Clambering the walls to eye him: stalls, bulks, windows,

Are smother'd up, leads fill'd, and ridges hors'd
With variable complexions; all agreeing

In earnestness to see him: seld-shown flamens"
Do press among the popular throngs, and puff
To win a vulgar station: our veil'd dames
Commit the war of white and damask, in
Their nicely-gawded cheeks, to the wanton spoil
Of Phoebus' burning kisses: such a pother,
As if that whatsoever god who leads him,
Were slily crept into his human powers,
And gave him graceful posture.

SIC.

I warrant him consul.

BRU.

On the sudden,

Then our office may, During his power, go sleep.

SIC. He cannot temperately transport his

honours From where he should begin and end; but will Lose those he hath won.

1 OFF. Come, come, they are almost here. How many stand for consulships?

2 OFF. Three, they say: but 't is thought of every one, Coriolanus will carry it.

1 OFF. That's a brave fellow; but he's vengeance proud, and loves not the common people.

2 OFF. Faith, there have been many great men that have flattered the people, who ne'er loved them; and there be many that they have loved, they know not wherefore: so that, if they love they know not why, they hate upon no better a ground: therefore, for Coriolanus neither to care whether they love or hate him, manifests the true knowledge he has in their disposition;

eShall reach the people,-] In the old text, "teach the People." The correction is Theobald's. Mr. Knight suggested, "Shall touch the people," which is equally probable and good.

and, out of his noble carelessness, lets them plainly see 't.

1 OFF. If he did not care whether he had their love or no, he waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm; but he seeks their hate with greater devotion than they can render it him; and leaves nothing undone that may fully discover him their opposite. Now, to seem to affect the malice and displeasure of the people, is as bad as that which he dislikes,-to flatter them for their love.

2 OFF. He hath deserved worthily of his country; and his ascent is not by such easy degrees as those who, having been supple and courteous to the people, bonneted," without any further deed to heave them at all into their estimation and report: but he hath so planted his honours in their eyes, and his actions in their hearts, that for their tongues to be silent, and not confess so much, were a kind of ingrateful injury; to report otherwise, were a malice, that, giving itself the lie, would pluck reproof and rebuke from every ear that heard it.

1 OFF. No more of him; he 's a worthy man: make way, they are coming.

abonneted,-] This is accepted as meaning, took off the cap, as in "Othello," Act I. Sc. 1, we have,-"Oft capp'd to him" but it may signify,-invested with the badge of consular dignity,

A Sennet. Enter, with Lictors before them, COMINIUS the Consul, MENENIUS, CORIOLANUS, many other Senators, SICINIUS and BRUTUS. The Senators take their places; the Tribunes take theirs also by themselves.

MEN. Having determined of the Volsces, And to send for Titus Lartius, it remains, As the main point of this our after-meeting, To gratify his noble service that hath Thus stood for his country: therefore, please you, Most reverend and grave elders, to desire The present consul, and last general In our well-found successes, to report A little of that worthy work perform'd By Caius Marcius Coriolanus;* whom We meet here, both to thank, and to remember With honours like himself.

1 SEN. Speak, good Cominius: Leave nothing out for length, and make us think Rather our state's defective for requital, Than we to stretch it out.-Masters o' the people, We do request your kindest ears; and, after, Your loving motion toward the common body, To yield what passes here.

[Exit.

MEN. Masters of the people, Your multiplying spawn how can he flatter, (That's thousand to one good one) when you now

see, He had rather venture all his limbs for honour Than one on 's * ears to hear it ?--Proceed, Cominius. [lanus Coм. I shall lack voice: the deeds of CorioShould not be utter'd feebly.-It is held, That valour is the chiefest virtue, And most dignifies the haver: if it be, The man I speak of cannot in the world Be singly counterpois'd. At sixteen 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, saw him fight,

(*) Old text, on ones.

a That's off, that's off;] That's out of the way, not called for. b He lurch'd all swords of the garland.] A burch at cards signifies an easy victory. To lurch all swords of the garland meant

When with his Amazonian chint he drove
The bristled lips before him: he bestrid
An o'er-press'd Roman, and i' the consul's view
Slew three opposers: Tarquin's self he met,
And struck him on his knee: in that day's feats
When he might act the woman in the scene,
He prov'd best man i' the field, and for his meed
Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil-age
Man-enter'd thus, he waxed like a sea;
And, in the brunt of seventeen battles since,
He lurch'd all swords of the garland. For this

last,

Before and in Corioli, let me say,

I cannot speak him home: he stopp'd the fliers;
And by his rare example made the coward
Turn terror into sport: as weeds before
A vessel under sail, so men obey'd,

And fell below his stem: his sword, Death's stamp,
Where it did mark, it took; from face to foot
He was a thing of blood, whose every motion
Was tim'd with dying cries: alone he enter'd
The mortal gate of the city, which he painted
With shunless destiny; aidless came off,
And with a sudden re-enforcement struck
Corioli like a planet: now all's his;
When by and by the din of war 'gan pierce
His ready sense; then straight his doubled spirit
Re-quicken'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
'T were a perpetual spoil: 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 ho

BRU.
COR. To brag unto them, thus I did, and

thus ;

[hide, Show them the unaching scars which I should As if I had receiv'd them for the hire Of their breath only !— MEN.

Do not stand upon't.— We recommend to you, tribunes of the people, Our purpose to them ;-and to our noble consul Wish we all joy and honour.

SEN. To Coriolanus come all joy and honour! [Flourish. Exeunt all except SICINIUS and BRUTUS. BRU. You see 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.

Come, we'll inform them Of our proceedings here: on the market-place, I know, they do attend us.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.-The Same. The Forum.

Enter several Citizens.

1 CIT. Once, if he do require our voices, we ought not to deny him.

2 CIT. We may, sir, if we will.

3 CIT. We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do; for if he show us his wounds, and tell us his deeds, we are to put our tongues into those wounds, and speak for them; so, if he tell us his noble deeds,

a Once,-] See note (a), p. 128, Vol. I.

b You may, you may.] This colloquialism, which, like another, sometimes heard at this day, in answer to idle badinage, "Go it, go it," appears to mean,-you have full liberty to divert yourself, occurs again in "Troilus and Cressida," Act III. Sc. 2:

we must also tell him our noble acceptance of them. Ingratitude is monstrous; and for the multitude to be ingrateful, were to make a monster of the multitude; of the which we being members, should bring ourselves to be monstrous members.

1 CIT. And to make us no better thought of, a little help will serve; for once we stood up about the corn, he himself stuck not to call us-the manyheaded multitude.

3 CIT. We have been called so of many; not that our heads are some brown, some black, some auburn,* some bald, but that our wits are so diversely coloured: and truly I think, if all our wits were to issue out of one skull, they would fly east, west, north, south; and their consent of one direct way should be at once to all the points o'the compass.

2 Cır. Think you so? which way my wit would fly?

do you judge

3 CIT. Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another man's will,-'tis strongly wedged up in a block-head: but if it were at liberty, 't would, sure, southward.

2 CIT. Why that way?

3 CIT. To lose itself in a fog; where being three parts melted away with rotten dews, the fourth would return for conscience sake, to help to get thee a wife. tricks :-you

2 CIT. You are never without may, you may.b

your

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.-Here he comes, and in the gown of humility: mark his behaviour. We are not to stay all together, but to come by him where he stands, by ones, by twos, and by threes. He's to make his requests by particulars; wherein every one of us has a single honour, in giving him our own voices with our own tongues: therefore follow me, and I'll direct you how you shall go by him.

ALL. Content, content.

[Exeunt.