Since he could draw a sword, and is ill school'd
In boulted 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.

1 Sen.
Noble tribunes,
It is the humane way: the other course
Will prove too bloody; and the end of it
Unknown to the beginning.

Sic.

Noble Menenius,

Be you then as the people's officer:

Masters, lay down your weapons.

Bru.

Sic. Meet on the market-place:

there:

Go not home.

We'll attend you

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

In our first way.

Men.

I'll bring him to you:

Let me desire your company. [To the Senators.] He

Cor. Let them pull all about mine ears; present 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.

1 Pat.

Enter VOLUMNIA.

You do the nobler.

Cor. I muse, my mother

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. I talk of you;

Why did you wish me milder? Would
False to my nature? Rather say, I play
The man I am.

Vol.

O, sir, sir, sir,

[To VOLUMNIA.

you

have me

I would have had you put your power well on,
Before you had worn it out.

Cor.

Let go.

Vol. You might have been enough the man you are, With striving less to be so: Lesser had been The thwartings of your dispositions, if

You had not show'd them how you were dispos'd

Ere they lack'd power to cross you.

Cor.

Vol. Ay, and burn too.

Let them hang.

Enter MENENIUS, and Senators.

Men. Come, come, you have been too rough, some

thing too rough;

You must return and mend it.

1 Sen.

There's no remedy;

Unless, by not so doing, our good city
Cleave in the midst, and perish.

Vol.

Pray be counsel'd:

I have a heart as little apt as yours,

But yet a brain, that leads my use of anger,

To better vantage.

Men.

Well said, noble woman:

Before he should thus stoop to the herd, but that
The violent fit o'the time craves it as physick
For the whole state, I would put mine armour on,
Which I can scarcely bear.

Though therein you can never be too noble,

But when extremities speak." I have heard you say, Honour and policy, like unsever'd friends,

I'the war do grow together: Grant that, and tell me, In peace, what each of them by th' other lose,

That they combine not there.

Cor.

Men.

Tush, tush!

A good demand.

Vol. If it be honour, in your wars, to seem
The same you are not, (which, for your best ends,
You adopt your policy,) how is it less, or worse,
That it shall hold companionship in peace

With honour, as in war; since that to both
It stands in like request?

Cor.

2 You are too absolute ;

Why force you this?

Though therein you can never be too noble,

But when extremities speak.] Except in cases of urgent necessity, when your resolute and noble spirit, however commendable at other times, ought to yield to the occasion.

3 Why force you -] Why urge you.

Vol. Because that now it lies you on to speak To the people; not by your own instruction,

Nor by the matter which your heart prompts you to, †
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 5 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, requir'd,
I should do so in honour: I am in this,

Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles;
And you will rather show our general lowts"
How you can frown, than spend a fawn upon them,
For the inheritance of their loves, and safeguard
Of what that want might ruin.

Noble lady!

Men.
Come, go with us; speak fair; you may salve so,
Not what is dangerous present, but the loss

Of what is past.

Vol.

I pr'ythee now, my son, Go to them, with this bonnet in thy hand;

And thus far having stretch'd it, (here be with them,) Thy knee bussing the stones, (for in such business Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant More learned than the ears,) waving thy head, Which often, thus, correcting thy stout heart,

bastards, and syllables

Of no allowance, to your bosom's truth.] I read: "Of no alliance;" therefore bastards. Yet allowance may well enough stand, as meaning legal right, established rank, or settled authority. JOHNSON.

5 Than to take in a town -] To subdue or destroy.

6

7

our general lowts-] Our common clowns.
that want-] The want of their loves.

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 asking their good loves; but thou wilt frame
Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs, so far

As thou hast power, and person.

Men.

This but done,

Even as she speaks, why, all their hearts were yours: † For they have pardons, being ask'd, as free.

As words to little purpose.

Vol.

Pr'ythee now,

Go, and be rul'd: although, I know, thou hadst rather Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf,

Than flatter him in a bower. Here is Cominius.

Enter COMINIUS.

Com. I have been i'the market-place: and, sir, 'tis fit You make strong party, or defend yourself

By calmness, or by absence; all's in anger.

Men. Only fair speech.

Com.

Can thereto frame his spirit.

Vol.

I think 'twill serve, if he

He must, and will:

Pr'ythee, now, say, you will, and go about it.

Cor. Must I go show them my unbarb'd 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,

+ Mr. Malone omits all.

8

my unbarb'd sconce?] Unbarbed sconce is untrimmed or unshaven head.

9

single plot —] i. e. piece, portion; applied to a piece of earth, and here elegantly transferred to the body, carcase.