Com.

We have as many friends as enemies.

Men. Shall it be put to that?

First Sen.

Stand fast;

The gods forbid !

I prithee, noble friend, home to thy house;
Leave us to cure this cause.

Men.
For 'tis a sore upon us
You cannot tent yourself: be gone, beseech you.
Com. Come, sir, along with us.

Cor. I would they were barbarians—as they are, Though in Rome litter'd-not Romans-as they

are not,

Though calved i' the porch o' the Capitol

Be gone; 240

Men.
Put not your worthy rage into your tongue;
One time will owe another.

Cor.

I could beat forty of them.

Men.

On fair ground

I could myself

Take up a brace o' the best of them; yea, the two

tribunes.

Com. But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetic ;
And manhood is call'd foolery, when it stands
Against a falling fabric. Will you hence,
Before the tag return? whose rage doth rend
Like interrupted waters and o'erbear
What they are used to bear.

Men.

Pray you, be gone: 250

I'll try whether my old wit be in request

With those that have but little this must be

patch'd

With cloth of any colour.

:

A Patrician. This man has marr'd his fortune. Men. His nature is too noble for the world: He would not flatter Neptune for his trident, Or Jove for 's power to thunder. His heart's his mouth :

What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent; And, being angry, does forget that ever

He heard the name of death.

Here's goodly work!

Sec. Pat.

[A noise within. 260

I would they were a-bed!

Men. I would they were in Tiber! What the

vengeance!

Could he not speak 'em fair?

Re-enter BRUTUS and SICINIUS, with the rabble.
Sic.

Where is this viper

That would depopulate the city and

Be every man himself?

Men.

You worthy tribunes,

Sic. He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock With rigorous hands: he hath resisted law,

And therefore law shall scorn him further trial

Than the severity of the public power

Which he so sets at nought.

First Cit.

He shall well know 270

The noble tribunes are the people's mouths,

And we their hands.

Citizens. He shall, sure on 't.

Men.

Sic. Peace!

Sir, sir,

Men. Do not cry havoc, where you should but

hunt

Men.

Hear me speak:

As I do know the consul's worthiness,

So can I name his faults,

Sic.

Consul! what consul?

He consul!

280

Men. The consul Coriolanus.
Bru.

Citizens. No, no, no, no, no.

Men. If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours,
good people,

I may be heard, I would crave a word or two;
The which shall turn you to no further harm
Than so much loss of time.

Sic.

Speak briefly then;

For we are peremptory to dispatch

This viperous traitor: to eject him hence
Were but one danger, and to keep him here
Our certain death: therefore it is decreed

He dies to-night.

Men.

Now the good gods forbid
That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude
Towards her deserved children is enroll'd
In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam
Should now eat up her own!

Sic. He's a disease that must be cut away.
Men. O, he's a limb that has but a disease;
Mortal, to cut it off; to cure it, easy.
What has he done to Rome that's worthy death?
Killing our enemies, the blood he hath lost-
Which, I dare vouch, is more than that he hath,
By many an ounce—he dropp'd it for his country;
And what is left, to lose it by his country,
Were to us all, that do 't and suffer it,

A brand to the end o' the world.

288. one, constant, perpetual. But 'our' is a tempting emendation.

293. Jove's own book. Jewish not a Roman idea.

290

300

A

Sic.

This is clean kam.

Bru. Merely awry: when he did love his

country,

It honour'd him.

Men.

The service of the foot

Being once gangrened, is not then respected

For what before it was.

Bru.

We'll hear no more.

Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence;

Lest his infection, being of catching nature,

Spread further.

Men.

One word more, one word.

This tiger-footed rage, when it shall find

The harm of unscann'd swiftness, will too late
Tie leaden pounds to 's heels.

cess;

Proceed by pro

Lest parties, as he is beloved, break out,

And sack great Rome with Romans.

Bru.

Sic. What do ye talk?

If it were so,

Have we not had a taste of his obedience?
Our ædiles smote? ourselves resisted? Come.
Men. Consider this: he has been bred i' the

wars

Since he could draw a sword, and is ill school'd
In bolted language; meal and bran together
He throws without distinction. Give me leave,
I'll go to him, and undertake to bring him
Where he shall answer, by a lawful form,
In peace, to his utmost peril.

First Sen.

Noble tribunes,

It is the humane way: the other course

Will prove too bloody; and the end of it

Unknown to the beginning.

304. clean kam, utterly 305. Merely, absolutely.

crooked.

322. bolted, sifted.

310

320

Where, if you bring not Marcius, we 'll proceed

In our first way.

Men.

I'll bring him to you.

[To the Senators] Let me desire your company :

he must come,

Or what is worst will follow.

First Sen.

Pray you, let's to him.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. A room in Coriolanus's house.

Enter CORIOLANUS with Patricians.

Cor. Let them pull all about mine ears; pre

sent me

Death on the wheel or at wild horses' heels,

Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock,
That the precipitation might down stretch
Below the beam of sight; yet will I still
Be thus to them.

Does not approve me further, who was wont
To call them woollen vassals, things created
To buy and sell with groats, to show bare heads
In congregations, to yawn, be still and wonder,
When one but of my ordinance stood up
To speak of peace or war.

5. beam of sight, range of the eye.

7. muse, wonder.