Let me commend thee first to those that shall
Say "Yea" to thy desires. A thousand welcomes!
And more a friend than e'er an enemy:
Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand: most
welcome!

[Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS. 1st Serv. [advancing]. Here's a strange alteration!

2nd Serv. By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me his clothes made a false report of him.

1st Serv. What an arm he has! He turned me about with his finger and his thumb as one would set up a top.

2nd Serv. Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him: he had, sir, a kind of face, methought,-I cannot tell how to term it.

he was ever too hard for him: I have heard him say so himself.

1st Serv. He was too hard for him directly, to say the truth on 't: before Corioli he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado.

2nd Serv. An he had been cannibally given, he might have broiled and eaten him too. 1st Serv. But more of thy news?

3rd Serv. Why, he is so made on here within as if he were son and heir to Mars: set at upper end o'the table: no question asked him by any of the senators but they stand bald before him. Our general himself makes a mistress of him; sanctifies himself with 's hand, and turns up the white o' the eye to his discourse. 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 says, and sowle the porter of Rome gates by the ears: he will mow down all before him, and leave his passage polled.

2nd Serv. And he 's as like to do't as any man I can imagine.

3rd Serv. Do't? he will do 't. For look you, sir, he has as many friends as enemies: which friends, sir (as it were), durst not (look you, sir) shew themselves (as we term it) his friends whilst he's in directitude.

1st Serv. Directitude! what's that?

3rd Serv. But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again, and the man in blood, they will out of their burrows like conies after rain, and revel all with him.

1st Serv. But when goes this forward? 3rd Serv. To-morrow: to-day: presently. You shall have the drum struck up this afternoon : 't is, as it were, a parcel of their feast, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips.

2nd Serv. Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers.

1st Serv. Let me have war, say I: it exceeds peace as far as day does night: it's sprightly, waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children than wars a destroyer of men.

2nd Serv. "Tis so: and as wars, in some sort, may be said to be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.

1st Serv. Ay, and it makes men hate one another.

3rd Serv. Reason; because they then less need one another. The wars for my money: I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volcians. They are rising, they are rising.

All. In, in, in, in!

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.-Rome. A public Place.

Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS.

Sic. We hear not of him, neither need we fear him:

His remedies are tame i' the present peace
And quietness 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 suffer by 't) behold
Dissentious numbers pestering streets, than see
Our tradesmen singing in their shops, and going
About their functions friendly.

Bru. We stood to 't in good time.-Is this Menenius?

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 dishonoured 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, confined
Into an augre's bore.

Men. Pray now, your news?—
You have made fair work, I fear me.-Pray,

Cit. 'Faith, we hear fearful news. 1st Cit. For mine own part, When I said "Banish him," I said 't was pity. 2nd Cit. And so did I. 3rd 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

:

(I mean for your particular), you had not
Joined 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 shews good husbandry for the Volcian 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,
When'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 't was 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

Even with the same austerity and garb

As he controlled the war:-but one of these
(As he hath spices of them all, not all,

For I dare so far free him) made him feared;
So hated, and so banished. But he has a merit

To choke it in the utterance. So our virtues
Lie in the interpretation of the time :
And power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair
To extol what it hath done.

One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail: Rights by rights fouler, strength by strengths, do fail.

Come, let's away.-When, Caius, Rome is thine, Thou art poor'st of all: then shortly art thou [Exeunt.

mine.