SCENE I.-Rome. Before the Gate of the City.
Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENE-
NIUS, COMINIUS, and several young Patricians.
Cor. Come, leave your tears: a brief farewell.
The beast

With many heads butts me away.-Nay, mother,
Where is your ancient courage? you were used
To say, extremity was the trier of spirits;
That common chances common men could bear;
That, when the sea was calm, all boats alike
Shewed mastership in floating: fortune's blows
When most struck home, being gentle, wounded,

I would the gods had nothing else to do
But to confirm my curses!-[Exeunt Tribunes.
Could I meet them

But once a day, it would unclog my heart
Of what lies heavy to't.

Men.
You have told them home;
And, by my troth, you have cause.
You'll sup
with me?

Vol. Anger's my meat: I sup upon myself, And so shall starve with feeding.-Come, let's go:

Leave this faint puling, and lament as I do,
In anger, Juno-like.-Come, come, come.
Men. Fie, fie, fie!

[Exeunt.

SCENE III-A Highway between Rome and Antium.

Enter a Roman and a Volce, meeting. Rom. I know you well, sir, and you know me: your name, I think, is Adrian.

Volc. It is so, sir: truly, I have forgot you. Rom. I am a Roman; and my services are, as you are, against them. Know you me yet? Volc. Nicanor?-No. Rom. The same, sir.

Volc. You had more beard when I last saw you; but your favour is well appeared by your tongue. What's the news in Rome? I have a note from the Volcian state to find you out there you have well saved me a day's journey.

Rom. There hath been in Rome strange insurrection: the people against the senators, patricians, and nobles.

Volc. Hath been! Is it ended, then? Our state thinks not so: they are in a most warlike preparation, and hope to come upon them in the heat of their division.

Rom. The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing would make it flame again. For the nobles receive so to heart the banishment of that worthy Coriolanus, that they are in a ripe aptness to take all power from the people, and to pluck from them their tribunes for ever. This lies glowing, I can tell you, and is almost mature for the violent breaking out.

Volc. Coriolanus banished?

Rom. Banished, sir.

Volc. You will be welcome with this intelligence, Nicanor.

I

Rom. The day serves well for them now. have heard it said, the fittest time to corrupt a man's wife is when she's fallen out with her husband. Your noble Tullus Aufidius will appear well in these wars; his great opposer, Coriolanus, being now in no request of his country.

Volc. He cannot choose. I am most fortunate thus accidentally to encounter you: you have ended my business, and I will merrily accompany you home.

Rom. I shall, between this and supper, tell you most strange things from Rome; all tending to the good of their adversaries. Have you an army ready, say you?

Volc. A most royal one: the centurions and their charges, distinctly billeted, already in the entertainment, and to be on foot at an hour's warning.

Rom. I am joyful to hear of their readiness, and am the man, I think, that shall set them in present action. So, sir, heartily well met, and most glad of your company.

Volc. You take my part from me, sir: I have the most cause to be glad of yours.

Rom. Well, let us go together.

[Exeunt.

Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face Bears a command in 't: though thy tackle's torn, Thou shew'st a noble vessel. What's thy name? Cor. Prepare thy brow to frown.-Know'st thou me yet?

Auf. I know thee not: thy name?

Cor. My name is Caius Marcius, who hath done
To thee particularly, and to all the Volces,
Great hurt and mischief: thereto witness may
My surname, Coriolanus. The painful service,
The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood
Shed for my thankless country, are requited
But with that surname : a good memory,
And witness of the malice and displeasure
Which thou shouldst bear me !—Only that name
remains :

The cruelty and envy of the people,
Permitted by our dastard nobles, who
Have all forsook me, hath devoured the rest;
And suffered me, by the voice of slaves, to be
Whooped out of Rome. Now, this extremity
Hath brought me to thy hearth. Not out of hope
(Mistake me not) to save my life; for if

I had feared death, of all the men i' the world
I would have 'voided thee: but in mere spite,
To be full quit of those my banishers,
Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast
A heart of wreak in thee, that will revenge
Thine own particular wrongs, and stop those

maims

Of shame seen through thy country, speed thee straight,

And make my misery serve thy turn: so use it
That my revengeful services may prove
As benefits to thee: for I will fight
Against my cankered country with the spleen
Of all the under fiends. But if so be
Thou dar'st not this, and that to prove more
fortunes

Thou art tired, then, in a word, I also am
Longer to live most weary, and present
My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice:
Which not to cut would shew thee but a fool:
Since I have ever followed thee with hate,

Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart

A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter

Should from yon cloud speak divine things, and say,

""Tis true," I'd not believe them more than thee,

All-noble Marcius.-Let me twine
Mine arms about that body, where against
My grained ash an hundred times hath broke,
And scared the moon with splinters! Here I clip
The anvil of my sword; and do contest
As hotly and as nobly with thy love

As ever, in ambitious strength, I did

Contend against thy valour.

Know thou first,

I loved the maid I married; never man
Sighed truer breath: but that I see thee here,
Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart
Than when I first my wedded mistress saw
Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell

thee

We have a power on foot; and I had purpose
Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn,
Or lose mine arm for 't. Thou hast beat me out
Twelve several times, and I have nightly since
Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me:
We have been down together in my sleep,
Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat,
And waked half dead with nothing. Worthy
Marcius,

Had we no quarrel else to Rome but that
Thou art thence banished, we would muster all