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If in his death the gods have us befriended, 9 Great Troy is ours, and our sharp wars are ended. [Exeunt, marching.

SCENE X. Another part of the plains.

Enter ENEAS and Trojans.

Ene. Stand, ho! yet are we masters of the field:

Never go home; here starve we out the night.
Enter TROILUS.

Tro. Hector is slain.
All.
Hector the gods forbid!
Tro. He's dead; and at the murderer's horse's
tail,

In beastly sort, dragg'd through the shameful field.

Frown on, you heavens, effect your rage with speed!

Sit, gods, upon your thrones, and smile at Troy! I say, at once let your brief plagues be mercy, And linger not our sure destructions on!

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Ene. My lord, you do discomfort all the host.
Tro. You understand me not that tell me so:
I do not speak of flight, of fear, of death,
But dare all imminence that gods and men
Address their dangers in. Hector is gone:
Who shall tell Priam so, or Hecuba?

Let him that will a screech-owl aye be call'd,
Go in to Troy, and say there, Hector's dead:
There is a word will Priam turn to stone;
Make wells and Niobes of the maids and wives,
Cold statues of the youth, and, in a word,
Scare Troy out of itself. But, march away:
Hector is dead; there is no more to say.
Stay yet. You vile abominable tents,
Thus proudly pight upon our Phrygian plains,
Let Titan rise as early as he dare.

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I'll through and through you! and, thou greatsized coward,

No space of earth shall sunder our two hates:
I'll haunt thee like a wicked conscience still,
That mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy's thoughts.
Strike a free march to Troy! with comfort go: 30
Hope of revenge shall hide our inward woe.

[Exeunt Æneas and Trojans.

AS TROILUS is going out, enter, from the other side, PANDARUS.

Pan. But hear you, hear you!

Tro. Hence, broker-lackey! ignomy and shame Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name! [Exit. Pan. A goodly medicine for my aching bones! O world! world! world! thus is the poor agent despised! O traitors and bawds, how earnestly are you set a-work, and how ill requited! why should our endeavour be so loved and the performance so loathed? what verse for it? what instance for it? Let me see:

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Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing,
Till he hath lost his honey and his sting;
And being once subdued in armed tail,
Sweet honey and sweet notes together fail.
Good traders in the flesh, set this in your painted
cloths.

As many as be here of pandar's hall,
Your eyes, half out, weep out at Pandar's fall;
Or if you cannot weep, yet give some groans, 50
Though not for me, yet for your aching bones.
Brethren and sisters of the hold-door trade,
Some two months hence my will shall here be
made:

It should be now, but that my fear is this,
Some galled goose of Winchester would hiss:
Till then I'll sweat and seek about for eases,
And at that time bequeathe you my diseases.

[Exit.

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SCENE I. Rome. A street.

Enter a company of mutinous Citizens, with staves, clubs, and other weapons.

First Cit. Before we proceed any further, hear me speak.

Two Volscian Guards.

VOLUMNIA, mother to Coriolanus.
VIRGILIA, wife to Coriolanus.
VALERIA, friend to Virgilia.

Gentlewoman, attending on Virgilia.

Roman and Volscian Senators, Patricians, Ædiles, Lictors, Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, Servants to Aufidius, and other Attendants.

SCENE: Rome and the neighbourhood; Corioli and the neighbourhood; Antium.

partly proud; which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue.

41

Sec. Cit. What he cannot help in his nature, you account a vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous.

First 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: First Cit. You are all resolved rather to die why stay we prating here? to the Capitol ! than to famish?

All. Speak, speak.

All. Resolved, resolved.

First Cit. First, you know Caius Marcius is

chief enemy to the people.

All. We know't, we know't.

First Cit. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price. Is't a verdict?

II All. No more talking on't; let it be done : away, away!

Sec. Cit. One word, good citizens.

First Cit. We are accounted poor citizens, the patricians good. What authority surfeits on would 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.

Sec. Cit. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?

All. Against him first: he's a very dog to the commonalty. 29 Sec. Cit. Consider you what services he has done for his country? First Cit. Very well; and could be content to give him good report for't, but that he pays himself with being proud.

Sec. Cit. Nay, but speak not maliciously. First Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though soft-conscienced men can be content to say it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be

All. Come, come.

First Cit. Soft! who comes here?

Enter MENENIUS Agrippa.

50

Sec. Cit. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved the people.

First Cit. He's one honest enough: would all the rest were so !

Men. What work's, my countrymen, in hand? where go you

With bats and clubs? The matter? speak, I pray

you.

First Cit. Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have had inkling this fortnight what we intend to do, which now we'll show 'em in deeds. They say poor suitors have strong breaths: they shall know we have strong arms too. Men. Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours,

Will you undo yourselves?

First Cit. We cannot, sir, we are undone already.

Men. I tell you, friends, most charitable care Have the patricians of you. For your wants, Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well 69 Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them Against the Roman state, whose course will on The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs Of more strong link asunder than can ever Appear in your impediment. For the dearth, The gods, not the patricians, make it, and Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack, You are transported by calamity Thither where more attends you, and you slander

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Men. Either you must

Confess yourselves wondrous malicious,
Or be accused of folly. I shall tell you
A pretty tale: it may be you have heard it;
But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture
To stale 't a little more.

90

First Cit. Well, I'll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale: but, an 't please you, deliver.

Men. There was a time when all the body's members

Rebell'd against the belly, thus accused it: 100
That only like a gulf it did remain

I' the midst o' the body, idle and unactive,
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing
Like labour with the rest, where the other
instruments

Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,
And, mutually participate, did minister
Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body. The belly answer'd-
First Cit. Well, sir, what answer made the
belly?

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And, through the cranks and offices of man,
The strongest nerves and small inferior veins
From me receive that natural competency
Whereby they live: and though that all at once,
You, my good friends,'-this says the belly,
mark me,-

First Cit. Ay, sir; well, well.
Men.

Though all at once cannot
See what I do deliver out to each,
Yet I can make my audit up, that all
From me do back receive the flour of all,
And leave me but the bran.' What say you to't?
First Cit. It was an answer: how apply
you this?

151

Men. The senators of Rome are this good belly,

And you the mutinous members; for examine Their counsels and their cares, digest things rightly

Touching the weal o' the common, you shall find
No public benefit which you receive
But it proceeds or comes from them to you
And no way from yourselves.
What do you

think,

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And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Enter COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, and other

Trust ye?

With every minute you do change a mind,
And call him noble that was now your hate,

Him vile that was your garland. What's the

matter,

190

That in these several places of the city
You cry against the noble senate, who,
Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else
Would feed on one another? What's their
seeking?

Men. For corn at their own rates; whereof,
they say,

The city is well stored.

Mar.
Hang 'em! They say!
They'll sit by the fire, and presume to know
What's done i' the Capitol; who's like to rise,
Who thrives and who declines; side factions and
give out

Conjectural marriages; making parties strong
And feebling such as stand not in their liking
Below their cobbled shoes. They say there's
grain enough!

Senators; JUNIUS BRUTUS and SICINIUS VE

LUTUS.

First Sen. Marcius, 'tis true that you have lately told us;

The Volsces are in arms.

231

Mar.
They have a leader,
Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to 't.
I sin in envying his nobility,
And were I any thing but what I am,
I would wish me only he.
Com.
You have fought together.
Mar. Were half to half the world by the ears
and he

Upon my party, I'ld revolt, to make
Only my wars with him: he is a lion
That I am proud to hunt.

First Sen.
Then, worthy Marcius, 240
Attend upon Cominius to these wars.
Com. It is your former promise.
Mar.

And I am constant.
200

Would the nobility lay aside their ruth,
And let me use my sword, I'ld make a quarry
With thousands of these quarter'd slaves, as high
As I could pick my lance.

Men. Nay, these are almost thoroughly per-
suaded;

For though abundantly they lack discretion,
Yet are they passing cowardly. But, I beseech

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Sir, it is;
Titus Lartius, thou
Shalt see me once more strike at Tullus' face.
What, art thou stiff? stand'st out?
Tit.
No, Caius Marcius;
I'll lean upon one crutch and fight with t'other,
Ere stay behind this business.
Men.
O, true-bred!
First Sen. Your company to the Capitol;
where, I know,

Our greatest friends attend us.
Tit.

[To Com.] Lead you on.

[To Mar.] Follow Cominius; we must follow

you;

Right worthy you priority.
Com.

250

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First Sen. [To the Citizens] Hence to your homes; be gone!

Mar.

Nay, let them follow: The Volsces have much corn; take these rats thither

To gnaw their garners. Worshipful mutiners,
Your valour puts well forth: pray, follow.
[Citizens steal away. Exeunt all but
Sicinius and Brutus.
Sic. Was ever man so proud as is this
Marcius?

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To the utmost of a man, and giddy censure
Will then cry out of Marcius O, if he
Had borne the business !'

Sic.

SCENE III. Rome. A room in Marcius' house.

Besides, if things go well, Enter VOLUMNIA and VIRGILIA: they set them Opinion that so sticks on Marcius shall down on two low stools, and sew. Of his demerits rob Cominius.

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Half all Cominius' honours are to Marcius,
Though Marcius earn'd them not, and all his faults
To Marcius shall be honours, though indeed
In aught he merit not.
Sic.
Let's hence, and hear 280
How the dispatch is made, and in what fashion,
More than his singularity, he goes
Upon this present action.

Bru.

Let's along.

Vol. I pray you, daughter, sing; or express yourself in a more comfortable sort: if my son were my husband, I should freelier rejoice in that absence wherein he won honour than in the em

bracements of his bed where he would show most love. When yet he was but tender-bodied and the only son of my womb, when youth with comeliness plucked all gaze his way, when for a day of kings' entreaties a mother should not sell him an hour from her beholding, I, considering how [Exeunt. honour would become such a person, that it was no better than picture-like to hang by the wall, if renown made it not stir, was pleased to let him seek danger where he was like to find fame. To a cruel war I sent him; from whence he returned, his brows bound with oak. I tell thee, daughter, I sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child than now in first seeing he had proved himself a man.

SCENE II. Corioli. The Senate-house.

Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS and certain Senators.

First Sen. So, your opinion is, Aufidius,
That they of Rome are enter'd in our counsels
And know how we proceed.

Auf.
Is it not yours?
What ever have been thought on in this state,
That could be brought to bodily act ere Rome
Had circumvention? 'Tis not four days gone
Since I heard thence; these are the words: I think
I have the letter here; yes, here it is.
[Reads] They have press'd a power, but it is
not known

Whether for east or west: the dearth is great; 10
The people mutinous; and it is rumour'd,
Cominius, Marcius your old enemy,
Who is of Rome worse hated than of you,
And Titus Lartius, a most valiant Roman,
These three lead on this preparation
Whither 'tis bent: most likely 'tis for you:
Consider of it.'

First Sen. Our army's in the field:
We never yet made doubt but Rome was ready
To answer us.

Auf.

Nor did you think it folly

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To keep your great pretences veil'd till when
They needs must show themselves; which in the
hatching,

It seem'd, appear'd to Rome. By the discovery
We shall be shorten'd in our aim, which was
To take in many towns ere almost Rome
Should know we were afoot.

Sec. Sen.
Noble Aufidius,
Take your commission; hie you to your bands:
Let us alone to guard Corioli:

If they set down before 's, for the remove
Bring up your army; but, I think, you'll find
They've not prepared for us.

Auf.

O, doubt not that; 30
I speak from certainties. Nay, more,
Some parcels of their power are forth already,
And only hitherward. I leave your honours.
If we and Caius Marcius chance to meet,
'Tis sworn between us we shall ever strike
Till one can do no more.

All.
The gods assist you!
Auf. And keep your honours safe!

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Vir. But had he died in the business, madam; how then?

Vol. Then his good report should have been my son; therein would have found issue. Hear me profess sincerely: had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike and none less dear than thine and my good Marcius, I had rather had eleven die nobly for their country than one voluptuously surfeit out of action,

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First Sen.

Sec. Sen.

All.Farewell.

Farewell.

Farewell.

Vir. I am glad to see your ladyship.
Val.

How do you both? you are manifest [Exeunt. house-keepers. What are you sewing here? A

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