The same.

SCENE II.

The Capitol. Enter two Officers, to lay cushions. 1 Off. Come, come, they are almost here: How many stand for consulships?

2 Off Three, they say: but 'tis thought of every one, Coriolanus will carry it.

1 Off. That's a brave fellow; but he's vengeance proud, and loves not the common people.

2 Off: 'Faith, there have been many great men that have flattered the people, who ne'er loved them; and there be many that they have loved, they know not wherefore so that, if they love they know not why, they hate upon no better ground: Therefore, for Coriolanus neither to care whether they love, or hate him, manifests the true knowledge he has in their disposition; and, out of his noble carelessness, lets them plainly see't.

1 Off. If he did not care whether he had their love, or no, he waved indifferently 3 twixt doing them neither good, nor harm; but he seeks their hate with greater devotion than they can render it him; and leaves nothing undone, that may fully discover him their opposite. Now, to seem to affect the malice and displeasure of the people, is as bad as that which he dislikes, to flatter them for their love.

2 Off. He hath deserved worthily of his country: And his ascent is not by such easy degrees as those, who, having been supple and courteous to the people, bonnetted, 4 without any further deed to heave them at all into their estimation and report: but he hath so planted his honours in their eyes, and his actions in their hearts, that for their tongues to be silent, and not confess so much, were a kind of ingrateful injury; to report otherwise, were a malice, that, giving itself the lie, would pluck reproof and rebuke from every ear that heard it."

1 Off. No more of him; he is a worthy man : Make way, they are coming.

A Sennet. Enter, with Lictors before them, COMINIUS the Consul, MENENIUS, CORIOLANUS, many other Senators, SiCINIUS and BRUTUS. The Senators take their places; the Tribunes. take theirs also by themselves.

Men. Having determin'd of the Volces, and

To send for Titus Lartius, it remains,

31 He waved-that is, he would have waved indifferently. JOHNS. [4] Bonnetter, Fr. is to pull off one's cap. M. MASON.

As the main point of this our after-meeting,

To gratify his noble service, that

Hath thus stood for his country: Therefore, please you,
Most reverend and grave elders, to desire
The present consul, and last general
In our well-found successes, to report
A little of that worthy work perform'd
By Caius Marcius Coriolanus; whom

We meet here, both to thank, and to remember
With honours like himself.

1 Sen. Speak, good Cominius :

Leave nothing out for length, and make us think,
Rather our state's defective for requital,
Than we to stretch it out.

Masters o'the people,

We do request your kindest ears; and, after,
Your loving motion toward the common body, 5
To yield what passes here.

Sic. We are convented

Upon a pleasing treaty; and have hearts
Inclinable to honour and advance

The theme of our assembly.

Bru. Which the rather

We shall be bless'd to do, if he remember
A kinder value of the people, than

He hath hereto priz'd them at.

Men. That's off, that's off ;6

I would you rather had been silent: Please you
To hear Cominius speak?

Bru. Most willingly:

But yet my caution was more pertinent,
Than the rebuke you give it.

Men. He loves your people ;

But tie him not to be their bedfellow.

Worthy Cominius, speak,-Nay, keep your place. [CORIOLANUs rises, and offers to go away.

1 Sen. Sit, Coriolanus; never shame to hear What you have nobly done.

Cor. Your honours' pardon;

I had rather have my wounds to heal again,
Than hear say how I got them.

Bru. Sir, I hope,

My words dis-bench'd you not.

Cor. No, sir: yet oft,

When blows have made me stay, I fled from words.

You sooth'd not, therefore hurt not: But, your people, I love them as they weigh.

Men. Pray now, sit down.

Cor. I had rather have one scratch my head i'the sun, When the alarum were struck, than idly sit To hear my nothings monster'd.

Men. Masters o'the people,

[Exit COR.

Your multiplying spawn how can he flatter,'

(That's thousand to one good one,) when you now see, He had rather venture all his limbs for honour,

Than one of his ears to hear it ?-Proceed, Cominius.
Com. I shall lack voice: the deeds of Coriolanus
Should not be utter'd feebly.-It is held,

That valour is the chiefest virtue, and
Most dignifies the haver: if it be,
The man I speak of cannot in the world
Be singly counterpois'd. At sixteen years,
When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he fought
Beyond the mark of others: our then dictator,
Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight,
When with his Amazonian chin3 he drove
The bristled lips before him he bestrid
An o'er press'd Roman, and i'the consul's view
Slew three opposers: Tarquin's self he met,
And struck him on his knee: in that day's feats,
When he might act the woman in the scene,

He prov'd the best man i'the field, and for his meed
Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil age
Man-enter'd thus, he waxed like a sea;

And, in the brunt of seventeen battles since,

He lurch'd all swords o'the garland. For this last,
Before and in Corioli, let me say,

I cannot speak him home: He stopp'd the fliers ;
And, by his rare example, made the coward
Turn terror into sport as waves before

A vessel under sail, so men obey'd,

And fell below his stem: his sword (death's stamp)
Where it did mark, it took; from face to foot
He was a thing of blood, whose every motion
Was timed with dying cries: alone he enter'd
The mortal gate o'the city, which he painted

[1] How can he be expected to practise flattery to others, who abhors it so much, that he cannot hear it when even offered to himself. JOHNS. [2] When Tarquin raised a power to recover Rome, JOHNS [3] That is, his chin on which there was no beard.

STEEV

[4] To lurch, in Shakspeare's time, signified to win a maiden set at cards.

With shunless destiny, aidless came off,
And with a sudden re-inforcement struck
Corioli, like a planet : Now all's his :
When by and by the din of war 'gan pierce
His ready sense: then straight his doubled spirit
Re-quicken'd what in flesh was fatigate,
And to the battle came he; where he did
Run reeking o'er the lives of men, as if
'Twere a perpetual spoil: and, till we call'd
Both field and city ours, he never stood
To ease his breast with panting.

Men. Worthy man!

1 Sen. He cannot but with measure fit the honours 5 Which we devise him.

Com. Our spoils he kick'd at ;

And look'd upon things precious, as they were
The common muck o'the world: he covets less
Than misery itself would give; rewards
His deeds with doing them; and is content
To spend the time, to end it.

Men. He's right noble ;

Let him be call'd for.

Sen. Call Coriolanus.

Off. He doth appear.

Re-enter CORIOLANUS.

Men. The senate, Coriolanus, are well pleas'd To make thee consul.

Cor. I do owe them still

My life, and services.

Men. It then remains,

That you do speak to the people.7

Cor. I do beseech you,

Let me o'erleap that custom; for I cannot

Put on the gown, stand naked, and entreat them,

[5] That is, no honour will be too great for him; he will show a mind equal to any elevation. JOHNS.

[6] Misery for avarice; because a miser signifies avaricious.

WARB.

[7] Coriolanus was banished U. C. 262. But till the time of Manlius Torquatus, U. C. 393, the senate chose both the consuls: And then the people, assisted by the seditious temper of the tribunes, got the choice of one. But it would be unjust to attribute this entirely to Shakspeare's ignorance; it sometimes proceeded from the too powerful blaze of his imagination, which when once lighted up, made all acquired knowledge fade and disappear before it. For sometimes again we find him, when occasion serves, not only writing up to the truth of history, but fitting his sentiments to the nicest manners of his peculiar subject, as well as to the dignity of his characters, or the dictates of nature in general. WARB.The inaccuracy is to be attributed not to our author, but to Plutarch. North's translation, p. 244. MAL..

For my wounds' sake, to give their suffrage: please you, That I may pass this doing.

Sic. Sir, the people

Must have their voices; neither will they bate

One jot of ceremony.

Men. Put them not to't.

Pray you, go fit you to the custom; and

Take to you, as your predecessors have,
Your honour with your form.

Cor. It is a part

That I shall blush in acting, and might well
Be taken from the people.

Bru. Mark you that?

Cor. To brag unto them,-Thus I did, and thus ;Show them the unaking scars, which I should hide, As if I had receiv'd them for the hire

Of their breath only :

Men. Do not stand upon't.

-We recommend to you, tribunes of the people, Our purpose to them ;-and to our noble consul Wish we all joy and honour.

Sen. To Coriolanus come all joy and honour! [Flourish. Then exeunt senators. Bru. You see how he intends to use the people. Sic. May they perceive his intent! He that will require them,

As if he did contemn what he requested

Should be in them to give.

Bru. Come, we'll inform them

Of our proceedings here: on the market-place,

I know, they do attend us.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Enter several Citizens.

The same. The Forum.

1 Cit. Once, if he do require our voices, we ought not to deny him.

2 Cit. We may, sir, if we will.

3 Cit. We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do: for if he show us his wounds, and tell us his deeds, we are to put our tongues into those wounds, and speak for them; so, if he tell us his noble deeds, we must also tell him our noble acceptance of them. Ingratitude is monstrous and for the multitude to be ingrateful, were to make a monster