Vol. A moft royal one: the centurions, and their charges, diftinctly billetted, already in the entertainment, and to be on foot at an hour's warning.

Rem. I am joyful to hear of their readiness, and am the man, I think, that shall fet them in prefent action. So, fir, heartily well met, and moft glad of your company.

Vel. You take my part from me, fir; I have the most caufe to be glad of yours.

Rom. Well, let us go together.

SCENE

Antium.

[Exeunt.

IV.

2 Serv. Away? Get you away.

Cer. Now thou art troublesome.

2 Serv. Are you so brave? I'll have you talk'd 15 with anon.

Enter a third Servant. The first meets him.

3 Serv. What fellow's this?

1 Serv. A ftrange one as ever I look'd on: I cannot get him out o' the houfe: Pr'ythee, call 20my mafter to him.

25

3 Serv. What have you to do here, fellow? Pray you, avoid the house. [hearth.

Cor. Let me but ftand; I will not hurt your 3 Serv. What are you?

Cor. A gentleman.

3 Serv. A marvellous poor one.

Cor. True, fo I am.

3 Serv. Pray you, poor gentleman, take up fome other ftation: here's no place for you; pray you, 30 avoid: come.

Cor. Follow your function, go,

And batten on cold bits.

[Pufbes bim away.

3 Serv. What, will you not? Pr'ythee, tell my mafter what a strange gueft he has here.

35

2 Str. And I fhall.

[Пeep 40

On a diffention of a doit, break out
To bittereft enmity: So, felleft foes,
Whofe paffions and whofe plots have broke their
To take the one the other, by fome chance,
Some trick not worth an egg, fhall grow dear friends,
And interjoin their iffues. So with me:
My birth-place hate I, and my love's upon
This enemy town.-I'll enter: if he flay me,
He does fair juftice; if he give me way,
I'll do his country fervice.

SCENE V.

A Hall in Aufidius's Houfe.
Mufick plays. Enter a Serving-man.

45

[Exit.

50

1 Serv. Wine, wine, wine! What fervice is here! I think our fellows are asleep.

Enter another Serving-man.

[Exit.

2 Ser. Where's Cotus? my mafter calls for 55 him. Cotus!

Enter Coriolanus.

[Exit.

[Exit.

3 Serv. I' the city of kites and crows?-What an afs it is?-Then thou dwell'ft with daws too? Cor. No, I ferve not thy master.

3 Serv. How, fir! Do you meddle with my mafter? Cor. Ay; 'tis an honefter fervice, than to meddle with thy mistress:

Thou prat'ft, and prat'ft; ferve with thy trencher, [Beats bim away.

hence!

Enter Aufidius, with the fecond Serving-man. Auf. Where is this fellow?

2 Serv. Here, fir; I'd have beaten him like a dog, but for disturbing the lords within.

Auf. Whence comeft thou? what wouldest

thou? Thy name?

Why fpeak'ft not? Speak, man: What's thy name?
Cor. If, Tullus,

Not yet thou know'ft me, and feeing me, doft not
Think me for the man I am, neceffity

160l Commands me name myself.

• That is, though not actually encamped, yet already in pay. To entertain an army is to take them into pay. 2 Companion was formerly ufed in the fame fenfe as we now ufe the word

fellow.

Auf.

5

Auf. Say, what's thy name?
Thou haft a grim appearance, and thy face
Bears a command in't: though thy tackle's torn,
Thou shew'st a noble vessel: What's thy name?
Cor. Prepare thy brow to frown: Know'ft thou
Auf. I know thee not :-Thy name? [me yet?
Cor. My name is Caius Marcius, who`hath done 10
To thee particularly, and to all the Volces,
Great hurt and mifchief; thereto witnefs may
My furname, Coriolanus: The painful service,
The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood
Shed for my thankless country, are requited
But with that furname; a good memory 1,
And witness of the malice and difpleafure [mains:
Which thou shouldft bear me, only that name re-
The cruelty and envy of the people,
Permitted by our daftard nobles, who

Have all forfook me, hath devour'd the rest;
And fuffer'd me by the voice of flaves to be
Whoop'd out Rome. Now, this extremity
Hath brought me to thy hearth: Not out of hope,|
Miftake me not, to fave my life; for if

I had fear'd death, of all the men i' the world
I would have 'voided thee: but in mere spite,
To be full quit of those my banishers,
Stand I before thee here. Then if thou haft
A heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revenge
Thine own particular wrongs, and stop thofe maims
Of fhame 3 feen through thy country, speed thee
ftraight,

And make my misery serve thy turn; so use it,
That my revengeful fervices may prove
As benefits to thee; for I will fight
Against my canker'd country with the spleen
Of all the under fiends. But if fo be

Thou dar'ft not this, and that to prove more fortunes
Thou art tir'd, then, in a word, I also am
Longer to live moft weary, and prefent
My throat to thee, and to thy ancient malice:
Which not to cut would fhew thee but a fool;
Since I have ever follow'd thee with hate,
Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country's breaft,
And cannot live but to thy fhame, unless

Each word thou haft spoke hath weeded from my
A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter

Should from yon cloud speak divine things, and fay,
'Tis true; I'd not believe them more than thee,
All noble Marcius.-Let me twine
Mine arms about that body, where against
My grained ash an hundred times hath broke,

And scarr'd the moon with splinters! Here I clip
The anvil of my fword; and do contest
As hotly and as nobly with thy love,
As ever in ambitious ftrength I did
Contend against thy valour. Know thou first,
I lov'd the maid I marry'd; never man

1 Memory for memorial. territory.

Sigh'd truer breath; but that I fee thee here,
Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart,
Than when I first my wedded mistress faw
Beftride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell
thee,

We have a power on foot; and I had purpose
Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn,
Or lofe mine arm for't: Thou haft beat me out
Twelve feveral times, and I have nightly fince
Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me;
We have been down together in my sleep,
Unbuckling helms, fifting each other's throat,
And wak'd half dead with nothing. Worthy
Marcius,

15 Had we no quarrel elfe to Rome, but that
Thou art thence banish'd, we would mufter all
From twelve to feventy; and, pouring war
Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,
Like a bold flood o'er-beat. O, come, go in,
20 And take our friendly fenators by the hands;
Who now are here, taking their leaves of me,
Who am prepar'd against your territories,
Though not for Rome itself.

25

30

Cor. You blefs me, gods!

[have

Auf. Therefore, moft abfolute fir, if thou wilt
The leading of thine own revenges, take
The one half of my commiffion, and set down,----
As best thou art experienc'd, fince thou know'st
Thy country's ftrength and weakness,-thine own
ways:

Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,
Or rudely vifit them in parts remote,

To fright them, ere destroy. But come in:
Let me commend thee first to those, that shall
35 Say, yea, to thy defires. A thoufand welcomes!
And more a friend than e'er an enemy;
Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand: Moft
welcome!
[Exeunt.

140

1 Serv. Here's a strange alteration! 2 Seru. By my hand, I had thought to have ftrucken 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 turn'd me about with his finger and his thumb, as one would 45 fet up a top.

50

2 Serv. Nay, I knew by his face that there was fomething in him: He had, fir, a kind of face, methought,-I cannot tell how to term it.

1 Serv. He had fo; looking, as it were, Would I were hang'd, but I thought there was more in him than I could think.

2 Serv. So did I, I'll be fworn: He is fimply the rareft man i' the world.

1 Serv. I think he is: but a greater foldier

55 than he, you wot one.

2 Serv. Who? my master?

1 Serv. Nay, it's no matter for that.

2 Serv. Worth fix of him.

1 Serv. Nay, not fo neither: but I take him to

60 be the greater foldier.

2 Serv. 'Faith, look you, one cannot tell how

:

to fay that for the defence of a town, our general is excellent.

1 Serv. Ay, and for an affault too.

Enter a third Servant.

peace, as far as day does night; it's fprightly, waking, audible, and full of vent 4. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mull'd 3, deaf, fleepy, infenfible; a getter of more baftard children, than

3 Serv. O, flaves, I can tell you news; news, 5 war's a destroyer of men. you rafcals.

Both. What, what, what? let's partake.

3 Serv. I would not be a Roman, of all nations, I had as lieve be a condemn'd man.

Both. 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 fay, 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 fay fo himself.

2 Serv. 'Tis fo; and as war, in fome fort, may be faid 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 ano

1other.

15

1 Serv. He was too hard for him directly, to fay the truth on't: before Corioli, he scotch'd him 20 and notch'd him like a carbonado.

2 Serv. An he had been cannibally given, he might have broil'd and eaten him too.

1 Serv. But, more of thy news?

3 Serv. Reafon; because they then lefs need one another. The wars, for my money. I hope to fee Romans as cheap as Volces.They are rifing, they are rifing.

All. In, in, in, in.

SCENE

VI.

A publice Place in Rome.

Enter Sicinius, and Brutus.

[Exeunt.

Sic. We hear not of him, neither need we fear

him;

His remedies are tame in the present peace
And quietnefs o' the people, which before

Blufh, that the world goes well; who rather had,
Though they themselves did suffer by 't, behold
Diffentious numbers peftering streets, than fee
Our tradefimen finging in their fhops, and going

3 Serv. Why, he is fo made on here within, as 25 Were in wild hurry. Here do we make his friends if he were fon and heir to Mars: fet at upper end o' the table: no question ask'd him by any of the fenators, but they stand bald before him: Our general himself makes a mistress of him; fanctifies himself with's hand 1, and turns up the white o' the 30 About their functions friendly. 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 intreaty and grant of the whole table. He will go, he says, and fowle the porter of 35 Rome gates by the ears: He will mow down all before him, and leave his paffage poll'd 3.

2 Serv. And he's as like to do't, as any man 1 can imagine.

3 Serv. Do't? he will do't: For, look you, fir, 4 he has as many friends as enemies; which friends, fir, (as it were) durft not (look you, fir) fhew themselves (as we term it) his friends, whilst he's in directitude.

1 Serv. Directitude! What's that?

3 Serv. But when they fhall fee, fir, his creft 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 fhall have the drum ftruck up this afternoon: 'tis, as it were, a parcel of their feaft, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips.

45

50

2 Serv. Why, then we fhall have a ftirring 55 world again. This peace is nothing, but to ruft iron, encrease tailors, and breed ballad makers. 1 Serv. Let me have war, fay I; it exceeds]

Alluding, improperly, to the act of crossing upon any strange event. 2 That is, drag him down by the ears into the dirt. The word is derived from few, i. e. to take hold of a perfon by the ears, as a dog feizes one of these animals. 3 That is, bared, cleared. for difcourfe. 5 i. e. foften'd and difpirited, as wine is when burnt and sweeten'd. 6 i. e. ineffual in times of peace like thefe.

i. e. full of rumour, full of materials

Sice

5

The young'st and oldest thing.

Sic. This is most likely !

Bru. Rais'd only, that the weaker fort may wish Good Marcius home again.

Sic. The very trick on't.

Men. This is unlikely:

He and Aufidius can no more atone 3,

Than violenteft contrariety.

Enter another Messenger.

Mef. You are fent for to the fenate :
A fearful army, led by Caius Marcius,
Affociated with Aufidius, rages

Upon our territories; and have already
O'er-borne their way, confum'd with fire, and took
15 What lay before them.

Enter Cominius.

Com. O, you have made good work! Men. What news? what news? [ters, and Com. You have holp to ravish your own daugh20 To melt the city leads upon your pates; To fee your wives difhonour'd to your noses;Men. What's the news? what's the news? Com. Your temple's burned in their cement; and Your franchises, whercon you ftood, confin'd 25 Into an augre's bore.

Men. Pray now, the news?

[news?

You have made fair work, I fear me :-Pray, your
If Marcius fhould be joined with the Volces,
Com. If!

30 He is their god; he leads them like a thing
Made by fome other deity than nature,
That fhapes man better: and they follow him,
Against us brats, with no lefs confidence,
Than boys purfuing fummer butter-flies,

35 Or butchers killing flies.

Men. You have made good work,

You, and your apron-men; you that stood so much
Upon the voice of occupation+, and

The breath of garlick-eaters 5!

40 Com. He'll shake your Rome about your ears. Men. As Hercules did fhake down mellow fruit, You have made fair work!

The tribunes cannot do't for fhame; the people
Deferve fuch pity of him, as the wolf

55 Does of the fhepherds: for his best friends, if they
Should fay, Be goed to Rome, they charg'd him even

2 i. e. talk. 3 Dr. Johnson remarks, To atent here is, in the

That is, without affeffers; without any other fuffrage. that to atone, in the active fenfe, is to reconcile, and is fo ufed by our author. neutral fenfe, to come to reconciliation. To atone is to unite. 4 Occupation is here ufed for mechanicks, men occupied in daily business. 5 To fmell of garlick was once fuch a brand of vulgarity, that garlick was a food forbidden to an ancient order of Spanish knights, mentioned by Guevara. It appears alfo, that garlick was once much ufed in England, and afterwards as much out of fashion. Hence, perhaps, the cant denomination Pil-garlick for a deferted fellow, a perfon left to fuffer without friends to affift him.. 6 Alluding to the apples of the Hefperides. 7 To revolt fmilingly, is to revolt with figns of pleasure, or with marks of contempt.

As

They'll roar him in again. Tullus Aufidius,
The fecond name of men, obeys his points
As if he were his officer:-defperation
Is all the policy, ftrength, and defence,
That Rome can make against them.

Enter a Troop of Citizens.

Men. Here come the clufters.-
And is Aufidius with him?-You are they
That made the air unwholesome, when you caft
Your ftinking, greasy caps, in hooting at
Coriolanus' exile. Now he's coming;
And not a hair upon a foldier's head,

Which will not prove a whip; as many coxcombs,
As you threw caps up, will he tumble down,
And pay you for your voices. "Tis no matter;
If he could burn us all into one coal,
We have deferv'd it.

Omnes. 'Faith, we hear fearful news.

1 Cit. For mine own part,

When I said, banish him, I faid, 'twas pity. 2 Cit. And fo did I.

[Capitol?

20

Lieu. I do not know what witchcraft's in him;
but

Your foldiers ufe him as the grace 'fore meat,
Their talk at table, and their thanks at end;

And you are darken'd in this action, fir,
Even by your own.

Auf. I cannot help it now;

Unlefs by ufing means, I lame the foot

Of our defign. He bears himself more proudly
Even to my perfon, 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.

Lieut. Yet I wish, fir,

(I mean, for your particular) you had not
Join'd in commiffion with him: but either borne
The action of yourfelf, or elfe to him

Had left it folely.

Auf. I understand thee well; and be thou fure,
When he fhall come to his account, he knows not
What I can urge against him. Although it feems,
And fo he thinks, and is no lefs apparent

To the vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly,
And fhews good husbandry for the Volcian state;
25 Fights dragon-like, and does atchieve as foon
As draw his fword: yet he hath left undone
That, which fhall break his neck, or hazard mine,
Whene'er we come to our account. [Rome?

Lieu. Sir, I befeech you, think you he'll carry 30 Auf. All places yield to him ere he fits down; And the nobility of Rome are his :

35

40

3 Cit. And fo did I; and, to say the truth, fo did very many of us: That we did, we did for the best; and though we willingly confented to his banishment, yet it was against our will. Com. You are goodly things, you voices! Men. You have made you Good work, you and your cry!-Shall us to the Com. O, ay; what else? [Exe. Com. and Men. Sic. Go, mafters, get you home, be not difmay'd, 45 These are a fide, that would be glad to have This true, which they fo feem to fear. Go home, And fhew no fign of fear.

Even with the fame aufterity and garb
As he control!'d the war: but, one of thefe,
(As he hath fpices of them all, not all,

1 Cit. The gods be good to us! Come, mafters, let's home. I ever faid, we were i' the wrong, 50 For I dare fo far free him) made him fear'd, when we banish'd him.

Bru. Let's to the Capitol :-'Would, half my

Would buy this for a lie!

Sic. Pray, let us go.
[Exeunt Tribunes.
SCENE VII.

A Camp; at a fmail diftance from Rome.
Enter Aufidius, with bis Lieutenant.

Auf. Do they ftill fly to the Roman ?

So hated, and fo banish'd: but he has a merit,
To choak 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 3.

One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;
Right's by right fouler 4, ftrengths by strength do

fail.

60 Come, let's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine, Thou art poor'st of all; then shortly art thou mine. [Exeunt.

1 i. e. As they booted at his departure, they will roar at his return; as he went out with fcoffs, he will come back with lamentations. 2 A kind of eagle. 3 The fenfe is, The virtue which delights to commend itself will find the fureft tomb in that chair wherein it holds forth its own commendations. 4 i. e. What is already right, and received as fuch, becomes lefs clear when fupported by fupernumerary proofs.

ACT