Bru. By the consent of all, we were establish'd The people's magistrates.

Cit.

You so remain.

Men. And so are like to do.

Cor. That is the way to lay the city flat;
To bring the roof to the foundation;
And bury all, which yet distinctly ranges,
In heaps and piles of ruin.

Sic.

This deserves death.
Bru. Or let us stand to our authority,
Or let us lose it:-We do here pronounce,
Upon the part o' th' people, in whose power
We were elected theirs, Marcius is worthy
Of present death.

Sic.

Therefore, lay hold of him;

Bear him to th' rock Tarpeian, and from thence
Into destruction cast him.

Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word.

Ed. Peace, peace.

Men. Be that you seem, truly your country's friend,

And temperately proceed to what you would

Thus violently redress.

Bru.

Sir, those cold ways,

That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonous

Where the disease is violent:-Lay hands upon him,

And bear him to the rock.

Cor.

No; I'll die here.
[Drawing his sword.

There's some among you have beheld me fighting; Come, try upon yourselves what you have seen me. Men. Down with that sword;-Tribunes withdraw a while.

Bru. Lay hands upon him.

Men.

Help, Marcius! help,

You that be noble; help him, young and old! "

[COR. 59]

Cit. Down with him, down with him!

[In this mutiny, the Tribunes, the Ediles, and the People, are all beat in.

Men. Go, get you to your house; be gone, away, All will be naught else.

2 Sen.

Cor.

We have as many friends as enemies.

Men. Shall it be put to that?

1 Sen.

Get you gone.

Stand fast;

The gods forbid!

For 'tis a sore upon us,

I pr'ythee, noble friend, home to thy house!
Leave us to cure this cause.

Men.

You cannot tent yourself: Begone, 'beseech yon.
Com. Come, sir, along with us.

Cor. I would they were barbarians, (as they are, Though in Rome litter'd,) not Romans, (as they are Though calv'd i' th' porch o' th' Capitol,)→

Men.

Put not your worthy rage into your tongue;

One time will owe another.'

Cor.

I could beat forty of them.

Men.

On fair ground,

I could myself

[not,

Be gone;

Take up a brace of the best of them; yea, the two

tribunes.

Com. But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetick;
And manhood is call'd foolery, when it stands
Against a falling fabrick.-Will you hence,
Before the tag return? whose rage doth rend
Like interrupted waters, and o'erbear
What they are us'd to bear.

I'll

Men.

Pray you, be gone:

try whether my old wit be in request With those that have but little; this must be patch'd With cloth of any colour.

next.

One time will compensate for another. Our turn will come

[COR. 60]

Com.

Nay, come away. I

[Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, and others.

1 Pat. This man has marr'd his fortune.

Men, His nature is too noble for the world; He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,

Or Jove for his power to thunder. His heart's his mouth :

What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent;
And, being angry, does forget that ever

He heard the name of death.

Here's goodly work!

2 Pat.

[A noise within.

I would they were a-bed!

Men. I would they were in Tyber!- What, the Could he not speak them fair?

[vengeance,

Re-enter BRUTUS and SICINIUS, with the rabble.

Sic.

That would depopulate the city, and

Be every man himself?

Men.

Where is this viper

You worthy tribunes,

Sic. He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock With rigorous hands; he hath resisted law,

And therefore law shall scorn him further trial

Than the severity of the publick power,

Which he so sets at naught.

1 Cit.

He shall well know,

The noble tribunes are the people's mouths,
And we their hands.

Men. Do not cry, havock,' where you should but

'Do not give the signal for unlimited slaughter.

[COR. 61]

As I do know the consul's worthiness,

So can I name his faults:

Sie.

Consul!-what consul?

He a consul!

Men. The consul Coriolanus.
Bru.

Cit. No, no, no, no, no.

Men. If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours, good

people,

I may be heard, I'd crave a word or two;

The which shall turn you to no further harm,
Than so much loss of time.

Sic.

Speak briefly then;

For we are peremptory, to despatch

This viperous traitor: to eject him hence,

Were but one danger; and, to keep him here,
Our certain death; therefore it is decreed,
He dies to-night.

Men.
Now the good gods forbid,
That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude
Towards her deserved' children is enroll'd
In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam
Should now eat up her own!

Sic. He's a disease, that must be cut away.
Men. O, he's a limb, that has but a disease;
Mortal, to cut it off; to cure it, easy.

What has he done to Rome, that's worthy death?
Killing our enemies? The blood he hath lost,
(Which, I dare vouch, is more than that he hath,
By many an ounce,) he dropp'd it for his country:
And, what is left, to lose it by his country,

Were to us all, that do't, and suffer it,

A brand to th' end o' th' world.

Sic.

This is clean kam."

Bru. Merely awry: When he did love his country, It honour'd him.

Men.

The service of the foot

1 deserved, for deserving.

Aury, beside the purpose. Kam is a Welsh word for crooked. [COR. 62]

Being once gangren'd,' is not then respected
For what before it was?

Bru.

We'll hear no more:

Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence;
Lest his infection, being of catching nature,
Spread further.

Men.

One word more, one word.

This tiger-footed rage, when it shall find

The harm of unscann'd swiftness, will, too late,

Tie leaden pounds to his heels. Proceed by process; Lest parties (as he is belov'd) break out,

And sack great Rome with Romans.

Bru.

Sic. What do ye talk?

If it were so,—

Have we not had a taste of his obedience?

Our Ediles smote? ourselves resisted?-Come:-
Men. Consider this ;-He has been bred i' th' wars
Since he could draw a sword, and is ill-school'd
In boulted language; meal and bran together
He throws without distinction. Give me leave,
I'll go to him, and undertake to bring him
Where he shall answer, 'by a lawful form,
(In peace) to his utmost peril.

1 Sen.

Noble tribunes,

It is the humane way: the other course
Will prove too bloody; and the end of it
Unknown to the beginning.

Noble Menenius,

Sic.
Be you then as the people's officer:-
Masters, lay down your weapons.

Bru.

Go not home.

Sic. Meet on the market-place :-We'll attend you

there:

Where, if you bring not Marcius, we'll proceed
In our first way.

Is not then to be respected, from what it was before it was gangrened. his, for its.To its heels.

[COR. 63]