He aud Aufidius can no more atone*,
Than violentest contrariety.

Enter another Messenger.

Mess. You are sent for to the senate:
A fearful army, led by Caius Marcius,
Associated with Aufidius, rages
Upon our territories; and have already

O'erborne their way, consum'd with fire, and took
What lay before them.

Enter Cominius.

Com. O, you have made good work!

Men.

What news? what news!

Com. You have holp to ravish your own daugh. ters, and

To melt the city leads upon your pates;

To see your wives dishonour'd to your noses;-
Men. What's the news? what's the news?

Com. Your temples burned in their cement; and
Your franchises, whereon you stood, confin'd
Into an augre's bore t.

Men.

Pray now, your news?

You have made fair work, I fear me :-Pray, your

news?

If Marcius should be join'd with Volcians,

Com.

He is their god; he leads them like a thing
Made by some other deity than nature,
That shapes man better: and they follow him,
Against us brats, with no less confidence,
Than boys pursuing summer butterflies,
Or butchers killing flies.

Men.

If!

You have made good work, You, and your apron men; you that stood so much

• Unite.

† A small round hole: an augre is a carpenter's tool.

Upon the voice of occupation, and
The breath of garlick-eaters!

Com.

Your Rome about your ears.

Men.

He will shake

As Hercules

Did shake down mellow fruit: You have made fair

work!

Bru. But is this true, sir?

Ay; and you'll look pale

Com.
Before you find it other. All the regions

Do smilingly revolt t; and, who resist,
Are only mock'd for valiant ignorance,

And perish constant fools. Who is't can blame him?
Your enemies, and his, find something in him.

Men. We are all undone, unless

The noble man have mercy.

Com.

Who shall ask it?

The tribunes cannot do't for shame; the people
Deserve such pity of him, as the wolf

Does of the shepherds: for his best friends, if they
Should say, Be good to Rome, they charg'd him even
As those should do that had deserv'd his hate,
And therein show'd like enemies.

Men.

'Tis true:

If he were putting to my house the brand

That should consume it, I have not the face

To say, 'Beseech you, cease.-You have made fair

hands,

You, and your crafts! you have crafted fair!

Com.

You have brought

Say not, we brought it.

A trembling upon Rome, such as was never
So incapable of help.

Tri.

Men. How! Was it we? We lov'd him; but, like

beasts,

And cowardly nobles, gave way to your clusters, Who did hoot him out o'the city.

Mechanicks.

+ Revolt with pleasure.

But, I fear,

Com.
They'll roar him in again. Tullus Aufidius,
The second name of men, obeys his points
As if he were his officer:-Desperation
Is all the policy, strength, and defence,
That Rome can make against them.

Men.

Enter a troop of Citizens.

Here come the clusters.

And is Aufidius with him?-You are they

That made the air unwholesome, when you cast
Your stinking, greasy caps, in hooting at
Coriolanus' exile. Now he's coming;

And not a hair upon a soldier's head,

Which will not prove a whip; as many coxcombs,
As you threw caps up, will he tumble down,
And pay you for your voices. 'Tis no matter;
If he could burn us all into one coal,

We have deserv'd it.

Cit. 'Faith, we hear fearful news.

1 Cit.

For mine own part, When I said, Banish him, I said, 'twas pity.

2 Cit. And so did I.

3 Cit. And so did I; and, to say the truth, so did very many of us: That we did, we did for the best: and though we willingly consented to his banishment, yet it was against our will.

Com. You are goodly things, you voices!

Men.

You have made

Good work, you and your cry!-Shall us to the

Capitol ?

Com. O, ay; what else?

[Exeunt Com. and Men.

Sic. Go, masters, get you home, be not dismay'd;

These are a side, that would be glad to have

This true, which they so seem to fear. Go home, And show no sign of fear.

• Pack, alluding to a pack of hounds.

1 Cit. The gods be good to us! Come, masters, let's home. I ever said, we were i'the wrong, when we banished him.

2 Cit. So did we all. But come, let's home.

Bru. I do not like this news.

Sic. Nor I.

[Exeunt Citizens.

Bru. Let's to the Capitol:-Would, half my

A camp; at a small distance from Rome.

Enter Aufidius, and his Lieutenant.

Auf. Do they still fly to the Roman?

Lieu. I do not know what witchcraft's in him; but Your soldiers use him as the grace 'fore meat, Their talk at table, and their thanks at end; And you are darken'd in this action, sir,

Even by your own.

Auf.
I cannot help it now;
Unless, by using means, I lame the foot

Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier
Even to my person, than I thought he would,
When first I did embrace him: Yet his nature
In that's no changeling; and I must excuse
What cannot be amended.

Lieu.
Yet I wish, sir
(I mean for your particular), you had not
Join'd in commission with him: but either
Had borne the action of yourself, or else
To him had left it solely.

Auf. I understand thee well; and be thou sure,

When he shall come to his account, he knows not
What I can urge against him. Although it seems,
And so he thinks, and is no less apparent

To the vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly,
And shows good husbandry for the Volcian state;
Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon
As draw his sword: yet he hath left undone
That, which shall break his neck, or hazard mine,
Whene'er we come to our account.

Lieu. Sir, I beseech you, think you he'll carry
Rome?

Auf. All places yield to him ere he sits down;
And the nobility of Rome are his ;

The senators, and patricians, love him too:
The tribunes are no soldiers; and their people
Will be as rash in the repeal, as hasty

To expel him thence. I think, he'll be to Rome,
As is the osprey* to the fish, who takes it
By sovereignty of nature. First he was
A noble servant to them; but he could not
Carry his honours even: whether 'twas pride,
Which out of daily fortune ever taints

The happy man; whether defect of judgement,
To fail in the disposing of those chances
Which he was lord of; or whether nature,
Not to be other than one thing, not moving

From the casquet to the cushion ‡, but commanding

peace

Even with the same austerity and garb

As he controll'd the war; but, one of these

(As he hath spices of them all, not all§,
For I dare so far free him), made him fear'd,
So hated, and so banish'd: But he has a merit,
To choke it in the utterance. So our virtues
Lie in the interpretation of the time:

An eagle that preys on fish.
+ Helmet.

The chair of civil authority.
Not all in their full extent.