That turns their countenances.8

Sic.

Go whip him 'fore the people's eyes:—his raising!

"Tis this slave;

Yes, worthy sir,

What more fearful?

Nothing but his report!

Mess.

The slave's report is seconded; and more,
More fearful, is deliver'd.

Sic.

Mess. It is spoke freely out of many mouths, (How probable, I do not know,) that Marcius, Join'd with Aufidius, leads a power 'gainst Rome; And vows revenge as spacious, as between The young'st and oldest thing.

This is most likely!

Sic. Bru. Rais'd only, that the weaker sort may wish Good Marcius home again.

Sic.

Men. This is unlikely:

The very trick on't.

He and Aufidius can no more atone,9

Than violentest contrariety.

Enter another Messenger.

Mess. You are sent for to the senate:

A fearful army, led by Caius Marcius,
Associated with Aufidius, rages

Upon our territories; and have already,

O'erborne their way, consum'd with fire, and took What lay before them.

8

sour.

some news is come,

That turns their countenances.] i. e. that renders their aspect

9 can no more atone,] To atone, in the active sense, is to reconcile, and is so used by our author. To atone here, is in the neutral sense, to come to reconciliation. To atone is to unite.

Enter COMINIUS.

Com. O, you have made good work!

Men.

What news? what news? Com. You have holp to ravish your own daughters, and

To melt the city leads upon your pates;

To see your wives dishonour'd to your noses;-
Men. What's the news? what's the news?

Com. Your temples burned in their cement; and
Your franchises, whereon you stood, confin'd
Into an augre's bore.

Men.

Pray now, your news?— You have made fair work, I fear me:-Pray, your

news?

If Marcius should be join'd with Volscians,

Com.

He is their god; he leads them like a thing
Made by some other deity than nature,
That shapes man better: and they follow him,
Against us brats, with no less confidence,
Than boys pursuing summer butterflies,

Or butchers killing flies.

Men.

If!

You have made good work,

You, and your apron men; you that stood so much Upon the voice of occupation,' and

The breath of garlick-eaters!

Com.

Your Rome about your ears.

Men.

He will shake

As Hercules

Did shake down mellow fruit:2 You have made fair

work!

Upon the voice of occupation,] Occupation is here used for mechanicks, men occupied in daily business.

As Hercules, &c.] A ludicrous allusion to the apples of the Hesperides.

Bru. But is this true, sir?
Com.

Before you find it other.

Do smilingly revolt; and,

Ay; and you'll look pale All the regions

who resist,

Are only mock'd for valiant ignorance,

And perish constant fools. Who is't can blame him? Your enemies, and his, find something in him.

Men. We are all undone, unless

The noble man have mercy.

Who shall ask it?

Com.
The tribunes cannot do't for shame; the people
Deserve such pity of him, as the wolf

Does of the shepherds: for his best friends, if they
Should say, Be good to Rome, they charg'd him even
As those should do that had deserv'd his hate,
And therein show'd like enemies.

Men.

"Tis true:

If he were putting to my house the brand
That should consume it, I have not the face
To say, 'Beseech you, cease.-You have made fair
hands,

You, and

Com.

your crafts! you have crafted fair! You have brought A trembling upon Rome, such as was never So incapable of help.

Tri.

Say not, we brought it.

Men. How! Was it we? We lov'd him; but,

like beasts,

And cowardly nobles, gave way to your clusters,
Who did hoot him out o'the city.

Com.

But, I fear

They'll roar him in again. Tullus Aufidius,
The second name of men, obeys his points
As if he were his officer:-Desperation

Do smilingly revolt;] To revolt smilingly is to revolt with signs of pleasure, or with marks of contempt.

Is all the policy, strength, and defence,
That Rome can make against them.

Men.

Enter a Troop of Citizens.

Here come the clusters.

And is Aufidius with him?-You are they

That made the air unwholesome, when you cast
Your stinking, greasy caps, in hooting at
Coriolanus' exile. Now he's coming;

And not a hair upon a soldier's head,

Which will not prove a whip; as many coxcombs,
As you threw caps up, will he tumble down,
And pay you for your voices. "Tis no matter;
If he could burn us all into one coal,

We have deserv'd it.

Cit. 'Faith, we hear fearful news.

1 Cit.

For mine own part,

When I said, banish him, I said, 'twas pity.

2 Cit. And so did I.

3 Cit. And so did I; and, to say the truth, so did very many of us: That we did, we did for the best: and though we willingly consented to his banishment, yet it was against our will.

Com. You are goodly things, you voices!
Men.
You have made

Good work, you and your cry!*-Shall us to the

Capitol ?

Com. O, ay; what else?

[Exeunt Coм. and MEN.

Sic. Go, masters, get you home, be not dismay'd;

These are a side, that would be glad to have
This true, which they so seem to fear. Go home,
And show no sign of fear.

you and your cry!] Alluding to a pack of hounds. So, in Hamlet, a company of players are contemptuously called a cry of players.

1 Cit. The gods be good to us! Come, masters, let's home. I ever said, we were i'the wrong, when we banished him.

2 Cit. So did we all. But come, let's home.

Bru. I do not like this news.

Sic. Nor I.

[Exeunt Citizens.

Bru. Let's to the Capitol:-'Would, half my

A Camp; at a small distance from Rome.

Enter AUFIDIUS, and his Lieutenant.

Auf. Do they still fly to the Roman?

Lieu. I do not know what witchcraft's in him; but

Your soldiers use him as the grace 'fore meat,

Their talk at table, and their thanks at end;

And you are darken'd in this action, sir,

Even by your own.

Auf.
I cannot help it now;
Unless, by using means, I lame the foot

Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier
Even to my person, than I thought he would,
When first I did embrace him: Yet his nature
In that's no changeling; and I must excuse
What cannot be amended.

Yet I wish, sir,

Lieu.
(I mean, for your particular,) you had not
Join'd in commission with him: but either
Had borne the action of yourself, or else
To him had left it solely.

Auf. I understand thee well; and be thou sure,