1    In this point charge him home, that he affects
2    Tyrannical power: if he evade us there,
3    Enforce him with his envy to the people,
4    And that the spoil got on the Antiates
5    Was ne'er distributed.
Enter an AEdile
6    What, will he come?

7    He's coming.

8    How accompanied?

9    With old Menenius, and those senators
10   That always favour'd him.

11   Have you a catalogue
12   Of all the voices that we have procured
13   Set down by the poll?

14   I have; 'tis ready.

15   Have you collected them by tribes?

16   I have.

17   Assemble presently the people hither;
18   And when they bear me say 'It shall be so
19   I' the right and strength o' the commons,' be it either
20   For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them
21   If I say fine, cry 'Fine;' if death, cry 'Death.'
22   Insisting on the old prerogative
23   And power i' the truth o' the cause.

24   I shall inform them.

25   And when such time they have begun to cry,
26   Let them not cease, but with a din confused
27   Enforce the present execution
28   Of what we chance to sentence.

29   Very well.

30   Make them be strong and ready for this hint,
31   When we shall hap to give 't them.

32   Go about it.
Exit AEdile
33   Put him to choler straight: he hath been used
34   Ever to conquer, and to have his worth
35   Of contradiction: being once chafed, he cannot
36   Be rein'd again to temperance; then he speaks
37   What's in his heart; and that is there which looks
38   With us to break his neck.

39   Well, here he comes.

40   Calmly, I do beseech you.

41   Ay, as an ostler, that for the poorest piece
42   Will bear the knave by the volume. The honour'd gods
43   Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice
44   Supplied with worthy men! plant love among 's!
45   Throng our large temples with the shows of peace,
46   And not our streets with war!

47   Amen, amen.

48   A noble wish.

49   Draw near, ye people.

50   List to your tribunes. Audience: peace, I say!

51   First, hear me speak.

52   Well, say. Peace, ho!

53   Shall I be charged no further than this present?
54   Must all determine here?

55   I do demand,
56   If you submit you to the people's voices,
57   Allow their officers and are content
58   To suffer lawful censure for such faults
59   As shall be proved upon you?

60   I am content.

61   Lo, citizens, he says he is content:
62   The warlike service he has done, consider; think
63   Upon the wounds his body bears, which show
64   Like graves i' the holy churchyard.

65   Scratches with briers,
66   Scars to move laughter only.

67   Consider further,
68   That when he speaks not like a citizen,
69   You find him like a soldier: do not take
70   His rougher accents for malicious sounds,
71   But, as I say, such as become a soldier,
72   Rather than envy you.

73   Well, well, no more.

74   What is the matter
75   That being pass'd for consul with full voice,
76   I am so dishonour'd that the very hour
77   You take it off again?

78   Answer to us.

79   Say, then: 'tis true, I ought so.

80   We charge you, that you have contrived to take
81   From Rome all season'd office and to wind
82   Yourself into a power tyrannical;
83   For which you are a traitor to the people.

84   How! traitor!

85   Nay, temperately; your promise.

86   The fires i' the lowest hell fold-in the people!
87   Call me their traitor! Thou injurious tribune!
88   Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths,
89   In thy hand clutch'd as many millions, in
90   Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say
91   'Thou liest' unto thee with a voice as free
92   As I do pray the gods.

93   Mark you this, people?

94   To the rock, to the rock with him!

95   Peace!
96   We need not put new matter to his charge:
97   What you have seen him do and heard him speak,
98   Beating your officers, cursing yourselves,
99   Opposing laws with strokes and here defying
100  Those whose great power must try him; even this,
101  So criminal and in such capital kind,
102  Deserves the extremest death.

103  But since he hath
104  Served well for Rome,--

105  What do you prate of service?

106  I talk of that, that know it.

107  You?

108  Is this the promise that you made your mother?

109  Know, I pray you,--

110  I know no further:
111  Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,
112  Vagabond exile, raying, pent to linger
113  But with a grain a day, I would not buy
114  Their mercy at the price of one fair word;
115  Nor cheque my courage for what they can give,
116  To have't with saying 'Good morrow.'

117  For that he has,
118  As much as in him lies, from time to time
119  Envied against the people, seeking means
120  To pluck away their power, as now at last
121  Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence
122  Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers
123  That do distribute it; in the name o' the people
124  And in the power of us the tribunes, we,
125  Even from this instant, banish him our city,
126  In peril of precipitation
127  From off the rock Tarpeian never more
128  To enter our Rome gates: i' the people's name,
129  I say it shall be so.

130  It shall be so, it shall be so; let him away:
131  He's banish'd, and it shall be so.

132  Hear me, my masters, and my common friends,--

133  He's sentenced; no more hearing.

134  Let me speak:
135  I have been consul, and can show for Rome
136  Her enemies' marks upon me. I do love
137  My country's good with a respect more tender,
138  More holy and profound, than mine own life,
139  My dear wife's estimate, her womb's increase,
140  And treasure of my loins; then if I would
141  Speak that,--

142  We know your drift: speak what?

143  There's no more to be said, but he is banish'd,
144  As enemy to the people and his country:
145  It shall be so.

146  It shall be so, it shall be so.

147  You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate
148  As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize
149  As the dead carcasses of unburied men
150  That do corrupt my air, I banish you;
151  And here remain with your uncertainty!
152  Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!
153  Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
154  Fan you into despair! Have the power still
155  To banish your defenders; till at length
156  Your ignorance, which finds not till it feels,
157  Making not reservation of yourselves,
158  Still your own foes, deliver you as most
159  Abated captives to some nation
160  That won you without blows! Despising,
161  For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
162  There is a world elsewhere.

163  The people's enemy is gone, is gone!

164  Our enemy is banish'd! he is gone! Hoo! hoo!

165  Go, see him out at gates, and follow him,
166  As he hath followed you, with all despite;
167  Give him deserved vexation. Let a guard
168  Attend us through the city.

169  Come, come; let's see him out at gates; come.
170  The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come.