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?

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 Volscians,

Com.

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.

If!

You have made good work,

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

The breath of garlick-eaters!

Com.

He will shake

As Hercules

Did shake down mellow fruit:2 You have made fair

work!

Upon the voice of occupation,] Occupation is here used for mechanicks, men occupied in daily business.

As Hercules, &c.] A ludicrous allusion to the apples of the Hesperides.

Bru. But is this true, sir?

Com.
Before you find it other. All the regions

Do smilingly revolt;3 and,

Ay; and you'll look pale

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.

Who shall ask it?

Com.
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:

If he were putting to my house the brand
That should consume it, I have not the face
To say, 'Beseech you, cease.-You have made fair

hands,

You, and your crafts! you have crafted fair!

Com. You have brought A trembling upon Rome, such as was never So incapable of help.

Tri.

Say not, we brought it.

Men. How! Was it we? We lov'd him; but,

like beasts,

And cowardly nobles, gave way to your clusters,
Who did hoot him out o'the city.

But, I fear

Com.
They'll roar him in again. Tullus Aufidius,
The second name of men, obeys his points
As if he were his officer:-Desperation

3 Do smilingly revolt;] To revolt smilingly is to revolt with signs of pleasure, or with marks of contempt.

Is all the policy, strength, and defence,
That Rome can make against them.

Men.

Enter a Troop of Citizens.

Here come the clusters.

And is Aufidius with him?-You are they

That made the air unwholesome, when you cast
Your stinking, greasy caps, in hooting at
Coriolanus' exile. Now he's coming;

And not a hair upon a soldier's head,

Which will not prove a whip; as many coxcombs, As you threw caps up, will he tumble down,

And pay you

pay you for your voices.

'Tis no matter;

If he could burn us all into one coal,

We have deserv'd it.

Cit. 'Faith, we hear fearful news. 1 Cit.

For mine own part, When I said, banish him, I said, 'twas pity.

2 Cit. And so did I.

3 Cit. And so did I; and, to say the truth, so did very many of us: That we did, we did for the best: and though we willingly consented to his banishment, yet it was against our will.

Com. You are goodly things, you voices!

Men.

You have made Good work, you and your cry!-Shall us to the

Capitol?

Com. O, ay; what else?

[Exeunt Coм. and MEN. Sic. Go, masters, get you home, be not dismay'd; These are a side, that would be glad to have This true, which they so seem to fear. Go home, And show no sign of fear.

you and your cry!] Alluding to a pack of hounds. So, in Hamlet, a company of players are contemptuously called a cry of players.

1 Cit. The gods be good to us! Come, masters, let's home. I ever said, we were i'the wrong, when we banished him.

2 Cit. So did we all. But come, let's home.

Bru. I do not like this news.

Sic. Nor I.

[Exeunt Citizens.

Bru. Let's to the Capitol :-'Would, half my

A Camp; at a small distance from Rome.

Enter AUFIDIUS, and his Lieutenant.

Auf. Do they still fly to the Roman?

Lieu. I do not know what witchcraft's in him; but Your soldiers use him as the grace 'fore meat,

Their talk at table, and their thanks at end;

And you are darken'd in this action, sir,
Even by your own.

Auf.
I cannot help it now;
Unless, by using means, I lame the foot

Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier
Even to my person, than I thought he would,
When first I did embrace him: Yet his nature
In that's no changeling; and I must excuse
What cannot be amended.

Yet I wish, sir,

Lieu.
(I mean, for your particular,) you had not
Join'd in commission with him: but either
Had borne the action of yourself, or else
To him had left it solely.

Auf. I understand thee well; and be thou sure,

When he shall come to his account, he knows not
What I can urge against him. Although it seems,
And so he thinks, and is no less apparent

To the vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly,
And shows good husbandry for the Volscian state;
Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon
As draw his sword: yet he hath left undone
That, which shall break his neck, or hazard mine,
Whene'er we come to our account.

Lieu. Sir, I beseech you, think you he'll carry
Rome?

Auf. All places yield to him ere he sits down;
And the nobility of Rome are his:

The senators, and patricians, love him too:
The tribunes are no soldiers; and their people
Will be as rash in the repeal, as hasty

To expel him thence. I think, he'll be to Rome,
As is the osprey' to the fish, who takes it
By sovereignty of nature.

First he was

A noble servant to them; but he could not
Carry his honours even: whether 'twas pride,
Which out of daily fortune ever taints

The happy man; whether defect of judgment,
To fail in the disposing of those chances
Which he was lord of; or whether nature,
Not to be other than one thing, not moving

From the casque to the cushion, but commanding

peace

As is the osprey-] Osprey, a kind of eagle, ossifraga. 6 whether 'twas pride,

Which out of daily fortune ever taints

The happy man; whether, &c.] Aufidius assigns three probable reasons of the miscarriage of Coriolanus; pride, which easily follows an uninterrupted train of success; unskilfulness to regulate the consequences of his own victories; a stubborn uniformity of nature, which could not make the proper transition from the casque or helmet to the cushion or chair of civil authority; but acted with the same despotism in peace as in war.