I shall be lov'd, when I am lack'd. Nay, mother,
Resume that spirit, when you were wont to say,
If you had been the wife of Hercules,
Six of his labours you'd have done, and sav'd
Your husband so much sweat.-Cominius, [ther!
Droop not: adieu:-Farewell, my wife! my ino-
I'll do well yet.-Thou old and true Menenius,
Thy tears are salter than a younger man's, [eral,
And venomous to thine eyes.-My sometime gen-
I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft be held
Heart-hard'ning spectacles; tell these sad women,
'Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes, [well,
As 'tis to laugh at them.-My mother, you wot
My hazards still have been your solace: and
Believe't not lightly (though I
go alone,
Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen
Makes fear'd, and talk'd of more than seen,) your
Will, or exceed the common, or be caught
With cautelous baits and practice.

Vol. My first son,

[son

Whither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius
With thee a-while: Determine on some course,
More than a wild exposure to each chance
That starts i'the way before thee.

Cor. O the gods.

Sic. They say, she's mad.

Bru. They have ta'en note of us: Keep on your way,

Vol. O, you're well met: the hoarded plague Requite your love! [o'the gods Men. Peace, peace; be not so loud. [hear,Vol. If that I could for weeping, you should Nay, and you shall hear son.e.— -Will you be gone? [to Brutus.

Vir. You shall stay too: [to Sic.] I would, I To say so to my husband. [had the power [fool.

Sic. Are you mankind? Vol. Ay, fool; is that a shame?—Note but this Was not a man my father? Hadst thou fox-ship To banish him that struck more blows for Rome, Than thou hast spoken words?

Vol. I would he had? 'Twas you incens'd the Cats, that can judge as fitly of his worth, As I can of those mysteries which heaven Will not have earth to know.

You have done a brave deed. Ere you go, hear As far as doth the Capitol exceed

The meanest house in Rome; so far, my son

(This lady's husband here, this, do you see,)
Whom you have banish'd, does exceed you all.
Bru. Well, well, we'll leave you.
Sic. Why stay we to be baited
With one that wants her wits?
Vol. Take my prayers with you.—
I would the gods had nothing else to do,
[exeunt Tribures.
But to confirm my curses! Could I meet them
But once a day, it would unclog my heart
Of what lies heavy to't.

[me?

Men. You have told them home, And by my troth, you have cause. You'll sup with

8 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 away.

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

[exit.

3 Serv. I'the city of kites and crows?-What an ass it is! 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.. Auf. Whence comest thou? what wouldest thou? Thy name?

Why speak'st not? Speak, man: What's thy name?
Cor. If, Tullus,
[unmuffling.
Not yet thou know'st me, and seeing me, dost not
Think me for the man I am, necessity
Commands me name myself. en

Auf. What is thy name?

[Servants retire. Cor. A name unmusical to the Volcians' ears, And harsh in sound to thine.

Auf. Say, what's thy name?

Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face
Bears a command in't; though thy tackle's torn,
Thou show'st a noble vessel: what's thy name?
Cor. Prepare thy brow to frown: know'st thou
Auf. I know thee not.-Thy name? [me yet?
Cor. My name is Caius Marcius, who hath done
To thee particularly, and to all the Volces,
Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may
My surname, Coriolanus. The painful service,
The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood
Shed for my thankless country, are requited
But with that surname; a good memory,
And witness of the malice and displeasure.
Which thou shouldst bear me: only that name
The cruelty and envy of the people, [remains;
Permitted by our dastard nobles, who

Have all forsook me, hath devour'd the rest;
And suffer'd me by the voice of slaves to be
Whoop'd out of Rome. Now, this extremity
Hath brought me to thy hearth; not out of hope,
Mistake me not, to save my life; for, if

I had fear'd death, of all the men i'the world

I would have 'voided thee: but in merè spite,
To be full quit of those my banishers,
Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast
A heart of wreak in thee, that will revenge
Thine own particular wrongs, and stop those maims
Of shame seen through thy country, speed thre
straight,

And make my misery serve thy turn; so use it,
That my revengeful services may prove
As benefits thee; for I will fight

104

Against my canker'd country with the spleen
Of all the under fiends. But, if so be[tunes
Thou dar'st not this, and that to prove more for-
Thou art tir'd, then, in a word, I also am a
Longer to live most weary, and present
My throat to thee, and to thy ancient malice:
Which not to cut, would show thee but a fool;
Since I have ever follow'd thee with hate,
Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country's breast,
And cannot live but to thy shame, unless
It be to do thee service.

[heart

Auf. O, Marcius, Marcius, Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter [say, Should from yon cloud speak divine things, and 'Tis true; I'd not believe them more than thee, All-noble Marcius.-O, let me twine Mine arms about that body, where against My grained ash an hundred times hath broke, And scar'd the moon with splinters! Here I clip The anvil of my sword; and do contest As hotly and as nobly with thy love, As ever in ambitious strength I did Contend against thy valour. Know thou first, I lov'd the maid I married; never man Sigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here, Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart, Than when I first my wedded mistress saw [thee, Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell We have a power on foot: and I had purpose Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn, Or lose mine arm for't. Thou hast beat me ont Twelve several times, and I have nightly since Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me; We have been down together in my sleep, si Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat, And wak'd half dead with nothing. Worthy MarHad we no quarrel else to Rome, but that [cius, Thou art thence banish'd, we would muster all From twelve to seventy; and, pouring war Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome, Like a bold flood o'er-beat. O, come, go in, And take our friendly senators by the hands; Who now are here, taking their leaves of me, Who am prepar'd against your territories, Though not for Rome itself.

Cor. You bless me, gods! Auf. Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt The leading of thine own revenges, take mo The one half of my commission; and set down, As best thou art experienc'd, since thou know'ster Thy country's strength and weakness,thine own Whether to knock against the gates of Rome, [ways. Or rudely visit them in parts remote, To fright them, ere destroy. But come in: Let me commend thee first to those, that shull

Say, yea, to thy desires. A thousand welcomes! And more a friend than e'er an enemy; Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand! Most welcome! [exeunt Coriolanus and Aufidius. 1 Serv. [advancing.] Here's a strange alteration! 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 my dalem of quiet evad uno 7. „und> 142 Serv. Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him. He had, sir, a kind of face, inethought, 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, wi

1-Serv. I think, he is: but a greater soldier than he, you wot one.

2 Serv. Who?my master?ad

1 Serv. Nay, it's no matter for that. vd sh 2 Seru. Worth six of him. mm gute i 1 Serv. Nay, not so neither; but I take him to be the greater soldier. grungefod nmiT 2 Serv. 'Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that: for the defence of a town our general is excellent.boose Band wing; (e)

1 Serv. Ay, and for an assault too, or may ! Re-enter third Servant. tervad muid 3 Serv. O slaves, I can tell you news; news, you rascals. 400 Toy Streda medi 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.

ColServ. Why do you say, thwack our general? 3 Serv. I do not say, thwack our general; but he was always good enough for him. Starost

2 Serv. Come, we are fellows and friends: he was ever too hard for him; I have heard him say so himself.

1 Semu. 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 ears: he will mow down all before him, and leave his passage polled. to hi

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

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 vit,) 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?oday 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.or

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 war's a destroyer of men.

2 Serv. 'Tis so: and as war, in some sort, may be said to be a ravisher; so it cannot be denied, but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.w

7

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.

SCENE VI HOME. · A PUBLIC PLACE.

Enter Sicinius and Brutus. Sic. We hear not of him, neither need we fear His remedies are tame i'the present peace [him; 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.cum ma'a Bru. We stood to't in good time. Is this Menenius? Sic. 'Tis he, 'tis he. O, he is grown most kind Of late,-Hail, sir!

Mess. The nobles, in great earnestness, are going All to the senate-house; some news is come,

That turns their countenances.

Sic. 'Tis this slave;

The tribunes cannot do't for shame; the people Deserve such pity of him, as the wolf

Does of the shepherds:-for his best friends, if they

Nothing but his report!

Mess. Yes, worthy sir,

The slave's report is seconded; and more,
More fearful, is deliver'd.

Sic. What more fearful?

Mess. It is spoke freely out of many mouths, (How probable, I do not know,) that Marcius, Join'd with Aufidius, leads a power 'gainst Rome; And vows revenge as spacious, as between The young'st and oldest thing.

Sic. This is most likely!

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

Sic. The very trick on't.

Men. This is unlikely:

He and Aufidius can no more atone, Than violentest contrariety.