1 Serv. Why do you say, thwack our general? 3 Serv. I do not say thwack our general; but he was always good enough for him.

2 Serv. Come, we are fellows, and friends: He was ever too hard for him; I have heard him say so himself. 1 Serv. He was too hard for him directly, to say the truth on't before Corioli he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado.

2 Serv. An he had been cannibally given, he might have broiled and eaten him too.

1 Serv. But, more of thy news?

3 Serv. Why, he is so made on here within, as if he were son and heir to Mars: set at upper end o'the table no question asked him by any of the senators, but they stand bald before him: Our general himself makes a mistress of him; sanctifies himself with's hand, and turns up the white o'the eye to his discourse. But the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i'the middle, and but one half of what he was yesterday; for the other has half, by the entreaty and grant of the whole table. He'll go, he says, and sowle the porter of Rome gates by the ears: He will mow down all before him, and leave his passage polled.*

2 Serv. And he's as like to do't, as any man I can imagine. 3 Serv. Do't? he will do't: For, look you, sir, he has as many friends as enemies: which friends, sir, (as it were,) durst not (look you, sir,) show themselves (as we term it,) his friends, whilst he's in directitude.

1 Serv. Directitude! what's that?

3 Serv. But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again, and the man in blood, they will out of their burrows, like conies after rain, and revel all with him.

1 Serv. But when goes this forward? 3 Serv. To-morrow; to-day; presently. You shall have the drum struck up this afternoon: 'Tis, as it were, a parcel of their feast, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips.

2 Serv. Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers.

1 Serv. Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace, as

[9] Alluding, imp operly, to the act of crossing upon any strange event. JOHNS. That is, I suppose, drag him down by the ears into the dirt. JOHNSON. That is, bared, cleared. JOHNSON.To poll, anciently signified to cut off

the head.

STEEVENS.

far as day does night; it's sprightly, waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children, than war's a destroyer of men.

2 Serv. 'Tis so : and as war, in some sort, may be said to be a ravisher; so it cannot be denied, but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.

1 Serv. Ay, and it makes men hate one another.

3 Serv. Reason; because they then less need one another. The wars, for my money. I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volcians. They are rising, they are rising. All. In, in, in, in. [Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

Rome. A public Place.

Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS. Sic. We hear not of him, neither need we fear him; His remedies are tame i'the present peace1 And quietness o'the people, which before Were in wild hurry. Here do we make his friends Blush, that the world goes well; who rather had, Though they themselves did suffer by't, behold Dissensious numbers pestering streets, than see Our tradesmen singing in their shops, and going About their functions friendly.

Enter MENENIUS.

Bru. We stood to't in good time.

Is this Menenius?

Sic. 'Tis he, 'tis he: O, he is grown most kind

Of late.-Hail, sir!

Men. Hail to you both!

Sic. Your Coriolanus, sir, is not much miss'd,

But with his friends; the common-wealth doth stand;

And so would do, were he more angry at it.

Men. All's well; and might have been much better, if He could have temporiz'd.

Sic. Where is he, hear you?

Men. Nay, I hear nothing; his mother and his wife Hear nothing from him.

Enter three or four Citizens.

Cit. The gods preserve you both!
Sic. Good-e'en, our neighbours.

Full of rumour, full of materials for discourse.

JOHNSON.

That is, Ineffectual in times of peace like these. When the people were in commotion, his friends might have strove to remedy his disgrace by tampering with them; but now, neither wanting to employ his bravery nor remembering his former actions, they are unfit subiects for the factious to work upon. STEEVENS.

Bru. Good-e'en to you all, good-e'en to you all. 1 Cit. Ourselves, our wives, and children, on our knees, Are bound to pray for you both.

Sic. Live, and thrive!

Bru. Farewell, kind neighbours: We wish'd Coriolanus Had lov'd you as we did.

Cit. Now the gods keep you!

Both Tri. Farewell, farewell.

[Exeunt Citizens

Sic. This is a happier and more comely time, Than when these fellows ran about the streets, Crying, Confusion.

Bru. Caius Marcius was

A worthy officer i'the war; but insolent,
O'ercome with pride, ambitious past all thinking,
Self-loving,-

Sic. And affecting one sole throne,

Without assistance.

Men. I think not so.

Sic. We should by this, to all our lamentation, If he had gone forth consul, found it so.

Bru. The gods have well prevented it, and Rome Sits safe and still without him.

Enter Edile.

Ed. Worthy tribunes,

There is a slave, whom we have put in prison,
Reports, the Volces with two several powers
Are enter'd in the Roman territories;

And with the deepest malice of the war
Destroy what lies before them.

Men. "Tis Aufidius

Who, hearing of our Marcius' banishment,

Thrusts forth his horns again into the world;

Which were inshell'd, when Marcius stood for Rome, And durst not once peep out.

Sic. Come, what talk you

Of Marcius?

Bru. Go, see this rumourer whipp'd.—It cannot be. The Volces dare break with us.

Men. Cannot be !

We have record, that very well it can ;

And three examples of the like have been

Within my age.

But reason with the fellow,

Before you punish him, where he heard this:

Lest you shall chance to whip your information,

And beat the messenger who bids beware

Of what is to be dreaded.

Sic. Tell not me :

I know, this cannot be.

Bru. Not possible.

Enter a Messenger.

Mes. The nobles, in great earnestness, are going
All to the senate-house some news is come,
That turns their countenances.

Sic. 'Tis this slave ;-

Go whip him 'fore the people's eyes.—his raising!
Nothing but his report!

Mes. Yes, worthy sir,

The slave's report is seconded; and more,
More fearful, is deliver'd.

Sic. What more fearful?

Mes. It is spoke freely out of many mouths,
(How probable, I do not know,) that Marcius,
Join'd with Aufidius, leads a power 'gainst Rome;
And vows revenge as spacious, as between
The young'st and oldest thing.

Sic. This is most likely!

Bru. Rais'd only, that the weaker sort may wish Good Marcius home again.

Sic. The very trick on't.
Men. This is unlikely :

He and Aufidius can no more atone,"

Than violentest contrariety.

Enter another Messenger.

Mes. You are sent for to the senate:

A fearful army, led by Caius Marcius,
Associated with Aufidius, rages

Upon our territories; and have already,

O'erborne their way, consum'd with fire, and took
What lay before them.

Enter COMINIUS.

Com. O, you have made good work!

Men. What news? What news?

Com. You have holp to ravish your own daughters, and

To melt the city leads upon your pates;

To see your wives dishonour'd to your noses ;—

Men. What's the news? what's the news?

[5] To atone, in the active sense, is to reconcile, and is so used by our author. To atone here is, in the neutral sense, to come to reconciliation. To atone is to unita JOHNSON.

Com. Your temples burned in their cement; and Your franchises, whereon you stood, confin'd

Into an augre's bore.

Men. Pray now, your news?

You have made fair work, I fear me :-Pray, your news? If Marcius should be join'd with Volcians,

Com. If!

He is their god; he leads them like a thing

Made by some other deity than nature,

That shapes man better: and they follow him,
Against us brats, with no less confidence,

Than boys pursuing summer butterflies,

Or butchers killing flies.

Men. You have made good work,

You, and your apron men; you that stood so much
Upon the voice of occupation, and

The breath of garlic-eaters !7

Com. He will shake

Your Rome about your ears.

Men. As Hercules

Did shake down mellow fruit: You have made fair work!

Bru. But is this true, sir?

Con. Ay; and you'll look pale

Before you find it other. All the regions

Do smilingly revolt; and, who resist,
Are only mock'd for valiant ignorance,

And perish constant fools.

Who is't can blame him?

Your enemies, and his, find something in him.

Men. We are all undone, unless

The noble man have mercy.

Com. Who shall ask it?

The tribunes cannot do't for shame; the people
Deserve such pity of him, as the wolf

Does of the shepherds: for his best friends, if they
Should say, Be good to Rome, they charg'd him even
As those should do that had deserv'd his hate,
And therein show'd like enemies.

Men. 'Tis true:

[9] is here kwa for men pigrity, that garlick was a Occupation is here used for mechanicks, men occupied in daily business. MAI. food forbidden to an ancient order of Spanish knights, mentioned by Guevara. JOHNSON.To smell of leeks was no less a mark of vulgarity among the Roman people in the time of Juvenal. Sat. iii.

.........quis tecum sectile porum Sutor, et elixi vervecis labra comedit? [8] An allusion to the apples of the Hesperides.

STEEVENS.
STEEVENS.