Enter Sicinius and Brutus.BRUTUS In this point charge him home, that he affects Tyrannical power. If he evade us there, Enforce him with his envy to the people, And that the spoil got on the Antiates5 Was ne’er distributed.Enter an Aedile. What, will he come?AEDILE He’s coming.BRUTUS How accompanied?AEDILE With old Menenius, and those senators10 That always favored him.SICINIUS Have you a catalogue Of all the voices that we have procured, Set down by th’ poll?AEDILE I have. ’Tis ready.SICINIUS 15 Have you collected them by tribes?AEDILE I have.SICINIUS Assemble presently the people hither; And when they hear me say “It shall be so
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I’ th’ right and strength o’ th’ commons,” be it either20 For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them If I say “Fine,” cry “Fine,” if “Death,” cry “Death,” Insisting on the old prerogative And power i’ th’ truth o’ th’ cause.AEDILE I shall inform them.BRUTUS 25 And when such time they have begun to cry, Let them not cease, but with a din confused Enforce the present execution Of what we chance to sentence.AEDILE Very well.SICINIUS 30 Make them be strong and ready for this hint When we shall hap to give ’t them.BRUTUS Go about it.⌜Aedile exits.⌝ Put him to choler straight. He hath been used Ever to conquer and to have his worth35 Of contradiction. Being once chafed, he cannot Be reined again to temperance; then he speaks What’s in his heart, and that is there which looks With us to break his neck.Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, and Cominius, with
others ⌜(Senators).⌝SICINIUS Well, here he comes.MENENIUS, ⌜aside to Coriolanus⌝ 40Calmly, I do beseech you.CORIOLANUS, ⌜aside to Menenius⌝ Ay, as an hostler that ⌜for th’⌝ poorest piece Will bear the knave by th’ volume.—Th’ honored gods45 Keep Rome in safety and the chairs of justice Supplied with worthy men! Plant love among ’s!
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⌜Throng⌝ our large temples with the shows of peace And not our streets with war!FIRST SENATOR Amen, amen.MENENIUS 50A noble wish.Enter the Aedile with the Plebeians.SICINIUS Draw near, you people.AEDILE List to your tribunes. Audience! Peace, I say!CORIOLANUS First, hear me speak.BOTH TRIBUNES Well, say.—Peace, ho!CORIOLANUS 55 Shall I be charged no further than this present? Must all determine here?SICINIUS I do demand If you submit you to the people’s voices, Allow their officers, and are content60 To suffer lawful censure for such faults As shall be proved upon you.CORIOLANUS I am content.MENENIUS Lo, citizens, he says he is content. The warlike service he has done, consider. Think65 Upon the wounds his body bears, which show Like graves i’ th’ holy churchyard.CORIOLANUS Scratches with briars, Scars to move laughter only.MENENIUS 70 Consider further, That when he speaks not like a citizen, You find him like a soldier. Do not take His rougher ⌜accents⌝ for malicious sounds, But, as I say, such as become a soldier75 Rather than envy you.COMINIUS Well, well, no more.
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CORIOLANUS What is the matter, That, being passed for consul with full voice, I am so dishonored that the very hour80 You take it off again?SICINIUS Answer to us.CORIOLANUS Say then. ’Tis true, I ought so.SICINIUS We charge you that you have contrived to take From Rome all seasoned office and to wind85 Yourself into a power tyrannical, For which you are a traitor to the people.CORIOLANUS How? Traitor?MENENIUS Nay, temperately! Your promise.CORIOLANUS The fires i’ th’ lowest hell fold in the people!90 Call me their traitor? Thou injurious tribune! Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths, In thy hands clutched as many millions, in Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say “Thou liest” unto thee with a voice as free95 As I do pray the gods.SICINIUS Mark you this, people?ALL ⌜PLEBEIANS⌝ To th’ rock, to th’ rock with him!SICINIUS Peace! We need not put new matter to his charge.100 What you have seen him do and heard him speak, Beating your officers, cursing yourselves, Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying Those whose great power must try him—even this, So criminal and in such capital kind,105 Deserves th’ extremest death.BRUTUS But since he hath Served well for Rome—CORIOLANUS What do you prate of service?BRUTUS I talk of that that know it.
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CORIOLANUS 110You?MENENIUS Is this the promise that you made your mother?COMINIUS Know, I pray you—CORIOLANUS I’ll know no further. Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,115 Vagabond exile, flaying, pent to linger But with a grain a day, I would not buy Their mercy at the price of one fair word, Nor check my courage for what they can give, To have ’t with saying “Good morrow.”SICINIUS 120 For that he has, As much as in him lies, from time to time Envied against the people, seeking means To pluck away their power, as now at last Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence125 Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers That doth distribute it, in the name o’ th’ people And in the power of us the Tribunes, we, Even from this instant, banish him our city In peril of precipitation130 From off the rock Tarpeian, never more To enter our Rome gates. I’ th’ people’s name, I say it shall be so.ALL ⌜PLEBEIANS⌝ It shall be so, it shall be so! Let him away! He’s banished, and it shall be so.COMINIUS 135 Hear me, my masters and my common friends—SICINIUS He’s sentenced. No more hearing.COMINIUS Let me speak. I have been consul and can show ⌜for⌝ Rome Her enemies’ marks upon me. I do love140 My country’s good with a respect more tender, More holy and profound, than mine own life,
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My dear wife’s estimate, her womb’s increase, And treasure of my loins. Then if I would Speak that—SICINIUS 145 We know your drift. Speak what?BRUTUS There’s no more to be said, but he is banished As enemy to the people and his country. It shall be so.ALL ⌜PLEBEIANS⌝ It shall be so, it shall be so!CORIOLANUS 150 You common cry of curs, whose breath I hate As reek o’ th’ rotten fens, whose loves I prize As the dead carcasses of unburied men That do corrupt my air, I banish you! And here remain with your uncertainty;155 Let every feeble rumor shake your hearts; Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes, Fan you into despair! Have the power still To banish your defenders, till at length Your ignorance—which finds not till it feels,160 Making but reservation of yourselves, Still your own foes—deliver you As most abated captives to some nation That won you without blows! Despising For you the city, thus I turn my back.165 There is a world elsewhere.Coriolanus, Cominius, with others ⌜(Senators)⌝ exit.AEDILE The people’s enemy is gone, is gone.ALL ⌜PLEBEIANS⌝ Our enemy is banished; he is gone. Hoo, hoo!They all shout and throw up their caps.SICINIUS Go see him out at gates, and follow him, As he hath followed you, with all despite.
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170 Give him deserved vexation. Let a guard Attend us through the city.ALL ⌜PLEBEIANS⌝ Come, come, let’s see him out at gates! Come! The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come!They exit.
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