5 With flight and agued fear! Mend, and charge [Another alarum, and Marcius follows them to So, now the gates are ope:-Now prove good 10'Tis for the followers fortune widens them, [yet. 15 Lart. No, I'll not sell, nor give him: lend you For half a hundred years.-Summon the town. Mes. Within this mile and half. [ours. 20 Mar. Then shall we hear their 'larum, and they Now, Mars, I pr'ythee, make us quick in work; That we with smoking swords may march from hence, To help our fielded friends!--Come, blow thy 25 They sound a parley. Enter Senators, with others, on the walls. Tullus Aufidius, is he within your walls? [blast. 1 Sen. No, nor a man that fears you less than he, Rather than they shall pound us up: our gates, rushes; They'll open of themselves. Hark you, far off; There is Aufidius: list, what work he makes 1 Sol. Fool-hardiness; not I. 3 Sol. See, they have shut him in. [Alarum continues. All. To the pot, I warrant him. Enter Titus Lartius. Lart. What is become of Marcius? 1 Sol. Following the fliers at the very heels, Lart. O noble fellow ! Who, sensible, out-dares his senseless sword, A carbuncle entire, as big as thou art, 35 40 Mar. O, they are at it! [ho Lart. Their noise be our instruction.-Ladders, Enter the Volces. Mar. They fear us not, but issue forth their city. Now put your shields before your hearts, and fight 45 With hearts more proof than shields.-Advance, brave Titus: They do disdain as much beyond our thoughts, He that retires, I'll take him for a Volce, [Alarum; the Romans beat back to their trenches. Re-enter Marcius bleeding, assaulted by the enemy. 1 Sol. Look, Sir. Lart. O, 'tis Marcius: Let's fetch him off, or make remain' alike. [They fight, and all enter the city. Enter certain Romans, with spoils. 1 Rom. This will I carry to Rome. 3 Rom. A murrain on't! I took this for silver. [Alarum continues still afar off. 50 Enter Marcius,and Titus Lartius, with a trumpet. Mar. See here these movers, that do prize their hours At a crack'd drachm! Cushions, leaden spoons, And hark, what noise the general makes!-To ! Make remain is an old manner of speaking, which means no more than remain. Lart. Lart. Worthy sir, thou bleed'st; Thy exercise hath been too violent for A second course of fight. Mar. Sir, praise me not: My work hath yet not warm'd me: Fare you well. 5 Than dangerous to me: To Aufidius thus Lart. Now the fair goddess, Fortune, Fall deep in love with thee; and her great charms Mar. Thy friend no less Than those she places highest! So, farewell. Go, sound thy trumpet in the market-place; SCENE VI. The Roman Camp. [Exeunt. Mar. O let me clip you In arms as sound, as when I woo'd; in heart Com. Flower of warriors, How is't with Titus Lartius? Mar. As with a man busied about decrees: Com. Where is that slave, Which told me they had beat you to your trenches? 15 Where is he? Call him hither. Mar. Let him alone, He did inform the truth: But for our gentlemen, The common file, (A plague! Tribunes for them!) The mouse ne'er shunn'd the cat,as theydid budge 20 From rascals worse than they. Com. But how prevail'd you? [think Mar. Will the time serve to tell? I do not Where is the enemy? Are you lords o' the field? If not, why cease you 'till you are so? Com. Marcius, we have a disadvantage fought, [side Their bands i' the vaward are the Antiates, Mar. I do beseech you, By all the battles wherein we have fought, 35 By the blood we have shed together, by the vows We have made to endure friends, that you directly Set me against Aufidius, and his Antiates: And that you not delay the present; but, Filling the air with swords advanc'd^, and darts, e prove this very hour. 40 We Com. "Tis not a mile; briefly we heard their How could'st thou in a mile confound an hour, 45 And bring thy news so late? Ales. Spies of the Volces Held me in chase, that I was forc'd to wheel 3 Com. Though I could wish You were conducted to a gentle bath, Mar. Those are they That most are willing-If any such be here, 50 Lesser his person than an ill report; If any think, brave death outweighs bad life, [Waving his hand. [They all shout, and wave their swords, take him up in their arms, and cast up their caps. O me, alone! Make you a sword of me? Confound is here used in the sense of-to expend. let slip.i. c. swords lifted high, Zz3 [Exeunt. 25 Alarum. Enter Marcius and Aufidius, Mar. I'll fight with none but thee; for I do hate thee Worse than a promise-breaker. Auf. We hate alike; Not Africk owns a serpent I abhor More than thy fame, and envy: Fix thy foot. Auf. If I fly, Marcius, Halloo me like a hare. Mar. Within these three hours, Tullus, Alone I fought in your Corioli walls, [blood, And made what work I pleas'd: 'Tis not my Auf. Wert thou the Hector, [Here they fight, and certain Volces come to Officious, and not valiant!-you have sham'd me SCENE IX. I have done as you have done; that's, what I can; Com. You shall not be The grave of your deserving; Rome must know The value of her own: 'twere a concealment Worse than a theft, no less than a traducement, 30 To hide your doings; and to silence that, Which to the spire and top of praises vouch'd, Would seem but modest: Therefore, I beseech you, (In sign of what you are, not to reward 35 What you have done) before our army hear me. Mar. I have some wounds upon me, and they To hear themselves remember'd. 40 Com. Should they not", [smart Well might they fester 'gainst ingratitude, of all The treasure, in the field atchiev'd, and city, 50 55 Mar. I thank you, general; But cannot make my heart consent to take [A long flourish. They all cry, Marcius! profane, [shall Never sound more! When drums and trumpets I' the field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be 60 Made all of false-fac'd soothing! When steel grows 1 Coriolanus may mean, that as all the soldiers have offered to attend him on this expedition, and he wants only a part of them, he will submit the selection to four indifferent persons, that he himself may escape the charge of partiality. 2 i. e. the gates. i. e. thrown into grateful trepidation. The meaning is,-This man performed the action, and we only filled up the shew. ot be remembered. 3 Soft Soft as the parasite's silk, let him' be made As if I lov'd my little should be dieted Com. Too modest are you; More cruel to your good report, than grateful As to us, to all the world, that Caius Marcius Bear the addition nobly ever! [Flourish. Trumpets sound, and drums. And when my face is fair, you shall perceive Com. So, to our tent: Where, ere we do repose us, we will write To Rome of our success.-You, Titus Lartius, Lart. I shall, my lord. Cor. The gods begin to mock me. I that now Com. Take it: 'tis yours.-What is't? 5 10 15 Auf. The town is ta'en! Sol. "Twill be deliver'd back on good condition. I would, I were a Roman; for I cannot, 20' the part that is at mercy? Five times, Marcius, 30 Sol. He's the devil. instead of it, the neuter. 150 [city; Wash my fierce hand in his heart. Go you to the Sol. Will not you go? Auf. I am attended at the cypress grove: pray you, Tis south the city mills) bring me word thither Sol. I shall, sir. [Exeunt. 1Him for it. The personal him is not unfrequently used by our author, and other writers of his age A phrase from heraldry, signifying, that he would endeavour to suppor i.e. in proportion equal to my power. * i.e. the chief men of Corioli Potch is a word used in the midland counties for a rough, violent push Embarquements mean not only an embarkation, but an embargoing, or impediment. i.e. expected his good opinion of him. 'i.e. enter into articles. SCENE I Rome. АСТ Enter Menenius, with Sicinius, and Brutus. Men. THE augurer tells me, we shall have news to-night. Bru. Good, or bad? Men. Not according to the prayer of the people, for they love not Marcius. Sic. Nature teaches beasts to know their friends. Men. Ay, to devour him; as the hungry plebeians would the noble Marcius. Bru. He's a lamb indeed, that baes like a bear. Men. He's a bear indeed that lives like a lamb. You two are old men; tell me one thing that I shall ask you. Both. Well, sir. II. converses more with the buttock of the night, than with the forehead of the morning'. What I think, I utter; and spend my malice in my breath: Meeting two such wealsmen as you are, 5 (I cannot call you Lycurgusses) if the drink you give me, touch my palate adversely, I make a crooked face at it. I can't say, your worships have deliver'd the matter well, when I find the ass in compound with the major part of your syllables: and though I must be content to bear with those say you are reverend grave men; yet they lye deadly,that tell you you have good faces. If you see this in the map of my microcosm, follows it, that I am known well enough too? What barm can your bisson conspectuities glean out of this character, if I be known well enough too? 10 15 Men. In what enormity is Marcius poor, that 20 you two have not in abundance? Bru. He's poor in no one fault, but stor'd with all, Sic. Especially, in pride. Bru. And topping all others in boasting, Men. This is strange now: Do you two know how you are censur'd here in the city, I mean of us o' the right-hand file? Do you? Bru. Why, how are we censur'd? 25 that 3 Bru. Come, sir, come, we know you well enough. Men. You know neither me, yourselves, nor any thing. You are ambitious for poor knaves' caps and legs: you wear out a good wholesome forenoon, in hearing a cause between an orangewife and a fasset-seller; an then rejourn the controversy of three-pence to a second day of audience. When you are hearing a matter between party and party, if you chance to be pinch'd with the cholic, you make faces like mummers: set up the bloody flag against all patience, and, in roarng for a chamber-pot, dismiss the controversy bleeding, the more entangled by your hearing: Men. Because you talk of pride now,-Will 30 all the peace you make in their cause, is, calling you not be angry? Both. Well, well, sir, well. Men. Why, 'tis no great matter; for a very little thief of occasion will rob you of a great deal| of patience; give your dispositions the reins, and be angry at your pleasures; at the least, if you take it as a pleasure to you, in being so. You blame Marcius for being proud? Bru. We do it not alone, sir. both the parties knaves: you are a pair of strange ones. Bru. Come, come, you are well understood to be a perfecter giber for the table, than a neces35sary bencher in the Capitol. Men. I know, you can do very little alone; for 40 your helps are many; or else your actions would grow wondrous single: your abilities are too infint-like, for doing much alone. You talk of pride: Oh, that you could turn your eyes towards the napes of your necks, and make but an interior survey of your good selves! O, that you could! Bru. What then, sir? Men. Why, then you should discover a brace of as unmeriting, proud, violent, testy magistrates, (aliàs, fools) as any in Rome. Mien. Our very priests must become mockers, if they shall encounter such ridiculous subjects as you are. When you speak best unto the purpose, t is not worth the wagging of your beards; and your beards deserve not so honourable a grave, as to stuff a botcher's cushion, or to be entomb'd in an ass's pack-saddle. Yet you must be saying, Marcius is proud; who, in a cheap estimation, is worth all your predecessors, since Deucalion; 45 though, peradventure, some of the best of them were hereditary hangmen. Good-e'en to your worships: more of your conversation would infect my brain, being the herdsmen of the beastly plebeians: I will be bold to take my leave of you. Enter Volumnia, Virgilia, and Valeria. How now, my fair as noble ladies, (and the moon, were she earthly, no nobler) whither do you follow your eyes so fast? 50 Sic. Menenius, you are known well enough too. Men. I am known to be a humourous patrician, and one that loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in't: said to be something imperfect, in favouring the first complaint; hasty, 55 and tinder-like, upon too trivial motion: one that Vol. Honourable Menenius, my boy Marcius approaches; for the love of Juno, let's go. Men. Ha! Marcius coming home? 2 Rather a late Alluding to the fable, which says, that every man has a bag hanging before him, in which he puts his neighbour's faults, and another behind him, in which he stows his own. lier-down than an early riser. si. c. blind. 4i. e. declare war against patience. |