be noble; help him, young and old!
All. Down with him, down with him! [Excunt.
[In this mutiny, the Trilunes, the Ædiles, and
the People are beat in.

All. Peace, peace, peace: stay, hold, peace!
Men. What is about to be?I am out of

Men. And fo are like to do.

Cor. That is the way to lay the city flat;
To bring the roof to the foundation;
And bury all, which yet distinctly ranges,
In heaps and piles of ruin.

Sic. This deferves death.

Bru. Or let us stand to our authority,
Or let us lofe it: We do here pronounce,
Upon the part o' the people, in whose power
We were elected theirs, Marcius is worthy
Of present death.

Sic. Therefore, lay hold of him;

Bear him to the rock Tarpeian, and from thence
Into deftruction caft him.

Men. Go, get you to your house; be gone, away, All will be naught elfe.

2 Sen. Get you gone.
Cer. Stand faft;

We have as many friends as enemies.

Men. Shall it be put to that?

I Sen. The gods forbid!

I pr'ythee, noble friend, home to thy houfe;
Leave us to cure this caufe.

Men. For 'tis a fore upon us,

You cannot tent yourfelf: Be gone, 'befeech you.
Com. Come, fir, along with us.

Cor. I would they were barbarians, (as they are,
Though in Rome litter'd ;) not Romans, (as they

are not,

[gone.

Dr. Johnson on this paffage, remarks, that he knows not whether to eve in this place means to poffefs by right, or to be indebted. Either fenfe may be admitted. One time, in which the people are feditious, will give us power in some other time: or, this time of the people's predominance will run them in debt; that is, will lay them open to the law, and expofe them hereafter to more fervile fubjection. * The lowest of the populace are ftill denominated by thofe a little above them, Tag, rag, and bobtail. 3 A

I Sen

1 Sen. This man has marr'd his fortune.
Men. His nature is too noble for the world:
He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
Or jove for his power to thunder. His heart's
his mouth:

What his breaft forges, that his tongue muft vent;
And, being angry, doth forget that ever
He heard the name of death.
Here's goodly work!

[A noife within.

5

2 Sen. I would they were a-bed! [vengeance, 10 Men. I would they were in Tiber!-What, the Could he not speak 'em fair?

Enter Brutus, and Sicinius, with the rabble again.
Sic. Where is this viper,

That will depopulate the city, and
Be every man himself?

Men. You worthy tribunes,

Sic. He fhall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock
With rigorous hands; he hath refifted law,
And therefore law fhall fcorn him further trial
Than the feverity of publick power,

Which he fo fets at nought.

1 Cit. He fhall well know,

The noble tribunes are the people's mouths,
And we their hands.

All. He fhall fure out.

Men. Hear me speak :

As I do know the conful's worthiness,

So can I name his faults :

Sic. Conful!-what conful?

Men. The conful Coriolanus.
Bru. He conful!

All. No, no, no, no, no.

[people,

15

By many an ounce) he dropp'd it for his country:
And, what is left, to lofe it by his country,

Were to us all, that do't, and suffer it,

A brand to the end o' the world.

Sic. This is clean kam 2.

Bru. Merely awry: When he did love his country, It honour'd him.

Men. The fervice of the foot

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

Bru. We'll hear no more :

Purfue him to his house, and pluck him thence;
Left his infection, being of catching nature,
Spread further.

Men. One word more, one word.

This tyger-footed rage, when it shall find
The harm of unfcann'd swiftnefs, will, too late,
Tie leaden pounds to his heels. Proceed by process;
Left parties (as he is belov'd) break out,

20 And fack great Rome with Romans.
Bru. If it were fo-

25

Sic. What do ye talk?

Have we not had a taste of his obedience?
Our ædiles finote? ourselves refifted?-Come-
Men. Confider this;-He hath been bred i' the

wars

Since he could draw a fword, and is ill fchool'd In boulted language; meal and bran together He throws without diftinction. Give me leave, 30 I'll go to him, and undertake to bring him Where he shall anfwer, by a lawful form, (in peace) to his utmost peril.

35

Men. If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours, good 40

I may be heard, I'd crave a word or two;
The which fhall turn you to no further harm,
Than fo much lofs of time.

Sic. Speak briefly then;

For we are peremptory, to dispatch

This viperous traitor: to eject him hence,
Were but one danger; and, to keep him here,
Our certain death; therefore, it is decreed,
He dies to-night.

Men. Now the good gods forbid,
That our renowned Rome, whofe gratitude
Towards her deferved children is enroll'd
In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam
Should now eat up her own!

I Sen. Noble tribunes,

It is the humane way: the other courfe
Will prove too bloody; and the end of it
Unknown to the beginning.

Sic. Noble Menenius,

Be you then as the people's officer:
Maiters, lay down your weapons.

Bru. Go not home.

[you there:

Sic. Meet on the market-place :-We'll attend Where, if you bring not Marcius, we'll proceed In our first way.

Men. I'll bring him to you

[must come,

45 Let me defire your company. [To the Senators.] He Or what is worst will follow.

i. e. Do not give the fignal for unlimited flaughter, &c. fporting phrafe, from bafes, which in Saxon fignifics a hawk. It was afterwards used in war, and feems To cry havock, was, I believe, originally a to have been the fignal for general flaughter." 2. e. Awry. Hence a kambrel for a crooked ftick,, or the bend in a horfe's hinder leg. The Welch word for cracked is kam.

Cor. Let them hang.

Vol. Ay, and burn too.

Enter Menenius, with the Senators.

Men. Come, come, you have been too rough,| fomething too rough;

You must return and mend it.

Sen. There's no remedy;

Unless, by not fo doing, our good city

Cleave in the midft, and perish.

Vol. Pray, be counsel'd:

I have a heart as little apt as yours,

But yet a brain, that leads my use of anger,

To better vantage.

Men. Well faid, noble woman:

I would diffemble with my nature, where
My fortunes, and my friends, at ftake, required,
I fhould do fo in honour: I am in this,
Your wife, your fon, these fenators, the nobles;
And you will rather fhew our general lowts
How you can frown, than spend a fawn upon 'em,
20 For the inheritance of their loves, and safeguard
Of what that want 7 might ruin.

Men. Noble lady!

Come, go with us; fpeak fair: you may falve fo, Not what is dangerous prefent, but the lofs 25 Of what is past.

Vol. I pr'ythee now, my fon,

Go to them, with this bonnet in thy hand;

And thus far having ftretch'd it, (here be with

them)

30 Thy knee buffing the ftones, (for in fuch business
Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant
More learned than the ears) waving thy head,
With often, thus, correcting thy ftout heart,
Now humble as the ripeft mulberry,

Before he should thus ftoop to the herd 3, but that 35 That will not hold the handling: Or, fay to them,

My praises made thee firft a foldier, fo,
To have my praife for this, perform a part

Thou haft not done before.

Cor. Well, I must do't:

Away, my difpofition, and poffefs me

5

ΙΟ

151

20

Some harlot's fpirit! My throat of war be turn'd,
Which quired with my drum, into a pipe
Small as an eunuch, or the virgin voice
That babies lulls afleep! The fimiles of knaves
Tont 4 in my cheeks; and school-boys' tears take up
The glaffes of my fight! A beggar's tongue
Make motion through my lips; and my arm'd 25
knees,

Who bow'd but in my flirrop, bend like his
That hath receiv'd an alms !-I will not do't;
Left I furceafe to honour mine own truth,
And, by my body's action, teach my mind
A moft inherent bafenefs.

Vol. At thy choice then:

To beg of thee, it is my more dishonour,
Than thou of them. Come all to ruin; let
Thy mother rather feel thy pride, than fear
Thy dangerous ftoutnefs: for I mock at death
With as big heart as thou. Do as thou lift.
Thy valiantnefs was mine, thou fuck'dft it from me;
But own thy pride thyself.

Cor. Pray, be content;

Mother, I am going to the market-place;
Chide me no more. I'll mountebank their loves,
Cog their hearts from them, and come home be-
lov'd

Of all the trades in Rome.
Commend me to my wife.

Look, I am going:
I'll return conful;

Or never truft to what my tongue can do

I' the way of flattery, further.

Vol. Do your will.

[Exit Volumnia.

35

140

145

Com. Away, the tribunes do attend you: arm 50

yourfelf

To answer mildly; for they are prepar'd
With accufations, as I hear, more strong
Than are upon you yet.

Tyrannical power: If he evade us there,
Inforce him with his envy to the people;
And that the fpoil, got on the Antiates,
Was ne'er diftributed.-What, will he come?
Enter an Edile.

Ed. He's coming.

Bru. How accompanied?

Ed. With old Menenius, and thofe fenators That always favour'd him.

Sic. Have you a catalogue

Of all the voices that we have procur'd,
Set down by the poll?

Ed. I have; 'tis ready.

Sic. Have you collected them by tribes?
Ed. I have.

Sic. Affemble prefently the people hither:
And when they hear me fay, It shall be so,

I' the right and ftrength o' the commons, be it either
For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them,
If I fay, fine, cry fine; if death, cry death;
Infifting on the old prerogative

And power i' the truth o' the cause.

When we fhall hap to give't them.

Bru. Go about it.-
[Exit Edile.
Put him to choler ftraight: He hath been us'd
Ever to conquer, and to have his worth s
Of contradiction: Being once chaf'd, he cannot
Be rein'd again to temperance; then he speaks
What's in his heart; and that is there, which looks
With us to break his neck.

Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, and Cominius, with
others.

Sic. Well, here he comes.

Mr. Hawkins explains unbarbed by bare, uncover'd; and adds, that in the times of chivalry, when a horfe was fully armed and accoutered for the encounter, he was faid to be barbed; probably from the old word barbe, which Chaucer uíes for a veil or covering. Mr. Steevens, however, fays, unbarbed fonce is untrimm'd or unfhaven bead. To barb a man was to have him. 2 i. e. piece, portion; applied to a piece of earth, and here elegantly transferred to the body, carcafe. 3 i. e. which played in concert with my drum. 4 To tent is to take up refidence. 5 i. e. according to Mr. Malone-He has been ufed to his worth, or (as we should now fay) his pennyworth of contradiction; his full quota or proportion. To lock is to wait or expect. The fenfe I believe is, What he has in his heart is waiting there to help us to break bis neck.