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Who shall tell Priam so, or Hecuba?
Let him that will a screech-owl aye be call'd,
Go in to Troy, and say there-Hector's dead:
There is a word will Priam turn to stone;
Make wells and Niobes of the maids and wives,
Cold statues of the youth; and, in a word,
Scare Troy out of itself. But, march, away:
Hector is dead; there is no more to say.
Stay yet;-You vile abominable tents,

Thus proudly pight* upon our Phrygian plains,
Let Titan rise as early as he dare,

I'll through and through you!-And thou, great-sized coward!
No space of earth shall sunder our two hates;
I'll haunt thee like a wicked conscience still,
That mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy thoughts.-
Strike a free march to Troy !-with comfort go:
Hope of revenge shall hide our inward woe.

[Exeunt ENEAS and Trojans.

As TROILUS is going out, enter from the other side, PANDARUS. Pan. But hear you, hear you!

Tro. Hence, broker lackey! ignomy† and shame Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name.

[Exit TROILUS. Pan. A goodly med'cine for my aching bones!-O world! world! world! thus is the poor agent despised! O traitors and bawds, how earnestly are you set a' work, and how ill requited! Why should our endeavour be so loved, and the performance so loathed? what verse for it? what instance for it ?-Let me see:Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing, Till he hath lost his honey and his sting: And being once subdued in armed tail,

Sweet honey and sweet notes together fail.

Good traders in the flesh, set this in your painted cloths.†
As many as be here of pander's hall,

Your eyes, half out, weep out at Pandar's fall:
Or, if you cannot weep, yet give some groans,
Though not for me, yet for your aching bones.
Brethren, and sisters, of the hold-door trade,
Some two months hence my will shall here be made;
It should be now, but that my fear is this,-
Some galled goose of Winchester would hiss:
Till then I'll sweat, and seek about for eases;
And, at that time, bequeath you my diseases.

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+ Canvas hangings for rooms, painted with emblems and mottos. Some one affected with lues.

[Exit.

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MENENIUS AGRIPPA, Friend to VIRGILIA, Wife to Coriolanus.

Coriolanus.

VALERIA, Friend to Virgilia.

SICINIUS VELUTUS, Tribunes of GENTLEWOMAN, attending Vir

the people.

YOUNG MARCIUS, Son to Corio-
lanus.

A ROMAN HERALD.
TULLUS AUFIDIUS, General of the
Volscians.

LIEUTENANT to Aufidius.

gilia.

Roman and Volscian SENATORS,
PATRICIANS, EDILES, LICTORS,
SOLDIERS, CITIZENS, MESSEN-
GERS, SERVANTS to Aufidius, and
other ATTENDANTS.

SCENE.-Partly in Rome, and partly in the Territories of the Volscians and Antiates.

ACT I.

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.

1 Cit. First you know, Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the people. Cit. We know't, we know't.

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.

1 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 be

* Rich.

come rakes: for the gods know, I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge.

2 Cit. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius? 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 to that end though soft-conscienced 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 Čit. 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!

Cit. Come, come.

1 Cit. Soft; who come 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? With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray you.

1 Cit. Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have had inkling, this fortnight, what we intend to to, which now we'll show 'em in deeds. They say, poor suitors have strong breaths; they shall know, we have strong arms too.

Men. Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours, Will you undo yourselves?

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: repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich; and provide more piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain the poor.

* Thin as rakes.

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,

Or be accused of folly. I shall tell you

A pretty tale; it may be, you have heard it;

But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture

To stale't* a little more.

1 Cit. Well, I'll hear it, Sir; yet you must not think to fob off our disgracet with a tale: but, an't please you, deliver.

Men. There was a time, when all the body's members Rebell'd against the belly; thus accused it :

That only like a gulf it did remain

I'the midst o'the body, idle and inactive,

Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing

Like labour with the rest; where‡ the other instruments
Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,
And, mutually participate,§ did minister
Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body. The belly answered,—

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
(For, look you, I may make the belly smile,
As well as speak), it tauntingly replied

To the discontented members, the mutinous parts
That envied his receipt; even so most fitly T
As you malign our senators, for that

They are not such as you.

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 they

Men. What then ?

'Fore me, this fellow speaks!-what then? what then? 1 Cit. Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd, Who is the sink o'the body,

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,

* Make it more common.

↑ Whereas.

+ Hardship.

§ Participant.

¶ Exactly.

I. e. which indicated not pleasure but contempt.

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Which you do live upon and fit it is;
Because I am the storehouse, 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?

You the great toe of this assembly?

1 Cit. I the great toe? Why the great toe?

Men. For that being one o'the lowest, basest, poorest, Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st foremost:

Thou rascal, thou art worst in blood, to run

Lead'st first to win some vantage.

But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs;

Rome and her rats are at the point of battle,

The one side must have bale. Hail! noble Marcius!

Enter CAIUS MARCIUS.

Mar. Thanks.-What's the matter, you dissentious rogues, That rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,

Make yourselves scabs?

Cit. We have ever your good word.

Mar. He that will give good words to thee, will flatter
Beneath abhorring.-What would you have, you curs,
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,

To make him worthy, whose offence subdues him,
And curse that justice did it. Who deserves greatness,
Deserves your hate: and your affections are

A sick man's appetite, who desires most that

Which would increase his evil. He that depends
Upon your favours, swims with fins of lead,

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