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Coriolanus 381.html
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<span id = 18318 ></span><span id = 18319 >Contents:<br /><br />Act 1, Scene 1: Rome. A street.<br />Act 1, Scene 2: Corioli. The Senate-house.<br />Act 1, Scene 3: Rome. A room in Marcius' house.<br />Act 1, Scene 4: Before Corioli.<br />Act 1, Scene 5: Corioli. A street.<br />Act 1, Scene 6: Near the camp of Cominius.<br />Act 1, Scene 7: The gates of Corioli.<br />Act 1, Scene 8: A field of battle.<br />Act 1, Scene 9: The Roman camp.<br />Act 1, Scene 10: The camp of the Volsces.<br /><br />Act 2, Scene 1: Rome. A public place.<br />Act 2, Scene 2: The same. The Capitol.<br />Act 2, Scene 3: The same. The Forum.<br /><br />Act 3, Scene 1: Rome. A street.<br />Act 3, Scene 2: A room in CORIOLANUS'S house.<br />Act 3, Scene 3: The same. The Forum.<br /><br />Act 4, Scene 1: Rome. Before a gate of the city.<br />Act 4, Scene 2: The same. A street near the gate.<br />Act 4, Scene 3: A highway between Rome and Antium.<br />Act 4, Scene 4: Antium. Before Aufidius's house.<br />Act 4, Scene 5: The same. A hall in Aufidius's house.<br />Act 4, Scene 6: Rome. A public place.<br />Act 4, Scene 7: A camp, at a small distance from Rome.<br /><br />Act 5, Scene 1: Rome. A public place.<br />Act 5, Scene 2: Entrance of the Volscian camp before Rome.<br />Act 5, Scene 3: The tent of Coriolanus.<br />Act 5, Scene 4: Rome. A public place.<br />Act 5, Scene 5: The same. A street near the gate.<br />Act 5, Scene 6: Antium. A public place.</span><span id = 18320 >Act 1, Scene 1: Rome. A street.<br />Act 1, Scene 2: Corioli. The Senate-house.<br />Act 1, Scene 3: Rome. A room in Marcius' house.<br />Act 1, Scene 4: Before Corioli.<br />Act 1, Scene 5: Corioli. A street.<br />Act 1, Scene 6: Near the camp of Cominius.<br />Act 1, Scene 7: The gates of Corioli.<br />Act 1, Scene 8: A field of battle.<br />Act 1, Scene 9: The Roman camp.<br />Act 1, Scene 10: The camp of the Volsces.</span><span id = 18321 >SCENE I. Rome. A street.<br /><br /> Enter a company of mutinous Citizens, with staves, clubs, and other weapons <br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> Before we proceed any further, hear me speak.<br /><br />All<br /><br /> Speak, speak.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> You are all resolved rather to die than to famish?<br /><br />All<br /><br /> Resolved. resolved.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> First, you know Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the people.<br /><br />All<br /><br /> We know't, we know't.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price.<br /> Is't a verdict?<br /><br />All<br /><br /> No more talking on't; let it be done: away, away!<br /><br />Second Citizen<br /><br /> One word, good citizens.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> We are accounted poor citizens, the patricians good.<br /> What authority surfeits on would relieve us: if they<br /> would yield us but the superfluity, while it were<br /> wholesome, we might guess they relieved us humanely;<br /> but they think we are too dear: the leanness that<br /> afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an<br /> inventory to particularise their abundance; our<br /> sufferance is a gain to them Let us revenge this with<br /> our pikes, ere we become rakes: for the gods know I<br /> speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge.<br /><br />Second Citizen<br /><br /> Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?<br /><br />All<br /><br /> Against him first: he's a very dog to the commonalty.<br /><br />Second Citizen<br /><br /> Consider you what services he has done for his country?<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> Very well; and could be content to give him good<br /> report fort, but that he pays himself with being proud.<br /><br />Second Citizen<br /><br /> Nay, but speak not maliciously.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did<br /> it to that end: though soft-conscienced men can be<br /> content to say it was for his country he did it to<br /> please his mother and to be partly proud; which he<br /> is, even till the altitude of his virtue.<br /><br />Second Citizen<br /><br /> What he cannot help in his nature, you account a<br /> vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations;<br /> he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition.<br /><br /> Shouts within<br /> What shouts are these? The other side o' the city<br /> is risen: why stay we prating here? to the Capitol!<br /><br />All<br /><br /> Come, come.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> Soft! who comes here?<br /><br /> Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA<br /><br />Second Citizen<br /><br /> Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved<br /> the people.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> He's one honest enough: would all the rest were so!<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> What work's, my countrymen, in hand? where go you<br /> With bats and clubs? The matter? speak, I pray you.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have<br /> had inkling this fortnight what we intend to do,<br /> which now we'll show 'em in deeds. They say poor<br /> suitors have strong breaths: they shall know we<br /> have strong arms too.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours,<br /> Will you undo yourselves?<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> We cannot, sir, we are undone already.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> I tell you, friends, most charitable care<br /> Have the patricians of you. For your wants,<br /> Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well<br /> Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them<br /> Against the Roman state, whose course will on<br /> The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs<br /> Of more strong link asunder than can ever<br /> Appear in your impediment. For the dearth,<br /> The gods, not the patricians, make it, and<br /> Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack,<br /> You are transported by calamity<br /> Thither where more attends you, and you slander<br /> The helms o' the state, who care for you like fathers,<br /> When you curse them as enemies.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> Care for us! True, indeed! They ne'er cared for us<br /> yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses<br /> crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to<br /> support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act<br /> established against the rich, and provide more<br /> piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain<br /> the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and<br /> there's all the love they bear us.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Either you must<br /> Confess yourselves wondrous malicious,<br /> Or be accused of folly. I shall tell you<br /> A pretty tale: it may be you have heard it;<br /> But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture<br /> To stale 't a little more.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> Well, I'll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to<br /> fob off our disgrace with a tale: but, an 't please<br /> you, deliver.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> There was a time when all the body's members<br /> Rebell'd against the belly, thus accused it:<br /> That only like a gulf it did remain<br /> I' the midst o' the body, idle and unactive,<br /> Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing<br /> Like labour with the rest, where the other instruments<br /> Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,<br /> And, mutually participate, did minister<br /> Unto the appetite and affection common<br /> Of the whole body. The belly answer'd--<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> Well, sir, what answer made the belly?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile,<br /> Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus--<br /> For, look you, I may make the belly smile<br /> As well as speak--it tauntingly replied<br /> To the discontented members, the mutinous parts<br /> That envied his receipt; even so most fitly<br /> As you malign our senators for that<br /> They are not such as you.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> Your belly's answer? What!<br /> The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,<br /> The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,<br /> Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter.<br /> With other muniments and petty helps<br /> In this our fabric, if that they--<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> What then?<br /> 'Fore me, this fellow speaks! What then? what then?<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd,<br /> Who is the sink o' the body,--<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Well, what then?<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> The former agents, if they did complain,<br /> What could the belly answer?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> I will tell you<br /> If you'll bestow a small--of what you have little--<br /> Patience awhile, you'll hear the belly's answer.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> Ye're long about it.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Note me this, good friend;<br /> Your most grave belly was deliberate,<br /> Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer'd:<br /> 'True is it, my incorporate friends,' quoth he,<br /> 'That I receive the general food at first,<br /> Which you do live upon; and fit it is,<br /> Because I am the store-house and the shop<br /> Of the whole body: but, if you do remember,<br /> I send it through the rivers of your blood,<br /> Even to the court, the heart, to the seat o' the brain;<br /> And, through the cranks and offices of man,<br /> The strongest nerves and small inferior veins<br /> From me receive that natural competency<br /> Whereby they live: and though that all at once,<br /> You, my good friends,'--this says the belly, mark me,--<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> Ay, sir; well, well.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> 'Though all at once cannot<br /> See what I do deliver out to each,<br /> Yet I can make my audit up, that all<br /> From me do back receive the flour of all,<br /> And leave me but the bran.' What say you to't?<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> It was an answer: how apply you this?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> The senators of Rome are this good belly,<br /> And you the mutinous members; for examine<br /> Their counsels and their cares, digest things rightly<br /> Touching the weal o' the common, you shall find<br /> No public benefit which you receive<br /> But it proceeds or comes from them to you<br /> And no way from yourselves. What do you think,<br /> You, the great toe of this assembly?<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> I the great toe! why the great toe?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> For that, being one o' the lowest, basest, poorest,<br /> Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st foremost:<br /> Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run,<br /> Lead'st first to win some vantage.<br /> But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs:<br /> Rome and her rats are at the point of battle;<br /> The one side must have bale.<br /><br /> Enter CAIUS MARCIUS<br /> Hail, noble Marcius!<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> Thanks. What's the matter, you dissentious rogues,<br /> That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,<br /> Make yourselves scabs?<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> We have ever your good word.<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> He that will give good words to thee will flatter<br /> Beneath abhorring. What would you have, you curs,<br /> That like nor peace nor war? the one affrights you,<br /> The other makes you proud. He that trusts to you,<br /> Where he should find you lions, finds you hares;<br /> Where foxes, geese: you are no surer, no,<br /> Than is the coal of fire upon the ice,<br /> Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is<br /> To make him worthy whose offence subdues him<br /> And curse that justice did it.<br /> Who deserves greatness<br /> Deserves your hate; and your affections are<br /> A sick man's appetite, who desires most that<br /> Which would increase his evil. He that depends<br /> Upon your favours swims with fins of lead<br /> And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust Ye?<br /> With every minute you do change a mind,<br /> And call him noble that was now your hate,<br /> Him vile that was your garland. What's the matter,<br /> That in these several places of the city<br /> You cry against the noble senate, who,<br /> Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else<br /> Would feed on one another? What's their seeking?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> For corn at their own rates; whereof, they say,<br /> The city is well stored.<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> Hang 'em! They say!<br /> They'll sit by the fire, and presume to know<br /> What's done i' the Capitol; who's like to rise,<br /> Who thrives and who declines; side factions<br /> and give out<br /> Conjectural marriages; making parties strong<br /> And feebling such as stand not in their liking<br /> Below their cobbled shoes. They say there's<br /> grain enough!<br /> Would the nobility lay aside their ruth,<br /> And let me use my sword, I'll make a quarry<br /> With thousands of these quarter'd slaves, as high<br /> As I could pick my lance.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Nay, these are almost thoroughly persuaded;<br /> For though abundantly they lack discretion,<br /> Yet are they passing cowardly. But, I beseech you,<br /> What says the other troop?<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> They are dissolved: hang 'em!<br /> They said they were an-hungry; sigh'd forth proverbs,<br /> That hunger broke stone walls, that dogs must eat,<br /> That meat was made for mouths, that the gods sent not<br /> Corn for the rich men only: with these shreds<br /> They vented their complainings; which being answer'd,<br /> And a petition granted them, a strange one--<br /> To break the heart of generosity,<br /> And make bold power look pale--they threw their caps<br /> As they would hang them on the horns o' the moon,<br /> Shouting their emulation.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> What is granted them?<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> Five tribunes to defend their vulgar wisdoms,<br /> Of their own choice: one's Junius Brutus,<br /> Sicinius Velutus, and I know not--'Sdeath!<br /> The rabble should have first unroof'd the city,<br /> Ere so prevail'd with me: it will in time<br /> Win upon power and throw forth greater themes<br /> For insurrection's arguing.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> This is strange.<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> Go, get you home, you fragments!<br /><br /> Enter a Messenger, hastily<br /><br />Messenger<br /><br /> Where's Caius Marcius?<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> Here: what's the matter?<br /><br />Messenger<br /><br /> The news is, sir, the Volsces are in arms.<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> I am glad on 't: then we shall ha' means to vent<br /> Our musty superfluity. See, our best elders.<br /><br /> Enter COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, and other Senators; JUNIUS BRUTUS and SICINIUS VELUTUS<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Marcius, 'tis true that you have lately told us;<br /> The Volsces are in arms.<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> They have a leader,<br /> Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to 't.<br /> I sin in envying his nobility,<br /> And were I any thing but what I am,<br /> I would wish me only he.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> You have fought together.<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> Were half to half the world by the ears and he.<br /> Upon my party, I'ld revolt to make<br /> Only my wars with him: he is a lion<br /> That I am proud to hunt.<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Then, worthy Marcius,<br /> Attend upon Cominius to these wars.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> It is your former promise.<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> Sir, it is;<br /> And I am constant. Titus Lartius, thou<br /> Shalt see me once more strike at Tullus' face.<br /> What, art thou stiff? stand'st out?<br /><br />TITUS<br /><br /> No, Caius Marcius;<br /> I'll lean upon one crutch and fight with t'other,<br /> Ere stay behind this business.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> O, true-bred!<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Your company to the Capitol; where, I know,<br /> Our greatest friends attend us.<br /><br />TITUS<br /><br /> [To COMINIUS] Lead you on.<br /><br /> To MARCIUS<br /> Right worthy you priority.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Noble Marcius!<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> [To the Citizens] Hence to your homes; be gone!<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> Nay, let them follow:<br /> The Volsces have much corn; take these rats thither<br /> To gnaw their garners. Worshipful mutiners,<br /> Your valour puts well forth: pray, follow.<br /><br /> Citizens steal away. Exeunt all but SICINIUS and BRUTUS<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Was ever man so proud as is this Marcius?<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> He has no equal.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> When we were chosen tribunes for the people,--<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Mark'd you his lip and eyes?<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Nay. but his taunts.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Being moved, he will not spare to gird the gods.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Be-mock the modest moon.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> The present wars devour him: he is grown<br /> Too proud to be so valiant.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Such a nature,<br /> Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow<br /> Which he treads on at noon: but I do wonder<br /> His insolence can brook to be commanded<br /> Under Cominius.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Fame, at the which he aims,<br /> In whom already he's well graced, can not<br /> Better be held nor more attain'd than by<br /> A place below the first: for what miscarries<br /> Shall be the general's fault, though he perform<br /> To the utmost of a man, and giddy censure<br /> Will then cry out of Marcius 'O if he<br /> Had borne the business!'<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Besides, if things go well,<br /> Opinion that so sticks on Marcius shall<br /> Of his demerits rob Cominius.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Come:<br /> Half all Cominius' honours are to Marcius.<br /> Though Marcius earned them not, and all his faults<br /> To Marcius shall be honours, though indeed<br /> In aught he merit not.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Let's hence, and hear<br /> How the dispatch is made, and in what fashion,<br /> More than his singularity, he goes<br /> Upon this present action.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Lets along.<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /><br /></span><span id = 18322 >SCENE II. Corioli. The Senate-house.<br /><br /> Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS and certain Senators <br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> So, your opinion is, Aufidius,<br /> That they of Rome are entered in our counsels<br /> And know how we proceed.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Is it not yours?<br /> What ever have been thought on in this state,<br /> That could be brought to bodily act ere Rome<br /> Had circumvention? 'Tis not four days gone<br /> Since I heard thence; these are the words: I think<br /> I have the letter here; yes, here it is.<br /><br /> Reads<br /> 'They have press'd a power, but it is not known<br /> Whether for east or west: the dearth is great;<br /> The people mutinous; and it is rumour'd,<br /> Cominius, Marcius your old enemy,<br /> Who is of Rome worse hated than of you,<br /> And Titus Lartius, a most valiant Roman,<br /> These three lead on this preparation<br /> Whither 'tis bent: most likely 'tis for you:<br /> Consider of it.'<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Our army's in the field<br /> We never yet made doubt but Rome was ready<br /> To answer us.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Nor did you think it folly<br /> To keep your great pretences veil'd till when<br /> They needs must show themselves; which<br /> in the hatching,<br /> It seem'd, appear'd to Rome. By the discovery.<br /> We shall be shorten'd in our aim, which was<br /> To take in many towns ere almost Rome<br /> Should know we were afoot.<br /><br />Second Senator<br /><br /> Noble Aufidius,<br /> Take your commission; hie you to your bands:<br /> Let us alone to guard Corioli:<br /> If they set down before 's, for the remove<br /> Bring your army; but, I think, you'll find<br /> They've not prepared for us.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> O, doubt not that;<br /> I speak from certainties. Nay, more,<br /> Some parcels of their power are forth already,<br /> And only hitherward. I leave your honours.<br /> If we and Caius Marcius chance to meet,<br /> 'Tis sworn between us we shall ever strike<br /> Till one can do no more.<br /><br />All<br /><br /> The gods assist you!<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> And keep your honours safe!<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Farewell.<br /><br />Second Senator<br /><br /> Farewell.<br /><br />All<br /><br /> Farewell.<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /><br /></span><span id = 18323 >SCENE III. Rome. A room in Marcius' house.<br /><br /> Enter VOLUMNIA and VIRGILIA they set them down on two low stools, and sew <br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> I pray you, daughter, sing; or express yourself in a<br /> more comfortable sort: if my son were my husband, I<br /> should freelier rejoice in that absence wherein he<br /> won honour than in the embracements of his bed where<br /> he would show most love. When yet he was but<br /> tender-bodied and the only son of my womb, when<br /> youth with comeliness plucked all gaze his way, when<br /> for a day of kings' entreaties a mother should not<br /> sell him an hour from her beholding, I, considering<br /> how honour would become such a person. that it was<br /> no better than picture-like to hang by the wall, if<br /> renown made it not stir, was pleased to let him seek<br /> danger where he was like to find fame. To a cruel<br /> war I sent him; from whence he returned, his brows<br /> bound with oak. I tell thee, daughter, I sprang not<br /> more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child<br /> than now in first seeing he had proved himself a<br /> man.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> But had he died in the business, madam; how then?<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Then his good report should have been my son; I<br /> therein would have found issue. Hear me profess<br /> sincerely: had I a dozen sons, each in my love<br /> alike and none less dear than thine and my good<br /> Marcius, I had rather had eleven die nobly for their<br /> country than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.<br /><br /> Enter a Gentlewoman<br /><br />Gentlewoman<br /><br /> Madam, the Lady Valeria is come to visit you.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> Beseech you, give me leave to retire myself.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Indeed, you shall not.<br /> Methinks I hear hither your husband's drum,<br /> See him pluck Aufidius down by the hair,<br /> As children from a bear, the Volsces shunning him:<br /> Methinks I see him stamp thus, and call thus:<br /> 'Come on, you cowards! you were got in fear,<br /> Though you were born in Rome:' his bloody brow<br /> With his mail'd hand then wiping, forth he goes,<br /> Like to a harvest-man that's task'd to mow<br /> Or all or lose his hire.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> His bloody brow! O Jupiter, no blood!<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Away, you fool! it more becomes a man<br /> Than gilt his trophy: the breasts of Hecuba,<br /> When she did suckle Hector, look'd not lovelier<br /> Than Hector's forehead when it spit forth blood<br /> At Grecian sword, contemning. Tell Valeria,<br /> We are fit to bid her welcome.<br /><br /> Exit Gentlewoman<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> Heavens bless my lord from fell Aufidius!<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> He'll beat Aufidius 'head below his knee<br /> And tread upon his neck.<br /><br /> Enter VALERIA, with an Usher and Gentlewoman<br /><br />VALERIA<br /><br /> My ladies both, good day to you.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Sweet madam.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> I am glad to see your ladyship.<br /><br />VALERIA<br /><br /> How do you both? you are manifest house-keepers.<br /> What are you sewing here? A fine spot, in good<br /> faith. How does your little son?<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> I thank your ladyship; well, good madam.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> He had rather see the swords, and hear a drum, than<br /> look upon his school-master.<br /><br />VALERIA<br /><br /> O' my word, the father's son: I'll swear,'tis a<br /> very pretty boy. O' my troth, I looked upon him o'<br /> Wednesday half an hour together: has such a<br /> confirmed countenance. I saw him run after a gilded<br /> butterfly: and when he caught it, he let it go<br /> again; and after it again; and over and over he<br /> comes, and again; catched it again; or whether his<br /> fall enraged him, or how 'twas, he did so set his<br /> teeth and tear it; O, I warrant it, how he mammocked<br /> it!<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> One on 's father's moods.<br /><br />VALERIA<br /><br /> Indeed, la, 'tis a noble child.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> A crack, madam.<br /><br />VALERIA<br /><br /> Come, lay aside your stitchery; I must have you play<br /> the idle husewife with me this afternoon.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> No, good madam; I will not out of doors.<br /><br />VALERIA<br /><br /> Not out of doors!<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> She shall, she shall.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> Indeed, no, by your patience; I'll not over the<br /> threshold till my lord return from the wars.<br /><br />VALERIA<br /><br /> Fie, you confine yourself most unreasonably: come,<br /> you must go visit the good lady that lies in.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> I will wish her speedy strength, and visit her with<br /> my prayers; but I cannot go thither.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Why, I pray you?<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> 'Tis not to save labour, nor that I want love.<br /><br />VALERIA<br /><br /> You would be another Penelope: yet, they say, all<br /> the yarn she spun in Ulysses' absence did but fill<br /> Ithaca full of moths. Come; I would your cambric<br /> were sensible as your finger, that you might leave<br /> pricking it for pity. Come, you shall go with us.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> No, good madam, pardon me; indeed, I will not forth.<br /><br />VALERIA<br /><br /> In truth, la, go with me; and I'll tell you<br /> excellent news of your husband.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> O, good madam, there can be none yet.<br /><br />VALERIA<br /><br /> Verily, I do not jest with you; there came news from<br /> him last night.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> Indeed, madam?<br /><br />VALERIA<br /><br /> In earnest, it's true; I heard a senator speak it.<br /> Thus it is: the Volsces have an army forth; against<br /> whom Cominius the general is gone, with one part of<br /> our Roman power: your lord and Titus Lartius are set<br /> down before their city Corioli; they nothing doubt<br /> prevailing and to make it brief wars. This is true,<br /> on mine honour; and so, I pray, go with us.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> Give me excuse, good madam; I will obey you in every<br /> thing hereafter.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Let her alone, lady: as she is now, she will but<br /> disease our better mirth.<br /><br />VALERIA<br /><br /> In troth, I think she would. Fare you well, then.<br /> Come, good sweet lady. Prithee, Virgilia, turn thy<br /> solemness out o' door. and go along with us.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> No, at a word, madam; indeed, I must not. I wish<br /> you much mirth.<br /><br />VALERIA<br /><br /> Well, then, farewell.<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /><br /></span><span id = 18324 >Act 2, Scene 1: Rome. A public place.<br />Act 2, Scene 2: The same. The Capitol.<br />Act 2, Scene 3: The same. The Forum.</span><span id = 18326 >Act 3, Scene 1: Rome. A street.<br />Act 3, Scene 2: A room in CORIOLANUS'S house.<br />Act 3, Scene 3: The same. The Forum.</span><span id = 18328 >Act 4, Scene 1: Rome. Before a gate of the city.<br />Act 4, Scene 2: The same. A street near the gate.<br />Act 4, Scene 3: A highway between Rome and Antium.<br />Act 4, Scene 4: Antium. Before Aufidius's house.<br />Act 4, Scene 5: The same. A hall in Aufidius's house.<br />Act 4, Scene 6: Rome. A public place.<br />Act 4, Scene 7: A camp, at a small distance from Rome.</span><span id = 18329 >Act 5, Scene 1: Rome. A public place.<br />Act 5, Scene 2: Entrance of the Volscian camp before Rome.<br />Act 5, Scene 3: The tent of Coriolanus.<br />Act 5, Scene 4: Rome. A public place.<br />Act 5, Scene 5: The same. A street near the gate.<br />Act 5, Scene 6: Antium. A public place.</span><span id = 18334 >SCENE IV. Before Corioli.<br /><br /> Enter, with drum and colours, MARCIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, Captains and Soldiers. To them a Messenger <br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> Yonder comes news. A wager they have met.<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> My horse to yours, no.<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> 'Tis done.<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> Agreed.<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> Say, has our general met the enemy?<br /><br />Messenger<br /><br /> They lie in view; but have not spoke as yet.<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> So, the good horse is mine.<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> I'll buy him of you.<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> No, I'll nor sell nor give him: lend you him I will<br /> For half a hundred years. Summon the town.<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> How far off lie these armies?<br /><br />Messenger<br /><br /> Within this mile and half.<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> Then shall we hear their 'larum, and they ours.<br /> Now, Mars, I prithee, make us quick in work,<br /> That we with smoking swords may march from hence,<br /> To help our fielded friends! Come, blow thy blast.<br /><br /> They sound a parley. Enter two Senators with others on the walls<br /> Tutus Aufidius, is he within your walls?<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> No, nor a man that fears you less than he,<br /> That's lesser than a little.<br /><br /> Drums afar off<br /> Hark! our drums<br /> Are bringing forth our youth. We'll break our walls,<br /> Rather than they shall pound us up: our gates,<br /> Which yet seem shut, we, have but pinn'd with rushes;<br /> They'll open of themselves.<br /><br /> Alarum afar off<br /> Hark you. far off!<br /> There is Aufidius; list, what work he makes<br /> Amongst your cloven army.<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> O, they are at it!<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> Their noise be our instruction. Ladders, ho!<br /><br /> Enter the army of the Volsces<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> They fear us not, but issue forth their city.<br /> Now put your shields before your hearts, and fight<br /> With hearts more proof than shields. Advance,<br /> brave Titus:<br /> They do disdain us much beyond our thoughts,<br /> Which makes me sweat with wrath. Come on, my fellows:<br /> He that retires I'll take him for a Volsce,<br /> And he shall feel mine edge.<br /><br /> Alarum. The Romans are beat back to their trenches. Re-enter MARCIUS cursing<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> All the contagion of the south light on you,<br /> You shames of Rome! you herd of--Boils and plagues<br /> Plaster you o'er, that you may be abhorr'd<br /> Further than seen and one infect another<br /> Against the wind a mile! You souls of geese,<br /> That bear the shapes of men, how have you run<br /> From slaves that apes would beat! Pluto and hell!<br /> All hurt behind; backs red, and faces pale<br /> With flight and agued fear! Mend and charge home,<br /> Or, by the fires of heaven, I'll leave the foe<br /> And make my wars on you: look to't: come on;<br /> If you'll stand fast, we'll beat them to their wives,<br /> As they us to our trenches followed.<br /><br /> Another alarum. The Volsces fly, and MARCIUS follows them to the gates<br /> So, now the gates are ope: now prove good seconds:<br /> 'Tis for the followers fortune widens them,<br /> Not for the fliers: mark me, and do the like.<br /><br /> Enters the gates<br /><br />First Soldier<br /><br /> Fool-hardiness; not I.<br /><br />Second Soldier<br /><br /> Nor I.<br /><br /> MARCIUS is shut in<br /><br />First Soldier<br /><br /> See, they have shut him in.<br /><br />All<br /><br /> To the pot, I warrant him.<br /><br /> Alarum continues<br /><br /> Re-enter TITUS LARTIUS<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> What is become of Marcius?<br /><br />All<br /><br /> Slain, sir, doubtless.<br /><br />First Soldier<br /><br /> Following the fliers at the very heels,<br /> With them he enters; who, upon the sudden,<br /> Clapp'd to their gates: he is himself alone,<br /> To answer all the city.<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> O noble fellow!<br /> Who sensibly outdares his senseless sword,<br /> And, when it bows, stands up. Thou art left, Marcius:<br /> A carbuncle entire, as big as thou art,<br /> Were not so rich a jewel. Thou wast a soldier<br /> Even to Cato's wish, not fierce and terrible<br /> Only in strokes; but, with thy grim looks and<br /> The thunder-like percussion of thy sounds,<br /> Thou madst thine enemies shake, as if the world<br /> Were feverous and did tremble.<br /><br /> Re-enter MARCIUS, bleeding, assaulted by the enemy<br /><br />First Soldier<br /><br /> Look, sir.<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> O,'tis Marcius!<br /> Let's fetch him off, or make remain alike.<br /><br /> They fight, and all enter the city<br /><br /></span><span id = 18335 >SCENE V. Corioli. A street.<br /><br /> Enter certain Romans, with spoils <br /><br />First Roman<br /><br /> This will I carry to Rome.<br /><br />Second Roman<br /><br /> And I this.<br /><br />Third Roman<br /><br /> A murrain on't! I took this for silver.<br /><br /> Alarum continues still afar off<br /><br /> Enter MARCIUS and TITUS LARTIUS with a trumpet<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> See here these movers that do prize their hours<br /> At a crack'd drachm! Cushions, leaden spoons,<br /> Irons of a doit, doublets that hangmen would<br /> Bury with those that wore them, these base slaves,<br /> Ere yet the fight be done, pack up: down with them!<br /> And hark, what noise the general makes! To him!<br /> There is the man of my soul's hate, Aufidius,<br /> Piercing our Romans: then, valiant Titus, take<br /> Convenient numbers to make good the city;<br /> Whilst I, with those that have the spirit, will haste<br /> To help Cominius.<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> Worthy sir, thou bleed'st;<br /> Thy exercise hath been too violent for<br /> A second course of fight.<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> Sir, praise me not;<br /> My work hath yet not warm'd me: fare you well:<br /> The blood I drop is rather physical<br /> Than dangerous to me: to Aufidius thus<br /> I will appear, and fight.<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> Now the fair goddess, Fortune,<br /> Fall deep in love with thee; and her great charms<br /> Misguide thy opposers' swords! Bold gentleman,<br /> Prosperity be thy page!<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> Thy friend no less<br /> Than those she placeth highest! So, farewell.<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> Thou worthiest Marcius!<br /><br /> Exit MARCIUS<br /> Go, sound thy trumpet in the market-place;<br /> Call thither all the officers o' the town,<br /> Where they shall know our mind: away!<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /><br /></span><span id = 18337 >SCENE VI. Near the camp of Cominius.<br />Enter COMINIUS, as it were in retire, with soldiers <br />COMINIUS <br />Breathe you, my friends: well fought;<br />we are come off<br />Like Romans, neither foolish in our stands,<br />Nor cowardly in retire: believe me, sirs,<br />We shall be charged again. Whiles we have struck,<br />By interims and conveying gusts we have heard<br />The charges of our friends. Ye Roman gods!<br />Lead their successes as we wish our own,<br />That both our powers, with smiling<br />fronts encountering,<br />May give you thankful sacrifice.<br />Enter a Messenger<br />Thy news?<br />Messenger <br />The citizens of Corioli have issued,<br />And given to Lartius and to Marcius battle:<br />I saw our party to their trenches driven,<br />And then I came away.<br />COMINIUS <br />Though thou speak'st truth,<br />Methinks thou speak'st not well.<br />How long is't since?<br />Messenger <br />Above an hour, my lord.<br />COMINIUS <br />'Tis not a mile; briefly we heard their drums:<br />How couldst thou in a mile confound an hour,<br />And bring thy news so late?<br />Messenger <br />Spies of the Volsces<br />Held me in chase, that I was forced to wheel<br />Three or four miles about, else had I, sir,<br />Half an hour since brought my report.<br />COMINIUS <br />Who's yonder,<br />That does appear as he were flay'd? O gods<br />He has the stamp of Marcius; and I have<br />Before-time seen him thus.<br />MARCIUS <br />[Within] Come I too late?<br />COMINIUS <br />The shepherd knows not thunder from a tabour<br />More than I know the sound of Marcius' tongue<br />From every meaner man.<br />Enter MARCIUS<br />MARCIUS <br />Come I too late?<br />COMINIUS <br />Ay, if you come not in the blood of others,<br />But mantled in your own.<br />MARCIUS <br />O, let me clip ye<br />In arms as sound as when I woo'd, in heart<br />As merry as when our nuptial day was done,<br />And tapers burn'd to bedward!<br />COMINIUS <br />Flower of warriors,<br />How is it with Titus Lartius?<br />MARCIUS <br />As with a man busied about decrees:<br />Condemning some to death, and some to exile;<br />Ransoming him, or pitying, threatening the other;<br />Holding Corioli in the name of Rome,<br />Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash,<br />To let him slip at will.<br />COMINIUS <br />Where is that slave<br />Which told me they had beat you to your trenches?<br />Where is he? call him hither.<br />MARCIUS <br />Let him alone;<br />He did inform the truth: but for our gentlemen,<br />The common file--a plague! tribunes for them!--<br />The mouse ne'er shunn'd the cat as they did budge<br />From rascals worse than they.<br />COMINIUS <br />But how prevail'd you?<br />MARCIUS <br />Will the time serve to tell? I do not think.<br />Where is the enemy? are you lords o' the field?<br />If not, why cease you till you are so?<br />COMINIUS <br />Marcius,<br />We have at disadvantage fought and did<br />Retire to win our purpose.<br />MARCIUS <br />How lies their battle? know you on which side<br />They have placed their men of trust?<br />COMINIUS <br />As I guess, Marcius,<br />Their bands i' the vaward are the Antiates,<br />Of their best trust; o'er them Aufidius,<br />Their very heart of hope.<br />MARCIUS <br />I do beseech you,<br />By all the battles wherein we have fought,<br />By the blood we have shed together, by the vows<br />We have made to endure friends, that you directly<br />Set me against Aufidius and his Antiates;<br />And that you not delay the present, but,<br />Filling the air with swords advanced and darts,<br />We prove this very hour.<br />COMINIUS <br />Though I could wish<br />You were conducted to a gentle bath<br />And balms applied to, you, yet dare I never<br />Deny your asking: take your choice of those<br />That best can aid your action.<br />MARCIUS <br />Those are they<br />That most are willing. If any such be here--<br />As it were sin to doubt--that love this painting<br />Wherein you see me smear'd; if any fear<br />Lesser his person than an ill report;<br />If any think brave death outweighs bad life<br />And that his country's dearer than himself;<br />Let him alone, or so many so minded,<br />Wave thus, to express his disposition,<br />And follow Marcius.<br />They all shout and wave their swords, take him up in their arms, and cast up their caps<br />O, me alone! make you a sword of me?<br />If these shows be not outward, which of you<br />But is four Volsces? none of you but is<br />Able to bear against the great Aufidius<br />A shield as hard as his. A certain number,<br />Though thanks to all, must I select<br />from all: the rest<br />Shall bear the business in some other fight,<br />As cause will be obey'd. Please you to march;<br />And four shall quickly draw out my command,<br />Which men are best inclined.<br />COMINIUS <br />March on, my fellows:<br />Make good this ostentation, and you shall<br />Divide in all with us.<br /><br /></span><span id = 18338 >SCENE VII. The gates of Corioli.<br /><br /> TITUS LARTIUS, having set a guard upon Corioli, going with drum and trumpet toward COMINIUS and CAIUS MARCIUS, enters with Lieutenant, other Soldiers, and a Scout <br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> So, let the ports be guarded: keep your duties,<br /> As I have set them down. If I do send, dispatch<br /> Those centuries to our aid: the rest will serve<br /> For a short holding: if we lose the field,<br /> We cannot keep the town.<br /><br />Lieutenant<br /><br /> Fear not our care, sir.<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> Hence, and shut your gates upon's.<br /> Our guider, come; to the Roman camp conduct us.</span><span id = 18339 >SCENE VIII. A field of battle.<br /><br /> Alarum as in battle. Enter, from opposite sides, MARCIUS and AUFIDIUS <br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> I'll fight with none but thee; for I do hate thee<br /> Worse than a promise-breaker.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> We hate alike:<br /> Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor<br /> More than thy fame and envy. Fix thy foot.<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> Let the first budger die the other's slave,<br /> And the gods doom him after!<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> If I fly, Marcius,<br /> Holloa me like a hare.<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> Within these three hours, Tullus,<br /> Alone I fought in your Corioli walls,<br /> And made what work I pleased: 'tis not my blood<br /> Wherein thou seest me mask'd; for thy revenge<br /> Wrench up thy power to the highest.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Wert thou the Hector<br /> That was the whip of your bragg'd progeny,<br /> Thou shouldst not scape me here.<br /><br /> They fight, and certain Volsces come to the aid of AUFIDIUS. MARCIUS fights till they be driven in breathless<br /> Officious, and not valiant, you have shamed me<br /> In your condemned seconds.</span><span id = 18340 >SCENE IX. The Roman camp.<br /><br /> Flourish. Alarum. A retreat is sounded. Flourish. Enter, from one side, COMINIUS with the Romans; from the other side, MARCIUS, with his arm in a scarf <br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> If I should tell thee o'er this thy day's work,<br /> Thou'ldst not believe thy deeds: but I'll report it<br /> Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles,<br /> Where great patricians shall attend and shrug,<br /> I' the end admire, where ladies shall be frighted,<br /> And, gladly quaked, hear more; where the<br /> dull tribunes,<br /> That, with the fusty plebeians, hate thine honours,<br /> Shall say against their hearts 'We thank the gods<br /> Our Rome hath such a soldier.'<br /> Yet camest thou to a morsel of this feast,<br /> Having fully dined before.<br /><br /> Enter TITUS LARTIUS, with his power, from the pursuit<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> O general,<br /> Here is the steed, we the caparison:<br /> Hadst thou beheld--<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> Pray now, no more: my mother,<br /> Who has a charter to extol her blood,<br /> When she does praise me grieves me. I have done<br /> As you have done; that's what I can; induced<br /> As you have been; that's for my country:<br /> He that has but effected his good will<br /> Hath overta'en mine act.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> You shall not be<br /> The grave of your deserving; Rome must know<br /> The value of her own: 'twere a concealment<br /> Worse than a theft, no less than a traducement,<br /> To hide your doings; and to silence that,<br /> Which, to the spire and top of praises vouch'd,<br /> Would seem but modest: therefore, I beseech you<br /> In sign of what you are, not to reward<br /> What you have done--before our army hear me.<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> I have some wounds upon me, and they smart<br /> To hear themselves remember'd.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Should they not,<br /> Well might they fester 'gainst ingratitude,<br /> And tent themselves with death. Of all the horses,<br /> Whereof we have ta'en good and good store, of all<br /> The treasure in this field achieved and city,<br /> We render you the tenth, to be ta'en forth,<br /> Before the common distribution, at<br /> Your only choice.<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> I thank you, general;<br /> But cannot make my heart consent to take<br /> A bribe to pay my sword: I do refuse it;<br /> And stand upon my common part with those<br /> That have beheld the doing.<br /><br /> A long flourish. They all cry 'Marcius! Marcius!' cast up their caps and lances: COMINIUS and LARTIUS stand bare<br /><br />MARCIUS<br /><br /> May these same instruments, which you profane,<br /> Never sound more! when drums and trumpets shall<br /> I' the field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be<br /> Made all of false-faced soothing!<br /> When steel grows soft as the parasite's silk,<br /> Let him be made a coverture for the wars!<br /> No more, I say! For that I have not wash'd<br /> My nose that bled, or foil'd some debile wretch.--<br /> Which, without note, here's many else have done,--<br /> You shout me forth<br /> In acclamations hyperbolical;<br /> As if I loved my little should be dieted<br /> In praises sauced with lies.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Too modest are you;<br /> More cruel to your good report than grateful<br /> To us that give you truly: by your patience,<br /> If 'gainst yourself you be incensed, we'll put you,<br /> Like one that means his proper harm, in manacles,<br /> Then reason safely with you. Therefore, be it known,<br /> As to us, to all the world, that Caius Marcius<br /> Wears this war's garland: in token of the which,<br /> My noble steed, known to the camp, I give him,<br /> With all his trim belonging; and from this time,<br /> For what he did before Corioli, call him,<br /> With all the applause and clamour of the host,<br /> CAIUS MARCIUS CORIOLANUS! Bear<br /> The addition nobly ever!<br /><br /> Flourish. Trumpets sound, and drums<br /><br />All<br /><br /> Caius Marcius Coriolanus!<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> I will go wash;<br /> And when my face is fair, you shall perceive<br /> Whether I blush or no: howbeit, I thank you.<br /> I mean to stride your steed, and at all times<br /> To undercrest your good addition<br /> To the fairness of my power.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> So, to our tent;<br /> Where, ere we do repose us, we will write<br /> To Rome of our success. You, Titus Lartius,<br /> Must to Corioli back: send us to Rome<br /> The best, with whom we may articulate,<br /> For their own good and ours.<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> I shall, my lord.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> The gods begin to mock me. I, that now<br /> Refused most princely gifts, am bound to beg<br /> Of my lord general.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Take't; 'tis yours. What is't?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> I sometime lay here in Corioli<br /> At a poor man's house; he used me kindly:<br /> He cried to me; I saw him prisoner;<br /> But then Aufidius was with in my view,<br /> And wrath o'erwhelm'd my pity: I request you<br /> To give my poor host freedom.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> O, well begg'd!<br /> Were he the butcher of my son, he should<br /> Be free as is the wind. Deliver him, Titus.<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> Marcius, his name?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> By Jupiter! forgot.<br /> I am weary; yea, my memory is tired.<br /> Have we no wine here?<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Go we to our tent:<br /> The blood upon your visage dries; 'tis time<br /> It should be look'd to: come.</span><span id = 18341 >SCENE X. The camp of the Volsces.<br /><br /> A flourish. Cornets. Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS, bloody, with two or three Soldiers <br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> The town is ta'en!<br /><br />First Soldier<br /><br /> 'Twill be deliver'd back on good condition.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Condition!<br /> I would I were a Roman; for I cannot,<br /> Being a Volsce, be that I am. Condition!<br /> What good condition can a treaty find<br /> I' the part that is at mercy? Five times, Marcius,<br /> I have fought with thee: so often hast thou beat me,<br /> And wouldst do so, I think, should we encounter<br /> As often as we eat. By the elements,<br /> If e'er again I meet him beard to beard,<br /> He's mine, or I am his: mine emulation<br /> Hath not that honour in't it had; for where<br /> I thought to crush him in an equal force,<br /> True sword to sword, I'll potch at him some way<br /> Or wrath or craft may get him.<br /><br />First Soldier<br /><br /> He's the devil.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Bolder, though not so subtle. My valour's poison'd<br /> With only suffering stain by him; for him<br /> Shall fly out of itself: nor sleep nor sanctuary,<br /> Being naked, sick, nor fane nor Capitol,<br /> The prayers of priests nor times of sacrifice,<br /> Embarquements all of fury, shall lift up<br /> Their rotten privilege and custom 'gainst<br /> My hate to Marcius: where I find him, were it<br /> At home, upon my brother's guard, even there,<br /> Against the hospitable canon, would I<br /> Wash my fierce hand in's heart. Go you to the city;<br /> Learn how 'tis held; and what they are that must<br /> Be hostages for Rome.<br /><br />First Soldier<br /><br /> Will not you go?<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> I am attended at the cypress grove: I pray you--<br /> 'Tis south the city mills--bring me word thither<br /> How the world goes, that to the pace of it<br /> I may spur on my journey.<br /><br />First Soldier<br /><br /> I shall, sir.</span><span id = 18342 >SCENE I. Rome. A public place.<br /><br /> Enter MENENIUS with the two Tribunes of the people, SICINIUS and BRUTUS. <br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> The augurer tells me we shall have news to-night.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Good or bad?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Not according to the prayer of the people, for they<br /> love not Marcius.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Pray you, who does the wolf love?<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> The lamb.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Ay, to devour him; as the hungry plebeians would the<br /> noble Marcius.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> He's a lamb indeed, that baes like a bear.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> He's a bear indeed, that lives like a lamb. You two<br /> are old men: tell me one thing that I shall ask you.<br /><br />Both<br /><br /> Well, sir.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> In what enormity is Marcius poor in, that you two<br /> have not in abundance?<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> He's poor in no one fault, but stored with all.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Especially in pride.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> And topping all others in boasting.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> This is strange now: do you two know how you are<br /> censured here in the city, I mean of us o' the<br /> right-hand file? do you?<br /><br />Both<br /><br /> Why, how are we censured?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Because you talk of pride now,--will you not be angry?<br /><br />Both<br /><br /> Well, well, sir, well.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Why, 'tis no great matter; for a very little thief of<br /> occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience:<br /> give your dispositions the reins, and be angry at<br /> your pleasures; at the least if you take it as a<br /> pleasure to you in being so. You blame Marcius for<br /> being proud?<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> We do it not alone, sir.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> I know you can do very little alone; for your helps<br /> are many, or else your actions would grow wondrous<br /> single: your abilities are too infant-like for<br /> doing much alone. You talk of pride: O that you<br /> could turn your eyes toward the napes of your necks,<br /> and make but an interior survey of your good selves!<br /> O that you could!<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> What then, sir?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Why, then you should discover a brace of unmeriting,<br /> proud, violent, testy magistrates, alias fools, as<br /> any in Rome.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Menenius, you are known well enough too.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that<br /> loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying<br /> Tiber in't; said to be something imperfect in<br /> favouring the first complaint; hasty and tinder-like<br /> upon too trivial motion; one that converses more<br /> with the buttock of the night than with the forehead<br /> of the morning: what I think I utter, and spend my<br /> malice in my breath. Meeting two such wealsmen as<br /> you are--I cannot call you Lycurguses--if the drink<br /> you give me touch my palate adversely, I make a<br /> crooked face at it. I can't say your worships have<br /> delivered the matter well, when I find the ass in<br /> compound with the major part of your syllables: and<br /> though I must be content to bear with those that say<br /> you are reverend grave men, yet they lie deadly that<br /> tell you you have good faces. If you see this in<br /> the map of my microcosm, follows it that I am known<br /> well enough too? what barm can your bisson<br /> conspectuities glean out of this character, if I be<br /> known well enough too?<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Come, sir, come, we know you well enough.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> You know neither me, yourselves nor any thing. You<br /> are ambitious for poor knaves' caps and legs: you<br /> wear out a good wholesome forenoon in hearing a<br /> cause between an orange wife and a fosset-seller;<br /> and then rejourn the controversy of three pence to a<br /> second day of audience. When you are hearing a<br /> matter between party and party, if you chance to be<br /> pinched with the colic, you make faces like<br /> mummers; set up the bloody flag against all<br /> patience; and, in roaring for a chamber-pot,<br /> dismiss the controversy bleeding the more entangled<br /> by your hearing: all the peace you make in their<br /> cause is, calling both the parties knaves. You are<br /> a pair of strange ones.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Come, come, you are well understood to be a<br /> perfecter giber for the table than a necessary<br /> bencher in the Capitol.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Our very priests must become mockers, if they shall<br /> encounter such ridiculous subjects as you are. When<br /> you speak best unto the purpose, it is not worth the<br /> wagging of your beards; and your beards deserve not<br /> so honourable a grave as to stuff a botcher's<br /> cushion, or to be entombed in an ass's pack-<br /> saddle. Yet you must be saying, Marcius is proud;<br /> who in a cheap estimation, is worth predecessors<br /> since Deucalion, though peradventure some of the<br /> best of 'em were hereditary hangmen. God-den to<br /> your worships: more of your conversation would<br /> infect my brain, being the herdsmen of the beastly<br /> plebeians: I will be bold to take my leave of you.<br /><br /> BRUTUS and SICINIUS go aside<br /><br /> Enter VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, and VALERIA<br /> How now, my as fair as noble ladies,--and the moon,<br /> were she earthly, no nobler,--whither do you follow<br /> your eyes so fast?<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Honourable Menenius, my boy Marcius approaches; for<br /> the love of Juno, let's go.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Ha! Marcius coming home!<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Ay, worthy Menenius; and with most prosperous<br /> approbation.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee. Hoo!<br /> Marcius coming home!<br /><br />VOLUMNIA VIRGILIA<br /><br /> Nay,'tis true.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Look, here's a letter from him: the state hath<br /> another, his wife another; and, I think, there's one<br /> at home for you.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> I will make my very house reel tonight: a letter for<br /> me!<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> Yes, certain, there's a letter for you; I saw't.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> A letter for me! it gives me an estate of seven<br /> years' health; in which time I will make a lip at<br /> the physician: the most sovereign prescription in<br /> Galen is but empiricutic, and, to this preservative,<br /> of no better report than a horse-drench. Is he<br /> not wounded? he was wont to come home wounded.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> O, no, no, no.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> O, he is wounded; I thank the gods for't.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> So do I too, if it be not too much: brings a'<br /> victory in his pocket? the wounds become him.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> On's brows: Menenius, he comes the third time home<br /> with the oaken garland.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Has he disciplined Aufidius soundly?<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Titus Lartius writes, they fought together, but<br /> Aufidius got off.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> And 'twas time for him too, I'll warrant him that:<br /> an he had stayed by him, I would not have been so<br /> fidiused for all the chests in Corioli, and the gold<br /> that's in them. Is the senate possessed of this?<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Good ladies, let's go. Yes, yes, yes; the senate<br /> has letters from the general, wherein he gives my<br /> son the whole name of the war: he hath in this<br /> action outdone his former deeds doubly<br /><br />VALERIA<br /><br /> In troth, there's wondrous things spoke of him.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Wondrous! ay, I warrant you, and not without his<br /> true purchasing.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> The gods grant them true!<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> True! pow, wow.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> True! I'll be sworn they are true.<br /> Where is he wounded?<br /><br /> To the Tribunes<br /> God save your good worships! Marcius is coming<br /> home: he has more cause to be proud. Where is he wounded?<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> I' the shoulder and i' the left arm there will be<br /> large cicatrices to show the people, when he shall<br /> stand for his place. He received in the repulse of<br /> Tarquin seven hurts i' the body.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> One i' the neck, and two i' the thigh,--there's<br /> nine that I know.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> He had, before this last expedition, twenty-five<br /> wounds upon him.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Now it's twenty-seven: every gash was an enemy's grave.<br /><br /> A shout and flourish<br /> Hark! the trumpets.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> These are the ushers of Marcius: before him he<br /> carries noise, and behind him he leaves tears:<br /> Death, that dark spirit, in 's nervy arm doth lie;<br /> Which, being advanced, declines, and then men die.<br /><br /> A sennet. Trumpets sound. Enter COMINIUS the general, and TITUS LARTIUS; between them, CORIOLANUS, crowned with an oaken garland; with Captains and Soldiers, and a Herald<br /><br />Herald<br /><br /> Know, Rome, that all alone Marcius did fight<br /> Within Corioli gates: where he hath won,<br /> With fame, a name to Caius Marcius; these<br /> In honour follows Coriolanus.<br /> Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus!<br /><br /> Flourish<br /><br />All<br /><br /> Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus!<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> No more of this; it does offend my heart:<br /> Pray now, no more.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Look, sir, your mother!<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> O,<br /> You have, I know, petition'd all the gods<br /> For my prosperity!<br /><br /> Kneels<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Nay, my good soldier, up;<br /> My gentle Marcius, worthy Caius, and<br /> By deed-achieving honour newly named,--<br /> What is it?--Coriolanus must I call thee?--<br /> But O, thy wife!<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> My gracious silence, hail!<br /> Wouldst thou have laugh'd had I come coffin'd home,<br /> That weep'st to see me triumph? Ay, my dear,<br /> Such eyes the widows in Corioli wear,<br /> And mothers that lack sons.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Now, the gods crown thee!<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> And live you yet?<br /><br /> To VALERIA<br /> O my sweet lady, pardon.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> I know not where to turn: O, welcome home:<br /> And welcome, general: and ye're welcome all.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> A hundred thousand welcomes. I could weep<br /> And I could laugh, I am light and heavy. Welcome.<br /> A curse begin at very root on's heart,<br /> That is not glad to see thee! You are three<br /> That Rome should dote on: yet, by the faith of men,<br /> We have some old crab-trees here<br /> at home that will not<br /> Be grafted to your relish. Yet welcome, warriors:<br /> We call a nettle but a nettle and<br /> The faults of fools but folly.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Ever right.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Menenius ever, ever.<br /><br />Herald<br /><br /> Give way there, and go on!<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> [To VOLUMNIA and VIRGILIA] Your hand, and yours:<br /> Ere in our own house I do shade my head,<br /> The good patricians must be visited;<br /> From whom I have received not only greetings,<br /> But with them change of honours.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> I have lived<br /> To see inherited my very wishes<br /> And the buildings of my fancy: only<br /> There's one thing wanting, which I doubt not but<br /> Our Rome will cast upon thee.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Know, good mother,<br /> I had rather be their servant in my way,<br /> Than sway with them in theirs.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> On, to the Capitol!<br /><br /> Flourish. Cornets. Exeunt in state, as before. BRUTUS and SICINIUS come forward<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> All tongues speak of him, and the bleared sights<br /> Are spectacled to see him: your prattling nurse<br /> Into a rapture lets her baby cry<br /> While she chats him: the kitchen malkin pins<br /> Her richest lockram 'bout her reechy neck,<br /> Clambering the walls to eye him: stalls, bulks, windows,<br /> Are smother'd up, leads fill'd, and ridges horsed<br /> With variable complexions, all agreeing<br /> In earnestness to see him: seld-shown flamens<br /> Do press among the popular throngs and puff<br /> To win a vulgar station: or veil'd dames<br /> Commit the war of white and damask in<br /> Their nicely-gawded cheeks to the wanton spoil<br /> Of Phoebus' burning kisses: such a pother<br /> As if that whatsoever god who leads him<br /> Were slily crept into his human powers<br /> And gave him graceful posture.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> On the sudden,<br /> I warrant him consul.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Then our office may,<br /> During his power, go sleep.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> He cannot temperately transport his honours<br /> From where he should begin and end, but will<br /> Lose those he hath won.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> In that there's comfort.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Doubt not<br /> The commoners, for whom we stand, but they<br /> Upon their ancient malice will forget<br /> With the least cause these his new honours, which<br /> That he will give them make I as little question<br /> As he is proud to do't.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> I heard him swear,<br /> Were he to stand for consul, never would he<br /> Appear i' the market-place nor on him put<br /> The napless vesture of humility;<br /> Nor showing, as the manner is, his wounds<br /> To the people, beg their stinking breaths.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> 'Tis right.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> It was his word: O, he would miss it rather<br /> Than carry it but by the suit of the gentry to him,<br /> And the desire of the nobles.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> I wish no better<br /> Than have him hold that purpose and to put it<br /> In execution.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> 'Tis most like he will.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> It shall be to him then as our good wills,<br /> A sure destruction.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> So it must fall out<br /> To him or our authorities. For an end,<br /> We must suggest the people in what hatred<br /> He still hath held them; that to's power he would<br /> Have made them mules, silenced their pleaders and<br /> Dispropertied their freedoms, holding them,<br /> In human action and capacity,<br /> Of no more soul nor fitness for the world<br /> Than camels in the war, who have their provand<br /> Only for bearing burdens, and sore blows<br /> For sinking under them.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> This, as you say, suggested<br /> At some time when his soaring insolence<br /> Shall touch the people--which time shall not want,<br /> If he be put upon 't; and that's as easy<br /> As to set dogs on sheep--will be his fire<br /> To kindle their dry stubble; and their blaze<br /> Shall darken him for ever.<br /><br /> Enter a Messenger<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> What's the matter?<br /><br />Messenger<br /><br /> You are sent for to the Capitol. 'Tis thought<br /> That Marcius shall be consul:<br /> I have seen the dumb men throng to see him and<br /> The blind to bear him speak: matrons flung gloves,<br /> Ladies and maids their scarfs and handkerchers,<br /> Upon him as he pass'd: the nobles bended,<br /> As to Jove's statue, and the commons made<br /> A shower and thunder with their caps and shouts:<br /> I never saw the like.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Let's to the Capitol;<br /> And carry with us ears and eyes for the time,<br /> But hearts for the event.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Have with you.</span><span id = 18343 >SCENE II. The same. The Capitol.<br /><br /> Enter two Officers, to lay cushions <br /><br />First Officer<br /><br /> Come, come, they are almost here. How many stand<br /> for consulships?<br /><br />Second Officer<br /><br /> Three, they say: but 'tis thought of every one<br /> Coriolanus will carry it.<br /><br />First Officer<br /><br /> That's a brave fellow; but he's vengeance proud, and<br /> loves not the common people.<br /><br />Second Officer<br /><br /> Faith, there had been many great men that have<br /> flattered the people, who ne'er loved them; and there<br /> be many that they have loved, they know not<br /> wherefore: so that, if they love they know not why,<br /> they hate upon no better a ground: therefore, for<br /> Coriolanus neither to care whether they love or hate<br /> him manifests the true knowledge he has in their<br /> disposition; and out of his noble carelessness lets<br /> them plainly see't.<br /><br />First Officer<br /><br /> If he did not care whether he had their love or no,<br /> he waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither<br /> good nor harm: but he seeks their hate with greater<br /> devotion than can render it him; and leaves<br /> nothing undone that may fully discover him their<br /> opposite. Now, to seem to affect the malice and<br /> displeasure of the people is as bad as that which he<br /> dislikes, to flatter them for their love.<br /><br />Second Officer<br /><br /> He hath deserved worthily of his country: and his<br /> ascent is not by such easy degrees as those who,<br /> having been supple and courteous to the people,<br /> bonneted, without any further deed to have them at<br /> an into their estimation and report: but he hath so<br /> planted his honours in their eyes, and his actions<br /> in their hearts, that for their tongues to be<br /> silent, and not confess so much, were a kind of<br /> ingrateful injury; to report otherwise, were a<br /> malice, that, giving itself the lie, would pluck<br /> reproof and rebuke from every ear that heard it.<br /><br />First Officer<br /><br /> No more of him; he is a worthy man: make way, they<br /> are coming.<br /><br /> A sennet. Enter, with actors before them, COMINIUS the consul, MENENIUS, CORIOLANUS, Senators, SICINIUS and BRUTUS. The Senators take their places; the Tribunes take their Places by themselves. CORIOLANUS stands<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Having determined of the Volsces and<br /> To send for Titus Lartius, it remains,<br /> As the main point of this our after-meeting,<br /> To gratify his noble service that<br /> Hath thus stood for his country: therefore,<br /> please you,<br /> Most reverend and grave elders, to desire<br /> The present consul, and last general<br /> In our well-found successes, to report<br /> A little of that worthy work perform'd<br /> By Caius Marcius Coriolanus, whom<br /> We met here both to thank and to remember<br /> With honours like himself.<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Speak, good Cominius:<br /> Leave nothing out for length, and make us think<br /> Rather our state's defective for requital<br /> Than we to stretch it out.<br /><br /> To the Tribunes<br /> Masters o' the people,<br /> We do request your kindest ears, and after,<br /> Your loving motion toward the common body,<br /> To yield what passes here.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> We are convented<br /> Upon a pleasing treaty, and have hearts<br /> Inclinable to honour and advance<br /> The theme of our assembly.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Which the rather<br /> We shall be blest to do, if he remember<br /> A kinder value of the people than<br /> He hath hereto prized them at.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> That's off, that's off;<br /> I would you rather had been silent. Please you<br /> To hear Cominius speak?<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Most willingly;<br /> But yet my caution was more pertinent<br /> Than the rebuke you give it.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> He loves your people<br /> But tie him not to be their bedfellow.<br /> Worthy Cominius, speak.<br /><br /> CORIOLANUS offers to go away<br /> Nay, keep your place.<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Sit, Coriolanus; never shame to hear<br /> What you have nobly done.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Your horror's pardon:<br /> I had rather have my wounds to heal again<br /> Than hear say how I got them.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Sir, I hope<br /> My words disbench'd you not.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> No, sir: yet oft,<br /> When blows have made me stay, I fled from words.<br /> You soothed not, therefore hurt not: but<br /> your people,<br /> I love them as they weigh.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Pray now, sit down.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> I had rather have one scratch my head i' the sun<br /> When the alarum were struck than idly sit<br /> To hear my nothings monster'd.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Masters of the people,<br /> Your multiplying spawn how can he flatter--<br /> That's thousand to one good one--when you now see<br /> He had rather venture all his limbs for honour<br /> Than one on's ears to hear it? Proceed, Cominius.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> I shall lack voice: the deeds of Coriolanus<br /> Should not be utter'd feebly. It is held<br /> That valour is the chiefest virtue, and<br /> Most dignifies the haver: if it be,<br /> The man I speak of cannot in the world<br /> Be singly counterpoised. At sixteen years,<br /> When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he fought<br /> Beyond the mark of others: our then dictator,<br /> Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight,<br /> When with his Amazonian chin he drove<br /> The bristled lips before him: be bestrid<br /> An o'er-press'd Roman and i' the consul's view<br /> Slew three opposers: Tarquin's self he met,<br /> And struck him on his knee: in that day's feats,<br /> When he might act the woman in the scene,<br /> He proved best man i' the field, and for his meed<br /> Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil age<br /> Man-enter'd thus, he waxed like a sea,<br /> And in the brunt of seventeen battles since<br /> He lurch'd all swords of the garland. For this last,<br /> Before and in Corioli, let me say,<br /> I cannot speak him home: he stopp'd the fliers;<br /> And by his rare example made the coward<br /> Turn terror into sport: as weeds before<br /> A vessel under sail, so men obey'd<br /> And fell below his stem: his sword, death's stamp,<br /> Where it did mark, it took; from face to foot<br /> He was a thing of blood, whose every motion<br /> Was timed with dying cries: alone he enter'd<br /> The mortal gate of the city, which he painted<br /> With shunless destiny; aidless came off,<br /> And with a sudden reinforcement struck<br /> Corioli like a planet: now all's his:<br /> When, by and by, the din of war gan pierce<br /> His ready sense; then straight his doubled spirit<br /> Re-quicken'd what in flesh was fatigate,<br /> And to the battle came he; where he did<br /> Run reeking o'er the lives of men, as if<br /> 'Twere a perpetual spoil: and till we call'd<br /> Both field and city ours, he never stood<br /> To ease his breast with panting.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Worthy man!<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> He cannot but with measure fit the honours<br /> Which we devise him.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Our spoils he kick'd at,<br /> And look'd upon things precious as they were<br /> The common muck of the world: he covets less<br /> Than misery itself would give; rewards<br /> His deeds with doing them, and is content<br /> To spend the time to end it.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> He's right noble:<br /> Let him be call'd for.<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Call Coriolanus.<br /><br />Officer<br /><br /> He doth appear.<br /><br /> Re-enter CORIOLANUS<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> The senate, Coriolanus, are well pleased<br /> To make thee consul.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> I do owe them still<br /> My life and services.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> It then remains<br /> That you do speak to the people.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> I do beseech you,<br /> Let me o'erleap that custom, for I cannot<br /> Put on the gown, stand naked and entreat them,<br /> For my wounds' sake, to give their suffrage: please you<br /> That I may pass this doing.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Sir, the people<br /> Must have their voices; neither will they bate<br /> One jot of ceremony.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Put them not to't:<br /> Pray you, go fit you to the custom and<br /> Take to you, as your predecessors have,<br /> Your honour with your form.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> It is apart<br /> That I shall blush in acting, and might well<br /> Be taken from the people.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Mark you that?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> To brag unto them, thus I did, and thus;<br /> Show them the unaching scars which I should hide,<br /> As if I had received them for the hire<br /> Of their breath only!<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Do not stand upon't.<br /> We recommend to you, tribunes of the people,<br /> Our purpose to them: and to our noble consul<br /> Wish we all joy and honour.<br /><br />Senators<br /><br /> To Coriolanus come all joy and honour!<br /><br /> Flourish of cornets. Exeunt all but SICINIUS and BRUTUS<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> You see how he intends to use the people.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> May they perceive's intent! He will require them,<br /> As if he did contemn what he requested<br /> Should be in them to give.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Come, we'll inform them<br /> Of our proceedings here: on the marketplace,<br /> I know, they do attend us.</span><span id = 18344 >SCENE III. The same. The Forum.<br /><br /> Enter seven or eight Citizens <br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> Once, if he do require our voices, we ought not to deny him.<br /><br />Second Citizen<br /><br /> We may, sir, if we will.<br /><br />Third Citizen<br /><br /> We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a<br /> power that we have no power to do; for if he show us<br /> his wounds and tell us his deeds, we are to put our<br /> tongues into those wounds and speak for them; so, if<br /> he tell us his noble deeds, we must also tell him<br /> our noble acceptance of them. Ingratitude is<br /> monstrous, and for the multitude to be ingrateful,<br /> were to make a monster of the multitude: of the<br /> which we being members, should bring ourselves to be<br /> monstrous members.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> And to make us no better thought of, a little help<br /> will serve; for once we stood up about the corn, he<br /> himself stuck not to call us the many-headed multitude.<br /><br />Third Citizen<br /><br /> We have been called so of many; not that our heads<br /> are some brown, some black, some auburn, some bald,<br /> but that our wits are so diversely coloured: and<br /> truly I think if all our wits were to issue out of<br /> one skull, they would fly east, west, north, south,<br /> and their consent of one direct way should be at<br /> once to all the points o' the compass.<br /><br />Second Citizen<br /><br /> Think you so? Which way do you judge my wit would<br /> fly?<br /><br />Third Citizen<br /><br /> Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another man's<br /> will;'tis strongly wedged up in a block-head, but<br /> if it were at liberty, 'twould, sure, southward.<br /><br />Second Citizen<br /><br /> Why that way?<br /><br />Third Citizen<br /><br /> To lose itself in a fog, where being three parts<br /> melted away with rotten dews, the fourth would return<br /> for conscience sake, to help to get thee a wife.<br /><br />Second Citizen<br /><br /> You are never without your tricks: you may, you may.<br /><br />Third Citizen<br /><br /> Are you all resolved to give your voices? But<br /> that's no matter, the greater part carries it. I<br /> say, if he would incline to the people, there was<br /> never a worthier man.<br /><br /> Enter CORIOLANUS in a gown of humility, with MENENIUS<br /> Here he comes, and in the gown of humility: mark his<br /> behavior. We are not to stay all together, but to<br /> come by him where he stands, by ones, by twos, and<br /> by threes. He's to make his requests by<br /> particulars; wherein every one of us has a single<br /> honour, in giving him our own voices with our own<br /> tongues: therefore follow me, and I direct you how<br /> you shall go by him.<br /><br />All<br /><br /> Content, content.<br /><br /> Exeunt Citizens<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> O sir, you are not right: have you not known<br /> The worthiest men have done't?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> What must I say?<br /> 'I Pray, sir'--Plague upon't! I cannot bring<br /> My tongue to such a pace:--'Look, sir, my wounds!<br /> I got them in my country's service, when<br /> Some certain of your brethren roar'd and ran<br /> From the noise of our own drums.'<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> O me, the gods!<br /> You must not speak of that: you must desire them<br /> To think upon you.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Think upon me! hang 'em!<br /> I would they would forget me, like the virtues<br /> Which our divines lose by 'em.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> You'll mar all:<br /> I'll leave you: pray you, speak to 'em, I pray you,<br /> In wholesome manner.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Bid them wash their faces<br /> And keep their teeth clean.<br /><br /> Re-enter two of the Citizens<br /> So, here comes a brace.<br /><br /> Re-enter a third Citizen<br /> You know the cause, air, of my standing here.<br /><br />Third Citizen<br /><br /> We do, sir; tell us what hath brought you to't.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Mine own desert.<br /><br />Second Citizen<br /><br /> Your own desert!<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Ay, but not mine own desire.<br /><br />Third Citizen<br /><br /> How not your own desire?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> No, sir,'twas never my desire yet to trouble the<br /> poor with begging.<br /><br />Third Citizen<br /><br /> You must think, if we give you any thing, we hope to<br /> gain by you.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Well then, I pray, your price o' the consulship?<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> The price is to ask it kindly.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Kindly! Sir, I pray, let me ha't: I have wounds to<br /> show you, which shall be yours in private. Your<br /> good voice, sir; what say you?<br /><br />Second Citizen<br /><br /> You shall ha' it, worthy sir.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> A match, sir. There's in all two worthy voices<br /> begged. I have your alms: adieu.<br /><br />Third Citizen<br /><br /> But this is something odd.<br /><br />Second Citizen<br /><br /> An 'twere to give again,--but 'tis no matter.<br /><br /> Exeunt the three Citizens<br /><br /> Re-enter two other Citizens<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Pray you now, if it may stand with the tune of your<br /> voices that I may be consul, I have here the<br /> customary gown.<br /><br />Fourth Citizen<br /><br /> You have deserved nobly of your country, and you<br /> have not deserved nobly.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Your enigma?<br /><br />Fourth Citizen<br /><br /> You have been a scourge to her enemies, you have<br /> been a rod to her friends; you have not indeed loved<br /> the common people.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> You should account me the more virtuous that I have<br /> not been common in my love. I will, sir, flatter my<br /> sworn brother, the people, to earn a dearer<br /> estimation of them; 'tis a condition they account<br /> gentle: and since the wisdom of their choice is<br /> rather to have my hat than my heart, I will practise<br /> the insinuating nod and be off to them most<br /> counterfeitly; that is, sir, I will counterfeit the<br /> bewitchment of some popular man and give it<br /> bountiful to the desirers. Therefore, beseech you,<br /> I may be consul.<br /><br />Fifth Citizen<br /><br /> We hope to find you our friend; and therefore give<br /> you our voices heartily.<br /><br />Fourth Citizen<br /><br /> You have received many wounds for your country.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> I will not seal your knowledge with showing them. I<br /> will make much of your voices, and so trouble you no further.<br /><br />Both Citizens<br /><br /> The gods give you joy, sir, heartily!<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Most sweet voices!<br /> Better it is to die, better to starve,<br /> Than crave the hire which first we do deserve.<br /> Why in this woolvish toge should I stand here,<br /> To beg of Hob and Dick, that do appear,<br /> Their needless vouches? Custom calls me to't:<br /> What custom wills, in all things should we do't,<br /> The dust on antique time would lie unswept,<br /> And mountainous error be too highly heapt<br /> For truth to o'er-peer. Rather than fool it so,<br /> Let the high office and the honour go<br /> To one that would do thus. I am half through;<br /> The one part suffer'd, the other will I do.<br /><br /> Re-enter three Citizens more<br /> Here come more voices.<br /> Your voices: for your voices I have fought;<br /> Watch'd for your voices; for Your voices bear<br /> Of wounds two dozen odd; battles thrice six<br /> I have seen and heard of; for your voices have<br /> Done many things, some less, some more your voices:<br /> Indeed I would be consul.<br /><br />Sixth Citizen<br /><br /> He has done nobly, and cannot go without any honest<br /> man's voice.<br /><br />Seventh Citizen<br /><br /> Therefore let him be consul: the gods give him joy,<br /> and make him good friend to the people!<br /><br />All Citizens<br /><br /> Amen, amen. God save thee, noble consul!<br /><br /> Exeunt<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Worthy voices!<br /><br /> Re-enter MENENIUS, with BRUTUS and SICINIUS<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> You have stood your limitation; and the tribunes<br /> Endue you with the people's voice: remains<br /> That, in the official marks invested, you<br /> Anon do meet the senate.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Is this done?<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> The custom of request you have discharged:<br /> The people do admit you, and are summon'd<br /> To meet anon, upon your approbation.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Where? at the senate-house?<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> There, Coriolanus.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> May I change these garments?<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> You may, sir.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> That I'll straight do; and, knowing myself again,<br /> Repair to the senate-house.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> I'll keep you company. Will you along?<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> We stay here for the people.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Fare you well.<br /><br /> Exeunt CORIOLANUS and MENENIUS<br /> He has it now, and by his looks methink<br /> 'Tis warm at 's heart.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> With a proud heart he wore his humble weeds.<br /> will you dismiss the people?<br /><br /> Re-enter Citizens<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> How now, my masters! have you chose this man?<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> He has our voices, sir.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> We pray the gods he may deserve your loves.<br /><br />Second Citizen<br /><br /> Amen, sir: to my poor unworthy notice,<br /> He mock'd us when he begg'd our voices.<br /><br />Third Citizen<br /><br /> Certainly<br /> He flouted us downright.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> No,'tis his kind of speech: he did not mock us.<br /><br />Second Citizen<br /><br /> Not one amongst us, save yourself, but says<br /> He used us scornfully: he should have show'd us<br /> His marks of merit, wounds received for's country.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Why, so he did, I am sure.<br /><br />Citizens<br /><br /> No, no; no man saw 'em.<br /><br />Third Citizen<br /><br /> He said he had wounds, which he could show<br /> in private;<br /> And with his hat, thus waving it in scorn,<br /> 'I would be consul,' says he: 'aged custom,<br /> But by your voices, will not so permit me;<br /> Your voices therefore.' When we granted that,<br /> Here was 'I thank you for your voices: thank you:<br /> Your most sweet voices: now you have left<br /> your voices,<br /> I have no further with you.' Was not this mockery?<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Why either were you ignorant to see't,<br /> Or, seeing it, of such childish friendliness<br /> To yield your voices?<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Could you not have told him<br /> As you were lesson'd, when he had no power,<br /> But was a petty servant to the state,<br /> He was your enemy, ever spake against<br /> Your liberties and the charters that you bear<br /> I' the body of the weal; and now, arriving<br /> A place of potency and sway o' the state,<br /> If he should still malignantly remain<br /> Fast foe to the plebeii, your voices might<br /> Be curses to yourselves? You should have said<br /> That as his worthy deeds did claim no less<br /> Than what he stood for, so his gracious nature<br /> Would think upon you for your voices and<br /> Translate his malice towards you into love,<br /> Standing your friendly lord.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Thus to have said,<br /> As you were fore-advised, had touch'd his spirit<br /> And tried his inclination; from him pluck'd<br /> Either his gracious promise, which you might,<br /> As cause had call'd you up, have held him to<br /> Or else it would have gall'd his surly nature,<br /> Which easily endures not article<br /> Tying him to aught; so putting him to rage,<br /> You should have ta'en the advantage of his choler<br /> And pass'd him unelected.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Did you perceive<br /> He did solicit you in free contempt<br /> When he did need your loves, and do you think<br /> That his contempt shall not be bruising to you,<br /> When he hath power to crush? Why, had your bodies<br /> No heart among you? or had you tongues to cry<br /> Against the rectorship of judgment?<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Have you<br /> Ere now denied the asker? and now again<br /> Of him that did not ask, but mock, bestow<br /> Your sued-for tongues?<br /><br />Third Citizen<br /><br /> He's not confirm'd; we may deny him yet.<br /><br />Second Citizen<br /><br /> And will deny him:<br /> I'll have five hundred voices of that sound.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> I twice five hundred and their friends to piece 'em.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Get you hence instantly, and tell those friends,<br /> They have chose a consul that will from them take<br /> Their liberties; make them of no more voice<br /> Than dogs that are as often beat for barking<br /> As therefore kept to do so.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Let them assemble,<br /> And on a safer judgment all revoke<br /> Your ignorant election; enforce his pride,<br /> And his old hate unto you; besides, forget not<br /> With what contempt he wore the humble weed,<br /> How in his suit he scorn'd you; but your loves,<br /> Thinking upon his services, took from you<br /> The apprehension of his present portance,<br /> Which most gibingly, ungravely, he did fashion<br /> After the inveterate hate he bears you.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Lay<br /> A fault on us, your tribunes; that we laboured,<br /> No impediment between, but that you must<br /> Cast your election on him.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Say, you chose him<br /> More after our commandment than as guided<br /> By your own true affections, and that your minds,<br /> Preoccupied with what you rather must do<br /> Than what you should, made you against the grain<br /> To voice him consul: lay the fault on us.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Ay, spare us not. Say we read lectures to you.<br /> How youngly he began to serve his country,<br /> How long continued, and what stock he springs of,<br /> The noble house o' the Marcians, from whence came<br /> That Ancus Marcius, Numa's daughter's son,<br /> Who, after great Hostilius, here was king;<br /> Of the same house Publius and Quintus were,<br /> That our beat water brought by conduits hither;<br /> And [Censorinus,] nobly named so,<br /> Twice being [by the people chosen] censor,<br /> Was his great ancestor.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> One thus descended,<br /> That hath beside well in his person wrought<br /> To be set high in place, we did commend<br /> To your remembrances: but you have found,<br /> Scaling his present bearing with his past,<br /> That he's your fixed enemy, and revoke<br /> Your sudden approbation.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Say, you ne'er had done't--<br /> Harp on that still--but by our putting on;<br /> And presently, when you have drawn your number,<br /> Repair to the Capitol.<br /><br />All<br /><br /> We will so: almost all<br /> Repent in their election.<br /><br /> Exeunt Citizens<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Let them go on;<br /> This mutiny were better put in hazard,<br /> Than stay, past doubt, for greater:<br /> If, as his nature is, he fall in rage<br /> With their refusal, both observe and answer<br /> The vantage of his anger.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> To the Capitol, come:<br /> We will be there before the stream o' the people;<br /> And this shall seem, as partly 'tis, their own,<br /> Which we have goaded onward.</span><span id = 18345 >SCENE I. Rome. A street.<br /><br /> Cornets. Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, all the Gentry, COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, and other Senators <br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Tullus Aufidius then had made new head?<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> He had, my lord; and that it was which caused<br /> Our swifter composition.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> So then the Volsces stand but as at first,<br /> Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road.<br /> Upon's again.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> They are worn, lord consul, so,<br /> That we shall hardly in our ages see<br /> Their banners wave again.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Saw you Aufidius?<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> On safe-guard he came to me; and did curse<br /> Against the Volsces, for they had so vilely<br /> Yielded the town: he is retired to Antium.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Spoke he of me?<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> He did, my lord.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> How? what?<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> How often he had met you, sword to sword;<br /> That of all things upon the earth he hated<br /> Your person most, that he would pawn his fortunes<br /> To hopeless restitution, so he might<br /> Be call'd your vanquisher.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> At Antium lives he?<br /><br />LARTIUS<br /><br /> At Antium.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> I wish I had a cause to seek him there,<br /> To oppose his hatred fully. Welcome home.<br /><br /> Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS<br /> Behold, these are the tribunes of the people,<br /> The tongues o' the common mouth: I do despise them;<br /> For they do prank them in authority,<br /> Against all noble sufferance.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Pass no further.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Ha! what is that?<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> It will be dangerous to go on: no further.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> What makes this change?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> The matter?<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Hath he not pass'd the noble and the common?<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Cominius, no.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Have I had children's voices?<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Tribunes, give way; he shall to the market-place.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> The people are incensed against him.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Stop,<br /> Or all will fall in broil.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Are these your herd?<br /> Must these have voices, that can yield them now<br /> And straight disclaim their tongues? What are<br /> your offices?<br /> You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth?<br /> Have you not set them on?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Be calm, be calm.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> It is a purposed thing, and grows by plot,<br /> To curb the will of the nobility:<br /> Suffer't, and live with such as cannot rule<br /> Nor ever will be ruled.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Call't not a plot:<br /> The people cry you mock'd them, and of late,<br /> When corn was given them gratis, you repined;<br /> Scandal'd the suppliants for the people, call'd them<br /> Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Why, this was known before.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Not to them all.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Have you inform'd them sithence?<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> How! I inform them!<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> You are like to do such business.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Not unlike,<br /> Each way, to better yours.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Why then should I be consul? By yond clouds,<br /> Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me<br /> Your fellow tribune.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> You show too much of that<br /> For which the people stir: if you will pass<br /> To where you are bound, you must inquire your way,<br /> Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit,<br /> Or never be so noble as a consul,<br /> Nor yoke with him for tribune.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Let's be calm.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> The people are abused; set on. This paltering<br /> Becomes not Rome, nor has Coriolanus<br /> Deserved this so dishonour'd rub, laid falsely<br /> I' the plain way of his merit.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Tell me of corn!<br /> This was my speech, and I will speak't again--<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Not now, not now.<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Not in this heat, sir, now.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Now, as I live, I will. My nobler friends,<br /> I crave their pardons:<br /> For the mutable, rank-scented many, let them<br /> Regard me as I do not flatter, and<br /> Therein behold themselves: I say again,<br /> In soothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate<br /> The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition,<br /> Which we ourselves have plough'd for, sow'd,<br /> and scatter'd,<br /> By mingling them with us, the honour'd number,<br /> Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that<br /> Which they have given to beggars.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Well, no more.<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> No more words, we beseech you.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> How! no more!<br /> As for my country I have shed my blood,<br /> Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs<br /> Coin words till their decay against those measles,<br /> Which we disdain should tatter us, yet sought<br /> The very way to catch them.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> You speak o' the people,<br /> As if you were a god to punish, not<br /> A man of their infirmity.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> 'Twere well<br /> We let the people know't.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> What, what? his choler?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Choler!<br /> Were I as patient as the midnight sleep,<br /> By Jove, 'twould be my mind!<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> It is a mind<br /> That shall remain a poison where it is,<br /> Not poison any further.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Shall remain!<br /> Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you<br /> His absolute 'shall'?<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> 'Twas from the canon.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> 'Shall'!<br /> O good but most unwise patricians! why,<br /> You grave but reckless senators, have you thus<br /> Given Hydra here to choose an officer,<br /> That with his peremptory 'shall,' being but<br /> The horn and noise o' the monster's, wants not spirit<br /> To say he'll turn your current in a ditch,<br /> And make your channel his? If he have power<br /> Then vail your ignorance; if none, awake<br /> Your dangerous lenity. If you are learn'd,<br /> Be not as common fools; if you are not,<br /> Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians,<br /> If they be senators: and they are no less,<br /> When, both your voices blended, the great'st taste<br /> Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate,<br /> And such a one as he, who puts his 'shall,'<br /> His popular 'shall' against a graver bench<br /> Than ever frown in Greece. By Jove himself!<br /> It makes the consuls base: and my soul aches<br /> To know, when two authorities are up,<br /> Neither supreme, how soon confusion<br /> May enter 'twixt the gap of both and take<br /> The one by the other.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Well, on to the market-place.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth<br /> The corn o' the storehouse gratis, as 'twas used<br /> Sometime in Greece,--<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Well, well, no more of that.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Though there the people had more absolute power,<br /> I say, they nourish'd disobedience, fed<br /> The ruin of the state.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Why, shall the people give<br /> One that speaks thus their voice?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> I'll give my reasons,<br /> More worthier than their voices. They know the corn<br /> Was not our recompense, resting well assured<br /> That ne'er did service for't: being press'd to the war,<br /> Even when the navel of the state was touch'd,<br /> They would not thread the gates. This kind of service<br /> Did not deserve corn gratis. Being i' the war<br /> Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they show'd<br /> Most valour, spoke not for them: the accusation<br /> Which they have often made against the senate,<br /> All cause unborn, could never be the motive<br /> Of our so frank donation. Well, what then?<br /> How shall this bisson multitude digest<br /> The senate's courtesy? Let deeds express<br /> What's like to be their words: 'we did request it;<br /> We are the greater poll, and in true fear<br /> They gave us our demands.' Thus we debase<br /> The nature of our seats and make the rabble<br /> Call our cares fears; which will in time<br /> Break ope the locks o' the senate and bring in<br /> The crows to peck the eagles.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Come, enough.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Enough, with over-measure.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> No, take more:<br /> What may be sworn by, both divine and human,<br /> Seal what I end withal! This double worship,<br /> Where one part does disdain with cause, the other<br /> Insult without all reason, where gentry, title, wisdom,<br /> Cannot conclude but by the yea and no<br /> Of general ignorance,--it must omit<br /> Real necessities, and give way the while<br /> To unstable slightness: purpose so barr'd,<br /> it follows,<br /> Nothing is done to purpose. Therefore, beseech you,--<br /> You that will be less fearful than discreet,<br /> That love the fundamental part of state<br /> More than you doubt the change on't, that prefer<br /> A noble life before a long, and wish<br /> To jump a body with a dangerous physic<br /> That's sure of death without it, at once pluck out<br /> The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick<br /> The sweet which is their poison: your dishonour<br /> Mangles true judgment and bereaves the state<br /> Of that integrity which should become't,<br /> Not having the power to do the good it would,<br /> For the in which doth control't.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Has said enough.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Has spoken like a traitor, and shall answer<br /> As traitors do.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Thou wretch, despite o'erwhelm thee!<br /> What should the people do with these bald tribunes?<br /> On whom depending, their obedience fails<br /> To the greater bench: in a rebellion,<br /> When what's not meet, but what must be, was law,<br /> Then were they chosen: in a better hour,<br /> Let what is meet be said it must be meet,<br /> And throw their power i' the dust.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Manifest treason!<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> This a consul? no.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> The aediles, ho!<br /><br /> Enter an AEdile<br /> Let him be apprehended.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Go, call the people:<br /><br /> Exit AEdile<br /> in whose name myself<br /> Attach thee as a traitorous innovator,<br /> A foe to the public weal: obey, I charge thee,<br /> And follow to thine answer.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Hence, old goat!<br /> Senators, & C We'll surety him.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Aged sir, hands off.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Hence, rotten thing! or I shall shake thy bones<br /> Out of thy garments.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Help, ye citizens!<br /><br /> Enter a rabble of Citizens (Plebeians), with the AEdiles<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> On both sides more respect.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Here's he that would take from you all your power.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Seize him, AEdiles!<br /><br />Citizens<br /><br /> Down with him! down with him!<br /> Senators, & C Weapons, weapons, weapons!<br /><br /> They all bustle about CORIOLANUS, crying<br /> 'Tribunes!' 'Patricians!' 'Citizens!' 'What, ho!'<br /> 'Sicinius!' 'Brutus!' 'Coriolanus!' 'Citizens!'<br /> 'Peace, peace, peace!' 'Stay, hold, peace!'<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> What is about to be? I am out of breath;<br /> Confusion's near; I cannot speak. You, tribunes<br /> To the people! Coriolanus, patience!<br /> Speak, good Sicinius.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Hear me, people; peace!<br /><br />Citizens<br /><br /> Let's hear our tribune: peace Speak, speak, speak.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> You are at point to lose your liberties:<br /> Marcius would have all from you; Marcius,<br /> Whom late you have named for consul.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Fie, fie, fie!<br /> This is the way to kindle, not to quench.<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> To unbuild the city and to lay all flat.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> What is the city but the people?<br /><br />Citizens<br /><br /> True,<br /> The people are the city.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> By the consent of all, we were establish'd<br /> The people's magistrates.<br /><br />Citizens<br /><br /> You so remain.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> And so are like to do.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> That is the way to lay the city flat;<br /> To bring the roof to the foundation,<br /> And bury all, which yet distinctly ranges,<br /> In heaps and piles of ruin.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> This deserves death.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Or let us stand to our authority,<br /> Or let us lose it. We do here pronounce,<br /> Upon the part o' the people, in whose power<br /> We were elected theirs, Marcius is worthy<br /> Of present death.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Therefore lay hold of him;<br /> Bear him to the rock Tarpeian, and from thence<br /> Into destruction cast him.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> AEdiles, seize him!<br /><br />Citizens<br /><br /> Yield, Marcius, yield!<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Hear me one word;<br /> Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word.<br /><br />AEdile<br /><br /> Peace, peace!<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> [To BRUTUS] Be that you seem, truly your<br /> country's friend,<br /> And temperately proceed to what you would<br /> Thus violently redress.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Sir, those cold ways,<br /> That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonous<br /> Where the disease is violent. Lay hands upon him,<br /> And bear him to the rock.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> No, I'll die here.<br /><br /> Drawing his sword<br /> There's some among you have beheld me fighting:<br /> Come, try upon yourselves what you have seen me.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Down with that sword! Tribunes, withdraw awhile.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Lay hands upon him.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Help Marcius, help,<br /> You that be noble; help him, young and old!<br /><br />Citizens<br /><br /> Down with him, down with him!<br /><br /> In this mutiny, the Tribunes, the AEdiles, and the People, are beat in<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Go, get you to your house; be gone, away!<br /> All will be naught else.<br /><br />Second Senator<br /><br /> Get you gone.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Stand fast;<br /> We have as many friends as enemies.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Sham it be put to that?<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> The gods forbid!<br /> I prithee, noble friend, home to thy house;<br /> Leave us to cure this cause.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> For 'tis a sore upon us,<br /> You cannot tent yourself: be gone, beseech you.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Come, sir, along with us.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> I would they were barbarians--as they are,<br /> Though in Rome litter'd--not Romans--as they are not,<br /> Though calved i' the porch o' the Capitol--<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Be gone;<br /> Put not your worthy rage into your tongue;<br /> One time will owe another.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> On fair ground<br /> I could beat forty of them.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> I could myself<br /> Take up a brace o' the best of them; yea, the<br /> two tribunes:<br /> But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetic;<br /> And manhood is call'd foolery, when it stands<br /> Against a falling fabric. Will you hence,<br /> Before the tag return? whose rage doth rend<br /> Like interrupted waters and o'erbear<br /> What they are used to bear.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Pray you, be gone:<br /> I'll try whether my old wit be in request<br /> With those that have but little: this must be patch'd<br /> With cloth of any colour.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Nay, come away.<br /><br /> Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, and others<br /><br />A Patrician<br /><br /> This man has marr'd his fortune.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> His nature is too noble for the world:<br /> He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,<br /> Or Jove for's power to thunder. His heart's his mouth:<br /> What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent;<br /> And, being angry, does forget that ever<br /> He heard the name of death.<br /><br /> A noise within<br /> Here's goodly work!<br /><br />Second Patrician<br /><br /> I would they were abed!<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> I would they were in Tiber! What the vengeance!<br /> Could he not speak 'em fair?<br /><br /> Re-enter BRUTUS and SICINIUS, with the rabble<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Where is this viper<br /> That would depopulate the city and<br /> Be every man himself?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> You worthy tribunes,--<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock<br /> With rigorous hands: he hath resisted law,<br /> And therefore law shall scorn him further trial<br /> Than the severity of the public power<br /> Which he so sets at nought.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> He shall well know<br /> The noble tribunes are the people's mouths,<br /> And we their hands.<br /><br />Citizens<br /><br /> He shall, sure on't.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Sir, sir,--<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Peace!<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Do not cry havoc, where you should but hunt<br /> With modest warrant.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Sir, how comes't that you<br /> Have holp to make this rescue?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Hear me speak:<br /> As I do know the consul's worthiness,<br /> So can I name his faults,--<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Consul! what consul?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> The consul Coriolanus.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> He consul!<br /><br />Citizens<br /><br /> No, no, no, no, no.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours, good people,<br /> I may be heard, I would crave a word or two;<br /> The which shall turn you to no further harm<br /> Than so much loss of time.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Speak briefly then;<br /> For we are peremptory to dispatch<br /> This viperous traitor: to eject him hence<br /> Were but one danger, and to keep him here<br /> Our certain death: therefore it is decreed<br /> He dies to-night.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Now the good gods forbid<br /> That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude<br /> Towards her deserved children is enroll'd<br /> In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam<br /> Should now eat up her own!<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> He's a disease that must be cut away.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> O, he's a limb that has but a disease;<br /> Mortal, to cut it off; to cure it, easy.<br /> What has he done to Rome that's worthy death?<br /> Killing our enemies, the blood he hath lost--<br /> Which, I dare vouch, is more than that he hath,<br /> By many an ounce--he dropp'd it for his country;<br /> And what is left, to lose it by his country,<br /> Were to us all, that do't and suffer it,<br /> A brand to the end o' the world.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> This is clean kam.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Merely awry: when he did love his country,<br /> It honour'd him.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> The service of the foot<br /> Being once gangrened, is not then respected<br /> For what before it was.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> We'll hear no more.<br /> Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence:<br /> Lest his infection, being of catching nature,<br /> Spread further.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> One word more, one word.<br /> This tiger-footed rage, when it shall find<br /> The harm of unscann'd swiftness, will too late<br /> Tie leaden pounds to's heels. Proceed by process;<br /> Lest parties, as he is beloved, break out,<br /> And sack great Rome with Romans.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> If it were so,--<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> What do ye talk?<br /> Have we not had a taste of his obedience?<br /> Our aediles smote? ourselves resisted? Come.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Consider this: he has been bred i' the wars<br /> Since he could draw a sword, and is ill school'd<br /> In bolted language; meal and bran together<br /> He throws without distinction. Give me leave,<br /> I'll go to him, and undertake to bring him<br /> Where he shall answer, by a lawful form,<br /> In peace, to his utmost peril.<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Noble tribunes,<br /> It is the humane way: the other course<br /> Will prove too bloody, and the end of it<br /> Unknown to the beginning.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Noble Menenius,<br /> Be you then as the people's officer.<br /> Masters, lay down your weapons.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Go not home.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Meet on the market-place. We'll attend you there:<br /> Where, if you bring not Marcius, we'll proceed<br /> In our first way.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> I'll bring him to you.<br /><br /> To the Senators<br /> Let me desire your company: he must come,<br /> Or what is worst will follow.<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Pray you, let's to him.</span><span id = 18346 >SCENE II. A room in CORIOLANUS'S house.<br /><br /> Enter CORIOLANUS with Patricians <br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Let them puff all about mine ears, present me<br /> Death on the wheel or at wild horses' heels,<br /> Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock,<br /> That the precipitation might down stretch<br /> Below the beam of sight, yet will I still<br /> Be thus to them.<br /><br />A Patrician<br /><br /> You do the nobler.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> I muse my mother<br /> Does not approve me further, who was wont<br /> To call them woollen vassals, things created<br /> To buy and sell with groats, to show bare heads<br /> In congregations, to yawn, be still and wonder,<br /> When one but of my ordinance stood up<br /> To speak of peace or war.<br /><br /> Enter VOLUMNIA<br /> I talk of you:<br /> Why did you wish me milder? would you have me<br /> False to my nature? Rather say I play<br /> The man I am.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> O, sir, sir, sir,<br /> I would have had you put your power well on,<br /> Before you had worn it out.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Let go.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> You might have been enough the man you are,<br /> With striving less to be so; lesser had been<br /> The thwartings of your dispositions, if<br /> You had not show'd them how ye were disposed<br /> Ere they lack'd power to cross you.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Let them hang.<br /><br />A Patrician<br /><br /> Ay, and burn too.<br /><br /> Enter MENENIUS and Senators<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Come, come, you have been too rough, something<br /> too rough;<br /> You must return and mend it.<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> There's no remedy;<br /> Unless, by not so doing, our good city<br /> Cleave in the midst, and perish.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Pray, be counsell'd:<br /> I have a heart as little apt as yours,<br /> But yet a brain that leads my use of anger<br /> To better vantage.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Well said, noble woman?<br /> Before he should thus stoop to the herd, but that<br /> The violent fit o' the time craves it as physic<br /> For the whole state, I would put mine armour on,<br /> Which I can scarcely bear.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> What must I do?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Return to the tribunes.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Well, what then? what then?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Repent what you have spoke.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> For them! I cannot do it to the gods;<br /> Must I then do't to them?<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> You are too absolute;<br /> Though therein you can never be too noble,<br /> But when extremities speak. I have heard you say,<br /> Honour and policy, like unsever'd friends,<br /> I' the war do grow together: grant that, and tell me,<br /> In peace what each of them by the other lose,<br /> That they combine not there.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Tush, tush!<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> A good demand.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> If it be honour in your wars to seem<br /> The same you are not, which, for your best ends,<br /> You adopt your policy, how is it less or worse,<br /> That it shall hold companionship in peace<br /> With honour, as in war, since that to both<br /> It stands in like request?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Why force you this?<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Because that now it lies you on to speak<br /> To the people; not by your own instruction,<br /> Nor by the matter which your heart prompts you,<br /> But with such words that are but rooted in<br /> Your tongue, though but bastards and syllables<br /> Of no allowance to your bosom's truth.<br /> Now, this no more dishonours you at all<br /> Than to take in a town with gentle words,<br /> Which else would put you to your fortune and<br /> The hazard of much blood.<br /> I would dissemble with my nature where<br /> My fortunes and my friends at stake required<br /> I should do so in honour: I am in this,<br /> Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles;<br /> And you will rather show our general louts<br /> How you can frown than spend a fawn upon 'em,<br /> For the inheritance of their loves and safeguard<br /> Of what that want might ruin.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Noble lady!<br /> Come, go with us; speak fair: you may salve so,<br /> Not what is dangerous present, but the loss<br /> Of what is past.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> I prithee now, my son,<br /> Go to them, with this bonnet in thy hand;<br /> And thus far having stretch'd it--here be with them--<br /> Thy knee bussing the stones--for in such business<br /> Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant<br /> More learned than the ears--waving thy head,<br /> Which often, thus, correcting thy stout heart,<br /> Now humble as the ripest mulberry<br /> That will not hold the handling: or say to them,<br /> Thou art their soldier, and being bred in broils<br /> Hast not the soft way which, thou dost confess,<br /> Were fit for thee to use as they to claim,<br /> In asking their good loves, but thou wilt frame<br /> Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs, so far<br /> As thou hast power and person.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> This but done,<br /> Even as she speaks, why, their hearts were yours;<br /> For they have pardons, being ask'd, as free<br /> As words to little purpose.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Prithee now,<br /> Go, and be ruled: although I know thou hadst rather<br /> Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf<br /> Than flatter him in a bower. Here is Cominius.<br /><br /> Enter COMINIUS<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> I have been i' the market-place; and, sir,'tis fit<br /> You make strong party, or defend yourself<br /> By calmness or by absence: all's in anger.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Only fair speech.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> I think 'twill serve, if he<br /> Can thereto frame his spirit.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> He must, and will<br /> Prithee now, say you will, and go about it.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Must I go show them my unbarbed sconce?<br /> Must I with base tongue give my noble heart<br /> A lie that it must bear? Well, I will do't:<br /> Yet, were there but this single plot to lose,<br /> This mould of Marcius, they to dust should grind it<br /> And throw't against the wind. To the market-place!<br /> You have put me now to such a part which never<br /> I shall discharge to the life.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Come, come, we'll prompt you.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> I prithee now, sweet son, as thou hast said<br /> My praises made thee first a soldier, so,<br /> To have my praise for this, perform a part<br /> Thou hast not done before.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Well, I must do't:<br /> Away, my disposition, and possess me<br /> Some harlot's spirit! my throat of war be turn'd,<br /> Which quired with my drum, into a pipe<br /> Small as an eunuch, or the virgin voice<br /> That babies lulls asleep! the smiles of knaves<br /> Tent in my cheeks, and schoolboys' tears take up<br /> The glasses of my sight! a beggar's tongue<br /> Make motion through my lips, and my arm'd knees,<br /> Who bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his<br /> That hath received an alms! I will not do't,<br /> Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth<br /> And by my body's action teach my mind<br /> A most inherent baseness.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> At thy choice, then:<br /> To beg of thee, it is my more dishonour<br /> Than thou of them. Come all to ruin; let<br /> Thy mother rather feel thy pride than fear<br /> Thy dangerous stoutness, for I mock at death<br /> With as big heart as thou. Do as thou list<br /> Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck'dst it from me,<br /> But owe thy pride thyself.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Pray, be content:<br /> Mother, I am going to the market-place;<br /> Chide me no more. I'll mountebank their loves,<br /> Cog their hearts from them, and come home beloved<br /> Of all the trades in Rome. Look, I am going:<br /> Commend me to my wife. I'll return consul;<br /> Or never trust to what my tongue can do<br /> I' the way of flattery further.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Do your will.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Away! the tribunes do attend you: arm yourself<br /> To answer mildly; for they are prepared<br /> With accusations, as I hear, more strong<br /> Than are upon you yet.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> The word is 'mildly.' Pray you, let us go:<br /> Let them accuse me by invention, I<br /> Will answer in mine honour.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Ay, but mildly.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Well, mildly be it then. Mildly!</span><span id = 18347 >SCENE III. The same. The Forum.<br /><br /> Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS <br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> In this point charge him home, that he affects<br /> Tyrannical power: if he evade us there,<br /> Enforce him with his envy to the people,<br /> And that the spoil got on the Antiates<br /> Was ne'er distributed.<br /><br /> Enter an AEdile<br /> What, will he come?<br /><br />AEdile<br /><br /> He's coming.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> How accompanied?<br /><br />AEdile<br /><br /> With old Menenius, and those senators<br /> That always favour'd him.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Have you a catalogue<br /> Of all the voices that we have procured<br /> Set down by the poll?<br /><br />AEdile<br /><br /> I have; 'tis ready.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Have you collected them by tribes?<br /><br />AEdile<br /><br /> I have.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Assemble presently the people hither;<br /> And when they bear me say 'It shall be so<br /> I' the right and strength o' the commons,' be it either<br /> For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them<br /> If I say fine, cry 'Fine;' if death, cry 'Death.'<br /> Insisting on the old prerogative<br /> And power i' the truth o' the cause.<br /><br />AEdile<br /><br /> I shall inform them.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> And when such time they have begun to cry,<br /> Let them not cease, but with a din confused<br /> Enforce the present execution<br /> Of what we chance to sentence.<br /><br />AEdile<br /><br /> Very well.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Make them be strong and ready for this hint,<br /> When we shall hap to give 't them.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Go about it.<br /><br /> Exit AEdile<br /> Put him to choler straight: he hath been used<br /> Ever to conquer, and to have his worth<br /> Of contradiction: being once chafed, he cannot<br /> Be rein'd again to temperance; then he speaks<br /> What's in his heart; and that is there which looks<br /> With us to break his neck.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Well, here he comes.<br /><br /> Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, and COMINIUS, with Senators and Patricians<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Calmly, I do beseech you.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Ay, as an ostler, that for the poorest piece<br /> Will bear the knave by the volume. The honour'd gods<br /> Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice<br /> Supplied with worthy men! plant love among 's!<br /> Throng our large temples with the shows of peace,<br /> And not our streets with war!<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Amen, amen.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> A noble wish.<br /><br /> Re-enter AEdile, with Citizens<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Draw near, ye people.<br /><br />AEdile<br /><br /> List to your tribunes. Audience: peace, I say!<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> First, hear me speak.<br /><br />Both Tribunes<br /><br /> Well, say. Peace, ho!<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Shall I be charged no further than this present?<br /> Must all determine here?<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> I do demand,<br /> If you submit you to the people's voices,<br /> Allow their officers and are content<br /> To suffer lawful censure for such faults<br /> As shall be proved upon you?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> I am content.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Lo, citizens, he says he is content:<br /> The warlike service he has done, consider; think<br /> Upon the wounds his body bears, which show<br /> Like graves i' the holy churchyard.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Scratches with briers,<br /> Scars to move laughter only.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Consider further,<br /> That when he speaks not like a citizen,<br /> You find him like a soldier: do not take<br /> His rougher accents for malicious sounds,<br /> But, as I say, such as become a soldier,<br /> Rather than envy you.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Well, well, no more.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> What is the matter<br /> That being pass'd for consul with full voice,<br /> I am so dishonour'd that the very hour<br /> You take it off again?<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Answer to us.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Say, then: 'tis true, I ought so.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> We charge you, that you have contrived to take<br /> From Rome all season'd office and to wind<br /> Yourself into a power tyrannical;<br /> For which you are a traitor to the people.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> How! traitor!<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Nay, temperately; your promise.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> The fires i' the lowest hell fold-in the people!<br /> Call me their traitor! Thou injurious tribune!<br /> Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths,<br /> In thy hand clutch'd as many millions, in<br /> Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say<br /> 'Thou liest' unto thee with a voice as free<br /> As I do pray the gods.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Mark you this, people?<br /><br />Citizens<br /><br /> To the rock, to the rock with him!<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Peace!<br /> We need not put new matter to his charge:<br /> What you have seen him do and heard him speak,<br /> Beating your officers, cursing yourselves,<br /> Opposing laws with strokes and here defying<br /> Those whose great power must try him; even this,<br /> So criminal and in such capital kind,<br /> Deserves the extremest death.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> But since he hath<br /> Served well for Rome,--<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> What do you prate of service?<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> I talk of that, that know it.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> You?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Is this the promise that you made your mother?<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Know, I pray you,--<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> I know no further:<br /> Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,<br /> Vagabond exile, raying, pent to linger<br /> But with a grain a day, I would not buy<br /> Their mercy at the price of one fair word;<br /> Nor cheque my courage for what they can give,<br /> To have't with saying 'Good morrow.'<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> For that he has,<br /> As much as in him lies, from time to time<br /> Envied against the people, seeking means<br /> To pluck away their power, as now at last<br /> Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence<br /> Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers<br /> That do distribute it; in the name o' the people<br /> And in the power of us the tribunes, we,<br /> Even from this instant, banish him our city,<br /> In peril of precipitation<br /> From off the rock Tarpeian never more<br /> To enter our Rome gates: i' the people's name,<br /> I say it shall be so.<br /><br />Citizens<br /><br /> It shall be so, it shall be so; let him away:<br /> He's banish'd, and it shall be so.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Hear me, my masters, and my common friends,--<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> He's sentenced; no more hearing.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Let me speak:<br /> I have been consul, and can show for Rome<br /> Her enemies' marks upon me. I do love<br /> My country's good with a respect more tender,<br /> More holy and profound, than mine own life,<br /> My dear wife's estimate, her womb's increase,<br /> And treasure of my loins; then if I would<br /> Speak that,--<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> We know your drift: speak what?<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> There's no more to be said, but he is banish'd,<br /> As enemy to the people and his country:<br /> It shall be so.<br /><br />Citizens<br /><br /> It shall be so, it shall be so.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate<br /> As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize<br /> As the dead carcasses of unburied men<br /> That do corrupt my air, I banish you;<br /> And here remain with your uncertainty!<br /> Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!<br /> Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,<br /> Fan you into despair! Have the power still<br /> To banish your defenders; till at length<br /> Your ignorance, which finds not till it feels,<br /> Making not reservation of yourselves,<br /> Still your own foes, deliver you as most<br /> Abated captives to some nation<br /> That won you without blows! Despising,<br /> For you, the city, thus I turn my back:<br /> There is a world elsewhere.<br /><br /> Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENENIUS, Senators, and Patricians<br /><br />AEdile<br /><br /> The people's enemy is gone, is gone!<br /><br />Citizens<br /><br /> Our enemy is banish'd! he is gone! Hoo! hoo!<br /><br /> Shouting, and throwing up their caps<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Go, see him out at gates, and follow him,<br /> As he hath followed you, with all despite;<br /> Give him deserved vexation. Let a guard<br /> Attend us through the city.<br /><br />Citizens<br /><br /> Come, come; let's see him out at gates; come.<br /> The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come.</span><span id = 18348 >SCENE I. Rome. Before a gate of the city.<br /><br /> Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, with the young Nobility of Rome <br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Come, leave your tears: a brief farewell: the beast<br /> With many heads butts me away. Nay, mother,<br /> Where is your ancient courage? you were used<br /> To say extremity was the trier of spirits;<br /> That common chances common men could bear;<br /> That when the sea was calm all boats alike<br /> Show'd mastership in floating; fortune's blows,<br /> When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves<br /> A noble cunning: you were used to load me<br /> With precepts that would make invincible<br /> The heart that conn'd them.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> O heavens! O heavens!<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Nay! prithee, woman,--<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome,<br /> And occupations perish!<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> What, what, what!<br /> I shall be loved when I am lack'd. Nay, mother.<br /> Resume that spirit, when you were wont to say,<br /> If you had been the wife of Hercules,<br /> Six of his labours you'ld have done, and saved<br /> Your husband so much sweat. Cominius,<br /> Droop not; adieu. Farewell, my wife, my mother:<br /> I'll do well yet. Thou old and true Menenius,<br /> Thy tears are salter than a younger man's,<br /> And venomous to thine eyes. My sometime general,<br /> I have seen thee stem, and thou hast oft beheld<br /> Heart-hardening spectacles; tell these sad women<br /> 'Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes,<br /> As 'tis to laugh at 'em. My mother, you wot well<br /> My hazards still have been your solace: and<br /> Believe't not lightly--though I go alone,<br /> Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen<br /> Makes fear'd and talk'd of more than seen--your son<br /> Will or exceed the common or be caught<br /> With cautelous baits and practise.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> My first son.<br /> Whither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius<br /> With thee awhile: determine on some course,<br /> More than a wild exposture to each chance<br /> That starts i' the way before thee.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> O the gods!<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> I'll follow thee a month, devise with thee<br /> Where thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of us<br /> And we of thee: so if the time thrust forth<br /> A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send<br /> O'er the vast world to seek a single man,<br /> And lose advantage, which doth ever cool<br /> I' the absence of the needer.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Fare ye well:<br /> Thou hast years upon thee; and thou art too full<br /> Of the wars' surfeits, to go rove with one<br /> That's yet unbruised: bring me but out at gate.<br /> Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and<br /> My friends of noble touch, when I am forth,<br /> Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you, come.<br /> While I remain above the ground, you shall<br /> Hear from me still, and never of me aught<br /> But what is like me formerly.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> That's worthily<br /> As any ear can hear. Come, let's not weep.<br /> If I could shake off but one seven years<br /> From these old arms and legs, by the good gods,<br /> I'ld with thee every foot.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Give me thy hand: Come.</span><span id = 18349 >SCENE II. The same. A street near the gate.<br /><br /> Enter SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and an AEdile <br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Bid them all home; he's gone, and we'll no further.<br /> The nobility are vex'd, whom we see have sided<br /> In his behalf.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Now we have shown our power,<br /> Let us seem humbler after it is done<br /> Than when it was a-doing.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Bid them home:<br /> Say their great enemy is gone, and they<br /> Stand in their ancient strength.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Dismiss them home.<br /><br /> Exit AEdile<br /> Here comes his mother.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Let's not meet her.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Why?<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> They say she's mad.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> They have ta'en note of us: keep on your way.<br /><br /> Enter VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, and MENENIUS<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> O, ye're well met: the hoarded plague o' the gods<br /> Requite your love!<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Peace, peace; be not so loud.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> If that I could for weeping, you should hear,--<br /> Nay, and you shall hear some.<br /><br /> To BRUTUS<br /> Will you be gone?<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> [To SICINIUS] You shall stay too: I would I had the power<br /> To say so to my husband.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Are you mankind?<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Ay, fool; is that a shame? Note but this fool.<br /> Was not a man my father? Hadst thou foxship<br /> To banish him that struck more blows for Rome<br /> Than thou hast spoken words?<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> O blessed heavens!<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> More noble blows than ever thou wise words;<br /> And for Rome's good. I'll tell thee what; yet go:<br /> Nay, but thou shalt stay too: I would my son<br /> Were in Arabia, and thy tribe before him,<br /> His good sword in his hand.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> What then?<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> What then!<br /> He'ld make an end of thy posterity.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Bastards and all.<br /> Good man, the wounds that he does bear for Rome!<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Come, come, peace.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> I would he had continued to his country<br /> As he began, and not unknit himself<br /> The noble knot he made.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> I would he had.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> 'I would he had'! 'Twas you incensed the rabble:<br /> Cats, that can judge as fitly of his worth<br /> As I can of those mysteries which heaven<br /> Will not have earth to know.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Pray, let us go.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Now, pray, sir, get you gone:<br /> You have done a brave deed. Ere you go, hear this:--<br /> As far as doth the Capitol exceed<br /> The meanest house in Rome, so far my son--<br /> This lady's husband here, this, do you see--<br /> Whom you have banish'd, does exceed you all.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Well, well, we'll leave you.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Why stay we to be baited<br /> With one that wants her wits?<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Take my prayers with you.<br /><br /> Exeunt Tribunes<br /> I would the gods had nothing else to do<br /> But to confirm my curses! Could I meet 'em<br /> But once a-day, it would unclog my heart<br /> Of what lies heavy to't.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> You have told them home;<br /> And, by my troth, you have cause. You'll sup with me?<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Anger's my meat; I sup upon myself,<br /> And so shall starve with feeding. Come, let's go:<br /> Leave this faint puling and lament as I do,<br /> In anger, Juno-like. Come, come, come.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Fie, fie, fie!</span><span id = 18350 >SCENE III. A highway between Rome and Antium.<br /><br /> Enter a Roman and a Volsce, meeting <br /><br />Roman<br /><br /> I know you well, sir, and you know<br /> me: your name, I think, is Adrian.<br /><br />Volsce<br /><br /> It is so, sir: truly, I have forgot you.<br /><br />Roman<br /><br /> I am a Roman; and my services are,<br /> as you are, against 'em: know you me yet?<br /><br />Volsce<br /><br /> Nicanor? no.<br /><br />Roman<br /><br /> The same, sir.<br /><br />Volsce<br /><br /> You had more beard when I last saw you; but your<br /> favour is well approved by your tongue. What's the<br /> news in Rome? I have a note from the Volscian state,<br /> to find you out there: you have well saved me a<br /> day's journey.<br /><br />Roman<br /><br /> There hath been in Rome strange insurrections; the<br /> people against the senators, patricians, and nobles.<br /><br />Volsce<br /><br /> Hath been! is it ended, then? Our state thinks not<br /> so: they are in a most warlike preparation, and<br /> hope to come upon them in the heat of their division.<br /><br />Roman<br /><br /> The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing<br /> would make it flame again: for the nobles receive<br /> so to heart the banishment of that worthy<br /> Coriolanus, that they are in a ripe aptness to take<br /> all power from the people and to pluck from them<br /> their tribunes for ever. This lies glowing, I can<br /> tell you, and is almost mature for the violent<br /> breaking out.<br /><br />Volsce<br /><br /> Coriolanus banished!<br /><br />Roman<br /><br /> Banished, sir.<br /><br />Volsce<br /><br /> You will be welcome with this intelligence, Nicanor.<br /><br />Roman<br /><br /> The day serves well for them now. I have heard it<br /> said, the fittest time to corrupt a man's wife is<br /> when she's fallen out with her husband. Your noble<br /> Tullus Aufidius will appear well in these wars, his<br /> great opposer, Coriolanus, being now in no request<br /> of his country.<br /><br />Volsce<br /><br /> He cannot choose. I am most fortunate, thus<br /> accidentally to encounter you: you have ended my<br /> business, and I will merrily accompany you home.<br /><br />Roman<br /><br /> I shall, between this and supper, tell you most<br /> strange things from Rome; all tending to the good of<br /> their adversaries. Have you an army ready, say you?<br /><br />Volsce<br /><br /> A most royal one; the centurions and their charges,<br /> distinctly billeted, already in the entertainment,<br /> and to be on foot at an hour's warning.<br /><br />Roman<br /><br /> I am joyful to hear of their readiness, and am the<br /> man, I think, that shall set them in present action.<br /> So, sir, heartily well met, and most glad of your company.<br /><br />Volsce<br /><br /> You take my part from me, sir; I have the most cause<br /> to be glad of yours.<br /><br />Roman<br /><br /> Well, let us go together.</span><span id = 18351 >SCENE IV. Antium. Before Aufidius's house.<br /><br /> Enter CORIOLANUS in mean apparel, disguised and muffled <br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> A goodly city is this Antium. City,<br /> 'Tis I that made thy widows: many an heir<br /> Of these fair edifices 'fore my wars<br /> Have I heard groan and drop: then know me not,<br /> Lest that thy wives with spits and boys with stones<br /> In puny battle slay me.<br /><br /> Enter a Citizen<br /> Save you, sir.<br /><br />Citizen<br /><br /> And you.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Direct me, if it be your will,<br /> Where great Aufidius lies: is he in Antium?<br /><br />Citizen<br /><br /> He is, and feasts the nobles of the state<br /> At his house this night.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Which is his house, beseech you?<br /><br />Citizen<br /><br /> This, here before you.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Thank you, sir: farewell.<br /><br /> Exit Citizen<br /> O world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn,<br /> Whose double bosoms seem to wear one heart,<br /> Whose house, whose bed, whose meal, and exercise,<br /> Are still together, who twin, as 'twere, in love<br /> Unseparable, shall within this hour,<br /> On a dissension of a doit, break out<br /> To bitterest enmity: so, fellest foes,<br /> Whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleep,<br /> To take the one the other, by some chance,<br /> Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends<br /> And interjoin their issues. So with me:<br /> My birth-place hate I, and my love's upon<br /> This enemy town. I'll enter: if he slay me,<br /> He does fair justice; if he give me way,<br /> I'll do his country service.</span><span id = 18352 >SCENE V. The same. A hall in Aufidius's house.<br /><br /> Music within. Enter a Servingman <br /><br />First Servingman<br /><br /> Wine, wine, wine! What service<br /> is here! I think our fellows are asleep.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br /> Enter a second Servingman<br /><br />Second Servingman<br /><br /> Where's Cotus? my master calls<br /> for him. Cotus!<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br /> Enter CORIOLANUS<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> A goodly house: the feast smells well; but I<br /> Appear not like a guest.<br /><br /> Re-enter the first Servingman<br /><br />First Servingman<br /><br /> What would you have, friend? whence are you?<br /> Here's no place for you: pray, go to the door.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> I have deserved no better entertainment,<br /> In being Coriolanus.<br /><br /> Re-enter second Servingman<br /><br />Second Servingman<br /><br /> Whence are you, sir? Has the porter his eyes in his<br /> head; that he gives entrance to such companions?<br /> Pray, get you out.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Away!<br /><br />Second Servingman<br /><br /> Away! get you away.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Now thou'rt troublesome.<br /><br />Second Servingman<br /><br /> Are you so brave? I'll have you talked with anon.<br /><br /> Enter a third Servingman. The first meets him<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> What fellow's this?<br /><br />First Servingman<br /><br /> A strange one as ever I looked on: I cannot get him<br /> out of the house: prithee, call my master to him.<br /><br /> Retires<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> What have you to do here, fellow? Pray you, avoid<br /> the house.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Let me but stand; I will not hurt your hearth.<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> What are you?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> A gentleman.<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> A marvellous poor one.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> True, so I am.<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other<br /> station; here's no place for you; pray you, avoid: come.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Follow your function, go, and batten on cold bits.<br /><br /> Pushes him away<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> What, you will not? Prithee, tell my master what a<br /> strange guest he has here.<br /><br />Second Servingman<br /><br /> And I shall.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> Where dwellest thou?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Under the canopy.<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> Under the canopy!<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Ay.<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> Where's that?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> I' the city of kites and crows.<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> I' the city of kites and crows! What an ass it is!<br /> Then thou dwellest with daws too?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> No, I serve not thy master.<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> How, sir! do you meddle with my master?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Ay; 'tis an honester service than to meddle with thy<br /> mistress. Thou pratest, and pratest; serve with thy<br /> trencher, hence!<br /><br /> Beats him away. Exit third Servingman<br /><br /> Enter AUFIDIUS with the second Servingman<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Where is this fellow?<br /><br />Second Servingman<br /><br /> Here, sir: I'ld have beaten him like a dog, but for<br /> disturbing the lords within.<br /><br /> Retires<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Whence comest thou? what wouldst thou? thy name?<br /> Why speak'st not? speak, man: what's thy name?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> If, Tullus,<br /><br /> Unmuffling<br /> Not yet thou knowest me, and, seeing me, dost not<br /> Think me for the man I am, necessity<br /> Commands me name myself.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> What is thy name?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> A name unmusical to the Volscians' ears,<br /> And harsh in sound to thine.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Say, what's thy name?<br /> Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face<br /> Bears a command in't; though thy tackle's torn.<br /> Thou show'st a noble vessel: what's thy name?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Prepare thy brow to frown: know'st<br /> thou me yet?<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> I know thee not: thy name?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> My name is Caius Marcius, who hath done<br /> To thee particularly and to all the Volsces<br /> Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may<br /> My surname, Coriolanus: the painful service,<br /> The extreme dangers and the drops of blood<br /> Shed for my thankless country are requited<br /> But with that surname; a good memory,<br /> And witness of the malice and displeasure<br /> Which thou shouldst bear me: only that name remains;<br /> The cruelty and envy of the people,<br /> Permitted by our dastard nobles, who<br /> Have all forsook me, hath devour'd the rest;<br /> And suffer'd me by the voice of slaves to be<br /> Whoop'd out of Rome. Now this extremity<br /> Hath brought me to thy hearth; not out of hope--<br /> Mistake me not--to save my life, for if<br /> I had fear'd death, of all the men i' the world<br /> I would have 'voided thee, but in mere spite,<br /> To be full quit of those my banishers,<br /> Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast<br /> A heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revenge<br /> Thine own particular wrongs and stop those maims<br /> Of shame seen through thy country, speed<br /> thee straight,<br /> And make my misery serve thy turn: so use it<br /> That my revengeful services may prove<br /> As benefits to thee, for I will fight<br /> Against my canker'd country with the spleen<br /> Of all the under fiends. But if so be<br /> Thou darest not this and that to prove more fortunes<br /> Thou'rt tired, then, in a word, I also am<br /> Longer to live most weary, and present<br /> My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice;<br /> Which not to cut would show thee but a fool,<br /> Since I have ever follow'd thee with hate,<br /> Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country's breast,<br /> And cannot live but to thy shame, unless<br /> It be to do thee service.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> O Marcius, Marcius!<br /> Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart<br /> A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter<br /> Should from yond cloud speak divine things,<br /> And say 'Tis true,' I'ld not believe them more<br /> Than thee, all noble Marcius. Let me twine<br /> Mine arms about that body, where against<br /> My grained ash an hundred times hath broke<br /> And scarr'd the moon with splinters: here I clip<br /> The anvil of my sword, and do contest<br /> As hotly and as nobly with thy love<br /> As ever in ambitious strength I did<br /> Contend against thy valour. Know thou first,<br /> I loved the maid I married; never man<br /> Sigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here,<br /> Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart<br /> Than when I first my wedded mistress saw<br /> Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell thee,<br /> We have a power on foot; and I had purpose<br /> Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn,<br /> Or lose mine arm fort: thou hast beat me out<br /> Twelve several times, and I have nightly since<br /> Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me;<br /> We have been down together in my sleep,<br /> Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat,<br /> And waked half dead with nothing. Worthy Marcius,<br /> Had we no quarrel else to Rome, but that<br /> Thou art thence banish'd, we would muster all<br /> From twelve to seventy, and pouring war<br /> Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,<br /> Like a bold flood o'er-bear. O, come, go in,<br /> And take our friendly senators by the hands;<br /> Who now are here, taking their leaves of me,<br /> Who am prepared against your territories,<br /> Though not for Rome itself.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> You bless me, gods!<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have<br /> The leading of thine own revenges, take<br /> The one half of my commission; and set down--<br /> As best thou art experienced, since thou know'st<br /> Thy country's strength and weakness,--thine own ways;<br /> Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,<br /> Or rudely visit them in parts remote,<br /> To fright them, ere destroy. But come in:<br /> Let me commend thee first to those that shall<br /> Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes!<br /> And more a friend than e'er an enemy;<br /> Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand: most welcome!<br /><br /> Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS. The two Servingmen come forward<br /><br />First Servingman<br /><br /> Here's a strange alteration!<br /><br />Second Servingman<br /><br /> By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with<br /> a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me his clothes made a<br /> false report of him.<br /><br />First Servingman<br /><br /> What an arm he has! he turned me about with his<br /> finger and his thumb, as one would set up a top.<br /><br />Second Servingman<br /><br /> Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in<br /> him: he had, sir, a kind of face, methought,--I<br /> cannot tell how to term it.<br /><br />First Servingman<br /><br /> He had so; looking as it were--would I were hanged,<br /> but I thought there was more in him than I could think.<br /><br />Second Servingman<br /><br /> So did I, I'll be sworn: he is simply the rarest<br /> man i' the world.<br /><br />First Servingman<br /><br /> I think he is: but a greater soldier than he you wot on.<br /><br />Second Servingman<br /><br /> Who, my master?<br /><br />First Servingman<br /><br /> Nay, it's no matter for that.<br /><br />Second Servingman<br /><br /> Worth six on him.<br /><br />First Servingman<br /><br /> Nay, not so neither: but I take him to be the<br /> greater soldier.<br /><br />Second Servingman<br /><br /> Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that:<br /> for the defence of a town, our general is excellent.<br /><br />First Servingman<br /><br /> Ay, and for an assault too.<br /><br /> Re-enter third Servingman<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> O slaves, I can tell you news,-- news, you rascals!<br /><br />First Servingman Second Servingman<br /><br /> What, what, what? let's partake.<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as<br /> lieve be a condemned man.<br /><br />First Servingman Second Servingman<br /><br /> Wherefore? wherefore?<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general,<br /> Caius Marcius.<br /><br />First Servingman<br /><br /> Why do you say 'thwack our general '?<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> I do not say 'thwack our general;' but he was always<br /> good enough for him.<br /><br />Second Servingman<br /><br /> Come, we are fellows and friends: he was ever too<br /> hard for him; I have heard him say so himself.<br /><br />First Servingman<br /><br /> He was too hard for him directly, to say the troth<br /> on't: before Corioli he scotched him and notched<br /> him like a carbon ado.<br /><br />Second Servingman<br /><br /> An he had been cannibally given, he might have<br /> broiled and eaten him too.<br /><br />First Servingman<br /><br /> But, more of thy news?<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> Why, he is so made on here within, as if he were son<br /> and heir to Mars; set at upper end o' the table; no<br /> question asked him by any of the senators, but they<br /> stand bald before him: our general himself makes a<br /> mistress of him: sanctifies himself with's hand and<br /> turns up the white o' the eye to his discourse. But<br /> the bottom of the news is that our general is cut i'<br /> the middle and but one half of what he was<br /> yesterday; for the other has half, by the entreaty<br /> and grant of the whole table. He'll go, he says,<br /> and sowl the porter of Rome gates by the ears: he<br /> will mow all down before him, and leave his passage polled.<br /><br />Second Servingman<br /><br /> And he's as like to do't as any man I can imagine.<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> Do't! he will do't; for, look you, sir, he has as<br /> many friends as enemies; which friends, sir, as it<br /> were, durst not, look you, sir, show themselves, as<br /> we term it, his friends whilst he's in directitude.<br /><br />First Servingman<br /><br /> Directitude! what's that?<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again,<br /> and the man in blood, they will out of their<br /> burrows, like conies after rain, and revel all with<br /> him.<br /><br />First Servingman<br /><br /> But when goes this forward?<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> To-morrow; to-day; presently; you shall have the<br /> drum struck up this afternoon: 'tis, as it were, a<br /> parcel of their feast, and to be executed ere they<br /> wipe their lips.<br /><br />Second Servingman<br /><br /> Why, then we shall have a stirring world again.<br /> This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increase<br /> tailors, and breed ballad-makers.<br /><br />First Servingman<br /><br /> Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as<br /> day does night; it's spritely, waking, audible, and<br /> full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy;<br /> mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more<br /> bastard children than war's a destroyer of men.<br /><br />Second Servingman<br /><br /> 'Tis so: and as war, in some sort, may be said to<br /> be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a<br /> great maker of cuckolds.<br /><br />First Servingman<br /><br /> Ay, and it makes men hate one another.<br /><br />Third Servingman<br /><br /> Reason; because they then less need one another.<br /> The wars for my money. I hope to see Romans as cheap<br /> as Volscians. They are rising, they are rising.<br /><br />All<br /><br /> In, in, in, in!</span><span id = 18353 >SCENE VI. Rome. A public place.<br /><br /> Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS <br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> We hear not of him, neither need we fear him;<br /> His remedies are tame i' the present peace<br /> And quietness of the people, which before<br /> Were in wild hurry. Here do we make his friends<br /> Blush that the world goes well, who rather had,<br /> Though they themselves did suffer by't, behold<br /> Dissentious numbers pestering streets than see<br /> Our tradesmen with in their shops and going<br /> About their functions friendly.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> We stood to't in good time.<br /><br /> Enter MENENIUS<br /> Is this Menenius?<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> 'Tis he,'tis he: O, he is grown most kind of late.<br /><br />Both Tribunes<br /><br /> Hail sir!<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Hail to you both!<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Your Coriolanus<br /> Is not much miss'd, but with his friends:<br /> The commonwealth doth stand, and so would do,<br /> Were he more angry at it.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> All's well; and might have been much better, if<br /> He could have temporized.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Where is he, hear you?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Nay, I hear nothing: his mother and his wife<br /> Hear nothing from him.<br /><br /> Enter three or four Citizens<br /><br />Citizens<br /><br /> The gods preserve you both!<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> God-den, our neighbours.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> God-den to you all, god-den to you all.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> Ourselves, our wives, and children, on our knees,<br /> Are bound to pray for you both.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Live, and thrive!<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Farewell, kind neighbours: we wish'd Coriolanus<br /> Had loved you as we did.<br /><br />Citizens<br /><br /> Now the gods keep you!<br /><br />Both Tribunes<br /><br /> Farewell, farewell.<br /><br /> Exeunt Citizens<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> This is a happier and more comely time<br /> Than when these fellows ran about the streets,<br /> Crying confusion.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Caius Marcius was<br /> A worthy officer i' the war; but insolent,<br /> O'ercome with pride, ambitious past all thinking,<br /> Self-loving,--<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> And affecting one sole throne,<br /> Without assistance.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> I think not so.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> We should by this, to all our lamentation,<br /> If he had gone forth consul, found it so.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> The gods have well prevented it, and Rome<br /> Sits safe and still without him.<br /><br /> Enter an AEdile<br /><br />AEdile<br /><br /> Worthy tribunes,<br /> There is a slave, whom we have put in prison,<br /> Reports, the Volsces with two several powers<br /> Are enter'd in the Roman territories,<br /> And with the deepest malice of the war<br /> Destroy what lies before 'em.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> 'Tis Aufidius,<br /> Who, hearing of our Marcius' banishment,<br /> Thrusts forth his horns again into the world;<br /> Which were inshell'd when Marcius stood for Rome,<br /> And durst not once peep out.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Come, what talk you<br /> Of Marcius?<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Go see this rumourer whipp'd. It cannot be<br /> The Volsces dare break with us.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Cannot be!<br /> We have record that very well it can,<br /> And three examples of the like have been<br /> Within my age. But reason with the fellow,<br /> Before you punish him, where he heard this,<br /> Lest you shall chance to whip your information<br /> And beat the messenger who bids beware<br /> Of what is to be dreaded.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Tell not me:<br /> I know this cannot be.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Not possible.<br /><br /> Enter a Messenger<br /><br />Messenger<br /><br /> The nobles in great earnestness are going<br /> All to the senate-house: some news is come<br /> That turns their countenances.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> 'Tis this slave;--<br /> Go whip him, 'fore the people's eyes:--his raising;<br /> Nothing but his report.<br /><br />Messenger<br /><br /> Yes, worthy sir,<br /> The slave's report is seconded; and more,<br /> More fearful, is deliver'd.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> What more fearful?<br /><br />Messenger<br /><br /> It is spoke freely out of many mouths--<br /> How probable I do not know--that Marcius,<br /> Join'd with Aufidius, leads a power 'gainst Rome,<br /> And vows revenge as spacious as between<br /> The young'st and oldest thing.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> This is most likely!<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Raised only, that the weaker sort may wish<br /> Good Marcius home again.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> The very trick on't.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> This is unlikely:<br /> He and Aufidius can no more atone<br /> Than violentest contrariety.<br /><br /> Enter a second Messenger<br /><br />Second Messenger<br /><br /> You are sent for to the senate:<br /> A fearful army, led by Caius Marcius<br /> Associated with Aufidius, rages<br /> Upon our territories; and have already<br /> O'erborne their way, consumed with fire, and took<br /> What lay before them.<br /><br /> Enter COMINIUS<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> O, you have made good work!<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> What news? what news?<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> You have holp to ravish your own daughters and<br /> To melt the city leads upon your pates,<br /> To see your wives dishonour'd to your noses,--<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> What's the news? what's the news?<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Your temples burned in their cement, and<br /> Your franchises, whereon you stood, confined<br /> Into an auger's bore.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Pray now, your news?<br /> You have made fair work, I fear me.--Pray, your news?--<br /> If Marcius should be join'd with Volscians,--<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> If!<br /> He is their god: he leads them like a thing<br /> Made by some other deity than nature,<br /> That shapes man better; and they follow him,<br /> Against us brats, with no less confidence<br /> Than boys pursuing summer butterflies,<br /> Or butchers killing flies.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> You have made good work,<br /> You and your apron-men; you that stood so up much<br /> on the voice of occupation and<br /> The breath of garlic-eaters!<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> He will shake<br /> Your Rome about your ears.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> As Hercules<br /> Did shake down mellow fruit.<br /> You have made fair work!<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> But is this true, sir?<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Ay; and you'll look pale<br /> Before you find it other. All the regions<br /> Do smilingly revolt; and who resist<br /> Are mock'd for valiant ignorance,<br /> And perish constant fools. Who is't can blame him?<br /> Your enemies and his find something in him.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> We are all undone, unless<br /> The noble man have mercy.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Who shall ask it?<br /> The tribunes cannot do't for shame; the people<br /> Deserve such pity of him as the wolf<br /> Does of the shepherds: for his best friends, if they<br /> Should say 'Be good to Rome,' they charged him even<br /> As those should do that had deserved his hate,<br /> And therein show'd like enemies.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> 'Tis true:<br /> If he were putting to my house the brand<br /> That should consume it, I have not the face<br /> To say 'Beseech you, cease.' You have made fair hands,<br /> You and your crafts! you have crafted fair!<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> You have brought<br /> A trembling upon Rome, such as was never<br /> So incapable of help.<br /><br />Both Tribunes<br /><br /> Say not we brought it.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> How! Was it we? we loved him but, like beasts<br /> And cowardly nobles, gave way unto your clusters,<br /> Who did hoot him out o' the city.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> But I fear<br /> They'll roar him in again. Tullus Aufidius,<br /> The second name of men, obeys his points<br /> As if he were his officer: desperation<br /> Is all the policy, strength and defence,<br /> That Rome can make against them.<br /><br /> Enter a troop of Citizens<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Here come the clusters.<br /> And is Aufidius with him? You are they<br /> That made the air unwholesome, when you cast<br /> Your stinking greasy caps in hooting at<br /> Coriolanus' exile. Now he's coming;<br /> And not a hair upon a soldier's head<br /> Which will not prove a whip: as many coxcombs<br /> As you threw caps up will he tumble down,<br /> And pay you for your voices. 'Tis no matter;<br /> if he could burn us all into one coal,<br /> We have deserved it.<br /><br />Citizens<br /><br /> Faith, we hear fearful news.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> For mine own part,<br /> When I said, banish him, I said 'twas pity.<br /><br />Second Citizen<br /><br /> And so did I.<br /><br />Third Citizen<br /><br /> And so did I; and, to say the truth, so did very<br /> many of us: that we did, we did for the best; and<br /> though we willingly consented to his banishment, yet<br /> it was against our will.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Ye re goodly things, you voices!<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> You have made<br /> Good work, you and your cry! Shall's to the Capitol?<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> O, ay, what else?<br /><br /> Exeunt COMINIUS and MENENIUS<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Go, masters, get you home; be not dismay'd:<br /> These are a side that would be glad to have<br /> This true which they so seem to fear. Go home,<br /> And show no sign of fear.<br /><br />First Citizen<br /><br /> The gods be good to us! Come, masters, let's home.<br /> I ever said we were i' the wrong when we banished<br /> him.<br /><br />Second Citizen<br /><br /> So did we all. But, come, let's home.<br /><br /> Exeunt Citizens<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> I do not like this news.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Nor I.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Let's to the Capitol. Would half my wealth<br /> Would buy this for a lie!<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Pray, let us go.</span><span id = 18354 >SCENE VII. A camp, at a small distance from Rome.<br /><br /> Enter AUFIDIUS and his Lieutenant <br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Do they still fly to the Roman?<br /><br />Lieutenant<br /><br /> I do not know what witchcraft's in him, but<br /> Your soldiers use him as the grace 'fore meat,<br /> Their talk at table, and their thanks at end;<br /> And you are darken'd in this action, sir,<br /> Even by your own.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> I cannot help it now,<br /> Unless, by using means, I lame the foot<br /> Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier,<br /> Even to my person, than I thought he would<br /> When first I did embrace him: yet his nature<br /> In that's no changeling; and I must excuse<br /> What cannot be amended.<br /><br />Lieutenant<br /><br /> Yet I wish, sir,--<br /> I mean for your particular,--you had not<br /> Join'd in commission with him; but either<br /> Had borne the action of yourself, or else<br /> To him had left it solely.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> I understand thee well; and be thou sure,<br /> when he shall come to his account, he knows not<br /> What I can urge against him. Although it seems,<br /> And so he thinks, and is no less apparent<br /> To the vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly.<br /> And shows good husbandry for the Volscian state,<br /> Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon<br /> As draw his sword; yet he hath left undone<br /> That which shall break his neck or hazard mine,<br /> Whene'er we come to our account.<br /><br />Lieutenant<br /><br /> Sir, I beseech you, think you he'll carry Rome?<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> All places yield to him ere he sits down;<br /> And the nobility of Rome are his:<br /> The senators and patricians love him too:<br /> The tribunes are no soldiers; and their people<br /> Will be as rash in the repeal, as hasty<br /> To expel him thence. I think he'll be to Rome<br /> As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it<br /> By sovereignty of nature. First he was<br /> A noble servant to them; but he could not<br /> Carry his honours even: whether 'twas pride,<br /> Which out of daily fortune ever taints<br /> The happy man; whether defect of judgment,<br /> To fail in the disposing of those chances<br /> Which he was lord of; or whether nature,<br /> Not to be other than one thing, not moving<br /> From the casque to the cushion, but commanding peace<br /> Even with the same austerity and garb<br /> As he controll'd the war; but one of these--<br /> As he hath spices of them all, not all,<br /> For I dare so far free him--made him fear'd,<br /> So hated, and so banish'd: but he has a merit,<br /> To choke it in the utterance. So our virtues<br /> Lie in the interpretation of the time:<br /> And power, unto itself most commendable,<br /> Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair<br /> To extol what it hath done.<br /> One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;<br /> Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail.<br /> Come, let's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine,<br /> Thou art poor'st of all; then shortly art thou mine.</span><span id = 18355 >SCENE I. Rome. A public place.<br /><br /> Enter MENENIUS, COMINIUS, SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and others <br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> No, I'll not go: you hear what he hath said<br /> Which was sometime his general; who loved him<br /> In a most dear particular. He call'd me father:<br /> But what o' that? Go, you that banish'd him;<br /> A mile before his tent fall down, and knee<br /> The way into his mercy: nay, if he coy'd<br /> To hear Cominius speak, I'll keep at home.<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> He would not seem to know me.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Do you hear?<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> Yet one time he did call me by my name:<br /> I urged our old acquaintance, and the drops<br /> That we have bled together. Coriolanus<br /> He would not answer to: forbad all names;<br /> He was a kind of nothing, titleless,<br /> Till he had forged himself a name o' the fire<br /> Of burning Rome.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Why, so: you have made good work!<br /> A pair of tribunes that have rack'd for Rome,<br /> To make coals cheap,--a noble memory!<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> I minded him how royal 'twas to pardon<br /> When it was less expected: he replied,<br /> It was a bare petition of a state<br /> To one whom they had punish'd.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Very well:<br /> Could he say less?<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> I offer'd to awaken his regard<br /> For's private friends: his answer to me was,<br /> He could not stay to pick them in a pile<br /> Of noisome musty chaff: he said 'twas folly,<br /> For one poor grain or two, to leave unburnt,<br /> And still to nose the offence.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> For one poor grain or two!<br /> I am one of those; his mother, wife, his child,<br /> And this brave fellow too, we are the grains:<br /> You are the musty chaff; and you are smelt<br /> Above the moon: we must be burnt for you.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Nay, pray, be patient: if you refuse your aid<br /> In this so never-needed help, yet do not<br /> Upbraid's with our distress. But, sure, if you<br /> Would be your country's pleader, your good tongue,<br /> More than the instant army we can make,<br /> Might stop our countryman.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> No, I'll not meddle.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Pray you, go to him.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> What should I do?<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> Only make trial what your love can do<br /> For Rome, towards Marcius.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Well, and say that Marcius<br /> Return me, as Cominius is return'd,<br /> Unheard; what then?<br /> But as a discontented friend, grief-shot<br /> With his unkindness? say't be so?<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Yet your good will<br /> must have that thanks from Rome, after the measure<br /> As you intended well.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> I'll undertake 't:<br /> I think he'll hear me. Yet, to bite his lip<br /> And hum at good Cominius, much unhearts me.<br /> He was not taken well; he had not dined:<br /> The veins unfill'd, our blood is cold, and then<br /> We pout upon the morning, are unapt<br /> To give or to forgive; but when we have stuff'd<br /> These and these conveyances of our blood<br /> With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls<br /> Than in our priest-like fasts: therefore I'll watch him<br /> Till he be dieted to my request,<br /> And then I'll set upon him.<br /><br />BRUTUS<br /><br /> You know the very road into his kindness,<br /> And cannot lose your way.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Good faith, I'll prove him,<br /> Speed how it will. I shall ere long have knowledge<br /> Of my success.<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> He'll never hear him.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Not?<br /><br />COMINIUS<br /><br /> I tell you, he does sit in gold, his eye<br /> Red as 'twould burn Rome; and his injury<br /> The gaoler to his pity. I kneel'd before him;<br /> 'Twas very faintly he said 'Rise;' dismiss'd me<br /> Thus, with his speechless hand: what he would do,<br /> He sent in writing after me; what he would not,<br /> Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions:<br /> So that all hope is vain.<br /> Unless his noble mother, and his wife;<br /> Who, as I hear, mean to solicit him<br /> For mercy to his country. Therefore, let's hence,<br /> And with our fair entreaties haste them on.</span><span id = 18356 >SCENE II. Entrance of the Volscian camp before Rome.<br /><br /> Two Sentinels on guard.<br /><br /> Enter to them, MENENIUS<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Stay: whence are you?<br /><br />Second Senator<br /><br /> Stand, and go back.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> You guard like men; 'tis well: but, by your leave,<br /> I am an officer of state, and come<br /> To speak with Coriolanus.<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> From whence?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> From Rome.<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> You may not pass, you must return: our general<br /> Will no more hear from thence.<br /><br />Second Senator<br /><br /> You'll see your Rome embraced with fire before<br /> You'll speak with Coriolanus.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Good my friends,<br /> If you have heard your general talk of Rome,<br /> And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks,<br /> My name hath touch'd your ears it is Menenius.<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Be it so; go back: the virtue of your name<br /> Is not here passable.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> I tell thee, fellow,<br /> The general is my lover: I have been<br /> The book of his good acts, whence men have read<br /> His name unparallel'd, haply amplified;<br /> For I have ever verified my friends,<br /> Of whom he's chief, with all the size that verity<br /> Would without lapsing suffer: nay, sometimes,<br /> Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground,<br /> I have tumbled past the throw; and in his praise<br /> Have almost stamp'd the leasing: therefore, fellow,<br /> I must have leave to pass.<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in his<br /> behalf as you have uttered words in your own, you<br /> should not pass here; no, though it were as virtuous<br /> to lie as to live chastely. Therefore, go back.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Prithee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius,<br /> always factionary on the party of your general.<br /><br />Second Senator<br /><br /> Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say you<br /> have, I am one that, telling true under him, must<br /> say, you cannot pass. Therefore, go back.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Has he dined, canst thou tell? for I would not<br /> speak with him till after dinner.<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> You are a Roman, are you?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> I am, as thy general is.<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Then you should hate Rome, as he does. Can you,<br /> when you have pushed out your gates the very<br /> defender of them, and, in a violent popular<br /> ignorance, given your enemy your shield, think to<br /> front his revenges with the easy groans of old<br /> women, the virginal palms of your daughters, or with<br /> the palsied intercession of such a decayed dotant as<br /> you seem to be? Can you think to blow out the<br /> intended fire your city is ready to flame in, with<br /> such weak breath as this? No, you are deceived;<br /> therefore, back to Rome, and prepare for your<br /> execution: you are condemned, our general has sworn<br /> you out of reprieve and pardon.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Sirrah, if thy captain knew I were here, he would<br /> use me with estimation.<br /><br />Second Senator<br /><br /> Come, my captain knows you not.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> I mean, thy general.<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> My general cares not for you. Back, I say, go; lest<br /> I let forth your half-pint of blood; back,--that's<br /> the utmost of your having: back.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Nay, but, fellow, fellow,--<br /><br /> Enter CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> What's the matter?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> Now, you companion, I'll say an errand for you:<br /> You shall know now that I am in estimation; you shall<br /> perceive that a Jack guardant cannot office me from<br /> my son Coriolanus: guess, but by my entertainment<br /> with him, if thou standest not i' the state of<br /> hanging, or of some death more long in<br /> spectatorship, and crueller in suffering; behold now<br /> presently, and swoon for what's to come upon thee.<br /><br /> To CORIOLANUS<br /> The glorious gods sit in hourly synod about thy<br /> particular prosperity, and love thee no worse than<br /> thy old father Menenius does! O my son, my son!<br /> thou art preparing fire for us; look thee, here's<br /> water to quench it. I was hardly moved to come to<br /> thee; but being assured none but myself could move<br /> thee, I have been blown out of your gates with<br /> sighs; and conjure thee to pardon Rome, and thy<br /> petitionary countrymen. The good gods assuage thy<br /> wrath, and turn the dregs of it upon this varlet<br /> here,--this, who, like a block, hath denied my<br /> access to thee.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Away!<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> How! away!<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Wife, mother, child, I know not. My affairs<br /> Are servanted to others: though I owe<br /> My revenge properly, my remission lies<br /> In Volscian breasts. That we have been familiar,<br /> Ingrate forgetfulness shall poison, rather<br /> Than pity note how much. Therefore, be gone.<br /> Mine ears against your suits are stronger than<br /> Your gates against my force. Yet, for I loved thee,<br /> Take this along; I writ it for thy sake<br /><br /> Gives a letter<br /> And would have rent it. Another word, Menenius,<br /> I will not hear thee speak. This man, Aufidius,<br /> Was my beloved in Rome: yet thou behold'st!<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> You keep a constant temper.<br /><br /> Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Now, sir, is your name Menenius?<br /><br />Second Senator<br /><br /> 'Tis a spell, you see, of much power: you know the<br /> way home again.<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Do you hear how we are shent for keeping your<br /> greatness back?<br /><br />Second Senator<br /><br /> What cause, do you think, I have to swoon?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> I neither care for the world nor your general: for<br /> such things as you, I can scarce think there's any,<br /> ye're so slight. He that hath a will to die by<br /> himself fears it not from another: let your general<br /> do his worst. For you, be that you are, long; and<br /> your misery increase with your age! I say to you,<br /> as I was said to, Away!<br /><br /> Exit<br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> A noble fellow, I warrant him.<br /><br />Second Senator<br /><br /> The worthy fellow is our general: he's the rock, the<br /> oak not to be wind-shaken.</span><span id = 18357 >SCENE III. The tent of Coriolanus.<br /><br /> Enter CORIOLANUS, AUFIDIUS, and others <br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> We will before the walls of Rome tomorrow<br /> Set down our host. My partner in this action,<br /> You must report to the Volscian lords, how plainly<br /> I have borne this business.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Only their ends<br /> You have respected; stopp'd your ears against<br /> The general suit of Rome; never admitted<br /> A private whisper, no, not with such friends<br /> That thought them sure of you.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> This last old man,<br /> Whom with a crack'd heart I have sent to Rome,<br /> Loved me above the measure of a father;<br /> Nay, godded me, indeed. Their latest refuge<br /> Was to send him; for whose old love I have,<br /> Though I show'd sourly to him, once more offer'd<br /> The first conditions, which they did refuse<br /> And cannot now accept; to grace him only<br /> That thought he could do more, a very little<br /> I have yielded to: fresh embassies and suits,<br /> Nor from the state nor private friends, hereafter<br /> Will I lend ear to. Ha! what shout is this?<br /><br /> Shout within<br /> Shall I be tempted to infringe my vow<br /> In the same time 'tis made? I will not.<br /><br /> Enter in mourning habits, VIRGILIA, VOLUMNIA, leading young MARCIUS, VALERIA, and Attendants<br /> My wife comes foremost; then the honour'd mould<br /> Wherein this trunk was framed, and in her hand<br /> The grandchild to her blood. But, out, affection!<br /> All bond and privilege of nature, break!<br /> Let it be virtuous to be obstinate.<br /> What is that curt'sy worth? or those doves' eyes,<br /> Which can make gods forsworn? I melt, and am not<br /> Of stronger earth than others. My mother bows;<br /> As if Olympus to a molehill should<br /> In supplication nod: and my young boy<br /> Hath an aspect of intercession, which<br /> Great nature cries 'Deny not.' let the Volsces<br /> Plough Rome and harrow Italy: I'll never<br /> Be such a gosling to obey instinct, but stand,<br /> As if a man were author of himself<br /> And knew no other kin.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> My lord and husband!<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> These eyes are not the same I wore in Rome.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> The sorrow that delivers us thus changed<br /> Makes you think so.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Like a dull actor now,<br /> I have forgot my part, and I am out,<br /> Even to a full disgrace. Best of my flesh,<br /> Forgive my tyranny; but do not say<br /> For that 'Forgive our Romans.' O, a kiss<br /> Long as my exile, sweet as my revenge!<br /> Now, by the jealous queen of heaven, that kiss<br /> I carried from thee, dear; and my true lip<br /> Hath virgin'd it e'er since. You gods! I prate,<br /> And the most noble mother of the world<br /> Leave unsaluted: sink, my knee, i' the earth;<br /><br /> Kneels<br /> Of thy deep duty more impression show<br /> Than that of common sons.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> O, stand up blest!<br /> Whilst, with no softer cushion than the flint,<br /> I kneel before thee; and unproperly<br /> Show duty, as mistaken all this while<br /> Between the child and parent.<br /><br /> Kneels<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> What is this?<br /> Your knees to me? to your corrected son?<br /> Then let the pebbles on the hungry beach<br /> Fillip the stars; then let the mutinous winds<br /> Strike the proud cedars 'gainst the fiery sun;<br /> Murdering impossibility, to make<br /> What cannot be, slight work.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Thou art my warrior;<br /> I holp to frame thee. Do you know this lady?<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> The noble sister of Publicola,<br /> The moon of Rome, chaste as the icicle<br /> That's curdied by the frost from purest snow<br /> And hangs on Dian's temple: dear Valeria!<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> This is a poor epitome of yours,<br /> Which by the interpretation of full time<br /> May show like all yourself.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> The god of soldiers,<br /> With the consent of supreme Jove, inform<br /> Thy thoughts with nobleness; that thou mayst prove<br /> To shame unvulnerable, and stick i' the wars<br /> Like a great sea-mark, standing every flaw,<br /> And saving those that eye thee!<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Your knee, sirrah.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> That's my brave boy!<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Even he, your wife, this lady, and myself,<br /> Are suitors to you.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> I beseech you, peace:<br /> Or, if you'ld ask, remember this before:<br /> The thing I have forsworn to grant may never<br /> Be held by you denials. Do not bid me<br /> Dismiss my soldiers, or capitulate<br /> Again with Rome's mechanics: tell me not<br /> Wherein I seem unnatural: desire not<br /> To ally my rages and revenges with<br /> Your colder reasons.<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> O, no more, no more!<br /> You have said you will not grant us any thing;<br /> For we have nothing else to ask, but that<br /> Which you deny already: yet we will ask;<br /> That, if you fail in our request, the blame<br /> May hang upon your hardness: therefore hear us.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Aufidius, and you Volsces, mark; for we'll<br /> Hear nought from Rome in private. Your request?<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Should we be silent and not speak, our raiment<br /> And state of bodies would bewray what life<br /> We have led since thy exile. Think with thyself<br /> How more unfortunate than all living women<br /> Are we come hither: since that thy sight,<br /> which should<br /> Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance<br /> with comforts,<br /> Constrains them weep and shake with fear and sorrow;<br /> Making the mother, wife and child to see<br /> The son, the husband and the father tearing<br /> His country's bowels out. And to poor we<br /> Thine enmity's most capital: thou barr'st us<br /> Our prayers to the gods, which is a comfort<br /> That all but we enjoy; for how can we,<br /> Alas, how can we for our country pray.<br /> Whereto we are bound, together with thy victory,<br /> Whereto we are bound? alack, or we must lose<br /> The country, our dear nurse, or else thy person,<br /> Our comfort in the country. We must find<br /> An evident calamity, though we had<br /> Our wish, which side should win: for either thou<br /> Must, as a foreign recreant, be led<br /> With manacles thorough our streets, or else<br /> triumphantly tread on thy country's ruin,<br /> And bear the palm for having bravely shed<br /> Thy wife and children's blood. For myself, son,<br /> I purpose not to wait on fortune till<br /> These wars determine: if I cannot persuade thee<br /> Rather to show a noble grace to both parts<br /> Than seek the end of one, thou shalt no sooner<br /> March to assault thy country than to tread--<br /> Trust to't, thou shalt not--on thy mother's womb,<br /> That brought thee to this world.<br /><br />VIRGILIA<br /><br /> Ay, and mine,<br /> That brought you forth this boy, to keep your name<br /> Living to time.<br /><br />Young MARCIUS<br /><br /> A' shall not tread on me;<br /> I'll run away till I am bigger, but then I'll fight.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Not of a woman's tenderness to be,<br /> Requires nor child nor woman's face to see.<br /> I have sat too long.<br /><br /> Rising<br /><br />VOLUMNIA<br /><br /> Nay, go not from us thus.<br /> If it were so that our request did tend<br /> To save the Romans, thereby to destroy<br /> The Volsces whom you serve, you might condemn us,<br /> As poisonous of your honour: no; our suit<br /> Is that you reconcile them: while the Volsces<br /> May say 'This mercy we have show'd;' the Romans,<br /> 'This we received;' and each in either side<br /> Give the all-hail to thee and cry 'Be blest<br /> For making up this peace!' Thou know'st, great son,<br /> The end of war's uncertain, but this certain,<br /> That, if thou conquer Rome, the benefit<br /> Which thou shalt thereby reap is such a name,<br /> Whose repetition will be dogg'd with curses;<br /> Whose chronicle thus writ: 'The man was noble,<br /> But with his last attempt he wiped it out;<br /> Destroy'd his country, and his name remains<br /> To the ensuing age abhorr'd.' Speak to me, son:<br /> Thou hast affected the fine strains of honour,<br /> To imitate the graces of the gods;<br /> To tear with thunder the wide cheeks o' the air,<br /> And yet to charge thy sulphur with a bolt<br /> That should but rive an oak. Why dost not speak?<br /> Think'st thou it honourable for a noble man<br /> Still to remember wrongs? Daughter, speak you:<br /> He cares not for your weeping. Speak thou, boy:<br /> Perhaps thy childishness will move him more<br /> Than can our reasons. There's no man in the world<br /> More bound to 's mother; yet here he lets me prate<br /> Like one i' the stocks. Thou hast never in thy life<br /> Show'd thy dear mother any courtesy,<br /> When she, poor hen, fond of no second brood,<br /> Has cluck'd thee to the wars and safely home,<br /> Loaden with honour. Say my request's unjust,<br /> And spurn me back: but if it be not so,<br /> Thou art not honest; and the gods will plague thee,<br /> That thou restrain'st from me the duty which<br /> To a mother's part belongs. He turns away:<br /> Down, ladies; let us shame him with our knees.<br /> To his surname Coriolanus 'longs more pride<br /> Than pity to our prayers. Down: an end;<br /> This is the last: so we will home to Rome,<br /> And die among our neighbours. Nay, behold 's:<br /> This boy, that cannot tell what he would have<br /> But kneels and holds up bands for fellowship,<br /> Does reason our petition with more strength<br /> Than thou hast to deny 't. Come, let us go:<br /> This fellow had a Volscian to his mother;<br /> His wife is in Corioli and his child<br /> Like him by chance. Yet give us our dispatch:<br /> I am hush'd until our city be a-fire,<br /> And then I'll speak a little.<br /><br /> He holds her by the hand, silent<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> O mother, mother!<br /> What have you done? Behold, the heavens do ope,<br /> The gods look down, and this unnatural scene<br /> They laugh at. O my mother, mother! O!<br /> You have won a happy victory to Rome;<br /> But, for your son,--believe it, O, believe it,<br /> Most dangerously you have with him prevail'd,<br /> If not most mortal to him. But, let it come.<br /> Aufidius, though I cannot make true wars,<br /> I'll frame convenient peace. Now, good Aufidius,<br /> Were you in my stead, would you have heard<br /> A mother less? or granted less, Aufidius?<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> I was moved withal.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> I dare be sworn you were:<br /> And, sir, it is no little thing to make<br /> Mine eyes to sweat compassion. But, good sir,<br /> What peace you'll make, advise me: for my part,<br /> I'll not to Rome, I'll back with you; and pray you,<br /> Stand to me in this cause. O mother! wife!<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> [Aside] I am glad thou hast set thy mercy and<br /> thy honour<br /> At difference in thee: out of that I'll work<br /> Myself a former fortune.<br /><br /> The Ladies make signs to CORIOLANUS<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Ay, by and by;<br /><br /> To VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, & c<br /> But we will drink together; and you shall bear<br /> A better witness back than words, which we,<br /> On like conditions, will have counter-seal'd.<br /> Come, enter with us. Ladies, you deserve<br /> To have a temple built you: all the swords<br /> In Italy, and her confederate arms,<br /> Could not have made this peace.</span><span id = 18358 >SCENE IV. Rome. A public place.<br /><br /> Enter MENENIUS and SICINIUS <br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> See you yond coign o' the Capitol, yond<br /> corner-stone?<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Why, what of that?<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> If it be possible for you to displace it with your<br /> little finger, there is some hope the ladies of<br /> Rome, especially his mother, may prevail with him.<br /> But I say there is no hope in't: our throats are<br /> sentenced and stay upon execution.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Is't possible that so short a time can alter the<br /> condition of a man!<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> There is differency between a grub and a butterfly;<br /> yet your butterfly was a grub. This Marcius is grown<br /> from man to dragon: he has wings; he's more than a<br /> creeping thing.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> He loved his mother dearly.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> So did he me: and he no more remembers his mother<br /> now than an eight-year-old horse. The tartness<br /> of his face sours ripe grapes: when he walks, he<br /> moves like an engine, and the ground shrinks before<br /> his treading: he is able to pierce a corslet with<br /> his eye; talks like a knell, and his hum is a<br /> battery. He sits in his state, as a thing made for<br /> Alexander. What he bids be done is finished with<br /> his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but eternity<br /> and a heaven to throne in.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Yes, mercy, if you report him truly.<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> I paint him in the character. Mark what mercy his<br /> mother shall bring from him: there is no more mercy<br /> in him than there is milk in a male tiger; that<br /> shall our poor city find: and all this is long of<br /> you.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> The gods be good unto us!<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> No, in such a case the gods will not be good unto<br /> us. When we banished him, we respected not them;<br /> and, he returning to break our necks, they respect not us.<br /><br /> Enter a Messenger<br /><br />Messenger<br /><br /> Sir, if you'ld save your life, fly to your house:<br /> The plebeians have got your fellow-tribune<br /> And hale him up and down, all swearing, if<br /> The Roman ladies bring not comfort home,<br /> They'll give him death by inches.<br /><br /> Enter a second Messenger<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> What's the news?<br /><br />Second Messenger<br /><br /> Good news, good news; the ladies have prevail'd,<br /> The Volscians are dislodged, and Marcius gone:<br /> A merrier day did never yet greet Rome,<br /> No, not the expulsion of the Tarquins.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> Friend,<br /> Art thou certain this is true? is it most certain?<br /><br />Second Messenger<br /><br /> As certain as I know the sun is fire:<br /> Where have you lurk'd, that you make doubt of it?<br /> Ne'er through an arch so hurried the blown tide,<br /> As the recomforted through the gates. Why, hark you!<br /><br /> Trumpets; hautboys; drums beat; all together<br /> The trumpets, sackbuts, psalteries and fifes,<br /> Tabours and cymbals and the shouting Romans,<br /> Make the sun dance. Hark you!<br /><br /> A shout within<br /><br />MENENIUS<br /><br /> This is good news:<br /> I will go meet the ladies. This Volumnia<br /> Is worth of consuls, senators, patricians,<br /> A city full; of tribunes, such as you,<br /> A sea and land full. You have pray'd well to-day:<br /> This morning for ten thousand of your throats<br /> I'd not have given a doit. Hark, how they joy!<br /><br /> Music still, with shouts<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> First, the gods bless you for your tidings; next,<br /> Accept my thankfulness.<br /><br />Second Messenger<br /><br /> Sir, we have all<br /> Great cause to give great thanks.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> They are near the city?<br /><br />Second Messenger<br /><br /> Almost at point to enter.<br /><br />SICINIUS<br /><br /> We will meet them,<br /> And help the joy.</span><span id = 18359 >SCENE V. The same. A street near the gate.<br /><br /> Enter two Senators with VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, VALERIA, & c. passing over the stage, followed by Patricians and others <br /><br />First Senator<br /><br /> Behold our patroness, the life of Rome!<br /> Call all your tribes together, praise the gods,<br /> And make triumphant fires; strew flowers before them:<br /> Unshout the noise that banish'd Marcius,<br /> Repeal him with the welcome of his mother;<br /> Cry 'Welcome, ladies, welcome!'<br /><br />All<br /><br /> Welcome, ladies, Welcome!</span><span id = 18360 >SCENE VI. Antium. A public place.<br /><br /> Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS, with Attendants <br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Go tell the lords o' the city I am here:<br /> Deliver them this paper: having read it,<br /> Bid them repair to the market place; where I,<br /> Even in theirs and in the commons' ears,<br /> Will vouch the truth of it. Him I accuse<br /> The city ports by this hath enter'd and<br /> Intends to appear before the people, hoping<br /> To purge herself with words: dispatch.<br /><br /> Exeunt Attendants<br /><br /> Enter three or four Conspirators of AUFIDIUS' faction<br /> Most welcome!<br /><br />First Conspirator<br /><br /> How is it with our general?<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Even so<br /> As with a man by his own alms empoison'd,<br /> And with his charity slain.<br /><br />Second Conspirator<br /><br /> Most noble sir,<br /> If you do hold the same intent wherein<br /> You wish'd us parties, we'll deliver you<br /> Of your great danger.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Sir, I cannot tell:<br /> We must proceed as we do find the people.<br /><br />Third Conspirator<br /><br /> The people will remain uncertain whilst<br /> 'Twixt you there's difference; but the fall of either<br /> Makes the survivor heir of all.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> I know it;<br /> And my pretext to strike at him admits<br /> A good construction. I raised him, and I pawn'd<br /> Mine honour for his truth: who being so heighten'd,<br /> He water'd his new plants with dews of flattery,<br /> Seducing so my friends; and, to this end,<br /> He bow'd his nature, never known before<br /> But to be rough, unswayable and free.<br /><br />Third Conspirator<br /><br /> Sir, his stoutness<br /> When he did stand for consul, which he lost<br /> By lack of stooping,--<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> That I would have spoke of:<br /> Being banish'd for't, he came unto my hearth;<br /> Presented to my knife his throat: I took him;<br /> Made him joint-servant with me; gave him way<br /> In all his own desires; nay, let him choose<br /> Out of my files, his projects to accomplish,<br /> My best and freshest men; served his designments<br /> In mine own person; holp to reap the fame<br /> Which he did end all his; and took some pride<br /> To do myself this wrong: till, at the last,<br /> I seem'd his follower, not partner, and<br /> He waged me with his countenance, as if<br /> I had been mercenary.<br /><br />First Conspirator<br /><br /> So he did, my lord:<br /> The army marvell'd at it, and, in the last,<br /> When he had carried Rome and that we look'd<br /> For no less spoil than glory,--<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> There was it:<br /> For which my sinews shall be stretch'd upon him.<br /> At a few drops of women's rheum, which are<br /> As cheap as lies, he sold the blood and labour<br /> Of our great action: therefore shall he die,<br /> And I'll renew me in his fall. But, hark!<br /><br /> Drums and trumpets sound, with great shouts of the People<br /><br />First Conspirator<br /><br /> Your native town you enter'd like a post,<br /> And had no welcomes home: but he returns,<br /> Splitting the air with noise.<br /><br />Second Conspirator<br /><br /> And patient fools,<br /> Whose children he hath slain, their base throats tear<br /> With giving him glory.<br /><br />Third Conspirator<br /><br /> Therefore, at your vantage,<br /> Ere he express himself, or move the people<br /> With what he would say, let him feel your sword,<br /> Which we will second. When he lies along,<br /> After your way his tale pronounced shall bury<br /> His reasons with his body.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Say no more:<br /> Here come the lords.<br /><br /> Enter the Lords of the city<br /><br />All The Lords<br /><br /> You are most welcome home.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> I have not deserved it.<br /> But, worthy lords, have you with heed perused<br /> What I have written to you?<br /><br />Lords<br /><br /> We have.<br /><br />First Lord<br /><br /> And grieve to hear't.<br /> What faults he made before the last, I think<br /> Might have found easy fines: but there to end<br /> Where he was to begin and give away<br /> The benefit of our levies, answering us<br /> With our own charge, making a treaty where<br /> There was a yielding,--this admits no excuse.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> He approaches: you shall hear him.<br /><br /> Enter CORIOLANUS, marching with drum and colours; commoners being with him<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Hail, lords! I am return'd your soldier,<br /> No more infected with my country's love<br /> Than when I parted hence, but still subsisting<br /> Under your great command. You are to know<br /> That prosperously I have attempted and<br /> With bloody passage led your wars even to<br /> The gates of Rome. Our spoils we have brought home<br /> Do more than counterpoise a full third part<br /> The charges of the action. We have made peace<br /> With no less honour to the Antiates<br /> Than shame to the Romans: and we here deliver,<br /> Subscribed by the consuls and patricians,<br /> Together with the seal o' the senate, what<br /> We have compounded on.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Read it not, noble lords;<br /> But tell the traitor, in the high'st degree<br /> He hath abused your powers.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Traitor! how now!<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Ay, traitor, Marcius!<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Marcius!<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Ay, Marcius, Caius Marcius: dost thou think<br /> I'll grace thee with that robbery, thy stol'n name<br /> Coriolanus in Corioli?<br /> You lords and heads o' the state, perfidiously<br /> He has betray'd your business, and given up,<br /> For certain drops of salt, your city Rome,<br /> I say 'your city,' to his wife and mother;<br /> Breaking his oath and resolution like<br /> A twist of rotten silk, never admitting<br /> Counsel o' the war, but at his nurse's tears<br /> He whined and roar'd away your victory,<br /> That pages blush'd at him and men of heart<br /> Look'd wondering each at other.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Hear'st thou, Mars?<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Name not the god, thou boy of tears!<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Ha!<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> No more.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Measureless liar, thou hast made my heart<br /> Too great for what contains it. Boy! O slave!<br /> Pardon me, lords, 'tis the first time that ever<br /> I was forced to scold. Your judgments, my grave lords,<br /> Must give this cur the lie: and his own notion--<br /> Who wears my stripes impress'd upon him; that<br /> Must bear my beating to his grave--shall join<br /> To thrust the lie unto him.<br /><br />First Lord<br /><br /> Peace, both, and hear me speak.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> Cut me to pieces, Volsces; men and lads,<br /> Stain all your edges on me. Boy! false hound!<br /> If you have writ your annals true, 'tis there,<br /> That, like an eagle in a dove-cote, I<br /> Flutter'd your Volscians in Corioli:<br /> Alone I did it. Boy!<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Why, noble lords,<br /> Will you be put in mind of his blind fortune,<br /> Which was your shame, by this unholy braggart,<br /> 'Fore your own eyes and ears?<br /><br />All Conspirators<br /><br /> Let him die for't.<br /><br />All The People<br /><br /> 'Tear him to pieces.' 'Do it presently.' 'He kill'd<br /> my son.' 'My daughter.' 'He killed my cousin<br /> Marcus.' 'He killed my father.'<br /><br />Second Lord<br /><br /> Peace, ho! no outrage: peace!<br /> The man is noble and his fame folds-in<br /> This orb o' the earth. His last offences to us<br /> Shall have judicious hearing. Stand, Aufidius,<br /> And trouble not the peace.<br /><br />CORIOLANUS<br /><br /> O that I had him,<br /> With six Aufidiuses, or more, his tribe,<br /> To use my lawful sword!<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> Insolent villain!<br /><br />All Conspirators<br /><br /> Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill him!<br /><br /> The Conspirators draw, and kill CORIOLANUS: AUFIDIUS stands on his body<br /><br />Lords<br /><br /> Hold, hold, hold, hold!<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> My noble masters, hear me speak.<br /><br />First Lord<br /><br /> O Tullus,--<br /><br />Second Lord<br /><br /> Thou hast done a deed whereat valour will weep.<br /><br />Third Lord<br /><br /> Tread not upon him. Masters all, be quiet;<br /> Put up your swords.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> My lords, when you shall know--as in this rage,<br /> Provoked by him, you cannot--the great danger<br /> Which this man's life did owe you, you'll rejoice<br /> That he is thus cut off. Please it your honours<br /> To call me to your senate, I'll deliver<br /> Myself your loyal servant, or endure<br /> Your heaviest censure.<br /><br />First Lord<br /><br /> Bear from hence his body;<br /> And mourn you for him: let him be regarded<br /> As the most noble corse that ever herald<br /> Did follow to his urn.<br /><br />Second Lord<br /><br /> His own impatience<br /> Takes from Aufidius a great part of blame.<br /> Let's make the best of it.<br /><br />AUFIDIUS<br /><br /> My rage is gone;<br /> And I am struck with sorrow. Take him up.<br /> Help, three o' the chiefest soldiers; I'll be one.<br /> Beat thou the drum, that it speak mournfully:<br /> Trail your steel pikes. Though in this city he<br /> Hath widow'd and unchilded many a one,<br /> Which to this hour bewail the injury,<br /> Yet he shall have a noble memory. Assist.</span>