Cor. The fires i' the lowest hell fold in the people! Call me their traitor!-Thou injurious tribune! Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths, In thy hands clutch'd4 as many millions, in Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say, Thou liest, unto thee, with a voice as free As I do pray the gods. Sic. Mark you this, people? Cit. To the rock with him; to the rock with him ! We need not put new matter to his charge: Peace. What you have seen him do, and heard him speak, Beating your officers, cursing yourselves, Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying Those whose great power must try him; even this, So criminal, and in such capital kind, Deserves the extremest death. Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death, But with a grain a day, I would not buy * Grasp'd. Nor check my courage for what they can give, For that he has Sic. (As much as in him lies) from time to time Envied against the people, seeking means To pluck away their power; as now at last Given hostile strokes, and that not in the pre sence Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers That do distribute it; In the name o'the people, And in the power of us the tribunes, we, Even from this instant, banish him our city; From off the rock Tarpeian, never more To enter our Rome gates: I' the people's name, it shall be so. say, I Cit. It shall be so, f It shall be so; let him away: he's banish'd, And so it shall be. Com. Hear me, my masters, and my common friends ; Sic. He's sentenc'd: no more hearing. Com. Let me speak: I have been consul, and can show from 7 Rome, Her enemies' marks upon me. I do love My country's good, with a respect more tender, More holy, and profound, than mine own life, My dear wife's estimate, her womb's increase, And treasure of my loins; then if I would' Speak that Sic. 8 We know your drift: Speak what? 5 Showed hatred. 6 Not only. 7 For 8 Value. Bru. There's no more to be said, but he is banish'd, As enemy to the people, and his country: It shall be so. Cit. It shall be so, it shall be so. Cor. You common cry9 of curs! whose breath I hate As reek' o'the rotten fens, whose loves I prize That do corrupt my air, I banish you, Let That won you without blows! Despising, [Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENENIUS, Ed. The people's enemy is gone, is gone! [The People shout, and throw up their Caps. Cit. Come, come, let us see him out at gates; come : The gods preserve our noble tribunes!-Come. [Exeunt. ACT IV. SCENE I. The same.. Before a Gate of the City. Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, and several young Patricians. Cor. Come, leave your tears; a brief farewell :the beast3 With many heads butts me away.-Nay, mother, That common chances common men could bear; The heart that conn'd them. Vir. O heavens ! O heavens ! Cor. Nay, I pr'ythee, woman,― Vol. Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome, And occupations perish! Cor. What, what, what! I shall be lov'd when I am lack'd. Nay, mother, Resume that spirit, when you were wont to say, 3 The government of the people. If you had been the wife of Hercules, Six of his labours you'd have done, and sav'd Droop not; adieu:-Farewell, my wife! my mother! And venomous to thine eyes.-My sometime general As 'tis to laugh at them.-My mother, you wot well, Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen Makes fear'd, and talk'd of more than seen,) your son Will, or exceed the common, or be caught With cautelous 5 baits and practice. Vol. My first son, Whither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius Cor. O the gods! Com. I'll follow thee a month, devise with thee Where thou shalt rest, that thou may'st hear of us, And we of thee: so, if the time thrust forth A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send Cor. Fare ye well: + Foolish. 5 Insidious, 6 Noblest. 7 Exposure. |