Page 2927 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

Enter Menenius and Sicinius.

MENENIUS
See you yond coign o’th’Capitol, yond cornerstone?

SICINIUS
Why, what of that?

MENENIUS
If it be possible for you to displace it with your little finger, there is some
hope the ladies of Rome, [5] especially his mother, may prevail with him. But
I say there is no hope in’t, our throats are sentenced and stay upon

execution.

SICINIUS
Is’t possible that so short a time can alter the condition of a man? [10]

MENENIUS
There is differency between a grub and a butterfly, yet your butterfly was a
grub. This Martius is grown from man to dragon. He has wings, he’s more

than a creeping thing.

SICINIUS

He loved his mother dearly. [15]

MENENIUS
So did he me; and he no more remembers his mother now than an eight-
year-old horse. The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes. When he walks, he
moves like an engine, and the ground shrinks before his treading. He is able
to pierce a corslet with his eye, [20] talks like a knell, and his hum is a

battery. He sits in his state as a thing made for Alexander. What he bids be
done is finished with his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but eternity and
a heaven to throne in.

SICINIUS
Yes, mercy, if you report him truly. [25]