so did very many of us. That we did we did for Com. O ay; what else? Exeunt COMINIUS and MENENIUS. Sic. Go, masters, get you home; be not dismay'd: 150 These are a side that would be glad to have First Cit. The gods be good to us! Come, Bru. I do not like this news. But come, let's Will be as rash in the repeal as hasty A noble servant to them, but he could not Even with the same austerity and garb Bru. Let's to the Capitol. Would half my Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair Would buy this for a lie! 160 40 50 One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail; Pray let us go. Exeunt. Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths SCENE VII.-A Camp at a small distance from Rome. Enter AUFIDIUS and his Lieutenant. Auf. Do they still fly to the Roman ? Your soldiers use him as the grace 'fore meat, Auf. Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier, 11 Auf. I understand thee well; and be thou sure, When he shall come to his account, he knows not do fail. Come, let's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine, Thou art poor'st of all; then shortly art thou mine. Exeunt. ACT V. SCENE I.-Rome. A public Place. Enter MENENIUS, COMINIUS, SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and Others. Men. No, I'll not go: you hear what he hath Which was sometime his general; who lov'd him name. I urg'd our old acquaintance, and the drops What I can urge against him. Although it Of burning Rome. To the vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly, Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon Lieu. Sir, I beseech you, think you he'll carry Auf. All places yield to him ere he sits down; 30 10 Men. For one poor grain or two! I am one of those; his mother, wife, his child, And this brave fellow too, we are the grains: 30 You are the musty chaff, and you are smelt Above the moon. We must be burnt for you. Sie. Nay, pray, be patient: if you refuse your aid In this so never-needed help, yet do not More than the instant army we can make, Sic. Pray you, go to him. Men. Good my friends, If you have heard your general talk of Rome, And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks, 10 No; I'll not meddle. My name hath touch'd your ears: it is Menenius. First Guard. Be it so; go back the virtue of your name . What should I do? 39 Bru. Only make trial what your love can do For Rome, towards Marcius. Men. Well; and say that Marcius Return me, as Cominius is return'd, Unheard; what then? 50 And hum at good Cominius, much unhearts me. Till he be dieted to my request, Bru. You know the very road into his kindness, And cannot lose your way. Men. Speed how it will. ledge Of my success. Com. Sic. Good faith, I'll prove him, 60 I shall ere long have knowExit. He'll never hear him. Not? Is not here passable. Men. I tell thee, fellow, His fame unparallel'd, haply amplified ; Of whom he's chief, with all the size that verity I have tumbled past the throw, and in his praise Have almost stamp'd the leasing. Therefore. fellow, I must have leave to pass. First Guard. Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in his behalf as you have uttered words in your own, you should not pass here; no. though it were as virtuous to lie as to live chastely. Therefore go back. Men. Prithee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius, always factionary on the party of your general. Second Guard. Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say you have, I am one that, telling true under him, must say you cannot pass. Therefore go back. Men. Has he dined, canst thou tell? for I would not speak with him till after dinner. First Guard. You are a Roman, are you! Men. I am, as thy general is. First Guard. Then you should hate Rome, as he does. Can you, when you have pushed out your gates the very defender of them, and, in a violent popular ignorance, given your enemy your shield, think to front his revenges with the easy groans of old women, the virginal palms of your daughters, or with the palsied intercession of such a decayed dotant as you seem to be! Can you think to blow out the intended fire your city is ready to flame in with such weak breath as this? No, you are deceived; therefore, back to Rome, and prepare for your execution: you are condemned, our general has sworn you out of reprieve and pardon. 53 Men. Sirrah, if thy captain knew I were here, he would use me with estimation. Second Guard. Come, my captain knows you Enter CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS. Cor. What's the matter? Men. Now, you companion, I'll say an errand for you: you shall know now that I am in estimation; you shall perceive that a Jack guardant cannot office me from my son Coriolanus: guess, but by my entertainment with him, if thou standest not i' the state of hanging, or of some death more long in spectatorship, and crueller in suffering; behold now presently, and swoon for what 's to come upon thee. To CORIOLANUS. The glorious gods sit in hourly synod about thy particular prosperity, and love thee no worse than thy old father Menenius does! O my son! my son! thou art preparing fire for us; look thee, here's water to quench it. I was hardly moved to come to thee; but being assured none but myself could move thee, I have been blown out of your gates with sighs, and conjure thee to pardon Rome, and thy petitionary country. men. The good gods assuage thy wrath, and turn the dregs of it upon this varlet here; this, who, like a block, hath denied my access to thee. Cor. Away! Men. How away! You must report to the Volscian lords, how plainly 10 I have borne this business. Shout within. 20 Shall I be tempted to infringe my vow Cor. Wife mother, child, I know not. My My wife comes foremost; then the honour'd affairs 90 Are servanted to others: though I owe Gives a paper. Take this along; I writ it for thy sake, 101 Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS. First Guard. Now, sir, is your name Menenius? Second Guard. 'Tis a spell, you see, of much power. You know the way home again. First Guard. Do you hear how we are shent for keeping your greatness back? Second Guard. What cause, do you think, I have to swoon? Men. I neither care for the world, nor your general for such things as you, I can scarce think there's any, ye 're so slight. He that hath a will to die by himself fears it not from another. Let your general do his worst. For you, be that you are, long; and your misery increase with your age! I say to you, as I was said to, Away! Exit. First Guard. A noble fellow, I warrant him. Second Guard. The worthy fellow is our general: he's the rock, the oak not to be wind-shaken. Exeunt. SCENE III.-The Tent of CORIOLANUS. Enter CORIOLANUS, AUFIDIUS, and Others. Cor. We will before the walls of Rome to morrow Set down our host. My partner in this action, mould My lord and husband! Cor. These eyes are not the same I wore in Rome. Vir. The sorrow that delivers us thus chang'd Makes you think so. I have forgot my part, and I am out, Like a dull actor now, 40 To shame unvulnerable, and stick i' the wars Like a great sea-mark, standing every flaw, And saving those that eye thee! Vol. Your knee, sirrah. Cor. That's my brave boy! Vol. Even he, your wife, this lady, and myself, Are suitors to you. Cor. Again with Rome's mechanics: tell me not Vol. O! no more, no more; 81 Must, as a foreign recreant, be led name Living to time. Rising. Nay, go not from us thus. As poisonous of your honour: no; our suit 'This we receiv'd'; and each in either side Give the all-hail to thee, and cry 'Be bless'd For making up this peace!' Thou know'st, Hear nought from Rome in private. Your Thou hast affected the fine strains of honour, request? Vol. Should we be silent and not speak, our raiment And state of bodies would bewray what life Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with comforts, Constrains them weep, and shake with fear and Making the mother, wife, and child, to see Our wish, which side should win; for either thou To imitate the graces of the gods; 150 life Show'd thy dear mother any courtesy ; When she, poor hen! fond of no second brood, Has cluck'd thee to the wars, and safely home, Loaden with honour. Say my request 's unjust, And spurn me back; but if it be not so, Thou art not honest and the gods will plague thee, That thou restrain'st from me the duty which To a mother's part belongs. He turns away: He holds VOLUMNIA by the hand, silent. The gods look down, and this unnatural scene 190 Were you in my stead, would you have heard I'll not to Rome, I'll back with you; and pray a butterfly; yet your butterfly was a grub. This Marcius is grown from man to dragon: he has wings; he's more than a creeping thing. Sic. He loved his mother dearly. Men. So did he me; and he no more remembers his mother now than an eight-year-old horse. The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes when he walks, he moves like an engine, and the ground shrinks before his treading: he is able to pierce a corslet with his eye; talks like a knell, and his hum is a battery. He sits in his state, as a thing made for Alexander. What he bids be done is finished with his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but eternity and a heaven to throne in. Sic. Yes, mercy, if you report him truly. Men. I paint him in the character. Mark what mercy his mother shall bring from him: there is no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male tiger; that shall our poor city find: and all this is long of you. Sic. The gods be good unto us! 33 Ne'er through an arch so hurried the blown tide, As the recomforted through the gates. Why, hark you! Trumpets and hautboys sounded, and drums beaten, all together. Shouting also within. The trumpets, sackbuts, psalteries, and fifes, Tabors, and cymbals, and the shouting Romans, Make the sun dance. Hark you! A shout within. This is good news: I will go meet the ladies. This Volumnia Is worth of consuls, senators, patricians, Men. Men. See you yond coign o' the Capitol, yond A city full; of tribunes, such as you, corner-stone? A sea and land full. You have pray'd well to-day: This morning for ten thousand of your throats 60 I'd not have given a doit. Hark! how they joy. Music still, with shouts. Sic. First, the gods bless you for your tidings; next, Accept my thankfulness. Mess. Great cause to give great Sic. Sir, we have all thanks. They are near the city? Mess. Almost at point to enter. |