Dec. My business is with Cato; Cæsar sees Cato. My life is grafted on the fate of Rome. Dec. Rome and her senators submit to Cæsar; Cato. Those very reasons thou hast urged forbid it. And reason with you, as from friend to friend. Cato. No more: I must not think of life on such conditions. Dec. Cæsar is well acquainted with your virtues, Cato. Bid him disband his legions, Restore the commonwealth to liberty, And stand the judgment of a Roman senate. Bid him do this, and Cato is his friend. Dec. Cato, the world talks loudly of your wisdomCato. Nay, more, though Cato's voice was ne'er employed To clear the guilty, and to varnish crimes, Myself will mount the rostrum in his favour, Dec. Consider, Cato, you're in Utica, Cato. Let him consider that, who drives us hither. 'Tis Cæsar's sword has made Rome's senate little, And thinned its ranks. Alas! thy dazzled eye Beholds this man in a false glaring light, Which conquest and success have thrown upon him; Dec. Does Cato send this answer back to Cæsar, Dec. Your high, unconquered heart makes you forget You are a man. You rush on your destruction: But I have done. When I relate hereafter The tale of this unhappy embassy, All Rome will be in tears. ADDISON. CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, ETC.-CORIOLANUS. Cor. Tullus Aufidius then had made new head. Men. He had, my lord; and that it was which caused Our swifter composition. Cor. So then the Volsces stand but as at first; Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road Upon us again. Men. They are worn, lord consul, so That we shall hardly in our ages see Their banners wave again. Cor. Saw you Aufidius? Men. On safeguard he came to me; and did curse Men. How often he had met you sword to sword : Your person most: that he would pawn his fortunes Be called your vanquisher. Cor. At Antium lives he? Men. At Antium. Cor. I wish I had a cause to seek him there, To oppose his hatred fully. Welcome home. (To Menenius). Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS. Behold! these are the tribunes of the people; The tongues o' the common mouth. I do despise them; For they do prank them in authority, Against all noble sufferance. Sic. Pass no further. Cor. Ha! what is that? Bru. It will be dangerous to go on: no further. Men. The matter? Hath he not passed the nobles and the commons ? Bru. Menenius, no : The people are incens'd against him. Sic. Stop, Or all will fall in broil. Cor. Are these your herd? Must these have voices, that can yield them now, And straight disclaim their tongues? offices? What are your You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth? Have you not set them on? Men. Be calm, be calm. Cor. It is a purposed thing, and grows by plot, To curb the will of the nobility: Suffer it, and live with such as cannot rule, Bru. Call 't not a plot : The people cry you mocked them; and, of late, Cor. Why, this was known before. Bru. Not to them all. Cor. Have you informed them since? Bru. How! I inform them! Cor. You are like to do such business. Bru. Not unlike, Each way, to better yours. Cor. Why then should I be consul? By yon clouds, Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me Your fellow tribune. Sic. You show too much of that For which the people stir: If you will pass Or never be so noble as a consul, Nor yoke with him for tribune. Men. Let's be calm. Cor. Tell me of corn! This was my speech, and I will speak 't again ;- Cor. Now, as I live, I will. My nobler friends, I crave their pardons: For the mutable, rank-scented many, Let them regard me as I do not flatter, And therein behold themselves: I say again, In soothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition, Which we ourselves have ploughed for, sowed, and scat tered, By mingling them with us, the honoured number; Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that Which they have given to beggars. Men. Well, no more. Cor. How! no more? As for my country I have shed my blood, Bru. You speak o' the people as if you were a god Sic. 'Twere well we let the people know't. Cor. Choler! Were I as patient as the midnight sleep, Sic. It is a mind That shall remain a poison where it is, Cor. Shall remain ! Hear you this triton of the minnows? Mark you O good, but most unwise patricians, why You grave, but reckless senators, have you thus And such a one as he who puts his shall, His popular shall, against a graver bench Than ever frowned in Greece? By Jove himself Neither supreme, how soon confusion May enter twixt the gap of both, and take Men. Well, on to the market place. Cor. Whoever gave that counsel to give forth The corn o' the storehouse gratis, as 'twas used Sometime in Greece, Men. Well, well, no more of that. Cor. Though there the people had more absolute power, I say, they nourished disobedience, fed The ruin of the state. Bru. Why shall the people give One that speaks thus, their voice? |