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, 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 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 louts
How you can frown, than spend a fawn upon 'em,
For the inheritance of their loves, and safeguard
Of what that want might ruin.

MEN.

Noble lady!—

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) a

d

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,
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, their hearts were yours:
For they have pardons, being ask'd, as free
As words to little purpose.

Though but bastards, and syllables, &c.] In this speech we follow the arrangement of the old copies, which though imperfect is infinitely preferable to that adopted by all the modern editions. The verse before us is evidently corrupt; but" seems to have crept in from the preceding line, and some word to have been lost; we may be permitted to guess that it originally ran,"Thought's bastards, and persuading syllables," "Thought's bastards, and glib syllables,"

COм. 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.
Сом.
I think 't will serve,

If he can thereto frame his spirit.

VOL. He must, and will:Pr'ythee now, say you will, and go about it.

COR. Must I go show 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't against the wind.-To the marketplace:

You have put me now to such a part, which never
I shall discharge to the life.

COM.
Come, come, we'll prompt you.
VOL. I pr'ythee 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.

COR.
Well, I must do't:
Away, my disposition, and possess me
Some harlot's spirit! my throat of war be turn'd,
Which quired 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 schoolboys' tears take up
The glasses of my sight! a beggar's tongue
Make motion through my lips; and my arm'd
knees,

Who bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his
That hath receiv'd an alms!—I will not do't;
Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth,

While often, thus, correcting thy stout heart,
Now humble as the ripest mulberry

That will not hold the handling,-say to them," &c. funbarbed sconce?] Unbarbed here means, bare. uncovered

SIC. Assemble presently the people hither: And when they hear me say, It shall be so I' the right and strength o' the commons, be it either

For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them, If I say fine, cry Fine;-if death, cry Death; Insisting on the old prerogative

And power i' the truth o' the cause.

ED.
I shall inform them.
BRU. And when such time they have begun to
cry,

Let them not cease, but with a din confus'd
Enforce the present execution

Of what we chance to sentence.
ED.

Very well.

SIC. Make them be strong, and ready for this

hint, When we shall hap to give't them. BRU.

Go about it.
[Exit Edile.
Put him to choler straight: he hath been us'd
Ever to conquer, and to have his worth

Of contradiction: being once chaf'd he cannot
Be rein'd again to temperance; then he speaks
What's in his heart; and that is there which looks
With us to break his neck.

SIC. Well, here he comes.

Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, Senators, and Patricians.

MEN. Calmly, I do beseech you. COR. Ay, as an ostler, that for the poorest piece Will bear the knave by the volume. The honour'd gods

Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice Supplied with worthy men! plant love among's ! Throng our large temples with the shows of

peace,

And not our streets with war! 1 SEN.

MEN. A noble wish.

SIC.

SIC.

Have you a catalogue

to have his worth

Of contradiction]

So the old text. Rowe prints, "his word of," &c.; Capell, "his worth of," understanding 'worth to be a contraction of pennyworth;

Amen, amen!

Re-enter Edile, with Citizens.

Draw near, ye people.

ED. List to your tribunes; audience! peace, I say!

M 2

presence

SIC. For that he has (As much as in him lies) from time to time Envied against the people, seeking means To pluck away their power; has now at last Given hostile strokes, and that not in the 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, say it shall be so.

I

a Envied against the people,-] That is, Steevens explains, "behaved with signs of hatred to the people," but "envied" here is perhaps only a misprint of Inveighed; so in North's Plutarch, (Life of Solon):-" But Solon going up into the pulpit for orations, stoutly inveyed against it."

b cry of curs!] Cry here means pack.

c Making but reservation of yourselves,-] This, since Capell's

I have been consul, and can show 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-
SIC. We know your drift: speak what?
BRU. There's no more to be said, but he is
banish'd,

As enemy to the people and his country:
It shall be so.

CITIZENS. It shall be so! it shall be so!
COR. You common cry of curs! whose breath

I hate

b

As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize
As the dead carcasses of unburied men
That do corrupt my air,-I banish you;
And here remain with your uncertainty !
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, MENE-
NIUS, Senators, and Patricians.
ÆD. The people's enemy is gone, is gone!
CITIZENS. Our enemy is banish'd! he is gone!
Hoo hoo!