Bru.

Which the rather

We shall be blessed to do, if he remember
A kinder value of the people, than

He hath hereto prized them at.

Men.

That's off, that's off;1

I would you rather had been silent. Please you
To hear Cominius speak?

Bru.

Most willingly;

But yet my caution was more pertinent,
Than the rebuke you give it.

Men.

He loves your people;

But tie him not to be their bedfellow.Worthy Cominius, speak.-Nay, keep your place. [CORIOLANUS rises and offers to go away.

1 Sen. Sit, Coriolanus; never shame to hear What you have nobly done.

Cor.

Your honors' pardon; I had rather have my wounds to heal again,

Than hear say how I got them.

Bru.

My words disbenched you not.

Sir, I hope

Cor. No, sir; yet oft, When blows have made me stay, I fled from words. You soothed not, therefore hurt not; but your people, I love them as they weigh.

Men.

Pray now, sit down.

Cor. I had rather have one scratch my head i' the

sun,

When the alarum were struck, than idly sit

To hear my nothings monstered. [Exit CORIOLAnus. Masters o' the people,

Men.

Your multiplying spawn how can he flatter,
(That's thousand to one good one,) when you now see,
He had rather venture all his limbs for honor,
Than one of his ears to hear it ?-Proceed, Cominius.

the Lex Attinia, which is supposed to have been in the time of Quintus Metellus Macedonicus, the tribunes had not the privilege of entering the senate, but had seats placed for them near the door, on the outside of the house.

1 i. e. "that is nothing to the purpose."

Com. I shall lack voice; the deeds of Coriolanus
Should not be uttered feebly.-It is held,
That valor is the chiefest virtue, and
Most dignifies the haver; if it be,

The man I speak of cannot in the world
Be singly counterpoised. At sixteen years,
When Tarquin made a head for Rome,' he fought
Beyond the mark of others; our then dictator,
Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight,
When with his Amazonian chin he drove
The bristled lips before him; he bestrid
An o'er-pressed Roman, and i' the consul's view
Slew three opposers; Tarquin's self he met,
And struck him on his knee. In that day's feats,
When he might act the woman in the scene,2
He proved best man i'the field, and for his meed
Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil age
Man-entered thus, he waxed like a sea;
And, in the brunt of seventeen battles since,3
He lurched all swords o' the garland. For this last,
Before and in Corioli, let me say,

I cannot speak him home. He stopped the fliers;
And, by his rare example, made the coward
Turn terror into sport; as waves 5 before

A vessel under sail, so men obeyed,

And fell below his stem; his sword (death's stamp)
Where it did mark, it took: from face to foot
He was a thing of blood, whose every motion
Was timed with dying cries: alone he entered

1 When Tarquin, who had been expelled, raised a power to recover Rome.

2 The parts of women were, in Shakspeare's time, represented by the most smooth-faced young men to be found among the players. There were no theatres at Rome for the exhibition of plays until about two hundred and fifty years after the death of Coriolanus.

3 Plutarch says, "seventeen years of service in the wars, and many and sundry battles;" but from Coriolanus's first campaign to his death was only a period of eight years.

4 To lurch is to win or carry off easily the prize or stake at any game. 5 Thus the second folio; the first folio, "as weeds," &c., which Malone adheres to.

6 The cries of the slaughtered regularly followed his motion, as music and a dancer accompany each other.

The mortal gate1 o' the city, which he painted
With shunless destiny, aidless came off,
And with a sudden reinforcement struck
Corioli, like a planet: now all's his.

When by-and-by the din of war 'gan pierce
His ready sense; then straight his doubled spirit
Requickened what in flesh was fatigate,2
And to the battle came he; where he did
Run reeking o'er the lives of men, as if
'Twere a perpetual spoil; and, till we called
Both field and city ours, he never stood
To ease his breast with panting.

Men.

Worthy man!

1 Sen. He cannot but with measure fit the honors Which we devise him.

Com.

Our spoils he kicked at ; And looked upon things precious, as they were The common muck o' the world; he covets less Than misery itself would give; rewards

3

His deeds with doing them; and is content
To spend the time, to end it.

Men. The senate, Coriolanus, are well pleased

2 Wearied.

3 Misery for avarice.

4 Coriolanus (as Warburton observes) was banished A. U. C. 262. But till the time of Manlius Torquatus, A. U. C. 393, the senate chose both consuls; and then the people, assisted by the seditious temper of the tribunes, got the choice of one. Shakspeare follows Plutarch.

Cor.

I do beseech you,

Let me o'erleap that custom; for I cannot

Put on the gown, stand naked, and entreat them,
For my wounds' sake, to give their suffrage. Please you,
That I may pass this doing.

Sic.

Sir, the people

Must have their voices; neither will they bate

Put them not to't;

Pray you, go fit you to the custom; and
Take to you, as your predecessors have,
Your honor with your form.1

Cor.

It is a part

That I shall blush in acting, and might well

Be taken from the people.

Bru.

Mark you that?

Cor. To brag unto them,-thus I did, and thus ;— Show them the unaching scars which I should hide, As if I had received them for the hire

2

Do not stand upon't.

We recommend to you, tribunes of the people,
Our purpose to them; and to our noble consul
Wish we all joy and honor.

Sen. To Coriolanus come all joy and honor!
[Flourish. Then exeunt Senators.
Bru. You see how he intends to use the people.
Sic. May they perceive his intent! He will require

them,

As if he did contemn what he requested

Should be in them to give.

Bru.

Come, we'll inform them

[Exeunt.

Of our proceedings here; on the market-place,

I know, they do attend us.

1 "Your form" is the form which custom prescribes to you.

2 "We recommend to you, tribunes of the people, to declare our purpose

to them."

SCENE III. The same. The Forum.

1

Enter several Citizens.

1 Cit. Once, if he do require our voices, we ought not to deny him.

2 Cit. We may, sir, if we will.

3 Cit. We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do; for if he show us his wounds, and tell us his deeds, we are to put our tongues into those wounds, and speak for them; so, if he tell us his noble deeds, we must also tell him our noble acceptance of them. Ingratitude is monstrous; and for the multitude to be ingrateful, were to make a monster of the multitude; of the which, we, being members, should bring ourselves to be monstrous members.

2

1 Cit. And to make us no better thought of, a little help will serve; for once we stood up about the corn, he himself stuck not to call us the many-headed multitude.

3 Cit. We have been called so of many; not that our heads are some brown, some black, some auburn, some bald, but that our wits are so diversely colored; and truly I think, if all our wits were to issue out of one skull, they would fly east, west, north, south; and their consent of one direct way should be at once to all the points o' the compass.

2 Cit. Think you so? Which way, do you judge, my wit would fly?

3 Cit. Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another man's will; 'tis strongly wedged up in a blockhead; but if it were at liberty, 'twould, sure, southward. 2 Cit. Why that way?

1 i. e. once for all.

2 Once signifies here one time, and not as soon as ever, which Malone takes to be its meaning. Rowe inserted when after once, which is, indeed, elliptically understood.

3 Consent is accord, agreement.