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Yet I wish, sir,--
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I mean for your particular,--you had not
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Join'd in commission with him; but either
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Had borne the action of yourself, or else
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To him had left it solely.
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AUFIDIUS:
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I understand thee well; and be thou sure,
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when he shall come to his account, he knows not
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What I can urge against him. Although it seems,
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And so he thinks, and is no less apparent
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To the vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly.
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And shows good husbandry for the Volscian state,
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Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon
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As draw his sword; yet he hath left undone
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That which shall break his neck or hazard mine,
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Whene'er we come to our account.
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Lieutenant:
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Sir, I beseech you, think you he'll carry Rome?
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AUFIDIUS:
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All places yield to him ere he sits down;
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And the nobility of Rome are his:
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The senators and patricians love him too:
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The tribunes are no soldiers; and their people
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Will be as rash in the repeal, as hasty
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To expel him thence. I think he'll be to Rome
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As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it
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By sovereignty of nature. First he was
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A noble servant to them; but he could not
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Carry his honours even: whether 'twas pride,
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Which out of daily fortune ever taints
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The happy man; whether defect of judgment,
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To fail in the disposing of those chances
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Which he was lord of; or whether nature,
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Not to be other than one thing, not moving
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From the casque to the cushion, but commanding peace
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Even with the same austerity and garb
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As he controll'd the war; but one of these--
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As he hath spices of them all, not all,
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For I dare so far free him--made him fear'd,
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So hated, and so banish'd: but he has a merit,
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To choke it in the utterance. So our virtues
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Lie in the interpretation of the time:
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And power, unto itself most commendable,
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Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair
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To extol what it hath done.
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One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;
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Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail.
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Come, let's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine,
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Thou art poor'st of all; then shortly art thou mine.
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MENENIUS:
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No, I'll not go: you hear what he hath said
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Which was sometime his general; who loved him
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In a most dear particular. He call'd me father:
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But what o' that? Go, you that banish'd him;
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A mile before his tent fall down, and knee
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The way into his mercy: nay, if he coy'd
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To hear Cominius speak, I'll keep at home.
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COMINIUS:
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He would not seem to know me.
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MENENIUS:
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Do you hear?
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COMINIUS:
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Yet one time he did call me by my name:
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I urged our old acquaintance, and the drops
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That we have bled together. Coriolanus
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He would not answer to: forbad all names;
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He was a kind of nothing, titleless,
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Till he had forged himself a name o' the fire
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Of burning Rome.
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MENENIUS:
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Why, so: you have made good work!
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A pair of tribunes that have rack'd for Rome,
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To make coals cheap,--a noble memory!
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COMINIUS:
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I minded him how royal 'twas to pardon
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When it was less expected: he replied,
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It was a bare petition of a state
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To one whom they had punish'd.
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MENENIUS:
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Very well:
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Could he say less?
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COMINIUS:
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I offer'd to awaken his regard
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For's private friends: his answer to me was,
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He could not stay to pick them in a pile
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Of noisome musty chaff: he said 'twas folly,
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For one poor grain or two, to leave unburnt,
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And still to nose the offence.
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