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1 SERV. [advancing.] Here's a ftrange alteration!

2 SERV. By my hand, I had thought to have ftrucken him with a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me, his clothes made a falfe report of him.

I SERV. What an arm he has! He turn'd me about with his finger and his thumb, as one would fet up a top.

2 SERV. Nay, I knew by his face that there was fomething in him: He had, fir, a kind of face, methought, -I cannot tell how to term it.

I SERV. He had fo; looking, as it were,'Would I were hang'd, but I thought there was more in him than I could think.

2 SERV. So did I, I'll be fworn: He is fimply the rareft man i' the world.

I SERV. I think, he is: but a greater foldier than he,

you wot one.

the

2 SERV. Who? my mafter?

1 SERV. Nay, it's no matter for that.

2 SERV. Worth fix of him.

1 SERV. Nay, not fo neither; but I take him to be

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2 SERV. 'Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that for the defence of a town, our general is excellent. I SERV. Ay, and for an affault too.

Re-enter third SERVANT.

3 SERV. O, flaves, I can tell you news; news, you rafcals.

12 SERV. What, what, what? let's partake.

3 SERV. I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lieve be a condemn'd man.

I 2 SERV. Wherefore? wherefore?

3 SERV. Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general, Caius Marcius.

I SERV. Why do you say, thwack our general? 3 SERV. I do not fay, 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 fay fo himself.

I SERV. He was too hard for him directly, to say the truth on't before Corioli, he fcotch'd him and notch'd him like a carbonado.

2 SERV. An he had been cannibally given, he might have broil'd and eaten him too.

I SERV. But, more of thy news?

3 SERV. Why, he is so made on here within, as if he were fon and heir to Mars: fet at upper end o' the table: no question ask'd him by any of the fenators, but they stand bald before him: Our general himself makes a mistress of him; fanctifies himself with's hand, and turns up the white o'the eye to his difcourfe. 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 fays, and fowle the porter of Rome gates by the ears: He will mow down all before him, and leave his paffage poll'd.

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, fir, he has as many friends as enemies: which friends, fir, (as it were,) durft not (look you, fir,) fhow themselves (as we term it,) his friends, whilst he's in directitude.

I SERV, Directitude! What's that?

3 SERV. But when they fhall fee, fir, his creft up again, and the man in blood, they will out of their burrows, like conies after rain, and revel all with him.

Ì SERV. But when goes this forward?

3 SERV. To-morrow; to-day; presently. You fhall have the drum ftruck 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 fhall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing, but to ruft iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers.

I SERV. Let me have war, fay I; it exceeds peace, as far as day does night; it's fpritely, waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mull'd, deaf, fleepy, infenfible; a getter of more bastard children, than wars a destroyer of men.

2 SERV. 'Tis fo.: and as wars, in fome fort, may be faid to be a ravifher; fo it cannot be denied, but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.

I SERV. Ay, and it makes men hate one another.

3 SERV. Reafon; because they then lefs need one another. The wars, for my money. I hope to fee Romans as cheap as Volcians. They are rifing, they are rifing. ALL. In, in, in, in.

SCENE VI. Rome. A Publick Place.

Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS.

[Exeunt.

SIC. We hear not of him, neither need we fear him; His remedies are tame i' the prefent peace And quietnefs 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 fuffer by't, behold Diffentious numbers peftering ftreets, than fee Our tradefmen finging in their fhops, and going About their functions friendly.

VOL. V.

M

Enter MENENIUS.

BRU. We flood to't in good time. Is this Menenius? SIC. 'Tis he, 'tis he: O, he is grown moft kind Of late. Hail, fir!

MEN. Hail to you both!

SIC. Your Coriolanus, fir, is not much mifs'd, But with his friends: the common-wealth doth stand; And fo 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 preferve you both!

SIC. Good-e'en, our neighbours.

BRU. Good-e'en to you all, good e'en to you all.

I 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 wifh'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 thefe fellows ran about the streets,
Crying, Confufion.

BRU. Caius Marcius was

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

SIC. And affecting one fole throne,

Without affistance.

MEN. I think not fo.

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

BRU. The gods have well prevented it, and Rome Sits fafe and ftill without him.

Enter EDILE.

ED. Worthy tribunes,

There is a flave, whom we have put in prifon,
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,

Thrufts forth his horns again into the world;

Which were infhell'd, when Marcius ftood for Rome,

And durft not once peep out.

SIC. Come, what talk you

Of Marcius?

BRU. Go fee 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; Left you shall chance to whip your information, And beat the meffenger who bids beware

Of what is to be dreaded.

SIC. Tell not me:

I know, this cannot be.

BRU. Not poffible.

Enter a MESSENGER.

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