Yourself into a power tyrannical; For which, you are a traitor to the people. Men. Nay; temperately: your promise. Cor. The fires i' the lowest hell fold in the people! Call me their traitor!-Thou injurious tribune! Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths, In thy hands clutched as many millions, in Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say, Thou liest, unto thee, with a voice as free As I do pray the gods. Sic. Peace. Mark you this, people? Cit. To the rock; to the rock with him! Sic. We need not put new matter to his charge. What you have seen him do, and heard him speak, Beating your officers, cursing yourselves, Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying Those whose great power must try him; even this, So criminal, and in such capital kind, Deserves the extremest death. Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death, Sic. For that he has (As much as in him lies) from time to time 1 Envied against the people, seeking means 2 To pluck away their power; as now at last That do distribute it; in the name o' the people, And in the power of us the tribunes, we, From off the rock Tarpeian, never more To enter our Rome gates. I' the people's name, Cit. It shall be so, it shall be so let him away. Com. Hear me, my masters, and my common friends; Sic. He's sentenced; no more hearing. Com. Let me speak. I have been consul, and can show from Rome, 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,5 her womb's increase, And treasure of my loins; then if I would Speak that Sic. We know your drift; speak what? Bru. There's no more to be said, but he is banished, As enemy to the people, and his country. It shall be so. Cit. It shall be so, it shall be so. 6 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 That do corrupt my air, I banish you; 1 Showed hatred. 2 As may here be a misprint for has or and; or it may signify as well as; such elliptical modes of expression are not uncommon. 3 Not is here again used for not only. 4 i. e. received in her service, or on her account. 5 "I love my country beyond the rate at which I value my dear wife," &c. 6 Cry here signifies a pack. And here remain with your uncertainty! That won you without blows! Despising, There is a world elsewhere. [Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENENIUS, Ed. The people's enemy is gone, is gone! Hoo! hoo! [The people shout, and throw up their caps. Sic. Go, see him out at gates, and follow him, Attend us through the city. Cit. Come, come, let us see him out at gates; come. The gods preserve our noble tribunes!-Come. [Exeunt. 1 Thus in the old copy. Malone, following Capell, changed this line to 66 Making not reservation of yourselves," &c. Dr. Johnson's explanation of the text is as correct as his subsequent remark upon it is judicious. 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. 2 Abated is overthrown, depressed. ACT IV. SCENE I. The same. Before a Gate of the City. Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, and several young Patricians. Cor. Come, leave your tears; a brief farewell.- With many heads butts me away.-Nay, mother, The heart that conned them. Vir. O Heavens! O Heavens ! Cor. Nay, I pr'ythee, woman,― What, what, what! Vol. Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome, And occupations perish! Cor. I shall be loved when I am lacked. Nay, mother, If you had been the wife of Hercules, Six of his labors you'd have done, and saved Droop not; adieu.-Farewell, my wife! my mother! And venomous to thine eyes.-My sometime general, 1 This is the reading of the second foliò; the first folio reads, extremities was, &c. 2 "When fortune strikes her hardest continue calm, requires a noble wisdom." sense by Shakspeare. blows, to be wounded, and yet Cunning is often used in this Heart-hardening spectacles; tell these sad women, 'Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes, As 'tis to laugh at them.-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 Makes feared, and talked of more than seen,) your son Will, or exceed the common, or be caught With cautelous 2 baits and practice. My first son, Vol. Cor. O the gods! Com. I'll follow thee a month, devise with thee Fare ye well; Cor. Men. That's worthily As any ear can hear. Come, let's not weep.- 1 Foolish. 2 Cautelous here means insidious. 3 i. e. noblest. 4 Exposure; for which it is probably a typographical error. 5 i. e. of true metal. The metaphor from the touchstone for trying metals, is common in Shakspeare. |