Bru. The people are incens'd against him.

Sic.

Or all will fall in broil.

Cor.

Are these your herd? –

Stop,

What are your offices?

Must these have voices, that can yield them now,
And straight disclaim their tongues?
You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth?
Have you not set them on?

Men.

Be calm, be calm.

Cor. It is a purpos'd thing, and grows by plot,
To curb the will of the nobility:

Suffer 't, and live with such as cannot rule,
Nor ever will be rul'd.

The people cry, you mock'd them; and, of late,
When corn was given them gratis, you repin'd;
Scandal'd the suppliants for the people, call'd them
Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness.
Cor. Why, this was known before.

Bru.

Cor. Have you inform'd them sithence?
Bru.

Not to them all.

How! I inform them!

Not unlike,

Com. You are like to do such business.
Bru.

Each way, to better yours.

Cor. Why, then, should I be consul? By yond' clouds, Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me

Your fellow tribune.

Sic.

You show too much of that,

For which the people stir. If you will pass

To where you are bound, you must inquire your way,
Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit;

Or never be so noble as a consul,

Nor yoke with him for tribune.
Men.

Let's be calm.

- Set on.- This paltering

Com. The people are abus'd. Becomes not Rome; nor has Coriolanus

Deserved this so dishonour'd rub, laid falsely
I' the plain way of his merit.

This was my speech, and I will speak 't again —

Men. Not now, not now.

1 Sen.

Not in this heat, Sir, now.

Cor. Now, as I live, I will. - My nobler friends,

I crave their pardons:

For the mutable, rank-scented many, let them
Regard me as I do not flatter, and

Therein behold themselves. I say again,

In soothing them we nourish 'gainst our senate
The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition,

Which we ourselves have plough'd for, sow'd, and scatter'd,
By mingling them with us,

the honour'd number;

Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that

Which they have given to beggars.

Men.

Well, no more.

Sen. No more words, we beseech you.
Cor.

How! no more?

As for my country I have shed my blood,
Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs
Coin words till they decay against those meazels,
Which we disdain should tetter us, yet sought
The very way to catch them.

Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you

His absolute "shall?"

Com.

Cor.

'T was from the canon.

O, good but most unwise patricians! why,
You grave but reckless senators, have you thus
Given Hydra here to choose an officer,

That with his peremtory "shall," being but

The horn and noise o' the monsters, wants not spirit
To say, he 'll turn your current in a ditch,
And make your channel his? If he have power,
Then vail your ignorance: if none, awake
Your dangerous lenity. If you are learned,
Be not as common fools: if you are not,

Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians,
If they be senators; and they are no less,

When both your voices blended, the great'st taste
Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate;
And such a one as he, who puts his "shall,"
His popular "shall," against a graver bench
Than ever frown'd in Greece. By Jove himself,
It makes the consuls base; and my soul aches,
To know, when two authorities are up,
Neither supreme, how soon confusion
May enter 'twixt the gap of both, and take
The one by the other.

Well- on to the market-place.

Cor. Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth The corn o' the store-house gratis, as 't was us'd

Sometime in Greece,

Men,

Well, well; no more of that.

Com. Though there the people had more absolute power, I say, they nourished disobedience, fed

The ruin of the state.

Bru.

Why, shall the people give

One that speaks thus their voice?

Cor.

I'll give my reasons,

More worthier than their voices.

They know, the corn

Was not our recompence, resting well assur'd
They ne'er did service for't. Being press'd to the war,
Even when the navel of the state was touch'd,

They would not thread the gates: this kind of service
Did not deserve corn gratis: being i' the war,
Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they show'd
Most valour, spoke not for them. Th' accusation
Which they have often made against the senate,
All cause unborn, could never be the native
Of our so frank donation. Well, what then?
How shall this bosom multiplied digest

The senate's courtesy? Let deeds express

What's like to be their words: "We did request it;
We are the greater poll, and in true fear

They gave us our demands.”.

-Thus we debase

The nature of our seats, and make the rabble

Call our cares, fears; which will in time break ope
The locks o' the senate, and bring in the crows

To peck the eagles.

No, take more:

Bru. Enough, with over-measure.
Cor.

What may be sworn by, both divine and human,

Seal what I end withal! This double worship,
Where one part does disdain with cause, the other
Insult without all reason; where gentry, title, wisdom,
Cannot conclude, but by the yea and no

Of general ignorance, it must omit

Real necessities, and give way the while

To unstable slightness. Purpose so barr'd, it follows,
Nothing is done to purpose: therefore, beseech you,
You that will be less fearful than discreet,

That love the fundamental part of state,

More than you doubt the change on 't, that prefer
A noble life before a long, and wish

To jump a body with a dangerous physic

That's sure of death without it, at once pluck out
The multitudinous tongue : let them not lick
The sweet which is their poison. Your dishonour
Mangles true judgment, and bereaves the state
Of that integrity which should become it,
Not having the power to do the good it would,
For th' ill which doth control it.

Bru.

He has said enough.

Sic. He has spoken like a traitor, and shall answer As traitors do.

Cor. Thou wretch! despite o'erwhelm thee! What should the people do with these bald tribunes? On whom depending, their obedience fails

To the greater bench. In a rebellion,

When what's not meet, but what must be, was law,
Then were they chosen: in a better hour,

Let what is meet, be said, it must be meet,

And throw their power i' the dust.

Manifest treason.

Bru.

Sic.

This a consul? no.

Bru. The Ediles, ho!

Let him be apprehended.

Enter an Edile.

Sic. Go, call the people; [Exit Ædile.] 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.

Sen. We'll surety him.

Com.

Hence, old goat!

Aged Sir, hands off.

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

Re-enter the Edile, with others, and a Rabble of Citizens. Men. On both sides more respect.