Upon us again.
Com.

They are worn, lord consul, so,

Saw you Aufidius?

That we shall hardly in our ages see

Their banners wave again.

Cor.

Lart. On safe-guard he came to me; and did curse Against the Volces, for they had so vilely

Yielded the town: he is retir'd to Antium.

Cor. Spoke he of me?

Lart.

Cor.

He did, my lord.

How? what?

Lart. How often he had met you, sword to sword: That, of all things upon the earth, he hated Your person most: that he would pawn his fortunes To hopeless restitution, so he might

Be call'd your vanquisher.

Cor.

Lart. At Antium.

At Antium lives he?

Cor. I wish, I had a cause to seek him there, Το oppose his hatred fully.-Welcome home.

[TO LARTIUS.

Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS.

Behold! these are the tribunes of the people,
The tongues o'the common mouth. I do despise

them;

For they do prank them in authority,"

Against all noble sufferance.

5 On safe-guard he came to me;] i. e. with a convoy, a guard appointed to protect him.

selves.

prank them in authority,] Plume, deck, dignify them

Cor.

Men.

What makes this change?

The matter?

Com. Hath he not pass'd the nobles, and the

commons?

Bru. Cominius, no.

Cor.

Have I had children's voices?

1 Sen. Tribunes, give way; he shall to the mar

ket-place.

Bru. The people are incens'd against him.

Sic.

Or all will fall in broil.

Stop,

Cor. Are these your herd?Must these have voices, that can yield them now, And straight disclaim their tongues?-What are your offices?

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 it, and live with such as cannot rule,

Nor ever will be rul'd.

Bru.

Call't not a plot:

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.

Not to them all.

Cor. Have you inform'd them since?

Bru.

How! I inform them!

Not unlike,

Cor. You are like to do such business.

Bru.

Each way, to better yours.

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

You show too much of that,

Your fellow tribune.

Sic.

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.

Com. The people are abus'd:-Set on.-This

palt'ring

Becomes not Rome; nor has Coriolanus

Deserv'd this so dishonour'd rub, laid falsely9
I' the plain way of his merit.

Cor.

Tell me of corn!

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 noble 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;

This palt'ring

Becomes not Rome;] That is, this trick of dissimulation; this

shuffling.

rub, laid falsely, &c.] Falsely for treacherously.

let them

Regard me as I do not flatter, and

Therein behold themselves:] Let them look in the mirror which I hold up to them, a mirror which does not flatter, and see themselves. JOHNSON.

The cockle of rebellion,] Cockle is a weed which grows up with the corn.

Who lack not virtuc, no, nor power, but that
Which they have given to beggars.

Men.

Well, no more..

1 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 their decay, against those meazels,"
Which we disdain should tetter us, yet sought
The very way to catch them.

Bru.

As if you were a god to punish, not
A man of their infirmity.

Sic.

We let the people know't.

Men.

Cor. Choler!

You speak o'the people,

"Twere well,

What, what? his choler?

Were I as patient as the midnight sleep,
By Jove, 'twould be my mind.

Sic.

It is a mind,

That shall remain a poison where it is,

Not poison any further.

Cor.

Shall remain !

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 peremptory shall, being but

3

for a leper.

meazels,] Mesell is used in Pierce Plowman's Vision,

minnows?] A minnow is one of the smallest river fish, called in some counties a pink.

'Twas from the canon,] Was contrary to the established rule; it was a form of speech to which he has no right; but Mr, Mason thinks these words imply the very reverse.

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 greatest 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 akes,
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.

Com.

Well-on to the market-place. Cor. Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth The corn o'the store-house gratis, as 'twas us'd Sometime in Greece,

Men.

Well, well, no more of that. Cor. (Though there the people had more absolute

power,)

I say, they nourish'd disobedience, fed

The ruin of the state.

Bru.

Why, shall the people give

One, that speaks thus, their voice?

6 Then vail your ignorance:] If this man has power, let the ig norance that gave it him vail or bow down before him.

7

You are plebeians,

If they be senators: and they are no less,

When, both your voices blended, the greatest taste

Most palates theirs.] Perhaps the meaning is, the plebeians are no less than senators, when, the voices of the senate and the people being blended together, the predominant state of the compound smacks more of the populace than the senate.