The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded Part 55

_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 pa.s.s To where you are bound, you must inquire your way,-- Which you are out of,--with a _gentler_ spirit; Or never be so n.o.ble as a consul, Nor yoke with him for tribune.

_Men_. Let's _be calm_.

_Com_. The people are abused;--set on--this paltering Becomes not Rome: nor has Coriola.n.u.s Deserved this so dishonoured rub, laid falsely 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._

_First Sen_. Not in this heat, sir, _now_.

_Cor. Now_, as I live, I will.--My n.o.bler friends I crave their pardons:-- For the _mutable_, rank scented _many_, let them _Regard me, as I do not flatter, and Therein behold themselves_: I say again, In soothing _them_, we nourish 'gainst our _senate_, The c.o.c.kle of rebellion, insolence, sedition, Which we ourselves have ploughed for, sowed and scattered, By mingling them with us, _the honoured number_.

Who lack not _virtue, no_,--nor _power_, but _that_ _Which they have given to_--BEGGARS.

_Men. Well, no more._

_First Sen. No more words, we beseech you._

_Cor_. How, no more: As for my country, I have shed my blood, Not fearing outward force, _so_ shall my lungs _Coin words_ till their decay against those meazels Which we disdain, should tetter us, yet sought The very way to catch them.

_Bru_. You speak o' the people, As if you were a G.o.d to punish, not _A man of their infirmity_.

_Sic. 'T were well_ _We let the people know't._

_Men_. What, what? his _choler_.

_Cor. Choler_!

Were I _as patient_ as the _midnight sleep, By Jove,_ 't would be _my mind_.

_Sic_. It is a mind, That shall remain a poison where it is, _Not poison any further_.

_Cor_. _Shall remain!_ Hear you this Triton of the minnows? _mark you_ _His absolute_ SHALL?

_Com_. _'Twas from the canon,_ _O good_, but most _unwise patricians_, why You _grave_, but _reckless senators_, have you thus _Given Hydra here to choose_ AN OFFICER, That with his _peremptory shall--being but The horn and noise o' the monster_--wants not _spirit_ To say, he'll turn _your current_ in _a ditch_, And make _your channel his? If he have power, Then_ veil your IGNORANCE:--[that let him have it.]

--if _none, awake_ Your _dangerous_ LENITY.

[Mark it well, for it is not, as one may see who looks at it but a little, it is not the lost Roman weal and its danger that fires the pa.s.sion of this speech. 'Look at this player whether he has not turned his colour, and has tears in his eyes.' 'What's _Hecuba_ to him or he to _Hecuba_, that he should weep for her? _What would he do_, had he the motive and the cue for pa.s.sion that _I_ have.']

--if none, awake Your dangerous _lenity. If_ you are _learned_, Be not as _common fools_; if you are _not_--

What do you draw this foolish line for, that separates you from the commons? If you are not, there's no n.o.bility. If you are not, what business have you in these chairs of state?

--if you are not, _Let them have cus.h.i.+ons 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_,--

[Mark it, his _popular shall_].

His _popular shall_, against a graver bench Than ever frown'd in Greece! By Jove himself, It makes the _consuls base_: and _my soul aches_, _To know_, when two authorities are up,

[Neither able to rule].

_Neither supreme_, how soon confusion May enter twixt the GAP of BOTH, and take The one by the other.

_Com._ Well,--on to the _market place_.

_Cor_. Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth The _corn o' the store-house_ gratis, as 'twas used _Sometime in Greece_.

[It is not _corn_, but the _property_ of the _state_, and its appropriation, we talk of here. Whether the _absolute power_ be in the hands of the _people_ or '_their officer_.' There had been a speech made on that subject, which had not met with the approbation of the absolute power then conducting the affairs of this realm; and in its main principle, it is repeated here. 'That was my speech, and I will make it again.' 'Not now, not now. Not in this heat, sir, now.' 'Now, as I live, I will.']

_Men_. Well, well, no more of that,

_Cor_. Though _there_ THE PEOPLE had more _absolute power_, I say they _nourished disobedience, fed_ The _ruin of the state_.

_Bru_. Why shall the people _give_ One that speaks thus their voice?

_Cor_. I'll give my _reasons_, More worthier than _their voices_. They know the corn Was not our RECOMPENSE; resting well a.s.sured _They ne'er did service for it_?

. . . Well, what then?

How shall _this bosom multiplied_, digest; The senate's courtesy? Let _deeds_ express _What's like to be their words_. We did request it, WE _are_ THE GREATER POLL, and in _true fear_ _They gave us our demands_. Thus we debase The nature of our seats, and make the rabble Call our _cares, fears:_ which will in time _break ope The locks o' the senate_, and _bring in the crows To peck the eagles._

_Mem_. Come, enough.

_Bru_. Enough, with _over measure_.

_Cor_. No, take _more_; What may be sworn by, _both divine and human_, Seal what I end withal! This _double_ wors.h.i.+p,-- Where _one part_ does _disdain with cause, the other Insult without all reason_; where _gentry, t.i.tle, 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 _barred_ it follows _Nothing is done to purpose: Therefore_ beseech you,--

[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--

There was but one man in England then, able to balance this revolutionary proposition so nicely--so curiously; 'that love the _fundamental_ part of state more than you doubt the change of it'; 'You that are _less fearful_ than _discreet_'--not so _fearful_ as discreet.

that prefer A n.o.ble life before a long, and wish To jump a body with a dangerous physic _That's sure_ of _death without it_,--at once _pluck out The mult.i.tudinous tongue_; let them not lick The sweet which is their poison; _your dishonour_ MANGLES _true_ JUDGMENT, and bereaves THE STATE Of that INTEGRITY which should _become it_: Not having the power to do the good it would, For the ill which doth control it.

_Bru_. He has said enough.

[One would think so].

_Sic_. He has spoken like a traitor, and shall answer _As traitors do_.

_Cor_. Thou wretch! despite o'erwhelm thee!

What should the _people do_ with these bald tribunes?

_On whom depending, their obedience fails To the greater bench_? In a rebellion, When what's not meet, but what must be was _law_ Then were they chosen: in a better hour, Let what _is meet_, be said it must be _meet_, And throw their power i' the _dust_.

_Bru_. MANIFEST TREASON.

_Sic_. _This a Consul_? No.