As the main point of this our after-meeting, Hath thus stood for his country: Therefore, please you, In our well-found successes, to report We meet here, both to thank, and to remember 1 Sen. Speak, good Cominius : Leave nothing out for length, and make us think, Than we to stretch it out. Masters o'the people, Sic. We are convented Upon a pleasing treaty; and have hearts Bru. Which the rather We shall be bless'd to do, if he remember He hath hereto priz'd them at. Men. That's off, that's off; I would you rather had been silent: Please you Bru. Most willingly : But yet my caution was more pertinent, Than the rebuke you give it. Men. He loves your people; But tie him not to be their bedfellow. Worthy Cominius, speak,-Nay, keep your place. [CORIOLANUS rises, and offers to go away. 1 Sen. Sit, Coriolanus; never shame to hear What you have nobly done. Cor. Your honours' pardon; I had rather have my wounds to heal again, Than hear say how I got them. Bru. Sir, I hope, My words dis-bench'd you not. Cor, No, sir: yet oft, [5] Your kind interposition with the common people. JOHNSON. 161 i. e. that is nothing to the purpose. JOHNSON. When blows have made me stay, I fled from words. You sooth'd not, therefore hurt not: But, your people, I love them as they weigh. Men. Pray now, sit down. Cor. I had rather have one scratch my head i'the sun, When the alarum were struck, than idly sit To hear my nothings monster'd. Men. Masters o'the people, Your multiplying spawn how can he flatter,' [Exit COR. (That's thousand to one good one,) when you now see, He had rather venture all his limbs for honour, Than one of his ears to hear it ?-Proceed, Cominius. That valour is the chiefest virtue, and The man I speak of cannot in the world And, in the brunt of seventeen battles since, I cannot speak him home: He stopp'd the fliers ; A vessel under sail, so men obey'd, And fell below his stem: his sword (death's stamp) [1] How can he be expected to practise flattery to others, who abhors it so much that he cannot hear it when even offered to himself. JOHNSON. [2] When Tarquin raised a power to recover Rome. JOHNSON. [S] That is, his chin on which there was no beard. STEEVENS. 14] To lurch, in Shakespeare's time, signified to win a maiden set at cards. The mortal gate o'the city, which he painted Men. Worthy man! 1 Sen. He cannot but with measure fit the honours Which we devise him. Com. Our spoils he kick'd at; And look'd upon things precious, as they were Men. He's right noble ; Let him be call'd for. Sen. Call Coriolanus. Off. He doth appear. Re-enter CORIOLANUS. Men. The senate, Coriolanus, are well pleas'd To make thee consul. Cor. I do owe them still My life, and services. Men. It then remains, That you do speak to the people." Cor. I do beseech you, Let me o'erleap that custom; for I cannot Put on the gown, stand naked, and entreat them, [5] That is, no honour will be too great for him; he will show a mind equal to any elevation. JOHNSON. [6] Misery for avarice; because a miser signifies avaricious. WARBURTON. [7] Coriolanus was banished U. C. 262. But till the time of Manlius Torquatus. U. C. 393, the senate chose both the consuls: And then the people, assisted by the seditious temper of the tribunes, got the choice of one. But it would be unjust to attribute this entirely to Shakespeare's ignorance; it sometimes proceeded from the too powerful blaze of his imagination, which when once lighted up, made all acquired knowledge fade and disappear before it. For sometimes again we find him, when occasion serves, not only writing up to the truth of history, but fitting his sentiments to the nicest manners of his peculiar subject, as well as to the dignity of his characters, or the dictates of nature in general. WARBURTON.------The inaccuracy is to be attributed not to our author, but to Plutarch. North's translation. 1.244. MALONE. For my wounds' sake, to give their suffrage: please you, That I may pass this doing. Sic. Sir, the people Must have their voices; neither will they bate One jot of ceremony. Men. Put them not to't. Pray you, go fit you to the custom; and Take to you, as your predecessors have, Cor. It is a part That I shall blush in acting, and might well Bru. Mark you that? Cor. To brag unto them,-Thus I did, and thus ;Show them the unaking scars, which I should hide, As if I had receiv'd them for the hire Of their breath only : Men. Do not stand upon't. -We recommend to you, tribunes of the people, Our purpose to them; and to our noble consul Wish we all joy and honour. Sen. To Coriolanus come all joy and honour! [Flourish. Then exeunt senators. Bru. You see how he intends to use the people. Sic. May they perceive his intent! He that will require them, As if he did contemn what he requested Should be in them to give. Bru. Come, we'll inform them Of our proceedings here: on the market-place, I know, they do attend us. [Exeunt. SCENE III. The same. The Forum. Enter several Citizens. 1 Cit. Once, if he do require our voices, we ought not to deny him. 2 Cit. We may, sir, if we will. 3 Cit. We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do: for if he show us his wounds, and tell us his deeds, we are to put our tongues into those wounds, and speak for them; so, if he tell us his noble deeds, we must also tell him our noble acceptance of them. Ingratitude is monstrous and for the multitude to be ingrateful, were to make a monster of the multitude; of the which, we being members, should bring ourselves to be monstrous members. : 1 Cit. And to make us no better thought of, a little help will serge for once, when we stood up about the corn, he himself stuck not to call us the many-headed multitude. 3 Cit. We have been called so of many; not that our heads are some brown, some black, some auburn, some bald, but that our wits are so diversely coloured: and truly I think, if all our wits were to issue out of one skull, they would fly east, west, north, south; and their consent of one direct way should be at once to all the points of the compass. 2 Cit. Think you so? Which way, do you judge, my wit would fly? 3 Cit. Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another man's will, 'tis strongly wedged up in a block-head: but if it were at liberty, 'twould, sure, southward. 2 Cit. Why that way ? 3 Cit. To lose itself in a fog; where, being three parts melted away with rotten dews, the fourth would return for conscience sake, to help to get thee a wife. 2 Cit. You are never without your tricks :-You may, you may. 3 Cit. Are you all resolved to give your voices? But that's no matter, the greater part carries it. I say, if he would incline to the people, there was never a worthier man. Enter CORIOLANUS and MENenius. Here he comes, and in the gown of humility; mark his behaviour. We are not to stay altogether, but to come by him where he stands, by ones, by twos, and by threes. He's to make his requests by particulars: wherein every one of us has a single honour, in giving him our own voices with our own tongues: therefore, follow me, and I'll direct you how you shall go by him. All. Content, content. [Exeunt. Men. O, sir, you are not right: have you not known The worthiest men have done it? Cor. What must I say? I pray, sir, Plague upon't! I cannot bring My tongue to such a pace :-Look, sir ;-my wounds ;I got them in my country's service, when Some certain of your brethren roar'd, and ran [8] To suppose all their wits to issue from one skull, and that their common consent and agreement to go all one way, should end in their flying to every point of the compass, is a just description of the variety and inconsistency of the opinions, wishes, and actions of the multitude. M. MASON. |