Page 2914 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

SECOND WATCH

Stand, and go back.

MENENIUS
You guard like men, ’tis well. But, by your leave,
I am an officer of state and come
To speak with Coriolanus.

FIRST WATCH

From whence?

MENENIUS

From Rome.

FIRST WATCH
You may not pass, you must return. Our general [5]
Will no more hear from thence.

SECOND WATCH
You’ll see your Rome embraced with fire before
You’ll speak with Coriolanus.

MENENIUS
Good my friends,

If you have heard your general talk of Rome
And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks [10]
My name hath touched your ears: it is Menenius.

FIRST WATCH
Be it so; go back. The virtue of your name

Is not here passable.

MENENIUS
I tell thee, fellow,
Thy general is my lover. I have been
The book of his good acts whence men have read [15]
His fame unparalleled haply amplified.