Of the same house Publius and Quintus were,
That our best water brought by conduits hither;
[And Censorinus, darling of the people,]
And nobly nam'd so, twice being censor,

Was his great ancestor.

Sic.
One thus descended,
That hath beside well in his person wrought
To be set high in place, we did commend
To your remembrances; but you have found,
Scaling his present bearing with his past,
That he 's your fixed enemy, and revoke
Your sudden approbation.

Bru.

Say, you ne'er had done 't,

(Harp on that still) but by our putting on;

And presently, when you have drawn your number,

This mutiny were better put in hazard,
Than stay, past doubt, for greater.
If, as his nature is, he fall in rage

With their refusal, both observe and answer

The vantage of his anger.

Sic.

To the Capitol:

Come, we 'll be there before the stream o' the people;
And this shall seem, as partly 't is, their own,

Which we have goaded onward.

ACT III.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I.

The Same. A Street.

Cornets. Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, TITUS
LARTIUS, Senators, and Patricians.

Cor. Tullus Aufidius, then, had made new head?
Lart. He had, my lord; and that it was, which caus'd

Our swifter composition.

Cor. So then, the Volsces stand but as at first;
Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road
Upon us again.

Lart. On safe-guard he came to me; and did curse

Against the Volsces, for they had so vilely

Yielded the town: he is retir'd to Antium.

Cor. Spoke he of me?

Lart.

Cor.

He did, my lord.

How? what?

Lart. How often he had met you, sword to sword;
That of all things upon the earth he hated

Your person most; that he would pawn his fortunes
To hopeless restitution, so he might

Be call'd your vanquisher.

Cor.

Lart. At Antium.

At Antium lives he?

Cor. I wish, I had a cause to seek him there,
To oppose his hatred fully.- Welcome home.

Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS.

Behold! these are the tribunes of the people,

[TO LARTIUS.

The tongues o' the common mouth. I do despise them,
For they do prank them in authority,

Against all noble sufferance.

Sic.

Cor. Ha! what is that?

Pass no farther.

Bru. It will be dangerous to go on: no farther.

Cor. What makes this change?

Men.

The matter?

Com. Hath he not pass'd the noble, and the common?
Bru. Cominius, no.

16

Gor.

Have I had children's voices?

Sen. Tribunes, give way: he shall to the market-place.

Bru. The people are incens'd against him.

Sic.

Or all will fall in broil.

Cor.

Are these your herd?

Must these have voices, that can yield them now,
And straight disclaim their tongues?

Stop,

What are your offices?

You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth?
Have you not set them on?

Men.

Be calm, be calm.

Cor. It is a purpos'd thing, and grows by plot,

To curb the will of the nobility:

Suffer 't, and live with such as cannot rule,
Nor ever will be rul'd.

The people cry, you mock'd them; and, of late,
When corn was given them gratis, you repin'd;
Scandal'd the suppliants for the people, call'd them
Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness.
Cor. Why, this was known before.

Bru.

Cor. Have you inform'd them sithence?
Bru.

Not to them all.

How! I inform them!

Not unlike',

Com. You are like to do such business.
Bru.

Each way, to better yours.

Cor. Why, then, should I be consul? By yond' clouds, Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me

Your fellow tribune.

Sie.

You show too much of that,

For which the people stir. If you will pass

To where you are bound, you must inquire your way,
Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit;

Or never be so noble as a consul,

Nor yoke with him for tribune.

Men.

Let's be calm.

This paltering

Com. The people are abus'd. Set on. Becomes not Rome; nor has Coriolanus

Deserved this so dishonour'd rub, laid falsely

I' the plain way of his merit.

Cor.

Tell me of corn!

This was my speech, and I will speak 't again

Men. Not now, not now.

1 Sen.

Not in this heat, Sir, now.

Cor. Now, as I live, I will. — My nobler friends,

I crave their pardons:

For the mutable, rank-scented many, let them
Regard me as I do not flatter, and

Therein behold themselves. I say again,

In soothing them we nourish 'gainst our senate

The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition,

Which we ourselves have plough'd for, sow'd, and scatter'd, By mingling them with us, the honour'd number;

Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that

Which they have given to beggars.

Men.

Well, no more.

Sen. No more words, we beseech you.
Cor.

How! no more?

As for my country I have shed my blood,
Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs
Coin words till they decay against those meazels,
Which we disdain should tetter us, yet sought
The very way to catch them.

You speak o' the people,

"T were well,

What, what? his choler?

Were I as patient as the midnight sleep,

By Jove, 't would be my mind.

Sic.

It is a mind,

That shall remain a poison where it is,
Not poison any farther.

Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you
His absolute "shall?"

Com.

Cor.

'T was from the canon.

"Shall!"

O, good but most unwise patricians! why,

You grave but reckless senators, have you thus
Given Hydra here to choose an officer,

That with his peremtory "shall," being but

The horn and noise o' the monsters, wants not spirit
To say, he'll turn your current in a ditch,
And make your channel his? If he have power,
Then vail your ignorance: if none, awake
Your dangerous lenity. If you are learned,
Be not as common fools: if you are not,

Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians,
If they be senators; and they are no less,

When both your voices blended, the great'st taste
Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate;
And such a one as he, who puts his "shall,"
His popular "shall," against a graver bench
Than ever frown'd in Greece. By Jove himself,
It makes the consuls base; and my soul aches,
To know, when two authorities are up,
Neither supreme, how soon confusion
May enter 'twixt the gap of both, and take
The one by the other.

Com.

Well-
-on to the market-place.

Cor. Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth The corn o' the store-house gratis, as 't was us'd

Sometime in Greece,

Men,

Well, well; no more of that.

Com. Though there the people had more absolute power, I say, they nourished disobedience, fed

The ruin of the state.

Bru.
One that speaks thus their voice?

Why, shall the people give