Cornets. Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, all the Gentry,
Cominius, Titus Lartius, and other Senators.CORIOLANUS Tullus Aufidius then had made new head?LARTIUS He had, my lord, and that it was which caused Our swifter composition.CORIOLANUS So then the Volsces stand but as at first,5 Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road Upon ’s again.COMINIUS They are worn, lord consul, so, That we shall hardly in our ages see Their banners wave again.CORIOLANUS 10 Saw you Aufidius?LARTIUS On safeguard he came to me, and did curse Against the Volsces, for they had so vilely Yielded the town. He is retired to Antium.CORIOLANUS Spoke he of me?LARTIUS 15 He did, my lord.CORIOLANUS How? What?LARTIUS How often he had met you sword to sword;
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That of all things upon the earth he hated Your person most; that he would pawn his fortunes20 To hopeless restitution, so he might Be called your vanquisher.CORIOLANUS At Antium lives he?LARTIUS At Antium.CORIOLANUS I wish I had a cause to seek him there,25 To oppose his hatred fully. Welcome home.Enter Sicinius and Brutus. Behold, these are the tribunes of the people, The tongues o’ th’ common mouth. I do despise them, For they do prank them in authority30 Against all noble sufferance.SICINIUS Pass no further.CORIOLANUS Ha? What is that?BRUTUS It will be dangerous to go on. No further.CORIOLANUS What makes this change?MENENIUS 35The matter?COMINIUS Hath he not passed the noble and the common?BRUTUS Cominius, no.CORIOLANUS Have I had children’s voices?⌜FIRST⌝ SENATOR Tribunes, give way. He shall to th’ marketplace.BRUTUS 40 The people are incensed against him.SICINIUS Stop, Or all will fall in broil.CORIOLANUS Are these your herd? Must these have voices, that can yield them now
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45 And straight disclaim their tongues? What are your offices? You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth? Have you not set them on?MENENIUS 50 Be calm, be calm.CORIOLANUS It is a purposed thing, and grows by plot, To curb the will of the nobility. Suffer ’t, and live with such as cannot rule Nor ever will be ruled.BRUTUS 55 Call ’t not a plot. The people cry you mocked them; and, of late, When corn was given them gratis, you repined, Scandaled the suppliants for the people, called them Timepleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness.CORIOLANUS 60 Why, this was known before.BRUTUS Not to them all.CORIOLANUS Have you informed them sithence?BRUTUS How? I inform them?COMINIUS 65You are like to do such business.BRUTUS Not unlike, each way, to better yours.CORIOLANUS Why then should I be consul? By yond clouds, Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me Your fellow tribune.SICINIUS 70 You show too much of that For which the people stir. If you will pass To where you are bound, you must inquire your way,
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Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit,75 Or never be so noble as a consul, Nor yoke with him for tribune.MENENIUS Let’s be calm.COMINIUS The people are abused, set on. This palt’ring Becomes not Rome, nor has Coriolanus80 Deserved this so dishonored rub, laid falsely I’ th’ plain way of his merit.CORIOLANUS Tell me of corn? This was my speech, and I will speak ’t again.MENENIUS Not now, not now.⌜FIRST⌝ SENATOR 85 Not in this heat, sir, now.CORIOLANUS Now, as I live, I will. My nobler friends, I crave their pardons. For The mutable, rank-scented meiny, let them Regard me, as I do not flatter, and90 Therein behold themselves. I say again, In soothing them, we nourish ’gainst our senate The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition, Which we ourselves have plowed for, sowed, and scattered95 By mingling them with us, the honored number, Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that Which they have given to beggars.MENENIUS Well, no more.⌜FIRST⌝ SENATOR No more words, we beseech you.CORIOLANUS 100 How? No more? As for my country I have shed my blood, Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs Coin words till their decay against those measles Which we disdain should tetter us, yet sought105 The very way to catch them.
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BRUTUS You speak o’ th’ people As if you were a god to punish, not A man of their infirmity.SICINIUS ’Twere well110 We let the people know ’t.MENENIUS What, what? His choler?CORIOLANUS Choler? Were I as patient as the midnight sleep, By Jove, ’twould be my mind.SICINIUS 115 It is a mind That shall remain a poison where it is, Not poison any further.CORIOLANUS “Shall remain”? Hear you this Triton of the minnows? Mark you120 His absolute “shall”?COMINIUS ’Twas from the canon.CORIOLANUS “Shall”? O ⌜good⌝ but most unwise patricians, why, You grave but reckless senators, have you thus125 Given Hydra here to choose an officer, That with his peremptory “shall,” being but The horn and noise o’ th’ monster’s, wants not spirit To say he’ll turn your current in a ditch And make your channel his? If he have power,130 Then vail your ignorance; if none, awake Your dangerous lenity. If you are learned, Be not as common fools; if you are not, Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians, If they be senators; and they are no less135 When, both your voices blended, the great’st taste Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate, And such a one as he, who puts his “shall,” His popular “shall,” against a graver bench Than ever frowned in Greece. By Jove himself,140 It makes the consuls base! And my soul aches To know, when two authorities are up,
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Neither supreme, how soon confusion May enter ’twixt the gap of both and take The one by th’ other.COMINIUS 145 Well, on to th’ marketplace.CORIOLANUS Whoever gave that counsel to give forth The corn o’ th’ storehouse gratis, as ’twas used Sometime in Greece—MENENIUS Well, well, no more of that.CORIOLANUS 150 Though there the people had more absolute power, I say they nourished disobedience, fed The ruin of the state.BRUTUS Why shall the people give One that speaks thus their voice?CORIOLANUS 155 I’ll give my reasons, More worthier than their voices. They know the corn Was not our recompense, resting well assured They ne’er did service for ’t. Being pressed to th’ war,160 Even when the navel of the state was touched, They would not thread the gates. This kind of service Did not deserve corn gratis. Being i’ th’ war, Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they showed165 Most valor, spoke not for them. Th’ accusation Which they have often made against the Senate, All cause unborn, could never be the native Of our so frank donation. Well, what then? How shall this bosom multiplied digest170 The Senate’s courtesy? Let deeds express What’s like to be their words: “We did request it; We are the greater poll, and in true fear They gave us our demands.” Thus we debase The nature of our seats and make the rabble175 Call our cares fears, which will in time
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Break ope the locks o’ th’ Senate and bring in The crows to peck the eagles.MENENIUS Come, enough.BRUTUS Enough, with over-measure.CORIOLANUS 180 No, take more! What may be sworn by, both divine and human, Seal what I end withal! This double worship— ⌜Where one⌝ part does disdain with cause, the other Insult without all reason, where gentry, title,185 wisdom Cannot conclude but by the yea and no Of general ignorance—it must omit Real necessities and give way the while To unstable slightness. Purpose so barred, it follows190 Nothing is done to purpose. Therefore, beseech you— You that will be less fearful than discreet, That love the fundamental part of state More than you doubt the change on ’t, that prefer195 A noble life before a long, and wish To jump a body with a dangerous physic That’s sure of death without it—at once pluck out The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick The sweet which is their poison. Your dishonor200 Mangles true judgment and bereaves the state Of that integrity which should become ’t, Not having the power to do the good it would For th’ ill which doth control ’t.BRUTUS ’Has said enough.SICINIUS 205 ’Has spoken like a traitor and shall answer As traitors do.CORIOLANUS Thou wretch, despite o’erwhelm thee! What should the people do with these bald tribunes, On whom depending, their obedience fails
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210 To th’ greater bench? In a rebellion, When what’s not meet but what must be was law, Then were they chosen. In a better hour, Let what is meet be said it must be meet, And throw their power i’ th’ dust.BRUTUS 215Manifest treason.SICINIUS This a consul? No.BRUTUS The aediles, ho! Let him be apprehended.Enter an Aedile.SICINIUS Go, call the people; ⌜Aedile exits.⌝ in whose name myself220 Attach thee as a traitorous innovator, A foe to th’ public weal. Obey, I charge thee, And follow to thine answer.CORIOLANUS Hence, old goat.ALL ⌜PATRICIANS⌝ We’ll surety him.COMINIUS, ⌜to Sicinius⌝ 225 Agèd sir, hands off.CORIOLANUS, ⌜to Sicinius⌝ Hence, rotten thing, or I shall shake thy bones Out of thy garments.SICINIUS Help, you citizens!Enter a rabble of Plebeians with the Aediles.MENENIUS On both sides more respect!SICINIUS 230 Here’s he that would take from you all your power.BRUTUS Seize him, aediles.ALL ⌜PLEBEIANS⌝ Down with him, down with him!SECOND SENATOR Weapons, weapons, weapons!They all bustle about Coriolanus. Tribunes, patricians, citizens, what ho!235 Sicinius, Brutus, Coriolanus, citizens!
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ALL Peace, peace, peace! Stay, hold, peace!MENENIUS What is about to be? I am out of breath. Confusion’s near. I cannot speak. You, tribunes To th’ people!—Coriolanus, patience!—240 Speak, good Sicinius.SICINIUS Hear me, people! Peace!ALL ⌜PLEBEIANS⌝ Let’s hear our tribune. Peace! Speak, speak, speak.SICINIUS You are at point to lose your liberties. Martius would have all from you, Martius,245 Whom late you have named for consul.MENENIUS Fie, fie, fie! This is the way to kindle, not to quench.⌜FIRST⌝ SENATOR To unbuild the city and to lay all flat.SICINIUS What is the city but the people?ALL ⌜PLEBEIANS⌝ 250 True, The people are the city.BRUTUS By the consent of all, we were established The people’s magistrates.ALL ⌜PLEBEIANS⌝ You so remain.MENENIUS 255And so are like to do.⌜CORIOLANUS⌝ That is the way to lay the city flat, To bring the roof to the foundation And bury all which yet distinctly ranges In heaps and piles of ruin.SICINIUS 260 This deserves death.BRUTUS Or let us stand to our authority Or let us lose it. We do here pronounce, Upon the part o’ th’ people, in whose power
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We were elected theirs, Martius is worthy265 Of present death.SICINIUS Therefore lay hold of him, Bear him to th’ rock Tarpeian, and from thence Into destruction cast him.BRUTUS Aediles, seize him!ALL PLEBEIANS 270 Yield, Martius, yield!MENENIUS Hear me one word. Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word.AEDILES Peace, peace!MENENIUS Be that you seem, truly your country’s friend,275 And temp’rately proceed to what you would Thus violently redress.BRUTUS Sir, those cold ways, That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonous Where the disease is violent.—Lay hands upon him,280 And bear him to the rock.Coriolanus draws his sword.CORIOLANUS No, I’ll die here. There’s some among you have beheld me fighting. Come, try upon yourselves what you have seen me.MENENIUS Down with that sword!—Tribunes, withdraw awhile.BRUTUS 285 Lay hands upon him!MENENIUS Help Martius, help! You that be noble, help him, young and old!ALL ⌜PLEBEIANS⌝ Down with him, down with him!In this mutiny, the Tribunes, the Aediles, and the People
are beat in.MENENIUS, ⌜to Coriolanus⌝ Go, get you to ⌜your⌝ house. Begone, away.290 All will be naught else.
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SECOND SENATOR Get you gone.⌜CORIOLANUS⌝ Stand fast! We have as many friends as enemies.MENENIUS Shall it be put to that?⌜FIRST⌝ SENATOR 295 The gods forbid!— I prithee, noble friend, home to thy house; Leave us to cure this cause.MENENIUS For ’tis a sore upon us You cannot tent yourself. Begone, beseech you.⌜COMINIUS⌝ 300Come, sir, along with us.⌜CORIOLANUS⌝ I would they were barbarians, as they are, Though in Rome littered; not Romans, as they are not, Though calved i’ th’ porch o’ th’ Capitol.MENENIUS 305 Begone! Put not your worthy rage into your tongue. One time will owe another.CORIOLANUS On fair ground I could beat forty of them.MENENIUS 310 I could myself Take up a brace o’ th’ best of them, yea, the two tribunes.COMINIUS But now ’tis odds beyond arithmetic, And manhood is called foolery when it stands315 Against a falling fabric. ⌜To Coriolanus.⌝ Will you hence, Before the tag return, whose rage doth rend Like interrupted waters and o’erbear What they are used to bear?MENENIUS, ⌜to Coriolanus⌝ 320 Pray you, begone. I’ll try whether my old wit be in request With those that have but little. This must be patched With cloth of any color.
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COMINIUS Nay, come away.Coriolanus and Cominius exit.PATRICIAN 325This man has marred his fortune.MENENIUS His nature is too noble for the world. He would not flatter Neptune for his trident Or Jove for ’s power to thunder. His heart’s his mouth;330 What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent, And, being angry, does forget that ever He heard the name of death.A noise within. Here’s goodly work.PATRICIAN I would they were abed!MENENIUS 335 I would they were in Tiber. What the vengeance, Could he not speak ’em fair?Enter Brutus and Sicinius with the rabble again.SICINIUS Where is this viper That would depopulate the city and Be every man himself?MENENIUS 340 You worthy tribunes—SICINIUS He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock With rigorous hands. He hath resisted law, And therefore law shall scorn him further trial Than the severity of the public power345 Which he so sets at naught.FIRST CITIZEN He shall well know The noble tribunes are the people’s mouths And we their hands.ALL ⌜PLEBEIANS⌝ He shall, sure on ’t.MENENIUS 350Sir, sir—SICINIUS Peace!
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MENENIUS Do not cry havoc where you should but hunt With modest warrant.SICINIUS Sir, how comes ’t that you355 Have holp to make this rescue?MENENIUS Hear me speak. As I do know the Consul’s worthiness, So can I name his faults.SICINIUS Consul? What consul?MENENIUS 360The consul Coriolanus.BRUTUS He consul?ALL ⌜PLEBEIANS⌝ No, no, no, no, no!MENENIUS If, by the Tribunes’ leave, and yours, good people, I may be heard, I would crave a word or two,365 The which shall turn you to no further harm Than so much loss of time.SICINIUS Speak briefly then, For we are peremptory to dispatch This viperous traitor. To eject him hence370 Were but one danger, and to keep him here Our certain death. Therefore it is decreed He dies tonight.MENENIUS Now the good gods forbid That our renownèd Rome, whose gratitude375 Towards her deservèd children is enrolled In Jove’s own book, like an unnatural dam Should now eat up her own.SICINIUS He’s a disease that must be cut away.MENENIUS O, he’s a limb that has but a disease—380 Mortal to cut it off; to cure it easy. What has he done to Rome that’s worthy death? Killing our enemies, the blood he hath lost— Which I dare vouch is more than that he hath
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By many an ounce—he dropped it for his country;385 And what is left, to lose it by his country Were to us all that do ’t and suffer it A brand to th’ end o’ th’ world.SICINIUS This is clean cam.BRUTUS Merely awry. When he did love his country,390 It honored him.⌜SICINIUS⌝ The service of the foot, Being once gangrened, is not then respected For what before it was.BRUTUS We’ll hear no more.395 Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence, Lest his infection, being of catching nature, Spread further.MENENIUS One word more, one word! This tiger-footed rage, when it shall find400 The harm of unscanned swiftness, will too late Tie leaden pounds to ’s heels. Proceed by process, Lest parties—as he is beloved—break out And sack great Rome with Romans.BRUTUS If it were so—SICINIUS 405What do you talk? Have we not had a taste of his obedience? Our aediles smote! Ourselves resisted! Come.MENENIUS Consider this: he has been bred i’ th’ wars Since he could draw a sword, and is ill schooled410 In bolted language; meal and bran together He throws without distinction. Give me leave, I’ll go to him and undertake to bring him Where he shall answer by a lawful form, In peace, to his utmost peril.FIRST SENATOR 415 Noble tribunes, It is the humane way: the other course
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Will prove too bloody, and the end of it Unknown to the beginning.SICINIUS Noble Menenius,420 Be you then as the people’s officer.— Masters, lay down your weapons.BRUTUS Go not home.SICINIUS Meet on the marketplace. ⌜To Menenius.⌝ We’ll attend you there,425 Where if you bring not Martius, we’ll proceed In our first way.MENENIUS I’ll bring him to you. ⌜To Senators.⌝ Let me desire your company. He must come,430 Or what is worst will follow.⌜FIRST⌝ SENATOR Pray you, let’s to him.All exit.
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