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With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls

Than in our priest-like fasts. Therefore I'll watch him

Till he be dieted to my request,

And then I'll set upon him.

BRUTUS.

You know the very road into his kindness

And cannot lose your way.

MENENIUS.

Good faith, I'll prove him,

Speed how it will. I shall ere long have knowledge

Of my success. Exit

COMINIUS. He'll never hear him.

SICINIUS.

Not?

COMINIUS.

I tell you he does sit in gold, his eye

Red as 'twould burn Rome, and his injury

The gaoler to his pity. I kneel'd before him;

'Twas very faintly he said 'Rise'; dismiss'd me

Thus with his speechless hand. What he would do,

He sent in writing after me; what he would not,

Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions;

So that all hope is vain,

Unless his noble mother and his wife,

Who, as I hear, mean to solicit him

For mercy to his country. Therefore let's hence,

And with our fair entreaties haste them on. Exeunt

SCENE II. The Volscian camp before Rome

Enter MENENIUS to the WATCH on guard

FIRST WATCH.

Stay. Whence are you?

SECOND WATCH.

Stand, and go back.

MENENIUS.

You guard like men, 'tis well; but, by your leave,

I am an officer of state and come

To speak with Coriolanus.

FIRST WATCH.

From whence?

MENENIUS.

From Rome.

FIRST WATCH.

YOU may not pass; you must return. Our general

Will no more hear from thence.

SECOND WATCH.

You'll see your Rome embrac'd with fire before

You'll speak with Coriolanus.

MENENIUS.

Good my friends,

If you have heard your general talk of Rome

And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks

My name hath touch'd your ears: it is Menenius.

FIRST WATCH.

Be it so; go back. The virtue of your name

Is not here passable.

MENENIUS.

I tell thee, fellow,

Thy general is my lover. I have been

The book of his good acts whence men have read

His fame unparallel'd haply amplified;

For I have ever verified my friends-

Of whom he's chief- with all the size that verity

Would without lapsing suffer. Nay, sometimes,

Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground,

I have tumbled past the throw, and in his praise

Have almost stamp'd the leasing; therefore, fellow,

I must have leave to pass.

FIRST WATCH.

Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in his behalf

as you have uttered words in your own, you should not pass here;

no, though it were as virtuous to lie as to live chastely.

Therefore go back.

MENENIUS.

Prithee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius, always

factionary on the party of your general.

SECOND WATCH.

Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say you

have, I am one that, telling true under him, must say you cannot

pass. Therefore go back.

MENENIUS.

Has he din'd, canst thou tell? For I would not speak with

him till after dinner.

FIRST WATCH.

You are a Roman, are you?

MENENIUS.

I am as thy general is.

FIRST WATCH.

Then you should hate Rome, as he does. Can you, when

you have push'd out your gates the very defender of them, and in

a violent popular ignorance given your enemy your shield, think

to front his revenges with the easy groans of old women, the

virginal palms of your daughters, or with the palsied

intercession of such a decay'd dotant as you seem to be? Can you

think to blow out the intended fire your city is ready to flame

in with such weak breath as this? No, you are deceiv'd; therefore

back to Rome and prepare for your execution. You are

condemn'd;

our general has sworn you out of reprieve and pardon.

MENENIUS.

Sirrah, if thy captain knew I were here, he would use me with estimation.

FIRST WATCH.

Come, my captain knows you not.

MENENIUS.

I mean thy general.

FIRST WATCH.

My general cares not for you. Back, I say; go,

lest I

let forth your half pint of blood. Back- that's the utmost of

your having. Back.

MENENIUS.

Nay, but fellow, fellow-

Enter CORIOLANUS with AUFIDIUS

CORIOLANUS.

What's the matter?

MENENIUS.

Now, you companion, I'll say an errand for you; you shall

know now that I am in estimation; you shall perceive