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 fufferance.

SIC. Pafs no further.

COR. Ha! what is that?

BRU. It will be dangerous to

Go on no further.

COR. What makes this change?

MEN. The matter?

COM. Hath he not pafs'd the nobles, and the commons? BRU. Cominius, no.

COR. Have I had children's voices?

[place.

I SEN. Tribunes, give way; he fhall to the marketBRU. The people are incens'd against him.

Must these have voices, that can yield them now,

And ftraight disclaim their tongues?-What are your offices?

You being their mouths, why rule ye not their teeth? Have not ye 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 fuch as cannot rule,

Nor ever will be rul'd.

BRU. Call't not a piot :

The people cry, you mock'd them; and, of late,
When corn was given them gratis, you repin'd;
Scandal'd the fuppliants for the people; call'd them
Time-pleafers, flatterers, foes to nobleness,

COR. Why, this was known before.
BRU. Not to them all.

COR. Have you inform'd them fince?
BRU. How! I inform them!

COR. You are like to do fuch business.

BRU. Not unlike,

Each

way, to better yours.

COR. Why then should I be conful? By yon clouds, Let me deserve fo ill as you, and make me

Your fellow tribune.

SIC. You fhow too much of that,

For which the people ftir: If you will pass

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

Or never be fo noble as a conful,

Nor yoke with him for tribune.

MEN. Let's be calm.

Coм. The people are abus'd :-Set on. This palt'ring Becomes not Rome; nor has Coriolanus

Deferv'd this fo difhonour'd rub, laid falfely

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, fir, 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 fay again,

In foothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate
The cockle of rebellion, infolence, fedition,

Which we ourselves have plough'd for, fow'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.

I 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 fhall my lungs
Coin words till their decay, against those meazels,
Which we difdain fhould tetter us, yet fought
The very way to catch them.

BRU. You speak o' the people,
As if you were a god to punish, not

A man of their infirmity.

SIC. 'Twere well,

We let the people know't.

MEN. What, what? his choler?

COR. Choler!

Were I as patient as the midnight sleep,

By Jove, 'twould be

SIC. It is a mind,

my mind.

That shall remain a poison where it is,

Not poifon any further.

COR. Shall remain !—

Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you

His abfolute ball?

COM. 'Twas from the canon.

COR. Shall!

O good, but most unwife patricians, why,
You grave, but reckless senators, have you
Given Hydra here to choose an officer,
That with his peremptory hall, being but

thus

The horn and noife o' the monfters, wants not spirit

To fay, 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 fenators: and they are no lefs,

When, both

your voices blended, the greatest taste Moft palates theirs. They choose their magiftrate; And fuch a one as he, who puts his ball,

His popular ball, against a graver bench
Than ever frown'd in Greece! By Jove himself,
It makes the confuls bafe: and my foul akes,
To know, when two authorities are up,
Neither fupreme, how foon confufion
May enter 'twixt the gap of both, and take
The one by t'other.

COM. Well,-on to the market-place.

COR. Whoever gave that counfel, to give forth The corn o'the ftorehouse gratis, as 'twas us'd Sometime in Greece,

MEN. Well, well, no more of that.

[power,)

COR. (Though there the people had more abfolute

I say, they nourish'd disobedience, fed

The ruin of the state.

BRU. Why, fhall 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 recompenfe; refting well affur'd

They ne'er did fervice for't: Being prefs'd to the war, Even when the navel of the ftate was touch'd,

They would not thread the gates: this kind of service

Did not deferve corn gratis: being i' the war,
Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they fhow'd
Most valour, spoke not for them: The accufation
Which they have often made against the senate,
All caufe unborn, could never be the native
Of our fo frank donation. Well, what then?
How fhall this bofom multiplied digeft

The fenate's courtefy? 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 feats, 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.-

MEN. Come, enough.

BRU. Enough, with over-measure.

COR. No, take more:

What may be fworn by, both divine and human,
Seal what I end withal!-This double worship,-
Where one part does difdain with caufe, the other
Infult without all reafon; where gentry, title, wisdom
Cannot conclude, but by the yea and no

Of general ignorance, it must omit

Real neceffities, and give way the while

To unstable flightnefs: purpose fo barr'd, it follows, Nothing is done to purpose: Therefore, befeech you,You that will be lefs fearful than difcreet;

That love the fundamental part of state,

More than you doubt the change of't; that prefer

A noble life before a long, and wish

To jump a body with a dangerous phyfick

That's fure of death without it, at once pluck out