A brand to the end o'the world.

Sic.

This is clean kam.1

Bru. Merely2 awry: when he did love his country,

It honour'd him.

Men.

The service of the foot

Being once gangren'd, is it not then respected
For what before it was?

Bru.

We'll hear no more :

Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence; Lest his infection, being of catching nature, Spread further.

Men.

One word more, one word. This tiger-footed rage, when it shall find

The harm of unscann'd swiftness,3 will, too late, Tie leaden pounds to his heels. Proceed by process; Lest parties (as he is belov'd) break out,

And sack great Rome with Romans.

Bru.

If it were so,

Sic. What do ye talk? Have we not had a taste of his obedience? Our ædiles smote? ourselves resisted?-Come:Men. Consider this;-He has been bred i'the wars Since he could draw a sword, and is ill school'd In boulted4 language; meal and bran together He throws without distinction. Give me leave, I'll go to him, and undertake to bring him Where he shall answer, by a lawful form, (In peace) to his utmost peril.

Noble tribunes,

1 Sen.
It is the humane way: the other course
Will prove too bloody; and the end of it
Unknown to the beginning.

Sic.

Be you then as the people's officer:

Masters, lay down your weapons.

Bru.

Noble Menenius,

Go not home.

(2) Absolutely.

3) Inconsiderate haste.

(4) Finely sifted.

(1) Quite awry.

Sic. Meet on the market-place :-We'll attend you there:

Where, if you bring not Marcius, we'll proceed In our first way.

Men.

I'll bring him to you :

Let me desire your company. [To the Senators.] He must come,

Or what is worst will follow.

1 Sen.

Pray you, let's to him. [Exeunt.

SCENE II-A room in Coriolanus's house. Enter Coriolanus, and Patricians.

Cor. Let them pull all about mine ears; present

me

Death on the wheel, or at wild horses' heels;
Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock,
That the precipitation might down stretch
Below the beam of sight, yet will I still
Be thus to them.

1 Pat.

Enter Volumnia.

You do the nobler.

Cor. I muse, my mother

Does not approve me further, who was wont
To call them woollen vassals, things created
To buy and sell with groats; to show bare heads
In congregations, to yawn, be still, and wonder,
When one but of my ordinance2 stood up
To speak of peace, or war. I talk of you;
[To Volumnia.
Why did you wish me milder? Would you have me
False to my nature? Rather say, I play

The man

Vol.

am.

O, sir, sir, sir,

I would have had you put your power
Before you had worn it out.

Cor.

(1) Wonder.

well on,

Let go.

(2) Rank.

Vol. You might have been enough the man you

are,

With striving less to be so: Lesser had been
The thwartings of your dispositions, if

You had not show'd them how you were dispos'd
Ere they lack'd power to cross you.

Cor.

Vol. Ay, and burn too.

Let them hang.

Enter Menenius, and Senators.

Men. Come, come, you have been too rough,

something too rough;

You must return, and mend it.

There's no remedy;

1 Sen. Unless, by not so doing, our good city Cleave in the midst, and perish.

Vol.

Pray be counsell'd:

I have a heart as little apt as yours,

But yet a brain, that leads my use of anger,

To better vantage.

Men.

Well said, noble woman: Before he should thus stoop to the herd, but that The violent fit o'the time craves it as physic

For the whole state, I would put mine armour an, Which I can scarcely bear.

Cor. What must I do?

Men.

Cor.

Return to the tribunes.

Well,

Repent what you have spoke.

What then? what then?

Men.

Cor. For them?-I cannot do it to the gods; Must I then do't to them?

Vol.

You are too absolute;

Though therein you can never be too noble,
But when extremities speak. I have heard you say,
Honour and policy, like unsever'd friends,
I'the war do grow together: Grant that, and tell me,
In peace, what each of them by th' other lose,
That they combine not there.

Cor.

Tush, tush!

Men.

A good demand.
Vol. If it be honour, in your wars, to seem
The same you are not, (which, for your best ends,
You adopt your policy,) how is it less, or worse,
That it shall hold companionship in peace

With honour, as in war; since that to both
It stands in like request?

Cor.

Why force! you this?
Vol. Because that now it lies you on to speak
To the people; not by your own instruction,
Nor by the matter which your heart prompts you to
But with such words that are but roted in
Your tongue, though but bastards, and syllables
Of no allowance, to your bosom's truth.
Now, this no more dishonours you at all,
Than to take in2 a town with gentle words,
Which else would put you to your fortune, and
The hazard of much blood.-

I would dissemble with my nature, where
My fortunes, and my friends, at stake, requir'd,
I should do so in honour: I am in this,

Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles;
And you will rather show our general lowts3
How you can frown, than spend a fawn upon them,
For the inheritance of their loves, and safeguard
Of what that want might ruim.

Men.
Come, go with us; speak fair:

Noble lady!-
you may salve so,
Not what is dangerous present, but the loss
Of what is past.

Vol.
I pr'ythee now, my son,
Go to them, with this bonnet in thy hand;

And thus far having stretch'd it (here be with them,)
Thy knee bussing the stones (for in such business
Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant
More learned than the ears,) waving thy head,
Which often, thus, correcting thy stout heart,
That humble, as the ripest mulberry,

(1) Urge. (2) Subdue. (3) Common clowns,

Now will not hold the handling: Or, say to them,
Thou art their soldier, and being bred in broils,
Hast not the soft way, which, thou dost confess,
Were fit for thee to use, as they to claim,
In asking their good loves; but thou wilt frame
Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs, so far
As thou hast power,
and person.

Men.

This but done, Even as she speaks, why, all their hearts were yours: For they have pardons, being ask'd, as free

As words to little purpose.

Vol.

Pr'ythee now,

Go, and be rul'd: although, I know, thou hadst

rather

Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf,

Than flatter him in a bower. Here is Cominius. Enter Cominius.

Com. I have been i'the market-place: and, sir, 'tis fit

You make strong party, or defend yourself
By calmness, or by absence; all's in anger.
Men. Only fair speech.

Com.

I think, 'twill serve, if he

Can thereto frame his spirit.
Vol.

He must, and will:-
Pr'ythee now, say, you will, and go about it.
Cor. Must I go show them my unbarb'd sconce ?1
Must I,

With my base tongue, give to my noble heart
A lie, that it must bear? Well, I will do't:
Yet were there but this single plot to lose,
This mould of Marcius, they to dust should grind it,
And throw it against the wind. To the market-
place

You have put me now to such a part, which never
I shall discharge to the life.

Com.

Come, come, we'll prompt you.

(1) Unshaven head.