Whether I blush, or no: Howbeit, I thank you:- To the fairness of my power. Lart. I shall, my lord. Cor. The gods begin to mock me. I that now Refus'd more princely gifts, am bound to beg Of my lord general. Com. Take it: 'tis yours.-What is't? Cor. I sometime lay, here in Corioli, At a poor man's house; he used me kindly: He cried to me; I saw him prisoner; But then Aufidius was within my view, And wrath o'erwhelm'd my pity: I request you To give my poor host freedom. Com. O, well begg'd! Were he the butcher of my son, he should Be free, as the wind. Deliver him, Titus. Lart. Marcius, his name? Cor. By Jupiter, forgot:I am weary; yea, my memory is tir'd.Have we no wine here? I' the part that is at mercy? Five times, Marcius, 1 Sol. With only suffering stain by him; for him Wash my fierce hand in his heart. Go you to the ACT II. Men. Not according to the prayer of the people, for they love not Marcius. Sic. Nature teaches beasts to know their friends. Men. Ay, to devour him; as the hungry plebeians would the noble Marcius. Bru. He's a lamb indeed, that baes like a bear. Men. He's a bear indeed, that lives like a lamb. You two are old men; tell me one thing that shall ask you. Both Trib. Well, sir. I Men. In what enormity is Marcius poor, that you two have not in abundance? Bru. He's poor in no one fault, but stored with all. Sic. Especially in pride. Bru. And topping all others in boasting. Men. This is strange now; Do you two know how you are censured here in the city, I mean of us o' the right hand file? Do you? Both Trib. Why, how are we censured? Add more by doing his best. Enter into articles. $ Chief men. Men. Because you talk of pride now,-Will you not be angry? Both Trib. Well, well, sir, well. Men. Why 'tis no great matter; for a very little thief of occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience give your disposition the reins, and be angry at your pleasures; at the least, if you take it as a pleasure to you, in being so. You blame Marcius for being proud? Bru. We do it not alone, sir. Men. I know, you can do very little alone; for your helps are many; or else your actions would grow wondrous single: your abilities are too infant-like, for doing much alone. You talk of pride: O, that you could turn your eyes towards the napes of your necks, and make but an interior survey of your good selves! O, that you could! Bru. What then, sir? Men. Why, then you should discover a brace of unmeriting, proud, violent, testy magistrates, (alias fools,) as any in Rome. Sic. Menenius, you are known well enough too. Men. I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tyber in't; said to be something imperfect, in favoring the first complaint: hasty, and tinder-like, upon too trivial motion: one that converses more with the buttock of the night, than with the forehead of the morning. What I think, • Poke, push. ▾ Whereas. Waited for. I utter; and spend my malice in my breath: Meeting two such weals-men' as you are, (I cannot call you Lycurguses,) if the drink you gave me, touch my palate adversely, I make a crooked face at it. I cannot say, your worships have delivered the matter well, when I find the ass in compound with the major part of your syllables: and though I must be content to bear with those that say you are reverend grave men; yet they lie deadly, that tell, you have good faces. If you see this in the map of my microcosm, follows it, that I am known well enough too? What harm can your bisson' conspectuities glean out of this character, if I be known well enough too? Bru. Come, sir, come; we know you well enough. Men. You know neither me, yourselves, nor any thing. You are ambitious for poor knaves' caps and legs; you wear out a good wholesome forenoon, in hearing a cause between an orange wife and a fosset-seller; and then rejourn the controversy of three-pence to a second day of audience. -When you are hearing a matter between party and party, if you chance to be pinched with the colic, you make faces like mummers; set up the bloody flag against all patience; and, in roaring for a chamber-pot, dismiss the controversy bleeding, the more entangled by your hearing: all the peace you make in their cause, is, calling both the parties knaves: You are a pair of strange ones. Bru. Come, come, you are well understood to be a perfecter giber for the table, than a necessary bencher in the Capitol. Men. Our very priests must become mockers, if they shall encounter such ridiculous subjects as you are. When you speak best unto the purpose, it is not worth the wagging of your beards; and your beards deserve not so honorable a grave, as to stuff a botcher's cushion, or to be entombed in an ass's pack-saddle. Yet you must be saying, Marcius is proud; who, in a cheap estimation, is worth all your predecessors, since Deucalion; though, peradventure, some of the best of them were hereditary hangmen. Good e'en to your worships: more of your conversation would infect my brain, being the herdsmen of the beastly plebeians: I will be bold to take my leave of you. [Buc. and Sic. retire to the back of the Scene. Enter VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, and VALERIA, &c. How now, my as fair as noble ladies, (and the moon, were she earthly, no nobler,) whither do you follow your eyes so fast? Vol. Honorable Menenius; my boy Marcius approaches: for the love of Juno, let's go. Men. Ha! Marcius coming home? Vol. Ay, worthy Menenius; and with most prosperous approbation. Men. Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee:Hoo! Marcius coming home? Two Ladies. Nay, 'tis true. Vol. Look, here's a letter from him: the state hath another, his wife another; and, I think, there's one at home for you. Men. I will make my very house reel to-night: -A letter for me? Vir. Yes, certain, there's a letter for you; I saw it. Men. A letter for me? It gives me an estate of seven years' health; in which time I will make a lip at the physician: the most sovereign prescription in Galen is but empiricutic, and to this preservative, of no better report than a horse-drench. Is he not wounded? he was wont to come home wounded. Vir. O, no, no, no. Vol. O, he is wounded, I thank the gods for't. Men. So do I too, if it be not too much:-Brings a victory in his pocket?-The wounds become him. Val. On's brows, Menenius: he comes the third time home with the oaken garland. Men. Has he disciplined Aufidius soundly? Vol. Titus Lartius writes, They fought together, but Aufidius got off. Men. And 'twas time for him too, I'll warrant him that: an he had staid by him, I would not have been so fidiused for all the chests in Corioli, and the gold that's in them. Is the senate possessed of this? Vol. Good ladies, let's go:-Yes, yes, yes: the senate has letters from the general, wherein he gives my son the whole name of the war: he hath in this action outdone his former deeds doubly. Val. In troth, there's wondrous things spoke of him. Men. Wondrous? Ay, I warrant you, and not without his true purchasing. Vir. The gods grant them true! Men. True? I'll be sworn they are true: Where is he wounded? - God save your good! worships! [To the Tribunes, who come forward.] Marcius is coming home: he has more cause to be proud. Where is he wounded? Vol. I' the shoulder, and i' the left arm: There will be large cicatrices to show the people, when he shall stand for his place. He received in the repulse of Tarquin, seven hurts i' the body. Men. One in the neck, and two in the thigh,there's nine that I know. Vol. He had, before this last expedition, twentyfive wounds upon him. Men. Now it's twenty-seven: every gash was an enemy's grave: [A Shout, and Flourish.] Hark! the trumpets. Vol. These are the ushers of Marcius: before him He carries noise, and behind him he leaves tears; Death, that dark spirit, in's nervy arm doth lie; Which being advanced, declines; and then men die. A Sennet. Trumpets sound. Enter COMINIUS and TITUS LARTIUS; between them, CORIOLANUS, crowned with an oaken Garland; with Captains, Soldiers, and a Herald. Her. Know, Rome, that all alone Marcius did Within Corioli' gates: where he hath won, [Flourish. Look, sir, your mother. O! [Kneels. Vol. My gracious silence, hail! 3 Flourish on cornets. Wouldst thou have laugh'd, had I come coffin'd home, That weep'st to see me triumph? Ah, my dear, Men. Now the gods crown thee! Cor. And live you yet? O my sweet lady, And welcome, general;—And you are welcome all. Men. A hundred thousand welcomes: I could weep, And I could laugh; I am light, and heavy: Wel come: A curse begin at every root of his heart, men, Sic. Doubt not, the commoners, for whom we stand, But they, upon their ancient malice, will Bru. Bru. It was his word: O, he would miss it, Than carry it, but by the suit o' the gentry to him, I wish no better, Than have him hold that purpose, and put it We have some old crab-trees here at home, that In execution. Cor. Menenius, ever, ever. Your hand, and yours. 1 But with them change of honors. Vol. To see inherited my very wishes, To him, or our authorities. For an end, Have made them mules, silenced their pleaders, and Of no more soul, nor fitness for the world, And the buildings of my fancy: only there Cor. Bru. All tongues speak of him, and the bleared sights Are spectacled to see him: Your prattling nurse Into a rapture lets her baby cry, While she chats him: the kitchen malkin' pins Her richest lockram" 'bout her reechy' neck, Clambering the walls to eye him: stalls, bulks, windows, Bru. Enter a Messenger. What's the matter? Mess. You are sent for to the Capitol. "Tis thought That Marcius should be consul: I have seen Bru. Have with you. [Exeunt. SCENE II.-The Capitol. Enter two Officers, to lay Cushions. 1 Off. Come, come, they are almost here: How many stand for consulships! 2 Off. Three, they say: but 'tis thought of every one, Coriolanus will carry it. 1 Off. That's a brave fellow; but he's vengeance proud, and loves not the common people. 2 Off. 'Faith, there have been many great men that have flatter'd the people, who ne'er loved them; and there be many that they have loved, they know not wherefore; so that, if they love they know not why, they hate upon no better a ground: Therefore, for Coriolanus neither to care whether they love or hate him, manifests the true knowledge he has in their disposition; and out of his noble carelessness, lets them plainly see't. 1 Off. If he did not care whether he had their love, or no, he waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm; but he seeks their hate with greater devotion than they can render it him and leaves nothing undone, that may fully discover him their opposite. Now, to seem to affect the malice and displeasure of the people, is as bad as that which he dislikes, to flatter them for their love. 2 Off. He hath deserved worthily of his country: And his ascent is not by such easy degrees as those, who, having been supple and courteous to the people, bonneted without any further deed to heave them at all into their estimation and report: but he hath so planted his honors in their eyes, and his actions in their hearts, that for their tongues to be silent, and not confess so much, were a kind of ingrateful injury to report otherwise were a malice, that, giving itself the lie, would pluck reproof and rebuke from every ear that heard it. 1 Off. No more of him; he is a worthy man: Make way, they are coming. A Sennet. Enter, with Lictors before them, COMINIUS, the Consul, MENENIUS, CORIOLANUS, many other Senators, SICINIUS, and BRUTUS. The Senators take their places; the Tribunes take theirs also by themselves. Men. Having determin'd of the Volces, and Hath thus stood for his country: Therefore please you, Most reverend and grave elders, to desire The present consul, and last general In our well-found successes, to report A little of that worthy work perform'd By Caius Marcius Coriolanus: whom We meet here, both to thank and to remember With honors like himself. 1 Sen. Speak, good Cominius: Leave nothing out for length, and make us think, Rather our state's defective for requital, Than we to stretch it out. ple, Masters o' the peo I had rather have my wounds to heal again, My words disbench'd you not. I love them as they weigh. When the alarum were struck, than idly sit Men. [Exit CORIOLANUS. Masters o' the people, Your multiplying spawn how can he flatter, (That's thousand to one good one,) when you now see, He had rather venture all his limbs for honor, Than one of his ears to hear it?-Proceed, Co minius. Com. I shall lack voice: the deeds of Coriolanus Should not be utter'd feebly.-It is held, That valor is the chiefest virtue, and 6 Most dignifies the haver: if it be, I cannot speak him home. He stopp'd the fliers; Men. Worthy man! 3 Cit. We have been called so of many; not that our heads are some brown, some black, some auburn, some bald, but that our wits are so diversely colored and truly I think, if all our wits were to issue out of one skull, they would fly east, west, north, south and their consent of one direct way should be at once to all the points o' the compass. 2 Cit. Think you so? Which way, do you judge, my wit would fly? : 3 Cit. Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another man's will, 'tis strongly wedged up in a blockhead: but if it were at liberty, 'twould, sure, southward. 2 Cit. Why that way? 3 Cit. To lose itself in a fog; where being three parts melted away with rotten dews, the fourth would return for conscience sake to help to get thee a wife. 2 Cit. You are never without your tricks :-You may, you may. 3 Cit. Are you all resolved to give your voices? But that's no matter, the greater part carries it. I say, if he would incline to the people, there was never a worthier man. Enter CORIOLANUS and MENENIUS. Here he comes, and in the gown of humility: mark his behavior. We are not to say altogether, but to come by him where he stands, by ones, by twos, and by threes. He's to make his requests by particulars: wherein every one of us has a single honor, in giving him our own voices with our own tongues: therefore, follow me, and I'll direct you how you shall go by him. The worthiest men have done it? Cor. What must I say?— I got them in my country's service, when Men. Think upon me? Hang 'em! I would they would forget me, like the virtues Which our divines lose by them. Men. You'll mar all; I'll leave you: pray you, speak to them, I pray you, In wholesome manner. [Exit. 1 Cit. Once, if he do require our voices, we ought And keep their teeth clean.-So here comes a not to deny him. 2 Cit. We may, sir, if we will. 3 Cit. We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do: for if he show us his wounds, and tell us his deeds, we are to put our tongues into those wounds, and speak for them; so, if he tell us his noble deeds, we must also tell him our noble acceptance of them. Ingratitude is monstrous: and for the multitude to be ingrateful, were to make a monster of the multitude; of the which, we being members, should bring ourselves to be monstrous members. 1 Cit. And to make us no better thought of, a little help will serve: for once, when we stood up about the corn, he himself stuck not to call us the many-headed multitude. 1 Avarice. brace. You know the cause, sir, of my standing here. 1 Cit. We do, sir; tell us what hath brought you to't. |