You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth? Have you not set them on? Men. Be calm, be calm. Cor. It is a purpos'd thing, and grows by plot, To curb the will of the nobility : Suffer't, and live with such as cannot rule, Nor ever will be rul'd. Bru. Call't not a plot: The people cry, you mock'd them; and, of late, Cor. Why, this was known before. Not to them all. Cor. Have you inform'd them since? How! I inform them! Not unlike, Cor. You are like to do such business. Bru. Each way, to better yours. Cor. Why then should I be consul? By yon clouds, Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me Your fellow tribune. Sic. You show too much of that, For which the people stir: If you will pass To where you are bound, you must enquire your way, Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit; Or never be so noble as a consul, Nor yoke with him for tribune. Becomes not Rome; nor has Coriolanus I' the plain way of his merit. Cor. Tell me of corn! This was my speech, and I will speak't again;— Men. Not now, not now. 1 Sen. Not in this heat, sir, now. Cor. Now, as I live, I will.-My nobler friends, I crave their pardons: For the mutable, rank-scented many, let them Therein behold themselves: I say again, In soothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate Which we ourselves have plough'd for, sow'd and scatter'd, By mingling them with us, the honour'd number; Men. Well, no more. How! no more? 1 Sen. No more words, we beseech you. Cor. As for my country I have shed my blood, Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs Bru. You speak o'the people, As if you were a god to punish, not Were I as patient as the midnight sleep, By Jove, 'twould be my mind. Sic. It is a mind, That shall remain a poison where it is, Not poison any further. Hear you this Triton of the minnows 36 ? mark Com. 'Twas from the cannon. you Cor. O good, but most unwise patricians, why, Shall! You grave, but reckless senators, have you thus That with his peremptory shall, being but The horn and noise o'the monsters 37, wants not spirit To say, he'll turn your current in a ditch, And make your channel his? If he have power, Be not as common fools; if you are not, Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians, If they be senators: and they are no less, When, both your voices blended, the greatest taste Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate; And such a one as he, who puts his shall, His popular shall, against a graver bench Than ever frown'd in Greece! By Jove himself, May enter 'twixt the gap of both, and take Com. Well,-on to the market-place. Cor. Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth The corn o'the storehouse gratis, as 'twas us'd Sometime in Greece, Men. Well, well, no more of that. Cor. (Though there the people had more absolute power,) I say, they nourish'd disobedience, fed The ruin of the state. Bru. One, that speaks thus, their voice? Cor. Why, shall the people give I'll give my reasons, More worthier than their voices. They know, the corn Was not our recompense; resting well assur'd They ne'er did service for't: Being press'd to the war, They would not thread the gates: this kind of service Which they have often made against the senate, Call our cares, fears: which will in time break ope No, take more: Bru. Enough, with over-measure. Cor. What may be sworn by, both divine and human, Seal what I end withal!-This double worship,Where one part does disdain with cause, the other Insult without all reason; where gentry, title, wisdom Cannot conclude, but by the yea and no Of general ignorance,-it must omit Real necessities, and give way the while To unstable slightness: purpose so barr'd, it follows, Nothing is done to purpose: Therefore, beseech you, You that will be less fearful than discreet; That love the fundamental part of state, More than you doubt the change of't; that prefer |