= = The helms o'the state, who care for you like fathers, 1 Cil. 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 and 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 p, they will; and there's all the love they bear us. Men. Either you must Confess yourselves wondrous malicious, Or be accus'd of folly. I shall tell you A pretty tale; it may be, you have heard it; 1 Cit. Well, I'll hear it, sir; yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace2 with a tale: but, an't please you, deliver. Men. There was a time, when all the body's members Rebell'd against the belly; thus accus'd it :- Like labour with the rest; where the other instru ments Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, 1 Cit. Well, sir, what answer made the belly? 1 Cit. Your belly's answer: What! The kingly crowned head, the vigilant eye, The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier, Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter, With other muniments and pretty helps In this our fabric, if that they Men. What then? '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 Men. Well, what then? 1 Cit. The former agents, if they did complain, What could the belly answer? Men. I will tell you; If you'll bestow a small (of what you have little,) Patience a while, you'll hear the belly's answer." 1 Cit. You are long about it. Men. Note me this, good friend; Your most grave belly was deliberate, Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer'd: True is it, my incorporate friends, quoth he, That I receive the general food at first, Which you do live upon and fit it is; Because I am the store-house, and the shop Of the whole body: But if you do remember, Isend it through the rivers of your blood, Even to the court, the heart,to the seat o'the Whereby they live: And though that all at once, me, 1 Cit. Ay, sir; well, well. Men. Though all at once cannot See what I do deliver out to each ; Yet I can make my audit up, that all From me do back receive the flower of all, And leave me but the bran. What say you to't? 1 Cit. It was an answer: How apply you this? Men. The senators of Rome are this good belly, And you the mutinous members: For examine Their counsels, and their cares; digest things rightly, Touching the weal o'the common; you shall find, But it proceeds, or comes, from them to you, 1 Cit. I the great toe? Why the great toe? Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st foremost: But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs; 6 ness, Deserves your hate: and your affections are With every minute you do change a mind; That in these several places of the city Mar. Hang 'em! They say? presume to know They'll sit by the fire, and give out Conjectural marriages; making parties strong, And feebling such as stand not in their liking, (4) Exactly. (5) Windings. (6) Bane. 1 Sen. Hence! To your homes, be gone. [To the Citizens, Mar. Nay, let them follow: The Volces have much corn; take these rats thither, To gna. their garners :-Worshipful mutineers, Your valour puts well forth: pray follow. [Exeunt Senators, Com. Mar. Tit. and Menen. Citizens steal away. Sic. Was ever man so proud as is this Marcius? Bru. He has no equal. Sic. When we were chosen tribunes for the people, Bru. Mark'd you his lip, and eyes? Sic. gods. Sic. Be-mock the modest moon. Bru. The present wars devour him: he is grown Too proud to be so valiant. Sic. Such a nature, Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow Which he treads on at noon: But I do wonder, His insolence can brook to be commanded Under Cominius. Bru. Fame, at the which he aims,In whom already he is well graced, cannot Better be held, nor more attain'd, than by A place below the first; for what miscarries Shall be the general's fault, though he perform To the utmost of a man; and giddy censure Will then cry out of Marcius, O, if he Had borne the business! Sic. Besides, if things go well, Opinion, that so sticks on Marcius, shall Of his demerits' rob Cominius. Bru. Come: SCENE II-Corioli. The Senate-house. Enter Tullus Aufidius, and certain Senators. 1 Sen. So, your opinion is, Aufidius, That they of Rome are enter'd in our counsels, Auf. (8) Shows itself. (9) Sneer. (10) Demerits and merits had anciently the same meaning. (11) Pre-occupation. Auf. And keep your honours safe! 1 Sen. 2 Sen. All. Farewell. Vir. 'Beseech you, give me leave to retire myself. Vol. Indeed, you shall not. Methinks, I hear hither your husband's drum; As children from a bear, the Volces shunning him: Vir. His bloody brow! O, Jupiter, no blood! [Exil Gent. Val. My ladies both, good day to you. Vir. I am glad to see your ladyship. Val. How do you both? you are manifest housekeepers. What, are you sewing here? A fine spot,* in good faith.-How does your little son? Vir. I thank your ladyship; well, good madam. Vol. He had rather see the swords, and hear a drum, that look upon his school-master. Vol. One of his father's moods. Farewell. Val. O'my word, the father's son: I'll swear, 'tis Farewell. a very pretty boy. O'my troth, I look'd upon him [Exeunt. o'Wednesday half an hour together: he has such a confirmed countenance. I saw him run after a SCENE III.—Rome. An apartment in Marcius' gilded butterfly; and when he caught it, he let it house. Enter Volumnia, and Virgilia: They go again; and after it again; and over and over sit down on two low stools, and sew. he comes, and up again; catched it again: or Vol. I pray you, daughter, sing; or express your-whether his fall enraged him, or how 'twas, he did self in a more comfortable sort: If my son were so set his teeth, and tear it; O, I warrant, how he my husband, I should freelier rejoice in that ab- mammocked it! sence wherein he won honour, that in the embracements of his bed, where he would show most love. When yet he was but tender-bodied, and the only son of my womb; when youth with comeliness plucked all gaze his way;2 when, for a day of king's entreaties, a mother should not sell him an hour from her beholding; I,-considering how honour would become such a person; that it was no better than picture-like to hang by the wall, if renown made it not stir,-was pleased to let him seek danger where he was like to find fame. To a cruel war I sent him; from whence he returned, his brows bound with oak. I tell thee, daughter,-I sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child, than now in first seeing he had proved himself a Val. Come, lay aside your stitchery; I must have you play the idle huswife with me this afternoon. Vir. No, good madam; I will not out of doors. Vir. Indeed, no, by your patience: I will not over the threshold, till my lord return from the wars. Val. Fie, you confine yourself most unreasonably; come, you must go visit the good lady that lies in. Vir. I will wish her speedy strength, and visit her with my prayers; but I cannot go thither. Vol. Why, I pray you? Vir. 'Tis not to save labour, nor that I want love. Val. You would be another Penelope : yet, they sav, all the yarn she spun, in Ulysses' absence, did but fill Ithaca full of moths. Come; I would, your cambric were sensible as your finger, that you might leave pricking it for pity. Come, you shall go with us. Vir. No, good madam, pardon me; indeed, I will not forth. Val. In truth, la, go with me; and I'll tell you excellent news of your husband. Vir. O, good madam, there can be none yet. Val. Verily, I do not jest with you; there came news from him last night. Vir. Indeed, madam? Val. In earnest, it's true; I heard a senator speak it. Thus it is:-The Volces have an army forth; against whom Cominius the general is gone, with one part of our Roman power: your lord, and Titus Lartius, are set down before their city Corioli; they nothing doubt prevailing, and to make it brief wars. This is true, on mine honour; and so, I pray, go with us. Vir. Give me excuse, good madam; I will obey you in every thing hereafter. Vol. Let her alone, lady; as she is now, she will but disease our better mirth. Val. In troth, I think, she would:-Fare you well then.-Come, good sweet lady.-Pr'ythee, Virgilia, turn thy solemness out o'door and go along with us. not. I wish you much mirth. They do disdain us much beyond our thoughts, Alarum, and exeunt Romans and Volces, fighting. You shames of Rome! you herd of-Boils and Vir. No: at a word, madam; indeed, I must Or, by the fires of heaven, I'll leave the foe, Val. Well, then farewell. Mar. Yonder comes news:-A wager, they have met. Lart. For half a hundred years.-Summon the town. Within this mile and half. ours. Now, Mars, I pr'ythee, make us quick in work; To help our fielded2 friends!-Come, blow thy blast. Tullus Aufidius, is he within your walls? Rather than they shall pound us up: our gates, rushes; They'll open of themselves. Hark you, far off; The Voices enter, and pass over the stage. (1) Short. The Volces and Romans reenter, and the fight is renewed. The Volces retire into Corioli, and Marcius follows them to the gates. So, now the gates are ope:-Now prove good 'Tis for the followers fortune widens them, 3 Sol. Nor I. See, they [Alarum continues. To the pot, I warrant him. Lart. What is become of Marcius? Slain, sir, doubtless. Even to Cato's wish, not fierce and terrible Were feverous and did tremble. Re-enter Marcius bleeding, assaulted by the enemy. SCENE V.-Within the town. A street. En- 1 Rom. This I will carry to Rome. 2 Rom. And I this. 3 Rom. A murrain on't! I took this for silver. [Alarum continues still afar off. (4) When it is bent. Worthy sir, thou bleed'st; Thy exercise hath been too violent for A second course of fight. Sir, praise me not: My work hath yet not warrn'd me : Fare you well. Than dangerous to me: To Aufidius thus Mar. How is't with Titus Lartius? Mar. As with a man busied about decrees: Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash, Mar. Let him alone, He did inform the truth : But for our gentlemen, The common file, (A plague!-Tribunes for them!) The mouse ne'er shunn'd the cat, as they did budge From rascals worse than they. Com. But how prevail'd you? Mar. Will the time serve to tell? I do not think Where is the enemy? Are you lords of the field? ter Cominius and forces, retreating. Com. Breathe you, my friends; well fought, we are come off Like Romans, neither foolish in our stands, Mess. Above an hour, my lord. Mar How lies their battle? Know you on which side They have plac'd their men of trust? I do beseech you, Com. Though I could wish You were conducted to a gentle bath, And balms applied to you, yet dare I never Deny your asking; take your choice of those That best can aid your action. Mar. Those are they Com. 'Tis not a mile; briefly we heard their That most are willing:-If any such be here How could'st thou in a mile confound an hour, drums: (As it were sin to doubt,) that love this painting If any think, brave death outweighs bad life, And follow Marcius. [They all shout, and wave their swords; take him up in their arms, and cast up their caps. O me, alone! Make you a sword of me? If these shows be not outward, which of you But is four Volces? None of you but is |