Cres. O, all you gods!-O pretty, pretty pledge! Of thee and me; and sighs, and takes my glove, As I kiss thee.--Nay, do not snatch it from me; Cres. You shall not have it, Diomed; 'faith, you shall I'll give you something else. Dio. I will have this; whose was it? Cres. 'Tis no matter. Dio. Come, tell me whose it was. [not; Cres. 'Twas one's that loved me better than you will. But, now you have it, take it. By Cressid's rule: rather think this not Cressin. Ulyss. What hath she done, prince, that can soil our mothers? Tro. Nothing at all, unless that this were she. Ther. Will he swagger himself out on's own eyes? Tro. This she? no, this is Diomed's Cressida. If beauty have a soul, this is not she; If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimony, If there be rule in unity itself, This was not she. O madness of discourse, The fractions of her faith, orts of her love, Hark, Greek; -as much as I do Cressid love, Ther. He'll tickle it for his concupy. Tro. O Cressid! O false Cressid! false, false, false Ulyss. O, contain yourself; Your passion draws ears hither. Enter CASSANDRA. Cas. Where is my brother Hector? And. Here, sister; arm'd, and bloody in intent. Consort with me in loud and dear petition, Pursue we him on knees; for I have dream'd Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaughter. Cas. O, it is true. Hect. Ho! bid my trumpet sound! Cas. No notes of sally for the heavens, sweet brother. Hect. Begone, I say: the gods have heard me swear, Cas. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows: And. O, be persuaded! do not count it holy For we would give much, to use violent thefts, And rob in the behalf of charity. Cas. It is the purpose that makes strong the vow; Hect. Hold you still, I say; Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate: How now, young man? mean'st thou to fight to-day? Tro. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you, Hect. What vice is that, good Troilus? chide me for it. Tro. When many times the captive Grecians fall, Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword, You bid them rise and live. Hect. O, 'tis fair play. Tro. Fool's play, by heaven, Hector. Hect. How now? how now? Tro. For the love of all the gods, Let's leave the hermit pity with our mother; Tro. Hector, then 'tis wars. Hect. Troilus, I would not have you fight to-day. Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars Their eyes o'ergalled with recourse of tears; Re-enter CASSANDRA, with PRIAM. Pri. Come, Hector, come, go back: Thy wife hath dream'd; thy mother hath had visions; Cassandra doth foresee; and I myself Am like a prophet suddenly enrapt, To tell thee that this day is ominous: Hect. Eneas is a-field; And I do stand engaged to many Greeks, Even in the faith of valour, to appear This morning to them. Pri. But thou shalt not go. Hect. I must not break my faith. You know me dutiful; therefore, dear Sir, Hect. Andromache, I am offended with you: [Exit AND. Tro. This foolish, dreaming, superstitious girl Makes all these bodements. Cas. O farewell, dear Hector! Look how thou diest! look how thy eye turns pale! Cas. Farewell-Yet, soft!-Hector, I take my leave: Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive. [Exit. Hect. You are amazed, my liege, at her exclaim: Go in and cheer the town: we'll forth and fight; Do deeds worth praise, and tell you them at night. Pan. Here's a letter from yon poor girl. Pan. A whoreson ptisick, a whoreson rascally ptisick so troubles me, and the foolish fortune of this girl; and what one thing, what another, that I shall leave you one o' these days: and I have a rheum in mine eyes too; and such an ache in my bones, that, unless a man were cursed, I cannot tell what to think on't.-What says she there? Tro. Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart; [Tearing the letter. The effect doth operate another way.Go, wind to wind, there turn and change together.My love with words and errors still she feeds; But edifies another with her deeds. [Exeunt severally. SCENE IV. Between TROY and the Grecian Camp. Alarums: Excursions. Enter THERSITES. Ther. Now they are clapper-clawing one another; I'll go look on. That dissembling abominable varlet, Diomed, has got that same scurvy doting foolish young knave's slecve of Troy there, in his helm: I would fain see them meet; that that same young Trojan ass, that loves the whore there, might send that Greekish whoremasterly villain, with the sleeve, back to the dissembling luxurious drab, on a sleeveless errand. O' the other side, the policy of those crafty swearing rascals, -that stale old mouse-eaten dry cheese, Nestor, and that same dog-fox, Ulysses,-is not proved worth a blackberry-they set me up, in policy, that mongrel cur, Ajax, against that dog of as bad a kind, Achilles: and now is the cur Ajax prouder than the cur Achilles, and will not arm to-day; whereupon the Grecians begin to proclaim barbarism, and policy grows into an ill opinion.-Soft! here comes sleeve and t' other. Enter DIOMEDES, TROILUS following. Tro. Fly not; for, shouldst thou take the river Styx, I would swim after. Dio. Thou dost miscall retire: I do not fly; but advantageous care Ther. Hold thy whore, Grecian!-now for thy whore, Trojan!-now the sleeve, now the sleeve! [Exeunt TROILUS and DIOMEDES fighting. And bid the snail-paced Ajax arm for shame.— That what he will, he does; and does so much, Enter ULYSSES. Ulyss. O, courage, courage, princes! great Achilles Is arming, weeping, cursing, vowing vengeance: Patroclus' wounds have roused his drowsy blood, Together with his mangled Myrmidons, That noseless, handless, hack'd and chipp'd, come to With such a careless force and forceless care, Mar. Turn, slave, and fight. Mar. A bastard son of Priam's. Ther. I am a bastard too; I love bastards: I am a bastard begot, bastard instructed, bastard in mind. bastard in valour, in everything illegitimate. One bear will not bite another, and wherefore should one bastard? Take heed, the quarrel's most ominous to us: if the son of a whore fight for a whore, he tempts judgment: farewell, bastard. Mar. The devil take thee, coward! SCENE IX.-The same. Enter HECTOR. [Exeunt. Hect. Most putrified core, so fair without, Achil. Look, Hector, how the sun begins to set; Hect. I am unarm'd; forego this vantage, Greek. Achil. Strike, fellows, strike; this is the man I seek. [HECTOR falls. So, Ilion, fall thou next! now, Troy, sink down! [A retreat sounded, Hark! a retreat upon our Grecian part. Come, tie his body to my horse's tail; SCENE X.-The same. [Exeunt. Tro. You understand me not that tell me so: Let him that will a screech-owl aye be call'd, Thus proudly pight upon our Phrygian plains, I'll through and through you!-And, thou great-sized I'll haunt thee like a wicked conscience still, [Exeunt ENEAS and Trojans. 18 TROILUS is going out, enter from the other side PANDARUS. Pan. But hear you, hear you! Tro. Hence, broker lackey! ignomy and shame Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy rame. [Exit TROILUS. Pan. A goodly medicine for my aching bones!-0 world! world! world! thus is the poor agent despised! O traitors and bawds, how earnestly are you set a' work, and how ill requited! Why should our endeavour be so loved, and the performance so loathed? what verse for it? what instance for it?-Let me see: Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing, Good traders in the flesh, set this in your painted cloths. Some two months hence my will shall here be made: [Exit. CORIOLANU S. DRAMATIS PERSONE. CAIUS MARCIUS CORIOLANUS, a noble Roman. COMINICS, } Generals against the Volscians. MENENIUS AGRIPPA, Friend to CORIOLANUS. SICINIUS VELUTUS, Tribunes of the People. Young MARCIUS, Son to CORIOLANUS. A Roman Herald. TULLUS AUFIDIUS, General of the Volscians. Lieutenant to AUFIDIUS. Conspirators with AUFIDIUS. A Citizen of Antium. Two Volscian Guards. VOLUMNIA, Mother to CORIOLANUS. Gentlewoman, attending on VIRGILIA. Roman and Volscian Senators, Patricians, Ediles, Lictors, Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, Servants to AUFIDIUS, and other Attendants. SCENE,-Partly in Rome, and partly in the Territories of the Volscians and Antiates. 1 Cit. First, you know Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the people. Cit. We know 't, we know 't. 1 Cit. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price. Is't a verdict? Cit. No more talking on 't; let it be done: away, away. 2 Cit. One word, good citizens. 1 Cit. We are accounted poor citizens; the patricians, good. What authority surfeits on would relieve us: if they would yield us but the superfluity, while it were wholesome, we might guess they relieved us humanely; but they think we are too dear: the leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an inventory to particularise their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes: for the gods know I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge. 2 Cit. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius? Cit. Against him first; he's a very dog to the commonalty. 2 Cit. Consider you what services he has done for his country. 1 Cit. Very well; and could be content to give him good report for 't, but that he pays himself with being proud. 2 Cit. Nay, but speak not maliciously. 1 Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he I did it to that end: though soft-conscienced men can be content to say it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud; which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue. 2 Cit. What he cannot help in his nature, you account a vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous. 1 Cit. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations; he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts within.] What shouts are these? The other side o' the city is risen: why stay we prating here? to the Capitol! Cit. Come, come. 1 Cit. Soft! who comes here? Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA. The gods, not the patricians, make it; and Thither where more attends you; and you slander 1 Cit. Care for us!-True, indeed!--They ne'er cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their store-houses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich; and provide more piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there's all the love they bear us. Men. Either you must Confess yourselves wondrous malicious, Or be accused of folly. I shall tell you A pretty tale: it may be you have heard it; But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture 1 Cit. Well, I'll hear it, Sir; yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale: but, an 't please you, deliver. Men. There was a time when all the body's members I' the midst o' the body, idle and inactive, Like labour with the rest; where the other instruments 1 Cit. Well, Sir, what answer made the belly? To the discontented members, the mutinous parts 1 Cit. Your belly's answer? What! 'Fore me, this fellow speaks!-what then? what then? 1 Cit. Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd, Who is the sink o' the body,- If you'll bestow a small (of what you have little) Your most grave belly was deliberate, Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer'd:- Of the whole body: but, if you do remember, I send it through the rivers of your blood, Even to the court, the heart,-to the seat o' the brain; You, my good friends," this says the belly, mark me,— 1 Cit. Ay, Sir; well, well. Men. "Though all at once cannot See what I do deliver out to each, And leave me but the bran." What say you to 't? 1 Cit. I the great toe? Why the great toe? Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st foremnost: Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run, Lead'st first to win some vantage. Bat make you ready your stiff bats and clubs; Mar. Thanks.-What's the matter, you dissentious That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, [rogues, Make yourselves scabs? 1 Cit. We have ever your good word. Mar. He that will give good words to thee, will flatter Beneath abhorring.-What would you have, you curs, That like nor peace nor war? the one affrights you, The other makes you proud. He that trusts you, Where he should find you lions, finds you hares; Where foxes, geese: you are no surer, no, Than is the coal of fire upon the ice, Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is, To make him worthy whose offence subdues him, A sick man's appetite, who desires most that And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye? And call him noble that was now your hate, Him vile that was your garland. What's the matter, That in these several places of the city You cry against the noble senate, who, Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else Would feed on one another?-What's their seeking? Men. For corn at their own rates; whereof, they say, The city is well stored. Mar. Hang 'em! they say? They'll sit by the fire, and presume to know Would the nobility lay aside their ruth, And let me use my sword, I'd make a quarry Men. Nay, these are almost thoroughly persuaded; Mar. They are dissolved: hang 'em! They said they were a-hungry: sigh'd forth proverbs, And make bold power look pale,) they threw their caps Men. What is granted them? Mar. Five tribunes to defend their vulgar wisdoms, Of their own choice: one's Junius Brutus, Sicinius Velutus, and I know not-'Sdeath! The rabble should have first unroof'd the city, Ere so prevail'd with me: it will in time Win upon power, and throw forth greater themes For insurrection's arguing. Men. This is strange. Mar. Go, get you home, you fragments! Enter a Messenger. Mess. Where's Caius Marcius? Mess. The news is, Sir, the Volsces are in arms. Enter COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, and other Senators; JUNIUS BRUTUS and SICINIUS VELUTUS. 1 Sen. Marcius, 'tis true that you have lately told us— The Volsces are in arms. Mar. They have a leader, Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to 't I sin in envying his nobility: I would wish me only he. Com. You have fought together. |