As thou'rt a man,

Give me the cup: let go; by heaven I'll have it.

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O good Horatio, what a wounded name,

Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me!

If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity a while,

And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,

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[March afar off, and shot without.

To tell my story.

What warlike noise is this?

OSR. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, To the ambassadors of England gives

This warlike volley.

HAM.

O, I die, Horatio;

The potent poison quite o'ercrows my spirit;

I cannot live to hear the news from England;
But I do prophesy the election lights

On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice;

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So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less,
Which have solicited. The rest is silence.

[Dies. 330

HOR. Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

[March within.

Why does the drum come hither?

Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors and others. FORT. Where is this sight?

What is it ye

would see ?

HOR.
If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.
FORT. This quarry cries on havoc. O proud death,
What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,

That thou so many princes at a shot

So bloodily hast struck?

FIRST AMB.

The sight is dismal;

And our affairs from England come too late:

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The ears are senseless that should give us hearing,
To tell him, his commandment is fulfill'd,

That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead:
Where should we have our thanks?

HOR.

Not from his mouth

Had it the ability of life to thank you :

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He never gave commandment for their death.

But since, so jump upon this bloody question,

You from the Polack wars, and you from England,
Are here arrived, give order that these bodies
High on a stage be placed to the view;

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And let me speak, to the yet unknowing world

How these things came about: so shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,
Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters,

Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook

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Fall'n on the inventors' heads: all this can I
Truly deliver.

FORT. Let us haste to hear it,

And call the noblest to the audience.

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For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune;

I have some rights of memory in this kingdom,
Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.
HOR. Of that I shall have also cause to speak,

And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more:
But let this same be presently perform'd.

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Even while men's minds are wild; lest more mischance
On plots and errors happen.

FORT.

Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;

Let four captains

For he was likely, had he been put on,

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To have proved most royally: and, for his passage,

Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.

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Go, bid the soldiers shoot.

[A dead march. Exeunt, bearing off the bodies: after which

a peal of ordnance is shot off.

CORIOLANUS.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

CAIUS MARCIUS, afterwards CAIUS MAR- Two Volscian Guards.
CIUS CORIOLANUS, a noble Roman.
generals against the
Volscians.

COMINIUS,

TITUS LARTIUS,
MENENIUS AGRIPPA, friend to Corio-
lanus.

VOLUMNIA, mother to Coriolanus.
VIRGILIA, wife to Coriolanus.
VALERIA, friend to Virgilia.
Gentlewoman, attending on Volumnia.

Roman and Volscian Senators, Patri-
cians, Ediles, Lictors, Soldiers,
Citizens, Messengers, Servants to
Aufidius, and other Attendants.

SCENE: Partly in Rome and its neighbourhood; partly Corioli and its neighbourhood; and partly Antium.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Rome. A street.

Enter a company of mutinous Citizens, with staves, clubs and
other weapons.

FIRST CIT. Before we proceed any further, hear me speak.
ALL. Speak, speak.

FIRST CIT. You are all resolved rather to die than to famish?
ALL. Resolved, resolved.

FIRST CIT. First, you know, Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the 5 people.

ALL. We know't, we know't.

FIRST CIT. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price. Is't a verdict?

ALL. No more talking on't; let it be done away, away!
SEC. CIT. One word, good citizens.

FIRST CIT. We are accounted poor citizens; the patricians good. What authority surfeits on would relieve us if they would yield us but the superfluity while it were wholesome, we might

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guess they relieved us humanely; but they think we are too dear: 15 the leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an inventory to particularize their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes: for the gods know I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for

revenge.

SEC. CIT. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius? ALL. Against him first: he's a very dog to the commonalty. SEC. CIT. Consider you what services he has done for his country? FIRST CIT. Very well; and could be content to give him good report for't, but that he pays himself with being proud.

SEC. CIT. Nay, but speak not maliciously.

FIRST CIT. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though soft-conscienced men can be content to say it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud; which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue.

SEC. CIT. What he cannot help in his nature, you account a vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous.

FIRST CIT. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations; he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts within.]

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25

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What shouts are these? The other side o' the city is risen: why 35 stay we prating here? to the Capitol!

ALL. Come, come.

FIRST CIT. Soft! who comes here?

SEC. CIT. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved the people.

Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA.

FIRST CIT. He's one honest enough: would all the rest were so !
MEN. What work's, my countrymen, in hand?

Where go you

With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray you.

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FIRST CIT. Our business is not unknown to the senate they have had inkling, this fortnight, what we intend to do, which now 45 we'll show 'em in deeds. They say poor suitors have strong breaths : they shall know we have strong arms too.

MEN. Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours,

Will you undo yourselves?

FIRST CIT. We cannot, sir; we are undone already.
MEN. I tell you, friends, most charitable care

Have the patricians of you.

For your wants,

Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well
Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them
Against the Roman state, whose course will on
The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs
Of more strong link asunder than can ever

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Appear in your impediment. For the dearth,
The gods, not the patricians, make it, and

Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack!
You are transported by calamity

Thither where more attends you; and you slander
The helms o' th' state, who care for you like fathers,
When you curse them as enemies.

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FIRST CIT. Care for us! True, indeed! They ne'er cared for 65 us yet suffer us to famish, and their storehouses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich, and provide more piercing statutes daily to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there's all the love they bear 70

us.

MEN. Either you must

Confess yourselves wondrous malicious,

Or be accused of folly. I shall tell you

A pretty tale it may be, you have heard it;

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But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture

To stale't a little more.

FIRST CIT. Well, I'll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to fob

off our disgrace with a tale: but, and't please you, deliver. MEN. There was a time when all the body's members

80

Rebelled against the belly; thus accused it:

That only like a gulf it did remain

I' th' midst o' th' body, idle and unactive,

Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing

Like labour with the rest; where the other instruments

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FIRST CIT. Well, sir, what answer made the belly?
MEN. Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile,

Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus—
For, look you, I may make the belly smile,
As well as speak-it tauntingly replied

To the discontented members, the mutinous parts
That envied his receipt; even so most fitly
As you malign our senators for that

They are not such as you.

FIRST CIT.

Your belly's answer? What!

The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,
The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,
Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter,

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