Page 2827 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

My life and services.

MENENIUS
It then remains
That you do speak to the people.

CORIOLANUS
I do beseech you
Let me o’erleap that custom, for I cannot

Put on the gown, stand naked, and entreat them [135]
For my wounds’ sake to give their suffrage. Please you
That I may pass this doing.

SICINIUS
Sir, the people

Must have their voices, neither will they bate
One jot of ceremony.

MENENIUS
Put them not to’t.
Pray you go fit you to the custom and [140]
Take to you, as your predecessors have,

Your honour with your form.

CORIOLANUS
It is a part
That I shall blush in acting, and might well
Be taken from the people.

BRUTUS
(to Sicinius) Mark you that?

CORIOLANUS

To brag unto them ‘Thus I did, and thus!’ [145]
Show them th’unaching scars which I should hide,
As if I had received them for the hire
Of their breath only!