Unto my end of stealing them. But, gracious, | Save these in bonds; let them be joyful too, sir, Here are your sons again; and I must lose Cym. Upon his neck a mole, a sanguine star; This is he; Who hath upon him still that natural stamp Cym. O, what am I A mother to the birth of three? Ne'er mother And at first meeting lov'd; Hath to it circumstantial branches, which liv'd you? And when came you to serve our Roman captive? Why fled you from the court? and whither? And your three motives to the battle, with I know not how much more, should be demanded; From chance to chance; but nor the time, nor Will serve our long intergatories. See, And she, like harmless lightning, throws her eye All o'erjoy'd, For they shall taste our comfort. My good master, do you service. Happy be you! Imo. I am, sir, Iach. Which I so often owe: but, your ring first; Cym. Sooth. Here, my good lord. Philarmonus, Read, and declare the meaning. to himself unknown, without seeking find, and Thou, Leonatus, art the lion's whelp; Which we call mollis aer; and mollis aer Well, To pay our wonted tribute, from the which The harmony of this peace. The vision The imperial Cæsar, should again unite A SONG, SUNG BY GUIDERIUS AND ARVIRAGUS OVER Soft maids and village hinds shall bring And melting virgins own their love. The tender thought on thee shall dwell. INTRODUCTION TO CORIOLANUS. POPE observes, in his comments-"The whole history of this piece is exactly followed, and many of the principal speeches exactly, from the Life of Coriolanus, by Plutarch." It embraces a period of about four years, beginning with the secession to the Mons Sacer (the sacred mountain), in the year of Rome 262, and ending with the death of Coriolanus, A. v. c. 266. Malone conjectured it to have been written A.D. 1609. THE PLOT.-The scene opens in Rome, where, on account of a dearth, a mutiny is raised by the people, under plea of provisions not being dealt out fairly to them. Tribunes are then chosen by them, who favour the enmity already existing among the multitude against Caius Marcius, who is hated for his noble ambition and his unbending demeanour towards the people; which the tribunes represent as pride, to his prejudice with the populace. During these troubles, news is brought that the Volcians are in arms, and Marcius is sent, with two other generals, against them he soon returns victorious; and, from his bravery in sacking the city of Coriol, he is surnamed Coriolanus. As a further acknowledgment of his merits, the senators and nobility appoint him consul; and, by the advice of the people, he is confirmed in that dignity; but, moved by the envy of the tribunes (Sicinius Velutus, and Junius Brutus), the people revoke their decree. Coriolanus resists the injustice of their proceedings, and is, at last, banished as a traitor. Inflamed by the ingratitude of his country, he determines upon joining the Volcians, who are again preparing at Antium to invade the Roman territories. He is hospitably received by his inveterate enemy and rival in arms, Aufidius, general of the Volcians, with whom he is joined in the command of the invading army. His countrymen, in the utmost consternation, in vain send the friends he most loved, to sue for peace; he remains inflexible, until his wife Virgilia, his mother Volumnia, and his son, dressed in mourning garments, kneel before him, and subdue him by the voice of nature. He then prevails upon the Voleians to depart home, having made an advantageous peace with the Romans, and returns himself to Antium, with the Volcian army. Tullus Aufidius, pretending to be indignant at the peace which Coriolanus has made with Rome, forms a conspiracy against his life and honour: and, having first hired three assassins for the purpose, he accuses Coriolanus, before the nobles at Antium, of treachery. He nobly defends his reputation; but, in the midst of the uproar to which Aufidius moves the citizens, he and the murderers fall upon Coriolanus with their drawn swords, and kill him; which Aufidius afterwards excuses as the effect of passion. TULLUS AUFIDIUS, General of the Volcians. Lieutenant to Aufidius. Conspirators with Aufidius. A Citizen of Antium. Two Volcian Guards. VOLUMNIA, Mother to Coriolanus. VIRGILIA, Wife to Coriolanus. VALERIA, Friend to Virgilia. Gentlewoman, attending Virgilia. Roman and Volcian Senators, Patricians, Soldiers, Ediles, Lictors, Citizens, Messengers, Servants to Aufidius, and other Attendants. SCENE.-Partly in Rome; and partly in the Territories of the Volcians and Antiates. Act First. SCENE I.-Rome. A Street. Enter a Company of mutinous Citizens, with Staves, Clubs, and other Weapons. 1 Cit. BEFORE we proceed any further, hear me speak. Cit. Speak, speak. [Several speaking at once. 1 Cit. You are all resolved rather to die, than to famish? Cit. Resolved, resolved. Cit. Come, come. 1 Cit. Soft; who comes here? Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA. 2 Cit. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved the people. 1 Cit. He's one honest enough; 'Would all the rest were so ! Men. What work 's, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you [you. With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray 1 Cit. Our business is not unknown to the 1 Cit. First you know, Caius Marcius is chief senate; they have had inkling, this fortnight, enemy to the people. Cit. We know 't, we know 't. 1 Cit. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price. Is 't a verdict? Cit. No more talking on't; let it be done: away, away. 2 Cit. One word, good citizens. i 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. [Caius Marcius? 2 Cit. Would you proceed especially against Cit. Against him first; he's a very dog to the commonalty. 2 Cit. Consider you what services he has done for his country? 1 Cit. Very well; and could be content to give him good report for 't, but that he pays himself with being proud. 2 Cit. Nay, but speak not maliciously. 1 Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though soft conscienc'd 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 account a vice in him: You must in no way say he is covetous. 1 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: Why stay we prating here? to the Capitol. 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 [honest neighbours, Men. Why, masters, my good friends, mine Will you undo yourselves? too. 1 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 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 The helms o' the state, who care for you like fathers, When you curse them as enemies. 1 Cit. Care for us!-True, indeed!-They ne'er cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their store-houses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers: reveal daily any wholesome act established against the rich; and provide more piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there 's all the love they bear us. Men. Either you must Confess yourselves wondrous malicious, 1 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. [members Men. There was a time when all the body's 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 inactive, Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, 1 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, 1 Cit. Your belly's answer: What! 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 theyMen. What then?- [then? 'Fore me, this fellow speaks!-what then? what 1 Cit. Should by the cormorant belly be reWho is the sink o' the body,[strain'd, Men. Well, what then? 1 Cit. The former agents, if they did complain, What could the belly answer? Men. I will tell you; If you'll bestow a small (of what you have little) Patience a while, you'll hear the belly's answer. 1 Cit. You are long about it. Men. Note me this, good friend; Your most grave belly was deliberate, Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer'd. "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, 1 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? 1 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 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? Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run, Enter CAIUS MARCIUS. Mar. Thanks.-What's the matter, you dissentious rogues. 1 Cit. We have ever your good word. Mar. He that will give good words to thee, will flatter [curs, Beneath abhorring.--What would you have, you That like nor peace nor war? the one affrights you, The other makes you proud. He that trusts you, Where he should find you lions, finds you hares; Where foxes, geese: You are no surer, no, Than is the coal of fire upon the ice, Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is, [him, Deserves your hate: and your affections are With every minute you do change a mind; Men. For corn at their own rates; whereof, The city is well stor❜d. 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? Would the nobility lay aside their ruth,|| Men. Nay, these are almost thoroughly perFor though abundantly they lack discretion, Yet are they passing cowardly. But, I beseech What says the other troop? [you, They are dissolv'd: Hang 'em! They said they were an hungry; sighed forth proverbs;[eat; Mar. That hunger broke stone walls; that dogs must That meat was made for mouths; that the gods sent not Corn for the rich men only :-With these shreds They vented their complainings; which being answer'd, And a petition granted them, a strange one, (To break the heart of generosity, And make bold power look pale,) they threw [moon, their caps As they would hang them on the horns o' the Shouting their emulation ++ What is granted them? Men. Pity, compassion. ** Pitch. Mar. Five tribunes, to defend their vulgar | Which he treads on at noon: But I do wonder, Of their own choice: One's Junius Brutus, Men. This is strange. Mar. Go, get you home, you fragments! Our musty superfluity :-See, our best elders. Enter COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, and other Senators; JUNIUS BRUTUS, and SICINIUS VELUTUS. Bru. Fame, at the which he aims,In whom already he is well grac'd,-cannot Better be held, nor more attain'd, than by A place below the first: for what miscarries Shall be the general's fault, though he perforin To the utmost of a man; and giddy censure Will then cry out of Marcius, "O, if he Had borne the business !" Sic. Besides, if things go well, Opinion, that so sticks on Marcius, shall Of his demerits ‡ rob Cominius. Bru. Half all Cominius' honours are to Marcius, Though Marcius earned them not; and all his faults Come: To Marcius shall be honours, though, indeed, Let's hence, and hear 1 Sen. Marcius, 'tis true, that you have lately More than in singularity, he goes told us; The Volces are in arms. 1 Sen. Hence! to your homes, be gone. [To the Citizens. Mar. Nay, let them follow: [thither The Volces have much corn; take these rats To gnaw their garners: *-Worshipful mutineers, Your valour puts well forth: pray follow. [Exeunt Senators, Coм., MAR., TIT., and MENEN. Citizens steal away. Sic. Was ever man so proud as is this Marcius? Bru. He has no equal. [people, Sic. When we were chosen tribunes for the Bru. Mark'd you his lip, and eyes? Sic. Nay, but his taunts. Bru. Being mov'd, he will not spare to gird + Sic. Be-mock the modest moon. [the gods. Bru. The present wars devour him he is Too proud to be so valiant. [grown Sic. Such a nature, Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow Upon his present action. Bru. Let's along. [Exeunt. SCENE II.-Corioli. The Senate-House. Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS, and certain Senators. 1 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 hath 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. 1 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, 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. 2 Sen. Noble Aufidius, Take your commission; hie you to your bands: Let us alone to guard Corioli: If they set down before us, for the remove Bring up your army; but, I think, you'll find They have not prepar'd for us. Auf. O, doubt not that; I speak from certainties. Nay, more, 1 Sen. |