Into our city with thy banners spread: (If thy revenges hunger for that food, Let die the spotted. All have not offended; 1 Sen. For those that were, it is not square, 20) 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, Which, 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 all together. 21) 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, thoul't enter friendly. 2 Sen. Throw thy glove, Or any token of thine honour else, That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress, And not as our confusion, all thy powers Shall make their harbour in our town, till we Have seal'd thy full desire. Alcib. Then there's my glove; Descend, and open your uncharged ports; 22) 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, -23) not a man Shall pass his quarter, 24) or offend the stream The Senators descend, and open the Gates. Sol. My noble general, Timon is dead; Alcib. [Reads.] Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft: Seek not my name: A plague consume you wicked caitiff's left! Here lie I Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate: Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass, and stay not here thy gait. These well express in thee thy latter spirits: From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit Prescribe to other, as each other's leech. 26) [Exeunt. XXVIII. CORIOLANUS. PERSONS REPRESENTED. CAIUS MARCIUS CORIOLANUS, a noble Roman. TITUS LARTIUS, COMINIUS, Generals against the Volscians. MENENIUS AGRIPPA, Friend to Coriolanus. SICINIUS VELUTUS, JUNIUS BRUTUS, Tribunes of the People. Young MARCIUS, Son to Coriolanus. A Roman Herald. TULLUS AUFIDIUS, General of the Volscians. Conspirators with Aufidius. A Citizen of Antium. VOLUMNIA, Mother to Coriolanus. Gentlewoman attending Virgilia. Roman and Volscian Senators, Patricians, Ædiles, Lictors, Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, Servants to Aufidius, and other Attendants. partly in Rome; and partly in the Territories of the Volscians and Antiates. ACT I. SCENE I. Rome. A Street. Enter a Company of mutinous Citizens, with BEFORE we proceed any further, hear me speak. Cit. Resolved, resolved. 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 1 Cit. First you know, Caius Marcius is chief prating here? to the Capitol. enemy to the people. Cit. We know't, we know't. 1 Cit. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price. Is't a verdict? 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: 1) 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: 2) the leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an inventory to particularize their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes: 3) for the gods know, I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge. 2 Cit. Would you proceed especially against 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. 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? With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray you. 1 Cit. Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have had inkling, this fortnight, what we intend to do, which now we'll show 'em in deeds. They say, poor suitors have strong breaths; they shall know, we have strong arms too. Men. Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours, Will you undo yourselves? 1 Cit. We cannot, sir, we are undone already. Appear in your impediment: For the dearth, Thither where more attends you; and you slander 1 Cit. Care for us! True, indeed! They ne'er cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and 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 wond'rous malicious, 1 Cit. Well, I'll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale: 5) 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 gulph 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 instruments ") Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, 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, 8) 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 Men. What then? 'Fore me, this fellow speaks!- what then? what then? 1 Cit. Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'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, That I receive the general food at first, Which you do live upon and fit it is; Because I am the store-house, and the shop Of the whole body: But if you do remember, I send it through the rivers of your blood, Even to the court, the heart, -to the seat o'the brain; And, through the cranks and offices of man, 10) The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins, From me receive that natural competency Whereby they live: And though that all at once, You, my good friends, (this says the belly), mark me, 1 Cit. Ay, sir; well, well. Men. Though all at once cannot But it proceeds, or comes, from them to you, 1 Cit. I the great toe? Why the great toe? But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs; greatness, Deserves your hate: and your affections are Conjectural marriages; making parties strong, enough? Would the nobility lay aside their ruth, 13) And a petition granted them, a strange one, This is strange. Enter a Messenger. to vent Our musty superfluity: — See, our best elders. They have a leader, The Volces have much corn; take these rats thither, Sic. Was ever man so proud as is this Marcius? Sic. When we were chosen tribunes for the people,— Sic. Sic. Be-mock the modest moon. Bru. The present wars devour him: he is grown Bru. Fame, at the which he aims, Corioli. The Senate-House. Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS, and certain Senators. And were I any thing but what I am, Sir, it is, O, true bred! 1 Sen. Your company to the Capitol; where, I know, Our greatest friends attend us. Tit. Com. Lead you on: Noble Lartius! 1 Sen. Hence! To your homes, be gone. Mar. [To the Citizens. Nay, let them follow: Since I heard thence; these are the words: I think, 1 Sen. Take your commission; hie you to your bands: If they set down before us, for the remove O, doubt not that; If we and Caius Marcius chance to meet, Rome. An Apartment in Marcius' House. Enter VOLUMNIA, and VIRGILIA: They sit down on two low stools, and sew. Vol. I pray you, daughter, sing; or express yourself in a more comfortable sort: If my son were my husband, I should freelier rejoice in that absence wherein he won honour, than in the embracements of his bed, where he would show most love. When yet he was but tender-bodied, and the only son of iny womb; when youth with comeliness plucked all gaze his way; 27) when, for a day of kings' entreaties, a mother should not sell him an hour from her beholding; I, — considering how honour would become such a person; that it was no better than picture-like to hang by the wall, if renown made it not stir, was pleased to let him seek danger where he was like to find fame. To a cruel war I sent him; from whence he returned, his brows bound with oak. 28) I tell thee, daughter, sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child, than now in first seeing he had proved himself a man. Vir. But had he died in the business, madam? how then? Vol. Then his good report should have been my son; I therein would have found issue. Hear me Enter a Gentlewoman. Gent. Madam, the lady Valeria is come to visit you. Methinks, I hear hither your husband's drum; Vir. His bloody brow! O, Jupiter, no blood! Re-enter Gentlewoman, with VALERIA and her Usher. Val. My ladies both, good day to you. Vir. I am glad to see your ladyship. Val. How do you both? you are manifest housekeepers. What, are you sewing here? A fine spot, 30) in good faith. How does your little son? Vir. I thank your ladyship; well, good madam. Vol. He had rather see the swords, and hear a drum, than look upon his school-master. Val. O'my word, the father's son: I'll swear, 'tis a very pretty boy. O'my troth, I looked upon him o'Wednesday half an hour together: he has such a confirmed countenance. I saw him run after a gilded butterfly; and when he caught it, he let it go again; and after it again: and over and over he comes, and up again; catched it again: or whether his fall enraged him, or how 'twas, he did so set his teeth, and tear it; O, I warrant, how he mammocked it! 31) Vol. One of his father's moods. Val. Indeed, la, 'tis a noble child. Vir. A crack, madam. 32) Val. Come, lay aside your stitchery; I must have you play the idle huswife with me this afternoon. Vir. No, good madam; I will not out of doors. Val. Not out of doors! Vol. She shall, she shall. Vir. Indeed, no, by your patience: I will not over the threshold, till my lord return from the wars. Val. Fye, you confine yourself most unreasonably; Come, you must go visit the good lady that lies in. Vir. I will wish her speedy strength, and visit her with my prayers; but I cannot go thither. Vol. Why, I pray you? Vir. 'Tis not to save labour, nor that I want love. Val. You would be another Penelope: yet, they say, all the yarn she spun, in Ulysses' absence, did but fill Ithaca full of moths. Come; I would, your cambric were sensible as your finger, that you might leave pricking it for pity. Come, you shall go with us. Vir. No, good madam, pardon me; indeed, I will not forth. Val. In truth, la, go with me; and I'll tell you excellent news of your husband. Vir. O, good madam, there can be none yet. Val. Verily, I do not jest with you; there came news from him last night. Vir. Indeed, madam? Val. In earnest, it's true; I heard a senator speak it. Thus it is: The Volces have an army forth; against whom Cominius the general is gone, with one part of our Roman power: your lord, and Titus Lartius, are set down before their city Corioli; they nothing doubt prevailing, and to make it brief wars. This is true, on mine honour; and so, I pray, go with us. Vir. Give me excuse, good madam; I will obey you in every thing hereafter. Vol. Let her alone, lady; as she is now, she will but disease our better mirth. Val. In troth, I think, she would: well then. Come, good sweet lady. Fare you 'Pr'ythee, |