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If he were putting to my house the brand
That should consume it, I have not the face
To say,'Beseech you, cease.- -You have made fair hands,
You, and your crafts! you have crafted fair!
Com. You have brought

A trembling upon Rome, such as was never

So incapable of help.

Tri. Say not, we brought it.

Men. How! Was it we? We lov'd him; but, like beasts, And cowardy nobles, gave way to your clusters,

Who did hoot him out o'the city.

Com. But, I fear

They'll roar him in again.

Tullus Aufidius,

The second name of men, obeys his points
As if he were his officer :-Desperation
Is all the policy, strength, and defence,
That Rome can make against them.

Enter a troop of Citizens.

Men. Here come the clusters.

And is Aufidius with him?-You are they
That made the air unwholesome, when you cast
Your stinking, greasy caps, in hooting at
Coriolanus' exile. Now he's coming;

And not a hair upon a soldier's head,

Which will not prove a whip; as many coxcombs,
As you threw caps up, will he tumble down,

And pay you for your voices. 'Tis no matter;

If he could burn us all into one coal,

We have deserv'd it.

Cit. 'Faith, we hear fearful news.

1 Cit. For mine own part,

When I said, banish him, I said, 'twas pity.

2 Cit. And so did I.

3 Cit. And so did I; and, to say the truth, so did very many of us: That we did, we did for the best : and though we willingly consented to his banishment, yet it was against our will.

Com. You are goodly things, you voices !

Men. You have made

Good work, you and your cry!-Shall us to the capitol ? Com. O, ay; what else? [Exe. Coм. and MENEN. Sic. Go, masters, get you home, be not dismay'd ;

[9] As they hooted at his departure, they will roar at his return; as he went out with scoffs, he will come back with lamentations.⚫ JOHNS.

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These are a side, that would be glad to have
This true, which they so seem to fear. Go home,
And show no sign of fear.

1 Cit. The gods be good to us! Come, masters, let's home. I ever said, we were i'the wrong, when we banished him.

2 Cit.So did we all. But come,let's home. [Ex. Citizens. Bru. I do not like this news.

Sic. Nor I.

Bru. Let's to the Capitol.-'Would, half my wealth Would buy this for a lie!

Sic. Pray, let us go.

SCENE VII.

[Exeunt.

▲ Camp, at a small distance from Rome. Enter AUFIDIUS, and

his Lieutenant.

Auf. Do they still fly to the Roman ?

Lieu. I do not know what witchcraft's in him; but Your soldiers use him as the grace 'fore meat,

Their talk at table, and their thanks at end;

And you are darken'd in this action, sir,

Even by your own.

Auf. I cannot help it now;

Unless, by using means, I lame the foot

Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier
Even to my person, than I thought he would,
When first I did embrace him: Yet his nature
In that's no changeling; and I must excuse
What cannot be amended.

Lieu. Yet I wish, sir,

(I mean for your particular,) you had not Join'd in commission with him: but either Had borne the action of yourself, or else

To him had left it solely.

Auf. I understand thee well; and be thou sure,
When he shall come to his account, he knows not
What I can urge against him. Although it seems,
And so he thinks, and is no less apparent

To the vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly,
And shows good husbandry for the Volcian state;
Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon
As draw his sword: yet he hath left undone
That, which shall break his neck, or hazard mine,
Whene'er we come to our account.

Lieu, Sir, I beseech you, think you he'll carry Rome ?

Auf. All places yield to him ere he sits down ;
And the nobility of Rome are his :

The senators, and patricians, love him too :
The tribunes are no soldiers; and their people
Will be as rash in the repeal, as hasty

To expel him thence. I think, he'll be to Rome,
As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it
By sovereignty of nature. 1

First he was

A noble servant to them; but he could not
Carry his honours even: whether 'twas pride,
Which out of daily fortune ever taints

The happy man; whether defect of judgment,2
To fail in the disposing of those chances
Which he was lord of; or whether nature,
Not to be other than one thing, not moving

From the casque to the cushion, but commanding peace Even with the same austerity and garb

As he controll'd the war; but, one of these,

(As he hath spices of them all, not all,

For I dare so far free him,) made him fear'd,
So hated, and so banish'd: But he has a merit,
To choke it in the utterance.3

So our virtues

Lie in the interpretation of the time:

And power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair

To extol what it hath done.4

One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;
Rights by rights fouler, 5 strengths by strengths do fail.
Come, let's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine,
Thou art poor'st of all; then shortly árt thou mine.
[Exeunt.

[1] We find in Drayton's Polyolbion, song xxv. a full account of the osprey, which shows the justness and beauty of the simile.

"The osprey, oft here seen, tho' seldom here he breeds,
Which over them the fish no sooner doth espy,
But, betwixt him and them by an antipathy,
Turning their bellies up, as though their death they saw,
They at his pleasure lie, to stuff his gluttonous maw."

LANGTON.

[2] Aufidius assigns three probable reasons for the miscarriage of Coriolanus; pride, which easily follows an uninterrupted train of success; unskilfulness to regulate the consequences of his own victories; a stubborn uniformity of nature, which could not make the proper transition from the casque or helmet to the cushion or chair of civil authority; but acted with the same despotism in peace as in war. JOHNS.

[3] He has a merit, for no other purpose than to destroy it by boasting it. JOHNS.

[4] i. e. The virtue which delights to commend itself, will find the surest tomb in that chair wherein it holds forth its own commendations. JOHNS. [5] Rights by rights fouler may well mean. "That one right or title, when produced, makes another less fair." All the short sentences in this speech are obscure, and some nonsensical.

M. MASON.

ACT V.

SCENE I-Rome. A public Place.

Enter MENENIUS, COMINIUS, SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and others.

Menenius.

NO, I'll not go: you hear, what he hath said,
Which was sometime his general; who lov'd him
In a most dear particular. He call'd me, father:
But what o'that? Go, you that banish'd him,
A mile before his tent fall down, and kneel
The way into his mercy: Nay, if he coy'd
To hear Cominius speak, I'll keep at home.
Com. He would not seem to know me.
Men. Do you hear?

6

Com. Yet one time he did call me by my name :
I urg'd our old acquaintance, and the drops
That we have bled together. Coriolanus
He would not answer to: forbad all names;
He was a kind of nothing, titleless,

Till he had forg'd himself a name i'the fire
Of burning Rome.

Men. Why, so; you have made good work:
A pair of tribunes that have rack'd for Rome,
To make coals cheap : A noble memory !8

Com. I minded him, how royal 'twas to pardon When it was less expected: He replied,

It was a bare petition of a state

To one whom they had punish'd.

Men. Very well:

Could he say less!

Com. I offer'd to awaken his regard

For his private friends: His answer to me was,
He could not stay to pick them in a pile

Of noisome, musty chaff: He said, 'twas folly,
For one poor grain or two, to leave unburnt,
And still to nose the offence.

Men. For one poor grain

Or two? I am one of those; his mother, wife,

His child, and this brave fellow too, we are the grains :
You are the musty chaff; and you are smelt
Above the moon: We must be burnt for you.

STEEV.

[6] Condescended unwillingly, with reserve, coldness. [7] You that have been such good stewards for the Roman people, as to get their houses burned over their heads, to save them the expense of coals. [8] Memorial. STEEV.

Sic. Nay, pray, be patient: If you refuse your aid In this so never-needed help, yet do not

you

Upbraid us with our distress. But, sure, if
Would be your country's pleader, your good tongue,
More than the instant army we can make,
Might stop our countryman.

Men. No; I'll not meddle.
Sic. I pray you, go to him.
Men. What should I do?

Bru. Only make trial what your love can do
For Rome, towards Marcius.

Men. Well, and say that Marcius
Return me, as Cominius is return'd,
Unheard; what then?-

But as a discontented friend, grief-shot
With his unkindness? Say't be so?

Sic. Yet your good will

Must have that thanks from Rome, after the measure As you intended well.

Men. I'll undertake it:

I think, he'll hear me. Yet to bite his lip,

And hum at good Cominius, much unhearts me.
He was not taken well; he had not din'd
The veins unfill'd, our blood is cold, and then
We pout upon the morning, are unapt

To give or to forgive; but when we have stuff'd
These pipes and these conveyances of our blood
With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls

Than in our priest-like fasts: Therefore I'll watch him
Till he be dieted to my request,

And then I'll set upon him.

Bru. You know the very road into his kindness,

And cannot lose your way.

Men. Good faith, I'll prove him,

Speed how it will. I shall ere long have knowledge

Of my success.

Com. He'll never hear him.

Sic. Not?

[Exit.

Com. I tell you, he does sit in gold, his eye Red as 'twould burn Rome; and his injury The gaoler to his pity. I kneel'd before him; 'Twas very faintly he said, rise; dismiss'd me Thus, with his speechless hand: What he would do, He sent in writing after me; what he would not,

[9] He is inthroned in all the pomp and pride of imperial splendour. JO. 16 VOL. VI.

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