Page:Coriolanus (1924) Yale.djvu/49

The Tragedy of Coriolanus, II. i

audience. When you are hearing a matter be-

tween party and party, if you chance to be

pinched with the colic, you make faces like

mummers, set up the bloody flag against all

patience, and, in roaring for a chamber-pot, dis-

miss the controversy bleeding, the more en-

tangled by your hearing: all the peace you make

in their cause is, calling both the parties knaves.

You are a pair of strange ones.

Bru. Come, come, you are well understood

to be a perfecter giber for the table than a

necessary bencher in the Capitol.

Men. Our very priests must become mockers

if they shall encounter such ridiculous subjects

as you are. When you speak best unto the

purpose it is not worth the wagging of your

beards; and your beards deserve not so honour-

able a grave as to stuff a botcher's cushion, or

to be entombed in an ass's pack-saddle. Yet you

must be saying Martius is proud; who, in a

cheap estimation, is worth all your predecessors

since Deucalion, though peradventure some of

the best of 'em were hereditary hangmen. Good

den to your worships: more of your conversa-

tion would infect my brain, being the herdsmen

of the beastly plebeians: I will be bold to take

my leave of you.

Brutus and Sicinius [go] aside.

 85 mummers: rustic actors

set flag: proclaim violent war

91–93 Cf. n.

97, 98 not worth beards: not worth the effort of opening and closing your mouths

99 botcher's: patching tailor's

102 estimation: valuation

103 Deucalion: the Greek Noah

104, 105 Good den: good evening

