1 Serv. He had so; looking as it were,-'Would I were hanged but I thought there was more in him than I could think. 2 Serv. So did I, I'll be sworn: he is simply the rarest man i' the world. 1 Serv. I think he is: but a greater soldier than he, you wot one. 2 Serv. Who? my master? 1 Serv. Nay, it 's no matter for that. 2 Serv. Worth six of him. 1 Serv. Nay, not so neither; but I take him to be the greater soldier. 2 Serv. 'Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that for the defence of a town our general is excellent. 1 Serv. Ay, and for an assault too. Re-enter third Servant. 3 Serv. O, slaves, I can tell you news; news, you rascals! 1 & 2 Serv. What, what, what? let's partake. 3 Serv. I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lieve be a condemned man. 1 & 2 Serv. Wherefore? wherefore? 3 Serv. Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general,-Caius Marcius. 1 Serv. Why do you say thwack our general? 3 Serv. I do not say thwack our general; but he was always good enough for him. 2 Serv. Come, we are fellows, and friends: he was ever too hard for him; I have heard him say so himself. 1 Serv. He was too hard for him directly, to say the truth on 't: before Corioli he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado. 2 Serv. An he had been cannibally given, he might have broiled and eaten him too. 1 Serv. But more of thy news? 3 Serv. Why, he is so made on here within, as if he VOL. X. G were son and heir to Mars: set at upper end o' the table: no question asked him by any of the senators, but they stand bald before him: Our general himself makes a mistress of him; sanctifies himself with 's hand, and turns up the white o' the eye to his discourse. But the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i' the middle, and but one half of what he was yesterday; for the other has half, by the entreaty and grant of the whole table. He'll go, he says, and sowle the porter of Rome gates by the ears: He will mow all down before him, and leave his passage polled.b 2 Serv. And he 's as like to do 't as any man I can imagine. 3 Serv. Do't? he will do 't: For, look you, sir, he has as many friends as enemies which friends, sir, (as it were,) durst not (look you, sir) show themselves (as we term it) his friends whilst he 's in directitude.c 1 Serv. Directitude! what's that? 3 Serv. But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again, and the man in blood, they will out of their burrows, like conies after rain, and revel all with him. 1 Serv. But when goes this forward? 3 Serv. To-morrow; to-day; presently. You shall have the drum struck up this afternoon: 't is, as it were, a parcel of their feast, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips. 2 Serv. Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers. 1 Serv. Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as day does night; it 's sprightly, waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; Sowle-a provincial word for pull out. b Polled-cleared. c Directitude. Malone would read discreditude. He thinks the servant was not meant to talk absolute nonsense. Why then does the other servant ask the meaning of the fine word? mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war's a destroyer of men. 2 Serv. T is so; and as wars, in some sort, may be said to be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of cuckolds. 1 Serv. Ay, and it makes men hate one another. 3 Serv. Reason; because they then less need one another. The wars for my money. I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volcians. They are rising, they are rising. All. In, in, in, in! [Exeunt. SCENE VI.-Rome. A public Place. Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS. Sic. We hear not of him, neither need we fear him; His remedies are tame i' the present peace And quietness o' the people, which before Were in wild hurry. Here do we make his friends Enter MENENIUS. Bru. We stood to 't in good time. Is this Menenius? Sic. 'T is he, 't is he: O, he is grown most kind of late. Hail, sir! Men. Hail to you both! Sic. Your Coriolanus is not much missed but with his friends; the commonwealth doth stand; and so would do, were he more angry at it. Men. All's well; and might have been much better, if he could have temporised. Sic. Where is he, hear you? Men. Nay, I hear nothing; his mother and his wife hear nothing from him. Enter three or four Citizens. Cit. The gods preserve you both! Good-e'en, our neighbours. Sic. 1 Cit. Ourselves, our wives, and children, on our knees, Are bound to pray for you both. Sic. Live, and thrive! Bru. Farewell, kind neighbours: We wish'd Corio lanus Had lov'd you as we did. Cit. Now the gods keep you! Both Tri. Farewell, farewell. [Exeunt Citizens. Sic. This is a happier and more comely time Than when these fellows ran about the streets, Crying, Confusion. Bru. Caius Marcius was A worthy officer i' the war; but insolent, Sic. And affecting one sole throne, Without assistance. Men. I think not so. Sic. We should by this, to all our lamentation, If he had gone forth consul, found it so. Bru. The gods have well prevented it, and Rome Sits safe and still without him. Ed. Enter Ædile. Worthy tribunes, There is a slave, whom we have put in prison, Men. "T is Aufidius, Who, hearing of our Marcius' banishment, Thrusts forth his horns again into the world, Which were inshell'd when Marcius stood for Rome, And durst not once peep out. Sic. Come, what talk you of Marcius? Bru. Go see this rumourer whipp'd.-It cannot be The Volces dare break with us. Men. Cannot be ! Of what is to be dreaded. Mess. The nobles, in great earnestness, are going All to the senate-house: some news is coming That turns their countenances. Sic. "T is this slave; Go whip him 'fore the people's eyes :—his raising! Nothing but his report! Mess. Yes, worthy sir, The slave's report is seconded; and more, Sic. What more fearful? Mess. It is spoke freely out of many mouths, (How probable I do not know,) that Marcius, Join'd with Aufidius, leads a power 'gainst Rome; And vows revenge as spacious as between The young'st and oldest thing. Sic. This is most likely! |