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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!
Cit. Down with him, down with him!

[In this Mutiny, the Tribunes, the Ædiles,
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.

Get you gone.

We have as many friends as enemies.

Men. Shall it be put to that?

1 Sen.

Stand fast;

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

Men. For 'tis a sore upon us, You cannot tent yourself: Begone, 'beseech you. 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 not,

Though calv'd i' the porch o'the Capitol,)

Be gone;

Men.
Put not your worthy rage into your tongue;
One time will owe another.*

Cor.

I could beat forty of them.

On fair ground,

✦ One time will owe another.] The meaning seems to be, One time will compensate for another. Our time of triumph will come hereafter: time will be in our debt, will owe us a good turn, for our present disgrace. Let us trust to futurity.

Men.

I could myself

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

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 used to bear.

Men.

Pray you, be gone: I'll try whether my old wit be in request

With those that have but little; this must be patch'd With cloth of any colour.

Com.

Nay, come away.

[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

vengeance,

Could he not speak them fair.

Re-enter BRUTUS and SICINIUS, with the Rabble.

Sic.

Where is this viper,

That would depopulate the city, and

Be every man himself?

5 Before the tag return?] The lowest and most despicable of the populace are still denominated by those a little above them, Tag, rag, and bobtail.

Men.

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 nought.

He shall well know,

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

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

hunt

With modest warrant.

Sic.

Have holp to make this rescue?

Men.

As I do know the consul's worthiness,

So can I name his faults:

I

Sic.

Sir, how comes it, that you

Hear me speak:

Consul!-what consul?

He a consul!

yours, good

Men. The consul Coriolanus.
Bru.

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

Men. If, by the tribunes' leave, and

people,

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 the end o'the 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

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.

• Towards her deserved children-] Deserved, for deserving. 7 This is clean kam.] i. e. Awry. So Cotgrave interprets, Tout va à contrepoil. All goes clean kam. Hence a cambrel for a crooked stick, or the bend in a horse's hinder leg. The Welsh word for crooked is kam.

• Merely awry:] i. e. absolutely.

Bru.

If it were so,

Sic. What do ye talk?

Have we not had a taste of his obedience?

Our Ediles smote? ourselves resisted?-Come:-
Men. Consider this;-He has been bred i' the 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.

Noble tribunes,

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

Sic.

Noble Menenius,

Go not home.

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

Bru.

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

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

Men.

I'll bring him to you:

Let me desire your company. [To the Senators.]

He must come,

Or what is worst will follow.

1. Sen.

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SCENE II.

A Room in Coriolanus's House.

Enter CORIOLANUS, and Patricians.

Cor. Let them pull all about mine ears; present

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