So doubly seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce an universal prey,
And, last, eat up himself.-

This chaos, when degree is suffocate,
Follows the choking.

And this neglection of degree it is,

That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose
It hath to climb. The general's disdain'd
By him one step below; he, by the next;
That next, by him beneath; so every step,
Exampled by the first pace, that is sick
Of his superior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodless emulation.

163.

Degrees in states and communities.

26-i. 3.

While that the armed hand doth fight abroad,
The advised head defends itself at home:

For government, though high, and low, and lower,
Put into parts, doth keep in one consent;
Congruing in a full and natural close,

Like music.

Therefore doth Heaven divide
The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavour in continual motion;
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
Obedience: for so work the honey bees;
Creatures, that, by a rule in nature, teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king, and officers of sorts:
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home;
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad;
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds;

Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent-royal of their emperor :

Who, busied in his majesty, surveys

The singing masons, building roofs of gold;
The civil citizens kneading up the honey;
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate;
The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o'er to executors pale,

The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,—

N N

That many things, having full reference
To one consent, may work contrariously :
As many arrows, loosed several ways,
Fly to one mark;

As many several ways meet in one town;
As many fresh streams run in one self sea;
As many lines close in the dial's centre;
So may a thousand actions, once afoot,
End in one purpose, and be all well borne
Without defeat.

20-i. 2.

My name is Caius Marcius, who hath done
To thee particularly, and to all the Volces,
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 should'st bear me: only that name
remains;

The cruelty and envy of the people,
Permitted by our dastard nobles, who

Have all forsook me, hath devour'd the rest;
And suffered 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,
To be full quit of those my banishers,

Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast

A heart of wreak in thee, that will 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 my canker'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

Thou art 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 shew 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.

165.

Coriolanus, his character.

His nature is too noble for the world:

28-iv. 5.

He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,

Or Jove for his power to thunder. His heart's his

mouth:

What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent; And, being angry, does forget that ever

He heard the name of death.

28-iii. 1.

That Julius Cæsar was a famous man;
With what his valour did enrich his wit,
His wit set down to make his valour live:
Death makes no conquest of this conqueror;
For now he lives in fame, though not in life.

Dec. Cæsar, all hail!

I come to fetch you to the senate-house.

24-iii. 1.

Caes. And you are come in very happy time,
To bear my greeting to the senators,

And tell them, that I will not come to-day:
Cannot, is false; and that I dare not, falser;
I will not come to-day: Tell them So, Decius.
Cal. Say, he is sick.

Cœes.
Shall Cæsar send a lie?
Have I in conquest stretch'd mine arm so far,
To be afeard to tell grey-beards the truth?
Decius, go tell them, Cæsar will not come.
That is enough to satisfy the senate.

29-ii. 2.

Lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber-upward turns his face:
But when he once attains the utmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend.

169.

Rome's ambition resisted.

You must know,

Till the injurious Romans did extort

29-ii. 1.

This tribute from us, we were free: Cæsar's ambition,
(Which swell'd so much that it did almost stretch
The sides o' the world,) against all colour, here
Did put the yoke upon us; which to shake off,
Becomes a warlike people, whom we reckon
Ourselves to be.

31-iii. 1.

I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus,
The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool,
With open mouth swallowing a tailor's news;
Who, with his shears and measure in his hand,
Standing on slippers (which his nimble haste
Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet),
Told of a many thousand warlike French,
That were embatteled and rank'd in Kent:
Another lean unwash'd artificer

Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death.
Old men, and beldams, in the streets

Do prophesy upon it dangerously:

Young Arthur's death is common in their mouths: And when they talk of him, they shake their heads, And whisper one another in the ear;

Arthur, duke of Brittany, posthumous son of Geoffrey, elder brother of King John of England, by whom he is supposed to have been murdered when crossing the Seine with him in a boat, A.D. 1202.

And he, that speaks, doth gripe the hearer's wrist;
Whilst he, that hears, makes fearful action,
With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes.

171.

Richard II. in affliction.

As in a theatre, the eyes of men, After a well-graced actor leaves the stage, Are idly bent on him that enters next, Thinking his prattle to be tedious:

16-iv. 2.

Even so, or with much more contempt, men's eyes
Did scowl on Richard; no man cried, God save him;
No joyful tongue gave him his welcome home :
But dust was thrown upon his sacred head;
Which with such gentle sorrow he shook off,—
His face still combating with tears and smiles,
The badges of his grief and patience,-

That had not God, for some strong purpose, steel'd
The hearts of men, they must perforce have melted,
And barbarism itself have pitied him.

But Heaven hath a hand in these events;

To whose high will we bound our calm contents.

172.

Earl of Salisbury.

17-v. 2.

Old Salisbury, who can report of him?
That winter lion, who in rage forgets
Aged contusions and all bruise of time,
And, like a gallant in the bloom of youth,
Repairs him with occasiony.

22-v. 3.

173. Cardinal Wolsey, his death and character.

Didst thou not tell me,—
That the great child of honour, cardinal Wolsey,
Was dead?

Yes, the voice goes,

For after the stout earl Northumberland

Arrested him at York, and brought him forward

y No less than eight corrections are made in these five lines on the authority of the manuscript emendations on the edition of 1632.