The anvil of my sword; and do contest
As hotly and as nobly with thy love,
As ever in ambitious strength I did
Contend against thy valour. Know thou first,
I loved the maid I married; never man
Sighed truer breath; but that I see thee here,
Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart,
Than when I first my wedded mistress saw
Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell thee,
We have a power on foot; and I had purpose
Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn,
Or lose mine arm for't: Thou hast beat me out
Twelve several times, and I have nightly since
Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me;
We have been down together in my sleep,
Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat,
And wak'd half dead with nothing. ; Worthy Mar-

i cius,
Had we no quarrel else to Rome, but that
Thou art thence banish'd, we would muster all
From twelve to seventy; and, pouring war
Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,
Like a bold flood o'er-beat. O, come, go in,
And take our friendly senators by the hands;
Who now are here, taking their leaves of me,
Who am prepar'd against your territories,
Though not for Rome itself.
Cor.

You bless me, Gods!
Auf. Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt

..have The leading of thine own revenges, take

? The one half of iny commission; and set down, As best thou art experienc'd, since tlou know'st Thy country's strength and weakness,-thine own

ways:

Thou hast heat me out
Twelve sereral times,] Out here means, full, complete.

Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,
Or rudely visit them in parts remoté,
To fright them, ere destroy. - But come in: .'
Let me commend thee first to thosè, that shall .
Say, yea, to thy desires. A thousand welcomes !
And more a friend than e'er an enemy;
Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand! Most
.. welcome! :

xeunt CORIOLANUS and Aufidius. I Serv. [ Advancing.) Here's a strange alteration !

2 Serv. By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me, his clothes made a false report of him."

1 Serv. What an arín he has! He turned me about with his finger and his thumb, as one would set up a top.

2 Serv. Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him: He had, sir, a. kind of face, methought, - I cannot tell how to term it. t. is . 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.

I 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 Marciųs. · 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 hinself.:

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 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 down all before him, and leave his passage polled.'

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.

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: 'tis, 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 spritely, waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children, than wars a de. stroyer of men. .: 2 Serv. 'Tis 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.

• Hell -owle,the ] Skinner says this word is derived from sow, i. e. to take hold of a person by the ears, as a dog seizes one of these animals.

T h is passage polled.] That is, bared, cleared. li. full of vent.) Full of rumour, full of materials for

discourse. i 'mulled,] i. e. softened and dispirited, as wine is when burnt and sweetened.

I 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 Volscians. They are rising, they are rising. All. In, in, in, in.

[Exeunt.

are

SCENE VI.
Rome. A publick 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
Blush, that the world goes well; who rather had,
Though they themselves did suffer by't, behold
Dissentious numbers pestering streets, thạn see
Our tradesmen singing in their shops, and going
About their functions friendly.

Enter Menenius. Bru. We stood to't in good time. Is this Me

nenius? Sic. 'Tis he, 'tis he: 0, he is grown most kind Of late.- Hail, sir ! Men.

Hail to you both! Sic. Your Coriolanus, sir, is not much miss'd, But with his friends; the common-wealth doth stand; And so would do, were he more angry at it. i Men. All's well; and might have been much

better, if

. 4 His remedies are tame i' the present peacem] i, e, ineffectual in times of peace like these.