Well, well, no more.

Rather than envy you.

Com.

Cor. What is the matter

That being pass'd for consul with full voice,

I am so dishonour'd that the

You take it off again?

Sic.

very hour

Answer to us.

Cor. Say, then: 'tis true, I ought so.

Sic. We charge you, that you have contrived to take

From Rome all season'd office, and to wind
Yourself into a power tyrannical;

For which you are a traitor to the people.
Cor. How! traitor!

Men.

Nay, temperately; your promise.

Cor. The fires i' the lowest hell fold-in the
people!

Call me their traitor! Thou injurious tribune!
Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths,
In thy hands clutch'd as many millions, in
Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say
'Thou liest' unto thee with a voice as free
As I do pray the gods.

Sic.

Mark you this, people? Citizens. To the rock, to the rock with him! Sic.

We need not put new matter to his charge:

Peace!

What you have seen him do and heard him speak,
Beating your officers, cursing yourselves,

Opposing laws with strokes and here defying

70

Those whose great power must try him; even this, 80 So criminal and in such capital kind,

Deserves the extremest death.

Bru.

57. envy, betoken ill-will towards.

But since he hath

64. season'd, established by long custom.

What do you prate of service?

Served well for Rome,

Cor.

Bru. I talk of that, that know it.

Cor. You?

Men. Is this the promise that you made your

mother?

Com. Know, I pray you,

Cor.

I'll know no further:

Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,
Vagabond exile, flaying, pent to linger
But with a grain a day, I would not buy
Their mercy at the price of one fair word;
Nor check my courage for what they can give,
To have 't with saying 'Good morrow.'

For that he has,

Sic.
As much as in him lies, from time to time
Envied against the people, seeking means
To pluck away their power, as now at last
Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence
Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers
That do distribute it; in the name o' the people
And in the power of us the tribunes, we,

Even from this instant, banish him our city,
In peril of precipitation

From off the rock Tarpeian never more

To enter our Rome gates: i' the people's name,
I say it shall be so.

Citizens. It shall be so, it shall be so; let him
away:

He's banish'd, and it shall be so.

Com. Hear me, my masters, and my common
friends,-

Sic. He's sentenced; no more hearing.
Com.

Let me speak:

ΙΙΟ

I have been consul, and can show for Rome
Her enemies' marks upon me. I do love

My country's good with a respect more tender,
More holy and profound, than mine own life.
My dear wife's estimate, her womb's increase,
And treasure of my loins; then if I would
Speak that,-

Sic.

We know your drift: speak what?

Bru. There's no more to be said, but he is banish'd,

As enemy to the people and his country:

It shall be so.

Citizens.

It shall be so, it shall be so.

Cor. You common cry of curs! whose breath I
hate

As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize
As the dead carcasses of unburied men
That do corrupt my air, I banish you;
And here remain with your uncertainty!
Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!
Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
Fan
you into despair! Have the power still
To banish your defenders; till at length
Your ignorance, which finds not till it feels,
Making but reservation of yourselves,
Still your own foes, deliver you as most
Abated captives to some nation
That won you without blows! Despising,
For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
There is a world elsewhere.

[Exeunt Coriolanus, Cominius, Menenius, Senators, and Patricians. Ed. The people's enemy is gone, is gone! Citizens. Our enemy is banish'd! he is gone!

Hoo! hoo!

120. cry, pack.

[Shouting, and throwing up their caps.

130. Making but reservation,

120

130

etc., preserving your lives, but ruining you in every other way.

Sic. Go, see him out at gates, and follow him,
As he hath follow'd you, with all despite ;
Give him deserved vexation. Let a guard
Attend us through the city.

Citizens. Come, come; let's see him out at
gates; come.

The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come.

[Exeunt.

140

ACT IV.

SCENE I. Rome.
Rome. Before a gate of the city.

Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, with the young Nobility of Rome.

Cor. Come, leave your tears: a brief farewell:
the beast

With many heads butts me away. Nay, mother,
Where is your ancient courage? you were used
To say extremity was the trier of spirits;

That common chances common men could bear;
That when the sea was calm all boats alike
Show'd mastership in floating; fortune's blows,
When most struck home, being gentle wounded,

craves

A noble cunning: you were used to load me
With precepts that would make invincible

The heart that conn'd them.

Vir. O heavens! O heavens !

Cor.

Nay, I prithee, woman,

Vol. Now the red pestilence strike ali trades in

Rome,

10

And occupations perish!

Cor.

What, what, what!

I shall be loved when I am lack'd. Nay, mother,
Resume that spirit, when you were wont to say,
If you had been the wife of Hercules,

Six of his labours you'ld have done, and saved
Your husband so much sweat. Cominius,

Droop not; adieu. Farewell, my wife, my mother: 20
I'll do well yet. Thou old and true Menenius,
Thy tears are salter than a younger man's,

And venomous to thine eyes. My sometime
general,

I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld Heart-hardening spectacles; tell these sad women 'Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes,

As 'tis to laugh at 'em. My mother, you wot well My hazards still have been your solace and Believe 't not lightly-though I go alone,

Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen

Makes fear'd and talk'd of more than seen-your

son

Will or exceed the common, or be caught

With cautelous baits and practice.

Vol.
My first son,
Whither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius
With thee awhile: determine on some course,
More than a wild exposture to each chance
That starts i' the way before thee.

Cor.

O the gods!

Com. I'll follow thee a month, devise with thee

Where thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of us
And we of thee: so if the time thrust forth

A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send

26. fond, foolish.

VOL. X

30

40

33. cautelous, crafty.

36. exposture, exposure.
97

H