thou? Thy name? Why speak'st not? Speak, man: What's thy name?

Cor. If, Tullus, [unmuffling] not yet thou know'st me, and, seeing me, dost not think me for the man I am, necessity commands me name myself.

Auf. What is thy name?

[Servants retire. Cor. A name unmusical to the Volscians'

ears,

And harsh in sound to thine.

Auf. Say, what's thy name? Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face Bears a command in 't; though thy tackle's torn, Thou show'st a noble vessel: What's thy name? Cor. Prepare thy brow to frown: Know'st thou me yet?

Auf. I know thee not :-Thy name?

Cor. My name is Caius Marcius, who hath
done

To thee particularly, and to all the Volsces,
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 shouldst 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 suffer'd 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

a Wre k-revenge. b Under fiends-fiends below.

Longer to live most weary, and present
My throat to thee, and to thy ancient malice:
Which not to cut would show 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.
Auf.

O Marcius, Marcius ! Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart

A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter

Should from yon cloud speak divine things,
And say, ""Tis true,' I'd not believe them more
Than thee, all noble Marcius.-Let me twine
Mine arms about that body, where against
My grained ash an hundred times hath broke,
And scarr'd the moon with splinters! Here I
clip

The anvil of my sword; and do contest
As hotly and as nobly with thy love,
As ever in ambitious strength I did
Contend against thy valour. Know thou first,
I lov'd the maid I married; never man
Sigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here,
Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart:
Than when I first my wedded mistress saw
Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I
tell thee,

We have a power on foot; and I had purpose
Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn,
Or lose mine arm for 't: Thou hast beat me
out a

Twelve several times, and I have nightly since
Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me:
We have been down together in my sleep,
Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat,
And wak'd half dead with nothing. Worthy
Marcius,

Had we no other quarrel else to Rome, but that
Thou art thence banish'd, we would muster all
From twelve to seventy; and, pouring war
Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,
Like a bold flood o'erbeat. O, come, go in,
And take our friendly senators by the hands;
Who now are here, taking their leaves of me,
Who am prepar'd against your territories,
Though not for Rome itself.

Cor.
You bless me, gods!
Auf. Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt
have

The leading of thine own revenges, take

The one half of my commission; and set

down,

Out-complete.

As best thou art experienc'd, since thou know'st Thy country's strength and weakness,-thine

own ways:

Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,
Or rudely visit them in parts remote,
To fright them, ere destroy. But come in:

Let me commend thee first to those that shall
Say, Yea, to thy desires. A thousand welcomes!
And more a friend that e'er an enemy;
Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand!
Most welcome!

[Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS. 1 Serv. [Advancing.] Here's a strange alteration!

2 Serv. By my hand I had thought to have strucken him with a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me his clothes made a false report of him.

1 Serv. What an arm he has! He turned me about with his finger and his thumb, as one would set up a top.

2 Serv. Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him: he had, sir, a kind of face, methought,-I cannot tell how to term it.

1 Serv. He had so; looking as it were,'Would I were hanged but I thought there was more in him than I could think.

2 Serv. So did I, I'll be sworn: he is simply the rarest man i̇' the world.

:

1 Serv. I think he is but a greater soldier than he, you wot one.

2 Serv. Who? my master?

1 Serv. Nay, it's no matter for that.

2 Serv. Worth six of him.

1 Serv. Nay, not so neither; but I take him to be the greater soldier.

2 Serv. 'Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that for the defence of a town our general is excellent.

1 Serv. Ay, and for an assault too.

3 Serv. I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lieve be a condemned man. 1 & 2 Serv. Wherefore? wherefore ?

3 Serv. Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general,-Caius Marcius.

1 Serv. Why do you say thwack our general?

3 Serv. I do not say thwack our general: but he was always good enough for him.

2 Sert. Come, we are fellows and friends: he was ever too hard for him; I have heard him say so himself.

1 Serv. He was too hard for him directly, to say the truth on't: before Corioli he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado.

2 Serv. An he had been cannibally given, he might have broiled and eaten him too. 1 Serve. But, more of thy news?

3 Serv. Why, he is so made on here within, as if he were son and heir to Mars: set at upper end o' the table: no question asked him by any of the senators, but they stand bald before him: Our general himself makes a mistress of him; sanctifies himself with 's hand, and turns up the white o' the eye to his discourse. But the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i' the middle. and but one half of what he was yester day; for the other has half, by the entreaty and grant of the whole table. He'll go, he says, and sowle the porter of Rome gates by the ears: He will mow all down before him, and leave his passage polled.b

2 Serv. And he's as like to do 't as any man I can imagine.

3 Serv. Do 't? he will do 't: For, look you, sir, he has as many friends as enemies: which friends, sir, (as it were,) durst not (look you, sir) show themselves (as we term it) his friends whilst he 's in directitude."

1 Serv. Directitude! what's that?

3 Serv. But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again, and the man in blood, they will out of their burrows, like conies after rain, and revel all with him.

1 Serv. But when goes this forward?

3 Serv. To-morrow; to-day; presently. You shall have the drum struck up this afternoon 't is, as it were, a parcel of their feast, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips.

2 Serv. Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers.

1 Serv. Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as day does night; it's sprightly, waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war's a destroyer of men.

2 Serv. 'T is so and as war, in some sort,

a Sowle-a provincial word for pull out. b Polled-cleared.

c Directitude. Malone would read discreditude. He thinks the servant was not meant to talk absolute nonsense. Why then does the other servant ask the meaning of the fine word?

SCENE VI.-Rome. A public Place.

Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS.

Sic. We hear not of him, neither need we
fear him;

His remedies are tame i' the present peace
And quietness o' the people, which before
Were in wild hurry. Here do we make his
friends

Blush that the world goes well; who rather had,

Though they themselves did suffer by 't, beheld" Dissentious numbers pestering streets, than see Our tradesmen singing in their shops, and going About their functious friendly.

time

Caius Marcius was

I think not so.

Enter Edile.

Worthy tribunes, Ed. There is a slave, whom we have put in prison, Reports, the Volces with two several powers Are enter'd in the Roman territories; And with the deepest malice of the war Destroy what lies before them.

'Tis Aufidius, Men. Who, hearing of our Marcius' banishment, Thrusts forth his horns again into the world, Which were inshell'd when Marcius stood for Rome,

And durst not once peep out.

Sic. Come, what talk you of Marcius?

Bru. Go see this rumourer whipp'd.-It can

not be

The Volsces dare break with us.

Men.

Cannot be !

We have record that very well it can;
And three examples of the like have been
Within my age. But reason with the fellow,
Before you punish him, where he heard this:
Lest you shall chance to whip your informa-
tion,

And beat the messenger who bids beware
Of what is to be dreaded.

Tell not me:

3 Cit. And so did I; and, to say the truth, so did very many of us: That we did we did for the best; and though we willingly consented to his banishment, yet it was against our will, Com. You are goodly things, you voices! Men. You have made

Good work, you and your cry!-Shall us to the Capitol ?

Com. O, ay; what else?

[Exeunt Cox. and MÜN. Sic. Go, masters, get you home, be not dismay'd.

Go home,

These are a side that would be glad to have
This true, which they so seem to fear.
And show no sign of fear.

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. [Exeunt Citizens.

Bru. I do not like this news.
Sic. Nor I.

Bru. Let's to the Capitol :-'Would half my wealth Would buy this for a lie!

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

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

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 to the fish, who takes it
By sovereignty of nature. First he was
A noble servant to them; but he could not

The force and propriety of this image will be seen from the following extract from Drayton's Polyolbion,' descrit ing the osprey, according to the popular notion :"The osprey, oft here seen, though seldom here it breeds, Which over them the fish no sooner doth espy, But, betwixt him and them by an antipathy, Turning their bellies up, as though their death they saw, They at his pleasure lie to stuff his gluttonous maw."