Tim. Come not to me again: but say to Athens, Timon hath made his everlasting mansion Upon the beached verge of the salt flood;

Tim. Well, sir, I will; therefore, I will, sir; Which once a day with his embossed froth

Tim. But yet I love my country; and am not Whom, though in general part we were oppos'd,

I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath. SCENE IV. The woods. Timon's cave, and a

And hang himself:-I pray you, do my greeting. | What's on this tomb I cannot read; the character

I'll take with wax:

Our captain hath in every figure skill;
An ag'd interpreter, though young in days:
Before proud Athens he's set down by this,
Whose fall the mark of his ambition is. Exit.

SCENE V.-Before the walls of Athens.

Trumpets sound. Enter ALCIBIADES, and
Forces.

Alcib. Sound to this coward and lascivious town
Our terrible approach.
A parley sounded.

Enter Senators on the walls.

Whích, in the bluster of thy wrath, must fall
With those that have offended: like a shepherd,
Approach the fold, and cull the infected forth,
But kill not altogether.

2 Sen. What thou wilt,
Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile,
Than hew to't with thy sword.

1 Sen. Set but thy foot
Against our rampir'd gates, and they shall ope;
So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before,
To say, thou'lt enter friendly.

2 Sen. Throw thy glove,
Or any token of thine honour else,
That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress,
Shall make their harbour in our town, till we
Have seal'd thy full desire.

Till now you have gone on, and fill'd the time | And not as our confusion, all thy powers
With all licentious measure, making your wills
The scope of justice; till now, myself, and such
As slept within the shadow of your power,
Have wander'd with our travers'd arms, and

breath'd

Our sufferance vainly: Now the time is flush,
When crouching marrow, in the bearer strong,
Cries, of itself, No more: now breathless wrong
Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease;
And pursy indolence shall break his wind
With fear, and horrid flight.

1 Sen. Noble, and young,
When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit,
Ere thou hadst power, or we had cause of fear,
We sent to thee; to give thy rages balm,
To wipe out our ingratitude with loves
Above their quantity.

2 Sen. So did we woo
Transformed Timon to our city's love,
By humble message, and by promis'd means:
We were not all unkind, nor all deserve
The common stroke of war.

1 Sen. These walls of ours

Were not erected by their hands, from whom
You have receiv'd your griefs: nor are they such,
That these great towers, trophies, and schools

should fall

For private faults in them.

2 Sen. Nor are they living,
Who were the motives that you first went out;
Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess
Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,
Into our city with thy banners spread:
By decimation, and a tithed death,

(If thy revenges hunger for that food,

Alcib. Then there's my glove;
Descend, and open your uncharged ports:
Those enemies of Timon's, and mine own,
Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof,
Fall, and no more: and, -to atone your fears
with my more noble meaning, not a man
Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream
Of regular justice in your city's bounds,
But shall be remedied, to your public laws
At heaviest answer.

Both. 'Tis most nobly spoken.

Alcib. Descend, and keep your words.

The Senators descend, and open the gates.

Enter a Soldier.

Sold. My noble general, Timon is dead;
Entomb'd upon the very hem o'the sea :
And, on his grave stone, this insculpture; which
With wax I brought away, whose soft impression
Interprets for my poor ignorance.

Alcib. Reads.] Here lies a wretched corse, of
wretched soul bereft:

Seek not my name: A plague consume you wicked caitiffs left!

Which nature loaths,) take thou the destin'd From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit

tenth;

And by the hazard of the spotted die,

Let die the spotted.

1 Sen. All have not offended;

For those that were, it is not square to take,
On those that are, revenges: crimes, like lands,
Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman,
Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage:
Spare thy Athenian cradle, and those kin,

Here lie I Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate;

Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye
On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead
Is noble Timon; of whose memory
Hereafter more.-Bring me into your city,
And I will use the olive with my sword:
Make war breed peace; make peace stint war;

make each

n

CORIOLANUS.

PERSONS OF THE DRAMA.

CAIUS MARCIUS CORIOLANUS, a noble Roman. | A Citizen of Antium.

TITUS LARTIUS, generals against the Volsci

COMINIUS,

MENENIUS AGRIPPA, friend to Coriolanus.

SICINIUS VELUTUS, tribunes of the people.

JUNIUS BRUTUS,

Young MARCIUS, son to Coriolanus.

A Roman Herald.

TULLUS AUFIDIUS, general of the Volscians.
Lieutenant to Aufidius.

Conspirators with Aufidius.

Two Volscian Guards.

VOLUMNIA, mother to Coriolanus.
VIRGILIA, wife to Coriolanus.
VALERIA, friend to Virgilia.
Gentlewoman attending Virgilia.

Roman and Volscian Senators, Patricians, Ædiles,
Lictors, Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, Ser-
vants to Aufidius, and other Attendants.

SCENE, partly in Rome; and partly in the territories of the Volscians and Antiates.

12

SCENE I.-Rome. A street.

ACT I.

Enter a Company of mutinous Citizens, with
staves, clubs, and other weapons.

1 Cit. Before we proceed any farther, hear me speak.

Cit. Speak, speak. Several speaking at once.
1 Cit. You are all resolved rather to die, than

to famish?

Cit. Resolved, resolved.

Cit. No more talking on't; let it be done: away, away.

2 Cit. One word, good citizens.

1 Cit. We are accounted poor citizens; the patricians, good: What authority surfeits on, would relieve us; If they would yield us but the superfluity, while it were wholesome, we might guess, they relieved us humanely; but they think, we are too dear: the leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an in

1 Cit. First you know, Caius Marcius is chief ventory to particularize their abundance; our enemy to the people.

Cit. We know't, we know't.

sufferance is a gain to them.-Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes: for

1 Cit. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at the gods know, I speak this in hunger for bread, own price. Is't a verdict?

not in thirst for revenge.

2 Cit. Would you proceed especially against | ne'er cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and Caius Marcius?

Cit. Against him first; he's a very dog to the commonalty.

2 Cit. Consider you what services he has done for his country?

1 Cit. Very well; and could be content to give him good report for't, but that he pays himself with being proud.

2 Cit. Nay, but speak not maliciously. 1 Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though soft conscienc'd men can be content to say, it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud; which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue.

2 Cit. What he cannot help in his nature, you account a vice in him: You must in no way say, he is covetous.

1 Cit. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations; he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts within. What shouts are these? The other side o'the city is risen: Why stay we prating here? to the Capitol.

Cit. Come, come.

1 Cit. Soft; who comes here?

Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA.

2 Cit. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved the people.

1 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

Men. Why, masters, my good friends, mine

honest neighbours,

Will you undo yourselves?

1 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 Strike at the heaven with your staves, as lift them Against the Roman state; whose course 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, musthelp. Alack, You are transported by calamity

Thither where more attends you; and you slan

der

The helms o'the state, who care for you like fa-
thers,
When you curse them as enemies.

their store-houses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act established 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
A pretty tale; it may be, you have heard it;
But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture
To scale't a little more.

1 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 inactive,
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing
Like labour with the rest; where the other in-

struments

Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,
And, mutually participate, did minister
Unto the appetite and affection common
of the whole body. The belly answer'd,-

1 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
To the 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.

1 Cit. Your belly's answer: What!
The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,
The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,
Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter,
With other muniments and petty helps
In this our fabric, if that they

Men. What then?

'Fore me, this fellow speaks !-what then? what then?

1 Cit. Should by the cormorant belly be re

strain'd,

Who is the sink o'the body,
Men. Well, what then?

1 Cit. The former agents, if they did complain,

What could the belly answer?
Men. I will tell you;

If you'll bestow a small (of what you have little)
Patience, a while, you'll hear the belly's answer.
1 Cit. You are 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 he,

1 Cit. Care for us!-True, indeed! - They That I receive the general food at first,

Whereby they live: And though that all at once,
You, my good friends, (this says the belly,) mark | You cry against the noble senate, who,