And nobly nam'd so, being censor twice,
Was his great ancestor.

Sic. One thus descended,

That hath beside well in his person wrought
To be set high in place, we did commend
To your remembrances: but you have found,
Scaling his present bearing with his past,
That he's your fixed enemy, and revoke
Your sudden approbation.

Bru. Say, you ne'er had don't,

(Harp on that still,) but by our putting on:

And presently, when you have drawn your number,

Repair to the Capitol.

Cit. We will so : almost all

Repent in their election.

Bru. Let them go on;

This mutiny were better put in hazard,

Than stay, past doubt, for greater:

If, as his nature is, he fall in rage

With their refusal, both observe and answer 7

The vantage of his anger.

Sic. To the Capitol :

Come; we'll be there before the stream o'the people;

And this shall seem, as partly 'tis, their own,

Which we have goaded onward.

ACT III.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I.-The same. A Street. Cornets. Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, Senators, and Patricians.

Coriolanus.

TULLUS Aufidius then had made new head?

Lart. He had, my lord; and that it was, which caus'd Our swifter composition.

Cor. So then the Volces stand but as at first;

Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road Upon us again.

Com. They are worn, lord consul, so,

That we shall hardly in our ages see

Their banners wave again.

Cor. Saw you Aufidius ?

That is, weighing his past and present behaviour. JOHNSON.

Mark, catch, and improve the opportunity, which his hasty anger will afford
JOHNSON.

Lart. On safe-guard he came to me; and did curse Against the Volces, for they had so vilely

Yielded the town: he is retir'd to Antium,

Cor. Spoke he of me?
Lart. He did, my lord.
Cor. How? what?

Lart. How often he had met you, sword to sword :
That, of all things upon the earth, he hated

Your person most; that he would pawn his fortunes
To hopeless restitution, so he might

Be call'd your vanquisher.

Cor. At Antium lives he?

Lart. At Antium.

Cor. I wish I had a cause to seek him there,

To oppose his hatred fully.-Welcome home. [To LART. Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS.

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.

Sic. Pass no further.

Cor. Ha! what is that?

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 nobles, and the commons ? Bru. Cominius, no.

Cor. Have I had children's voices?

Sen. Tribunes, give way; he shall to the market-place. Bru. The people are incens'd against him.

Sic. Stop,

Or all will fall in broil.

Cor. 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 purpos'd thing, and grows by plot,

To curb the will of the nobility :

Suffer it, and live with such as cannot rule,

[8] Plume, deck, dignify themselves. JOHNSON.

9 The metaphor is from man's setting a mastiff upon any one. WARBURTON VOL. V.

5

Nor ever will be rul'd.

Bru. Call't not a plot :

The people cry, you mock'd them; and, of late,
When corn was given them gratis, you repin'd;
Scandal'd the suppliants for the people; call'd them
Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness.
Cor. Why, this was known before.

Bru. Not to them all.

Cor. Have you inform'd them since ?
Bru. How! I inform them!

Cor. You are like to do such business.

Bru. Not unlike,

Each way, to better yours.

Cor. Why then should I be consul? By yon clouds, Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me

Your fellow tribune.

Sic. You show too much of that,

For which the people stir: If you

will pass

To where you are bound, you must inquire your way, Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit;

Or never be so noble as a consul,

Nor yoke with him for tribune.

Men. Let's be calm.

Com. The people are abus'd :-Set on.-This palt'ring Becomes not Rome;' nor has Coriolanus

Deserv'd this so dishonour'd rub, laid falsely

I'the plain way of his merit.

Cor. Tell me of corn!

This was my speech, and I will speak't again ;-
Men. Not now, not now.

1 Sen. Not in this heat, sir, now.

Cor. Now, as I live, I will.-My nobler friends,
I crave their pardons :—

But for the mutable, rank-scented many, let them
Regard me as I do not flatter, and

Therein behold themselves: I say again,

In soothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate

The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition,

Which we ourselves have plough'd for, sow'd and scatter'd,

By mingling them with us, the honour'd number;

Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that

Which they have given to beggars.

[1] That is, this trick of dissimulation; this shuffling.

JOHNSON.

[2] Let them look in the mirror which I hold up to them, a mirror which does not flatter, and see themselves. JOHNSON.

[3] Cockle is a weed which grows up with the corn. STEEVENS.

Men. Well, no more.

1 Sen. No more words, we beseech you.
Cor. How! no more?

As for my country I have shed my blood,
Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs
Coin words till their decay, against those meazels,
Which we disdain should tetter us, yet sought
The very way to catch them.

Bru. You speak o'the people,

As if you were a god to punish, not
A man of their infirmity.

Sic. "Twere well, we let the people know't.
Men. What, what? his choler?

Cor. Choler!

Were I as patient as the midnight sleep,
By Jove, 'twould be my mind.

Sic. It is a mind,

That shall remain a poison where it is,

Not poison any further.

Cor. Shall remain !

Hear you this Triton of the minnows ? mark you
His absolute shall?

Com. 'Twas from the canon."

Cor. Shall!

O good, but most unwise patricians, why,

you

You grave, but reckless senators, have
Given Hydra here to choose an officer,
That with his peremptory shall, being but

thus

The horn and noise o' the monsters, wants not spirit
To say, he'll turn your current in a ditch,

And make your channel his? If he have power,
Then veil your ignorance: if none, awake
Your dangerous lenity. If you are learned,
Be not as common fools; if you are not,

Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians,
If they be senators: and they are no less,

When both your voices blended, the greatest taste
Most palates theirs. They chose their magistrate :
And such a one as he, who puts his shall,

[4] Mesell a leper.

STEEVENS. [5] i. e. small fry. WARBURTON. minnow is one of the smallest river fish. JOHNSON.

[6] Was contrary to the established rule; it was a form of speech of which he has no right. JOHNSON.These words appear to me to imply the very reverse. MASON.

Alluding to his having called him Triton before. WARBURTON. [8] The plain meaning is, that senators and plebeians are equal when the highest taste is best pleased with that which pleases the lowest. STEEVENS.

His popular shall, against a graver bench

:

Than ever frown'd in Greece! By Jove himself,
It makes the consuls base and my soul akes,"
To know, when two authorities are up,
Neither supreme, how soon confusion

May enter 'twixt the gap of both, and take
The one by the other.

Com. Well-on to the market-place.

Cor. Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth The corn o'the store-house gratis, as 'twas us'd Sometime in Greece,

Men. Well, well, no more of that.

Cor. (Though there the people had more absolute power,)

I say, they nourish'd disobedience, fed

The ruin of the state.

Bru. Why, shall the people give One, that speaks thus, their voice?

Cor. I'll give my reasons,

More worthier than their voices. They know, the corn
Was not our recompence; resting well assur'd

They ne'er did service for't: Being press'd to the war,
Even when the navel of the state was touch'd,
They would not thread the gates: this kind of service
Did not deserve corn gratis: Being i'the war,
Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they show'd
Most valour, spoke not for them: The accusation
Which they have often made against the senate,
All cause unborn, could never be the native
Of our so frank donation. Well, what then?
How shall this bosom multiplied digest
The senate's courtesy? Let deeds express
What's like to be their words :—We did request it ;
We are the greater poll, and in true fear

They gave us our demands :-Thus we debase

The nature of our seats, and make the rabble

:

Call our cares, fears which will in time break ope
The locks o'the senate, and bring in the crows

To peck the eagles.

Men. Come, enough.

Bru. Enough, with over-measure.

[9] The mischief and absurdity of what is called Imperium in imperio, is here finely expressed. WARBURTON.

[1] That is, pass them. We yet say, to thread an alley. JOHNSON.

[2] This multitudinous bosom; the bosom of that great monster, the people. MAL