Ir nglishQassics * ,TH ^mmn^ Shakespeare's V % is CORIOLANUS Kellogg 3s & New-York, "^H £fRMSHAM^AYHA8Dj(C0* )l$S English Classics, Etc. Classes in English Literature, Reading, Grammar, etc. EDITED BT EMINENT ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SCHOLARS. Each Volume contains a Sketch of the Author's Life, Prefatory and Explanatory Notes, etc., etc. These Volumes are thoroughly adapted for Schools in which English Literature forms a branch of study, or where a carefully-selected por- tion of some English Classic is selected for minute examination, or for supplementary reading matter. The notes are unusually full and exhaustive, occupying in many v olumes ne a rly half the bo ok. Ety- molo<" r — L:L ^ tt ~~ 1 ~ J "- J -"" ~b more diffici frith all the h i I appre- philo- ciatio logics No. 1 " 2 " 10 " 11 41 12 " 18 " 14 •« IS " 16 " 1? " 18 " 19 " 20 " 21 " 22 ' 28 " 24 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. T>tirci — rotms. Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. (Selections from Acts I., III. and IV.) Goldsmith's Traveller. Iloffg'a Queen's Wake. Coleridge's Ancient Mariner. Addison's Sir Roger de CoTerley. Gray's Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Scott's Lady of the Lake. (Canto I.) Shakespeare's As You Like It, etc. (Selections.') Shakespeare's King John and King Richard II. (Selections ) Shakespeare's King Henry IV., King Henry V., King Henry VT. (Selections.) Shakespeare's Henry VIII., and Julius Caesar. (Selections.; (CONTINUED.) ENGLISH CLASSICS— Continued. No. 85 Wordsworth's Excursion. (Book L) " 26 Pope's Essay on Criticism. '* 27 Spenser's Faerie Queene. (Cantos I. and II.) . " 28 Cowper's Task. (Book I.) " 29 Milton's Comus. " 80 Tennyson's Enoch Arden, The Lotus Eaters, Ulysses, and Tithonus. " 81 Irvlng's Sketch Book. (Selections.) " 82 Dickens* Christmas Carol. (Condensed.) " 88 Carlyle's Hero as a Prophet. " 84 Macaulay's Warren Hastings. (Condensed.) " 85 Goldsmith's Viear of Wakefield. (Condensed.) " 86 Tennyson's The Two Voices, and A Dream of Fair Women. " 8? Memory Quotations. " 88 Cavalier Poets. " 89 Dryden's Alexander's Feast, and MacFlecknoe. " 40 Keats' The Eve of St. Agnes. " 41 Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow. " 42 Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare. " 48 Le Row's How to Teach Reading. « 44 Webster's Bunker Hill Orations. *' 45 The Academy Orthoepist. A Manual of Pronunciation. ** 46 Milton's Lycidas, and Hymn on the Nativity. " 4? Bryant's Thanatopsis, and Other Poems. " 48 Ruskin's Modern Painters. (Selections.) " 49 The Shakespeare Speaker. " 50 Thackeray's Roundabout Papers. ** 51 Webster's Oration on Adams and Jefferson. «« 52 Brown's Rab and His Friends. " 58 Morris's Life and Death of Jason. " 54 Burke's Speech on American Taxation. ** 55 Pope's Rape of the Lock. " 56 Tennyson's Elaine. " 5? Tennyson's In Memorlam. " 58 Church's Story of the JEneid. «• 59 Church's Story of the Iliad. " 60 Swift's Gulliver's Voyage to LilHput. ** 61 Macaulay's Essay on Lord Bacon. (Condensed.) " 62 The Alcestis of Euripides. English Version by Rev. R. Potter, M. A.. " 68 The Antigone of Sophocles. English Version by Thomas Franck- lin, D.D. " 64 Elizabeth Barrett Browning. (Selected Poems.); " 65 Robert Browning. (Selected Poems.) " 66 Addison's The Spectator. (Selections.) " 6? Scenes from George Eliot's Adam Bede. *' 68 Matthew Arnold's Culture and Anarchy. Continued on last page. SHAKESPEARE'S CORIO'LANUS NOTES, EXAMINATION PAPERS, AND PLAN OF PREPARATION. (selected.) By BRAINERD KELLOGG, A.M., Professor of the English Language and Literature in the B Polytechnic Institute, and author of a "Text-Book on Rhetoric, a " Text- Book on English Literature," and one of the authors of Reed & Kellogg's " Graded Lessons in English " and "Higher Lessons in English,'" etc , etc. rooklyn "* W NEW YORK: Effingham Maynard & Co., Publishers, 771 Broadway and 67 & 69 Ninth St. 77? * *o s Shakespeare's Plays, WITH NOTES. Uniform in style ana price with this volu> MERCHANT OF VENICE. jULIUS C^SAR. MACBETH. TEMPEST. TWELFTH NIGHT. HAMLET. KING HENRY V. KING LEAR. KING HENRY IV., Part I. KING HENRY VIII. AS YOU LIKE IT. KING RICHARD III. MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. A WINTER'S TALE. OTHELLO. CORIOLANUS. Copyright, 1892, BY EFFINGHAM MAYNARD & CO. EDITOR'S NOTE. The text here presented, adapted for use in mixed classes, has been carefully collated with that of six or seven of the latest and best editions. Where there was any disagreement those readings have been adopted which seemed most reasonable and were supported by the best authority. Professor Meiklejohn's exhaustive notes form the sub- stance of those here used ; and his plan, as set forth in the "General Notice" annexed, has been carried out in these volumes. But as these plays are intended rather for pupils in school and college than for ripe Shakespearian scholars, we have not hesitated to prune his notes of what- ever was thought to be too learned for our purpose, or on other grounds was deemed irrelevant to it. The notes of other English editors have been freely incorporated, and we have not hesitated to make many suggestions ourselves. B. K. GENERAL NOTICE. "An attempt has been made in these new editions to interpret Shakespeare by the aid of Shakespeare himself. The Method of Comparison has been constantly employed ; and the language used by him in one place has been com- pared with the language used in other places in similar circumstances, as well as with older English and with newer English. The text has been as carefully and as thoroughly annotated as the text of any Greek or Latin classic. "The first purpose in this elaborate annotation is, of course, the full working out of Shakespeare's meaning. The Editor has in all circumstances taken as much pains with this as if he had been making out the difficult and obscure terms of a will .in which he himself was personally interested ; and he submits that this thorough excavation of the meaning of a really profound thinker is one of the very best kinds of training that a boy or girl can receive at school. This is to read the very mind of Shakespeare, and to weave his thoughts into the fibre of one's own mental constitution. And always new rewards come to the careful reader — in the shape of new meanings, recognition of 5 thoughts he had before missed, of relations between the characters that had hitherto escaped him. For reading- Shakespeare is just like examining Nature ; there are no hollownesses, there is no scamped work, for Shakespeare is as patiently exact and as first-hand as Nature herself. " Besides this thorough working-out of Shakespeare's meaning, advantage has been taken of the opportunity to teach his English — to make each play an introduction to the English of Shakespeare. For this purpose copious collections of similar phrases have been gathered from other plays ; his idioms have been dwelt upon ; his pe- culiar use of words ; his style and his rhythm. Some teachers may consider that too many instances are given ; but, in teaching, as in everything else, the old French say- ing is true : Assez rty a, s'il trop n'y a. The teacher need not require each pupil to give him all the instances collected. If each gives one or two, it will probably be enough ; and, among them all, it is certain that one or two will stick in the memory. It is probable that, for those pupils who do not study either Greek or Latin, this close examination of every word and phrase in the text of Shake- speare will be the best substitute that can be found for the study of the ancient classics. "It were much to be hoped that Shakespeare should become more and more of a study, and that every boy and girl should have a thorough knowledge of at least one play of Shakespeare before leaving school. It would be one of the best lessons in human life, without the chance of a polluting or degrading experience. It would also have the effect of bringing back into the too pale and for- mal English of modern times a large number of pithy and vigorous phrases which would help to develop as well as to reflect vigor in the characters of the readers, Shake- speare used the English language with more power than, any other writer that ever lived — he made it do more and say more than it had ever done ; he made it speak in a more original way ; and his combinations of words are perpetual provocations and invitations to originality and to newness of insight." — J. M. D. Meiklejohn, M.A., Professor of the Theory, History, and Practice of Educa- tion in the University of >^t. Andrews* * Shakespeare's Grammar. Shakespeare lived at a time when the grammar and vocabulary of the English language were in a state of transition. Various points were not yet settled; and so Shakespeare's grammar is not only somewhat different from our own but is by no means uniform in itself. In the Elizabethan age, " Almost any part of speech can be used as any other part of speech. An adverb can be used as a verb, 'They askance their eyes;' as a noun, ' the backivard and abysm of time:' or as an adjective, 'a seldom pleasure. 7 Any noun, adjective, or intransitive verb can be used as a transitive verb. You can ' happy ' your friend, ' ma- lice ' or 'foot 1 your enemy, or 'fall' an axe on his neck. An adjective can be used as an adverb; and you can speak and act ' easy, "free,' 'excellent; 'or as a noun, and you can talk of 'fair' instead of ' beauty,' and ' a pale ' instead of ' a paleness.' Even the pronouns are »not exempt from these metamorphoses. A ' he * is used for a man. and a lady is described by a gentleman as " the fairest she he has yet beheld. ' In the second place, every variety of apparent grammatical inaccuracy meets us. He for him, him for he; spoke and took for spoke)t- and taken: plural nominatives with singular verbs; relatives omitted where they are now considered necessary ; unnecessary antecedents inserted; shall for ivill. shoidd for woidd, would for icish; to omitted after 'I outfit,' inserted after '/ durst;' double negatives; double comparatives ('more better,' &c.) and superlatives; such fol- lowed by which, that by as, as used for as if; that for so that; and lastly some verbs apparently with two nominatives, and others without any nominative at all." — Dr. Abbott's Shakejperian Grammar. Shakespeare's Versification. Shakespeare's Plays are written mainly in what is known as blank verse; but they contain a number of riming, and a considerable number of prose, lines. As a rule, rime is much commoner in the earlier than in tne later plays. Thus, Love's Labor's Lost contains nearly 1.100 riming lines, while (if we except the songs) Winter's Tale has none. The Merchant of Venice has 124. In speaking, we lay a stress on particular syllables: this stress is called accent. When the words of a composition are so ar- ranged that the accent recurs at regular intervals, the composi- tion is said to be rhythmical. In blank verse the lines consist usually of ten syllables, of which the second, fourth, sixth, eighth, and tenth are accented. The line consists, there- fore, of five parts, each of which contains an unaccented followed by an accented syllable, as in the word attend. Each of these five parts forms what is called a foot or measure; and the five together form a pentameter. "Pentameter" is a Greek word signifying " five measures." This is the usual form of a line of blank verse. But a long poem composed entirely of such lines would be monotonous, and for the sake of variety several important modifications have been introduced. (a) After the tenth syllable, one or two unaccented syllables are sometimes added; as — " Me-thought \ you said \ you nei \ ther lend | nor bor \ row." (6) In any foot the accent maybe shifted from the second to the first syllable, provided two accented syllables do not come together. " Pluck' the. | young suck' | ing cubs' | from the' \ she bear'.'''' | (c) In such words as " 3 T esterday," "voluntary," "honesty," the syllables -day. -ta-, and -ty falling in the place of the accent, are, for the purposes of the verse, regarded as truly accented. " Bars' me \ the right' \ of vol'- \ un-ta' \ ry choos' | trig." (d) Sometimes we have a succession of accented syllables; this oceurs with monosyllabic feet only. " Why, note, blow wind, sivell billow, and stvim bark." (e) Sometimes, but more rarely, two or even three unaccented syllables occupy the place of one; as— "He says | he does, | be-ing then | most flat | ter-ed." (/) Lines may have any number of feet from one to six. Finally, Shakespeare adds much to the pleasing variety of his blank verse by placing the pauses in different parts of the line (especially after the second or third foot), instead of placing them all at the ends of lines, as was the earlier custom. N. B. — In some cases the rhythm requires that what we usually pronounce as one syllable shall be divided into two, asfi-er (fire), su-er (sure), mi-el (mile). &c; too-elve (twelve), jaw-ee (joy), &c. Similarly, she-on (-tion or -sion). It is very important to give the pupil plenty of ear-training by means of formal scansion. This will greatly assist him in his reading. PLAN OF STUDY FOR 'PERFECT POSSESSION/ To attain to the standard of 'Perfect Possession/ the reader ought to have an intimate and ready knowledge of the sub- ject. (See opposite page.) The student ought, first of all, to read the play as a pleasure; then to read it over again, with his mind upon the characters and the plot; and lastly, to read it for the meanings, grammar, &c. With the help of the scheme, he can easily draw up for himself short examina- tion papers (i) on each scene, (2) on each act, (3) on the whole play. 8 1. The Plot and Story of the Play. (a) The general plot ; (b) The special incidents. 2. The Characters: Ability to give a connected account of all that is done and most of what is said by each character in the play. 3. The Influence and Interplay of the Characters upon each other. (a) Relation of A to B and of B to A ; (b) Relation of A to C and D. 4. Complete Possession of the Language. (a) Meanings of words ; (b) Use of old words, or of words in an old mean- ing; (c) Grammar ; (d) Ability to quote lines to illustrate a gram- matical point. 5. Power to Eeproduce or Quote. (a) What was said by A or B on a particular occasion ; (b) What was said by A in reply to B ; (c) What argument was used by C at a particular juncture ; (d) To quote a line in instance of an idiom or of a peculiar meaning. 6. Power to Locate. (a) To attribute a line or statement to a certain person on a certain occasion ; (b) To cap a line ; {c) To fill in the right word or epithet. INTRODUCTION. Beyond the fact that Coriolanus was first pub- lished in the folio of 1623, we have no certainty to go upon ; but evidence derived from style and meter, and perhaps from certain allusions, points to a period between 1608 and 1610 as the probable date of its composition. Roman history as told in Plutarch's Biographies is followed closely by Shakespeare, though in some places he transposes the order of events. And not only has he followed this narrative with great fidelity, but in many passages we have almost the very lan- guage of North's translation. This is conspicuously the case in that portion of the narrative correspond- ing with Act v. 3. 94-148, where Volumnia is plead- ing with her son to spare Rome. Outline of the' Play.— In the opening scene, the Roman populace, whom a dearth of corn is threatening with starvation, are in open mutiny against the governing powers, the special object of their hatred being Caius Marcius, a haughty patrician, who has counseled the Senate against listening to their prayers for relief. On him they now prepare to take vengeance ; and, assem- bling in great crowds, are about to force their way to xi xii IN TR OB UC TION. the Capitol when Menenius Agrippa, formerly consul, -comes upon the scene and endeavors to reason with them. His efforts have little success, and he is about to abandon the attempt, when he is joined by Mar- cius, who, with bitter invectives against the mob, informs him that the Senate has sanctioned the elec- tion of five tribunes to represent the popular interests. At this moment come tidings that the Volscians, neigh- bors and ancient enemies of the Romans, are in arms for an invasion. To meet them, Cominius and Titus Lartius are chosen generals, Marcius being given a command under the former ; and the army marches for Corioli. Hearing that the Volscians are flocking from all parts to defend this, their chief city, Comin- ius divides his forces, leaving it to Lartius and Mar- cius to carry on the siege, while he himself goes to meet the approaching succors. The first attempt made upon Corioli is a failure, the Romans being beaten back to their trenches. On the second attack Marcius, heading his troops, drives the Volscians home to their walls, and forces his way within the gates. His troops, however, refuse to follow, and after fighting single-handed for some time against overwhelming numbers, Marcius is obliged to make his way out again. A third time the assault is de- livered, and now the city is taken and held by the Romans. But Marcius has not yet had enough of fighting. With a portion of the troops under him, lie sets out to the assistance of Cominius, who is be- ing hard pressed, and encountering Aufidius, the Volscian general, puts him to flight with those who come to his aid. Shortly afterwards Marcius and INTRODUCTION. xiii Cominius are rejoined by Lartius, who has left a force to hold Corioli, and Marcius for his exploits is rewarded by Cominius with the title of Coriolanus. The second Act brings us back to Rome, where Menenius, Marcius's oldest and most devoted friend, is in converse with the two tribunes of the people, Brutus and Sicinius. As Menenius, after expressing his opinion of their character and conduct in out- spoken terms of condemnation, is about to leave them, Marcius's mother and wife, with their friend Valeria, come upon the scene with the news of the expected return of the victorious army, and this is shortly followed by the entry of the generals with Marcius wearing the chaplet of oak leaves, the Vic- toria Cross of a Roman hero. On their departure to the Capitol, where Marcius's triumph is to be rati- fied, the envious tribunes discuss his chances of elec- tion to the consulship, the highest civic dignity in Rome, and plot to stir up the citizens against him. At the Capitol, Cominius delivers a harangue in eulogy of Marcius, and the Senators determine to recommend him to the people for the consulship. To obtain this it is a recognized custom that the can- didate should stand for an appointed period in the forum, or market-place, to solicit the votes of the people. This goes greatly against the grain with Marcius, and it is with a very ill grace that he sub- mits himself to it. The people, however, enthu- siastic at his exploits, promise him their votes ; and the tribunes, disgusted at the facility with which they have been won over, at once begin to tamper with them with a view to their refusing confirmation of xi v IN TROD UCTION. the election when the proper time should come for that confirmation to be sought. Moreover, knowing that, so long as Marcius can restrain himself from any outbreak of his haughty scorn, the people, awed by his grandeur of character, will probably shrink from crossing him, they contrive, when he is on the way to seek the required confirmation, so to sting his pride that he bursts out into a torrent of invective against the tribunes themselves and those whom they repre- sent. Then, under the pretense that he has spoken treason of the people, they order the asdiles to arrest him ; and, on the entry of the rabble, decree his death. As the aediles advance to seize him, Marcius draws his sword, and with the help of his friends quickly puts to flight the tribunes and their following. On his leaving the scene, the mob reassemble, and stirred by the tribunes into further frenzy, determine to have their revenge. Meanwhile Marcius, yielding to the persuasions of his mother and his patrician friends, promises to conciliate the people so far as lies in his power ; and going again to the forum, which they have thronged in greater numbers than ever, begins his address temperately enough. This of course is by no means what the tribunes desire. They there- fore set themselves to provoke him, and at the word " traitor" cast in his teeth by Sicinius, all prudential resolutions are thrown to the winds, and Marcius turns upon his persecutors with tenfold fury. Rely- ing on the force at their back, the tribunes now pro- nounce sentence of banishment. The cry is taken up by the mob, and Marcius, deserted by the nobles, has to yield to his fate. On his departure, peace for a INTRODUCTION. xv time prevails, the tribunes congratulate themselves upon their strategy, and boast that there is no fear of Marcius's being brought back by any efforts of his friends. Their rejoicing is not to be of long duration. Marcius has gone to Corioli, where he offers his former foe, Aufidius, to join him in an invasion of the Roman territory. This offer is at once accepted, and a force quickly raised, with Marcius and Aufidius in joint command. When the news reaches Rome, the tribunes, who are still pluming themselves so com- placently, are seized with a panic, in which the patri- cians partly share. To raise any sufficient army on so short a notice is impossible, and nothing seems left but to supplicate Marcius's mercy. Cominius, his old commander, bound to him by ties of friendship no less than of perils shared together, is sent in embas- sage to plead for Rome. His reception is stony- hearted disdain ; and his return sends the chill of de- spair to the hearts of those who had hoped so much from such an envoy. Even Menenius, who speaks of himself as Marcius's father, and whose devotion was almost idolatry, now shrinks from the task of media- tion. Yet to the general entreaty he at length yields in the hope that he may find Marcius in a more placa- ble mood. The result is none other than had at- tended Cominius's efforts, though love for the old man makes Marcius's refusal somewhat less ungra- cious. To further embassies, however, he declares that he will hereafter lend no ear. But the words are scarcely uttered when an embassy undreamt of comes to test his firmness. Attired in mourning garments, the mother whose proud joy he has ever xvi INTROD UCT10N. been, his wife loved with such tender devotion, his young son, his wife's friend Valeria, widow of Pub- licola, one of Rome's noblest heroes, — make a last intercession for their country. Against their despera- tion of entreaty Marcius struggles to steel himself in panoply of threefold sternness ; to thrust from him kinship, patriotism, love ; to nurse his desire for re- venge ; to hold fast to the oath by which he has bound himself to his present masters, the Volscians. The struggle is vain. Volumnia's appeal sweeps everything before it, and Rome is saved. That his yielding will be fatal to himself he has a quick pre- sentiment, — a presentiment to be fulfilled all too soon. But, granting such terms as his country may joyfully accept and as the Volscians, he hopes, will not con- sider unworthy to be offered, Marcius returns to Corioli to render account of his actions to those whose servant he still is. Whatever hope, however, he had of being able to justify himself, he would have laid aside all hope of life if he could have guessed the implacable hatred with which his late successes had filled the heart of his ancient foe, Aufidius. That the Volscian had been sincere in the welcome he gave Marcius when tendering his services against Rome there need be no doubt. But Aufidius had not for a moment dreamed that in associating Marcius with himself in command he was taking the surest way to eclipse his own fame. When that knowledge comes to him, all nobility of feeling at once gives way, and he determines upon Marcius's assassination. The 'opportunity quickly offers itself in Marcius's appear- ance before the Volscian Senate ; and, while yet Rome IN TR OD UC riON. xv ii is rejoicing in the deliverance granted to it, the captor of Corioli, stabbed to death by hired ruffians, perishes within its walls. The Scope of the Play and the Character of Coriolanns, — It has been supposed by some that in Coriolanns the leading thought of the poet is a purely political one, and that we have here an exposition of Shake- speare's political faith. This appears to be a com- plete inversion of his method. It is true, no doubt, that in plays which turn upon political issues Shake- speare's leanings may in some measure be seen, and that in Coriolanns those leanings are not towards democracy. But that he here or anywhere preached a political doctrine I disbelieve as entirely as I disbe- lieve that he ever preached a moral doctrine. A moral, is of course to be found in all his plays, as it is to be fouud in all stories of human action. But it is there because the poet taking certain characters and certain incidents, whether from history, fiction, or his own imagination, shows us dramatically how those charac- ters would act amidst those incidents ; not because he has chosen those characters and incidents to illustrate a particular theory whether of ethics or of politics. In the present instance history is at hand with an outline of striking incidents, and characters strong in their individuality, — in other words, with a subject eminently capable of dramatic handling. Shake- speare's tribunes are the tribunes of Plutarch, his hero Plutarch's hero, but with their souls laid bare, the working of their minds manifested in words as in actions. The play has in fact nothing more of set political purpose than The Tempest or Cymbeline. xviii INTRODUCTION. " The subject of Coriolanus," says Dowden, " is the ruin of a noble life through the sin of pride " ; or per- haps we might say of pride and selfishness. A great though far from flawless soul is brought in contact with mighty events, and the necessary results of posi- tion, nature, and training develop themselves. Born of a haughty race, inheriting from his mother an inflex- ible spirit, Coriolanus is from his earliest youth sedu- lously tutored in the belief that military glory is the noblest aim of life, that arrogance to his inferiors is a birthright, and almost a virtue. Splendid and early successes, fully recognized alike by high and low, have hardened the inborn pride and selfishness of his nature, while no check to the supremacy of his class has come to teach him the necessity of prudence and moderation. Thus, when he first appears before us, the attitude of his mind is one of fierce astonish- ment that such scum as the people should dare to complain even when starvation is staring them in the face. Rather than give them relief, he would meet their demand by wholesale butchery, and see the city \ unroofed ere any privilege of appeal through repre- sentatives of their own should be conceded by the patricians. That of creatures like these he should nave to ask a favor is to him a deep humiliation ; that they should insist on the exercise of any rights is\ something monstrous. In war they are scarcely be\tter than beasts of burden ; in times of peace, mere machines for the use and convenience of the nobles. So towering is his arrogance that he utterly fails to see the dangers he is bringing down upon his own caste ; so overweening his selfishness, and so vindic- -1 INTRODUCTION. xix tive his hatred, that to avenge his own wrongs he will call in to the destruction of his country the very foes whose conquest had won him his chief title to fame. That the tribunes were but self-seeking dema- gogues is true enough. That the people showed themselves fickle is of course patent. But the triumph of the former was rendered possible by nothing else than his ©wn infatuation ; the defection of the latter was courted by his cynicism. A very small stretch of good-will towards them would have earned for him an idolatry as ungrudging as that with which he was regarded by the patricians. Yet, with all his faults, his virtues were conspicuous. His services to his country had been many and great. In him heroism and daring were surpassed not even by the demi-gods of Greece. To his freedom from the vice which es- pecially tainted the whole body of patricians, the vice of grasping avarice, even the people he so hated bear willing witness. His generosity of nature shows itself in his refusal to enrich himself with the spoils of war that are sought to be thrust upon him ; his tender- ness of heart, in the remembrance of the old man of Corioli in whose house he had found shelter, and in the consideration which would soften his rejection of Menenius's prayer ; his modesty, in the aversion which ever shrank from all public eulogy ; his warmth of affection, by his devotion to his mother and his wife. So endowed, he might not only have wielded unique power but wielded it to the highest interests of his country, if his nobility had not been neutralized by a pride Titanic in its measure, the source of his strength converted into the source of his xx INTRODUCTION. weakness. That in the end he should so far get the better of it as to sacrifice himself for his country which he had served so well and served so ill shows him to us in a fight which somewhat obscures the dark spots that must ever rest upon his name and fame. Menenius.— If , in the case of Coriolanus, Shakespeare had only to infuse with dramatic life and motion the statue molded in such full proportions by' Plutarch, Menenius is a creation entirely his own. As in so many others of his plays when working upon a plot already at hand, the poet felt the necessity of relieving the tragic intensity by some character capable of humor- ous development ; and of such a character he found the germ, and only the germ, in Plutarch's words that Menenius was one of " the pleasantest old men " deputed by the Senate to reason with the plebeians. Described by himself, in his first colloquy with the tribunes, he is of a quick temper, outspoken when provoked, and, like many men of such disposition, fond of his joke, and convivial of habit. Such bitter- ness as he displays is reserved for the self-seeking, unscrupulous demagogues. Towards the people his attitude is genial and neighborly, though he does not hesitate to chastise their faults, or to point his truths with quiet sarcasm. That he is a favorite with them, and also has their respect, is evident in the opening Scene ; and his language, in such marked contrast with the passionate vituperation of Coriolanus, is almost sympathetic. He will at all events reason with them as human beings whose instincts are not wholly beyond the reach of argument, instead of cry- ing aloud for their wholesale destruction as noxious IN TROD UCTION. xxi animals. In the bitter contest into which Coriolanus plunges with headstrong violence, Me*enius is all for moderation. Proud as he is of his hero's exploits, and loving him as he does with almost fatherly affec- tion, he is just as anxious to temper the insolence ot his pride as to rebuke the malevolent incitements which the tribunes use to render all reconciliation impossible. ' ' On both sides more respect " in his mouth means a reality ; and, even when the turn in affairs would admit of his triumphing over those to whose machinations the abject condition of Rome is due, his taunts, not more bitter than events justify, are mingled with reproaches of himself and his fellow- patricians for their desertion of Coriolanus in his hour of need. It is to him that in their common trouble the tribunes turn for intercession with Corio- lanus, instinctively feeling that, if the danger is to be averted at all, no other mediator will find his way to that stubborn heart. Sadly the old man complies, endeavoring to buoy himself up with the hope — so natural in one of his temperament — that, if Corio- lanus can be taken when he has well dined, he may prove more pliant than he had shown himself to Cominius's entreaties. The failure in his mission is pathetic; and, when shortly afterwards the object of his fond idolatry perishes a stranger in the land which he had conquered, we may be sure that for that loving soul " The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of." Volumnia.— A Roman matron, of the old aristocracy, Volumnia is the very impersonation of patrician and xxii IN TR OD UC TION. family pride. Before all things, her son must be brought up to maintain the traditions of his caste and to see in heroic exploits the highest perfection of a noble nature. Other mothers might cherish an only child with a tender care, watchful against all evils* likely to befall. To her conception, the truest love is shown in fashioning her son for the stern rigors of warfare, and in making her praise the constant spur to sub- limer disregard of personal safety. " Fond of no second brood," she "clucks him to the war," and boasts that had she a dozen sons, each as dear as Marcius, she would rather that eleven of them should "die nobly for their country than one voluptuously surfeit out of action." To the more tender-natured wife, the dread that he may return wounded from the war is ever present with crushing weight ; to the mother, wounds more become a man " than gilt his trophy " ; and she would scarcely greet her son with a full heart if he brought not back such tokens of his worthiness. Though desirous that he should obtain the civic honor of the consulship, that desire seems to be less on account oi the office itself than of the recognition it involves of his glorious deeds ; and, when, in the conflict which ensues, she counsels moder- ation, it probably is more because she cannot endure that any ambition of his should be thwarted than because a peaceful dignity has much value in her eyes. Her boundless contempt for the people she will veil for the occasion rather than that his enemies should triumph, and she even stoops to advocate the practice of a simulation which for any other purpose she would have thought unworthy of herself and him. INTRODUCTION. xxiii When, foiled by his obstinacy and passion, she has to contemplate the wreck of all her ambitious hopes, life has no further joy for her, and she retires to eat out her heart in fruitless anger. But the time is at hand when she must make choice between her country and her son ; and, in the conflict between her maternal and her patriotic instincts, the latter win the day. Nor, though warned by her son that his yielding to her prayer will probably be fatal to him, does she hesitate to accept the sacrifice ; it is better that he should die, though with him died all that made her life, than that Rome should be dishonored, and dishonored by him who had been its chiefest glory. Junius Brutus could condemn his own sons to death for treachery to their country, and with no less of Roman fortitude Volumnia prefers, if need be, to face a like bereave- ment. The people built a temple to Fortune to com- memorate her patriotism, but her monument is the memory of all time. The Tribunes and the People.— In his portraiture of the people Shakespeare has been charged with un- due severity ; but it can hardly be said that to the tribunes he has meted out more than their measure. Though, from the necessity* of the case, their factious arts are brought out more promi- nently than in Plutarch's narrative, the poet has not traveled beyorid the record before him ; nor, though he had, could it be imputed to him for blame if for dramatic purposes he had ascribed to' them qualities and devices with which the history of his own country had made him familiar. Even against the people the worst charges that he brings are those of fickleness xxiv INTRODUCTION. and passionate enmity towards the patricians, an enmity for which they could plead substantial grounds, and of which Coriolanus by his uncompromising- hos- tility had made himself the special mark. That in spite of such hostility they should so plainly have recognized his deserts as to choose him consul is evidence clear enough. that they were alive to the nobility of heroic deeds, even if they had not suffi- cient magnanimity, when cajoled by their leaders and flouted by him who needed their support, to resist the temptation of taking away with one hand what they had given with the other. Roman history by no means represents the people as at any period very august or very wise ; nor were the annals of his own country, or the experience of his own times, such as to fill the poet with any great reverence for the demo- cratic spirit. It is one thing to have little sympathy with the rabble, another to allow that insufficiency to distort the judgment ; and, if Shakespeare is charge- able with being, as Hartley Coleridge said, " a Tory and a gentleman," Coriolanus can hardly be cited as proof of anything ungenerous in such a combination. Contemporary History. — Though Corz'o/anzts does not strictly follow the course of Roman history, it will per- haps help towards its understanding if a brief sketch be given of the state of political parties at the time of its action. During the earlier days of the monarchy, which lasted till B.C. 510, the plebeians were little better than serfs ; and, though Servius Tullus, the sixth king, gave a new constitution to the state, under which they ob- tained political independence, their condition, so far as power was concerned, was but little improved. But INTRODUCTION. xxv with the abolition of the monarchy, and the substitu- tion of two consuls, or chief magistrates, the com- munity gained the right of annually designating its rulers, and the political prerogatives of the public assembly, hitherto monopolized by the patricians, were transferred to the assembled levy of those bound to military service, among whom of course were in- cluded the plebeians. But, even when enrolled as burgesses in the register of the curies, or electoral bodies, the plebeians were far from being on a footing of legal equality with the patricians. These naturally enough used every effort to maintain their supremacy, but they acted with a short-sighted policy which was certain sooner or later to bring the two parties into collision, a collision which the superior numbers and the increasing wealth of the plebeians could not but make dangerous in the extreme. The actual cause, however, which led to a rupture, bringing with it such wide consequences, was not a political but a social one. Burdened by the laws of debt, the farm- ers, who were especially affected by them, refused to take the field when called upon to serve against the Volscians, B.C. 495 ; and, so pressing was the emer- gency that the consul, Publius Servilius, was obliged to suspend the laws and liberate those confined to prison. The war over, and the Romans victorious, Servilius's colleague on the return of the troops sent back to prison those who had been liberated, and enforced the laws of debt with merciless severity. The following year, on a renewal of the war, a second refusal to serve was the natural consequence. After a time, however, trusting to the good-will in their be- xxvi INTRODUCTION. half of the Dictator, Manius Valerius, the farmers gave way, and the levies proceeding- to the war again proved victorious over the Volscians. On their return to Rome, Valerius, true to the confidence which had been placed in him, submitted his proposals in favor of the suffering plebeians, but was met by the Senate with obstinate opposition. As soon as this refusal came to the knowledge of the army, instead of dis- banding, it marched under the command of its mili- tary tribunes to a hill between the Tiber and the Anio, afterwards called Mons Sacer, the sacred mount ; and there encamping, threatened to establish in this, the most fertile part of the Roman territory, a new plebeian city. Their secession brought even the most obstinate of the patricians to their senses, and by the instrumentality of the Dictator terms were arranged which secured redress of the worst griev- ances in regard to debt. But the most important result was the passing of a taw appointing two ple- beian tribunes. The powers of these officers within the city were on an equality with the ordinary civil powers of office exercised by the consuls. Among these powers was the right of canceling any com- mand of a magistrate, by which the person affected felt himself aggrieved, by means of a protest per- sonally tendered ; the right of enabling any one bound to military service to withhold himself from the levy ; the right of preventing or canceling the arrest of a debtor or his imprisonment during investigation ; and other powers of a like sort. Further, in virtue of their judicial office, they could summon before them any citizen, whatever his rank, have him seized if he INTRODUCTION. xxvii should refuse to come, imprison him during investi- gation of the charge against him, and punish him with a fine or, in the more heinous cases, with death. With this co-ordinate jurisdiction, the tribunes ac- quired the further rights of initiating legislation, and of taking a vote of the people in confirmation of their sentences, or of proposals brought forward by them. Such resolves of the people (plebiscita) were not strictly valid decrees, though they afterwards came to have that force. The tribunes therefore acted as a protection for individuals and as managers and leaders of the collective body ; and the power wielded by them led to a prolonged conflict between the patricians and the plebeians, the object of the former being to abolish the tribunate, of the latter to restrict the consular powers. It was during the early days of this conflict, though four years after the secession to Mons Sacer and the appointment of the tribunes, that Coriolanus, indignant at the refusal of the con- sulship, proposed the suspension of the sales of corn from the state-stores until the people should be starved into abandoning the tribunate, and, being impeached by the tribunes, had to flee the city. Duration of the Action.— The period embraced by Plutarch's narrative is from B.C. 494 to B.C. 490. DRAMATIS PERSONS. Caius Marcius, afterwards Caius Marcius Cori- olanus. Titus Lartius, ) , . . ., -r r , . Cominius f S' enera ^ s against the Volscians. Menenius Agrippa, friend to Coriolanus. Sicinius Velutus, I . ., , ,, , Junius Brutus, | tnbunes of the P eo P le - Young Marcius, son to Coriolanus. A Roman Herald. Tullus Aufidius, general of the Volscians. Lieutenant to Aufidius. Conspirators with Aufidius. A Citizen of Antium. Two Yolscian Guards. Volumnia, mother to Coriolanus. Virgilia, wife to Coriolanus. Valeria, friend to Virgilia. Gentlewoman, attending on Virgilia. Roman and Volscian Senators, Patricians, iEdiles, Lictors, Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, Servants to Aufidius, and other Attendants. Scene : Rome and the neighborhood ; Corioli and the neighborhood ; A?itiu?n. CORIOLANUS. ACT I. SCENE I. Rome. A Street. Enter a company of mutinous Citizens, with staves, clubs, and other weapons. First Cit. Before we proceed any further, hear me speak. All. Speak, speak. First Cit. You are all resolv'd rather to die than to famish? All. Resolv'd, resolv'd. First Cit. First, you know Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the people. All. We know 't, we know 't. First Cit. Let us kill him, and we '11 have corn at our own price. Is 't a verdict? All. No more talking on 't ; let it be done : away, away ! Sec. Cit. One word, good citizens. First Cit. We are accounted poor citizens ; the patricians, good. What authority sur- 7 8 CORIOLANUS. [act i. feits on would relieve us : if they would yield us but the superfluity, while it were wholesome, we might guess they reliev'd us humanely ; but they think we are too dear : the leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an inventory to partic- ularize their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes : for the gods know I speak this in hunger for bread, not 20 in thirst for revenge. Sec. Cit. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius? First Cit. Against him first: he's a very dog to the commonalty. Sec Czt. Consider you what services he has done for his country? First Czt. Very well ; and could be con- tent to give him good report for 't, but that he pays himself with being proud. Sec. Czt. Nay, but speak not maliciously. First Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end : though 30soft-conscienc'd men can be content to say it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and partly to be proud ; which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue. Sec. Cit. What he cannot help in his nature you account a vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous. First Cit. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations ; he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts with- sc. I.] CORIOLANUS. 9 z'n.] What shouts are these? The other side o' the city is risen : why stay we prat- ing here ? to the Capitol ! All. Come, come. 40 First Cit. Soft ! who comes here ? Enter Menenius Agrippa. Sec. Cit. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always lov'd the people. First Cit. He 's one honest enough : would all the rest were so ! Men. What work's, my countrymen, in hand ? where go you With bats and clubs ? The matter ? speak, I pray you. First Cit. Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have had inkling, this fortnight, what we intend to do, which now we '11 show 'em in deeds. They say poor 50 suitors have strong breaths : they shall know we have strong arms too. Men. Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbors, Will you undo yourselves ? First Cit. We cannot, sir, we are undone already. Men. I tell you, friends, most charitable care Have the patricians of you. For your wants, Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well io CORIOLANUS. [act i. Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them Against the Roman state, whose course 60 will on The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs Of more strong link asunder than can ever Appear in your impediment. For the dearth, The gods, not the patricians, make it, and Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack, You are transported by calamity Thither where more attends you, and you slander The helms o' the state, who care for you like fathers, When you curse them as enemies. 70 First Cit. Care for us ! True, indeed, they ne'er car'd for us yet : suffer us to famish, and their store-houses cramm'd with grain ; make edicts for usury, to support usurers ; repeal daily any wholesome act establish'd against the rich, and provide more piercing statutes daily to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will ; and there's all the love they bear us. Men. Either you must Confess yourselves wondrous malicious Or be accus'd of folly. I shall tell you So A pretty tale : it may be you have heard it ; But,since it serves my purpose, I will venture sc. I.] CORIOLANUS. n To stale 't a little more. First Cit. Well, I'll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale : but, an 't please you, deliver. Men. There was a time when all the body's members Rebell'd against the belly; thus accus d it : That only like a gulf it did remain I' the midst o' the body, idle and unactive, Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing 90 Like labor with the rest, where th' other instruments Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, And, mutually participate, did minister Unto the appetite and affection common Of the whole body. The belry answer'd — First Cit. Well, sir, what answer made the belly ? Men. Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile, Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus — For, look you, I may make the belly smile As well as speak — it tauntingly replied 10c To th' discontented members, the mutinous parts That envied his receipt ; even so most fitly As you malign our senators for that They are not such as you. First Cit. Your belly's answer ? What ! The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye, The counselor heart, the arm our soldier, 12 CORIOLANUS. [act i. Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter, With other muniments and petty helps In this our fabric, if that they — Men. What then? no 'Fore me, this fellow speaks! What then? what then ? First Cit. Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd, Who is the sink o' the body, — Men. Well, what then ? First Cit. The former agents, if they did complain, What could the belly answer ? Men. I will tell you ; If you '11 bestow a small — of what you 've little- Patience awhile, you '11 hear the belly's answer. First Cit. Ye 're long about it. Men. Note me this, good friend ; Your most grave belly was deliberate, Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer'd: "True is it, my incorporate friends," quoth 120 he, " That I receive the general food at first, Which you do live upon ; and fit it is, Because I am the store-house and the shop Of the whole body : but, if you do remember, I send it through the rivers of your blood, Even to the court, the heart, to th' seat o' the brain ; And, through the cranks and offices of man, sc. I.] CORIOLANUS. 13 The strongest nerves and small inferior veins From me receive that natural competency Whereby they live : and, though that all at once, 130 You, my good friends," — this says the belly, mark me, — First Cit. Ay, sir ; well, well. Men. " Though all at once cannot See what I do deliver out to each, Yet I can make my audit up, that all From me do back receive the flour of all, And leave me but the bran." What say you to 't? First Cit. It was an answer : how apply you this ? Men. The senators of Rome are this good belly, And you the mutinous members ; for, ex- amine Their counsels and their cares, digest things rightly 140 Touching the weal o' the common, you shall find No public benefit which you receive But it proceeds or comes from them to you And no way from yourselves. What do you think, You, the great toe of this assembly? First Cit. I the great toe ! why the great toe? Men. For that, being one o' the lowest, basest, poorest 14 CORIOLANUS. [act i. Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st fore- most : Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run, 150 Lead'st first to win some vantage. But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs : Rome and her rats are at the point of battle ; The one side must have bale. Enter Caius Marcius. Hail, noble Marcius ! Mar. Thanks. What's the matter, you dissentious rogues That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, Make yourselves scabs? First Cit. We have ever your good word. Mar. He that will give good words to ye will flatter Beneath abhorring. What would you have, you curs, That like nor peace nor war? the one affrights you, The other makes you proud. He that trusts 160 to you, Where he should find you lions, finds you hares ; Where foxes, geese : you are no surer, no, Than is the coal of fire upon the ice, Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is To make him worthy whose offense subdues him, And curse that justice did it. Who deserves greatness sc. i.] CORIOLANUS. 15 • Deserves your hate ; and your affections are A sick man's appetite, who desires most that Which would increase his evil. He that de- pends Upon your favors swims with fins of lead, 170 And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye ! Trust ye ? With every minute you do change a mind, And call him noble that was now your hate, Him vile that was your garland. What's the matter, That in these several places of the city You cry against the noble senate, who, Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else Would feed on one another? What's their seeking? Men. For corn at their own rates ; where- of, they say, The city is well stor'd. Mar. Hang 'em ! " They saj' ! " 180 They'll sit by the fire, and presume to know What 's done i' the Capitol ; who 's like to rise, Who thrives and who declines ; side fac- tions, and give out Conjectural marriages ; making parties strong And feebling such as stand not in their lik- ing Below their cobbled shoes. They say there 's grain enough ! Would the nobility lay aside their ruth, And let me use my sword, I 'd make a quarry 1 6 CORIOLANUS. [act i. With thousands of these quartered slaves, as high 190 As I could pick my lance. Men. Nay, these are almost thoroughly persuaded ; For, though abundantly they lack discre- tion, Yet are they passing cowardly. But, I be- seech you, What says the other troop ? Mar. They are dissolved : hang 'em ! They said they were an-hungry ; sigh'd forth proverbs, That hunger broke stone walls, that dogs must eat, That meat was made for mouths, that the gods sent not Corn for the rich men only : with these shreds They vented their complainings; which being answer'd, 200 And a petition granted them, a strange one — To break the heart of generosity, And make bold power look pale — they threw their caps As they would hang them on the horns o' the moon, Shouting their emulation. Men. What is granted them ? Mar. Five tribunes to defend their vulgar wisdoms, Of their own choice: one is Junius Brutus. Sicinius Velutus, and I know not — 'Sdeath ! sc. I.] CORIOLANUS. 17 The rabble should have first unroof'd the city Ere so prevail'd with me : it will in time Win upon power, and throw forth greater themes 210 For insurrection's arguing. Men. This is strange. Mar. Go, get you home, you fragments ! Enter a Messenger, hastily. Mess. Where's Caius Marcius ? Mar. Here : what's the matter ? Mess. The news is, sir, the Volsces are in arms. Mar. I 'm glad on 't : then we shall ha' means to vent Our musty superfluity. See, our best elders. Enter COMINIUS, TlTUS Lartius, and other Senators ; Junius Brutus and Sicinius Velutus. First Sen. Marcius, 't is true that you have lately told us ; The Volsces are in arms. Mar. They have a leader, Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to 't. I sin in envying his nobility ; 220 And, were I any thing but what I am, I 'd wish me only he. Com. You 've fought together. Mar. Were half to half the world by th' ears and he Upon my party, I 'd revolt, to make 1 8 CORIOLANUS. [act l Only my wars with him : he is a lion That I am proud to hunt. First Sen. Then, worthy Marcius, Attend upon Cominius to these wars. Com. It is your former promise. Mar. Sir, it is ; And I am constant. Titus Lartius, thou Shalt see me once more strike at Tullus' 230 face. What, art thou stiff? stand'st out? Tit. No, Caius Marcius ; I '11 lean upon one crutch and fight with t' other, Ere stay behind this business. Men. O, true-bred ! First Sen. Your company to the Capitol ; where, I know, Our greatest friends attend us. Tit. [To Coin.'] Lead you on. [To Mar.] Follow Cominius ; we must follow you ; Right worthy you priority. Com. Noble Marcius ! First Sen. [To the Citizens.] Hence to your homes ; be gone ! Mar. Nay, let them follow : The Volsces have much corn ; take these rats thither To gnaw their garners. Worshipful muti- 240 ners, Your valor puts well forth : pray, follow. [Citizens steal away. Exeunt all but Sieinius and Brutus. sc. i.] CORIOLANUS. 19 Sic. Was ever a man so proud as is this Marcius? Bru. He has no equal. Sic. When we were chosen tribunes for the people,— Bru. Mark'd you his lip and eyes ? Sic. Nay, but his taunts. Bru. Being moved, he will not spare to gird the gods. Sic. Be-mock the modest moon. Bru. The present wars devour him ! he is grown Too proud to be so valiant. Sic. Such a nature, Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow 250 Which he treads on at noon : but I do won- der His insolence can brook to be commanded Under Cominius. Bru. Fame, at the which he aims, In whom already he 's well grac'd, can not Better be held nor more attain'd than by A place below the first : forwmat miscarries Shall be the general's fault, though he per- form To th' utmost of a man, and giddy censure Will then cry out of Marcius, " Oh, if he Had borne the business ! " Sic. Besides, if things go well, 260 Opinion, that so sticks on Marcius, shall Of his demerits rob Cominius. Bru. Come : 20 C0RI0LANUS. [act i. Half all Cominius' honors are to Marcius, Though Marcius earn'd them not, and all his faults To Marcius shall be honors, though indeed In aught he merit not. Sic. Let 's hence, and hear How the dispatch is made, and in what fashion, More than his singularity, he goes Upon this present action. Bru. Let's along. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Corioli. The Senate-house. Enter Tullus Aufidius a7id certain Sen- ators. First Sen. So, your opinion is, Aufidius, That they of Rome are enter'd in our coun- sels, And know how we proceed. Auf. Is it not yours ? What ever hath been thought on in this state That could be brought to bodily act ere Rome Had circumvention ? 'T is not four days gone Since I heard thence; these are the words : I think I have the letter here ; yes, here it is. [Reads'] " They 've press'd a power, but it is not known sc. il] CORIOLANUS. 21 Whether for east or west : the dearth is great; 10 The people mutinous ; and it is rumor'd, Cominius, Marcius your old enemy, Who is of Rome worse hated than of you, And Titus Lartius, a most valiant Roman, — These three lead on this preparation Whither 't is bent : most likely 't is for you : Consider of it." First Sen. Our army's in the field : We never yet made doubt but Rome was ready To answer us. Atif. Nor did you think it folly To keep your great pretenses veil'd till when 20 They needs must show themselves ; which in the hatching, It seem'd, appear'd to Rome. By the dis- covery We shall be shortened in our aim, which was To take in many towns ere almost Rome Should know we were afoot. Sec. Sen. Noble Aufidius, Take your commission ; hie you to your bands : Let us alone to guard Corioli : If they set down before 's, for the remove Bring up your army; but, I think, you'll find They 've not prepar'd for us. Auf. Oh, doubt not that ; 30 22 CORIOLANUS. [act i. I speak from certainties. Nay, more ; Some parcels of their power are forth al- ready, And only hitherward. I leave your honors. If we and Caius Marcius chance to meet, 'T is sworn between us we shall ever strike Till one can do no more. All. The gods assist you ! Auf. And keep your honors safe ! First Sen. Farewell ! Sec. Sen. Farewell ! All. Farewell ! [Exeunt. Scene III. Rome. A room in Marcius 's house. Enter Volumnia and Virgilia: they set them down on two low stools, and sew. Vol. I pray you, daughter, sing; or ex- press yourself in a more comfortable sort : if my son were my husband, I should freelier rejoice in that absence wherein he won honor than in the embracements where he would show most love. When yet he was but tender-bodied and the only son of my womb, when youth with comeliness pluck'd all gaze his way, when for an hour of kings' entreaties a mother should not sell him a day from her beholding, I — considering how honor would become such a person ; that it was no better than picture-like to 10 hang by the wall, if renown made it not sc. in.] CORIOLANUS. 23 stir — was pleas'd to let him seek danger where he was like to find fame. To a cruel war I sent him; from whence he return'd, his brows bound with oak. I tell thee, daughter, I sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man child than now in first seeing he had prov'd himself a man. Vir. But had he died in the business, madam ; how then ? Vol. Then his good report should have been my son ; I therein would have found issue. Hear me profess sincerely : had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike and none less dear than thine and my good Marcius, 20 I had rather had eleven die nobly for their country than one voluptuously surfeit out of action. Enter a Gentlewoman. Gent. Madam, the Lady Valeria is come to visit you. Vir. Beseech you, give me leave to re- tire myself. Vol. Indeed, you shall not. Methinks I hear hither your husband's drum, See him pluck Aufidius down by the hair, As children from a bear the Volsces shun- ning him : Methinks I see him stamp thus, and call thus: " Come on, you cowards ! you were got in fear, 30 24 CORIOLANUS. [act i. Though you were born in Rome : " his bloody brow With his mail'd hand then wiping, forth he goes, Like to a harvest-man that 's task'd to mow Or all or lose his hire. Vz'r. His bloody brow! O Jupiter, no blood ! Vol. Away, you fool ! it more becomes a man Than gilt his trophy : the breasts of Hecuba, When she did suckle Hector, look'd not lovelier Than Hector's forehead when it spit forth blood At Grecian sword, contemning. Tell Va- 40 leria We 're fit to bid her welcome. {Exit Ge?it. Vir. Heaven bless my lord from fell Aufidius ! Vol. He'll beat Aufidius' head below his knee And tread upon his neck. Enter Valeria, with an Usher and Gentle- woman. Val. My ladies both, good day to you. Vol. Sweet madam. Vz'r. I am glad to see your ladyship. Val. How do you both? you 're manifest housekeepers. What are you sewing here? A fine spot, in good faith. sc. in.] CORIOLANUS. 25 How does your little son ? 50 Vir. I thank your ladyship; well, good madam. Vol. He had rather see the swords and hear a drum than look upon his school- master. Val. O' my word, the father's son : I '11 swear 't is a very pretty boy. O' my troth, I looked upon him o' Wednesday half an hour together : has such a confirm'd coun- tenance. I saw him run after a gilded but- terfly; and, when he caught it, he let it go again ; and after it again ; and over and over he comes, and up again; catch 'd it again ; or whether his fall enrag'd him, or how 't was, he did so set his teeth and tear 60 it; O, I warrant, how he mammock'd it! Vol. One on 's father's moods. Val. Indeed, la, 't is a noble child. Vir. A crack, madam. Val. Come, lay aside your stitchery; I must have you play the idle huswife with me this afternoon. Vir. No, good madam ; I will not out of doors. Val. Not out of doors ! Vol. She shall, she shall. Vir. Indeed, no, by your patience; I'll 70 not over the threshold till my lord return from the wars. Val. Fie, you confine yourself most un- reasonably : come, you must go visit the good lady that lies in. 26 CORIOLANUS. [act i. Vir. I will wish her speedy strength, and visit her with my prayers ; but I cannot go thither. Vol. Why, I pray you ? Vir. 'T is not to save labor, nor that I want love. Val. You would be another Penelope : yet, they say, all the yarn she spun in Ulysses' absence did but fill Ithaca full of Si moths. Come ; I would your cambric were sensible as your finger that you might leave pricking it for pity. Come, you shall go with us. Vir. No, good madam, pardon me ; in- deed, I will not forth. Val. In truth, la, go with me ; and I'll tell you excellent news of your husband. Vir. Oh, good madam, there can be none yet. Val. Verily, I do not jest with you ; there came news from him last night. 90 Vir. Indeed, madam ? Val. In earnest, it 's true ; I heard a sen- ator speak it. Thus it is : the Volsces have an army forth ; against whom Cominius the general is gone, with one part of our Roman power: your lord and Titus Lartius are set down before their city Corioli ; they nothing doubt prevailing and to make it brief wars. This is true, on mine honor; and so, I pray, go with us. Vir. Give me excuse, good madam; I will obey you in every thing hereafter. sc. iv.] CORIOLANUS. 27 Vol. Let her alone, lady: as she is now, 100 she will but disease our better mirth. Val. In troth, I think she would. Fare you well, then. Come, good sweet lady. Prithee, Virgilia, turn thy solemnness out o' . door, and go along with us. Vir. No, at a word, madam; indeed, I must not. I wish you much mirth. Val. Well, then, farewell. [Exeunt. Scene IV. Before Corioli. Enter, with drum and colors, Marcius, Titus Lartius, Captains, and Soldiers. To them a Messenger. Mar. Yonder comes news. A wager they have met. Lart. My horse to yours, no. Mar. 'T is done. Lart. Agreed. Mar. Say, has our general met the enemy ? Mess. They lie in view ; but have not spoke as yet. Lart. So, the good horse is mine. Mar. I '11 buy him of you. Lart. No, I '11 nor sell nor give him : lend you him I will For half a hundred years. Summon the town. Mar. How far off lie these armies ? Mess. Within this mile and half. 28 CORIOLANUS. [act i. Mar. Then shall we hear their 'larum, and they ours. Now, Mars, I prithee, make us quick in io work That we with smoking swords may march from hence To help our fielded friends! Come, blow thy blast. They sound a parley. Enter two Senators with others, on the walls. Tullus Aufidius, is he within your walls? First Sen. No, nor a man that fears you less than he, That's lesser than a little. [Drums afar of.] Hark ! our drums Are bringing forth our youth. We '11 break our walls Rather than they shall pound us up: our gates, Which yet seem shut, we have but pinn'd with rushes ; They '11 open of themselves. \Alarum afar of.] Hark you, far off ! There is Aufidius ; list, what work he 20 makes Amongst your cloven army. Mar. Oh, they 're at it ! Lart. Their noise be our instruction. Ladders, ho ! Enter the army of the Volsces. Mar. They fear us not, but issue forth their city. SC. IV.] CORIOLANUS. 29 Now put your shields before your hearts, and fight With hearts more proof than shields. Ad- vance, brave Titus : They do disdain us much beyond our thoughts, "Which makes me sweat with wrath. Come on, my fellows : He that retires, I '11 take him for a Volsce, And he shall feel mine edge. Alarum. The Romans are beat back to their trenches. Re-e7iter MARCIUS, cursing. Mar. All the contagion of the south light on you, 30 You shames of Rome ! you. herd of — Boils and plagues Plaster you o'er that you may be abhorr'd Further than seen, and one infect another Against the wind a mile ! You souls of geese, That bear the shapes of men, how have you run From slaves that apes would beat ! Pluto and hell! All hurt behind ; backs red, and faces pale With flight and agued fear ! Mend and charge home, Or, by the fires of heaven, I '11 leave the foe And make my wars on you: look to 't: come on ; 40 If you '11 stand fast, we '11 beat them to their wives, 30 CORIOLANUS. [act i. As they us to our trenches followed. Another alarum. The Volsces_/[j/, and Mar- CI US follows them to the gates. So, now the gates are ope : now prove good seconds : 'T is for the followers fortune widens them, Not for the fliers : mark me, and do the like. [Enters the gates. First Sol. Fool-hardiness ; not I. Sec. Sol. Nor I. [Marcius is shut in. First Sol. See, they have shut him in. All. To th' pot, I warrant him. {Alarum continues. Re-enter Titus Lartius. Lart. What is become of Marcius? All. Slain, sir, doubtless. First Sol. Following the fliers at the very heels, With them he enters ; who, upon the sud- 50 den, Clapp'd-to their gates : he is himself alone, To answer all the city. Lart. O noble fellow ! Who sensibly outdares his senseless sword, And, when it bows, stands up. Thou art left, Marcius : A carbuncle entire, as big as thou art, Were not so rich a jewel. Thou wast a soldier Even to Cato's wish, not fierce and terrible sc. v.] CORIOLANUS. 31 Only in strokes ; but, with thy grim looks and The thunder-like percussion of thy sounds, Thou mad'st thine enemies shake, as if the world 60 Were feverous and did tremble. Re-enter Marcius, bleeding, assaulted by the enemy. First Sol. Look, sir. Lart. Oh, 't is Marcius i Let's fetch him off, or make remain alike. {They fight, and all enter the city. Scene V. Corioli. A street. Enter certain Romans, with spoils. First Rom. This will I carry to Rome. Sec. Rom. And I this. Third Rom. A murrain on 't ! I took this for silver. \_Alarum continues still afar off. Enter Marcius and Titus Lartius with a trumpet. Mar. See here these movers that do prize their hours At a crack'd drachma! Cushions, leaden spoons, Irons of a doit, doublets that hangmen would Bury with those that wore them, these base slaves, 32 CORIOLANUS. [act i. Ere yet the fight be done, pack up : down with them ! And hark, what noise the general makes! To him ! 10 There is the man of my soul's hate, Aufidius, Piercing our Romans : then, valiant Titus, take Convenient numbers to make good the city ; Whilst I, with those that have the spirit, will haste To help Cominius. Lart. Worthy sir, thou bleed'st ; Thy exercise hath been too violent For a second course of fight. Mar. Sir, praise me not; My work hath yet notwarm'd me : fare you well : The blood I drop is rather physical Than dangerous to me : to Aufidius thus I will appear, and fight. 20 Lart. Now the fair goddess, Fortune, Fall deep in love with thee ; and her great charms Misguide th' opposers' swords ! Bold gentle- man, Prosperity be thy page ! Mar. Thy friend no less Than those she placeth highest ! So, fare- well. Lart. Thou worthiest Marcius ! [Exit Marcius. Go, sound thy trumpet in the market-place ; Call thither all the officers o' the town, sc. vi.] CORIOLANUS. 33 Where they shall know our mind : away ! [Exeunt. Scene VI. Near the camp of Cominius. Enter Cominius, as it were in retire, with soldiers. Com. Breathe you, my friends: well fought ; we are come off Like Romans, neither foolish in our stands Nor cowardly in retire : believe me, sirs, We shall be charg'd again. Whiles we have struck, By interims and conveying gusts we 've heard The charges of our friends. Ye Roman gods, Lead their successes as we wish our own That both our powers, with smiling fronts encountering, May give you thankful sacrifice. Enter a Messenger. Thy news ? Mess. The citizens of Corioli have issu'd, 10 And given to Lartius and to Martius battle : I saw our party to their trenches driven, And then I came away. Com. Though thou speak'st truth, Methinks thou speak'st not well. How long is 't since ? Mess. Above an hour, my lord. Com. 'T is not a mile ; briefly we heard their drums : 34 CORIOLANUS. [act i. How couldst thou in a mile confound an hour, And bring thy news so late ? Mess. Spies of the Volsces Held me in chase, that I was forc'd to wheel 20 Three or four miles about, else had I, sir, Half an hour since brought my report. Com. Who 's yonder That does appear as he were flay'd ? O gods ! He has the stamp of Marcius ; and I have Before-time seen him thus. Mar. [ Within] Come I too late ? Com. The shepherd knows not thunder from a tabor More than I know the sound of Marcius' tongue From every meaner man's. Enter MARCIUS. Mar. Come I too late ? Coin. Ay, if you come not in the blood o» others, But mantled in your own. Mar. Oh, let me clip ye 30 In arms as sound as when I woo'd, in heart As merry as when our nuptial day was done, And tapers burn'd to bedward ! Com. Flower of warriors, How is 't with Titus Lartius ? Mar. As with a man busied about decrees: Condemning some to death and some to exile ; sc. vi.] CORIOLANUS. 35 Ransoming him, or pitying, threatening th' other ; Holding Corioli in the name of Rome, Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash, To let him slip at will. Com. Where is that slave Which told me they had beat you to your trenches ? 40 Where is he? call him hither. Mar. Let him alone; He did inform the truth : but for our gentle- men, The common file — a plague ! tribunes for them ! — The mouse ne'er shunn'd the cat as they did budge From rascals worse than they. Com. But how prevail'd you ? Mar. Will the time serve to tell ? I do not think. Where is the enemv ? are you lords o' the field ? If not, why cease you till you are so ? Com. Marcius, We have at disadvantage fought and did Retire to win our purpose. 5c Mar. How lies their battle ? know you on which side They 've plac'd their men of trust ? Com. As I guess, Marcius, Their bands i' the vaward are the Antiates, Of their best trust ; o'er them Aufidius, Their very heart of hope. 36 CORIOLANUS. [act i. Mar. I do beseech you, By all the battles wherein we have fought, By th' blood we 've shed together, by the vows We Ve made to endure friends, that you directly Set me against Aufidius and his Antiates ; 60 And that you not delay the present, but, Filling the air with swords advanc'd and darts, We prove this very hour. Com. Though I could wish You were conducted to a gentle bath And balms applied to you, yet dare I never Deny your asking : take your choice of those That best can aid your action. Mar. Those are they That most are willing. If any such be here — As it were sin to doubt — that love this painting Wherein you see me smear'd ; if any fear 70 Lesser his person than an ill report ; . If any think brave death outweighs bad life, _ And that his country 's dearer than himself; Let him, alone, or so many so minded, Wave thus t' express his disposition, And follow Marcius. [They all shout and wave their swords, take him up ill their arms, and cast up their caps. sc. vii.] CORIOLANUS. 37 Of me alone make you a sword ? of me ? If these shows be not outward, which of you But is four Volsces ? none of you but is Able to bear against the great Aufidius A shield as hard as his. A certain number, 80 Though thanks to all, must I select : the rest Shall bear the business in some other fight, As cause will be obey'd. Please you to march : And I shall quickly draw out my command, Which men are best inclin'd. Com. March on, my fellows : Make good this ostentation, and you shall Divide in all with us. {Exeunt. Sc ENE V 1 1 . The gates of Corioli. . TlTUS Lartius, having set a guard upon Coriolz, going with drum and trumpet to- ward Cominius and Caius Marcius, enters with a Lieutenant, other Soldiers, and a Scout. Lart. So, let the ports be guarded : keep your duties, As I have set them down. If I do send, dispatch Those centuries to our aid : the rest will serve For a short holding : if we lose the field, We cannot keep the town. Lieu. Fear not our care, sir. 38 CORIOLANUS. [act i. Lart. Hence, and shut your gates upon 's. Our guider, come ; to th' Roman camp con- duct us. \Exeunt. SCENE VIII. A field of battle. Alarum as in battle. E?iter,from oppo- site sides, Marcius and Aufidius. Mar. I'll fight with none but thee ; for I do hate thee Worse than a promise-breaker. Auf. We hate alike : Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor More than thy fame I envy. Fix thy foot. Mar. Let the first budger die the other's slave, And the gods doom him after ! Auf. If I fly, Marcius, Holloa me like a hare. Mar. Within these three hours, Tullus, Alone I fought on your Corioli walls, And made what work I pleas'd : 't is not my blood Wherein thou se'st me mask'd ; for thy 10 revenge Wrench up thy power to th' highest. Auf. Wert thou the Hector That was the whip of your bragg'd progeny, Thou should'st not 'scape me here. [ They fight, and certain Volsces come in the aid of Aufidius. Marcius fights till they be driveti in breathless. sc. ix.-] CORIOLANUS. 39 Officious, and not valiant, you have sham'd me In your condemned seconds. {Exeunt. SCENE IX. The Roman Camp. Flourish. Alarum. A retreat is sounded. Flourish . Enter, from one side, Cominius with the Romans ; from the other side, Marcius, with his arm in a scarf. Com. If I should tell thee o'er this thy day's work, Thou 'dst not believe thy deeds : but I '11 re- port it Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles ; Where great patricians shall attend and shrug, I' the end admire; where ladies shall be frighted, And, gladly quak'd, hear more; where the dull tribunes, That, with the fusty plebeians, hate thine honors, Shall say against their hearts, " We thank the gods Our Rome hath such a soldier." Yet cam'st thou to a morsel of this feast, 10 Having fully din'd before. Enter Titus Lartius, with his power from the pursuit. 40 CORIOLANUS. [act i. Lart. O general, Here is the steed, we the caparison : Hadst thou beheld — Mar. Pray now, no more: my mother, Who has a charter to extol her blood, When she does praise me grieves me. I have done As you have done ; that 's what I can ; in- duc'd As you have been ; that 's for my coun- try : He that has but effected his good will Hath overta'en mine act. Com. You shall not be The grave of your deserving ; Rome must 20 know The value of her own. 'T were a conceal- ment Worse than a theft, no less than a traduce- ment, To hide your doings ; and to silence that, Which, to the spire and top of praises vouch'd, Would seem but modest : therefore, I be- seech you — In sign of what you are, not to reward What you have done — before our army hear me. Mar. I have some wounds upon me, and they smart To hear themselves remember'd. Com. Should they not, 30 Well might they fester 'gainst ingratitude, sc. ix ] CORIOLANUS. 41 And tent themselves with death. Of all the horses — Whereof we 've ta'en good and good store — of all The treasure in this field achiev'dand city, We render you the tenth, to be ta'en forth, Before the common distribution, at Your only choice. Mar. I thank you, general ; But cannot make my heart consent to take A bribe to pay my sword : I do refuse it ; And stand upon my common part with those That have beheld the doing. 40 [A long flourish. They all cry " Marcius ! Marcius! " cast up their caps and lances: Cominius and Lartius stand bare, ,] Mar. May these same instruments, which you profane, Never sound more ! When drums and trum- pets shall F the field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be Made all of false-fac'd soothing ! When steel grows Soft as the parasite's silk, let him be made An armature for the wars ! No more, I say ! For that I have not wash'd my nose that bled, Or foil'd some debile wretch, — which, with- out note, 42 CORIOLANUS. [act i. Here 's many else have done, — you shout me 50 forth In acclamations hyperbolical ; As if I lov'd my little should be dieted In praises sauc'd with lies. Com. Too modest are you ; More cruel to your good report than grate- ful To us that give you truly : by your patience, If 'gainst yourself you be incens'd, we '11 put you, Like one that means his proper harm, in manacles, Then reason safely with you. Therefore, be it known, As to us, to all the world, that Caius Mar- cius Wears this war's garland : in token of the which, My noble steed, known to the camp, I give 60 him, With all his trim belonging ; and from this time, For what he did before Corioli, call him, With all th' applause and clamor of the host, Caius Marcius Coriolanus ! Bear Th' addition nobly ever! {Flourish. Trumpets sou?id, and drums. All. Caius Marcius Coriolanus ! Cor. I will go wash ; And, when my face is fair, you shall per- ceive sc. ix.] CORIOLANUS. 43 Whether I blush or no: howbeit, I thank you. I mean to stride your steed, and at all times 70 To undercrest your good addition To the fairness of my power. Com. So, to our tent ; Where, ere we do repose us, we will write To Rome of our success. You, Titus Lar- tius, Must to Corioli back : send us to Rome The best, with whom we may articulate, For their own good and ours. Lart. I shall, my lord. Cor, The gods begin to mock me. I, that now Retus'd most princely gifts, am bound to beg Of my lord general. Com. Take 't ; 't is yours. What is 't ? 80 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. Oh, well begg'd ! Were he the butcher of my son, he should Be free as is the wind. Deliver him, Titus. Lart. Marcius, his name.- 1 Cor. By Jupiter ! forgot. I 'm weary ; yea, my memory is tir'd. 90 Have we no wine here? 44 CORIOLANUS. [act i. Com. Go we to our tent : The blood upon your visage dries ; 't is time It should be look'd to : come. \Exeunt. Scene X. The camp of the Volsces. A flourish. Comets. Enter TULLUS Au- FIDIUS, bloody, with two or three Soldiers. Auf. The town is ta'en ! First Sol. 'T will be deliver'd back on good condition. Auf. Condition ! I would I were a Roman ; for I cannot, Being a Volsce, be that I am. Condition ! What good condition can a treaty find I' the part that is at mercy ? Five times, Marcius, I 've fought with thee : so often hast thou beat me, And wouldst do so, I think, should we en- counter 10 As often as we eat. By th' elements, If e'er again I meet him beard to beard, He 's mine, or I am his : mine emulation Hath not that honor in 't it had ; for where I thought to crush him in an equal force, True sword to sword, I '11 potch at him some way Or wrath or craft may get him. First Sol. He 's the devil. sc. x.] CORIOLANUS. 45 Auf. Bolder, though not so subtle. My valor, poison'd With only suffering stain by him, for him Shall fly out of itself : nor sleep nor sanc- tuary, Being naked, sick, nor fane nor Capitol, 20 The prayers of priests nor times of sacrifice, Embarquements all of fury, shall lift up Their rotten privilege and custom 'gainst My hate to Marcius : where I find him, were it At home, upon my brother's guard, even there, Against the hospitable canon, would I Wash my fierce hand in 's heart. Go you to th' city ; Learn how 't is held ; and what they are that must Be hostages for Rome. First Sol. Will not you go ? Auf. I am attended at the cypress grove : I pray you — 30 'T is south the city mills — bring me word thither How the world goes, that to the pace of it I may spur on my journey. First SoL I shall, sir. \Exeu71t. 46 CORIOLANUS. [act ii. ACT II. Scene I. Rome. A public place. Enter Menenius with the two Tribunes of the people, Sicinius and Brutus. Men. The augurer tells me we shall have news to-night. Bru. Good ? or bad ? Men. Not according to the prayer of the people, for they love not Marcius. Sic. Nature teaches beasts to know their friends. Men. Pray you, who does the wolf love ? Sic. The lamb. Men. Ay, to devour him ; as the hungry plebeians would the noble Marcius. Bru. He 's a lamb indeed, that baes like 10 a bear. Men. He'sa bear indeed, that lives like a lamb. You two are old men : tell me one thing that I shall ask you. Both. Well, sir. Men. In what enormity is Marcius poor in 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 boasLing. Men. This is strange now : do you two sc. i.] CORIOLANUS. 47 know how you are censur'd here in the city, 20 I mean of us o'the right-hand file? do you? Both. Why, how are we censur'd ? Men. Because you talk of pride now, — will you not be angry ? Both. Well, well, sir, well. Men. Why, 't is no great matter ; for a very little thief of occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience : give your disposi- tions the reins, and be angry at your pleas- ures; at the least, if you take it as a pleas- ure to you in being so. You blame Marcius for being proud ? 30 Brit. 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 abili- ties are too infant-like for doing much alone. You talk of pride : O that you could turn your eyes toward 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 40 magistrates, alias fools, as any in Rome. Sic. Menenius, you are known well enough too. Men. I am known to be a humorous pa- trician, and one that loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in 't ; said to be something imperfect in favoring the first complaint ; hasty and tinder-like upon 48 C0R10LANUS. [act ii. too trivial motion ; one that converses more with the latter end of the night than with the forehead of the morning: what I think I utter, and spend my malice in my breath. Meeting two such wealsmen as you are — I cannot call you Lycurguses — if the drink you give me touch my palate adversely, I make a crooked face at it. I cannot say your worships have deliver'd 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 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 60 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 be- tween an orangewife 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 pinch'd with the colic, you make faces like mummers, set up the bloody flag against all patience, and dis- miss the controversy bleeding, the more sc. I.] CORIOLANUS. 49 entangled by your hearing ; all the peace you 70 make in their cause is, calling both the par- ties 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 ridic- ulous 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 say- 80 ing, Marcius is proud; who, in a cheap estimation, is worth all your predecessors since Deucalion, though peradventuresome of the best of 'em were hereditary hangmen. God-den 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. {Brutus and Sicinius go aside. Enter Volumnia, Virgilia, and Valeria. How now, my as fair as noble ladies, — and the moon, were she earthly, no nobler, — whither do you follow your eyes so fast ? 90 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. 50 CORIOLANUS. [act II. Men. Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee. Hoo ! Marcius coming home ! Vol. Vir. Nay, 't is true. Vol. Look, here 's a letter from him: the ioo 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 't. 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 em- piricutic, and, to this preservative, of no better report than a horse-drench. Is he not wounded ? he was wont to come home no wounded. Vir. Oh, no, no, no. Vol. Oh, 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. Vol. On 's brows, Menenius : he comes the third time home with the oaken gar- land. Men. Hashedisciplin'd Aufidius soundly? Vol. Titus Lartius writes, they fought to- gether, but Aufidius got off. 1 20 Men. And 't was time for him too, I 'II warrant him that : an he had stay'd by him, I would not have been so fidiused for all sc. i.] CORIOLANUS. 51 the chests in Corioli, and the gold that 's in them. Is the senate possess'd 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. 130 Vir. The gods grant them true ! Vol. True ! pow, wow. Men. True ! I'll be sworn they are true. Where is he wounded ? \To the Tribunes] God save your good worships ! Marcius is coming home : he has more cause to be proud. Where is he wounded ? Vol. V 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. 140 Men. One i' the neck, and two i' the thigh, — there's nine that I know. Vol. He had, before this last expedition, twenty-five 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. 52 CORIOLANUS. [act ii. Death, that dark spirit, in 's nervy arm doth lie : Which, being advanc'd, declines, and 15° then men die. A sennet. Trumpets sound. Enter COMINIUS the general, and Titus Lartius ; be- tween them, CORIOLANUS, crowned with an oaken garland ; with Captains and Soldiers, and a Herald. Her. Know, Rome, that all alone Marcius did fight Within Corioli gates : where he hath won, With fame, a name toCaius Marcius , these In honor follows Coriolanus ! Welcome to Rome, renown'd Coriolanus ! {Flourish. All. Welcome to Rome, renown'd Corio- lanus ! Cor. No more of this ; it does offend my heart : Pray now, no more. Com. Look, sir, your mother ! Cor. Oh, You have, I know, petition'd all the gods - For my prosperity ! {Kneels. Vol. Nay, my good soldier, up; 160 My gentle Caius, worthy Marcius, and By deed-achieving honor newly named, — What is it ? — Coriolanus must I call thee ?— But, oh, thy wife! Cor. My gracious silence, hail ! sc. i.] CORIOLANUS. 53 Wouldst thou have laugh'd had f come coffin'd home, That weep'st'to see me triumph? Ah, my dear, Such eyes the widows in Corioli wear, And mothers that lack sons. Men. Now, the gods crown thee s Cor. And live you yet ? \ToValerid\ O my sweet lady, pardon. Vol, I know not where to turn : oh, wel- come home : 170 And welcome, general : and ye 're welcome all. Men. A hundred thousand welcomes. I could weep And I could laugh, I 'm light and heavy. Welcome. A curse begin at very root on 's heart That is not glad to see thee ! You are three That Rome should dote on : yet, by the faith of men, We Ve some old crab-trees here at home that will not Be grafted to your relish. Yet welcome, warriors : We call a nettle but a nettle and The faults of fools but folly. Com. Ever right. 180 Cor. Menenius ever, ever. Herald. Give way there, and go on ! Cor. [To Volumnia and Virgilia] Your hand and yours : Ere in our own house I do shade my head, 54 CORIOLANUS. [act ii. The good patricians must be visited ; From whom I have receiv'd not only greet- ings But with them change of honors. Vol. I have lived To see inherited my very wishes And the buildings of my fancy : only There 's one thing wanting, which I doubt not but Our Rome will cast upon thee. 190 Cor. Know, good mother, I had rather be their servant in my way, Than sway with them in theirs. Com. On, to the Capitol ! {Flourish. Cornets. Exeunt in state, as before. Brutus and Sicinius come forward. 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 of him : the kitchen malkin pins Her richest lockram 'bout her reechy neck, Clambering the walls to eye him : stalls, bulks, windows, Are smother'd up, leads fill'd, and ridges hors'd 200 With variable complexions, all agreeing In earnestness to see him : seld-shown fla- mens sc. i.] CORIOLANUS. 55 Do press among the popular throngs and puff To win a vulgar station : our veil'd dames Commit the war of white and damask in Their nicely-gauded cheeks to th' wanton spoil Of Phoebus' burning kisses : such a pother As if that whatsoever god who leads him Were slyly crept into his human powers And gave him graceful posture. Sic. On the sudden, I warrant him consul. Bru. Then our office may, 210 During his power, go sleep. Sic. He cannot temperately transport his honors From where he should begin to th' end, but will Lose those he 'th won. Bru. In that there 's comfort. Sic. Doubt not The commoners, for whom we stand, but they Upon their ancient malice will forget With the least cause these his new honors; which That he will give them make as little question As he is proud to do 't. Bru. I heard him swear, Were he to stand for consul, never would he 220 Appear i' the market-place nor on him put The napless vesture of humility ; Nor, showing, as the manner is, his wounds 56 CORIOLANUS. [act ii. To th' people, beg their stinking breaths. Sic. 'T is right. Bru. It was his word : oh, he would miss it rather Than carry it but by the suit of the gentry to him And the desire of the nobles. Sic. I wish no better Than have him hold that purpose and to put it In execution. Bru. 'T is most like he will. Sic. It shall be to him then as our good 230 wills, A sure destruction. Bru. So it must fall out. To him or our authorities. For an end, We must suggest the people in what hatred He still hath held them ; that to 's power he would Have made them mules, silenc'd their plead- ers and Dispropertied their freedoms, holding them, Inhuman action and capacity, Of no more soul nor fitness for the world Than camels in the war, who have their pro van d 240 Only for bearing burdens, and sore blows For sinking under them. Sic. This, as you say, suggested At some time when his soaring insolence Shall touch the people, — which time shall not want, sc. II.] CORIOLANUS. 57 If he be put upon 't, and that 's as easy As to set dogs on sheep — will be as fire To kindle their dry stubble ; and their blaze Shall darken him for ever. Enter a Messenger. Bru. What 's the matter ? Mess. You are sent for to the Capitol. 'T is thought That Marcius shall be consul : I 've seen the dumb men throng to see him and 250 The blind to hear him speak : matrons flung gloves, Ladies and maids their scarfs and handker- chers, Upon him as he pass'd : the nobles bended As to Jove's statue, and the commons made A shower and thunder with their caps and shouts : I never saw the like. Bru. Let 's to the Capitol ; And carry with us ears and eyes for th' time, But hearts for the event. Sic. Have with you. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The Same. The Capitol. Enter two Officers, to lay cushions. First Off. Come, come, they are almost here. How many stand for consulships ? 58 CORIOLANUS. [act II. Sec. Off. Three, they say : but 't is thought of every one Coriolanus will carry it. First Off. That 's a brave fellow; but he 's vengeance proud, and loves not the com- mon people. Sec. Off. Faith, there have been many great men that have flatter'd the people, who ne'er lov'd them ; and there be many that they have lov'd, they know not where- fore : 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. First Off. If he did not care whether he had their love or no, he 'd wave indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm : but he seeks their hate with greater devo- tion 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 21 for their love. Sec. Off. He hath deserv'd worthily of his country : and his ascent is not \yy such easy degrees as those who, having been supple and courteous to the people, bonneted, with- out any further deed to have them at all into their estimation and report : but he hath so planted his honors in their eyes, and sc. II.] CORIOLANUS. 59 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. 31 First Off. No more of him ; he 's a worthy man : make way, they are coming. A sennet. Enter, with Lictors before them, Cominius the consul, Menenius, Corio- lanus, Senators, Sicinius, and Brutus. The Senators take their places ; the Trib- unes take their places by themselves. Co- RIOLANUS stands. Men. Having determin'd of the Volsces, and To send for Titus Lartius, it remains, As the main point of this our after-meeting, To gratify his noble service that Hath thus stood for his country : therefore, please you, Most reverend and grave elders, to desire The present consul, and last general 40 In our well-found successes, to report A little of that worthy work perform'd By Cains Marcius Coriolanus, whom We meet here both to thank and to remem- ber With honors like himself. First Sen. Speak, good Cominius : Leave nothing out for length, and make us think 60 CORIOLANUS. [act n. Rather our state's defective for requital Than we to stretch it out. [ To the Trib- unes] Masters o' the people, We do request your kindest ears, and after, Your loving motion toward the common 50 body, To yield what passes here. Sic. We are convented Upon a pleasing treaty, and have hearts Inclinable to honor and advance The theme of our assembly. Bru. Which the rather We shall be blest to do, if he remember A kinder value of the people than He hath hereto priz'd them at. Men. That's off, that's off ; I would you rather had been silent. Please you To hear Cominius speak ? B?-u. Most willingly ; 60 But yet my caution was more pertinent Than the rebuke you give it. Men. He loves your people ; But tie him not to be their bedfellow. Worthy Cominius, speak. \Coriolamis offers to go away.] Nay, keep your place. First Sen. Sit, Coriolanus ; never shame to hear What you have nobly done. Cor. Your honors' pardon : I 'd rather have my wounds to heal again Than hear say how I got them. B711. Sir, I hope sc. II.] CORIOLANUS. 6r My words disbench'd you not. Cor. No, sir : yet oft, When blows have made me stay, I fled from words. You sooth'd not, therefore hurt not: but your people, — 7° I love them as they weigh. Men. Pray now, sit down. Cor. I 'd rather have one scratch my head i' the sun When the alarum were struck than idly sit To hear my nothings monster'd. \Exit. Men. Masters of the people, Your multiplying spawn how can he flatter — ■ That 's thousand to one good one — when you now see He 'd rather venture all his limbs for honor Than one on 's ears to hear 't ? Proceed, Cominius. Com. I shall lack voice: the deeds of Coriolanus Should not be utter'd feebly. It is held 80 That valor is the chiefest virtue, and Most dignifies the haver : if it be, The man I speak of cannot in the world Be singly counterpois'd. At sixteen years, When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he fought Beyond the mark of others .* our then dic- tator, Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight. 62 CORIOLANUS. [act ii. When with his Amazonian chin he drove The bristled lips before him : he bestrid An o'erpress'd Roman, and i' the consul's 9° view Slew three opposers : Tarquin's self he met, And struck him on his knee : in that day's feats, When he might act the woman in the scene, He prov'd best man i' the field, and for his meed Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil age Man-enter'd thus, he waxed like a sea, And, in the brunt of seventeen battles since, He lurch'd all swords of the garland. For this last, Before and in Corioli, let me say I cannot speak him home : he stopp'd the loo fliers ; And by his rare example made the coward Turn terror into sport : as weeds before A vessel under sail, so men obey'd And fell below his stem : his sword, death's stamp, Where it did mark, it took; from face to foot He was a thing of blood, whose every motion Was tim'd with dying cries : alone he enter'd The mortal gate of the city, which he painted With shunless destiny ; aidless came off, no And with a sudden re-inforcement struck Corioli like a planet : now all 's his : When, by and by, the din of war gan pierce sc. ii.] CORIOLANUS. 63 His ready sense ; then straight his doubled spirit Re-quicken 'd what in flesh was fatigate, And to the battle came he ; where he did Run reeking o'er the lives of men, as if 'T were a perpetual spoil : and, till we call'd Both field and city ours, he never stood To ease his breast with panting. Men. Worthy man ! First Sen. He cannot but with measure fit the honors Which we devise him. 120 Com. Our spoils he kick'd at, And look'd upon things precious as they were The common muck of the world : he covets less Than misery itself would gflve ; rewards His deeds with doing them, and is content To spend the time to end it. Men. He 's right noble : Let him be call'd for. First Sen. Call Coriolanus. Off. He doth appear. Re-enter Coriolanus. Men. The senate, Coriolanus, are well pleas'd To make thee consul. Cor. I do owe them still 130 My life and services. Men. It then remains That you do speak to the people. 64 CORIOLANUS. [act ii. Cor. I do beseech you, Let me o'erleap that custom, for I cannot Put on the gown, stand naked and entreat them, For my wounds' sake, to give their suffrage : please you That I may pass this doing. Sic. Sir, the people Must have their voices ; neither will they bate One jot of ceremony. Men, Put them not to 't : Pray you, go fit you to the custom, and 140 Take to you, as your predecessors have, Your honor with your form. Cor. It is a part That I shall blush in acting, and might well Be taken from the people. Bru. Mark you that ? Cor. To brag unto them, thus I did, and thus; Show them the unaching scars which I should hide, As if I had receiv'd them for the hire Of their breath only ! Men. Do not stand upon 't. We recommend to you, tribunes of the people, Our purpose to them : and to our noble consul 150 Wish we all joy and honor. Senators. To Coriolanus come all joy and honor J [Flourish of cornets. Exeunt all but Sicinius and Brutus. sc. in.] CORIOLANUS. 65 Brn. You see how he intends to use the people. Sic. May the)'' perceive 's intent ! He will require them, As if he did contemn what he requested Should be in them to give. Bru. Come, we '11 inform them Of our proceedings here : on the market- place I know they do attend us. . \Exeu?it. Scene III. The same. The Forum. Enter seven or eight Citizens. First Cit. Once, if he do require our voices, we ought not to deny him. Sec. Cit. We may, sir, if we will. Third 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. 12 First at. And to make us no better thought of, a little help will serve ; for once we stood up about the corn, he himself 66 CORIOLANUS. [act ir. stuck not to call us the many-headed multi- tude. Third Cit. We have been called so of many ; not that our heads are some brown r some black, some auburn, some bald, but that our wits are so diversely color'd : 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 r 21 the compass. Sec. Cit. Think you so? Which way do you judge my wit would fly? Third Cit. Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another man's will ; 't is strongly wedged up in a block-head ; but, if it were at liberty, 'twould, sure, southward. Sec. Cit. Why that way ? Third Cit. To lose itself in a fog, where, being three parts melted away with rotten dews, the fourth would return for conscience' 30 sake to help to get thee a wife. Sec. Cit. You are never without your tricks : you may, you may. Third Cit. Are you all resolv'd 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 in a gown of humility, with Men en 1 us. Here he comes, and in the srown of hu- SC III.] CORIOLANUS. 67 mility : mark his behavior. We are not to stay all together, but to come by him where he stands, by ones, by twos, and by threes. He 's to make his requests by par- ticulars ; 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. All. Content, content. ' ' {Exeunt Citizens, Men. O sir, you are not right : have you not known The worthiest men have done 't ? Cor. What must I say? "I pray, sir," — Plague upon't! I cannot bring My tongue to such a pace : — " Look, sir, my wounds ! I got them in my country's service, when Some certain of your brethren roar'd and ran 50 From th' noise of our own drums." Men. O me, the gods ! You must not speak of that : you must de- sire them To think upon you. Cor. Think upon me ! hang 'em ! I would they would forget me, like the vir- tues Which our divines lose by 'em. Men. You'll mar all : I'll leave you : pray you, speak to 'em, I pray you, 68 CORIOLANUS. [act ii. In wholesome manner. {Exit. Cor. Bid them wash their faces, And keep their teeth clean. {Re-enter two of the Citizens. So, here comes a brace. {Re-enter a third citizen. You know the cause, sirs, of my standing here. Third Cit. We do, sir ; tell us what hath 60 brought you to 't. Cor. Mine own desert. Sec. Cit. Your own desert ! Cor. Ay, not mine own desire. Third Cit. How not 3^our own desire ? Cor. No, sir, 't was never my desire yet to trouble the poor with begging. Third Cit. You must think, if we give you any thing, we hope to gain by you, Cor. Well then, I pray, your price o' the consulship ? 70 First Cit. The price is to ask it kindly. Cor. Kindly ! Sir, I pray, let me ha 't •, I have wounds to show you, which shall be yours in private. Your good voice, sir ; what say you ? Sec. Cit. You shall ha 't, worthy sir. Cor. A match, sir. There's in all two worthy voices begg'd. I have your alms : adieu. Third Cit. But this is something odd. Sec. Cit. An 't were to give again, — but 't is no matter. {Exeunt the three Citizens. sc. in.] CORIOLANUS. 69 Re-enter two other Citizens. Cor. Pray you now, if it may stand with the tune of your voices that I maybe consul, I have here the customary gown. 81 Fourth Czt. You have deserv'd nobly of your country, and you have not deserv'd nobly. Cor. Your enigma? Fourth Cit. You have been a scourge to her enemies, you have been a rod to her friends ; you have not indeed lov'd the com- mon people. Cor. You should account me the more virtuous that I have not been common in my love. I will, sir, flatter my sworn brother, the people, to earn a dearer estima- tion of them ; 't is a condition they account gentle : and, since the wisdom of their choice is rather to have my hat than my heart, I will practise the insinuating nod and be off to them most counterfeitly ; that is, sir, I will counterfeit the bewitchment of some popular man and give it bountiful to the desirers. Therefore, beseech you, I may be consul. Fifth Cit. We hope to find you our friend, and therefore give you our voices heartily. Fourth Cit. You have receiv'd many wounds for your country. 100 Cor. I will not seal your knowledge with showing them. I will make much of your voices, and so trouble you no further. 70 CORIOLANUS. [act ii. Both Cit. The gods give you joy, sir, heartily ! [Exeunt. Cor. Most sweet voices ! Better it is to die, better to starve, Than crave the hire which first we do de- serve. Why in this woolvish toge should I stand here, To beg of Hob and Dick, that do appear, Their needless vouches ? Custom calls me no to't: What custom wills, in all things should we do 't, The dust on antique time would lie unswept, And mountainous error be too highly heapt For truth to o'er-peer. Rather than fool it so, Let the high office and the honor go To one that would do thus. I am half through ; The one part suffer'd, th' other will I do. Re-enter three Citizens more. Here comes more voices. Your voices : for your voices I have fought; Watch'd for your voices ; for your voices i 20 bear Of wounds two dozen odd ; battles thrice six I 've seen and heard of ; for your voices have Done many things, some less, some more : your voices: Indeed, I would be consul. sc. in.] CORIOLANUS. 71 Sixth Cit. He has done nobly, and cannot go without any honest man's voice. Seventh Cit. Therefore let him be consul : the gods give him joy, and make him good friend to the people. All Cit. Amen, amen. God save thee, noble consul ! [Exeunt. Cor. Worthy voices ! 13° Re-enter Menenius. with Brutus and SlCINIUS, Men. You 've stood your limitation ; and the tribunes Endue you with the people's voice : remains That, in th' official marks invested, you Anon do meet the senate. Cor, Is this done? Sic. The custom of request you have dis- charg'd : The people do admit you and aresummon'd To meet anon, upon your approbation Cor. Where? at the senate-house? Sic. There, Coriolanus. Cor. May I then change these garments ? Sic. You may, sir, Cor. That I '11 straight do ; and, knowing myself again, 140 Repair to the senate-house. Men. I '11 keep you company. Will you along ? Bru. We stay here for the people. Sic. Fare you well. [Exeunt Coriolanus and Menenius. 72 CO RIO LAN US. [act ii. He has it now, and by his looks methinks 'T is warm at 's heart. Bru. With a proud heart he wore his humble weeds. Will you dismiss the people ? Re-enter Citizens. Sic. How now, my masters ! have you chose this man? First Cit. He has our voices, sir. Brut. We pray the gods he may deserve 150 your loves. Sec. Cit. Amen, sir : to my poor, unworthy notice, He mock'd us when he begg'd our voices. Third Cit. Certainly He flouted us downright. First Cit. No, 't is his kind of speech : he did not mock us. Sec. Cit. Not one amongst us, save your- self, but says He us'd us scornfully : he should have show'd us His marks of merit, wounds receiv'd for 's country. Sic. Why, so he did, I am sure. Citizens. No, no ; no man saw 'em. Third Cit. He said he had wounds, which he could show in private; 160 And with his hat, thus waving it in scorn, " I would be consul" says he : " aged custom But by your voices will not so permit me; Your voices therefore." When we granted that, sc. in.] CORIOLANUS. 73 Here was, " I thank you for your voices : thank you : Your most sweet voices : now you 've left your voices, I have no further with you." Was not this mockery ? Sic. Why either were you ignorant to see 't, Or, seeing it, of such childish friendliness To yield your voices ? Bru. Could you not have told him, As you were lesson'd, when he had no power, 17° But was a petty servant to the state, He was your enemy, ever spake against Your liberties and the charters that you bear V the body o' the weal ; and now, arriving A place of potency and sway o' the state, If he should still malignantly remain Fast foe to the plebeii, your voices might Be curses to yourselves ? You should have said That, as his worthy deeds did claim no less Than what he stood for, so his gracious nature 180 Would think upon you for your voices and Translate his malice towards you into love, Standing your friendly lord. Sic. Thus to have said, As you were fore-advis'd, had touch 'd his spirit And tried his inclination ; from him pluck'd 74 CORIOLANUS. [act ii. Either his gracious promise, which you might, As cause had call'd you up, have held him to; Or else it would have gall'd his surly nature, Which easily endures not article Tying him to aught ; so putting him to 190 rage, You should have ta'en the advantage of his choler And pass'd him unelected. Brii. Did you perceive He did solicit you in free contempt When he did need your loves, and do you think That his contempt shall not be bruising to you, When he hath power to crush ? Why, had your bodies No heart among you ? or had you tongues to cry Against the rectorship of judgment? Sic. Have you Ere now denied the asker? and now again 200 Of him that did not ask, but mock, bestow Your sued-for tongues ? Third Cit. He 's not confirm'd ; we may deny him yet. Second Cit. And will deny him : I'll have five hundred voices of that sound. First Cit. I twice five hundred and their friends to piece 'em. Bru. Get you hence instantly, and tell those friends so. in.] CORIOLANUS. 75 They 've chose a consul that will from them take Their liberties : make them of no more voice Than dogs, that are as often beat for barking As therefore kept to do so. Sic. Let them assemble, 210 And on a safer judgment all revoke Your ignorant election ; enforce his pride, And his old hate unto you ; besides, forget not With what contempt he wore the humble weed, How in his suit he scorn'd you ; but your loves, Thinking upon his services, took from you The apprehension of his present portance, Which, gibing most ungravely, he did fashion After th' inveterate hate he bears you. Bru. Lay A fault on us, your tribunes ; that welabor'd, 220 No impediment between, but that you must Cast your election on him. Sic. Say, you chose him More after our commandment than as guided 'By your own true affections, and that your minds, Pre-occupied with what you rather must do Than what you should, made you against the grain To voice him consul : lay the fault on us. 76 CORIOLANUS. [act ii. Bru. Ay, spare us not. Say we read lec- tures to you, How youngly he began to serve his country, How long continu'd, and what stock he 230 springs of, The noble house o' the Marcians, from whence came That Angus Marcius, Numa's daughter's son, Who, after great Hostilius, here was king ; Of the same house Publius and Quintus were, That our best water brought by conduits hither; And [Censorinus,] who was nobly nam'd so, Twice being [by the people chosen] censor, Was his great ancestor. Sic. One thus descended, That hath beside well in his person wrought 240 To be set high in place, we did commend To your remembrances : but you have found, Scaling his present bearing with his past, That he 's your fixed enemy, and revoke Your sudden approbation. Bru. Say, you ne'er had done 't — Harp on that still — but by our putting on : And presently, when you have drawn your number, Repair to the Capitol. All. We will so : almost all Repent in their election. {Exeunt Citizens. Brti. Let them go on ; sc. I.] CORIOLANUS. 77 This mutiny were better put in hazard Than stay, past doubt, for greater. 250 If, as his nature is, he fall in rage With their refusal, both observe and answer The vantage of his anger. Sic. To the Capitol, come: We will be there before the stream o' the people ; And this shall seem, as partly 't is, their own, Which we have goaded onward. [Exeunt. ACT III. Scene I. Rome. A street. Cornets. Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, all the Gentry, Cominius, Titus Lar- tius, and other Senators. Cor. Tullus Aufidius then had made new head ? Lart. He had, my lord ; and that it was which caus'd Our swifter composition. Cor. So then the Volsces stand but as at first, Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road Upon 's again. Com. They 're worn, lord consul, so That we shall hardly in our ages see 78 CORIOLANUS. [act hi. Their banners wave again. Cor. Saw you Aufidius ? Lart. On safe-guard he came to me ; and did curse 10 Against the Volsces, for they had so vilely Yielded the town : he is retir'd to Antium. Cor. Spoke he of me ? Lart. He did, my lord. Cor. How ? what? Lart. How often he had met you, sword to sword ; That of all things upon the earth he hated Your person most ; that he would pawn his fortunes To hopeless restitution, so he might Be call'd your vanquisher. Cor. At Antium lives he ? Lart. At Antium. Cor. I wish I had a cause to seek him there, 20 T' oppose his hatred fully. Welcome home. Enter Sicinius and Brutus. Behold, these are the tribunes of the people, 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. Cor. What makes this change ? sc. i.] CORIOLANUS, 79 Men. The matter? Coin. Hath he not pass'd the noble and the common ? Bru. Cominius, no. Cor. Have I had children's voices ? 30 First Sen. Tribunes, give way ; he shall to th' market-place. Bru. 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 ? What are your offices ? 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 purpos'd thing, and grows by plot, To curb the will of the nobility : Suffer 't, and live with such as cannot rule 4a Nor ever will be rul'd. Bru. Call 't not a plot : The people cry you mock'd them, and of late, When corn was given them gratis, you re- pin'd ; Scandal'd the suppliants for the people,. call'd them Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness.. Cor. Why, this was known before. 80 CORIOLANUS. [act hi. Bru. Not to them all. Cor. Have you inform'd them sithence? Bru. How ! I inform them ! Com. You are like to do such business. Bru. . Not unlike, Each way. to better yours. Cor. Why then should I be consul ? By 50 yond 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 To where you 're bound, you must inquire your way, Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit, Or never be so noble as a consul, Nor yoke with him for tribune. Me?i. Let 's be calm. Com. The people are abus'd ; set on. This paltering Becomes not Rome, nor has Coriolanus 60 Deserv'd this so dishonor'd rub, laid falsely I' the plain way of his merit. Cor. Tell me of corn ! This was my speech, and I will speak 't again — Men. Not now, not now. First Sen. Not in this heart, sir, now. Cor. Now, as I live, I will. My nobler friends, I crave their pardons : For th' mutable, rank-scented many, let them sc. I.] CORIOLANUS. 81 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, 70 Which we ourselves have plough'd for, sow'd, and scatter'd, By mingling them with us, the honor'd number, Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that Which the)'' have given to beggars. Men. Well, no more. First Sen. No more words, we beseech you. Cor. How ! no more ! As for my country I have shed my blood, Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs Coin words till they decay against those measles Which we disdain should tetter us, yet sought The very way to catch them. Brn. You speak o' the people 80 As if you were a god to punish, not A man of their infirmity. Sic. 'T were well We let the people know 't. Men. What, what ? his choler ? Cor. Choler ! Were I as patient as the midnight sleep, By Jove, 't would be my mind ! Sic. It is a mind 82 CORIOLANUS. [act hi. That shall remain a poison where it is, Not poison any further. Cor. " Shall remain " ! Hear you this Triton of the minnows ? mark you His absolute " shall " ? Coin. 'T was from the canon. 90 Cor. " Shall ! " O good but most unwise patricians ! why, You grave but reckless senators, have you thus Given Hydra here to choose an officer That with his peremptory "shall," being but The horn and noise o' the monster, wants not spirit To say he '11 turn your current in a ditch, And make your channel his? If he have power, Then vail your impotence ; if none, revoke Your dangerous lenity. If you are learn'd, 100 Be not as common fools ; if you are not, Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians, If they be senators : and they 're no less, When, both your voices blended, the great'st taste Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate, And such a one as he, who puts his "shall," His popular " shall," against a graver bench Than ever frown'd in Greece. By Jove himself, sc. i.] CORIOLANUS. 83 It makes the consuls base ! and my soul acjhes To know, when two authorities are up, Neither supreme, how soon confusion no May enter 'twixt the gap of both and take The one by the other. Co?n. Well, on to the market-place. Cor. Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth The corn o' th' storehouse gratis, as 't was used Sometime in Greece, — Men. Well, well, no more of that. Cor. — Though there the people had more absolute power, — I say, they nourish'd disobedience, fed The ruin of the state. Bru. Why shall the people give One that speaks thus their voice ? Cor. I '11 give my reasons, More worthier than their voices. They know the corn 120 Was not our recompense, resting well assur'd They ne'er did service for't: being press'd to th' war, Even when the navel of the state was touch'd, They would not thread the gates. This kind of service Did not deserve corn gratis. Being i' the war, Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they show'd 84 CORIOLANUS. [act hi. Most valor, spoke not for them : th' accusa- tion Which they have often made against the senate, All cause unborn, could never be the motive 130 Of our so frank donation. Well, what then ? How shall this bisson multitude digest The senate's courtesy? ' Let deeds express What's like to be their words: "We did request it; We are the greater poll, and in true fear They gave us our demands." Thus we de- base The nature of our seats and make the rabble Call our cares fears ; which will in time Break ope the locks o' the Senate and bring in The crows to peck the eagles. Men. Come, enough. Bru. Enough, with over-measure. 140 Cor. No, take more : What may be sworn by, both divine and human, Seal what I end withal ! This double wor- ship- Where one part does disdain with cause, the other Insult without all reason, where gentry, title, wisdom Cannot conclude but by the yea and no Of general ignorance, — it must omit sc. I.] CORIOLANUS. 85 Real necessities, and give way the while T' unstable slightness : purpose so barr'd, it follows, Nothing is done to purpose. Therefore, beseech you, — You that will be less fearful than discreet, 153 That love the fundamental part of state More than you doubt the change on 't, that prefer A noble life before a long, and wish To jump a body with a dangerous physic That 's sure of death without it, at once pluck out The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick The sweet which is their poison : your dis- honor Mangles true judgment and bereaves the state Of that integrity which should become 't, Not having the power to do the good it would, 160 For th' ill which doth control 't. Bru. 'Has said enough. ' Sic. 'Has spoken like a traitor, and shall answer As traitors do. Cor. Thou wretch, despite o'erwhelm thee ! What should the people do with these bald tribunes ? On whom depending, their obedience fails To the greater bench : in a rebellion, 86 CORIOLANUS. [act hi. When what 's not meet, but what must be, was law, Then were they chosen : in a better hour, 170 Let what is meet be said it must be meet, And throw their power i' the dust. Bru. Manifest treason ! Sic. This a consul ? no. Bru. Th' aediles, ho! Enter an iEdile. Let him be apprehended. Sic. Go, call the people : {Exit yEdile\ in whose name myself Attach thee as a traitorous innovator, A foe to th' public weal: obey, I charge thee, And follow to thine answer. Cor. Hence, old goat ! Senators, etc. We '11 surety him. Com. Ag'd sir, hands off. Cor. Hence, rotten thing ! or I shall shake thy bones Out of thy garments. 180 Sic. Help, ye citizens ! Enter a rabble 0/ Citizens {Plebeians) with the iEdiles. Men. On both sides more respect. Sic. Here 's he that would take from you all your power. Bru. Seize him, sediles ! Citizens. Down with him ! down with him ! sc. I.] CORIOLANUS. 87 Senators, etc. Weapons, weapons, weap- ons ! [ They all bustle about Coriolanus, crying " Tribunes!" "Patricians!" "Citizens!" " What, ho ! " •" Sicinius ! " "Brutus!" "Coriolanus!" " Citizens !" " Peace, peace, peace ! " " Stay, hold, peace ! " Men. What is about to be ? I 'm out of breath ; Confusion 's near ; I cannot speak. You, tribunes 190 To the people ! Coriolanus, patience ! Speak, good Sicinius. Sic. Hear me, people ; peace ! Citizens. Let 's hear our tribune : peace ! Speak, speak, speak. Sic. You are at point to lose your liberties : Marcius would have all from you ; Marcius, Whom late you 've nam'd for consul. Men. Fie, fie, fie ! This is the way to kindle, not to quench. First Sen. T' unbuild the city and to lay all flat. Sic. What is the city but the people ? Citizens. True, The people are the city. 200 Bru. By the consent of all, we were established The people's magistrates. Citizens. You so remain. Men. And so are like to do. CORIOLANUS. [act III. Cor. That is the way to lay the city flat ; To bring the roof to the foundation, And bury all, which yet distinctly ranges, In heaps and piles of ruin. Sic. This deserves death. Bru. Or let us stand to our authority Or let us lose it. We do here pronounce, Upon the part o' the people, in whose 210 power We were elected theirs, Marcius is worthy Of present death. Sic. Therefore lay hold of him ; Bear him to th' rock Tarpeian, and from thence Into destruction cast him. Bru. y£diles, seize him ! Citizens. Yield, Marcius, yield ! Men. Hear me one word ; Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word. JEd. Peace, peace ! Men. {To Brutus] Be that you seem, truly your country's friend, And temperately proceed to what you would Thus violently redress. 220 Bru. Sir, those cold ways, That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonous Where the disease is violent. Lay hands upon him, And bear him to the rock. Cor. No, I '11 die here. {Drawing his sword. sc. I.] C0R10LANUS. 89 There 's some among you have beheld me fighting: Come, try upon yourselves what you have seen me. Men. Down with that sword ! Tribunes, withdraw awhile. - Bru. Lay hands upon him. Men. Help Marcius, help, You that be ncble ; help him, young and old ! Citizens. Down with him, down with him ! [In this mutiny, the Tribunes, the JEdiles, and the People are beat in. Men. Go, get you to your house ; be gone, away ! 230 All will be naught else. Sec. Sen. Get you gone. Cor. Stand fast ; We have as many friends as enemies. Men. Shall it be put to that ? First Sen. The gods forbid ! I prithee, noble friend, home to thy house; Leave us to cure this cause. Men. For 't is a sore upon us You cannot tent yourself : be gone, beseech you. Com. Come, sir, along with us. Cor. I would they were barbarians — as they are, Though in Rome litter'd ; not Romans; as they are not, Though calv'd i' the porch o' the Capitol — Men. Be gone ; 240 ^o CORIOLANUS. [act hi. Put not your worthy rage into your tongue; One time will owe another. Cor. On fair ground I could beat forty of them. Men. I could myself Take up a brace o' the best of them ; yea, the two tribunes.. Com. But now 't is odds beyond arith- metic ; And manhood is call'd foolery, when it stands Against a falling fabric. Will you hence, Before the tag return ? whose rage doth rend Like interrupted waters and o'erbear What they are used to bear. 250 Men. Pray you, be gone : I '11 try whether my old wit be in request With those that have but little : this must be patch'd With cloth of any color. Coni. Nay, come away. \_Exeunt Coriolanus, Comijiius, and others. A Patrician. This man has marr'd his fortune. Men. His nature is too noble for the world : He would not flatter Neptune for his tri- dent, Or Jove for 's power to thunder. His heart 's his mouth : .sc. I.] CORIOLANUS. 91 What his breast forges that his tongue must vent ; And, being angry, does forget that ever He heard the name of death. 260 [A noise within. Here 's goodly work ! Sec. Pat. I would they were a-bed ! Men. I would they were in Tiber ! What, the vengeance, Could he not speak 'em fair? Re-enter Brutus and Sicinius, with the rabble. Sic. Where is this viper That would depopulate the city and Be every man himself? Men. You worthy tribunes, — Sic. He shall be thrown down the Tar- peian rock With rigorous hands : he hath resisted law, And therefore law shall scorn him further trial Than the severity of the public power Which he' so sets at naught. First Cit. He shall well know 270 The noble tribunes are the people's mouths, And we their hands. Citizens. He shall, sure on 't. Men. Sir, sir, — Sic. Peace ! Men. Do not cry havoc, where you should but hunt With modest warrant. 92 C0R10LANUS. [act hi. Sic. Sir, how comes 't that you Have holp to make this rescue ? Men. Hear me speak; As I do know the consul's worthiness, So can I name his faults, — Sic. Consul \ what consul ? Men. The consul Coriolanus. 280 Bru. He consul I Citizeiis. No, no, no, no, no. Men. If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours, good people, I may be heard, I 'd crave a word or two ; The which shall turn you to no further harm Than so much loss of time. Sic. Speak briefly then ; For we are peremptory to despatch This viperous traitor: to eject him hence Were but our danger, and to keep him here Our certain death : therefore it is decreed He dies to-night. 290 Men. Now the good gods forbid That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude Towards her deserved children is enroll'd In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam Should now eat up her own ! Sic. He 's a disease that must be cut away. Men. Oh, he 's a limb that has but a dis- ease; Mortal, to cut it off ; to cure it, easy. What has he done to Rome that's worthy death ? SC. I.] CORIOLANUS. 93 Killing our enemies, the blood be hath lost — Which, I dare vouch, is more than that he hath, 300 By many an ounce — he dropp'd it for his country ; And what is left, to lose it by his country, Were to us all that do 't and surfer it A brand to th' end o' the world. Sic. This is clean kam. Bru. Merely awry : when he did love his country, It honor'd him. Men. The service of the foot Being once gangren'd is not then respected For what before it was. Bru. We '11 hear no more. Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence; Lest his infection, being of catching nature, 310 Spread further. Men. One word more, one word. This tiger-footed rage, when it shall find The harm of unscann'd swiftness, will too late Tie leaden pounds to 's heels. Proceed by process ; Lest parties, as he is belov'd, break out, And sack great Rome with Romans. Bru. If it were so, — Sic. What do ye talk ? Have we not had a taste of his obedience ? 94 CORIOLANUS. [act nrj Gur aediles smote ? Ourselves resisted ?• Come. Men. Consider this : he has been bred i' 320 the wars Since he could draw a sword, and is ill— school'd In bolted language ; meal and bran together He throws without distinction. Give me leave, I'll go to him, and undertake to bring him Where he shall answer, by a lawful form, In peace, to 's utmost peril. First Sen. . Noble tribunes, It is the humane way: the other course Will prove too bloody, and the end of it Unknown to the beginning. Sic. Noble Menenius, 330 Be you then as the people's officer. Masters, lay down your weapons. Bru. Go not home. Sic. Meet on the market-place. We 'II attend you there : Where, if you bring not Marcius, we'll pro- ceed In our first way. Me?i. I'll bring him to you. [To the Senator s\ Let me desire your com- pany: he must come, Or what is worst will follow. First Sen. Pray you, let 's to him. [Exeunt, sc. II.] CORIOLANUS. g$ Scene II. A room in Coriolanus s house. Enter Coriolanus with Patricians. Cor. Let them pull all about mine ears, present me Death on the wheel or at wild horses' heels, Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock That the precipitation might down stretch Below the beam of sight, yet will I still Be thus to them. A Patrician. You do the nobler. Cor. I muse my mother Does not approve me further, who was wont To call them woollen vassals, things created To buy and sell with groats, to show bare heads io> In congregations, to yawn, be still and wonder, When one but of my ordinance stood up To speak of peace or war. Enter Volumnia. I talk of you : Why did you wish me milder ? would you have me False to my nature ? Rather say I play The man I am. Vol. O, sir, sir, sir, I would have had you put your power well on Before you had worn it out. Cor. Let go. 96 CORIOLANUS. [act hi. Vol. You might have been enough the man you are 20 With striving less to be so : lesser had been The thwartings of your dispositions if You had not show'd them how you were dispos'd Ere they lack'd power to cross you. Cor. Let them hang. Vol. Ay, and burn too. Enter Menenius and Senators. Men. Come, come, you have been too rough, something too rough ; You must return and mend it. First Sen. There 's no remedy ; Unless, by not so doing, our good city Cleave in the midst and perish. Vol. Pray, be counsel'd : I have a heart as little apt as yours, 30 But yet a brain that leads my use of anger To better vantage. Men. Well said, noble woman ! Before he should thus stoop to th' herd, but that The violent fit o' th' time craves it as physic For the whole state, I 'd put mine armor on, Which I can scarcely bear. Cor. What must I do ? Men. Return to the tribunes. Cor. Well, what then ? what then ? Me7i. Repent what you have spoke. Cor. For them ! I cannot do it to the gods ; Must I then do 't to them ? sc. ii.] C0R10LANUS. 97 Vol. You are too absolute ; Though therein you can never be too noble 40 But when extremities speak. I 've heard you say, Honor and policy, like unsever'd friends, I' the war do grow together : grant that, and tell me, In peace what each of them by the other lose, That they combine not there. Cor. Tush, tush ! Men. A good demand. Vol. If it be honor in your wars to seem The same you are not, — which for your best ends You adopt your policy, — how is it less or worse That it shall hold companionship in peace "With honor, as in war, since that to both 50 It stands in like request ? Cor. Why force you this ? Vol. Because that now it lies you on to speak To th' people ; not by your own instruc- tion Nor by the matter which your own heart prompts you But with such words that are but roted in Your tongue, thought's bastards, and but syllables Of no allowance to your bosom's truth. Now this no more dishonors you at all Than to take in a town with gentle words, 9 8 CORIOLANUS. [act in. Which else would put you to your fortune 60 and The hazard of much blood. I would dissemble with my nature where My fortunes and my friends at stake required I should do so in honor : I am, in this, Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles ; And you will rather show our general louts How you can frown than spend a fawn upon, 'em For the inheritance of their loves and safe- guard Of what that want might ruin. Men. Noble lady ! Come, go with us; speak fair: you may 70 salve so Not what is dangerous present but the loss Of what is past. Vol. I prithee now, my son, Go to them with this bonnet in thy hand ; And thus far having stretch'd it — here be with them — Thy knee bussing the stones — for in such business Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant More learned than the ears — waving thy head, Which often, thus, correcting thy stout heart, Bow, humble as the ripest mulberr) r That will not hold the handling, — say to 80 them SC. II.] CORIOLANUS. 99 Thou art their soldier, and being bred in?, broils Hast not the soft way which, thou dost con- fess, Were fit for thee to use as they to claim In asking their good loves, but thou wilt frame Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs so far As thou hast power and person. Men. This but done,. Even as she speaks it, why, their hearts were yours ; For they have pardons, being ask'd, as free As words to little purpose. Vol. Prithee now, Go, and be ruled : although I know thou 'dst rather 90 Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf Than flatter him in a bower. Here is Cominius. Enter Cominius. Com. I 've been i' the market-place ; and,, sir, 't is fit You make strong party, or defend yourself By calmness or by absence : all 's in anger. Men. Only fair speech. Com. I think 't will serve if he- Can- thereto frame his spirit. Vol. He must and will. Prithee now, say you will, and go about it. Cor. Must I go show them my unbarbed sconce ? ioo CORIOLANUS. [act hi. Must I with base tongue give my noble ioo heart A lie that it must bear? Well, I will do 't : Yet, were there but this single plot to lose, This mould of Marcius, they to dust should grind it And throw 't against the wind. To th' market-place ! You Ve put me now to such a part which never I shall discharge to th' life. C0771. Come, come, we '11 prompt you. Vol. I prithee now, sweet son, as thou hast said My praises made thee first a soldier, so, To have my praise for this, perform a part Thou hast not done before, no Cor. Well, I must do 't : Away, my disposition, and possess me Some harlot's spirit ! my throat of war be turn'd, Which quired with my drum, into a pipe Small as an eunuch's, or the virgin voice That babies lulls asleep ! the smiles of knaves Tent in my cheeks, and schoolboys' tears take up The glasses of my sight ! a beggar's tongue Make motion through my lips, and my arm'd knees, Who bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his 1 20 That hath receiv'd an alms ! I will not do 't, Lest I surcease to honor mine own truth, SC II.] CORIOLANUS. 101 And by my body's action teach my mind A most inherent baseness. Vol. At thy choice, then : To beg of thee, it is my more dishonor Than thou of them. Come all to ruin ; let Thy mother rather feel thy pride than fear Thy dangerous stoutness, for I mock at death With as big heart as thou. Do as thou list. Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck'dst it from me, But ow'st thy pride thyself. Cor. Pray, be content: 130 Mother, I 'm going to the market-place ; Chide me no more. I '11 mountebank their loves, Cog their hearts from them, and come home belov'd Of all the trades in Rome. Look, I am going: Commend me to my wife. I '11 return consul, Or never trust to what my tongue can do I' the way of flattery further. Vol. Do your will. {Exit. C0711. Away ! the tribunes do attend you : arm yourself To answer mildly ; for they are prepar'd With accusations, as I hear, more strong 140 Than are upon you yet. 102 ' COKIOLANUS. [act hi. Cor. The word is "mildly." Pray you, let us go : Let them accuse me by invention, I Will answer in mine honor. Men. Ay, but mildly. Cor. Well, mildly be it then. Mildly. {Exeunt. SCENE III. The same. The Fontm. Enter Sicinius and Brutus. Bru. In this point charge him home, that he affects Tyrannical power: if he evade us there, Enforce him with his envy to the people, And that the spoil got on the Antiates Was ne'er distributed. Enter an ^dile. What, will he come ? JEd. He is coming. Bru. How accompanied ? JEd. With old Menenius, and those senators That always favor'd him. Sic. Have you a catalogue Of all the voices that we have procur'd Set down by the poll ? 10 jEd. I have ; 't is ready here. Sic. Have you collected them by tribes? JEd. I have. Sic. Assemble presently the people hither; sc. in.] CORIOLANUS. 103 And, when they hear me say, " It shall be so V the right and strength o' the commons," be it either . For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them, If I say fine, cry " Fine ; " if death, cry "Death." Insisting on the old prerogative And power i' the truth o' the cause. JEd. I shall inform them. Bru. And when such time they have be- gun to cry, Let them not cease, but with a din confus'd 20 Enforce the present execution Of what we chance to sentence. JEd. Very well. Sic. Make them be strong and ready for this hint, When we shall hap to give 't them. Bru. Go about it. [Exit JEdile. Put him to choler straight : he hath been us'd Ever to conquer, and to have his worth Of contradiction : being once chaf'd, he cannot Be rein'd again to temperance ; then he speaks What 's in his heart ; and that is there which looks With us to break his neck. Sic. Well, here he comes. 30 Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, and Co . minius, with Senators and Patricians. 104 CORIOLANUS. [act hi. Men. Calmly, I do beseech you. Cor. Ay, as an ostler, that for th' poorest piece Will bear the knave by the volume. The honor'd gods Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice Supplied with worthy men ! plant love among 's ! Throng our large temples with the shows of peace, And not our streets with war ! First Sen. Amen, amen. Men. A noble wish. Re-enter JEdile, with Citizens. Sic. Draw near, ye people. JEd. List to your tribunes. Audience! 40 peace, I say ! Cor. First, hear me speak, Both Tri. Weil, say. Peace, ho ! Cor. Shall I be charg'd no further than this present ? Must all determine here ? Sic. I do demand If you submit you to the people's voices, Allow their officers, and are content To suffer lawful censure for such faults As shall be prov'd upon you ? Cor. I am content. Men. Lo, citizens, he says he is content : The warlike service he has done, consider; SC. III.] CORIOLANUS. 105 • Think on the wounds his body bears, which show 50 Like graves i' the holy churchyard. Cor. Scratches with briars, Scars to move laughter only. Men. Consider, further, That when he speaks not like a citizen, You find him like a soldier: do not take His rougher accents for malicious sounds, But, as I say, such as become a soldier, Rather than envy you. Co?n. Well, well, no more. Cor. What is the matter That, being pass'd for consul with full voice, I 'm so dishonor'd that the very hour 60 You take it off again ? Sic. Answer to us, Cor. Say, then : 't is true, I ought so. Sic. We charge you that you have con- triv'd to take From Rome all season'd office and to wind Yourself into a power tyrannical ; For which you are a traitor to the people. Cor. How! traitor [ Men. Nay, temperately ; your promise. Cor. The fires i' the lowest hell fold-in the people I Call me their traitor ! Thou injurious tribune! Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths, 70 In thy hands clutch'd as many millions, in Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say 106 CORIOLANUS. [act in. " Thou liest " unto thee with a voice as free As I do pray the gods. Sic. Mark you this, people ? Citizens. To the rock, to the rock with him ! Sic. Peace ! We need not put new matter to his charge : What you have seen him do and heard him speak, Beating your officers, cursing yourselves, Opposing laws with strokes, and here de- fying Those whose great power must try him ; 80 even this, So criminal and in such capital kind, Deserves th' extremest death. Bru. But since he hath Serv'd well for Rome, — Cor. What do you prate of service ? . Bru I talk of that that know it. Cor. You ? Men. Is this the promise that you made your mother ? Co7?i. Know, I pray you. — Cor. I'll know no further : Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death, Vagabond exile, flaying, pent to linger 90 But with a grain a day, I would not buy Their mercy at the price of one fair word ; Nor check my courage for what they can give, To have 't with saying, " Good morrow." sc. in ] CORIOLANUS. 107 Sic. For that he has, As much as in him lies, from time to time Envied against the people, seeking means To pluck away their power, as now at last Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers That do distribute it ; in the name o' the people And in the power of us the tribunes, we, 100 Even from this instant, banish him our city, In peril of precipitation From off the rock Tarpeian, never more To enter our Rome gates.; i' the people's name, I say it shall be so. Citizens. It shall be so, it shall be so ; let him away : He 's banish'd and it shall be so. Com. Hear me, my masters, and my common friends, — Sic. He's sentenc'd ; no more hearing. Com. Let me speak : I have been consul, and can show for Rome no Her enemies' marks upon me. I do love My country's good with a respect more tender, More holy and profound, than mine own life, My dear wife's estimate, her womb's in- crease, And treasure of my loins ; then if I would Speak that, — 108 CORIOLANUS. [act hi. Sic. We know your drift : speak what ? Bru. There's no more to be said, but he is banish'd, As enemy to the people and his country : It shall be so. Citizens. It shall be so, it shall be so. Cor. You common cry of curs! whose 1 20 breath I hate As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize As the dead carcasses of unburied men That do corrupt my air, I banish you ; And here remain with your uncertainty! Let every feeble rumor shake your hearts ! Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes, Fan you into despair ! Have the power still To banish your defenders ; till at length Your ignorance, which finds not till it feels, 130 Making but reservation of yourselves, Still your own foes, deliver you as most Abated captives to some nation That won you without blows ! Despising then, For you, the city, thus I turn my back : There is a world elsewhere. Exeunt Coriolanus, Cominius, Menenius, Senators, and Patricians. jEd. The people's v.nemy is gone, is gone ! Citizens. Our enemy is banish'd ! he is gone ! Hoo ! hoo ! [Shouting, and throwing up their caps. Sic. Go, see him out at gates, and follow him, sc. i.] CORIOLANUS. 109 As he hath follow'd you, with all despite; Give him deserv'd vexation. Let a guard Attend us through the city. Citizens. Come, come ; let's see him out at gates ; come. The gods preserve our noble tribunes ! Come. {Exeunt. ACT IV. SCENE I. Rome. Before a gate of the city. Enter Coriolanus, Volumnia, Virgilia, Menenius, .Cominius, with the young Nobility of Rome. Cor. Come, leave your tears : a brief farewell : the beast With many heads butts me away. Nay, mother, Where is your ancient courage? you were us'd To say extremity was the trier of spirits ; That common chances common men could bear ; That when the sea was calm all boats alike Show'd mastership in floating ; fortune's blows, When most struck home, being gentle, wounded, craves no CORIOLANUS. [act iv. A noble cunning : you were us'd to load me 10 With precepts that would make invincible The heart that conn'd them. Vir. O heavens ! O heavens ! Cor. Nay, I prithee, woman, — Vol. Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome, And occupations perish ! Cor. What, what, what ! 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 labors you 'd have done, and saved Your husband so much sweat. Cominius, Droop not ; adieu. Farewell, my wife, my 20 mother : I'll do well yet. Thou old and true Mene- nius, Thy tears are Salter than a younger man's, And venomous to thine eyes. My some- time general, I 've seen thee stern, and thou hast oft be- held Heart-hardening spectacles ; tell these sad women 'T is fond to wail inevitable strokes As 't is to laugh at 'em. My mother, you wot well My hazards still have been your solace ; and Believe 't not lightly — though 1 go alone, 30 Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen sc. I.] CORIOLANUS. in Makes fear'd and talk'd of more than seen — your son Will or exceed the common or be caught With cautelous baits and practice. Vol. My first son. Whither wilt thou go ? Take good Comin- ius With thee awhile : determine on some course, More than a wild exposture to each chance That starts i' the way before thee. Cor. O the gods ! Com. I '11 follow thee a month, devise with thee Where thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of us And we of thee : so, if the time thrust forth 40 A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send O'er the vast world to seek a single man, And lose advantage, which doth ever cool I' the absence of the needer. Cor. Fare ye well : Thou 'st years upon thee ; and thou art too full Of the wars' surfeits to go rove with one That's yet unbruis'd : bring me but out at gate. Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and My friends of noble touch, when I am forth, Bid me farewell and smile. . I pray you, come. 50 While I remain above the ground, you shall U2 CO R I OLA N US. [act iv. Hear from me still, and never of me aught But what is like me formerly. Men. That's worthily As any ear can hear. Come, let's not weep. If I could shake oft" but one seven years From these old arms and legs, by the good gods, I 'd with thee every foot. Cor. Give me thy hand : Come. [Exeunt. Scene II. The same. A street 7iear the gate. Enter Sicinius, Brutus, and an yEdile. Sic. Bid them all home ; he's gone, and we '11 no further. The nobility are vex'd, whom we see have sided In his behalf. Bru. Now we have shown our power, Let us seem humbler after it is done Than when it was a-doing. Sic. Bid them home ; Say their great enemy is gone, and they Stand in their ancient strength, Bru. Dismiss them home. [Exit JEdile. Here comes his mother. Sic. Let 's not meet her. Bru. Why ? Sic. They say she 's mad. Bru. They have ta'en note of us : keep 10 on your way. sc. II.] CORIOLANUS. 113 Enter Volumnia, Virgilia, and Mene- NIUS. Vol. Oh, ye 're well met : the hoarded plagues o' the gods Requite your love ! Men. Peace, peace ; be not so loud. Vol. If that I could for weeping, you should hear, — Nay, and you shall hear some. [To Brutus\ Will you be gone ? Vir. [To Sicinius] You shall stay too: I would I had the power To say so to my husband. Sic. Are you mankind ? Vol. Ay, fool ; is that a shame ? Note but this fool. Was not a man my father ? Hadst thou foxship To banish him that struck more blows for Rome Than thou hast spoken words ? Sic. O blessed heavens ! 20 Vol. More noble blows than ever thou wise words ; And for Rome's good. I '11 tell thee what ; yet go : Nay, but thou shalt stay too : I would my son Were in Arabia, and thy tribe before him, His good sword in his hand. Sic. What then ? Vol. What then ! He 'd make an end of thy posterity, 114 CORIOLANUS. [act iv. Bastards and all. Good man, the wounds that he Does bear for Rome ! Men. Come, come, peace. Sic. I would he had continu'd to his 30 country As he began, and not unknit himself The noble knot he made. Bru. I would he had. Vol. " I would he had "! 'T was you in- cens'd the rabble : Cats, that can judge as fitly of his worth As I can of those mysteries which heaven Will not have earth to know. Bru. Pray, let us go. Vol. Now, pray, sir, get you gone : You have done a brave deed. Ere you go, hear this : — As far as doth the Capitol exceed 40 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 '11 leave you. Sic. Why stay we to be baited With one that wants her wits ? Vol. Take my prayers with you. [Exeunt Tribunes. I would the gods had nothing else to do But to confirm my curses ! Could I meet 'em But once a-day, it would unclog my heart Of what lies heavy to 't. sc. in.] CORIOLANUS. 115. Men. You have told them home ; And, by my troth, you 've cause. You '11 sup with me ? Vol. Anger's my meat; I sup upon my- self, 50 And so shall starve with feeding. Come, let 's go: Leave this faint puling, and lament as I do, In anger, Juno-like. Come, come, come. Men. Fie, fie, fie ! {Exeunt. Scene III. A highway between Rome and. Antium. Enter a Roman and a Volsce, meeting. Rom. I know you well, sir, and you know me: your name, I think, is Adrian. Vols. It is so, sir : truly, I have forgot you. Rom. I am a Roman ; and my services are, as you are, against 'em: know you me yet ? Vols. Nicanor ? no. Rom. The same, sir. Vols. You had more beard when I last saw you ; but your favor is well appear'd by your tongue. What 's the news in Rome > I have a note from the Volscian state, to find you out there : you have well sav'd me a day's journey. ir Rom. There hath been in Rome strange insurrections ; the people against the sena- tors, patricians, and nobles. n6 CORIOLANUS. [act iv. Vols. "Hath been"! is it ended, then ? Our state thinks not so : they are in a most warlike preparation, and hope to come upon them in the heat of their division. Rom. The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing would make it flame again : for the nobles receive so to heart the banish- ment of that worthy Coriolanus that they are in a ripe aptness to take all power from the people and to pluck from them their tribunes forever. This lies glowing, I can tell you, and is almost mature for the violent breaking out. 23 Vols. Coriolanus banished ! Rom. Banished, sir. Vols. You will be welcome with this in- telligence, Nicanor. Rom. The day serves well for them now. I have heard it said, the fittest time to cor- rupt a man's wife is when she 's fallen out with her husband. Your noble Tullus Au- fidius will appear well in these wars, his great opposer, Coriolanus, being now in no 30 request of his country. Vols. He cannot choose. I am most fortunate thus accidentally to encounter you : you will have ended my business, and I will merrily accompany you home. Rom. I shall, between this and supper, tell you most strange things from Rome, all tending to the good of their adversaries. Have you an army ready, say you ? Vols. A most royal one; the centurions sc. iv.] CORIOLANUS. 117 and their charges, distinctly billeted, al- ready in the entertainment, and to be on foot at an hour's warning. 39 Rom. I am joyful to hear of their readi- ness, and am the man, I think, that shall set them in present action. So, sir, heartily well met, and most glad of your company. Vols. You take my part from me, sir ; I have the most cause to be glad of yours. Rom. Well, let us go together. {Exeunt. Scene IV. Antium. Before Aufidiuss house. Enter CORIOLANUS in mean apparel, dis- guised and muffled. Cor. A goodly city is this Antium. City, T is I that made thy widows: many an heir Of these fair edifices 'fore my wars Have I heard groan and drop : then know me not, Lest that thy wives with spits and boys with stones In puny battle slay me. Enter a Citizen. Save you, sir. Cit. And you. Cor. Direct me, if it be your will, Where great Aufidius lies : is he in An- tium ? ii 8 CORIOLANUS. [act iv. Cif. He is, and feasts the nobles of the state At his house this night. 10 Cor. Which is his house, beseech you ? Cit. This, here before you. Cor. Thank you, sir : farewell. {Exit Citizen. world, thy slippery turns ! Friends now fast sworn, Whose double bosoms seem to wear one heart, Whose house, whose bed, whose meal, and exercise Are still together, who twin, as 't were, in love Inseparable, shall within this hour, On a dissension of a doit, break out To bitterest enmity : so, fellest foes, Whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleep 20 To take the one the other, by some chance, Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends And interjoin their issues. So with me : My birth-place hate I, and my love 's upon This enemy town. I'll enter : if he slay me, He does fair justice ; if he give me way, 1 '11 do his country service. [Exit. sc. v.] CORIOLANUS. 119 SCENE V. The same. A hall in Anfidiuss Music within. Enter a Servingman. First Serv. Wine, wine, wine ! What service is here ! I think our fellows are asleep. [Exit. Enter a second Servingman. Sec. Serv. Where 's Cotus ? my master calls for him. Cotus ! Enter CORIOLANUS. Cor. A goodly house : the feast smells well ; but I Appear not like a guest. Re-enter the first Servingman. First Serv. What would you have, friend ? whence are you ? Here 's no place for you : pray go to the door. [Exit. Cor. I have deserved no better entertain- ment, In being Coriolanus. 10 Re-enter second Servingman. Sec Serv. Whence are you, sir? Has the porter his eyes in his head, that he gives entrance to such companions ? Pray, get you out. Cor. Away! Sec. Serv. Away ! get you away. 120 C0R10LANUS. [act iv. Cor. Now thou 'rt troublesome. Sec. Serv. Are you so brave? I'll have you talk'd with anon. Enter a third Servingman. The first meets him. Third Serv. What fellow 's this ? First Serv. A strange one as ever I look'd on : I cannot get him out o' the 21 house : prithee, call my master to him. {Retires. Third Serv. What have you to do here, fellow ? Pray you, avoid the house. Cor. Let me but stand ; I will not hurt your hearth. Third Serv. What are you ? Cor. A gentleman. Third Serv. A marvelous poor one. Cor. True, so I am. Third Serv. Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other station ; here's no place 30 for you ; pray you, avoid : come. Cor. Follow your function, go, and bat- ten on cold bits. {Pushes him away. Third Serv. What, you will not ? Prithee, tell my master what a strange guest he has here. Sec. Serv. And I shall. {Exit. Third Serv. Where dwellest thou ? Cor. Under the canopy. Third Serv. Under the canopy ! Cor. Ay. Third Serv. Where's that ? sc. v.] COATOLAXUS. 121 Cor. I' the city of kites and crows. Third Serif. V the city of kites and crows ! What an ass it is ! Then thou dwellest with daws too ? 4° Cor. No, I serve not thy master. Third Serv. How, sir! do you meddle with my master ? Cor. Thou pratest, and pratest ; serve with thy trencher, hence ! [Beats him away. Exit third Serving-man, Enter Aufidius with the second Serving- man. Auf. Where is this fellow ? Sec. Serv. Here, sir : I 'd have beaten him like a dog, but for disturbing the lords within. [Retires. Auf. Whence comest thou ? whatwouldst thou ? thy name ? Why speak'st not? speak, man : what 's thy name ? 50 Cor. If, Tullus, [Unmuffling. Not yet thou knowest me, and, seeing me, dost not Think me the man I am, necessity Commands me name myself. Auf. What is thy name ? Cor. A name unmusical to the Volscians' ears, And harsh in sound to thine. Auf. Say, what 's thy name ? Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face 122 CORIOLANUS. [act iv. 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 me yet ? 6 1 Anf. I know thee not : thy name ? Cor. My name is Caius Marcius, who hath done To thee particularly and to all the Volsces 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 7i name remains ; The cruelty and envy of the people, Permitted by our bastard 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 mere spite, sc. v.] CORIOLANUS, 123 To be full quit of those my banishers, 80 Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast A heart of wreak in thee that wilt revenge Thine own particular wrongs and stop those maims Of shame seen through thy country, speed thee straight, And make my misery serve thy turn : so use it That my revengeful services may prove As benefits to thee, for I will fight Against mycanker'd country with the spleen Of all the under fiends. But, if so be Thou dar'st not this, and that to prove more fortunes 90 Thou -rt tir'd, then in a word I also am 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.. Aitf. O Marcius, Marcius ! Each word thou 'st spoke hath weeded from my heart A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter 100 Should from yond cloud speak to me divine things, And say, " T is true " I 'd not believe them more 124 CORIOLANUS. [act iv. 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 sword, and do contest As hotly and as nobly with thy love As ever in ambitious strength I did Contend against thy valor. Know, thou no 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 Bestride 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 lose mine arm for 't : thou bast beat me out Twelve several times, and I have nightly since 1 20 Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me ; We have been down together in my sleep, Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat, And w r ak'd half dead with nothing. Worthy Marcius, Had we no quarrel else to Rome but that sc. v.] COR 10 LAN US. 125 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-bear. Oh, come, go in, And take our friendly senators by th' hands ; Wiio now are here, taking their leaves of me, 130 Who am prepar'd against your territories, Though not for Rome itself. Cor. You bless me, gods ! Auf. Therefore, most absolute sir, it thou wilt have The leading of thine own revenges, take The one-half of my commission; and set down — As best thou art experienc'd, since thou know'st Thy country's strength and weakness, — thine own ways ; Whether to knock against the gates of Rome, Or rudely visit them in parts remote To fright them ere destroy. But come thou in : 140 Let me commend thee first to those that shall Say yea to thy desires. A thousand wel- comes ! And more a friend than e'er an enemy ; Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand : most welcome! 126 CORIOLANUS. [act iv. [Exeunt Coriolanus and Aicfidius. The two Servingnien come forward. First Serv. Here 's a strange alteration ! Sec. 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. First Serv. What an arm he has ! he turn'd me about with his finger and his 150 thumb, as one would set up a top. Sec. Serv. Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him : he had, sir, a kind of face, methought, — I cannot tell how to term it. First Serv. He had so ; looking as it were — would I were hang'd, but I thought there was more in him than I could think. Sec. Serv. So did I, I '11 be sworn : he is simply the rarest man i' the w r orid. First Serv. I think he is : but a greater 160 soldier than he you wot on. Sec Serv. Who, my master ? First Serv. Nay, it 's no matter for that. Sec. Serv. Worth six on him. First Serv. Nay, not so neither : but I take him to be the greater soldier. Sec. Serv. Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that : for the defence of a town, our general is excellent. First Serv. Ay, and for an assault too. Re-eJiter third Servingman. sc. v.] CORIOLANUS. 127 Third Serv. O slaves, I can tell you news, — news, you rascals ! I 7° First and Sec. Serv. What, what, what? let 's partake. Third Serv. I would not be a Roman, of all nations ; I had as lieve be a condemned man. First and Sec. Serv. Wherefore ? where- fore ? Third Serv. Why, here 's he that was wont to thwack our general, Caius Marcius. First Serv. Why do you say, " thwack our general" ? Third Serv. I do not say, " thwack our general " ; but he was always good enough for him. Sec. Serv. Come, we are fellows and friends: he was ever too hard for him ; I have heard him say so himself. 181 First Serv. He was too hard for him di- rectly, to say the troth on 't : before Corioli he scotch'd him and notch'd him like a car- bonado. Sec. Serv. An he had been cannibally given, he might have broil'd and eaten him too. First Serv. But, more of thy news ? Third 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 190 makes a mistress of him ; sanctifies himself 128 CORIOLANUS. [act iv. 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 '11 go, he says, and sowl the porter of Rome gates by the ears : he will mow all down before him, and leave his passage poll'd. Sec. Serv. And he 's as like to do 't as any 200 man I can imagine. Third Serv. Do 't ! he will do 't ; for, look you, sir, he has as many friends as ene- mies ; which friends, sir, as it were, durst not, look you, sir, show themselves, as we term it, his friends whilst he 's in -directi- tude. First Serv. " Directitude ! " what 's that ? Third 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. 209 First Serv. But when goes this forward ? Third Serv. To-morrow; to-day; pres- ently; you shall have the drum struck up this afternoon ; 't is, as it were, a parcel of their feast, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips. Sec. Serv. Why, then, we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers. First Serv. Let me have war, say I ; it sc. vi.] CORIOLANUS. 129 exceeds peace as far as day does night ; it 's sprightly walking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, a lethargy ; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible. Ay, and it makes men hate one another. 220 Third Serv. Reason ; because they then less need one another. The wars for my money. I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volscians. They are rising, they are rising. All. In, in, in, in ! [Exeunt. SCENE VI. Rome. A public place. Enter Sicinius and Brutus. Sic. We hear not of him neither need we fear him ; His remedies are tame i' th' present peace And quietness of 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, be- hold Dissentious numbers pestering streets than see Our tradesmen singing in their shops and going About their functions friendly. Bru. We stood to 't in good time. [Enter Menenius.\ Is this Menenius ? 10 130 CORIOLANUS. [act iv. Sic. 'T is he, 't is he : O, he is grown most kind Of late. Hail, sir ! Bru. Hail, sir ! Men. Hail to you both ! Sic. Your Coriolanus, sir, is not much miss'd But with his friends: the commonwealth doth stand, And so would do, were he more angry at it. Men. All 's well ; and might have been much better if He could have temporiz'd. Sic. Where is he, hear you ? Men. Nay, I hear nothing: his mother and his wife Hear nothing from him. Enter three or four Citizens. Citizens. The gods preserve you both ! 20 Sic. God-den, our neighbors. Bru. God-den to you all, god-den to you all. First Cit, Ourselves, our wives, and chil- dren, on our knees, Are bound to pray for you both. Sic. Live and thrive! Bru. Farewell, kind neighbors: we wish'd Coriolanus Had lov'd you as we did. Citizens. Now the gods keep you ! Both Tri. Farewell, farewell. [Exeunt Citizens. sc. vi.] CORIOLANUS. 131 Sic. This is a happier and more comely time Than when these fellows ran about the streets Crying confusion. Brti. Caius Marcius was A worthy officer i' the war; but insolent, 30 O'ercome with pride, ambitious past all thinking, Self-loving, — Sic. And affecting one sole throne, Without assistance. Men. Nay, I think not so. Sic. We should by this, to all our lamen- tation, If he had gone forth consul, found it so. Bru. The gods have well prevented it, and Rome Sits safe and still without him. Enter an ^Edile. JEd. Worthy tribunes, There is a slave, whom we have put in prison, Reports the Volsces with two several powers Are enter'd in the Roman territories, 40 And with the deepest malice of the war Destroy what lies before 'em. Men. 'T is Aufidius, Who, hearing of our Marcius' banishment, Thrusts forth his horns again into the world; Which were inshell'd when Marcius stood for Rome, 132 CORIOLANUS. [act iv. And durst not once peep out. Sic. Come, what talk you Of Marcius ? Bru. Go see this rumorer whipp'd. It cannot be • The Volsces dare break with us. Men. Cannot be ! We have record that very well it can, 5° And three examples of the like have been Within my age. But reason with the fellow, Before you punish him, where he heard this, Lest you shall chance to whip your informa- tion And beat the messenger who bids beware Of what is to be dreaded. Sic. Tell not me : I know this cannot be. Bru. Not possible. E7iter a Messenger. Mess. The nobles in great earnestness are going All to the senate-house : some news is come That turns their countenances. Sic. 'T is this slave ; — Go whip him 'fore the people's eyes: — his 60 raising ; 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 ? sc. vi.] CORIOLANUS. 133 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. Raised only that the weaker sort may wish Good Marcius home again. Sic. The very trick on 't. 7° Men. This is unlikely : He and Aufidius can no more atone Than violentest contrariety, Enter a second Messenger. Sec. Mess. You are sent for to the senate : A fearful army, led by Caius Marcius Associated with Aufidius, rages Upon our territories ; and have already O'erborne their way, consum'd with fire, and took What lay before them. Enter Cominius. Com. Oh, you have made good work ! Men. What news? what news ? 80 Com. You have holp to ravish your own daughters and To melt the city leads upon your pates, To see your wives dishonor'd to your noses, — 134 CORIOLANUS. [act iv. Men. What's the news? what's the news? Com. Your temples burned in their cement, and Your franchises, whereon you stood, con- fin'd Into an auger's bore. Men. Pray now, your news ? You have made fair work, I fear me. — Pray, your news? — If Marcius should be join'd with Volscians, — Com. If! 90 He is their god : he leads them like a thing Made by some other deity than nature, That shapes man better; and they follow him Against us brats with no less confidence Than boys pursuing summer butterflies Or butchers killing flies. Men. You 've made good work, You and your apron-men ; you that stood so much Upon the voice of occupation and The breath of garlic-eaters ! Com. He will shake Your Rome about your ears. Men. As Hercules Did shake down mellow fruit. You 've made fair work ! coo Bru. But is this true, sir ? Com. Ay ; and you '11 look pale Before you find it other. All the regions Do smilingly revolt ; and who resist Are mock'd for valiant ignorance, sc. vi.J C0R10LANUS. 135 And perish constant fools. Who is 't can blame him ? Your enemies and his find something in him. Men. We are all undone, unless The noble man have mercy. Com. Who shall ask it ? The tribunes cannot do 't for shame ; the people Deserve such pity of him as the wolf no Does of the shepherds : for his best friends, if they Should say, " Be good to Rome," they charg'd him even As those should do that had deserv'd his hate, And therein show'd like enemies. Men. 'T is true : If he were putting to my house the brand That should consume it, I have not the face To say, " Beseech you, cease." You 've made fair hands, You and your crafts ! you 've crafted fair ! Com. You 've brought A trembling upon Rome, such as'was never So incapable of help. Both Tri. Say not we brought it. 120 Men. How ! Was it we ? we lov'd him ; but, like beasts And cowardly nobles, gave way unto your clusters, Who did hoot him out o' the city. Com. But I fear They '11 roar him in again. Tullus Aufidius, 136 CORIOLANUS [act iv. The second name of men, obeys nis points As if he were his officer : desperation Is all the policy, strength, and defence That Rome can make against them. Enter a troop of Citizens. Men. Here come the clusters. And is Aufidius with them ? You are thev That made the air unwholesome, when you 130 cast Your stinking, greasy caps in hooting at Coriolanus' exile. Now he 'scorning; And not a hair upon a soldier's head Which will not prove a whip : as many cox- combs As you threw caps up will he tumble down, And pay you for 3'our voices. 'T is no matter ; If he could burn us all into one coal, We have deserv'd it. Citizens. Faith, we hear fearful news. First Cit. For mine own part, 140 When I said, banish him, I said, *t was pity. Sec. Cit* And so did I. Third Cit. And so did I ; and, to say the truth, so did very many of us : that we did we did for the best ; and, though we will- ingly consented to his banishment, yet it was against our will. Coin. Ye 're goodly things, you voices ! Men. You have made Good work, you and your cry ! Shall 's to the Capitol ? sc. vii.] CORIOLANUS. 137 Com. Oh, ay, what else ? [Exeunt Cominius and Menenius. Sic. Go, masters, get you home ; be not dismay'd : These are a side that would be glad to have 15° This true which they so seem to fear. Go home, And show no sign of fear. First Cit. The gods be good to us ! Come, masters, let 's home. I ever said we were i' the wrong when we banished him. Sec. Cit. So did we all. But,, come, let 's home. {Exeunt Citizens. Bru. I do not like this news. Sic. Nor I. Bru. Let 's to the Capitol. Would half my wealth Would buy this for a lie ! ' Sic. Pray, let us go. 160 [Exeunt. SCENE VII. A camp, at a small distance from Rome. Enter Aufidius and his Lieutenant. Auf. Do they still fly to the Roman ? Lieu. I do not know what witchraft 's in him, but Your soldiers use him as the grace 'fore meat, 138 CGR10LANUS. [act iv. Their talk at table, and their thanks at end ; And you are darken'd in this action, sir, Even by your own. Auf. I cannot help it now, Unless, by using means, I lame the foot Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier, E'en to my person, than I thought he would When first I did embrace him : yet his 10 nature In that 's no changeling; and I must excuse What cannot be amended. Lieu. Yet I wish, sir, — I mean for your particular, — you had not Join'd in commission with him; but either Had borne the action of yourself, or else To him had left it solely. Auf. I understand thee well ; and be thou sure, When he shall come to his account, he knows not What I can urge against him. Although it seems, 20 And so he thinks, and is no less apparent To the vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly, And shows good husbandry for th' Volscian state, Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon As draw his sword ; yet he hath left undone That which shall break his neck or hazard mine, sc. vii.] CORIOLANUS. 139 Whene'er we come to our account. Lieu. Sir, I beseech you, think you he '11 carry Rome ? Auf. All places yield to him ere he sits down ; And the nobility of Rome are his : The senators and patricians ove him too : 3° The tribunes are no soldiers ; and their people Will be as rash in the repeal as hasty T' expel him thence. I think he '11 be to Rome As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it By sovereignty of nature. First he was A noble servant to them ; but he could not Carry his honors even : whether 't was pride, Which out of daily fortune ever taints The happy man; whether defect of judg- ment, To fail in the disposing of those chances 40 Which he was lord of ; or whether nature, Not to be other than one thing, not moving From th' casque to th' cushion, but com- manding peace E'en with the same austerity and garb Ashe controll'd the war ; but one of these — As he hath spices of them all, not all, For I dare so far free him — made him fear'd, So hated, and so banish'd : but he has a merit, To choke it in the utterance. So our virtues Lie in th' interpretation of the time : 50 And power, unto itself most commendable, 140 CORIOLANUS* [act v. Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair T' extol what it hath done. One fire drives out one fire ; one nail, one nail ; Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail. Come, let 's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine, Thou 'rt poor'st of all ; then shortly art thou mine. \Exeiint. ACT V. SCENE I. Rome. A public place. Enter Menenius, Cominius, Sicinius, Brutus, and others. Men. No, I '11 not go : you hear what he hath said Which was sometime his general ; who loved him In a most dear particular. He call'd me father : But what o' that? Go, you that banish'd him ; A mile before his tent fall down, and knee The way into his mercy : nay, if he coy'd To hear Cominius speak, I 11 keep at home. Ci.m. He would not seem to know me. sc. I.] CORIOLANUS. 141 Men. Do you hear ? Com. Yet one time he did call me by my name : I urg'd our old acquaintance, and the drops 10 That we have bled together. Coriolanus He would not answer to : forbad all names ; He was a kind of nothing, titleless, Till he had forg'd himself a name o' the fire Of burning Rome. Men. Why, so : you 've made good work ! A pair of tribunes that have wreck'd fair Rome To make coals cheap, — a noble memory ! Com. I minded him how royal 't was to pardon When it was least expected : he replied, It was a rare petition of a state 20 To one whom they had punish'd. Men. Very well : Could he say less? Co?n. I offer'd to awaken his regard For 's private friends : his answer to me was, He could not stay to pick them in a pile Of noisome,- musty chaff : he said 't was folly, For one poor grain or two, to leave 't un- burnt And still to nose the offence. Men. For one poor grain or two ! I 'm one of those ; his mother, wife, his child, And this brave fellow too, we are the grains : 30 M2 CORIOLANUS. [act v. You are the musty chaff ; and you are smelt Above the moon : we must be burnt for you. Sic. Nay, pray, be patient : if you refuse your aid In this so never-needed help, yet do not Upbraid 's with our distress. But, sure, if you Would be your country's pleader, your good tongue, More than the instant army we can make, Might stop our countiyman. Men. No, I '11 not meddle. Sic. Pray you, go to him. Men. What should I do ? Bru. Only make trial what your love can 40 do For Rome, towards Marcius. Men. Well, and say that Marcius Return me, as Cominius is return 'd, Unheard; what then ? or not unheard, but as A discontented friend, grief shot with his Unkindness ? Sic. Say 't be so ? yet your good will Must have that thanks from Rome, after the measure As you intended well. Men. I '11 undertake 't ; I think he '11 hear me. Yet, to bite his lip And hum at good Cominius much unhearts me. 50 He was not taken well ; he had not din'd : sc. I.] C0R10LANUS. 143 The veins unfill'd, our blood is cold, and then We pout upon the morning, are unapt To give or to forgive; but when we 've sturT'd These pipes and these conveyances of our blood With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls Than in our priest like fasts : therefore I '11 watch him Till he be dieted to my request, And then I '11 set upon him. Bru. You know the very road into his kindness, And cannot lose your way. Men. Good faith, I '11 prove him. 60 Speed how it will, you shall ere long have knowledge Of my success. [Exit. Com. He '11 never hear him. Sic. Not? Com. I tell you he does sit in gold, his eye Red as 't would burn Rome ; and his injury The gaolor to his pity. I kneel'd before . him; 'T was very faintly he said, " Rise ; " dis- miss'd me Thus, with his speechless hand : what he would do, He sent in writing after me, what he would not ; 144 COKIOLANUS. [act v. Bound with an oath to yield to his con- ditions : 7° So that all hope is vain, Unless in 's noble mother and his wife ; Who, as I hear, mean to solicit him For mercy to his country. Therefore, let's hence And with our fair entreaties haste them on. {Exeunt. SCENE II. Entrance of the Volscian camp before Rome. Two Sentinels on guard. Enter to the?n, Menenius. First Sen. Stay : whence are you ? Sec. Sen. Stand, and go back. Men. You guard like men ; 't is well : but by your leave, I am an officer of state, and come To speak with Coriolanus. First Sen. From whence ? Men. From Rome. First Sen. You may not pass, you must return : our general Will no more hear from thence. Sec. Sen. You '11 see your Rome embrac'd with fire before You '11 speak with Coriolanus. Men. Good my friends, If you have heard your general talk of Rome 10 And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks, sc. ii.] CORIOLANUS. 145 My name hath touch'd your ears : it is Me- nenius. First Sen. Be it so ; go back : the virtue of your name Is not here passable. Men. I tell thee, fellow, Thy general is my lover : I have been The book of his good acts, whence men have read His fame unparallel'd, haply amplified ; For I have ever magnified my friends, Of whom he 's chief, with all the size that verity Would without lapsing suffer: nay, some- times, Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground, 20 I 've tumbled past the throw : and in his praise Have almost stamp'd the leasing : therefore, fellow, I must have leave to pass. First Sen. 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. Sec. Sen. Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say you have, I am one that, 30 telling true under him, must say you cannot pass. Therefore, go back. 146 C0R10LANUS. [aci v. Men. Has he dined, canst thou tell ? for I would not speak with him till after dinner- First Sen. You are a Roman, are you ? Men. I am, as thy general is. First Sen. Then you should hate Rome, as he does. Can you, when you have push'd out your gates the very defender of them, and, in a violent popular ignorance, given your enemy your shield, think to front 4° his revenges with the easy groans of old women, the virginal palms of your daugh- ters, or with the palsied intercession of such a decay'd 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 deceiv'd ; therefore, back to Rome, and prepare for your execution: you are condemn'd, our general has sworn "you out of reprieve and pardon. Men. Sirrah, if thy captain knew I were here, he would use me with estimation. First Sen. Come, my captain knows you 50 not. Men. I mean, thy general. First Sen. My general cares not for you. Back, I say, go ; lest I let forth your half- pint of blood ; back, — that 's the utmost of your having : back. Men. Nay, but, fellow, fellow, — Enter Coriolanus and Aufidius. Cor. What 's the matter ? Men. Now, you companion, I '11 say an sc. ii.] CORIOLANUS. 147 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 6a with him, if thou stand'st not i' the state of hanging, or of some death more long in spectators!] ip, and crueller in suffering ; be- hold now presently, and swoon for what 's to come upon thee. [To Cor.] 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 mov'd to come to thee ; but being assur'd none but myself could move thee, I 70 have been blown out of our gates with sighs ; and conjure thee to pardon Rome, and thy petitionary countrymen. 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 ! Cor. Wife, mother, child, I know not. My affairs Are servanted to others : though I owe My revenge properly, my remission lies In Volscian breasts. That we have been familiar, Ingrate forgetfulness shall poison, rather 80 Than pity note how much. Therefore, be gone. 148 C0R10LANUS. [act v. Mine ears against your suits are stronger than Your gates against my force. Yet, for I lov'd thee, Take this along ; I writ it for thy sake, [Gives a letter. And would have sent it. Another word, Menenius, I will not hear thee speak. This man, Aufidius, Was my belov'd in Rome : yet thou be- ll old'st ! Anf. You keep a constent temper. [Exeunt Coriolamis and Aufidius. First Sen. Now, sir, is your name Mene- nius? Sec. Sen. 'T is a spell* you see, of much 01 power : you know the way home again. First Sen. Do you hear how w r e are shent for keeping your greatness back ? Sec. Sen. 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. 101 First Sen. A noble fellow, I warrant him. Sec. Sen. The worthy fellow is our gen- sc. in.] CORIOLANUS. 149 eral : 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, You must report to the Volscian lords how plainly I have borne this business. Auf. Only their ends You have respected; stopp'd your ears against The general suit of Rome ; never admitted A private whisper, no, not with such friends That thought them sure of you. Cor. This last old man, Whom with a crack'd heart I have sent to Rome, Lov'd me above the measure of a father ; Nay, godded me, indeed. Their latest refuge Was to send him ; for whose old love I have, Though I show'd sourly to him, once more offer'd The first conditions, which they did refuse And cannot now accept ; to grace him only That thought he could do more, a very little I have yielded to : fresh embassies and suits, 150 CORIOLANUS. [act v. Nor from the state nor private friends, here- after Will I lend ear to. Ha ! what shout is this ? [Shout within. 20 Shall I be tempted to infringe my vow- In the same time 't is made? I will not. Enter, in mourning habits, Virgilia, Vo- LUMNIA, leading young M ARC I US, VA- LERIA, and Attendants. My wife comes foremost ; then the honor'd mould Wherein this trunk was framed, and in her hand The grandchild to her blood. But, out, affection ! All bond and privilege of nature, break ! Let it be virtuous to be obstinate. What is that curt'sy worth ? or those doves' eyes, Which can make gods forsworn ? I melt, and am not Of stronger earth than others. My mother bows ; 30 As if Olympus to a molehill should In supplication nod : and my young boy Hath an aspect of intercession, which Great nature cries, " Deny not." Let the Volsces Plough Rome and harrow Italy ; I '11 never Be such a gosling to obey instinct, 'but stand As if a man were author of himself And knew no other kin. sc. in.] CORIOLANUS, 151 Vir. 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. Cor. Like a dull actor now 40 I have forgot my part, and I am out, Even to a full disgrace. Best of my flesh, Forgive my tyranny; but do not say For that, " Forgive our Romans." Oh, a kiss Long as my exile, sweet as ray revenge ! Now, by the jealous queen of heaven, that kiss I carried from thee, dear ; and my true lip Hath virgin'd it e'er since. You gods! I prate, And the most noble mother of the world Leave unsaluted : sink, my knee, i' the earth ; {Kneels. 50 Of thy deep duty more impression show Than that of common sons. Vol. Oh, stand up blest ! Whilst, with no softer cushion than the flint, I kneel before thee ; and unproperly Show duty, as mistaken all this while Between the child and parent {Kneels. Cor. What is this ? Your knees to me ? to your corrected son ? Then let the pebbles on the hungry beach Fillip the stars ; then let the mutinous wind's Strike the proud cedars 'gainst the fiery sun ; 60 Murdering impossibility, to make 152 CORIOLANUS. [act v. What cannot be, slight work. Vol. Thou art my warrior; I holp to frame thee. Do you know this lady? Cor. The noble sister of Publicola, The moon of Rome, chaste as the icicle That 's curded by the frost from purest snow And hangs on Dian's temple : dear Valeria! Vol. This is a poor epitome of yours, Which by th' interpretation of full time May show like all yourself. 70 Cor. Thegod of soldiers, With the consent of supreme Jove, inform Thy thoughts with nobleness ; that thou mayst prove To shame unvulnerable, and st ick i' the wars Like a great sea-mark, standing every flaw, And saving those that^ye 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. I beseech you, peace : Or, if you 'd ask, remember this before : The things I have forsworn to grant may 80 never Be held by you denials. Do not bid me Dismiss my soldiers, or capitulate Again with Rome's mechanics: tell me not Wherein I seem unnatural : desire not T' allay my rages and revenges with Your colder reasons. sc. in.] CORIOLANUS. 153 Vol. Oh, no more, no more I You 've said you will not grant us any thing; For we havemothing else to ask but that Which you deny already : yet we '11 ask ; That, if we fail in our request, the blame 90 May hang upon your hardness: therefore hear us. Cor. Aufidius and you Volsces, mark ; for we '11 Hear naught from Rome in private, Your request ? Vol. Should we be silent and not speak, our raiment And state of bodies would bewray what life We 've led since thy exile. Think with thv- self How more unfortunate than all living women Are we come hither : since that thy sight, which should Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with comforts, Constrains them weep and shake with fear and sorrow ; 100 Making the mother, wife, and child to see The son, the husband, and the father tearing His country's bowels out. And to poor we Thine enmity's most capital : thou barr'stus Our prayers to the gods, which is a comfort That all but we enjoy : for how can we, Alas, how can we for our country pray, Whereto we 're bound, together with thy victory, 154 CORIOLANUS. [act v. Whereto we're bound ? alack, or we must lose The country, our dear nurse, or else thy no person, Our comfort in the country. We must find An evident calamity, though we had Our wish, which side should win : for either thou Must, as a foreign recreant, be led With manacles through our streets, or else Triumphantly tread on thy country's ruin, And bear the palm for having bravely shed Thy wife and children's blood. For myself, son, 1 purpose not to wait on fortune till These wars determine : if I cannot persuade i 20 thee Rather to show a noble grace to both parts Than seek the end of one, thou shalt no sooner March to assault thy country than to tread — Trust to 't, thou shalt not — on thy mother's womb, That brought thee to this world. Vir. Ay, and on mine, That brought )^ou forth this boy, to keep your name Living to time. Young Mar. A shall not tread on me ; I '11 run away till I am bigger, then I '11 fight. Cor. Not of a woman's tenderness to be, 13° Requires nor child nor woman's face to see. I 've sat too long. [Rising. SC. in.] CORIOLANUS. 155 Vol. Nay, go not from us thus. If it were so that our request did tend To save the Romans, thereby to destroy The Volsces whom you serve, you might condemn us As poisonous of your honor : no ; our suit Is, that you reconcile them : while the Volsces May say, " This mercy we have show'd ; " the Romans, " This we receiv'd ; " and each in either side Give the all-hail to thee, and cry, " Be blest For making up this peace ! " Thou know'st, great son, 140 The end of war 's uncertain, but this certain, That, if you conquer Rome, the benefit Which thou shalt thereby reap is such a name, Whose repetition will be dogg'd with curses; Whose chronicle thus writ : " The man was noble, But with his last attempt he wip'd it out ; Destroy'd his country, and his name re- mains To the ensuing age abhorr'd." Speak to me, son : Thou hast affected the fine strains of honor, To imitate the graces of the gods ; 150 To tear with thunder the wide cheeks o' the air, And yet to charge thy sulphur with a bolt That should but rive an oak. Why dost not speak ? 156 CORIOLANUS. [act v. Think'st thou it honorable for a noble man Still to remember wrongs ? Daughter, speak you : He cares not for 5?our weeping. Speak thou, boy : Perhaps thy childishness will move him more Than can our reasons. There 's no man in the world More bound to 's mother; yet here he lets me prate Like one i' the stocks. Thou 'st never in 160 thy life Show'd thy dear mother anjr courtesy, When she, poor hen, fond of no second brood, Has cluck'd thee to the wars and safely home, Loaden with honor. Say my request 's un- just, 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 : Down, ladies; let us shame him with our knees. To his surname Coriolanus 'longs more 170 pride Than pity to our prayers. Down : an end ; This is the last : so we will home to Rome,' sc. in.] CORIOLANUS. 157 And die among our neighbors. Nay, be- hold 's : This boy, that cannot tell what he would have, But kneels and holds up hands for fellow- ship, Does reason our petition with more strength Than thou hast to deny 't. Come, let us go : This fellow had a Volscian to his mother; His wife is in Corioli and this c, ild Like him by chance. Yet give us our de- spatch : 180 I 'm hush'd until our city be afire, And then I '11 speak a little. {He holds her by the hand, silent. Cor. O mother, mother! What have you done? Behoid, the heavens do ope, The gods look down, and this unnatural scene They laugh at. O mv mother, mother ! Oh! You 've won a happy victory to Rome ; But, for your son, — believe it, O, believe it, Most dangerously you have with him pre- vail'd, If not most mortal to him. But, let it come. Aufidius, though I cannot make true wars, 190 I '11 frame convenient peace. Now, good Aufidius, Were you in my stead, say would you have heard 158 CORIOLANUS. [act v. A mother less ? or granted less, Aufidius ? Auf. I was mov'd withal. Cor. I dare be sworn you were : And, sir, it is no little thing to make Mine eyes to sweat compassion. But, good sir, What peace you '11 make advise me : for my part, I '11 not to Rome, I '11 back witu you ; and pray you, Stand to me in this cause. O mother! wife ! Auf. [Aside.] I 'm glad thou 'st set thy 200 mercy and thy honor At difference in thee : out of that I '11 work Myself a firmer fortune. [ The Ladies make sig7is to Coriolanus. Cor. Ay, by and by ; [To Volumnia, Virgilia, &°c. We will but drink together ; and you shall bear A better witness back than words, which we, On like conditions, will have counter-seal'd. Come, enter with us. Ladies, you deserve To have a temple built you : all the swords In Italy and her confederate arms 209 Could not have made this peace. [Exeunt. Scene IV. Rome. A public place. Enter Menenius and Sicinius. Men. See you yond coign o' the Capitol, yond corner-stone? sc. iv.] CORIOLANUS. 159 Sic. Why, what of that ? Men. If it be possible for you to displace it with your little finger, there is some hope the ladies of Rome, especially his mother, may prevail with him. But I say there is no hope in 't : our throats aresentenc'd and stay upon execution. Sic. Is 't possible that so short a time can alter the condition of a man ? Men. There is differency between a grub and 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. 12 Sic. He loved his mother dearly. Men. So did he me : and he no more re- members 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 finish'd with his bidding. He wants noth- ing of a god but eternity and a heaven to throne in. 22 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. 160 CORIOLANUS. [act v. Sic. The gods be good unto us ! Men. No, in such a case the gods will not be good unto us. When we banish'd him, we respected not them ; and, he returning 31 to break our necks, they respect not us. Enter a Messenger. Mess. Sir, if you 'd save your life, fly to your house. The plebeians have got your fellow-tribune And hale him up and down, all swearing, if The Roman ladies bring not comfort home, They'll give him death by inches. Enter a second Messenger. Sic. What 's the news ? Sec. Mess. Good news, good news ; the ladies have prevail'd, The Volscians are dislodg'd, and Marcius gone : A merrier day did never yet greet Rome, No, not the expulsion of the Tarquins. 40 Sic. Friend, Art certain this is true? is it most certain? Sec. Mess. As certain as I know the sun is fire : Where have you lurk'd that you make doubt of it ? Ne'er through an arch so hurried the blown tide, As the recomforted through the gates. Why, hark you ! [ Trumpets ; hautboys ; drums beat ; all together. sc. v.] CO RIO LAN US. 161 The trumpets, sackbuts, psalteries, and fifes, Tabors and cymbals and the shouting Ro- mans Make the sun dance. Hark you ! [ A shout within. Men. This is good news : I will go meet the ladies. This Volumnia Is worth of consuls, senators, patricians, 5° A city full ; of tribunes, such as you, A sea and land full. You 've prayed well to-day : This morning for ten thousand of your throats 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. Sec. Mess. Sir, we have all Great cause to give great thanks. Sic. They are near the city ? Sec. Mess. Almost at point to enter. Sic. We will meet them, And help the joy. [Exeunt. Scene V. The same. A street near the gate. Enter two Senators with Volumnia, Vir- gilia, Valeria, etc., passing over the stage, followed by Patricia7is and others. First Sen. Behold our patroness, the life of Rome ! 162 CORIOLANUS. [act v. Call all your tribes together, praise the gods, And make triumphant fires ; strew flowers before them : Unshout the noise that banish'd Marcius, Repeal him with the welcome of his mother ; Cry, "Welcome, ladies, welcome!" All. Welcome, ladies, Welcome ! [A flourish with drums and trumpets. Exeunt. Scene VI. Corioli. A public place. Enter Tullus Aufidtus, with Attendants. Auf. Go tell the lords o' the city I am here. Deliver them this paper : having read it, Bid them repair to th' market-place, where I, Even in theirs and in the commons' ears, Will vouch the truth of it. Him I accuse The city ports by this hath enter'd and Intends to appear before the people, hoping To purge himself with words : dispatch. \_Exeunt Attendants. Enter three or four Conspirators of Au- fidius's faction. Most welcome! First Con. How is it with our general ? sc. vi] C0R10LANUS. 163 Auf. Even so 10 As with a man by his own alms empoison'd, And with his charity slain. Sec. Con. Most noble sir, If you do hold the same intent wherein You wish'd us parties, we '11 deliver you Of your great danger. Auf. Sir, I cannot tell : We must proceed as we do find the people. Third. Con. The people will remain un- certain whilst 'Twixt you there 's difference ; but the fall of either Makes the survivor heir of all. Auf. I know it ; And my pretext to strike at him admits 20> A good construction. I rais'd him, and I pawn'd Mine honor for his truth : who being so heighten'd, He water'd his new plants with dews of flattery, Seducing so. my friends; and, to this end, He bow'd his nature, never known before But to be rough, unswayable, and free. Third Con. Sir, his stoutness When he did stand for consul, which he lost By lack of stooping, — Auf. That I would have spoke of: Being banish'd for 't, he came unto my hearth, 30 Presented to my knife his throat: I took him, 1 64 C0R10LANUS. [act v. Made him joint-servant with me, gave him way In all his own desires, nay, let him choose Out of my files, his projects to accomplish, My best and freshest men, serv'd his de- signments In mine own person, holp to reap the fame Which he did end all his, and took some pride To do myself this wrong ; till, at the last, I seem'd his follower, not partner, and 40 He wag'd me with his countenance, as if I had been mercenary. First Con. So he did, my lord : The army marvel'd at it; and, in the last, When he had carried Rome and that we look'd For no less spoil than glory, — Auf. There was it : For which my sinews shall be stretch'd upon him. At a few drops of women's rheum, which are As cheap as lies, he sold the blood and labor Of our great action : therefore shall he die, And I'll renew me in his fall. But, hark! [Drums and trumpets sound, with great shouts of the people. First Con. Your native town you enter'd 59 like a post, And had no welcomes home, but he returns Splitting the air with noise. sc. vi.] CORIOLANUS. 165 Sec. Con. And patient fools, Whose children, he hath slain, their base throats tear With giving him glory. Third Con. Therefore, at your vantage. Ere he express himself, or move the people With what he would say, let him feel your sword, Which we will second. When he lies along, After your way his tale pronounc'd shall bury His reasons with his body. Auf. Say no more : Here come the lords. 60 Enter the Lords of the city. All the Lords. You are most welcome home. Auf. I 've not deserved it. But, worthy lords, have you with heed perus'd What I have written to you ? Lords. We have. First Lord. And grieve to hear 't. What faults he made before the last, I think Might have found easy fines : but there to end Where he was to begin and give away The benefit of our levies, answering us With our own charge, making a treaty where There was a yielding, — this admits no ex- cuse. i66 CORIOLANUS. [act v. 70 Auf. He approaches : you shall hear him. Enter CORIOLANUS, 77iarching with drums and colors; Cotmnoners being- with him. Cor. Hail, lords ! I am return'd your sol- dier, No more infected with my country's love Than when I parted hence, but still subsist- ing Under your great command. You are to know That prosperously I have attempted and With bloody passage led your wars even to The gates of Rome. Our spoils we have brought home Do more than counterpoise a full third part The charges of the action. We 've made peace So With no less honor to the Antiates Than shame to the Romans : and we here deliver, Subscrib'd by th' consuls and patricians, Together with the seal o' the senate, what We have compounded on. Auf. Read it not, noble lords ; But tell the traitor in the high'st degree He hath abus'd your powers. Cor. Traitor ! how now ! Auf. Ay, traitor, Marcius ! Cor. Marcius ! Auf. Ay, Marcius, Caius Marcius : dost thou think sc. vi.] CORIOLANUS. 167 I'll grace thee with that robbery, thy stol'n name Coriolanus in Corioli ? 90 You lords and heads o' the state, perfidi- ously He has betray'd your business, and given up, For certain drops of salt, your citv Rome, — I say " your city," — to his wife and mother; Breaking his oath and resolution like A twist of rotton silk, never admitting Counsel o' the war, but at his nurse's tears He whin'd and roar'd away your victory, That pages blush'd at him, and men of heart Look'd wondering each at other. Cor. Hear'st thou, Mars? 100 Auf. Name not the god, thou boy of tears ! Cor. Ha! Auf. No more. Cor. Measureless liar, thou hast made my heart Too great for what contains it. " Boy " ! O slave ! — Pardon me, lords, 't is the first time that ever I was forc'd to scold. Your judgments, my grave lords, Must give this cur the lie : and his own notion — Who wears my stripes impress'd upon him, that 168 CORIOLANUS. [act v. Must bear my beating to his grave — shall join no To thrust the lie unto him. First Lord. Peace, both, and hear me speak. Cor. Cut me to pieces, Volsces ; men and lads, Stain all your edges on me. " Boy " ! false hound ! If you have writ your annals true, 't is there, That, like an eagle in a dove-cote, I Flutter'd your Volscians in Corioli : Alone I did it. "Boy" ! Auf. Why, noble lords, Will you be put in mind of his blind for- tune, Which was your shame, by this unholy braggart, 'Fore your own eyes and ears ? 1 20 All Consp. Let him die for 't. All the People. " Tear him to pieces." "Do it presently." "He killed my son." "My daughter." "He killed my cousin Marcus." " He killed ray father." Sec. Lord. Peace, ho ! no outrage : peace ! The man is noble and his fame folds-in This orb o' the earth. His last offences to us Shall have judicious hearing. Stand, Au- fldius, And trouble not the peace. Cor. Oh that I had him, With six Aufidiuses, or more, his tribe, sc. vi.] CORIOLAN.US. 169 To use my lawful sword ! Auf. Insolent villain ! 13° All Consp. Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill him ! [The Conspirators draw, and kill Corio- lanus : Aufidius sta7ids on his body. Lords. Hold, hold, hold, hold ! Auf. My noble masters, hear me speak. First Lord. O Tullus, — Sec. Lord. Thou hast done a deed where- at valor will weep. Third Lord. Tread not upon him. Mas- ters all, be quiet ; Put up your swords. Auf. My lords, when you shall know — as in this rage, Provok'd by him, you cannot — the great danger Which this man's life did owe you, you '11 rejoice That he is thus cut off. Please it your honors To call me to your senate, I '11 deliver 140 Myself your loyal servant, or endure Your heaviest censure. First Lord. Bear from hence his body ; And mourn you for him: let him be re- garded As the most noble corse that ever herald Did follow to his urn. Sec. Lord. His own impatience Takes from Aufidius a great part of blame. Let 's make the best of it. 170 CORIOLANUS. [act v. Anf. My rage is gone ; And I am struck with sorrow. Take him up. Help, three o' the chiefest soldiers; I '11 be one. Beat thou the drum that it speak mourn- 15° fully: Trail your steel pikes. Though in this city he Hath widow'd and unchilded many a one, Which to this hour bewail the injury, Yet he shall have a noble memory. Assist. [Exeunt, beari?ig the body of Coriolanus. A dead march sowided. NOTES. Act I. Scene I. 3. to die . . . famish? to die a violent death in combat rather than slowly perish of 1 amine ? 9. Is 't a verdict ? have you made up your minds on that point ? 13. good, in point of wealth : What authority . . . us, that which is to those in authority, the patricians, something over and above what they can profitably use for their wants, would relieve our distress. 14. while it were wholesome, before it should become so musty as to be useless for food ; for the subjunctive used indef- initely after a relative conjunction, see Abb. § 367. 16. too dear, not worth the keeping alive at such a cost. 17. 8. is as . . . abundance, serves, by way of contrast, to make them mindful of their own well-fed condition. 18. our sufferance . . . them, our misery adds something in the way of zest to their prosperity. 18, 9. Let us . . . rakes. Warburton points out that pikes was an old term for forks, i.e. pitc/i-iorks. with which hay, straw, etc., was picked, or pitched, on to a heap. In rakes, the comparison is to the bones of an animal showing below the skin as distinctly as the teeth of a rake. 23. he 's a very . . . commonalty, he worries us, the com- mon people, with all the fierceness of a dog worrying sheep. 29, 30. what he hath . . . end, those famous actions he has performed, he performed only in order that he might be able to make them an excuse for indulging in his pride. 33. virtue, in the sense of the Cat. virtus, valor, manly excellence, from vir, a man. 38. The other side, the part beyond the Tiber. But in all 171 172 CORIOLANUS. [act i. probability Shakespeare had in his mind the topography of London and not of Rome, and the Tower was to him the Capitol. 39. is risen, is*up in arms : tb.e Capitol, the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus at Rome, said to have derived its name from a human head's {caput) being discovered in digging its founda- tion. Begun by Tarquinius Priscus and finished by Tarquinius Superbus, it was three times burnt down and as often rebuilt. 41. Soft! wait awhile ! 47. bats, bludgeons, cudgels. 57. For, as regards. 60-3. whose course . . . impediment, whose course will go forward in the direction it has marked out for itself, easily breaking- down all hindrances, though ten thousand times more stubborn than any you can place in its way. 68. The helms o' the state, those who are guiding the vessel of state. 73, 4. make edicts . . . usurers, they frame resolutions in favor of usury, whereby the exorbitant money-lenders are en- abled to nourish. An edict was a rule promulgated by mag- istrates, more especially the pretors, upon their entry into office at the beginning of the year; and when the custom of succeeding magistrates adopting the rules of their predecessors became common, these rules, or edicts, gradually constituted a large body of law. 77-9. Either . . . folly, when you have heard what I have to say, you will either have to confess that your words are words of the merest malice, or that you have laid yourself open to the charge of folly. 82. To stale . . . more, to make it a little more stale by repetition. 84. fob, Ger. /bppen, to jeer, banter. 85. deliver, relate. 90. cupboarding, storing up as in a cupboard ; a cupboard is properly a closet with shelves on which cups are ranged, then a closet in which anything is kept : viand, food; the same as Ital. vivanda, victuals, food, eatables — Lat. viverida, neuter plural, things to live on, provisions. 91. where, whereas: instruments, including bodily and mental organs. 93. mutually participate, each sharing with the other in the common labor; the adjective participate is not elsewhere found in Shakespeare. 94. appetite, desires : affection common, inclinations shared by the whole body. 102. envied his receipt, were jealous of its receiving all the nourishment taken into the body: reecipt = thing received. sc. I.] NOTES. 173 to8. muniments, instruments with which the body is fur- nished and armed; Lat. munire, to fortify. 109. this our fabric, this frame-work of our body made up of all these several parts and organs : if that, for the conjunc- tional affix, see Abb. § 287. no. 'Fore me . . . speaks! my goodness ! this is a fellow to talk! 'Fore me, i.e. before me, in my presence, a petty adjuration. in. cormorant, voracious : properly a voracious sea-bird, the corvus marinus, sea-crow. 113. agents, instruments, organs. 115, 6. If you '11 . . . awhile, if for a moment or two you will show me a small amount of that quality of which your store is but slight, viz. patience. Though Shakespeare often uses small where we should use little, it is probable that but for the parenthesis he would not have written a small Patience. 117. Note me, for this dative, see Abb. §220. 118. Your, colloquially, as in 1. 104. 120. incorporate, belonging to the same body as myself. 121. general, belonging equally to all parts of the body. 123. the store-house and the shop. Grant White points out that in modern English, as spoken in Great Britain, the two words are used in the same sense ; whereas in America (as formerly in England) " shop " means the place where a thing is made, " store " or " store-house," the place where a thing is kept for sale. 124. if you do remember, said with a sort of sarcastic politeness. 126. Even . . . brain. Malone seems to be right when he says that the seat o' the brain is in apposition with, and de- scriptive of, the heart. That the heart was once believed to be the seat of the understanding, there can be no doubt ; and just above we have it spoken of as the counselor. Others take the heart and the seat o' the brain as the two points to which the blood conveys the nourishment ; in either case, seat will mean royal seat, throne, as frequently in Shakespeare. 127-30. And, through . . . live, and through the passages and chambers of the body the strongest nerves alike with the petty veins receive from me that adequate sustenance which gives them vigorous life: cranks are properly winding channels, ducts, but here in connection with offices they represent the passages running through a house by which food is brought from the kitchen, larder. 132. Ay, sir; well, well, said with impatience ; get on with this answer that the belly made. 134. Yet I can . . . up, yet I can produce a balance-sheet 174 CORIOLANUS. [act i. showing how my account stands and proving- that all, etc.: audit, literally, the hearing of an account rendered by stewards. 137. It was . . . this ? it was a good answer, but how do you apply it to the circumstances ? 140, 1. digest . . . common, with impartial consideration turn over in your mind how the public welfare stands : weal, "A.S. • If they . . . army, if they should besiege us, bring up your army to cause them to raise the siege. 30. They 've not . . . us, that this preparation of theirs is not intended against us. Scene III. 2. more comfortable sort, more cheerful manner. 8, 9. how honor . '. . person, in what way honor would best lend a charm to one so comely in appearance ; what kind of honor would be most in keeping with his look and bearing. 12. cruel, bloody, fierce. 13, his brows bound with oak, the oaken garland was an honor granted to one who had saved the life of a Roman citi- zen in battle and slain his opponent. It ensured the wearer a place next the senators in public assemblies, where all rose as he entered. Coriolanus obtained the garland at the battle of the Lake Regillus, b.c. 498. 178 CORIOLANUS. [act i. 13, 4. I sprang . . . joy, my heart did not leap with great ex- ultation : a man-child, a male child, a boy. 24. to retire myself, to retire to my own chamber. "The predilection for transitive verbs was perhaps one among other causes why many verbs which are now used intransitively, w r ere used by Shakespeare reflexively. Many of these were derived from the French ,J (Abb. § 296). 32. mail'd hand, hand gauntleted in mail ; armor made of links of steel. 33, 4. Like to . . . hire, like a laborer hired for the harvest on the condition that he shall get in the whole crop, or receive no wages for his labor ; for the transposition of or, which be- longs properly to to mow, see Abb. § 420. 37. Than gilt his trophy, than the plating of gold adorns a monument erected to a man ; trophy, literally a monument erected at the spot where the enemy turned and fled. 39, 40. when it spit . . . contemning, when, as though in scorn of their blows, the blood spurted from his wounds in the face of his foes ; the blood is spoken of as though animated with the contempt felt by him from whom it was drawn. 41. fit, prepared, ready. 48. you are manifest housekeepers, you are thorough stay- at-homes ; keep, in the sense of remain, abide, is frequent in Shakespeare, manifest, well known. 49. A fine spot, a pretty pattern of embroidery ; so, Oth. iii. 3. 435, " Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief Spotted with strawberries in your wife's hand ? " i.e. embroidered with strawberries 55. O 1 my troth, I assure you ; literally on, i.e. by, my truth : looked upon him, watched him playing about. 56. has, on the omission of the pronoun before has, is, was, see Abb. § 400 : confirmed, resolute, determined. 57. gilded, gay-colored. 59-61. or whether . . .tear it, whether his tumble had made him angry, or what was the reason, I don't know, but, etc. For the superfluous or before whether, see Abb. § 136. 61. O, I warrant ... it ! I can't tell you how viciously he tore it to pieces : mammock'd, mammock, a fragrant. 64. A crack, " a slightly contemptuous phrase applied to a child, and used by Valeria to qualify the compliments of her visitor " (Wright). Grant White thinks that '* boys may have been so called on account of their talkative, boastful disposi- tions." 65. stitchery, your stiching ; the work upon which you are engaged as stitchers. 66. hus-wife, house-wife ; now used only in the corrupted form hussy, a pert girl. sc. iv.] NOTES. 179 70. by your patience, if you will pardon me. 73. go visit, for the omission of to, see Abb. § 349 : that lies in, who has just had a child born to her. 77. want lov2, am lacking in good feeling. 78. You would . . . Penelope, you wish to show your loyalty to your husband as strongly as Penelope ; who, when Ulysses was at the siege of Troy, and she was pestered by suitors, promised to make her choice among them as soon as she finished a web she was weaving, but, to gain time, undid at night the work she had done by day. 80. I would, 1 could wish: cambric, a kind of fine white linen. " A corruption of Cambray, a town in Flanders, where it was first made'''' (Skeat, Ety. Diet.). Cp. arras, from Arras, in Artois ; jane, from Genoa ; frieze, from Friesland, etc. etc.: sensible, capable of feeling pain. 81. leave . . . pity, cease thrusting your needle into it out of mere pity. 96, 7. and so . . . us, i.e. since I have been able to give you news which may set your heart at rest. 98. Give me excuse, allow me to excuse myself ; little more than a periphrastical way of saying "excuse me," though with a flavor of greater courtesy. 100, 1. as she is . . . mirth, in her present frame of mind,, she would, if she accompanied us, only spoil our enjoyment,, which will be greater without her ; better, used proleptically. 105. at a word, in a word. Scene IV. 4. have not . . . yet, have not as yet encountered one another. 5. So . . . mine, there you see, you have lost your wager. 9. 'larum, alarum, sounding to arms ; Ital. aW arme, to arms ! 10. make . . . work, help us to finish off our work here (sc. the taking of thciown) quickly. 11. with smoking swords, with our swords freshly reeking with the blood of our slain enemies. 12. fielded, who have taken the field for battle. 14, 5. No, nor . . . little, no, nor any one whose fear of you is greater than his, and that (fear) is absolutely nothing. That this is what Shakespeare meant is evident ; but, as Malone has- shown. he constantly entangled himself in his use of more and less and of negatives. 17. pound, confine as in a pound, or pinfold ; the pound is- an enclosure common in villages in which animals straying: 180 CORIOLANUS. [act i. from their owner's land are shut up until a fine is paid for their recovery. 20, 21. list . . . army, you may guess from the sound of his drums how he has forced his way through your army, and is now making short work of its destruction. 22. Their noise . . . instruction, let the fury with which, as the noise shows, their conflict is raging, teach us how to right like them. 25. more proof, more completely impenetrable ; weapons are " proved ,: before being issued for sale by subjecting them to a greater strain than is likely to be put upon them in use. 26. much . . . thoughts, with an audacity such as we never expected. 27. Which, their so disdaining us. 30. contagion of the south, Shakespeare frequently speaks of the south and the south wind as being pestilential. 31-4. You shames . . . mile ! you disgraces to your native country! you herd of — (here Coriolanus breaks off without adding the epithet he had intended, and pours down curses upon them), may you be covered from head to foot with boils and plague-sores, so that your stench may make you loathed even when too far off to be seen, and your infection be borne from one to another in the very teeth of the wind however far you may be apart. 36. Pluto and hell ! Hades, or Pluto, properly the god of wealth, was in Grecian mythology the ruler of the netherworld, the abode of the shades, or departed spirits. 38. Mend . . . home, recover your courage and pierce their ranks with your charge ; home, in good earnest. 40. make my wars, direct my onset ; look to 't, take care to obey my words. 43. prove good seconds, worthily second, support, my efforts. 44, 5. 'T is for . . . fliers, it is to admit us, the pursuers, that fortune opens them so wide, not to protect these run- awaj-s. 47. To the pot, . . . him, he has gone Id certain destruc- tion ; cp. our colloquial phrase " out of the frying-pan into the fire. 1 ' 50. who, and they. 53, 4. Who sensibly . . . up, who though capable of pain shows himself less susceptible to it than his inanimate sword, and stands up erect and fearless even when it yields as though in awe. 55. a carbuncle is originally a glowing coal, from Lat. car- iu7iculus^ a smalk coal; then a gem, and lastly a boil which -trom its fiery appearance resembles a live coal. " A name sc. v.] NOTES. 181 variously applied to precious stones of a red or fiery color ; the carbuncles of the ancients (of which Pliny describes twelve varieties) were probably sapphires, spinels or rubies, and garnets ; in the Middle Ages and later, besides being a name for the ruby, the term was especially applied to a mythical gem said to emit a light in the dark ; in modern lapidary work the term is applied to the garnet when cut en cabochon, or of a boss form, usually hollowed out to allow the color of the stone to be seen " (Murray, Eng. Diet.). 57. Even . . . wish, exactly such as Cato would have desired ; for to = up to, see Abb. § 187. 59. thy sounds, the sound of your blows on the armor of your foes. 61. feverous, feverish. 62. Let 's fetch . . . alike, let us rescue him from his pur- suers, or stand by him to repel them ; make remain, merely a periphrasis for remain. Scene V. 3. A murrain on 't, plague on it ! curse it ! murrain, an infectious disease among cattle, ultimately from Lat. mori, to die. Stage Direction, a trumpet, i.e. trumpeter ; as standard for standard-bearer. 4. these movers, these fellows who are so busy ransacking every hole and corner for plunder. 4, 5. that do . . . drachma, that think their time well spent if they can secure the smallest booty. The drachma, literally a handful, was a Greek coin varying in value from of d. to Is. 3d., and a crack'd drachma, i.e. cracked so as to be uncurrent, would of course be worth still less. The coin is still current in Greece. 6. Irons of a doit, bits of iron worth no more than a doit ; of, worth ; doit, a small Dutch coin, Du. duit. 6. doublet, properly an inner garment which served, so to speak, as a lining or double to the outer one. Wright remarks, " Shakespeare dressed his ancient Romans like the English of his own day. In the same way he makes the English custom of giving to executioners the clothes of their victims as a per- quisite prevail in Rome." 10. of my soul's hate, whom I hate from the bottom of my soul. u. Piercing, forcing his way through. 12. Convenient . . . city ! a force sufficient to hold the city. 182 CORIOLANUS. [act i. 16. a second course, as though fighting were as a feast to him ; with an allusion to the second or principal course of viands at a dinner. iS. physical, medicinal, restorative. 21. her great charms, here charms is used in the sense of fascinations of beauty, but with a secondary allusion to the magic spells of sorcerers, witches, etc. 22. Misguide . . . swords ! turn aside the blows of your enemies. 23. be thy page, follow your footsteps, as a page follows his master. 23, 4. Thy friend . . . highest ! may she be as firm a friend to you as to those whom she raises to the greatest heights of prosperity ! Scene VI. 1-3. we are . . . retire, we have acquitted ourselves in the combat worthily of our race, neither foolishly attempting to maintain an untenable position, nor cowardly retreating while it was possible to make it good. 5. By interims . . . gusts, at intervals and by means of ense of doing' a thing of their own motion, unaided. 33. single, with a play on the word in the senses of (1) alone, (2) silly, purposeless. 35-7. O that . . . selves ! " with allusion to the fable which says that every man has a bag hanging before him, in which he puts his neighbors 1 faults, and another behind him in which he stows his own 11 (Johnson). 40. testy, headstrong ; O. F. teste, head, mod. F. tete. 43. humorous, light-hearted, merry ; full of quips and jests. 44. with not . . . Tiber, without a drop of water to qualify it ; Steevens points out that Lovelace, in his Verses to Alt/tea- from Prison, has borrowed this expression, " When flowing cups run swiftly round With no allaying; Thames." 45. 6. said to be . . . complaint, commonly reported to have the failing of deciding in favor of the first complainant, with- sc. I.] NOTES. 189 out waiting to hear the other side ; tinder-like, quick to catch fire : motion, provocation, incitement. 49. spend . . . breath, though perhaps too ready to fly into a passion, yet forgetting my anger immediately : wealsmen, such careful guardians of the public welfare ; said sarcastic- ally, of course. 50. I cannot . . . Lycurguses, I wish I could say you are as wise as Lycurgus, but I can't ; Lycurgus, the celebrated Spar- tan lawgiver. 52-4. I can 't say . . . syllables, when I find the mark of the ass so conspicuous in your conversation, I can't pretend to compliment you on the wisdom of your pronouncements. 56-9. If you see . . . too ? if what I have described myself as being is evident to you, does it follow that I, like you, am well known to every one ? further, if I am well enough known, what is there in this character of mine that your purb.ind vision can discern as being objectionable ? The old man is much nettled by the taunt that he is well enough known, and dwells on it with angiy iteration, map of my microcosm, i.e. the little world of a man's nature seen in his appearance, as the material world is seen in a map: bisson, M. E.bisen, purblind, ^4. S. bisen ; conspectuities, a coinage of Shakes- peare's from Lat. conspectus, sight. 62. ambitious . . . legs, you think it a fine thing to have poor wretches taking off their caps and bowing low before you. 64. orangewife, an old crone who sells oranges : fosset- seller, a seller of trifles like spigots to be inserted in casks ; now spelt faucet. 64, 5. and then . . . audience, and then adjourn to a further hearing a trumpery cause of dispute, a dispute that any sensi- ble man would settle in five minutes ; rejourn, Lat. re-, back, and O. F. jornee, Mod. F ' .journee. a morning. 68. mummers, maskers, buffoons; from "O. F. momiuezir, a mummer . . . The origin is imitative, from the sound mum or mom, used by nurses to frighten children, like the E. bo ! See Wedgwood, who refers to the habit of nurses who wish to frighten or amuse children, and for this purpose cover their faces and say mum J or bo ! whence the notion of masking to give amusement" . . . (Skeat, Ety. Diet.), set up . . . patience, declare war against all patience, utterly scout the idea of listening with any patience. 69. dismiss . . . bleeding, send the disputants way without any attempt to heal their quarrel. The metaphor from war is carried on. 73~5- y° u are well . . . Capitol, everyone knows that you have a much better right to a seat at a dinner table, where igo CORIOLANUS. [act ii. your sallies of wit are welcomed, than to a seat on a bench of justice, where your decisions are laughed at. 76. Our very . . . mockers, even our priests, whose office implies the most solemn gravity of countenance, will be un- able to resist laughing. 83. since Deucalion, since the flood; Deucalion, king of Phthia in Thessaly, and his wife, Pyrrha, were on acount of their piety saved in a boat when during a nine days' flood Zeus destroyed the race of men in consequence of the impiety of Lycaon, king of Arcadia. 83, 4. though ... hangmen, even though one should pay you the extravagant compliment of supposing that some of them held so high a position as that of hereditary hangman. 84. God-den, good evening, farewell ; literally God give you good even. 84, 5. your worships, giving them the title with ironical courtesy. 96. Take . . . Jupiter, " he throws up his cap into the air, Jupiter being especially the god of the sky" (Wright): and I thank thee, and my gratitude also. 107. sovereign, supremely efficacious : Galen, the famous Greek physician, a native of Pergamum, a.d. 130; of course an anachronism : empiricutic, Ingleby acutely suggests that this word "belongs to a very definite class of misprints, which we may call duplicative . . . This is an error . . . [which] exem- plifies the tendency of writers and compositors to repeat some syllable in a word which is susceptible of two forms of spell- ing : as, in this case, with a qu, or a ck." 108. to this, compared to this : of no better report, not worth more than : a horsedrench, what we now call a bran- mash, a mixture of malt or bran with hot water, given to sick or overworked horses. 113, 4. brings a' . . . pocket ? Menenius speaks as though victory so completely belonged to Marcius that he carried it about with him, as he would carry his handkerchief in his pocket ; a', both a and ha are found in Old English and were used not only for he, but for she, it, they: become, suit,, adorn. 115. On 's brows, not in his pocket, says Volumnia, humor- ously correcting Menenius,- out on his forehead, where he wears the chaplet of oak leaves. 121. an, see Abb. § 101 : stayed by him, continued to face him : fidiused, beaten as he would have beaten Aufidius. 128. there 's, for the inflection in .? before a plural subject, see Abb. § 335. 132. pow, wow, pooh, pooh ; nonsense, there 's no doubt of that. SC. I.] NOTES. 191 139. his place, the consulship which he expects to obtain: in the . . . Tarquin, in the battle of the Lake Regillus fought against Tarquinius Superbus, who was expelled in conse- quence of his various acts of despotism, and more than once with the aid of the Latins and the Etruscans endeavored to regain his throne. 145, 6. every gash . . . grave, for every wound he re- ceived, he slew an enemy. 147. These are . . . Marcius, these trumpets are the cus- tomary heralds of Marcius's approach; ushers, O. F. uzssier, Lat. ostiarius, a door-keeper. 149. nervy, sinewy. Grant White believes 11. 149, 50 to be spurious, and they certainly do not sound like Shakespeare. Stage Direction, sennet, a particular set of notes on the trumpet or cornet; origin unknown. 153. to, in addition to : these, sc. names. 164. But, O, thy wife ! but see, here is your wife to wel- come you : My gracious silence, abstract for concrete ; gracious, lovely : hail, health to you; a common salutation; A. S. hael, health. 169. And live you yet ? said jestingly to his faithful old friend; pardon, sc for his not having greeted her before. 173. light and heavy, joyous and sad ; joyous at seeing those returned, sad at missing so many that went forth to the war. 176. should^ought to : dote, be fond even to foolishness. 177, 8. We have . . . relish, there are among us certain sour-tempered old fellows that will not be brought to be in sympathy with you ; will not assimilate with you as a tree which is grafted with a new variety assimilates its fruit to that of the graft inserted in its stem. 181. Menenius ever, ever, always the same humorous old fellow ; ever himself. 185. change of honors, variety of honors ; as change of raiment, among the writers of that time, signified variety of raiment. 187, 8. To see . . . fancy, to see my dearest wishes granted and the castles I built in the air become substantial realities. 193. the bleared sights, dim-sighted old men. 194. Are spectacled, have put on their spectacles : your, for this colloquial use of your, see note on i. 1. 118. 195. a rapture, a paroxysm, fit. Ingleby accepts the con- jecture rupture, and supports it by quoting Phioravante's Secrets, 1582 ; but it is difficult to believe that Shakespeare would employ such coarse realism. 196. kitchen malkin, kitchen wench, scullery maid ; mal- 192 CORIOLANUS. [act ii. kin, •'■ The diminutive of Mai (Mary), a contemptuous term for a coarse wench " (Dyce, Gloss.). 197. Her richest lockram, her finest neck-kerchief; lockram, " a cheap kind of linen — F. locrenan . . . named from the place in Brittany where it is manufactured " . . . (Skeat, Ely. Diet.): reechy, begrimed with the smoke of the kitchen; a weakened form of reeky. 198. stalls, outside shops, in which goods were exposed for sale; bulks, frameworks projecting from the front of a shop, much the same as stalls. Stalls are still seen on market-days, though generally in the open market-place. 199. Are smother'd up, are crowded so as to be completely hidden; leads, the leadroofed tops of houses; ridges, the wedge-shaped roofs, as oppposed to the flat ones : horsed, be- stridden. 201. seld-shown, that seldom show themselves in public ; seld, according to Skeat, an adverbial form from a Teutonic adjective selda, = rare, strange, found in such compounds as seld-cuth. rare, seld-szne, seldom seen. 202. among . . . throngs, i.e. which on ordinary occasions they would have shunned as contaminating them : puff, are out of breath from their exertions. 203. a vulgar station, a standing place such as those occu- pied by ordinary spectators. 203-6. ourveil'd dames . . . kisses, our high-born ladies, usually so careful to shade their faces, now in their excitement risk ruining their complexion by going about in the bun with- out their veils ; nicely-gawded, daintily adorned, sc. with pink and white. 206. such a pother, such is the turmoil, excitement. 207-9. As if . . . posture, as if that god, whoever it be that attends him through life, had cunningly made himself in- carnate in Marcius and endowed him with every grace of movement; human powers, the capabilities which he as a man possesses. The idea that men were accompanied through life by good and evil spirits is a very old one, and is several times alluded to by Shakespeare. 209, 10. On the sudden . . . consul, on the spur of the moment, carried away by enthusiasm at his exploits, they will, without doubt, elect him to the consulship. 212, 13. He cannot . . . end, it will be impossible for a man of his nature to bear from first to last the honors laid upon him, without giving way to an arrogance which will cause a revulsion of feeling against him, 214-19. Doubt not ... do 't, you may be assured that the plebeians, whom we represent, prompted by their former ill-will towards him, will, if the least cause be given, speedily forget SC. I.] NOTES. 193 that they have laid these new honors upon him; and that he will give them such cause is as certain to my mind as that his pride would enjoy doing so. 221. Appear i' the market-place, present himself in the forum, as it was customary for candidates to do when can- vassing for votes. 222. The napless . . humility, the threadbare toga worn by candidates to signify that they humbly sought the approval of the electors. " For the custom of Rome was at that time, that such as did sue for any office, should for certain days be- fore be in the market-place, only with a poor gown on their backs, and without any coat underneath, to pray the citizens to remember them at the day of election; which was thus de- vised, either to move the people the more by requesting them in such mean apparel, or else because they might show them their wounds they had gottten in the wars in the service of the commonwealth, as manifest marks and testimonies of their valiantness " (Skeat, Shakespeare 's Plutarch, p. 14). 225. miss it, lose it, etc., the consulship. 226, 7. but by . . . npbles, unless the gentlefolk entreated him to accept the horior, and the nobles expressed a like desire. 230, 1. It shall . . . destruction, such a procedure on his part, like our efforts in the same direction, will be certain to ensure his ruin ; good wills, earnest endeavors. 231, 2. So it . . . authorities, such (viz. ruin) must be the result either to him or to ihe exercise of our powers : For an end, as a means to effect our object 234. stilk ever : to 's power, up to his power, so far as his ability went; see Abb. §187. 236. Dispropertied their freedoms, stripped them of such privileges as were particulaly their own. 237. In human . . . capacity, so far as concerns any capac- ity to act like men. 239. provand, from " F . provende, provender ... — Lat. praebenda, a payment ; in late Lat. a daily allowence of pro- visions . . . Feminine of praebendus, passive future participle olpraebere, to afford, give " (Skeat, Ety. Die). 252. scarfs and handkerchers, here our author has attribu- ted some of the customs of his own age to a people who were wholly unacquainted with them: handkerchers, a corrupted form of handkerchiefs, a word made up of hand, and F. couvre chef, covering for the head. [94 CORIOLANUS, [act II. Scene II. 3. of every one, by every one ; see Abb. § 168. 4. carry it, succeed ; it, used indefinitely. 7. Faith, assuredly; literally, in faith. 13. in their disposition, of their real character ; in, = about: out of ... carelessness, as a consequence of that magnanimity which does not allow itself to be troubled with trifles. 16, 7. 'twixt . . . harm, a confusion of constructions be- tween " 'twixt doing them good or harm" and " 'twixt two courses, with the result of doing them neither good nor harm." 19. may fully . . . opposite, may show in the plainest pos- sible manner that he is an enemy to them. 21. to flatter them, namely, flattering them. 23. as those, as that of those. 24. bonneted, took off their caps with humble gesture. 24-6. without . . . report, unlike a hero such as Marcius, having performed no exploits to bring them into honor with the people, and purchase their good report. Stage Direction. Lictors, public officers who attended on the chief Roman magistrates. They had to inflict punish- ment on condemned persons, to enforce proper respect's being shown to a magistrate passing by, to clear the road, etc. As a symbol of their office they carried fasces, rods bound in the form of a bundle, and containing an axe in the middle, the head of which was turned outwards. 34. of, in regard to. 44, 5. to remember . . . himself, to show our remembrance of his exploits by paying him the honors he has so worthily won. 46-8. make . . . out, by your relation of his services lead us to think it is rather that the resources of the state are inade- quate to reward him than that we are wanting in the will to make those rewards extend commensurately to his deserts. 49-51. and after . . . here, and afterwards, after hearing what we have to say, to use your most persuasive efforts with the people to ratify what meets with the assent of this assem- bly. 51, 2. We are . . . treaty, the agreement we are called to- gether to consider is a pleasing one to us. 54-7. Which the rather ... at, and to this inclination (to honor Marcius) we shall be all the more ready to yield if he on his part will be mindful to show that he has a more gener- ous estimate of the people than he has hitherto evidenced. sc. II.] NOTES. 195 57. That 's off, that 's off, that 's nothing to do with the matter. 60. more pertinent, sc. to the matter; more in point. 68. disbench'd you, caused you to leave your seat. 70. You soothed . . . not, you used no flattery, and there- fore did me no harm. 72. one . . . sun, i.e., sit doing- nothing - . 73. when the . . . struck, when the signal for battle was sounded. 74. To hear . . . monster'd, to hear my poor endeavors magnified into something extraordinary. 75-8. Your multiplying . . . hear it? how can you expect him to flatter this countless fry, the people, of whom not one in a thousand is worth anything, when you see that he would rather risk breaking his every limb in the pursuit of honor than expose one of his ears to the torture of listening to a nar- rative of his deeds. The addition of multiplying intensifies the scorn of the expression. 85. made a head, raised a force. 86. our then dictator, for then, used as an adjective, see Abb. § 77 . 88. Amazonian chin, beardless chin. 89. bestrid, stood over to protect. 92. struck . . . knee, struck him to his knee; struck him a blow that brought him on his knees. 95, 6. His pupil age . . . thus, he in his minority having thus enrolled himself as a man. 98. He lurch'd . . . garland. A writer in the Ed. Rev* says, " Shakespeare evidently uses the verb hirch literally to devour eagerly, ' ravin up,' gulp down, and in the second- ary sense to seize violently upon, rob, engross, absorb." In this sense, he says, the word was used, among others, by Bacon and Milton; and after quoting from Warner, "Hence country-louts land-lurch their lords," and "when Spayne would sceptres lurch,'''' he adds, " To lurch all swords of the garland, means therefore not only to rob all swords of the gar- land, but to carry it away from them with an easy and victori- ous swoop." 100. I cannot . . . home, I cannot describe his valor in any adequate terms of praise. 104, 5. his sword . . . took, his sword, which was as the stamp of death ; wherever it made its impression, did so fa- tally. 107. Was timed . . . cries, the cries of the dying kept time with each motion of his. 108. The mortal gate, the gate round which death was raging. 196 CORIOLANUS. [act ii. 108, 9. which he painted . . . destiny, Coriolanus set his bloody mark upon the gate, or upon the city, indicating that it was his by an inevitable fate, as plague-stricken houses were painted with a red cross. in. like a planet, the supposed malignant influence of planets is frequently referred to in Shakespeare : now all 's his, the speaker puts himself into Coriolanus's position at the time of receiving the re-inforcement, when he might be im- agined to exclaim, " Now all 's mine ! " 113. His ready sense, his hearing so quick to take in all sounds of fighting : straight, straightway, in an instant. 114. Re-quicken'd. . . fatigate, put fresh life into such bodily energies as had become fatigued ; the primary sense of quick is living, lively ; fatigate, weary. 115-7. where he did . . . spoil, Coriolanus is compared to a continuous stream of blood, which marked the course of his slaughtering sword. 118. stood, paused. 120, 1. He cannot . . . him, whatever the honors we may de- vise for him, they are certain to fit him, as though they were a garment for which he had been measured. 124. misery, avarice ; abstract for concrete. 124, 5. rewards . . . them, finds sufficient reward for his deeds in doing them. 125, 6. and is . . . it, and thinks of nothing but getting to the end of the time he has to spend in such work. 137. Must . . . voices, must be allowed to give their votes in the election : bate, abate, consent to forego. 138. jot, the smallest portion ; Gk. iota, the letter z, the smallest in the Greek alphabet : Put them not to 't, do not drive them into a strait by refusing to follow the usual custom. 146. for the hire, in order to obtain the loan. 147. breath, voices in his favor : stand upon 't, insist upon being allowed to dispense with the usual custom. 148. 9. We recommend . . . them, we in all kindness com- mit to you the duty of making known to the people our'wishes in the matter. 153-5. He will . . . give, he will ask them in a manner as if he scorned their being in a position to grant that which he desires of them. 157. attend, await. Scene III. Stage Direction. The Forum, originally only a market- place, as it is called in this play, was a space of open ground between the Capitoline hill and the Velian ridge, used for sc. in.] NOTES. 197 public assemblies. As Rome became larger, several other fora were built, as the Forum Julium, the Forum Augusii, etc. 1. Once, once for all. 4, 5. We have . . . do, '■'■power first signifies natural power y ox force, and then moral power, or ?-zght' n (Johnson). 13, 14. And to make . . . serve, and it will not take much to make him call us monsters : once we stood, once when we stood. 15. stuck not, did not hesitate. 20, 1. and their consent . . . compass, and the only agree- ment they would show would be to disagree as widely as the points of the compass are asunder. 25. 't is strongly . . . block-head, there is no escape for an idea out of a head so dense. 29. rotten, proleptically used for causing things to rot. 29, 30. for conscience sake, being ashamed .to leave you utterly bare of sense ; for the possessive case ending in -ce written without the apostrophe with -.y, see Abb. § 471 : to- help . . . wife, i.e. for which very little wit is required. 33. to give your voices, sc. in favor of Marcius. 40.- by particulars of us separately. 40, 1. wherein . . . honor, for in that way each one has indi- vidually the honor of giving, etc. 43. go by him, pass in front of him. 45. you are not right, you are in the wrong in wishing to dispense with the ordinary practice. 47, 8. I cannot . . . pace, I cannot bring my tongue to use such mincing gait. 53. To think upon you, to give you their favorable con- sideration. 54, 5. I would . . . 'em, I wish they would forget me as they do those virtuous principles which are only thrown away upon them when preached to them by our divines ; 'em, not a con- traction of them, but representing the old heom, hem, dative and accusative plural of he. 68. we hope . . . you, we hope for something in return. 69 your price, the price you put upon your bestowal of the consulship. 72. shall be . . . private, shall be shown to you when we are alone. 76. your alms, i.e. since he was acting as a beggar. 78. An 't were . . . again, if one had to be asked for one's- vote again ... (I should refuse mine). 79. stand with, be in accord with. 85, 6. You have . . . friends, if on the one hand you can claim the credit of having been a scourge to her enemies, you have on the other the discredit of being a rod, etc. ig8 CORIOLANUS. [act ii. 89. common in my love, ready to give my love to any who sought it. • 89, 90. my sworn brother, " an expression originally de- rived from the fratres jurati, who in the days of chivalry mutually bound themselves by oath to share each other's for- tune " ire,ih& initial n- being absorbed by the indefinite article. 96. your apron-men, your wretched mechanics. 96-8. that stood . . . garlic-eaters, who attached so much importance to the opinions and demands of artisans and the rabble who delight in such stinking food as garlic. 100. Did . . . fruit, an allusion to the plucking of the fruit in the garden. of the Hesperides, guarded by a dragon — the elev- enth labor imposed upon Hercules by Eurystheus. 103. Do smilingly revolt, are only too glad to revolt : who resist, any who resist. 104, 5. Are mock'd . . . fools, are merely jeered at for their stupid display of bravery, and rewarded for their foolish con- stancv by being slaughtered. 109. for shame, on account of shame. in. for, as regards. 112. they charged, they would, in so doing, be urging. 117. You have . . . hands, you have made a nice business. 118. have crafted fair, have shown a fine ingenuity ; with a play upon the word craft in the sense of occupation, indus- try. 119. 20. such as . . . help, more incapable of being cured than any trembling ever was. 122. your clusters, your rabble who thronged the city in mutiny. 124. They'll . . . again, so they will shout, though in a differ- ent key, when he returns a triumphant conqueror of them- selves. 131. hooting at, in the act of expressing your delight by hooting. 134. coxcombs, literally the tuft on the head of a cock, and hence used ludicrously or contemptuously for head. 143-5, an d though . . . will, if these words in which the citizen labors to excuse himself are not intended to be merely eelf-contradictory, they may mean " though at the instigation of the tribunes we readily gave our assent to his banishment, we were persuaded to do so contrary to our inclinations." 147. cry, pack : Shall 's, i.e. us for ive. 150. side, party. sc. vii.] NOTES. 219 Scene VII. 3, 4. Your soldiers . . ..end, instead of saying grace before and after meat, they have no words but of him 5. you are darken'd, your reputation is eclipsed. 7, 8. Unless, . . . design, except by resorting to measures which would cripple our purpose. 11. In that's no changeling, is but consistent; a changeling is a child who has been substituted in the craddle by fairies, or witches, for another child. 13. I mean . . . particular, I mean as far as your individual good is concerned. 18. his account, the account which, sooner or later, he will have to render of his conduct. 26. our account, the reckoning which will have to be made between us. 28. sits down, i e. to besiege them. 32. in the repeal, in recalling: him home. 34, 5. who takes it . . . nature, who captures it by the im- perious fascination with which nature has endowedihim. A reference to the fabulous power attributed to the osprey of fas- cinating the fish on which it preys. Of course the pow r er attrib- uted is nothing more than an exaggeration of the swiftness and ease with which the bird takes its prey. 37. Carry . . . even, wear his honors with moderation. 38, 9. Which . . . man, pride, with which men of uninter- rupted good fortune are always tainted. 41, 2. or whether . . . thing, or whether it was his stubborn nature that was incapable of changing itself. 42, 3. not moving . . . cushion, his nature which, so used to war, could not adapt itself to peaceful matters ; the casque, or helmet, symbolical of war; the cushion, of civil adminis- tration. 44. austerity and garb, a hendiadys for austere garb, the austere fashion of doing things which the necessity of stern dis- cipline in war had taught him. 46, 7. As he . . . him, for he has touches of all these failings, though I may admit that they are but touches, not the weak- nesses fully developed. 48. So . . . banish'd, the consequence of his being feared was that before long he became hated, the consequence of his being hated was that before long he was driven into exile. 48, 9. but . . . utterance, he has a merit for nn other pur- pose than to destroy it by publishing it, putting it forth. 49, 50. So our . . . time, our virtues depend (for their efficacy) upon the manner in which we interpret, and adapt ourselves to, surrounding circumstances. 220 CORIOLANUS. [act v. 51-3. And power . . . done, if the reading is genuine here, the meaning probably is, and power {i.e. a man in high position) however much it may consider itself deserving of praise, has no such certain grave of its reputation as a chair from which it pronounces its own eulogy. 55. Rights . . . fail, rights give way to other and better rights ; power, however great, has to yield when it meets greater power. Act V. Scene I. 3. In a . . . particular, with a special affection ; particular, personal relation. S, 6. knee . . . mercy, make your way on your knees to his heart ; coy'd, showed himself reluctant ; disdained. 11, 2. Coriolanus ... to, when addressed as ' Coriolanus,' he would not acknowledge that title as belonging to him : for- bad all names, forbade us to call him by any name. 25, 6. He could not . . , chaff, he could not pause to pick them out from among a heap of such miserable wretches as the people in general; noisome, troublesome, offensive. 37. More than . . . make, more than any army we could get together in so sudden an emergency. 46-7. after . . . well, proportioned to your good intentions. 52. pout . . . morning, look at everything in a fretful mood, with a jaundiced eye : unapt, disinclined. These reflections come appositely from one who has described himself as Menenius does in ii. 1. 56, 7. watch . . . request, wait for the moment when he will be in the mood to listen to my request. 61. Speed how it will, whatever the result may be ; the original sense of the substantive s/>eed is success. 62. success, see note on i. 1. 250. 63. does sit in gold, sits enthroned in awful majesty. 64. 5. his injury . . . pity, his sense of wrong done him chaining up his mercy. 67-9. what he . . . conditions, he sent in writing after I had been dismissed a statement of what he would do, and what he would not do ; he being bound by an oath to fulfil the terms on which he had made alliance with the Volscians. Scene II. 8. Good my friends, for this transposition, see Abb. § 13. 10. it is . . . blanks, lots must be taken to mean those papers in a lottery which awarded a prize, as opposed to blanks, blank papers, which awarded nothing. SC. ii.] NOTES. 221 12, 3. the virtue . . . passable, your name does not serve as a passport. 14. lover, dear friend ; formerly frequent in this sense. 16. haply amplified, possibly exaggerated. 18, 9. with all . . . suffer, so far as was possible without lapsing into untruth. 20. subtle, slippery; literally fine, slender, then insinuating, sly, morally slippery. 21. I've . . . throw, have shot beyond the mark ; the throw, the distance which the bowl should have been bowled. 22. Have . . . leasing, " have almost given the lie such a sanction as to render it current " (Malone). 29. always . . . general, who in all matters took the side of, etc. 30. Howsoever . . . liar, whatever lies you may have told on his behalf ; or Howsoever may = although. 31. telling . . . him, serving under bim and speaking the truth. 39. in a . . . ignorance, in a paroxysm of popular stupidity. 40. your shield, him who was to you what the shield is to the body : to front, to confront. 41. the virginal . . . daughters, the hands of your young maidens held up in supplication. 42. palsied, tremulous ; palsy, a contraction of the Y.para- lysie : decayed dotant, feeble old dotard. 46. out of, beyond the possibility of. 48. estimation, esteem, respect. 53, 4. the utmost . . . having, all you will get out of me. 59. a Jack guardant, a Jack-in-office ; the old man's retort for •' decayed dotant," Jack being used for a saucy boy, and with an allusion to the heraldic term " guardant " : office me, keep me by your officiousness from, etc. 60. by my . . . him, by the way in which you will see him receive me. 61. standest . . . hanging, are not in a fair way to being hanged. 62. more . . . spectatorship, which will afford the lookers- on a prolonged enjoyment of your agony. 64,5. sit . . . prosperity, constantly deliberate in what way your happiness above all men may be increased ; synod, con- vocation, assembly. 68. hardly moved, with difficulty induced. 72. the dregs, what is left of it being sufficient for the punishment of such a contemptible fellow : varlet, formerly a groom, then any low fellow ; an older spelling, says Skeat, was vaslet, a diminutive of O. F. vassal. 77-9. though . . . breasts, though the revenge I seek is 222 CORIOLANUS. [act v. peculiarly my own, any mercy I may show depends upon the will of the Volscians. 79-81. That we . . . much, the remembrance of our having once been friends shall be allowed to peushof ingratitude and forgetfuiness rather than the closeness of such friendship be borne in mind by pity. 83. for, since. 92. shent, A.S. scendan, scyndan, O. Du. sckenden, O. H. G. scendan, scentan. from sc/zande, disgrace, revile. 97. by himself, by his own act. 98, 9. be that . . . age ! I cannot wish you any worse fate than that you should long continue what you are. Scene III. 3. how plainly, with what a straightforward loyalty to the Volscians. 11. godded, idolized, worshipped as a god. 15. cannot now accept, i.e. from very pride. 29. Of stronger earth, of more inflexible nature. 30. Olympus, the eastern part of the chain of mountains which formed the southern boundary of ancient Greece, and the fabled residence of the gods. 35. to obey instinct, as to yield to mere natural feelings. 39, 40. The sorrow . . . so, Virgilia, affecting to take his words literally, replies, it is only that we are so changed by sorrow that you do not see us as you once did. 43. tyranny, cruelty. 46. the jealous . . . heaven* " i.e. by Juno, the guardian of marriage, and consequently the avenger of connubial perfidy " (Johnson). 47, 8. and my true . . . since, and since then my loyal lips have known no kiss from other lip ; it, used indefinitely. 51, 2. Of thy . . . sons, give stronger evidence of your deep sense of duty than ordinary sons would do ; with a play upon deep and impression. 54-6. and unproperly . . . parent, and, contrary to all no- tions of what is proper, let me make dutiful obeisance to you, as though the submission of children to parents was an inver- sion of the natural order of things. 58. hungry, sterile, unprolific. ' 59. Fillip, "to strike with the finger nail, when jerked from under the thumb ... an easier form of filp. which arose from flip, by the shifting of /" (Skeat, Ety. Diet.). 61, 2. Murdering . . . work, making what cannot be, the easiest thing in the world. sc. in.] NOTES. 223 64. Publicola, Publius Valerius, surnamed Pubiicola from the services he rendered to the people, took an active part in the expulsion of the Tarquins, and was three times consul. 65. The moon of Rome, the Diana (goddess of chastity)- among Roman women. It is to her that Plutarch ascribes the idea of the ladies 1 intercession with Coriolanus. 71, 2. inform . . . nobleness, shape your thoughts in all- nobleness. 73. stick, stand out firmly. 74,5. Like . . . flaw, like some conspicuous mark at sea firm against every blast, and a refuge for all who can discern you in their distress. 75. sirrah, generally, but not always, used in a peremptory cr contemptuous manner. 80, i. The things . . . denials, you can never regard me as refusing to you the things which I have bound myself by an oath not to grant. 82. capitulate, enter into negotiations ; literally to divide into chapters, arrange under headings ; now used only in the sense of surrendering. 86. Your colder reasons, your more temperate arguments. 94, 5. our raiment . . . life, the state of our raiment and the condition of our bodies would show plainly what kind of life, etc. Wright points out that bewray "although used almost interchangeably with ' betray, 1 differs from it in not necessarily- involving the idea of treachery." The greater part of this speech is taken almost word for word from Plutarch. 104. capital, fatal, destructive. 111-3. We must . . . win, calamity must plainly be ours, even if our wish were gratified as to which side should be victorious. 114. a foreign recreant, no longer a Roman ; recreant^ originally the present participle of the F. verb recroire, to be- lieve again, to alter one's faith. 115. manacles, strictly speaking, fetters for the hands ; thorough, through, lengthened for the sake of the meter. 117. bear the palm, ironical for, be notorious instead of famous. 120. determine, come to an end ; in this sense used chiefly in legal phraseology. 122. the end, the object of it (sc. Corioli), viz. the destruction of Rome. 126, 7. to keep . . . time, to hand down your name to future times : A', he ; so sometimes '«;« for them. 129, 30. Not of . . . see, to avoid yielding to womanly tender- ness, one ought never to see the face of woman or child. 132-5. If it were . . . honor, if our prayer to you to save the 224 CORIOLANUS. [act v. Romans involved your destroying the Volscians, whose servant you now are. you might condemn us as asking something which would be a deathblow to your honor. 139. Give . . . thee, greet you with acclamations of honor such as are addressed to kings. 146. he wiped it out, blotted out his title to be called noble. 149. Thou hast . . . honor, it has ever been your aim te show yourself animated by the most chivalrous impulses. 151-3. To tear . . . oak, like them to thunder in tones which should strike terror into every heart, and yet, like them, in -mercy to let the lightning of your wrath fall with but sparing destruction. In charge the figure is that of loading a cannon, the sulphur which accompanied Jove's thunderbolts answer- ing to the gunpowder which propels the cannon-ball. 160. the stocks, a contrivance for punishing vagrants and petty offenders, consisting of two blocks of wood, one above the other, working on a hinge, with the lower edge of the upper block and the upper edge of the lower block cut away so as to admit the legs of the offender, which were then con- fined by the end opposite to the hinge being fastened by a pad- lock. These stocks were to be seen in every village of Eng- land not very many }^ears ago. 165. not so, not unjust. 167. That thou . . . belongs, that you do not show me that dutiful submission which a son ought to show to his mother. 171. an end, here we will make an end of our supplications. 178. to, for. 179. 80. this child which bears his name, owes to accident, not to real paternity, the likeness he bears to him: dispatch, permission to return. 186. to Rome, for Rome, as far as Rome is concerned. 188, 9. Most ... to him, the victory you have gained over him. is one that will be most dangerous, if not fatal, to him. 190. true wars, war in which the objects of the Volscians shall be faithfully kept in view. 191. convenient, suitable. 194. withal, sc. by her entreaties. 196. to sweat compassion, to shed tears of pity. 199. Stand to me. support me against all complaints that may be made by your fellow-countrymen. 202. Ay, by and by, yes, very shortly ; in answ r er to some request made by the ladies. 204. A better witness, stronger evidence, sc. in a formal agreement drawn up on paper. sc. iv., v., vi.] NOTES. 225 Scene IV. 1. coign, corner, from F. cot Kg, a corner, Lat. cuneus, a wedge. 8. condition, nature. 15. Than an . . . horse, sc. remembers his dam: tartness, acidity, sour looks ; A.S. teart, sharp, severe. 19. state, chair of state. 24. in the character, in his true character; for the, denot- ing notoriety, see Abb. § 92. 27. long of you, along of you, owing to you. 34. hale ... down, are dragging him first in one direction, then in another; hale, the older form of haul, from A.S. holian, to acquire, get. 38. are dislodg'd, have broken up their encampment. 40. not the . . . Tarquins, not even that on which the Tar- quins were expelled. 44. blown tide, tide swollen by the wind ; the arch making it more boisterous by its restraint. 45. the recomforted, those who by hearing the news have had fresh comfort given them. 46. sack-buts, '* a kind of wind-instrument . . . The sack-but resembled the modern trombone . . . the word is used to trans- late the.Heb. sabbeka, Lat. savibuca, which was a stringed in- strument" . . . (Skeat, Ety. Diet.): psalteries, a kind of stringed instrument ... — O. F '. psalterie,~\-.2X. psalter ium — a recollection no doubt of Daniel, iii. 7, " That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sack-but, psaltery \ dulcimer and all kinds of music," etc. 47. cymbals, brazen disks, held one in each hand and clashed together. 48. Make the sun dance, make the very sun rejoice with us. Scene V. 1. the life of Rome, to whom Rome owes its life. 4. Unshout . . . Marcius, cancel the shouts with which you banished Marcius by still louder ones in his honor. 5. Repeal . . . mother, by the welcome you give to his mother proclaim his recall. Scene VI. 5. Him I accuse, he whom I accuse ; Him put for he by at- traction to whom understood. 6. by this, sc. time. 226 C0R10LANUS. [act v. 8. To purge himself, to clear himself of all charges to be brought against him. 13, 4. If you do . . . parties, if you still adhere to that pur pose in which you desired our co-operation. 16. "We must . . . people, our action must be guided by the temper in which we find the citizens. 18. 'Twixt . . . difference, there is a dispute between you and Coriolanus. 20, 1. And my . . . construction, and I can easily put a plausible construction upon my pretext for ruining him: pawn'd, pledged. 25. bow'd his nature, humbled himself. 27. stoutness, stubbornness. 35, 6. served . . . person, helped by my own personal ser- vice to carry out his designs. 37. which he . . . his, which he garnered up for himself. Wright has shown that to end was the technical term for get- ting in and housing a crop, and that it is probably a corruption of to inn used in that sense. 40, 1. He wag'd . . . mercenary, he treated me as one whose services could be bought and were well paid for by patronizing looks. 43. had carried, had virtually captured : and that, and when that. 44, 5. There was . . . him, that is the very matter for which I will use my utmost efforts to destroy him. 46. At a few . . . rheum, for a few tears. 47, 8. he sold . . . action, he bartered away all the lives we had lost and all the labors we had undergone in our great enterprise. 49. And I'll . . . fall, and in his downfall will regain my former standing. 50. like a post, with no more ceremony than attends a mes- senger bringing news. 54. at your vantage, when a chance offers. 57. second, assist : along, stretched out a corpse. 58, 9. After your . . . body, the story of his behavior, told as you tell it, will be the grave of the reasons he may plead, as the earth will be the grave of his body. 64. What faults he made, we now say to commit a fault, to make a mistake. 65. Might . . . fines, might have escaped with but slight punishment. 65-9. but there . . . excuse, but nothing can palliate the fact of his having brought our enterprise to an end at the very point where it should have begun in earnest (i.e. by the cap- ture of Rome), and of his having thrown away the whole ad- sc. vi.] NOTES. 227 vantage gained by the raising of our army, giving us for our only recompense the burden of the outlay, and making peace at the very moment when our enemies were ready to offer their submission. 71. your soldier, still at your command. 78. a full . . . part, the expenses being paid, with a surplus of as much as a third of the amount. 83, 4 what . . . on, the terms of our treaty. 93. certain drops of salt, a few bitter tears. 94. I say " your city," sc. since, but for his perfidy, it would be yours. 96. twist, a few threads twisted together. 96, 7. never . . . war, never allowing the advice of any one as to how the war should be managed : at his nurse's tears, the moment his mother began to weep ; nurse's, used con- temptuously. 106, 7. Your judgments . . . lie, I must trust to your decis- ion to brand this coward as a liar : notion, understanding. 108, 9. "Who wears . . . grave, who still bears on his body the marks of my blows, and must carry to his grave the dis- grace of being cudgeled by me. 114. 't is there, it is written there. 116. Flutter'd, caused the hearts of your Volscians to nutter with fear like timid doves: your, contemptuously. 118, 9. Will you . . . braggart, will you suffer yourselves to be reminded by this accursed boaster of his undeserved good fortune and your disgrace ? 121. presently, at once. 127. judicious, here apparently = judicial. 128. the peace, sc. which would otherwise prevail. 129. his tribe, the whole of his race. 133. valor, all brave men. 138. Which this . . . you, which, while this man lived, would sooner or later have fallen upon you. 140-2. I'll deliver . . . censure, I will prove my loyalty to you, or submit to any sentence you may be pleased to pass upon me. 144, 5. that ever . . . urn, " this allusion is to a custom un- known, I believe, to the ancients, but observed in the public funerals of English princes, at the conclusion of which a her- ald proclaims the style [i.e. -titles] of the deceased " (Steevens); urn, grave. 145, 6. His own . . . blame, Coriolanus's own violence in a great measure excuses Aufidius's deed. 151. Trail . . . pikes, in following the corpse of a soldier to the grave the pikes were trailed, drawn along the ground, just 228 CORIOLANUS. [act v. as nowadays the rifle of the private and the sword of the offi- cer are carried reversed. 152. unchilded, made childless. 154. memory, memorial. Stage Direction. A dead march, the music played at the funeral of a soldier. EXAMINATION PAPER. A. i. Give an outline or a short account of the play. 2. Point out the admirable qualities of Coriolanus. 3. Sketch the relations of the patricians to the plebeians at this time. 4. State by whom, of whom, or to whom, and on what occasions, these lines were uttered : — (a) He that trusts to you, Where he should find you lions, finds you hares. (b) And, were I anything but what I am, I 'd wish me only he. (c) A very little thief of occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience. (d) One that loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in 't. (e) He had rather venture all his limbs for honor Than one on 's ears to hear 't. 5. Explain and annotate these words and phrases : The helms