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K. Henry. It sorts' well with your fierceness.
Enter Fluellen, and Gower, severally.
Gow. Captain Fluellen,--

5

Flu. So in the name Cheshu Christ, speak fewer. It is the greatest admiration in the universal 'orld, when the true and auncient prerogatifes and laws of the wars is not kept: if you would take the pains but to examine the wars of 10 Pompey the great, you shall find, I warrant you, that there is no tittle tattle, nor pibble pabble, in Pompey's camp: I warrant you, you shall find the ceremonies of the wars, and the cares of it, and the forms of it, and the sobriety of it, and the modesty of it, to be otherwise.

Gow. Why, the enemy is loud; you heard him all night.

Bates. He may shew what outward courage he will: but, I believe, as cold a night as 'tis, he could wish himself in the Thames up to the neck; and so I would he were, and I by him, at all adventures, so we were quit here.

K. Henry. By my troth, I will speak my con science of the king; I think, he would not wish himself any where but where he is.

Bates. Then, 'would he were here alone; so should he be sure to be ransom'd, and a many poor men's lives sav'd.

K. Henry. I dare say, you love him not so ill, to wish him here alone; howsoever you speak this, to feel other men's minds: Methinks, I 15 could not die any where so contented, as in the king's company; his cause being just, and his quarrel honourable.

Flu. If the enemy is an ass and a fool, and a prating coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we 20 should also, look you, be an ass and a fool, and a prating coxcomb; in your own conscience now? Gow. I will speak lower.

Flu. I pray you, and beseech you, that you
will.
[Exeunt. 25
K. Henry. Though it appear a little out of
fashion, there is much care and valour in this
Welshman.

Enter three Soldiers; John Butes, Alexander
Court, and Michael Williams.

Court. Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which breaks yonder?

Bates. I think it be: but we have no great cause to desire the approach of day.

Will. That's more than we know.

Bates. Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know enough, if we know we are the king's subjects: If his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes the crime of it out of us.

Will. But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy, reckoning to make; when all those legs, and arms, and heads, chopp'd off in a battle, shall join together at the latter day, and Jcry all,We dy'd in such a place; some, swearing; some, crying for a surgeon; some, upon their wives left poor behind them; some, upon the 30 debts they owe; some, upon their children rawly' left. I am afeard there are few die well, that die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose of any thing, when blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the king that led them to it; whom to disobey, were against all proportion of subjection.

Will. We see yonder the beginning of the day, 35 but, I think, we shall never see the end of it.Who goes there?

K. Henry. A friend.

Will. Under what captain serve you?

K Henry. Under Sir Thomas Erpingham. Will. A good old commander, and a most kind gentleman: I pray you, what thinks he of our

estate?

K. Henry. Even as men wreck'd upon the sand, that look to be wash'd off the next tide.

Bates. He hath not told his thought to the| king?

K. Henry. So, if a son, that is by his father sent about merchandize, do sinfully miscarry upon the 40 sea, the imputation of his wickedness, by your rule, should be imposed upon his father that sent him; or, if a servant, under his master's command, transporting a sum of money, be assail'd by robbers, and die in many irreconcil'd iniquities, you may 45 call the business of the master the author of the servant's damnation:-But this is not so: the king is not bound to answer the particular endings of his soldiers, the father of his son, nor the master of his servant; for they purpose not their death, when they purpose their services. Besides, there is no king, be his cause never so spotless, if it come to the arbitrement of swords, can try it out with all unspotted soldiers. Some, peradventure, have on them the guilt of permeditated and contrived murder; some, of beguiling virgins with the broken scals of perjury; some, making the wars their bulwark, that have before gored the gentle bosom of peace with pillage and robbery. Now if these man have defeated the law and outrun native punishment, though they can out-strip men, they have no wings to fly from God: war That is, punishment

K. Henry. No; nor it is not meet he should.For, though I speak it to you, I think, the king is but a man, as I am: the violet smells to him, 50 as it doth to me; the element shews to him, as it doth to me; all his senses have but human conditions': his ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man; and though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet, when they stoop, 55 they stoop with the like wing; therefore, when he sees reason of fears, as we do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish as ours are: Yet, in reason, no man should possess him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by shewing it, should dishearten his

army.

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1i. e. it agrees. 2 Conditions means qualities. in their native country: or, such as they are born to

'i. e. hastily, suddenly. if they offend.

:

Sic. Go, call the people: [Exit Brutus.] in] whose name, myself

Attach thee, as a traitorous innovator,

A foe to the public weal: Obey, I charge thee,
And follow to thine answer.

Cor. Hence, old goat!

All. We'll surety him.
Com. Aged sir, hands off.

[bones

Cor. Hence, rotten thing, or I shall shake thy

Out of thy garments.

S.c. Help me, citizens.

Re-enter Brutus with a rabble of Citizens, with
the Ediles.

Men. On both sides more respect.
Sic. Here's he, that would

Take from you all your power.

Bru. Seize him, ædiles.

All. Down with him, down with him!

2 Sen. Weapons, weapons, weapons!

5

Bru. Ediles, seize him.

All. Yield, Marcius, yield.
Men. Hear me one word.

Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word.
Ediles. Peace, peace.

[friends, Men. Be that you seem, truly your country's And temperately proceed to what you would' Thus violently redress.

Bru. Sir, those cold ways,

10 That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonous Where the disease is violent:-Lay hands upon And bear him to the rock.

[him, [Coriolanus draws his sword. Cor. No; I'll die here.

15 There's some among you have beheld me fighting;`
Come,try upon yourselves whatyou have seen me.
Men. Down with that sword;-Tribunes, with-
Bru. Lay hands upon him. [draw a while.
Men. Help, Marcius! help,

[They all bustle about Coriolanus. 20 You that be noble; help him, young and old!

Tribunes, patricians, citizens !—what, ho!—
Sicinius, Brutus, Coriolanus, citizens!

All. Peace, peace, peace: stay, hold, peace!
Men What is about to be?I am out of
breath;

[bunes 25
Confusion's near; I cannot speak:-You, tri-
To the people,-Coriolanus, patience :—
Speak, good Sicinius.

Sic. Hear me, people:-Peace.

All. Let's hear our tribunes:-Peace. Speak, 30 speak, speak.

Sic. You are at point to lose your liberties: Marcius would have all from you; Marcius, Whom late you nam'd for consul.

Men Fie, fie, fie!

This is the way to kindle, not to quench.

1 Sen. To unbuild the city, and to lay all flat. Sic. What is the city, but the people?

All. True,

The people are the city.

Bru. By the consent of all, we were establish'd The people's magistrates.

All. You so remain.

Men. And so are like to do.

Cor. That is the way to lay the city flat;
To bring the roof to the foundation;
And bury all, which yet distinctly ranges,
In heaps and piles of ruin.

Sic. This deserves death.

Bru. Or let us stand to our authority,
Or let us lose it: We do here pronounce,
Upon the part o' the people, in whose power
We were elected theirs, Marcius is worthy
Of present death.

Sic. Therefore, lay hold of him;

Bear him to the rock Tarpeian, and from thence
Into destruction cast him.

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40

All. Down with him, down with him! [Exeunt. [In this mutiny, the Tribunes, the Ediles, and the People are beat in. Men.Go, get you to your house; be gone,away, All will be naught else.

2 Sen. Get you gone.

Cor. Stand fast;

We have as many friends as enemies.

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Men. Shall it be put to that?

1 Sen. The gods forbid!

pr'ythee, noble friend, home to thy house; Leave us to cure this cause.

Men. For 'tis a sore upon us,

You cannot tent yourself: Be gone, 'beseech you.
Com. Come, sir, along with us.

Cor. I would they were barbarians, (as they are,
Though in Rome litter'd;) not Romans, (as they

are not,

[gone. Though calv'd i' the porch o' the Capitol.)-Be Men. Put not your worthy rage into your tongue; One time will owe another.

Cor. On fair ground,

I could beat forty of them.
Men. I could myself

[tribunes.

45 Take up a brace of the best of them; yea, the two
Com. But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetick;
And manhood is call'd foolery, when it stands
Against a falling fabrick.-Will you hence,
Before the tag return? whose rage doth rend
50 Like interrupted waters, and o'erbear
What they are us'd to bear.

Men. Pray you, be gone:

I'll try whether my old wit be in request With those that have but little; this must be 55 With cloth of any colour. [patch'd Com. Nay, come away.

[Exeunt Coriclanus and Cominius.

1 Dr. Johnson on this passage, remarks, that he knows not whether to owe in this place means to possess by right, or to be indebted. Either sense may be admitted. One time, in which the people are seditious, will give us power in some other time: or, this time of the people's predominance will run them in debt; that is, will lay them open to the law, and expose them hereafter to more servile subjection. The lowest of the populace are still denominated by those a little above them, Tag, rag, and bobtail. ЗА 1 San.

1 Sen. This man has marr'd his fortune. Men. His nature is too noble for the world: He would not flatter Neptune for his trident, Or Jove for his power to thunder. His heart's

his mouth:

What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent;
And, being angry, doth forget that ever
He heard the naine of death.
Here's goodly work!

5

[A noise within.

[vengeance, 10

2 Sen. I would they were a-bed! Men. I would they were in Tiber!-What, the Could he not speak 'em fair?

Enter Brutus and Sicinius, with the rabble again.
Sic. Where is this viper,

That will depopulate the city, and
Be every man himself?

Men. You worthy tribunes,

Sic. He shall be thrown down the Tarpeïan rock With rigorous hands; he hath resisted law, And therefore law shall scorn him further trial Than the severity of publick power, Which he so sets at nought.

1 Cit. He shall well know,

The noble tribunes are the people's mouths,
And we their hands.

All. He shall sure out.

Men. Sir, sir,

Sic. Peace.

[but hunt

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Bru. Merely awry: When he did love his counIt honour'd hiin.

Men. The service of the foot

Being once gangren'd, is not then respected
For what before it was.-

Bru. We'll hear no more:

Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence; Lest his infection, being of catching nature, Spread further.

Men. One word more, one word.

This tyger-footed rage, when it shall find

The harm of unscann'd swiftness, will, too late, Tie leaden pounds to his heels. Proceed by process; Lest parties (as he is belov'd) break out,

20 And sack great Rome with Romans. Bru. If it were so

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It is the humane way: the other course 35 Will prove too bloody; and the end of it Unknown to the beginning.

Men. If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours, good 40
I may be heard, I'd crave a word or two;
The which shall turn you to no further harm,
Than so much loss of time.

Sie. Speak briefly then;

For we are peremptory, to dispatch
This viperous traitor: to eject him hence,
Were but one danger; and, to keep him here,
Our certain death; therefore, it is decreed,
He dies to-night.

Men. Now the good gods forbid,
That our renowned Ronie, whose gratitude
Towards her deserved children is enroll'd
In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam
Should now eat up her own!

Sic. Noble Menenius,

Be you then as the people's officer:
Masters, lay down your weapons.
Bru. Go not home.
[you there:
Sic. Meet on the market-place :-We'll attend
Where, if you bring not Marcius, we'll proceed
In our first way.

Men. I'll bring him to you:- [must come, 45 Let me desirey our company. [To the Senators.}lie Or what is worst will follow.

50

1 Sen. Pray you, let's to him.

SCENE

[Exeunt,

II.

Coriolanus's House.

Enter Coriolanus, with Patricians.

Cor. Let them pull all about mine ears; present

me

Death on the wheel, or at wild horses' heels; 55 Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeïan rock, That the precipitation might down stretch Below the beam of sight, yet will I still Be thus to them.

Sic. He's a disease that must be cut away.
Men. O, he's a limb, that has but a disease;
Mortal, to cut it off; to cure it, easy.
What has he done to Rome, that's worthy death?
Killing our enemies? The blood he hath lost,
(Which, I dare vouch, is more than that he hath, 60l

Enter Volumnia. Pat. You do the nobler.

1i. e. Do not give the signal for unlimited slaughter, &c.-To cry havock, was, I believe, originally a sporting phrase, from hafoc, which in Saxon signifies a hawk.-It was afterwards used in war, and seems to have been the signal for general slaughter. i. e. Awry. Hence a kambrel for a crooked stick, or the bend in a horse's hinder leg.-The Welch word for crooked is kum.

2

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Vol. You might have been enough the man you 15
With striving less to be so: Lesser had been'
The thwartings of your dispositions, if

You had not shew'd them how you were dispos'd
Ere they lack'd power to cross you.
Cor. Let them hang.

Vol. Ay, and burn too.

Enter Menenius, with the Senators.

Men. Come, come, you have been too rough,
something too rough;

You must return and mend it.

Sen. There's no remedy;

Unless, by not so doing, our good city
Cleave in the midst, and perish.

Vol. Pray, be counsell'd:

I have a heart as little apt as yours,

But yet a brain, that leads my use of anger,
To better vantage.

Men. Well said, noble woman:

Before he should thus stoop to the herd', but that
The violent fit o' the time craves it as physick
For the whole state, I would put mine armour on,
Which I can scarcely bear.

Cor. What must I do?
Men. Return to the tribunes.
Cor. Well, what then? what then?
Men. Repent what you have spoke.

Cor. For them?-I cannot do it to the gods;
Must I then do't to them?

Vol. You are too absolute;

Though therein you can never be too noble.
But when extremities speak, I have heard you say,
Honour and policy, like unsever'd friends,
I' the war do grow together: Grant that, and
tell me,

In peace, what each of them by the other lose,
That they combine not there?

Cor. Tush, tush!

Men. A good demand.

Vol. If it be honour, in your wars, to seem
The same you are not, (which, for your best ends,
You adopt your policy) how is it less, or worse,
That it shall hold companionship in peace
With honour, as in war; since that to both
It stands in like request?

1i. e. I wonder. 2 i, e. my rank. no established rank. or settled author

My fortunes, and my friends, at stake, require
I would dissemble with my nature, where
I should do so in honour: I am in this,
Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles;-
And you will rather shew our general lowts
How you can frown, than spend a fawn upon
20 For the inheritance of their loves, and safeguar
Of what that want' might ruin.

Men. Noble lady!

8

'em

Come, go with us; speak fair: you may salve so Not what is dangerous present, but the loss 25 Of what is past.

Vol. I pr'ythee now, my son,

Go to them, with this bonnet in thy hand;
And thus far having stretch'd it, (here be with

them)

30 Thy knee bussing the stones, (for in such business
Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant
More learned than the ears) waving thy head,
With often, thus, correcting thy stout heart,
Now humble as the ripest mulberry,

35

That will not hold the handling: Or, say to them,
Thou art their soldier, and being bred in broils,
Hast not the soft way, which, thou dost confess,
Were fit for thee to use, as they to claim,
In asking their good loves; but thou wilt frame
40 Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs, so far
As thou hast
power and person.

Men. This but done,

Even as she speaks, why, their hearts were yours: For they have pardons, being ask’d, as free 45 As words to little purpose.

50

Vol. Pr'ythee now,

[rather

Go, and be rul'd: although, I know, thou hadst
Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf,

T'han flatter him in a bower.

Here is Cominius.

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You make strong party, or defend yourself
55 By calmness, or by absence; all's in anger.
Men. Only fair speech.

Com. I think, 'twill serve, if he
Can thereto frame his spirit.

Vol. He must, and will:

(60 Pr'ythee, now, say, you will, and go about it.

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said,

My praises made thee first a soldier, so,
To have my praise for this, perform a part
Thou hast not done before.

Cor. Well, I must do't:-
Away, my disposition, and possess me
Some harlot's spirit! My throat of war be turn'd,
Which quired with my drum, into a pipe
Small as an eunuch, or the virgin voice
That babies lulls asleep! The smiles of knaves
Tent' in my cheeks; and school-boys'tears take up
The glasses of my sight! A beggar's tongue
Make motion through my lips; and my arm'd
knees,

Who bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his
That hath receiv'd an alms!-I will not do't;
Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth,
And, by my body's action, teach my mind
A most inherent baseness.

Vol. At thy choice then :

To beg of thee, it is my more dishonour,
Than thou of them. Come all to ruin; let
Thy mother rather feel thy pride, than fear
Thy dangerous stoutness: for I mock at death
With as big heart as thou. Do as thou list.
Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck'dst it from
But own thy pride thyself.

Cor. Pray, be content;

10

Men. Ay, but mildly.
Cor. Well, mildly be it then

SCENE

The Forum.

Enter Sicinius, and 1 Bru. In this point charge hi

affects

Tyrannical power: If he evade Inforce him with his envy to th 15 And that the spoil, got on the 4 Was ne'er distributed.-What, Enter an Edile

20

25

30

[me;

40

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45

Com. Away; the tribunes do attend you: arm50
yourself

To answer mildly; for they are prepar❜d
With accusations, as I hear, more strong
Than are upon you yet.

Ed. He's coming. Bru. How accompanied? Ad. With old Menenius, and That always favour'd him.

Sic. Have you a catalogue Of all the voices that we have p Set down by the poll?

Ad. I have; 'tis ready.
Sic. Have you collected then
Æd. I have.

Sic. Assemble presently the
And when they hear me say, It
I the right and strength o' the com
For death, for fine, or banishme
If I say fine, cry fine; if death,
Insisting on the old prerogative
And
i' the truth o' the ca
power
Ad. I shall inform them.
Bru. And when such time t
Let them not cease, but with a
Inforce the present execution
Of what we chance to sentence.
Ad. Very well.

Sic. Make them be strong, ar hint,

When we shall hap to give 't the

Bru. Go about it.

Put him to choler straight: He
Ever to conquer, and to have hi
Of contradiction: Being once ch
Be rein'd again to temperance;
What's in his heart; and that is the
With us to break his neck.
Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, a
with others.
Sic. Well, here he comes.

Mr. Hawkins explains unbarbed by bare, uncovered; and adds, that in the tir when a horse was fully armed and accoutered for the encounter, he was said to be ba from the old word barbe, which Chaucer uses for a veil or covering. Mr. Steevens, unbarbed sconce is untrimm'd or unshaven head.—To barb a man was to shave him. portion; applied to a piece of earth, and here elegantly transferred to the body, car which played in concert with my drum. 5 i. Mr. Malone, He has been used to his worth, or (as we should now say) his pennyu diction; his full quota or proportion. To look is to wait or expect.-The sense

To tent is to take up residence.

What he has in his heart, is waiting there to help us to break his neck.

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