Their rotten privilege and custom 'gainst
My hate to Marcius: where I find him, were it
At home upon my brother's guard,* even there
Against the hospitable cannon, would I
Wash my fierce hand in his heart.

ACT II.

POPULARITY.

All tongues speak of him, and the bleared sights Are spectacled to see him: Your prattling nurse Into a rapturet lets her baby cry,

While she chats him: the kitchen malkint pins
Her richest lockram§ 'bout her reechy neck,
Clambering the walls to eye him: stalls, bulks, win-
dows.

Are smother'd up, leads fill'd, and ridges hors'd
With variable complexions; all agreeing

In earnestness to see him: seld T-shown flamens**
Do press among the popular throngs, and puff
To win a vulgar station:†† our veil'd dames
Commit the war of white and damask, in

Their nicely-gawded‡‡ cheeks, to the wanton spoil
Of Phoebus burning kisses: such a pother,

As if that whatsoever god, who leads him,
Were slily crept into his human powers,

And gave him graceful posture.

COMINIUS'S PRAISE OF CORIOLANUS IN THE SENATE.

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 ali praise I point at, saw him fight,

* My brother posted to protect him.
§ Best linen.
T Seldom.

++ Adorn'd

Fit. Maid,

Soiled with sweat and smoke.
** Priests. ++ Common standing-place

§§ Possessor.

When with his Amazonian chin* he drove
The bristledt 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 best man i' the field, and for his meed
Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupilage
Man entered 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 T
Was timed** with dying cries: alone he enter'd
The mortal gate o' the city, which he painted
With shunless destiny, aidless came off,
And with a sudden reinforcement 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
Requicken'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.

+ Smooth-faced enough to act a woman's part. § Reward. | Won. T Stroke. ** Followed. tt Wearied.

Neither supreme, how soon confusion
May enter 'twixt the gap of both, and take
The one by the other.

CHARACTER OF CORIOLANus.

His nature is too noble for the world:

He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
Or Jove for his power to thunder. His heart's his
mouth:

What his breast forges that his tongue must vent;
And, being angry, does forget that ever
He heard the name of death.

HONOUR AND POLICY.

I have heard you say,

Honour and policy, like unsever'd friends,
I'the war do grow together: grant that, and tell me
In peace, what each of them by th' other lose,
That they combine not there.

THE METHOD TO GAIN POPULAR FAVOUR.

Go to them, with this bonnet in thy hand; And thus far having stretch'd it, (here be with them;) Thy knee bussing the stones (for in such business Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant More learned than the ears,) waving thy head, Which often, thus, correcting thy stout heart, That humble, as the ripest mulberry,

Now will not hold the handling: Or, say to them,
Thou art their soldier, and being bred in broils,
Hast not the soft way, which, thou dost confess,
Were fit for thee to use, as they to claim,

In asking their good loves; but thou wilt frame
Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs, so far
As thou hast power, and person.

CORIOLANUS'S ABHORRENCE OF FLATTERY.
Well, I must do't:

Away, my disposition, and possess me

Some harlot's spirit! My throat of war be turn'd,

Which quired with my drum, into a pipe

Small as an eunuch, or the virgin voice

That babies lulls asleep! The smiles of knaves

Tent* in my cheeks; and school-boys' tears take up
The glasses of my sight! A beggar's tongue
Make motion through my lips; and my arm'd knees,
Who bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his
That hath receiv'd an alms!I will not do't:
Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth,
And, by my body's action, teach my mind
A most inherent baseness.

VOLUMNIA'S RESOLUTION ON THE PRIDE OP

CORIOLANUS.

At thy choice then:

To beg of thee, it is my more dishonour,
Than thou of them. Čome all to ruin; let
Thy mother rather feel thy pride, than fear
Thy dangerous stoutness; for I mock at death
With as big heart as thou.

Do as thou list.

Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck'dst it from me, But owet thy pride thyself.

CORIOLANUS'S DETESTATION OF THE VULGAR. You common cry of curse! 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 sumour 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!

ACT IV.

PRECEPT AGAINST ILL FORTUNE.

You were us❜d

To say, extremity was the trier of spirits:
That common chances common men could bear;

* Dwell. † Own. Pack § Vapour. Subdued.

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 us'd to load me
With precepts, that would make invincible
The heart that conn'd them.

ON COMMON FRIENDSHIPS.

O, world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast

sworn,

Whose double bosoms seem to wear one heart,
Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal, and exercise,
Are still together, who twin, as 'twere in love
Unseparable, shall within this hour,

On a dissention of a doit,* break out
To bitterest enmity: So fellest foes,

Whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleep

To take the one the other, by some chance,

Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends And interjoin their issues.

Let me twine

MARTIAL FRIENDSHIP.

Mine arms about that body, where against

My grained ash an hundred times.hath broke,

And scar'd the moon with splinters.

Here I clipt

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

Sigh'd truer breath: but that I see thee here,
Thou noble thing! more dances my wrapt 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,t
O lose mine arm for't: Thou hast beat me out§

* A small coin. † Embrace. Arm. § Full.