though not the fish) was, when at the relation of the queen's death, with the manner how she came to't, (bravely confessed and lamented by the king) how attentiveness wounded his daughter; till, from one sign of dolour to another, she did, with an Alas! I would fain say, bleed tears,-for I am sure my heart wept blood. Who was most marble there changed colour; some swooned, all sorrowed: if all the world could have seen't, the woe had been universal.

GENT. Are they returned to the court?

STEW. No: the princess hearing of her mother's statue, which is in the keeping of Paulina,-a piece many years in doing, and now newly performed by that rare Italian master, Julio Romano, who, had he himself eternity, and could put breath into his work, would beguile Nature of her custom, so perfectly he is her ape he so near to Hermione hath done Hermione, that they say one would speak to her, and stand in hope of answer :-thither, with all greediness of affection, are they gone; and there they intend to sup.

ROG. I thought she had some great matter there in hand; for she hath privately twice or thrice a day, ever since the death of Hermione, visited that removed house. Shall we thither, and with our company piece the rejoicing?

GENT. Who would be thence that has the benefit of access? every wink of an eye, some new grace will be born: our absence makes us unthrifty to our knowledge. Let's along. [Exeunt.

I

AUT. Now, had I not the dash of my former life in me, would preferment drop on my head. brought the old man and his son aboard the prince ; told him I heard them talk of a fardel, and I know not what; but he at that time, over-fond of the shepherd's daughter, (so he then took her to be) who began to be much sea-sick, and himself little better, extremity of weather continuing, this mystery remained undiscovered. But 'tis all one to me; for had I been the finder-out of this secret, it would not have relished among my other discredits. Here come those I have done good to against my will, and already appearing in the blossoms of their fortune.

Enter Shepherd and Clown.

SHEP. Come, boy; I am past more children, but thy sons and daughters will be all gentlemen born.

CLO. You are well met, sir. You denied to fight with me this other day, because I was no gentleman born. See you these clothes? say, you see them not, and think me still no gentleman born: you were best say these robes are not gentlemen born. Give me the lie, do; and try whether I am not now a gentleman born. AUT. I know you are now, sir, a gentleman born. CLO. Ay, and have been so any time these four hours. SHEP. And so have I, boy.

CLO. So you have :-but I was a gentleman born before my father; for the king's son took me by the hand, and called me brother; and then the two kings called my father brother; and then the prince my brother, and the princess my sister, called my father father; and so we wept,-and there was the first gentleman-like tears that ever we shed.

SHEP. We may live, son, to shed many more. CLO. Ay, or else 'twere hard luck, being in so preposterous estate as we are.

AUT. I humbly beseech you, sir, to pardon me all the faults I have committed to your worship, and to give me your good report to the prince my master. SHEP. Pr'ythee, son, do; for we must be gentle, now we are gentlemen.

CLO. Thou wilt amend thy life?

AUT. Ay, an it like your good worship.

CLO. Give me thy hand: I will swear to the prince thou art as honest a true fellow as any is in Bohemia.

SHEP. You may say it, but not swear it.
CLO. Not swear it, now I am a gentleman?
boors and franklins say it, I'll swear it.
SHEP. How if it be false, son?

PAULINA undraws a curtain, and discovers HERMIONE as a statue.

kings and the princes, our kindred, are going to see
the queen's picture. Come, follow us: we'll be thy
good masters.
[Exeunt.
A Chapel in Paulina's

SCENE III.-The same.

House.

CLO. If it be ne'er so false, a true gentleman may swear it in the behalf of his friend :-and I'll swear to the prince, thou art a tall fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt not be drunk; but I know thou art no tall fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt be drunk; but I'll swear it; and I would thou wouldst be a tall fellow of thy hands.

AUT. I will prove so, sir, to my power. CLO. Ay, by any means prove a tall fellow: if I do not wonder how thou dar'st venture to be drunk, not being a tall fellow, trust me not.-Hark! the

As she liv'd peerless So her dead likeness, I do well believe, Excels whatever yet you look'd upon, Or hand of man hath done; therefore I keep it Lonely, apart. But here it is-prepare To see the life as lively mock'd as ever Still sleep mock'd death: behold! and say 'tis well. [PAULINA undraws a curtain, and discovers HERMIONE as a statue.

I like your silence,-it the more shows oft
Your wonder: but yet speak ;-first, you, my liege.
Comes it not something near?
LEON.
Her natural posture !-
Chide me, dear stone, that I may say indeed
Thou art Hermione, or rather, thou art she,
In thy not chiding,-for she was as tender
As infancy and grace.-But yet, Paulina,
Hermione was not so much wrinkled; nothing
So aged as this seems.
POL.
O, not by much.
PAUL. So much the more our carver s excellence;
Which lets go by some sixteen years, and makes her
As she liv'd now.
LEON.
As now she might have done,
So much to my good comfort, as it is
Now piercing to my soul. O, thus she stood,
Even with such life of majesty (warm life,
As now it coldly stands) when first I woo'd her!
I am asham'd,-does not the stone rebuke me,-
For being more stone than it ?-O, royal piece,
There's magic in thy majesty; which has
My evils conjur'd to remembrance; and
From thy admiring daughter took the spirits,
Standing like stone with thee!

PER.

And give me leave; And do not say 'tis superstition that

I kneel and then implore her blessing.-Lady,
Dear queen, that ended when I but began,
Give me that hand of yours to kiss.
PAUL.
O, patience!
The statue is but newly fix'd, the colour's
Not dry.

CAM. My lord, your sorrow was too sore laid on, Which sixteen winters cannot blow away,

Enter a Company of mu

tinous Citizens, with staves, clubs, and other weapons.

I CIT. Before we proceed any further, hear me speak.

CITIZENS.

speak!

Speak,

I CIT. You are all re

solved rather to die than to famish?

CITIZENS. Resolved, resolved!

I CIT. First, you know Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the people.

CITIZENS. We'know't, we know't!

I CIT. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price. Is't a verdict? CITIZENS. No more talking on't; let it be done away, away!

2 CIT. One word, good citizens.

1 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 particularise 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.

2 CIT. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?

CITIZENS. Against him first he's a very dog to the commonalty.

2 CIT. Consider you

what services he has done

for his country?

I CIT. Very well; and

is covetous.

could be content to give him good report for't, but account a vice in him. You must in no way say he that he pays himself with being proud. 2 CIT. Nay, but speak not maliciously.

I CIT. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though soft-conscioned men can be content to say it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud; which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue.

2 CIT. What he cannot help in his nature, you

I CIT. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations; he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts without.] What shouts are these? The other side o' the city is risen: why stay we prating here? to the Capitol !

CITIZENS. Come, come!

I CIT. Soft! who comes here?

2 CIT. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved the people.

I CIT. He's one honest enough; would, all the

rest were so

Enter MENENIUS
AGRIPPA.

MEN. What work's, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you with bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray you.

I 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? I ČIT. We cannot, sir, we are undone already.

MEN. I tell you, friends, most charitable care

IIave the patricians of you. For your wants, Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well

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, [calamity You are transported by Thither where more attends you; and you slander

The helms o' the state, who care for you like fathers,

When you curse them as enemies.

I CIT. Care for us!-True, indeed, they ne'er cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their storehouses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich; and provide more piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain the

MEN. Either you must

Confess yourselves wondrous malicious,
Or be accus'd 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.

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

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

Rebell'd against the belly; thus accus'd it :-
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 instru

ments

Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, And, mutually participate, did minister

I CIT. You're long about it.
ΜΕΝ.
Note me this, good friend;
Your most grave belly was deliberate,

Not rash like his accusers, and thus answered :-
True is it, my incorporate friends, quoth he,
That I receive the general food at first,
Which you do live upon; and fit it is,
Because I am the store-house and the shop
Of the whole body: but, if you do remember,
I send it through the rivers of your blood,
Even to the court, the heart,-to the seat o' the brain;
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,

Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body. The belly answer'd,-

I CIT. Well, sir, what answer made the belly?
MEN. Sir, I shall tell you.-With a kind of smile,
Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus,-
For, look you, I may make the belly smile,
As well as speak,-it tauntingly replied

To the discontented members, the mutinous parts
That envied his receipt ; even so most fitly
As you malign our senators for that
They are not such as you.-

I CIT.
Your belly's answer?
The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,
The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,
Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter,
With other muniments and petty helps
In this our fabric, if that they-

MEN.

What!

What then?

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?
I CIT. It was an answer: how apply you this?
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 weel 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,-

You, the great toe of this assembly?—

I CIT. I the great toe! Why the great toe? MEN. For that, being one o' the lowest, basest, poorest,

Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st foremost:
Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run,
Lead'st first to win some vantage.-
But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs;
Rome and her rats are at the point of battle;
The one side must have bale.-

As they would hang them on the horns o' the moon, Shouting their emulation.

ΜΕΝ.

What is granted them? MAR. Five tribunes to defend their vulgar wisdoms,

Of their own choice: one's Junius Brutus,
Sicinius Velutus, and I know not-'sdeath!
The rabble should have first unroof'd the city,
Ere so prevail'd with me: it will in time
Win upon power, and throw forth greater themes
For insurrection's arguing.
MEN.
This is strange.
MAR. Go, get you home, you fragments!
Enter a Messenger.

MESS. Where's Caius Marcius?
MAR.
Here: what's the matter?
MESS. The news is, sir, the Volsces are in arms.
MAR. I am glad on't; then we shall have means

to vent

Our musty superfluity.-See, our best elders.
Enter COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, and other
Senators; JUNIUS BRUTUS and SICINIUS VE-

LUTUS.

us;

I SEN. Marcius, 'tis true that you have lately told The Volsces are in arms. MAR.

They have a leader,

Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to't.
I sin in envying his nobility;

And were I anything 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'd revolt, to make
Only my wars with him: he is a lion
That I am proud to hunt.

I SEN.
Then, worthy Marcius,
Attend upon Cominius to these wars.
COм. It is your former promise.
MAR.
Sir, it is ;
And I am constant.-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 the other,
Ere stay behind this business.
MEN.

O, true bred!

Enter VOLUMNIA and VIRGILIA: they sit down on two low stools, and sew.

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 embracements 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 honour would become such a person; that it was no better than picturelike 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.

VIR. But had he died in the business, madam,

SIC. Opinion, that so sticks on Marcius, shall Of his demerits rob Cominius.

BRU.

Come;

Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS, and certain Senators. I 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; The people mutinous: and it is rumour'd, Cominius, Marcius your old enemy, (Who is of Rome worse hated than of you)

VOL. Then his good report should have been my son; I 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.

Enter a Gentlewoman.

GENT. Madam, the lady Valeria is come to visit you.

VIR. Beseech you, give me leave to retire myself.
VOL. Indeed, you shall not.

Methinks I hear hither your husband's drum;
See him pluck Aufidius down by the hair;
As children from a bear, the Volsces shunning him :
Methinks I see him stamp thus, and call thus,-
Come on, you cowards! you were got in fear,
Though you were born in Rome: his bloody brow
With his mail'd hand then wiping, forth he goes
Like to a harvest-man, that's task'd to mow
Or all, or lose his hire.

VIR. His bloody brow! O, Jupiter, no blood!
VOL. Away, you fool! it more becomes a man
Than gilt his trophy: the breasts of Hecuba,
When she did suckle Hector, look'd not lovelier
Than Hector's forehead when it spit forth blood
At Grecian swords' contending.-Tell Valeria,
We are fit to bid her welcome.
[Exit Gent.
VIR. Heavens bless my lord from fell Aufidius !
VOL. He'll beat Aufidius' head below his knee,
And tread upon his neck.

Enter VALERIA, attended by an Usher, and a Gentlewoman.

VAL. My ladies both, good day to you.

VOL. Sweet madam.

VIR. I am glad to see your ladyship.

VAL. How do you both? you are manifest housekeepers. What are you sewing here? A fine spot, in good faith.-How does your little son?

VIR. I thank your ladyship; well, good madam. VOL. He had rather see the swords, and hear a drum, than look upon his school-master.

VAL. O' my word, the father's son: I'll swear, 'tis a very pretty boy. O' my troth, I looked upon him o' Wednesday half an hour together: h'as such a confirmed countenance. I saw him run after a gilded butterfly; and when he caught it, he let it go again; and after it again; and over and over he comes, and up again; catched it again: or whether his fall enraged him, or how 'twas, he did so set his teeth, and tear it; O, I warrant, how he mammocked it.

VOL. One of his father's moods.
VAL. Indeed la, 'tis a noble child.

VIR. A crack, madam.

VAL. Come, lay aside your stitchery; I must have you play the idle huswife with me this after

noon.

VIR. No, good madam; I will not out of doors. VAL. Not out of doors!

VOL. She shall, she shall.

VIR. Indeed, no, by your patience; I'll not over the threshold till my lord return from the wars.

VAL. Fie, you confine yourself most unreasonably come, you must go visit the good lady that

lies in.

VIR. I will wish her speedy strength, and visit her with my prayers; but I cannot go thither. VOL. Why, I pray you?

VIR. 'Tis not to save labour, nor that I want love.

VAL. You would be another Penelope : yet, they say, all the yarn she spun in Ulysses' absence, did but fill Ithaca full of moths. Come; I would your cambric were sensible as your finger, that you might leave pricking it for pity. Come, you shall go with us.

VIR. No, good madam, pardon me; indeed, I will not forth.

VAL. In truth la, go with me; and I'll tell you excellent news of your husband.

VIR. O, good madam, there can be none yet. VAL. Verily, I do not jest with you; there came news from him last night.

VIR. Indeed, madam?

VAL. In earnest, it's true; I heard a senator speak it. Thus it is :-The Volsces have an army forth; against whom Cominius the general is gone, with one part of our Roman power: your lord and Titus Lartius are set down before their city Corioli; they nothing doubt prevailing, and to make it brief wars. This is true, on mine honour; and so, I pray, go with us.

VIR. Give me excuse, good madam; I will obey you in every thing hereafter.

VOL. Let her alone, lady; as she is now, she will but disease our better mirth.

VAL. In troth, I think, she would.-Fare you well then.-Come, good sweet lady.-Pr'ythee, Virgilia, turn thy solemness out o'door, and go along with us.

VIR. No, at a word, madam; indeed, I must