Edi. List to your tribunes. Audience: peace! I

say.

Cor. First, hear me speak.

Both Tri.

Well, say.-Peace, ho!

Cor. Shall I be charg'd no farther than this pre

sent?

Must all determine here?

If

Sic.

I do demand,

you submit you to the people's voices,
Allow their officers, and are content
To suffer lawful censure for such faults
As shall be prov'd upon you?

Cor.

I am content.

Men. Lo, citizens! he says, he is content.

The warlike service he has done, consider;

Think upon the wounds his body bears, which show

Like graves i' the holy churchyard.

Cor.

Scars to move laughter only.

Men.

Scratches with briars;

Consider farther,

That when he speaks not like a citizen,
You find him like a soldier. Do not take
His rougher accents for malicious sounds,
But, as I say, such as become a soldier,

8

Rather than envy you.

Com.

Well, well; no more.

Cor. What is the matter,

That being pass'd for consul with full voice,

I am so dishonour'd, that the very hour

You take it off again?

Cor. Say then: 'tis true, I ought so.

Sic. We charge you, that you have contriv'd to take

From Rome all season'd office, and to wind

Yourself into a power tyrannical;

8 His rougher ACCENTS-] Actions in all the old copies, and properly corrected by Theobald.

For which you are a traitor to the people.
Cor. How! Traitor?

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 clutch'd 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.

Mark you this, people?

Cit. To the rock! to the rock with him!
Sic.

Peace!

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 th' extremest death.

Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,
Vagabond exile, flaying, pent to linger
But with a grain a day, I would not buy
Their mercy at the price of one fair word,

Nor check my courage for what they can give,
To have't with saying, good morrow.

Sic.

For that he has

(As much as in him lies) from time to time
Envied against the people, seeking means
To pluck away their power; as now at last
Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence
Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers

That do distribute it; in the name o' the people,
And in the power of us, the tribunes, we,

Even from this instant, banish him our city,
In peril of precipitation

From off the rock Tarpeian, never more

To enter our Rome gates. I' the people's name,
I say, it shall be so.

Cit. It shall be so, it shall be so: let him away.
He's banish'd, and it shall be so.

Com. Hear me, my masters, and my common

friends;

Sic. He's sentenc'd: 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, her womb's increase, And treasure of my loins; then, if I would Speak thatSic.

We know your drift. Speak what? Bru. There's no more to be said; but he is banish'd, As enemy to the people, and his country.

It shall be so.

Cit.

It shall be so: it shall be so.

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;

9

and can show FROM Rome,] Another instance of the licentious use of prepositions in Shakespeare's time—" from Rome," instead of for Rome. Theobald needlessly substituted for.

And here remain with your uncertainty.
Let every feeble rumour 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 not1o reservation of yourselves,
(Still your own foes) deliver you as most
Abated captives, to some nation

That won you without blows! Despising,
For you, the city, thus I turn my back.
There is a world elsewhere.

[Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, Menenius, Senators, and Patricians.

Ed. The people's enemy is gone, is gone!
Cit. Our enemy is banish'd! he is gone! Hoo! hoo!
[The People shout, and throw up their caps.

Sic. Go, see him out at gates; and follow him,
As he hath follow'd you, with all despite :
Give him deserv'd vexation. Let a guard
Attend us through the city.

Cit. Come, come; let us see him out at gates:

come.

The gods preserve our noble tribunes!-Come.

[Exeunt.

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.-The beast

10 Making NOT-] "Making but" in old copies. Capell's correction.

With many heads butts me away.-Nay, mother,
Where is your ancient courage? you were us'd
To say, extremity was the trier of spirits';
That common chances common men could bear;
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.

Vir. O heavens! O heavens !

Cor.

Nay, I pr'ythee, woman,―

Vol. Now, the red pestilence strike all trades in

Rome,

And occupations perish!

Cor.

What, what, what!

I shall be lov'd when I am lack'd. Nay, mother, Resume that spirit, when you were wont to say, you had been the wife of Hercules,

If

Six of his labours you'd have done, and sav'd
Your husband so much sweat.-Cominius,

Droop not: adieu.-Farewell, my wife! my mother!
I'll do well yet.-Thou old and true Menenius,
Thy tears are salter than a younger man's,

And venomous to thine eyes.-My sometime general,
I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld
Heart-hardening spectacles; tell these sad women,
"Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes,

As 'tis to laugh at 'em.-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

1 To say, EXTREMITY was the trier of spirits ;] So the second folio: the first has extremities. Malone, nevertheless, persevered in reading, "extremities was the trier of spirits."

2 A noble cunning.] The sense, observes Johnson, is, "When Fortune strikes her hardest blows, to be wounded and yet continue calm, requires a generous policy."