Enter a Soldier. Sold. My noble general, Timon is dead; Entomb'd upon the very hem o'the sea: And on his gravestone, this insculpture; which With wax I brought away, whose soft impression Interprets for my poor ignorance. Alcib. [Reads.] Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft : Seek not my name: A plague consume you wicked caitiffs left! Here lie I Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate: Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass, and stay not here thy gait. These well express in thee thy latter spirits: Though thou abhorr'dst in us our human griefs, Scorn'dst our brain's flow, and those our droplets which From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Is noble Timon; of whose memory Dead Hereafter more. - Bring me into your city, Make war breed peace; make peace stint war; make each Prescribe to other, as each other's leech". Let our drums strike. 7 Stop. [Exeunt. 8 Physician. PERSONS REPRESENTED. CAIUS MARCIUS CORIOLANUS, a noble Roman. TITUS LARTIUS, generals against the Volscians. COMINIUS, MENENIUS AGRIPPA, friend to Coriolanus. SICINIUS JUNIUS BRUTUS, tribunes of the people. Young MARCIUS, son to Coriolanus. A Roman Herald. TULLUS AUFIDIUS, general of the Volscians. Lieutenant to Aufidius. Conspirators with Aufidius. A Citizen of Antium. Two Volscian Guards. VOLUMNIA, mother to Coriolanus. VIRGILIA, wife to Coriolanus. VALERIA, friend to Virgilia. Gentlewoman, attending Virgilia. Roman and Volscian Senators, Patricians, Ediles, Lictors, Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, Servants to Aufidius, and other Attendants. SCENE, partly in Rome; and partly in the Territories of the Volscians and Antiates. CORIOLANUS. ACT THE FIRST. SCENE I. Rome. A Street. Enter a Company of mutinous Citizens, with Staves, Clubs, and other Weapons. 1 Cit. BEFORE we proceed any further, hear me speak. Cit. Speak, speak. [Several speaking at once. 1 Cit. You are all resolved rather to die, than to famish? Cit. Resolved, resolved. 1 Cit. First, you know, Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the people. Cit. We know't, we know't. 1 Cit. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price. Is't a verdict? Cit. No more talking on't; let it be done: away, away. 2 Cit. One word, good citizens. 1 Cit. We are accounted poor citizens; the patricians, good': What authority surfeits on, would Rich. relieve us; If they would yield us but the superfluity, while it were wholesome, we might guess, they relieved us humanely; but they think, we are too dear: the leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an inventory to particularize their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes: for, the gods know, I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge. 2 Cit. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius? Cit. Against him first; he's a very dog to the commonalty. 2 Cit. Consider you what services he has done for his country? 1 Cit. Very well; and could be content to give him good report for't, but that he pays himself with being proud. 2 Cit. Nay, but speak not maliciously. 1 Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though soft conscienc'd men can be content to say it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud; which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue. 2 Cit. What he cannot help in his nature, you account a vice in him: You must in no way say, he is covetous. 1 Cit. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations; he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts within.] What shouts are these? The other side o'the city is risen: Why stay we prating here? to the Capitol. Cit. Come, come. 1 Cit. Soft; who comes here? Thin as rakes. |