[herrington] a plea FOR CORIOLANUS 103 



atives of the city, in whose hands Rome had placed the authority to 

 deal thus with him and Rome did not intervene to save him. He 

 could not dissociate them from the city: — 



"Despising 

 "For you, the city, thus I turn my back." 



For a moment his thoughts turn tenderly towards his loved ones, the 

 faithful but helpless Menenius, his mother, his wife; but soon they too 

 are swallowed up in the city — Rome — that Rome that had cast him 

 off. As he got well beyond its walls and the outlines of the city grew 

 fainter and fainter his very loneliness intensified the agony of his 

 soul. The one thought that possessed his being was the base ingrati- 

 tude of the multitude. The echos of the plaudits that greeted him 

 upon his triumphal entry and march to the capital had scarce died 

 away when the same voices joined in a chorus of approval of the 

 sentence of banishment. Every sound seemed to spell out that one 

 word, disowned! disowned! 



What next ? He had been schooled to render blow for blow. In 

 his service of a lifetime in the cause of Rome his sword had been his 

 strongest argument and the propriety of its use had never been ques- 

 tioned. But could he raise his hand against Rome ? Why not ? 

 Rome had not spared him. The common people had clamored for his 

 blood and the nobles had cruelly forsaken him at the one crisis in 

 his life when he needed their support. Menenius confesses as much^ 



"We lov'd him; but, like beasts 

 "And cowardly nobles, gave way unto your clusters, 

 "Who did hoot him out o' the city." 



If Rome had dealt unjustly with him could she complain that he in 

 settling the differences between them used the same instrument that 

 had so often seen service in his hands on her behalf ? It was by this 

 process of reasoning that he committed what has been styled his 

 greatest mistake. 



"O world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn, 

 "Whose double bosoms seem to wear one heart, 

 "Whose house, whose bed, whose meal and exercise, 

 "Are still together, who turn as 'twere in love 

 "Unseparable, shall within this hour, 

 "On a dissension of a doit break out 

 To bitterest enemity." 



It does not rest with us to judge him too harshly when the Romans 

 themselves had not the courage to do so. 



"Who is't can blame him ? 

 "Your enemies and his find something in him." 



