SIC. Go, see him out at gates, and follow him,
As he hath follow'd you, with all despite ;
Give him deserv'd vexation. Let a guard

Attend us through the city.

CIT. Come, come, let's see him out at gates; come:-
The gods preserve our noble tribunes!-Come,

[Exeunt.

Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, 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 a was the trier of spirits;
That common chances common men could bear;

That, when the sea was calm, all boats alike
Show'd mastership in floating: fortune's blows,

When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves

A noble cunning: you were used to load me

With precepts, that would make invincible

The heart that conn'd them.

a Extremity. So the second folio; the first extremities. This correction of what we call the false grammar, in an edition published so soon after the original, ought perhaps to be adopted in a modern text.

VIR. O heavens! O heavens!

COR.

Nay, I prithee, woman,VOL. Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome, And occupations perish!

COR.

What, what, what!

I shall be lov'd when I am lack'd. Nay, mother,

Resume that spirit, when you were wont to say,

If

you had been the wife of Hercules,

Six of his labours you 'd have done, and sav'd
Your husband so much sweat.-Cominius,
Droop not; adieu !-Farewell, my wife! my mother!
I'll do well yet.-Thou old and true Menenius,
Thy tears are salter than a younger man's,

And venomous to thine eyes.-My sometime general,
I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld
Heart-hard'ning spectacles; tell these sad women,
"T is fond to wail inevitable strokes,

As 't is to laugh at them.-My mother, you wot well
My hazards still have been your solace and
Believe 't not lightly, (though I go alone,

Like to a lonely dragon, that his fena

Makes fear'd and talk'd of more than seen,) your son
Will, or exceed the common, or be caught

With cautelous baits and practice.

O the gods!

COR.
COм. I'll follow thee a month, devise with thee

Where thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of us,

COR.

And we of thee: so, if the time thrust forth

A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send
O'er the vast world, to seek a single man;
And lose advantage, which doth ever cool
I' the absence of the needer.

Fare ye well:

Thou hast years upon thee; and thou art too full

Of the wars' surfeits, to go rove with one

The fen is the pestilential abode of the "lonely dragon," which he makes "feared and talked of more than seen."

.

First-in the sense of noblest.

Exposure. The original has exposture; but we think with Steevens that this is a typographical

That's yet unbruis'd: bring me but out at gate.—
Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and
My friends of noble touch, when I am forth,
Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you, come.
While I remain above the ground, you shall
Hear from me still; and never of me aught
But what is like me formerly.

ΜΕΝ.

COR.

That's worthily

As any ear can hear.-Come, let 's not weep.-
If I could shake off but one seven years
From these old arms and legs, by the good gods,
I'd with thee every foot!

Give me thy hand. Come.

SCENE II.-The same. A Street near the Gate.

Enter SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and an Edile.

SIC. Bid them all home; he 's gone, and we 'll no further.—
The nobility are vex'd, who, we see, have sided

VOL. O, you 're well met: The hoarded plague o' the gods

Requite your love!

ΜΕΝ.
Peace, peace! be not so loud.
VOL. If that I could for weeping, you should hear,-

Nay, and you shall hear some.-Will you be gone?
VIR. You shall stay too [To SICINIUS]: I would I had the power

To say so to my husband.

[Exeunt.

[Exit Edile.

[TO BRUTUS.

VOL. Ay, fool: Is that a shame ?-Note but this fool.

SIC.

Was not a man my father? Hadst thou foxship
To banish him that struck more blows for Rome,
Than thou hast spoken words?

O blessed heavens!
VOL. More noble blows, than ever thou wise words;

SIC.

VIR.

And for Rome's good.-I'll tell thee what;-Yet go:-
Nay, but thou shalt stay too:-I would my son
Were in Arabia, and thy tribe before him,

His good sword in his hand.

What then?

What then!

He'd make an end of thy posterity.

VOL. Bastards, and all.

Good man, the wounds that he does bear for Rome!

MEN. Come, come, peace!

SIC. I would he had continued to his country,

VOL. I would he had! 'T was you incens'd the rabble :
Cats, that can judge as fitly of his worth,
As I can of those mysteries which heaven
Will not have earth to know.

VOL. Now, pray, sir, get you gone:

You have done a brave deed. Ere you go, hear this;
As far as doth the Capitol exceed

The meanest house in Rome, so far my son,

(This lady's husband here, this, do you see,) Whom you have banish'd, does exceed you all. BRU. Well, well, we 'll leave you.

SIC.

With one that wants her wits?

VOL.

Why stay we to be baited

I would the gods had nothing else to do,
But to confirm my curses! 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,

a Mankind. Sicinius asks insultingly whether Volumnia is mankind—a woman with the roughness of a man? Shakspere, in 'A Winter's Tale,' uses the term "mankind witch."