Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles, "We thank the gods our Rome hath such a soldier!"— For what he did before Corioli, call him, [Flourish. Trumpets sound, and Drums. All. Caius Marcius Coriolanus ! And when my face is fair, you shall perceive Enter TITUS LARTIUS with his Power, from the pursuit. I mean to stride your steed; and, at all times, Lar. O general, Here is the steed, we the caparison: Mar. Hath overta'en mine act. At your only choice. Mar. I thank you, general; [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, When steel grows soft as the parasite's silk, My nose that bled, or foil'd some debile wretch, In acclamations hyperbolical; As if I loved my little should be dieted Com. Too modest are you: More cruel to your good report, than grateful To us that give you truly. By your patience, If 'gainst yourself you be incens'd, we'll 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 Marcius Wears this war's garland: in token of the which My noble steed, known to the camp, I give him, With all his trim belonging; and, from this time, 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 Lartius, 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 Refus'd most princely gifts, am bound to beg Of my lord general. Com. Take it 'tis yours.-What is't? Cor. I sometime lay, here in Corioli, Com. O, 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? Cor. I By Jupiter, forgot: Go we to our tent. am weary; yea, my memory is tir'd.Have we no wine here? Com. 1 Sold. "Twill be deliver'd back on good condition. Auf. Condition !— I would I were a Roman; for I cannot, I' the part that is at mercy?—Five times, Marcius, I thought to crush him in an equal force, 1 Sold. With only suffering stain by him for him 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 micro Men. The augurer tells me, we shall have news to- cosm, follows it, that I am known well enough, too? 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. Ay, to devour him; as the hungry plebeians would the noble Marcius. Bru. He's a lamb, indeed, that baes like a bear. Men. He's a bear, indeed, that lives like a lamb. You two are old men: tell me one thing that I shall ask you. Both Trib. 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 stor'd with all. Bru. And topping all others in boasting. Do you two know how you are censured here in the city, I mean of us o' the right-hand file? Do you? Both Trib. Why, how are we censured? What harm can your bisson conspectuities glean out of this character, if I be known well enough, too? Bru. Come, sir, come; we know you well enough. Men. You know neither me, yourselves, nor any thing. You are ambitious for poor knaves' caps and legs you wear out a good wholesome forenoon in hearing a cause between an orange-wife and a fossetseller, and then adjourn the controversy of three-pence to a second day of audience.-When you are hearing a matter between party and party, if you chance to be pinched with the colic, you make faces like mummers, set up the bloody flag against all patience, and, in roaring for a chamber-pot, dismiss the controversy pleading, the more entangled by your hearing: all the peace you make in their cause is calling both the parties knaves. You are a pair of strange ones. Bru. Come, come, you are well understood to be a perfecter giber for the table, than a necessary bencher in the Capitol. Men. Our very priests must become mockers, if they shall encounter such ridiculous subjects as you are. When you speak best unto the purpose, it is not Men. Because you talk of pride now,-Will you not worth the wagging of your beards; and your beards debe angry? Both Trib. Well, well, sir; well. Men. Why, 'tis no great matter; for a very little thief of occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience: give your dispositions the reins, and be angry at your pleasures; at the least, if you take it as a pleasure to you, in being so. You blame Marcius for being proud? Bru. We do it not alone, sir. Men. I know, you can do very little alone; for your helps are many, or else your actions would grow wondrous single: your abilities are too infant-like for doing much alone. You talk of pride: O! that you could turn your eyes toward the napes of your necks, and make but an interior survey of your good selves! that you could! Bru. What then, sir? O, Men. Why, then you should discover a brace of unmeriting, proud, violent, testy magistrates, (alias, fools) as any in Rome. Sic. Menenius, you are known well enough, too. Men. I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that loves a cup of hot wine, without a drop of allaying Tiber in't: said to be something imperfect in favouring the thirst complaint; hasty, and tinder-like, upon too trivial motion: one that converses more with the buttock of the night, than with the forehead of the morning. What I think I utter, and spend my malice in my breath. Meeting two such weals-men as you are, (I cannot call you Lycurguses) if the drink you give me touch my palate adversely, I make a crooked face at it. I cannot say, your worships have delivered the matter well, when I find the ass in compound with serve not so honourable a grave as to stuff a botcher's cushion, or to be entombed in an ass's pack-saddle. Yet you must be saying, Marcius is proud; who, in a cheap estimation, is worth all your predecessors since Deucalion, though, peradventure, some of the best of 'em were hereditary hangmen. Good den to your worships: more of your conversation would infect my brain, being the herdsman of the beastly plebeians. I will be bold to take my leave of you. [BRUTUS and SICINIUS stand back. Enter VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, VALERIA, &c. How now, my as fair as noble ladies, (and the moon, were she earthly, no nobler) whither do you follow your eyes so fast? Vol. Honourable Menenius, my boy Marcius approaches for the love of Juno, let's go. Men. Ha! Marcius coming home? Vol. Ay, worthy Menenius, and with most prosperous approbation. Men. Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee.-Ho! ¦ Marcius coming home? [Throwing up his Cap. Both Ladies. Nay, 'tis true. Vol. Look, here's a letter from him: the state hath another, his wife another; and, I think, there's one at home for you. Men. I will make my very house reel to-night.-A letter for me? Vir. Yes, certain, there's a letter for you; I saw it. Men. A letter for me? It gives me an estate of seven years' health; in which time I will make a lip at the physician: the most sovereign prescription in Galen is but empiric physic, and, to this preservative, of no better report than a horse-drench. Is he not wounded? he was wont to come home wounded. Vir. O! no, no, no. Vol. O! he is wounded; I thank the gods for't. Men. So do I too, if it be not too much.-Brings 'a victory in his pocket, the wounds become him. Vol. On's brows: Menenius, he comes the third time home with the oaken garland. Men. Has he disciplined Aufidius soundly? Vol. Titus Lartius writes, they fought together, but Aufidius got off. Men. And 'twas time for him too; I'll warrant him that: an he had stay'd by him, I would not have been so fidiused for all the chests in Corioli, and the gold that's in them. Is the senate possessed of this? Vol. Good ladies, let's go.-Yes, yes, yes: the senate has letters from the general, wherein he gives my son the whole name of the war. He hath in this action outdone his former deeds doubly. Val. In troth, there's wondrous things spoke of him. Men. Wondrous: ay, I warrant you, and not without his true purchasing. Vir. The gods grant them true! Men. True! I'll be sworn they are true.-Where is he wounded?-God save your good worships! [To the Tribunes, who come forward.] Marcius is coming home: he has more cause to be proud.-Where is he wounded? Vol. I' the shoulder, and i' the left arm: there will be large cicatrices to show the people, when he shall stand for his place. He received in the repulse of Tarquin seven hurts i' the body. Men. One 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. Death, that dark spirit, in's nervy arm doth lie; Which, being advanc'd, declines, and then men die. A Sennet. Trumpets sound. Enter COMINIUS and TITUS LARTIUS: between them, CORIOLANUS, crowned with an oaken Garland; with Captains, Soldiers, and a Herald. Cor. And live you yet?-O my sweet lady, pardon. [TO VALERIA. Vol. I know not where to turn :-O! welcome home; And welcome, general;—and you are welcome all. Men. A hundred thousand welcomes: I could weep, And I could laugh; I am light, and heavy. 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 have 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. Cor. Menenius, ever, ever. Your hand,-and yours. I have lived To see inherited my very wishes, I had rather be their servant in my way, On, to the Capitol ! The Tribunes remain. Bru. All tongues speak of him, and the bleared sights While she cheers him: the kitchen malkin pins In earnestness to see him: seld-shown flamens I warrant him consul. Bru. On the sudden Then our office may, During his power, go sleep. Sic. He cannot temperately transport his honours From where he should begin, and end; but will Lose those be hath won. Bru. In that there's comfort. Sic. Doubt not, the commoners, for whom we stand, Bru. 'Tis right. Have with you. [Exeunt. 1 Off. Come, come; they are almost here. many stand for consulships? How 2 Off. Three, they say; but 'tis thought of every one Coriolanus will carry it. 1 Off. That's a brave fellow; but he's vengeance proud, and loves not the common people. 2 Off. 'Faith, there have been many great men that have flattered the people, who ne'er loved them; and there be many that they have loved, they know not wherefore so that, if they love they know not why, they hate upon no better a ground. Therefore, for Coriolanus neither to care whether they love or hate him manifests the true knowledge he has in their disposition; and, out of his noble carelessness, lets them plainly see't. 1 Off. If he did not care whether he had their love or no, he wav'd indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good, nor harm; but he seeks their hate with greater devotion than they can render it him, and leaves nothing undone that may fully discover him their opposite. Now, to seem to affect the malice and displeasure of the people is as bad as that which he dislikes, to flatter them for their love. 2 Off. He hath deserved worthily of his country; and his ascent is not by such easy degrees as those, who, having been supple and courteous to the people, bonneted, without any farther deed to have them at all into their estimation and report: but he hath so planted his honours in their eyes, and his actions in their hearts, that for their tongues to be silent, and not confess so much, were a kind of ingrateful injury; to report otherwise were a malice, that, giving itself the lie, would pluck reproof and rebuke from every ear that heard it. 1 Off. No more of him: he is a worthy man. Make way, they are coming. A Sennet. Enter, with Lictors before them, COMINIUS As the main point of this our after-meeting, Hath thus stood for his country. Therefore, please you, 1 Sen. Speak, good Cominius: Leave nothing out for length, and make us think, Rather our state's defective for requital, Than we to stretch it out.-Masters o' the people, We do request your kindest ears; and, after, Your loving motion toward the common body, To yield what passes here. Sic. We are convented Upon a pleasing treatise; and have hearts Inclinable to honour and advance The theme of our assembly. We shall be prest to do, if he remember That's off, that's off: Bru. He loves your people; But tie him not to be their bedfellow.— Worthy Cominius, speak.-Nay, keep your place. [CORIOLANUS rises, and offers to go away. 1 Sen. Sit, Coriolanus: never shame to hear What you have nobly done. Your honours' pardon : I had rather have my wounds to heal again, Than hear say how I got them. Cor. Bru. My words dis-bench'd you not. Cor. Sir, I hope, No, sir: yet oft, When blows have made me stay, I fled from words. You sooth'd not, therefore hurt not. But, your people, I love them as they weigh. Men. Pray now, sit down. Cor. I had rather have one scratch my head i' the sun, When the alarum were struck, than idly sit To hear my nothings monstered. Men. [Exit. Masters of the people, Your multiplying spawn how can he flatter, (That's thousand to one good one) when you now see, He had rather venture all his limbs for honour, Than one on's ears to hear it?-Proceed, Cominius. The man I speak of cannot in the world He lurch'd all swords of the garland. For this last, I cannot speak him home: he stopp'd the fliers, And fell below his stem: his sword, death's stamp, And with a sudden re-enforcement struck Men. Worthy man! 1 Sen. He cannot but with measure fit the honours Which we devise him. Com. SCENE III.-The Same. The Forum. 1 Cit. Once, if he do require our voices, we ought not to deny him. 2 Cit. We may, sir, if we will. 3 Cit. We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do: for if he show us his wounds, and tell us his deeds, we are to put our tongues into those wounds, and speak for them; so, if he tell us his noble deeds, we must also tell him our noble acceptance of them. Ingratitude is monstrous, and for the multitude to be ingrateful were to make a monster of the multitude; of the which we, being members, should bring ourselves to be monstrous members. 1 Cit. And to make us no better thought of, a little help will serve for once, when we stood up about the corn, he himself stuck not to call us the many-headed multitude. 3 Cit. We have been called so of many; not that our heads are some brown, some black, some auburn, some bald, but that our wits are so diversely coloured: and truly, I think, if all our wits were to issue out of one skull, they would fly east, west, north, south; and their consent of one direct way should be at once to all the points o' the compass. 2 Cit. Think you so? Which way, do you judge, my wit would fly? 3 Cit. Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another man's will: 'tis strongly wedged up in a block-head; but if it were at liberty, 'twould, sure, southward. 2 Cit. Why that way? 3 Cit. To lose itself in a fog; where, being three parts melted away with rotten dews, the fourth would return, for conscience sake, to help to get thee a wife. 2 Cit. You are never without your tricks :-you may, you may. 3 Cit. Are you all resolved to give your voices? But that's no matter; the greater part carries it. I say, if he would incline to the people, there was never a worthier man. Enter CORIOLANUS and MENENIUS. Here he comes, and in the gown of humility: mark his behaviour, We are not to stay all together, but to come by him, where he stands, by ones, by twos, and |
