and you shall hear some.—[To BRUTUS.] Will you be gone?VIRGILIA.
You shall stay too[To SICINIUS.]: I would I had the power
To say so to my husband.
SICINIUS.
Are you mankind?
VOLUMNIA.
Ay, fool; is that a shame?—Note but this, fool.—
Was not a man my father? Hadst thou foxship
To banish him that struck more blows for Rome
Than thou hast spoken words?—
SICINIUS.
O blessed heavens!
VOLUMNIA.
Moe noble blows than ever thou wise words;
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.
SICINIUS.
What then?
VIRGILIA.
What then!
He’d make an end of thy posterity.
VOLUMNIA.
Bastards and all.—
Good man, the wounds that he does bear for Rome!
MENENIUS.
Come, come, peace.
SICINIUS.
I would he had continu’d to his country
As he began, and not unknit himself
The noble knot he made.
BRUTUS.
I would he had.
VOLUMNIA.
I would he had! ‘Twas 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.
BRUTUS.
Pray, let us go.
VOLUMNIA.
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.
BRUTUS.
Well, well, we’ll leave you.
SICINIUS.
Why stay we to be baited
With one that wants her wits?
VOLUMNIA.
Take my prayers with you.—
[Exeunt TRIBUNES.]
I would the gods had nothing else to do
But to confirm my curses! Could I meet ‘em
But once a day, it would unclog my heart
Of what lies heavy to’t.
MENENIUS.
You have told them home,
And, by my troth, you have cause. You’ll sup with me?
VOLUMNIA.
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.
[Exeunt.]
MENENIUS.
Fie, fie, fie!
SCENE III. A highway between Rome and Antium.
[Enter a ROMAN and a VOLSCE, meeting.]
ROMAN. I know you well, sir, and you know me; your name, I think, is Adrian.
VOLSCE.
It is so, sir: truly, I have forgot you.
ROMAN. I am a Roman; and my services are, as you are, against ‘em: know you me yet?
VOLSCE.
Nicanor? no!
ROMAN.
The same, sir.
VOLSCE. You had more beard when I last saw you; but your favour is well approved by your tongue. What’s the news in Rome? I have a note from the Volscian state, to find you out there; you have well saved me a day’s journey.
ROMAN. There hath been in Rome strange insurrections: the people against the senators, patricians, and nobles.
VOLSCE. 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.
ROMAN. 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.
VOLSCE.
Coriolanus banished!
ROMAN.
Banished, sir.
VOLSCE.
You will be welcome with this intelligence, Nicanor.
ROMAN. The day serves well for them now. I 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.
VOLSCE. He
