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.7

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

Sic. Well, here he comes.

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 ainong us! Throng our large temples with the shows of peace, And not our streets with war!

1 Sen.

Men. A noble wish.

and to have his worth

Amen, amen!

Of contradiction:] He has been used to have his worth, or (as we should now say) his pennyworth of contradiction; his full quota

or proportion. which looks

With us to break his neck.] The tribune seems to mean-The sentiments of Coriolanus's heart are our coadjutors, and look to have their share in promoting his destruction.

8 Will bear the knave by the volume.] i. e. would bear being called a knave as often as would fill out a volume.

Re-enter Edile, with Citizens.

Sic. Draw near, ye people.

Ed. List to your tribunes; audience: Peace, I

say.

Cor. First, hear me speak.

Both Tri.

Well, say.-Peace, ho.

Cor. Shall I be charg'd no further than this pre

sent?

Must all determine here?

If

Sic.

I do demand,
you submit you to the people's voices,
Allow their officers, and are content
To suffer lawful censure for such faults
As shall be prov'd upon you?

Cor.

I am content.

Men. Lo, citizens, he says, he is content: The warlike service he has done, consider;

Think on the wounds his body bears, which show Like graves i' the holy churchyard.

Cor.

Scars to move laughter only.

Men.

Scratches with briars,

Consider further,
That when he speaks not like a citizen,
You find him like a soldier: Do not take
His rougher accents for malicious sounds,
But, as I say, such as become a soldier,
Rather than envy you.9

Com.

Well, well, no more.

Cor. What is the matter,

That being pass'd for consul with full voice,

I am so dishonour'd, that the very hour

You take it off again?

Sic.

Answer to us.

Cor. Say then: 'tis true, I ought so.

9 Rather than envy you.] Rather than import ill will to you.

Sic. We charge you, that you have contriv'd to

take

From Rome all season'd 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 clutch'd' 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.

Sic.

Mark you this, people? Cit. To the rock with him; 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 speak,
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.

1

season'd office,] All office established and settled by time,

and made familiar to the people by long use.

2

clutch'd-] i. e. grasp'd.

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't with saying, Good morrow.

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; 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 banish'd,

And so it shall be.

Com. Hear me, my masters, and my common

friends;

Sic. He's sentenc'd; no more hearing.

Let me speak:

Com.
I have been consul, and can show from 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

Envied against the people,] i. e. behaved with signs of hatred to the people.

4

My dear wife's estimate,] I love my country beyond the rate at which I value my dear wife.

Speak that-
Sic.

We know your drift: Speak what?

Bru. There's no more to be said, but he is ba

nish'd,

As enemy to the people, and his country:

It shall be so.

Cit.

It shall be so, it shall be so.

Cor. You common cry of curs! whose breath I

hate

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 not 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:

6

5 You common cry of curs!] Cry here signifies a troop or pack. Have the power still

To banish your defenders; till, at length,

Your ignorance, (which finds not, till it feels,) &c.] Still retain the power of banishing your defenders, till your undiscerning folly, which can foresee no consequences, leave none in the city but yourselves, who are always labouring your own destruction.

It is remarkable, that, among the political maxims of the speculative Harrington, there is one which he might have borrowed from this speech. The people, says he, cannot see, but they can feel. It is not much to the honour of the people, that they have the same character of stupidity from their enemy and their friend. Such was the power of our author's mind, that he looked through life in all its relations private and civil. JOHNSON.

7 Abated captives,] Abated is dejected, subdued, depressed in spirit.