Vol. Because that now it lies on you to speak
To the people: not by your own instruction,
Nor by the matter which your heart prompts you,
But with such words that are but roted in
Your tongue, though but bastards and syllables
Of no allowance to your bosom's truth.
Now, this no more dishonours you at all
Than to take in a town with gentle words,
Which else would put you to your fortune and
The hazard of much blood.-
I would dissemble with my nature, where
My fortunes and my friends, at stake, required
I should do so in honour. I am in this,
Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles:
And you will rather shew our general louts
How you can frown, than spend a fawn upon them
For the inheritance of their loves, and safeguard
Of what that want might ruin!
Come, go with us: speak fair: you may saive so,
Not what is dangerous present, but the loss
Of what is past.
Vol.
I pr'y thee now, my son,
Go to them, with this bonnet in thy hand:
And thus far having stretched it (here be with
Thy knee bussing the stones (for in such business
Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant,
More learned than their ears), waving thy head,
Which often, thus,-correcting thy stout heart,
Now humble as the ripest mulberry,
That will not hold the handling. Or say to them,
Thou art their soldier, and being bred in broils,
Hast not the soft way which, thou dost confess,
Were fit for thee to use, as they to claim,
In a king their good loves: but thou wilt frame
Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs, so far
As thou hast power and person.
This but done,
Even as she speaks, why all their hearts were
Pr'y thee now, say you will; and go about it.
Cor. Must I go shew them my unbarbed sconce?
Must I,
With my base tongue, give to my noble heart
A lie that it must bear?-Well, I will do 't:
Yet were there but this single plot to lose,
This mould of Marcius, they to dust should grind it,
And throw it against the wind.-To the market-
place:-
You have put me now to such a part which never
I shall discharge to the life.
Come, come; we 'll prompt you.
Vol. I pr'y thee now, sweet son, as thou hast said My praises made thee first a soldier, so,
To have my praise for this, perform a part
Thou hast not done before.
Well, I must do 't.
Away, my disposition, and possess me
Some harlot's spirit! My throat of war be turned
(Which quiréd with my drum) into a pipe
Small as an eunuch, or the virgin voice
That babies lulls asleep! The smiles of knaves
Tent in my cheeks; and shoolboys' tears take up
The glasses of my sight! A beggar's tongue
Make motion through my lips! and my armed
knees,
Who bowed but in my stirrup, bend like his
That hath received an alms!-I will not do 't!
Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth,
And by my body's action teach my mind
A most inherent baseness.
Vol.
At thy choice, then :
To beg of thee it is my more dishonour,
Than thou of them. Come all to ruin: let
Thy mother rather feel thy pride than fear
Thy dangerous stoutness: for I mock at death
With as big heart as thou. Do as thou list.
Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck'dst it from
But owe thy pride thyself.
From Rome all seasoned 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 clutched 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.
Mark you this, people?
Cit. To the rock! to the rock with him!
Sic. Peace!-
We need not put new matter to his charge:
What you have seen him do, and heard him
Beating your officers, cursing yourselves,
Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying
Those whose great power must try him,—even this,
So criminal, and in such capital kind,
Deserves the extremest death.
Bru. But since he hath served well for Rome,-
Cor. What, do you prate of service?
Bru. I talk of that, that know it.
Cor. You!
Men. Is this the promise that you made your mother?
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 it 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.
Cit. It shall be so; it shall be so! let him away. He's banished, 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:
I have been consul, and can shew, 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-
We know your drift:-speak what? Bru. There's no more to be said, but he is banished,
As enemy to the people and his country.
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! Cit. Our enemy is banished! he is gone!-Hoo! hoo!
[The people shout, and throw up their caps. Sic. Go, see him out at gates, and follow him, As he hath followed you, with all despite : Give him deserved vexation.-Let a guard Attend us through the city.
Cit. Come, come, let's see him out at gates:
The gods preserve our noble tribunes!--Come.
SCENE I.-Rome. Before the Gate of the City. Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, and several young Patricians.
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
Shewed mastership in floating: fortune's blows
When most struck home, being gentle, wounded,
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