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't, and live with such as cannot rule, Nor ever will be rul'd. Bru. Call't not a plot: The people cry, you mock'd them; and, of late, Bru. Cor. Have you inform'd them since? Not to them all. How! I inform them! Not unlike, Cor. You are like to do such business. Bru. 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.. F. 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: For the mutable, rank-scented many, let them Therein behold themselves: I say again, In soothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate 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. Men. Well, no more. How! no more? 1 Sen. No more words, we beseech you.. Cor.. 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 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 O good, but most unwise patricians, why, Shall! You grave, but reckless senators, have you thus Given Hydra here to choose an officer, That with his peremptory shall, being but The horn and noise o'the monsters, wants not spi rit Το say, he'll turn your current in a ditch, And make your channel his? If he have power, Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians, It makes the consuls base: and my soul aches, May enter 'twixt the gap of both, and take Com. Well, on to the market-place. Cor. Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth The corn o'the storehouse 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 I'll give my reasons, One, that speaks thus, their voice? Cor. More worthier than their voices. They know, the corn Was not our recompense; 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, The senate's courtesy? Let deeds express They gave us our demands:-Thus we debase Men. Come, enough. No, take more: Bru. Enough, with over-measure. Cor. What may be sworn by, both divine and human, Seal what I end withal!―This double worship,— Where one part does disdain with cause, the other Insult without all reason; where gentry, title, wisdom Cannot conclude, but by the yea and no Of general ignorance,-it must omit Real necessities, and give way the while To unstable slightness: purpose so barr'd, it follows, Nothing is done to purpose: Therefore, beseech you, You that will be less fearful than discreet; That love the fundamental part of state, More than you doubt the change of't; that prefer To jump a body with a dangerous physick |