Sic. Than stay, past doubt, for greater: With their refusal, both observe and answer To the Capitol, come: We will be there before the stream o' the peo ple; And this shall seem, as partly 'tis, their own, [Exeunt. Cornets. ACT THIRD SCENE I Rome. A street. Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, all the Gentry, Cominius, Titus Lartius, and other Senators. Cor. Tullus Aufidius then had made new head? Lart. He had, my lord; and that it was which caused Our swifter composition. Cor. So then the Volsces stand but as at first; Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road Upon's again. Com. Cor. They are worn, lord consul, so, Saw you Aufidius? Lart. On safe-guard he came to me; and did curse Against the Volsces, for they had so vilely Yielded the town: he is retired to Antium. Cor. Spoke he of me? Lart. Cor. He did, my lord. How? what? 10 Lart. How often he had met you, sword to sword; Cor. That of all things upon the earth he hated tunes To hopeless restitution, so he might Be call'd your vanquisher. Lart. At Antium. At Antium lives he? Cor. I wish I had a cause to seek him there, Sic. Behold, these are the tribunes of the people, The tongues o' the common mouth: I do despise them; For they do prank them in authority, Against all noble sufferance. Cor. Ha! what is that? Pass no further. Bru. It will be dangerous to go on: no further. Cor. What makes this change? Men. The matter? Com. Hath he not pass'd the noble and the com mon? Bru. Cominius, no. Cor. Have I had children's voices? 30 First Sen. Tribunes, give way; he shall to the mar Are these your herd? Must these have voices, that can yield them now, And straight disclaim their tongues? What are your offices? You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth? Have you not set them on? Men. Be calm, be calm. Cor. It is a purposed thing, and grows by plot, To curb the will of the nobility: Bru. Suffer 't, and live with such as cannot rule, 40 Call 't not a plot: The people cry you mock'd them; and of late, Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness. Bru. Not to them all. How! I inform them! Not unlike, Com. You are like to do such business. Bru. Each way, to better yours. Cor. Why then should I be consul? By yond Sic. clouds, Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me You show too much of that 50 48–49. “Not unlike,” etc.; that is, likely to provide better for the security of the commonwealth than you (whose business it is) will do. To which the reply is pertinent, "Why, then, should I be consul?"-H. N. H. To where you are bound, you must inquire your way, Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit; Nor yoke with him for tribune. Cor. ing This palter Becomes not Rome; nor has Coriolanus Deserved this so dishonor'd rub, laid falsely 60 Tell me of corn! This was my speech, and I will speak 't again— Men. Not now, not now. First Sen. Not in this heat, sir, now. Cor. Now, as I live, I will. My nobler friends, For the mutable, rank-scented many, let them Therein behold themselves: I say again, 70 In soothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate By mingling them with us, the honor'd number; Men. Well, no more. 60. The metaphor is from a rub at bowls.-H. N. H. 69–71. The thought is from North's Plutarch: "Moreover, he said that they nourished against themselves the naughty seed and cockle of insolency and sedition, which had been sowed and scattered abroad among the people.”—H. N. H. |