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Your loving motion toward the common Body,

To yield what passes here.

Sic. We are convented

Upon a pleafing Treaty; and have hearts
Inclinable to honour and advance
The Theam of our Affembly.

Bru. Which the rather

We fhall be bleft to do, if he remember
A kinder value of the People, than
He hath hitherto priz'd them at.

Men. That's off, that's off:

I would, you rather had been filent: please you
To hear Cominius fpeak?

Bru. Moft willingly :

But yet my caution was more pertinent,
Than the rebuke you give it.

Men. He loves your People,

But tye him not to be their bed-fellow :
Worthy Cominius, fpeak.

[Coriolanus rifes, and offers to go away.

Nay, keep your place.

1 Sen. Sit, Coriolanus; never fhame to hear What you have nobly done.'

Cor. Your Honours' pardon:

I had rather have my wounds to heal again,
Than hear say, how I got them.

Bru. Sir, I hope,

My words dif-bench'd you not?

Cor. No, Sir; yet oft,

When blows have made me stay, I fled from words. You footh not, therefore hurt not: but your people, I love them as they weigh.

Men. Pray now, fit down.

Cor. I had rather have one fcratch my head i' th'

Sun,

When the Alarum were ftruck, than idly fit

To hear my Nothings monster'd.

Men. Mafters of the People,

[Exit Coriolanus,

Your multiplying fpawn how can he flatter,
That's thousand to one good one? when you see,

He had rather venture all his limbs for honour,
Than one of's ears to hear't. Proceed, Cominius.
Com. I fhall lack voice: the Deeds of Coriolanus
Should not be utter'd feebly. It is held,
That valour is the chiefeft virtue, and
Moft dignifies the Haver: if it be,

The Man, I fpeak of, cannot in the world
Be fingly counter-pois'd. At fixteen years,
When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he fought
Beyond the mark of others: our then Dictator,
Whom with all praise I point at, faw him fight,
When with his Amazonian chin he drove.
The bristled lips before him: he bestrid
An o'er-preft Roman, and i'th' Conful's view
Slew three Oppofers: Tarquin's felf he met,
And ftruck him on his knee in that day's feats,
When he might act the Woman in the Scene,
He prov'd th' beft Man i'th' field, and for his meed
Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil-age

Man-entred thus, he waxed like a Sea;

And, in the brunt of feventeen battles fince,
He lurcht all swords o'th' garland.

Before and in Corioli, let me fay,

For this laft,

I cannot fpeak him home: he ftopt the fliers,
And by his rare example made the coward
Turn terror into fport. As waves before
A veffel under fail, fo Men obey'd,

And fell below his ftern: his fword, (death's ftamp)
Where it did mark, it took from face to foot:
He was a thing of blood, whofe every motion
Was tim'd with dying cries: alone he enter'd
The mortal Gate o'th' City, which he painted
With fhunless destiny: aidless came off,
And with a fudden re-enforcement ftruck
Corioli, like a planet. Nor all's this ;
For by and by the din of war 'gan pierce
His ready fenfe, when ftraight his doubled fpirit
Requicken'd what in flesh was fatigate,
And to the battle came he; where he did
Run reeking o'er the lives of men, as if

'Twere

'Twere a perpetual fpoil; and 'till we call'd Both Field and City ours, he never stood To ease his breast with panting.

Men. Worthy Man!

1 Sen. He cannot but with measure fit the Honours, Which we devife him.

Com. Our fpoils he kick'd at,

And look'd upon things precious, as they were
The common muck o'th' world: he covets lefs
Than Mifery itself would give, rewards
His deeds with doing them, and is content
To spend his time to end it.

Men. He's right noble,

Let him be called for.
Sen. Call Coriolanus.

Off. He doth appear.

Enter Coriolanus.

Men. The Senate, Coriolanus, are well pleas'd To make thee Conful.

Cor. I do owe them ftill

My life, and fervices.

Men. It then remains

That you do speak to th' People.

Cor. I beseech you,

Let me o'er-leap that Custom; for I cannot
Put on the Gown, ftand naked, and entreat them,
For my wounds' fake, to give their fuffrages :
Please you, that I may pass this doing.

Sic. Sir, the People must have their voices,
Nor will they bate one jot of ceremony.

Men. Put them not to't: pray, fit you to the Custom, And take t'ye, as your Predeceffors have,

Your Honour with your form.

Cor. It is a Part

That I shall blush in acting, and might well
Be taken from the People.

Bru. Mark you That?

Cor. To brag unto them, thus I did,--and thus,

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Shew them th' umaking fears, which I would hide,
As if I had receiv'd them for the hire
Of their breath only -

Men. Do not ftand upon't :

We recommend t'ye, Tribunes of the People,
Our purpose to them, and to our noble Confal
With we all joy and honour.

Sen. To Coriolanus come all joy and honour!

[Flourish Cornets. Then Exeunt.

Manent Sicinius and Brutus.

Bru. You fee, how he intends to use the People. Sic. May they perceive's intent! he will require them, As if he did contemn what he requested

Should be in them to give.

Bru. (13) Come, we'll inform them

Of our proceedings here: on th' market place,
I know, they do attend us.

1 Cit.

[Exeunt.

SCENE changes to the Forum.

ON

Enter feven or eight Citizens.

NCE, if he do require our voices, we ought not to deny him.

2 Cit. We may, Sir, if we will.

3

Git. We have Power in our felves to do it, but it is a Power that we have no Power to do; for if he fhew us his wounds, and tell us his deeds, we are to put our tongues into thofe wounds, and fpeak for them:

(13) Come, we'll inform them

Of our Proceedings here on th' Market place,

I know they do attend us.] But the Tribunes were not now on the Market-place, but in the Capitol. The Pointing only wants to be rectified, and we shall know what this Magistrate would fay, wiz. Come, I know, the People 'attend us in the Forum; we'll go and inform them what Proceedings have been here in the Senate,

fe,

fo, if he tells us his noble deeds, we must also tell him our noble acceptance of them. Ingratitude is monftrous; and for the multitude to be ingrateful, were to make a monster of the multitude; of the which, we being Members, fhould bring ourselves to be monstrous Members.

1 Cit. And to make us no better thought of, a little help will ferve: for once, when We ftood up about the Corn, he himself stuck not to call us the many-headed multitude.

3 Cit. We have been call'd fo of many; not that our heads are fome brown, fome black, fome auburn, fome bald; but that our wits are fo diverfly colour'd; and truly, I think, if all our wits were to iffue out of one fcull, they would fly East, West, North, South; and their confent of one direct way would be at once to all Points o'th' Compafs.

2 Cit. Think you fo? which way, do you judge, my wit would fly?

3 Cit. Nay, your wit will not fo foon out as another man's will, 'tis ftrongly wedg'd up in a blockhead: but if it were at liberty, 'twould, fure, fouthward.

2 Cit. Why that way?

3 Cit. To lofe it felf in a fog; where being three parts melted away with rotten dews, the fourth would return for confcience fake, to help to get thee a Wife. 2 Cit. You are never without you may

tricks your

you may,

3 Cit. Are you all resolved to give your voices? but that's no matter, the greater part carries it. I say, if he would incline to the People, there was never a worthier Man.

Enter Coriolanus in a Gown, with Menenius. Here he comes, and in the Gown of Humility; mark his behaviour: we are not to ftay all together, but to come by him where he ftands, by one's, by two's, and by three's. He's to make his requests by particulars, wherein every one of us has a fingle honour, in giving

R 4

him

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