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I' th' body of the weal; and now, arriving |
A place of potency and sway o' th' state, |
If he should still malignantly remain |
Fast foe to th' plebeii, your voices might |
Be curses to yourselves? You should have said |
That as his worthy deeds did claim no less |
Than what he stood for, so his gracious nature |
Would think upon you for your voices, and |
Translate his malice towards you into love, |
Standing your friendly lord. |
SICINIUS. Thus to have said, |
As you were fore-advis'd, had touch'd his spirit |
And tried his inclination; from him pluck'd |
Either his gracious promise, which you might, |
As cause had call'd you up, have held him to; |
Or else it would have gall'd his surly nature, |
Which easily endures not article |
Tying him to aught. So, putting him to rage, |
You should have ta'en th' advantage of his choler |
And pass'd him unelected. |
BRUTUS. Did you perceive |
He did solicit you in free contempt |
When he did need your loves; and do you think |
That his contempt shall not be bruising to you |
When he hath power to crush? Why, had your bodies |
No heart among you? Or had you tongues to cry |
Against the rectorship of judgment? |
SICINIUS. Have you |
Ere now denied the asker, and now again, |
Of him that did not ask but mock, bestow |
Your su'd-for tongues? |
THIRD CITIZEN. He's not confirm'd: we may deny him yet. |
SECOND CITIZENS. And will deny him; |
I'll have five hundred voices of that sound. |
FIRST CITIZEN. I twice five hundred, and their friends to piece |
'em. |
BRUTUS. Get you hence instantly, and tell those friends |
They have chose a consul that will from them take |
Their liberties, make them of no more voice |
Than dogs, that are as often beat for barking |
As therefore kept to do so. |
SICINIUS. Let them assemble; |
And, on a safer judgment, all revoke |
Your ignorant election. Enforce his pride |
And his old hate unto you; besides, forget not |
With what contempt he wore the humble weed; |
How in his suit he scorn'd you; but your loves, |
Thinking upon his services, took from you |
Th' apprehension of his present portance, |
Which, most gibingly, ungravely, he did fashion |
After the inveterate hate he bears you. |
BRUTUS. Lay |
A fault on us, your tribunes, that we labour'd, |
No impediment between, but that you must |
Cast your election on him. |
SICINIUS. Say you chose him |
More after our commandment than as guided |
By your own true affections; and that your minds, |
Pre-occupied with what you rather must do |
Than what you should, made you against the grain |
To voice him consul. Lay the fault on us. |
BRUTUS. Ay, spare us not. Say we read lectures to you, |
How youngly he began to serve his country, |
How long continued; and what stock he springs of- |
The noble house o' th' Marcians; from whence came |
That Ancus Marcius, Numa's daughter's son, |
Who, after great Hostilius, here was king; |
Of the same house Publius and Quintus were, |
That our best water brought by conduits hither; |
And Censorinus, nobly named so, |
Twice being by the people chosen censor, |
Was his great ancestor. |
SICINIUS. One thus descended, |
That hath beside well in his person wrought |
To be set high in place, we did commend |
To your remembrances; but you have found, |
Scaling his present bearing with his past, |
That he's your fixed enemy, and revoke |
Your sudden approbation. |
BRUTUS. Say you ne'er had done't- |
Harp on that still- but by our putting on; |
And presently, when you have drawn your number, |
Repair to th' Capitol. |
CITIZENS. will will so; almost all |
Repent in their election. Exeunt plebeians |
BRUTUS. Let them go on; |
This mutiny were better put in hazard |
Than stay, past doubt, for greater. |
If, as his nature is, he fall in rage |
With their refusal, both observe and answer |
The vantage of his anger. |
SICINIUS. To th' Capitol, come. |
We will be there before the stream o' th' people; |
And this shall seem, as partly 'tis, their own, |
Which we have goaded onward. Exeunt |
ACT III. SCENE I. |
Rome. A street |
Cornets. Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, all the GENTRY, COMINIUS, |
TITUS LARTIUS, and other SENATORS |
CORIOLANUS. Tullus Aufidius, then, had made new head? |
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