Com. You are goodly things, you voices!
Men.

You have made Good work, you and your cry! 1-Shall us to the

Capitol?

Com. O, ay; what else? [Exeunt Com. and Men. Sic. Go, masters, get you home; be not dismay'd: These are a side, that would be glad to have This true, which they so seem to fear. And show no sign of fear.

Go home,

1 Cit. The gods be good to us! Come, masters, let's home. I ever said, we were i' the wrong, when we banished him.

2 Cit. So did we all. But, come, let's home.

Bru. I do not like this news.

Sic. Nor I.

[Exeunt Citizens.

Bru. Let's to the Capitol. Would, half my

wealth

Would buy this for a lie!

Sic.

Pray, let us go. [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 witchcraft 's in him; but

1 Pack: in allusion to a pack of hounds.

Your soldiers use him as the grace 'fore meat,
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
Even to my person, than I thought he would,
When first I did embrace him: yet his 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, And so he thinks, and is no less apparent

To the vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly,
And shows good husbandry for the 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,
Whene'er we come to our account.

Lieu. Sir, I beseech you, think you he'll carry
Rome?

Auf. All places yield to him ere he sits down; And the nobility of Rome are his :

The senators and patricians love him too:

The tribunes are no soldiers; and their people
Will be as rash in the repeal, as hasty

To expel him thence. I think, he 'll be to Rome,
As is the osprey 1 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 'twas pride,
Which out of daily fortune ever taints
The happy man; whether defect of judgment,
To fail in the disposing of those chances
Which he was lord of; or whether nature,
Not to be other than one thing, not moving

From the casque to the cushion, but commanding

peace

Even with the same austerity and garb

As he controll'd the war: but, one of these,

(As he hath spices of them all, not all,3

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 the interpretation of the time :
And power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair

To extol what it hath done.

One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail; Rights by rights founder, strengths by strengths do fail.

1 The osprey is an eagle that preys on fish.
2 From the helmet to the chair of civil authority.
9 i. e. not all in their full extent.

Come, let's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine, Thou art poor'st of all; then shortly art thou mine. [Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE I.

Rome. A public place.

Enter MENENIUS, COMINIUS, SICINIUS. BRUTUS, and others.

Men. No, I'll not go: you hear, what he hath 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 kneel
The way into his mercy. Nay, if he coy'd1
To hear Cominius speak, I'll keep at home.
Com. He would not seem to know me.

Men.

Do you hear? Com. Yet one time he did call me by my name. I urged our old acquaintance, and the drops That we have bled together. Coriolanus He would not answer to; forbad all names; He was a kind of nothing, titleless, Till he had forged himself a name i' the fire

1 Unwillingly condescended.

Of burning Rome.

Men.

Why, so; you have made good work: A pair of tribunes, that have rack'd 1 for Rome, To make coals cheap: a noble memory! 2

Com. I minded him, how royal 'twas to pardon When it was less expected: he replied,

It was a bare petition of a state

To one whom they had punish'd.

Men.

Could he say less?

Very well:

Com. I offer'd to awaken his regard

For his private friends: his answer to me was,
He could not stay to pick them in a pile

Of noisome, musty chaff. He said, 'twas folly,
For one poor grain or two, to leave unburnt,
And still to nose the offence..

Men.

For one poor grain or two? I am one of those; his mother, wife, his child, And this brave fellow too, we are the grains: 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-heeded help, yet do not

Upbraid us 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 countryman.

1 Harassed yourselves.

2 For memorial.