Those whose great power must try him; even

this,

So criminal and in such capital kind,

Deserves the extremest death.

80

But since he hath

What do you prate of service?

Bru. I talk of that, that know it.

Cor. You?

Men. Is this the promise that you made your

mother?

Com. Know, I pray you,

Cor.

Sic.

90

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.'
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 pres-

ence

100

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.

Citizens. It shall be so, it shall be so; let him away: He's banish'd, and it shall be so.

Com. Hear me, my masters, and my common friends,

Sic. He's sentenced; no more hearing.

Com.

Sic.

Let me speak:

I have been consul, and can show for Rome 110
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-

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

As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize
As the dead carcasses of unburied men

120

That do corrupt my air, I banish you;
And here remain with your uncertainty!
Let every feeble rumor shake your hearts!
Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
Fan you into despair! Have the power still

127-133. "Have the power blows"; Coriolanus imprecates upon the base plebeians that they may still retain the power of banishing their defenders, till their undiscerning folly, which can foresee no consequences, leave none in the city but themselves; so that for want of those capable of conducting their defense, they may fall

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:
There is a world elsewhere.

130

[Exeunt Coriolanus Cominius, Menenius, Senators and Patricians.

Ed. The people's enemy is gone, is gone! Citizens. Our enemy is banish'd! he is gone! Hoo! hoo!

[They all shout, and throw up their caps. Sic. Go, see him out at gates, and follow him, As he hath follow'd you, with all despite; Give him deserved vexation. Let a guard 140 Attend us through the city.

Citizens. Come, come, let's see him out at gates;

come.

The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come.

[Exeunt.

an easy prey to some nation who may conquer them without a struggle.-H. N. H.

130. "not"; Capell's correction of Ff., "but.”—I. G.

133-135. “Despising," etc.; "It is remarkable that, among the political maxims of the speculative Harrington, there is one that he might have borrowed from this speech:-'The people cannot see, but they can feel.' It is not much to the honor 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).— H. N. H.

ACT FOURTH

SCENE I

Rome. Before a gate of the city.

Enter Coriolanus, Volumnia, Virgilia, Menenius, Cominius, with the young Nobility of Rome.

Cor. Come, leave your tears; a brief farewell: the

beast

With many heads butts me away.

away. Nay,

mother,
Where is your ancient courage? you were used
To say extremity was the trier of spirits;
That common chances common men could bear;
That when the sea was calm all boats alike
Show'd mastership in floating; fortune's blows,
When most struck home, being gentle wounded,

craves

A noble cunning: you were used to load me
With precepts that would make invincible 10
The heart that conn'd them.

Vir. O heavens! O heavens!
Cor.

Nay, I prithee, woman,

7-9. "fortune's blows, When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves A noble cunning"; i. e. “When Fortune's blows are most struck home, to be gentle, although wounded, demands a noble philosophy" (Clarke). Pope, “gently warded"; Hanmer, "greatly warded"; Collier MS., "gentle-minded.”—I. G.

Vol. Now the red pestilence strike all trades in

Cor.

Rome,

And occupations perish!

What, what, what!

I shall be loved when I am lack'd. Nay,
mother,
Resume that spirit, when you were wont to say,
If you
had been the wife of Hercules,
Six of his labors you 'ld have done, and saved
Your husband so much sweat. Cominius,
Droop not; adieu. Farewell, my wife, my
mother.

20

I'll do well yet. Thou old and true Menenius,
Thy tears are salter than a younger man's,
And venomous to thine eyes. My sometime
general,

I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld
Heart-hardening spectacles; tell these sad

women,

"Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes,

As 'tis to laugh at 'em. My mother, you wot
well

My hazards still have been your solace: and
Believe 't not lightly-though I go alone,
Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen

30

Makes fear'd and talk'd of more than seen

your son

Will or exceed the common, or be caught
With cautelous baits and practice.

30. The "fen" is the dragon's pestilential abode, which is talked of and shunned.-H. N. H.

32. "common," has hazards understood.-H. N. H.