Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck'dst it from me;
But owe thy pride thyself.

Cor. Pray, be content;

Mother, I am going to the market-place;

Chide me no more. I'll 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'll return consul;
Or never trust to what my tongue can do

I'the way of flattery, further.

Vol. Do your will.

[Exit.

Com. Away, the tribunes do attend you: arm yourself

To answer mildly; for they are prepar'd

With accusations, as I hear, more strong

Than are upon you yet.

Cor. The word is, mildly :-Pray you, let us go:

Let them accuse me by invention, I

Will answer in mine honour.

Men. Ay, but mildly.

Cor. Well, mildly be it then; mildly.

SCENE III.

[Exeunt.

The same. The Forum. 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.—

What, will he come ?

Ed. He's coming.

Enter an Edile.

Bru. How accompanied ?

d. With old Menenius, and those senators

That always favour'd him.

Sic. Have you a catalogue

Of all the voices that we have pracur'd,

Set down by the poll?

d. I have; 'tis ready, here.

Sic. Have you collected them by tribes? d. I have.

Sic. Assemble presently the people hither:
And when they hear me say, It shall be so

P 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.

Ed. I shall inform them.

Bru. And when such time they have begun to cry, Let them not cease, but with a din confus'd

Enforce the present execution

Of what we chance to sentence.

Ed. Very well.

Sic. Make them be strong, and ready for this hint, When we shall hap to giv't them.

Bru. Go about it.

[Exit Edile. -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.

Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, Senators, and
Patricians.

Sic. Well, here he comes.

Men. Calmly, I do beseech you.

Cor. Ay, as an hostler, that for the poorest piece

Will bear the knave by the volume.

The honour'd gods

Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice

Supplied with worthy men! plant love among us!
Throng our large temples with the shows of peace,
And not our streets with war!

1 Sen. Amen, amen!

Men. A noble wish.

Re-enter Edile with Citizens.

Sic. Draw near, ye people.

Ed. List to your tribunes; audience; peace,

Cor. First, hear me speak.

Both Tri. Well, say.-Peace, ho.

I say.

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?

[4] That is, would bear being called a knave as often as would fill cut a volume.

STEEVENS

Cor. I am content.

Men. Lo, citizens, he says, he is content:

The warlike service he has done, consider ;

Think on the wounds his body bears, which show
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.5

Com. Well, well, no more.

Cor. What is the matter,

That being past for consul with full voice,
I am so dishonour'd, that the very hour
You take it off again?

Sic. Answer to us.

Cor. Say then 'tis true, I ought so.

Sic. We charge you, that you have contriv'd to take From Rome all season'd office, and to wind

6

Yourself unto 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! Call me their traitor!-Thou injurious tribune! Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths, In thine hands clutch'd' as many millions, in Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say, Thou liest, unto thee, with a voice as free As I do pray the gods.

Sic. Mark you this, people?

Cit. To the rock with him; 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 defying
Those whose great power must try him; even this,
So criminal, and in such capital kind,

Deserves the extremest death.

Envy---is here taken at large for malignity or ill intention.

JOHNSON.

Ail office established and settled by time, and made familiar to the people by
JOHNSON. [7] i. e. grasped. STEEVENS.

long use.

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? Com. Know, I pray you,

Cor. I'll know no further:

Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,
Vagabond exile, flaying; Pent to linger
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.

Sic. For that he has

2

(As much as in him lies) from time to time
Envy'd against the people, seeking means
To pluck away their power; has 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,
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.

Cit. It shall be so, it shall be so let him away:

He's banish'd, and so it shall be.

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 from Rome,
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 increase,
And treasure of my loins; then if I would
Speak that-

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:

[8] Not---stands again for not only. JOHNSON.So in Thessa. iv. 8. "He therefore, that despiseth, despiseth not man but God." STEEVENS.

[9] I love my country beyond the rate at which I value my dear wife. JOHNSON.

It shall be so.

Cit. It shall be so, it shall be so.

Cor. You common cry of curs!' whose breath I hate

As reek o'the rotten fens, whose loves I prize

As the dead carcases of unburied men
That do corrupt my air, I banish you;
And here remain with your uncertainty!
Let every feeble rumour 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,*
Making not reservation of yourselves,
Still your own foes,) deliver you, as most
Abased captives, to some nation

That won you without blows! Despising,
For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
There is a world elsewhere.

[Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENENIUS, Senators, and Patricians.

Ed. The people's enemy is gone, is gone!

Cit. Our enemy's banish'd! he is gone! Hoo! hoo! [The People shout, and throw up their caps. Sic. Go, see him out at gates, and follow him,

As he hath follow'd you, with all despite ;

Give him deserv'd vexation.

Attend us through the city.

Let a guard

Cit. Come, come, let us see him out at gates; come :The gods preserve our noble tribunes!-Come. [Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.—The same. Before a Gate of the City. Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, and several young Patricans.

Coriolanus.

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

Cry here signifies a troop or pack.

MALONE.

Still retain the power of banishing your defenders, till your undiscerning folly, which can foresee no consequences, leave none in the city but yourselves, who are always labouring your own destruction.It is remarkable, that, among the political maxims of the speculative Harrington, there is one which he might have borrowed from this speech. "The people (says he) cannot see, but they can feel." It is not much to the honour of the people, that they have the same character of stupidity from their enemy and their friend. Such was the power of our author's mind, that he looked through life in all its relations private and civil. JOHNSON.