Enter a company of mutinous Citizens with staves,
clubs, and other weapons.FIRST CITIZEN Before we proceed any further, hear me speak.ALL Speak, speak!FIRST CITIZEN You are all resolved rather to die than to5 famish?ALL Resolved, resolved!FIRST CITIZEN First, you know Caius Martius is chief enemy to the people.ALL We know ’t, we know ’t!FIRST CITIZEN 10Let us kill him, and we’ll have corn at our own price. Is ’t a verdict?ALL No more talking on ’t; let it be done. Away, away!SECOND CITIZEN One word, good citizens.FIRST CITIZEN We are accounted poor citizens, the patricians15 good. What authority surfeits on would relieve us. If they would yield us but the superfluity while it were wholesome, we might guess they relieved us humanely. But they think we are too dear. The leanness that afflicts us, the object of our20 misery, is as an inventory to particularize their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this with our pikes ere we become
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rakes; for the gods know I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge.SECOND CITIZEN 25Would you proceed especially against Caius Martius?ALL Against him first. He’s a very dog to the commonalty.SECOND CITIZEN Consider you what services he has30 done for his country?FIRST CITIZEN Very well, and could be content to give him good report for ’t, but that he pays himself with being proud.⌜SECOND CITIZEN⌝ Nay, but speak not maliciously.FIRST CITIZEN 35I say unto you, what he hath done famously he did it to that end. Though soft-conscienced men can be content to say it was for his country, he did it to please his mother and to be partly proud, which he is, even to the altitude of40 his virtue.SECOND CITIZEN What he cannot help in his nature you account a vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous.FIRST CITIZEN If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations.45 He hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. (Shouts within.) What shouts are these? The other side o’ th’ city is risen. Why stay we prating here? To th’ Capitol!ALL Come, come!Enter Menenius Agrippa.FIRST CITIZEN 50Soft, who comes here?SECOND CITIZEN Worthy Menenius Agrippa, one that hath always loved the people.FIRST CITIZEN He’s one honest enough. Would all the rest were so!
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MENENIUS 55 What work ’s, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray you.SECOND CITIZEN Our business is not unknown to th’ Senate. They have had inkling this fortnight what60 we intend to do, which now we’ll show ’em in deeds. They say poor suitors have strong breaths; they shall know we have strong arms too.MENENIUS Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbors,65 Will you undo yourselves?SECOND CITIZEN We cannot, sir; we are undone already.MENENIUS I tell you, friends, most charitable care Have the patricians of you. For your wants, Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well70 Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them Against the Roman state, whose course will on The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs Of more strong link asunder than can ever Appear in your impediment. For the dearth,75 The gods, not the patricians, make it, and Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack, You are transported by calamity Thither where more attends you, and you slander The helms o’ th’ state, who care for you like fathers,80 When you curse them as enemies.SECOND CITIZEN Care for us? True, indeed! They ne’er cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their storehouses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury to support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome85 act established against the rich, and provide more piercing statutes daily to chain up and restrain
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the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there’s all the love they bear us.MENENIUS Either you must confess yourselves wondrous90 malicious Or be accused of folly. I shall tell you A pretty tale. It may be you have heard it, But since it serves my purpose, I will venture To ⌜stale⌝ ’t a little more.SECOND CITIZEN 95Well, I’ll hear it, sir; yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale. But, an ’t please you, deliver.MENENIUS There was a time when all the body’s members Rebelled against the belly, thus accused it:100 That only like a gulf it did remain I’ th’ midst o’ th’ body, idle and unactive, Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing Like labor with the rest, where th’ other instruments Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,105 And, mutually participate, did minister Unto the appetite and affection common Of the whole body. The belly answered—SECOND CITIZEN Well, sir, what answer made the belly?MENENIUS Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile,110 Which ne’er came from the lungs, but even thus— For, look you, I may make the belly smile As well as speak—it ⌜tauntingly⌝ replied To th’ discontented members, the mutinous parts That envied his receipt; even so most fitly115 As you malign our senators for that They are not such as you.SECOND CITIZEN Your belly’s answer—what? The kingly crownèd head, the vigilant eye, The counselor heart, the arm our soldier,
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120 Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter, With other muniments and petty helps In this our fabric, if that they—MENENIUS What then? ’Fore me, this fellow speaks. What then? What then?SECOND CITIZEN 125 Should by the cormorant belly be restrained, Who is the sink o’ th’ body—MENENIUS Well, what then?SECOND CITIZEN The former agents, if they did complain, What could the belly answer?MENENIUS 130 I will tell you, If you’ll bestow a small—of what you have little— Patience awhile, you’st hear the belly’s answer.SECOND CITIZEN You’re long about it.MENENIUS Note me this, good friend;135 Your most grave belly was deliberate, Not rash like his accusers, and thus answered: “True is it, my incorporate friends,” quoth he, “That I receive the general food at first Which you do live upon; and fit it is,140 Because I am the storehouse and the shop Of the whole body. But, if you do remember, I send it through the rivers of your blood Even to the court, the heart, to th’ seat o’ th’ brain; And, through the cranks and offices of man,145 The strongest nerves and small inferior veins From me receive that natural competency Whereby they live. And though that all at once, You, my good friends”—this says the belly, mark me—SECOND CITIZEN 150 Ay, sir, well, well.
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MENENIUS “Though all at once cannot See what I do deliver out to each, Yet I can make my audit up, that all From me do back receive the flour of all,155 And leave me but the bran.” What say you to ’t?SECOND CITIZEN It was an answer. How apply you this?MENENIUS The senators of Rome are this good belly, And you the mutinous members. For examine Their counsels and their cares, digest things rightly160 Touching the weal o’ th’ common, you shall find No public benefit which you receive But it proceeds or comes from them to you And no way from yourselves. What do you think, You, the great toe of this assembly?SECOND CITIZEN 165I the great toe? Why the great toe?MENENIUS For that, being one o’ th’ lowest, basest, poorest, Of this most wise rebellion, thou goest foremost. Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run, Lead’st first to win some vantage.170 But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs. Rome and her rats are at the point of battle; The one side must have bale.Enter Caius Martius. Hail, noble Martius.MARTIUS Thanks.—What’s the matter, you dissentious rogues,175 That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, Make yourselves scabs?SECOND CITIZEN We have ever your good word.MARTIUS He that will give good words to thee will flatter Beneath abhorring. What would you have, you curs,
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180 That like nor peace nor war? The one affrights you; The other makes you proud. He that trusts to you, Where he should find you lions, finds you hares; Where foxes, geese. You are no surer, no, Than is the coal of fire upon the ice185 Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is To make him worthy whose offense subdues him, And curse that justice did it. Who deserves greatness Deserves your hate; and your affections are A sick man’s appetite, who desires most that190 Which would increase his evil. He that depends Upon your favors swims with fins of lead, And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang you! Trust you? With every minute you do change a mind195 And call him noble that was now your hate, Him vile that was your garland. What’s the matter, That in these several places of the city You cry against the noble senate, who, Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else200 Would feed on one another?—What’s their seeking?MENENIUS For corn at their own rates, whereof they say The city is well stored.MARTIUS Hang ’em! They say? They’ll sit by th’ fire and presume to know205 What’s done i’ th’ Capitol, who’s like to rise, Who thrives, and who declines; side factions and give out Conjectural marriages, making parties strong And feebling such as stand not in their liking210 Below their cobbled shoes. They say there’s grain enough? Would the nobility lay aside their ruth And let me use my sword, I’d make a quarry
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With thousands of these quartered slaves as high215 As I could pick my lance.MENENIUS Nay, these are almost thoroughly persuaded; For though abundantly they lack discretion, Yet are they passing cowardly. But I beseech you, What says the other troop?MARTIUS 220 They are dissolved. Hang ’em! They said they were an-hungry, sighed forth proverbs That hunger broke stone walls, that dogs must eat,225 That meat was made for mouths, that the gods sent not Corn for the rich men only. With these shreds They vented their complainings, which being answered230 And a petition granted them—a strange one, To break the heart of generosity And make bold power look pale—they threw their caps As they would hang them on the horns o’ th’ moon,235 Shouting their emulation.MENENIUS What is granted them?MARTIUS Five tribunes to defend their vulgar wisdoms, Of their own choice. One’s Junius Brutus, Sicinius Velutus, and I know not. ’Sdeath!240 The rabble should have first ⌜unroofed⌝ the city Ere so prevailed with me. It will in time Win upon power and throw forth greater themes For insurrection’s arguing.MENENIUS This is strange.MARTIUS 245Go get you home, you fragments.Enter a Messenger hastily.
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MESSENGER Where’s Caius Martius?MARTIUS Here. What’s the matter?MESSENGER The news is, sir, the Volsces are in arms.MARTIUS I am glad on ’t. Then we shall ha’ means to vent250 Our musty superfluity.Enter Sicinius Velutus, Junius Brutus, ⌜(two Tribunes);⌝
Cominius, Titus Lartius, with other Senators. See our best elders.FIRST SENATOR Martius, ’tis true that you have lately told us: The Volsces are in arms.MARTIUS They have a leader,255 Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to ’t. I sin in envying his nobility, And, were I anything but what I am, I would wish me only he.COMINIUS You have fought together?MARTIUS 260 Were half to half the world by th’ ears and he Upon my party, I’d revolt, to make Only my wars with him. He is a lion That I am proud to hunt.FIRST SENATOR Then, worthy Martius,265 Attend upon Cominius to these wars.COMINIUS It is your former promise.MARTIUS Sir, it is, And I am constant.—Titus ⌜Lartius,⌝ thou Shalt see me once more strike at Tullus’ face.270 What, art thou stiff? Stand’st out?
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LARTIUS No, Caius Martius, I’ll lean upon one crutch and fight with t’ other Ere stay behind this business.MENENIUS O, true bred!⌜FIRST⌝ SENATOR 275 Your company to th’ Capitol, where I know Our greatest friends attend us.LARTIUS, ⌜to Cominius⌝ Lead you on.— ⌜To Martius.⌝ Follow Cominius. We must follow you; Right worthy you priority.COMINIUS 280 Noble Martius.⌜FIRST⌝ SENATOR, ⌜to the Citizens⌝ Hence to your homes, begone.MARTIUS Nay, let them follow. The Volsces have much corn; take these rats thither To gnaw their garners.Citizens steal away.285 Worshipful mutineers, Your valor puts well forth.—Pray follow.They exit. Sicinius and Brutus remain.SICINIUS Was ever man so proud as is this Martius?BRUTUS He has no equal.SICINIUS When we were chosen tribunes for the people—BRUTUS 290 Marked you his lip and eyes?SICINIUS Nay, but his taunts.BRUTUS Being moved, he will not spare to gird the gods—SICINIUS Bemock the modest moon.BRUTUS The present wars devour him! He is grown295 Too proud to be so valiant.
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SICINIUS Such a nature, Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow Which he treads on at noon. But I do wonder His insolence can brook to be commanded300 Under Cominius.BRUTUS Fame, at the which he aims, In whom already he’s well graced, cannot Better be held nor more attained than by A place below the first; for what miscarries305 Shall be the General’s fault, though he perform To th’ utmost of a man, and giddy censure Will then cry out of Martius “O, if he Had borne the business!”SICINIUS Besides, if things go well,310 Opinion that so sticks on Martius shall Of his demerits rob Cominius.BRUTUS Come. Half all Cominius’ honors are to Martius, Though Martius earned them not, and all his faults315 To Martius shall be honors, though indeed In aught he merit not.SICINIUS Let’s hence and hear How the dispatch is made, and in what fashion, More than his singularity, he goes320 Upon this present action.BRUTUS Let’s along.They exit.
Enter Tullus Aufidius with Senators of Corioles.FIRST SENATOR So, your opinion is, Aufidius, That they of Rome are entered in our counsels And know how we proceed.
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ACT 1. SC. 2
AUFIDIUS Is it not yours?5 Whatever have been thought on in this state That could be brought to bodily act ere Rome Had circumvention? ’Tis not four days gone Since I heard thence. These are the words—I think I have the letter here. Yes, here it is.10 ⌜(He reads.)⌝ They have pressed a power, but it is not
known
Whether for east or west. The dearth is great.
The people mutinous; and, it is rumored,
Cominius, Martius your old enemy,
15 Who is of Rome worse hated than of you,
And Titus Lartius, a most valiant Roman,
These three lead on this preparation
Whither ’tis bent. Most likely ’tis for you.
Consider of it.FIRST SENATOR 20Our army’s in the field. We never yet made doubt but Rome was ready To answer us.AUFIDIUS Nor did you think it folly To keep your great pretenses veiled till when25 They needs must show themselves, which, in the hatching, It seemed, appeared to Rome. By the discovery We shall be shortened in our aim, which was To take in many towns ere almost Rome30 Should know we were afoot.SECOND SENATOR Noble Aufidius, Take your commission; hie you to your bands. Let us alone to guard Corioles. If they set down before ’s, for the remove35 Bring up your army. But I think you’ll find They’ve not prepared for us.AUFIDIUS O, doubt not that; I speak from certainties. Nay, more,
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Some parcels of their power are forth already,40 And only hitherward. I leave your Honors. If we and Caius Martius chance to meet, ’Tis sworn between us we shall ever strike Till one can do no more.ALL The gods assist you!AUFIDIUS 45And keep your Honors safe!FIRST SENATOR Farewell.SECOND SENATOR Farewell.ALL Farewell.All exit.
Enter Volumnia and Virgilia, mother and wife
to Martius. They set them down on two low stools
and sew.VOLUMNIA I pray you, daughter, sing, or express yourself in a more comfortable sort. If my son were my husband, I should freelier rejoice in that absence wherein he won honor than in the embracements5 of his bed where he would show most love. When yet he was but tender-bodied and the only son of my womb, when youth with comeliness plucked all gaze his way, when for a day of kings’ entreaties a mother should not sell him an hour from her beholding,10 I, considering how honor would become such a person—that it was no better than picture-like to hang by th’ wall, if renown made it not stir—was pleased to let him seek danger where he was like to find fame. To a cruel war I sent him,15 from whence he returned, his brows bound with oak. I tell thee, daughter, I sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child than now in first seeing he had proved himself a man.
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VIRGILIA But had he died in the business, madam, how20 then?VOLUMNIA Then his good report should have been my son; I therein would have found issue. Hear me profess sincerely: had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike and none less dear than thine and my25 good Martius, I had rather had eleven die nobly for their country than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.Enter a Gentlewoman.GENTLEWOMAN Madam, the Lady Valeria is come to visit you.VIRGILIA 30 Beseech you, give me leave to retire myself.VOLUMNIA Indeed you shall not. Methinks I hear hither your husband’s drum, See him pluck Aufidius down by th’ hair; As children from a bear, the Volsces shunning him.35 Methinks I see him stamp thus and call thus: “Come on, you cowards! You were got in fear, Though you were born in Rome.” His bloody brow With his mailed hand then wiping, forth he goes Like to a harvestman ⌜that’s⌝ tasked to mow40 Or all or lose his hire.VIRGILIA His bloody brow? O Jupiter, no blood!VOLUMNIA Away, you fool! It more becomes a man Than gilt his trophy. The breasts of Hecuba, When she did suckle Hector, looked not lovelier45 Than Hector’s forehead when it spit forth blood At Grecian sword, contemning.—Tell Valeria We are fit to bid her welcome.Gentlewoman exits.
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VIRGILIA Heavens bless my lord from fell Aufidius!VOLUMNIA He’ll beat Aufidius’ head below his knee50 And tread upon his neck.Enter Valeria with an Usher and a Gentlewoman.VALERIA My ladies both, good day to you.VOLUMNIA Sweet madam.VIRGILIA I am glad to see your Ladyship.VALERIA How do you both? You are manifest housekeepers.55 What are you sewing here? A fine spot, in good faith. How does your little son?VIRGILIA I thank your Ladyship; well, good madam.VOLUMNIA He had rather see the swords and hear a drum than look upon his schoolmaster.VALERIA 60O’ my word, the father’s son! I’ll swear ’tis a very pretty boy. O’ my troth, I looked upon him o’ Wednesday half an hour together. H’as such a confirmed countenance. I saw him run after a gilded butterfly, and when he caught it, he let it go again,65 and after it again, and over and over he comes, and up again, catched it again. Or whether his fall enraged him or how ’twas, he did so set his teeth and tear it. O, I warrant how he mammocked it!VOLUMNIA One on ’s father’s moods.VALERIA 70Indeed, la, ’tis a noble child.VIRGILIA A crack, madam.VALERIA Come, lay aside your stitchery. I must have you play the idle huswife with me this afternoon.VIRGILIA No, good madam, I will not out of doors.VALERIA 75Not out of doors?VOLUMNIA She shall, she shall.VIRGILIA Indeed, no, by your patience. I’ll not over the threshold till my lord return from the wars.
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VALERIA Fie, you confine yourself most unreasonably.80 Come, you must go visit the good lady that lies in.VIRGILIA I will wish her speedy strength and visit her with my prayers, but I cannot go thither.VOLUMNIA Why, I pray you?⌜VIRGILIA⌝ ’Tis not to save labor, nor that I want love.VALERIA 85You would be another Penelope. Yet they say all the yarn she spun in Ulysses’ absence did but fill Ithaca full of moths. Come, I would your cambric were sensible as your finger, that you might leave pricking it for pity. Come, you shall go with us.VIRGILIA 90No, good madam, pardon me; indeed, I will not forth.VALERIA In truth, la, go with me, and I’ll tell you excellent news of your husband.VIRGILIA O, good madam, there can be none yet.VALERIA 95Verily, I do not jest with you. There came news from him last night.VIRGILIA Indeed, madam!VALERIA In earnest, it’s true. I heard a senator speak it. Thus it is: the Volsces have an army forth, against100 whom Cominius the General is gone with one part of our Roman power. Your lord and Titus Lartius are set down before their city Corioles. They nothing doubt prevailing, and to make it brief wars. This is true, on mine honor, and so, I pray, go105 with us.VIRGILIA Give me excuse, good madam. I will obey you in everything hereafter.VOLUMNIA Let her alone, lady. As she is now, she will but disease our better mirth.VALERIA 110In troth, I think she would.—Fare you well, then.—Come, good sweet lady.—Prithee, Virgilia, turn thy solemness out o’ door, and go along with us.
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VIRGILIA No, at a word, madam. Indeed, I must not. I115 wish you much mirth.VALERIA Well, then, farewell.Ladies exit.
Enter Martius, Titus Lartius, with ⌜Trumpet,⌝ Drum,
and Colors, with Captains and Soldiers, as before
the city ⌜of⌝ Corioles. To them a Messenger.MARTIUS Yonder comes news. A wager they have met.LARTIUS My horse to yours, no.MARTIUS ’Tis done.LARTIUS Agreed.MARTIUS, ⌜to Messenger⌝ 5 Say, has our general met the enemy?MESSENGER They lie in view but have not spoke as yet.LARTIUS So the good horse is mine.MARTIUS I’ll buy him of you.LARTIUS No, I’ll nor sell nor give him. Lend you him I will10 For half a hundred years.—Summon the town.MARTIUS How far off lie these armies?MESSENGER Within this mile and half.MARTIUS Then shall we hear their ’larum and they ours. Now, Mars, I prithee, make us quick in work,15 That we with smoking swords may march from hence To help our fielded friends!—Come, blow thy blast.They sound a parley.
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Enter two Senators with others on the walls of Corioles. Tullus Aufidius, is he within your walls?FIRST SENATOR No, nor a man that fears you less than he:20 That’s lesser than a little.Drum afar off. Hark, our drums Are bringing forth our youth. We’ll break our walls Rather than they shall pound us up. Our gates, Which yet seem shut, we have but pinned with25 rushes. They’ll open of themselves.Alarum far off. Hark you, far off! There is Aufidius. List what work he makes Amongst your cloven army.⌜They exit from the walls.⌝MARTIUS 30 O, they are at it!LARTIUS Their noise be our instruction.—Ladders, ho!Enter the Army of the Volsces ⌜as through the city gates.⌝MARTIUS They fear us not but issue forth their city.— Now put your shields before your hearts, and fight With hearts more proof than shields.—Advance,35 brave Titus. They do disdain us much beyond our thoughts, Which makes me sweat with wrath.—Come on, my fellows! He that retires, I’ll take him for a Volsce,40 And he shall feel mine edge.Alarum. The Romans are beat back to their trenches.⌜They exit, with the Volsces following.⌝Enter Martius cursing, ⌜with Roman soldiers.⌝
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MARTIUS All the contagion of the south light on you, You shames of Rome! You herd of—Boils and plagues Plaster you o’er, that you may be abhorred45 Farther than seen, and one infect another Against the wind a mile! You souls of geese, That bear the shapes of men, how have you run From slaves that apes would beat! Pluto and hell! All hurt behind. Backs red, and faces pale50 With flight and agued fear! Mend, and charge home, Or, by the fires of heaven, I’ll leave the foe And make my wars on you. Look to ’t. Come on! If you’ll stand fast, we’ll beat them to their wives, As they us to our trenches. Follow ’s!Another alarum. ⌜The Volsces re-enter and are driven
back to the gates of Corioles, which open to admit
them.⌝55 So, now the gates are ope. Now prove good seconds! ’Tis for the followers fortune widens them, Not for the fliers. Mark me, and do the like.Martius follows ⌜the fleeing Volsces through⌝
the gates, and is shut in.FIRST SOLDIER Foolhardiness, not I.SECOND SOLDIER 60Nor I.FIRST SOLDIER See they have shut him in.Alarum continues.ALL To th’ pot, I warrant him.Enter Titus Lartius.LARTIUS What is become of Martius?ALL Slain, sir, doubtless.
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FIRST SOLDIER 65 Following the fliers at the very heels, With them he enters, who upon the sudden Clapped to their gates. He is himself alone, To answer all the city.LARTIUS O, noble fellow,70 Who sensibly outdares his senseless sword, And when it bows, stand’st up! Thou art left, Martius. A carbuncle entire, as big as thou art, Were not so rich a jewel. Thou wast a soldier75 Even to ⌜Cato’s⌝ wish, not fierce and terrible Only in strokes, but with thy grim looks and The thunderlike percussion of thy sounds Thou mad’st thine enemies shake, as if the world Were feverous and did tremble.Enter Martius, bleeding, ⌜as if from Corioles,⌝ assaulted
by the enemy.FIRST SOLDIER 80Look, sir.LARTIUS O, ’tis Martius! Let’s fetch him off or make remain alike.They fight, and all enter the city, ⌜exiting the stage.⌝
Enter certain Romans, with spoils.FIRST ROMAN This will I carry to Rome.SECOND ROMAN And I this.THIRD ROMAN A murrain on ’t! I took this for silver.Enter Martius, and Titus ⌜Lartius⌝ with a Trumpet.MARTIUS See here these movers that do prize their hours5 At a cracked drachma. Cushions, leaden spoons,
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ACT 1. SC. 5
Irons of a doit, doublets that hangmen would Bury with those that wore them, these base slaves, Ere yet the fight be done, pack up. Down with them!⌜The Romans with spoils⌝ exit.Alarum continues still afar off. And hark, what noise the General makes! To him!10 There is the man of my soul’s hate, Aufidius, Piercing our Romans. Then, valiant Titus, take Convenient numbers to make good the city, Whilst I, with those that have the spirit, will haste To help Cominius.LARTIUS 15 Worthy sir, thou bleed’st. Thy exercise hath been too violent For a second course of fight.MARTIUS Sir, praise me not. My work hath yet not warmed me. Fare you well.20 The blood I drop is rather physical Than dangerous to me. To Aufidius thus I will appear and fight.LARTIUS Now the fair goddess Fortune Fall deep in love with thee, and her great charms25 Misguide thy opposers’ swords! Bold gentleman, Prosperity be thy page!MARTIUS Thy friend no less Than those she placeth highest! So farewell.LARTIUS Thou worthiest Martius!⌜Martius exits.⌝30 Go sound thy trumpet in the marketplace. Call thither all the officers o’ th’ town, Where they shall know our mind. Away!They exit.
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ACT 1. SC. 6
Enter Cominius as it were in retire, with Soldiers.COMINIUS Breathe you, my friends. Well fought! We are come off Like Romans, neither foolish in our stands Nor cowardly in retire. Believe me, sirs,5 We shall be charged again. Whiles we have struck, By interims and conveying gusts we have heard The charges of our friends. The Roman gods Lead their successes as we wish our own, That both our powers, with smiling fronts10 encount’ring, May give you thankful sacrifice!Enter a Messenger. Thy news?MESSENGER The citizens of Corioles have issued And given to Lartius and to Martius battle.15 I saw our party to their trenches driven, And then I came away.COMINIUS Though thou speakest truth, Methinks thou speak’st not well. How long is ’t since?MESSENGER 20Above an hour, my lord.COMINIUS ’Tis not a mile; briefly we heard their drums. How couldst thou in a mile confound an hour And bring thy news so late?MESSENGER Spies of the Volsces25 Held me in chase, that I was forced to wheel
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Three or four miles about; else had I, sir, Half an hour since brought my report.⌜He exits.⌝Enter Martius, ⌜bloody.⌝COMINIUS Who’s yonder, That does appear as he were flayed? O gods,30 He has the stamp of Martius, and I have Before-time seen him thus.MARTIUS Come I too late?COMINIUS The shepherd knows not thunder from a tabor More than I know the sound of Martius’ tongue35 From every meaner man.MARTIUS Come I too late?COMINIUS Ay, if you come not in the blood of others, But mantled in your own.MARTIUS O, let me clip you40 In arms as sound as when I wooed, in heart As merry as when our nuptial day was done And tapers burnt to bedward!⌜They embrace.⌝COMINIUS Flower of warriors, how is ’t with Titus Lartius?MARTIUS As with a man busied about decrees,45 Condemning some to death and some to exile; Ransoming him or pitying, threat’ning th’ other; Holding Corioles in the name of Rome Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash, To let him slip at will.COMINIUS 50 Where is that slave Which told me they had beat you to your trenches? Where is he? Call him hither.MARTIUS Let him alone. He did inform the truth. But for our gentlemen,
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55 The common file—a plague! Tribunes for them!— The mouse ne’er shunned the cat as they did budge From rascals worse than they.COMINIUS But how prevailed you?MARTIUS Will the time serve to tell? I do not think.60 Where is the enemy? Are you lords o’ th’ field? If not, why cease you till you are so?COMINIUS Martius, we have at disadvantage fought And did retire to win our purpose.MARTIUS How lies their battle? Know you on which side65 They have placed their men of trust?COMINIUS As I guess, Martius, Their bands i’ th’ vaward are the ⌜Antiates,⌝ Of their best trust; o’er them Aufidius,70 Their very heart of hope.MARTIUS I do beseech you, By all the battles wherein we have fought, By th’ blood we have shed together, by th’ vows we have made75 To endure friends, that you directly set me Against Aufidius and his Antiates, And that you not delay the present, but, Filling the air with swords advanced and darts, We prove this very hour.COMINIUS 80 Though I could wish You were conducted to a gentle bath And balms applied to you, yet dare I never Deny your asking. Take your choice of those That best can aid your action.MARTIUS 85 Those are they That most are willing. If any such be here—
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As it were sin to doubt—that love this painting Wherein you see me smeared; if any fear ⌜Lesser⌝ his person than an ill report;90 If any think brave death outweighs bad life, And that his country’s dearer than himself; Let him alone, or so many so minded, Wave thus to express his disposition And follow Martius.⌜He waves his sword.⌝They all shout and wave their swords,
take him up in their arms, and cast up their caps.95 O, me alone! Make you a sword of me? If these shows be not outward, which of you But is four Volsces? None of you but is Able to bear against the great Aufidius A shield as hard as his. A certain number,100 Though thanks to all, must I select from all. The rest shall bear the business in some other fight, As cause will be obeyed. Please you to march, And ⌜I⌝ shall quickly draw out my command, Which men are best inclined.COMINIUS 105 March on, my fellows. Make good this ostentation, and you shall Divide in all with us.They exit.
Titus Lartius, having set a guard upon Corioles, going
with Drum and Trumpet toward Cominius and Caius
Martius, enters with a Lieutenant, other Soldiers,
and a Scout.LARTIUS So, let the ports be guarded. Keep your duties As I have set them down. If I do send, dispatch Those centuries to our aid; the rest will serve
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For a short holding. If we lose the field,5 We cannot keep the town.LIEUTENANT Fear not our care, sir.LARTIUS Hence, and shut your gates upon ’s. ⌜(To the Scout.)⌝ Our guider, come. To th’ Roman camp conduct us.⌜They⌝ exit, ⌜the Lieutenant one way, Lartius another.⌝
Alarum, as in battle.
Enter Martius and Aufidius at several doors.MARTIUS I’ll fight with none but thee, for I do hate thee Worse than a promise-breaker.AUFIDIUS We hate alike. Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor5 More than thy fame and envy. Fix thy foot.MARTIUS Let the first budger die the other’s slave, And the gods doom him after!AUFIDIUS If I fly, Martius, Hollo me like a hare.MARTIUS 10 Within these three hours, Tullus, Alone I fought in your Corioles’ walls And made what work I pleased. ’Tis not my blood Wherein thou seest me masked. For thy revenge,15 Wrench up thy power to th’ highest.AUFIDIUS Wert thou the Hector That was the whip of your bragged progeny, Thou shouldst not scape me here.Here they fight, and certain Volsces come in
the aid of Aufidius.
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20 ⌜(To the Volsces.)⌝ Officious and not valiant, you have shamed me In your condemnèd seconds.Martius fights till they be driven in breathless.
⌜Aufidius and Martius exit, separately.⌝
Alarum. A retreat is sounded. Flourish. Enter, at one
door, Cominius with the Romans; at another door
Martius, with his arm in a scarf.COMINIUS, ⌜to Martius⌝ If I should tell thee o’er this thy day’s work, Thou ’t not believe thy deeds. But I’ll report it Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles; Where great patricians shall attend and shrug,5 I’ th’ end admire; where ladies shall be frighted And, gladly quaked, hear more; where the dull tribunes, That with the fusty plebeians hate thine honors, Shall say against their hearts “We thank the gods10 Our Rome hath such a soldier.” Yet cam’st thou to a morsel of this feast, Having fully dined before.Enter Titus ⌜Lartius⌝ with his power, from the pursuit.LARTIUS O general, Here is the steed, we the caparison.15 Hadst thou beheld—MARTIUS Pray now, no more. My mother, Who has a charter to extol her blood, When she does praise me grieves me. I have done As you have done—that’s what I can;20 Induced as you have been—that’s for my country. He that has but effected his good will Hath overta’en mine act.
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COMINIUS You shall not be The grave of your deserving. Rome must know25 The value of her own. ’Twere a concealment Worse than a theft, no less than a traducement, To hide your doings and to silence that Which, to the spire and top of praises vouched, Would seem but modest. Therefore, I beseech you—30 In sign of what you are, not to reward What you have done—before our army hear me.MARTIUS I have some wounds upon me, and they smart To hear themselves remembered.COMINIUS Should they not,35 Well might they fester ’gainst ingratitude And tent themselves with death. Of all the horses— Whereof we have ta’en good and good store—of all The treasure in this field achieved and city, We render you the tenth, to be ta’en forth40 Before the common distribution At your only choice.MARTIUS I thank you, general, But cannot make my heart consent to take A bribe to pay my sword. I do refuse it45 And stand upon my common part with those That have beheld the doing.A long flourish. They all cry “Martius, Martius!”
⌜and⌝ cast up their caps and lances.
Cominius and Lartius stand bare. May these same instruments, which you profane, Never sound more! When drums and trumpets shall I’ th’ field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be50 Made all of false-faced soothing! When steel grows Soft as the parasite’s silk, let him be made An ⌜ovator⌝ for th’ wars! No more, I say. For that I have not washed my nose that bled, Or foiled some debile wretch—which, without note,
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55 Here’s many else have done—you shout me forth In acclamations hyperbolical, As if I loved my little should be dieted In praises sauced with lies.COMINIUS Too modest are you,60 More cruel to your good report than grateful To us that give you truly. By your patience, If ’gainst yourself you be incensed, we’ll put you, Like one that means his proper harm, in manacles, Then reason safely with you. Therefore be it known,65 As to us to all the world, that Caius Martius Wears this war’s garland, in token of the which My noble steed, known to the camp, I give him, With all his trim belonging. And from this time, For what he did before Corioles, call him,70 With all th’ applause and clamor of the host, Martius Caius Coriolanus! Bear Th’ addition nobly ever!Flourish. Trumpets sound, and drums.ALL Martius Caius Coriolanus!CORIOLANUS I will go wash;75 And when my face is fair, you shall perceive Whether I blush or no. Howbeit, I thank you. I mean to stride your steed and at all times To undercrest your good addition To th’ fairness of my power.COMINIUS 80 So, to our tent, Where, ere we do repose us, we will write To Rome of our success.—You, Titus Lartius, Must to Corioles back. Send us to Rome The best, with whom we may articulate85 For their own good and ours.LARTIUS I shall, my lord.
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CORIOLANUS The gods begin to mock me. I, that now Refused most princely gifts, am bound to beg Of my lord general.COMINIUS 90 Take ’t, ’tis yours. What is ’t?CORIOLANUS I sometime lay here in Corioles At a poor man’s house; he used me kindly. He cried to me; I saw him prisoner; But then Aufidius was within my view,95 And wrath o’erwhelmed my pity. I request you To give my poor host freedom.COMINIUS O, well begged! Were he the butcher of my son, he should Be free as is the wind.—Deliver him, Titus.LARTIUS 100 Martius, his name?CORIOLANUS By Jupiter, forgot! I am weary; yea, my memory is tired. Have we no wine here?COMINIUS Go we to our tent.105 The blood upon your visage dries; ’tis time It should be looked to. Come.A flourish ⌜of⌝ cornets. They exit.
Enter Tullus Aufidius bloody, with two or three Soldiers.AUFIDIUS The town is ta’en.SOLDIER ’Twill be delivered back on good condition.AUFIDIUS Condition? I would I were a Roman, for I cannot,5 Being a Volsce, be that I am. Condition? What good condition can a treaty find
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I’ th’ part that is at mercy? Five times, Martius, I have fought with thee; so often hast thou beat me And wouldst do so, I think, should we encounter10 As often as we eat. By th’ elements, If e’er again I meet him beard to beard, He’s mine, or I am his. Mine emulation Hath not that honor in ’t it had; for where I thought to crush him in an equal force,15 True sword to sword, I’ll potch at him some way Or wrath or craft may get him.SOLDIER He’s the devil.AUFIDIUS Bolder, though not so subtle. My valor’s poisoned With only suff’ring stain by him; for him20 Shall fly out of itself. Nor sleep nor sanctuary, Being naked, sick, nor fane nor Capitol, The prayers of priests nor times of sacrifice, Embarquements all of fury, shall lift up Their rotten privilege and custom ’gainst25 My hate to Martius. Where I find him, were it At home, upon my brother’s guard, even there, Against the hospitable canon, would I Wash my fierce hand in ’s heart. Go you to th’ city; Learn how ’tis held and what they are that must30 Be hostages for Rome.SOLDIER Will not you go?AUFIDIUS I am attended at the cypress grove. I pray you— ’Tis south the city mills—bring me word thither How the world goes, that to the pace of it35 I may spur on my journey.SOLDIER I shall, sir.⌜They exit, Aufidius through one door,
Soldiers through another.⌝
Enter Menenius with the two Tribunes of the people,
Sicinius and Brutus.MENENIUS The augurer tells me we shall have news tonight.BRUTUS Good or bad?MENENIUS Not according to the prayer of the people,5 for they love not Martius.SICINIUS Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.MENENIUS Pray you, who does the wolf love?SICINIUS The lamb.MENENIUS Ay, to devour him, as the hungry plebeians10 would the noble Martius.BRUTUS He’s a lamb indeed, that baas like a bear.MENENIUS He’s a bear indeed, that lives like a lamb. You two are old men; tell me one thing that I shall ask you.BOTH 15Well, sir.MENENIUS In what enormity is Martius poor in, that you two have not in abundance?BRUTUS He’s poor in no one fault, but stored with all.SICINIUS Especially in pride.BRUTUS 20And topping all others in boasting.MENENIUS This is strange now. Do you two know how you are censured here in the city, I mean of us o’ th’ right-hand file, do you?
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BOTH Why, how are we censured?MENENIUS 25Because you talk of pride now, will you not be angry?BOTH Well, well, sir, well?MENENIUS Why, ’tis no great matter; for a very little thief of occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience.30 Give your dispositions the reins, and be angry at your pleasures, at the least, if you take it as a pleasure to you in being so. You blame Martius for being proud.BRUTUS We do it not alone, sir.MENENIUS 35I know you can do very little alone, for your helps are many, or else your actions would grow wondrous single. Your abilities are too infantlike for doing much alone. You talk of pride. O, that you could turn your eyes toward the napes40 of your necks and make but an interior survey of your good selves! O, that you could!BOTH What then, sir?MENENIUS Why, then you should discover a brace of unmeriting, proud, violent, testy magistrates, alias45 fools, as any in Rome.SICINIUS Menenius, you are known well enough, too.MENENIUS I am known to be a humorous patrician and one that loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in ’t; said to be something imperfect50 in favoring the first complaint, hasty and tinder-like upon too trivial motion; one that converses more with the buttock of the night than with the forehead of the morning. What I think I utter, and spend my malice in my breath. Meeting two55 such wealsmen as you are—I cannot call you Lycurguses—if the drink you give me touch my palate adversely, I make a crooked face at it. I ⌜cannot⌝ say your Worships have delivered the matter well when I find the ass in compound with the
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60 major part of your syllables. And though I must be content to bear with those that say you are reverend grave men, yet they lie deadly that tell you have good faces. If you see this in the map of my microcosm, follows it that I am known well enough65 too? What harm can your bisson conspectuities glean out of this character, if I be known well enough, too?BRUTUS Come, sir, come; we know you well enough.MENENIUS You know neither me, yourselves, nor anything.70 You are ambitious for poor knaves’ caps and legs. You wear out a good wholesome forenoon in hearing a cause between an orange-wife and a faucet-seller, and then rejourn the controversy of threepence to a second day of audience.75 When you are hearing a matter between party and party, if you chance to be pinched with the colic, you make faces like mummers, set up the bloody flag against all patience, and, in roaring for a chamber pot, dismiss the controversy bleeding,80 the more entangled by your hearing. All the peace you make in their cause is calling both the parties knaves. You are a pair of strange ones.BRUTUS Come, come. You are well understood to be a perfecter giber for the table than a necessary85 bencher in the Capitol.MENENIUS Our very priests must become mockers if they shall encounter such ridiculous subjects as you are. When you speak best unto the purpose, it is not worth the wagging of your beards, and your90 beards deserve not so honorable a grave as to stuff a botcher’s cushion or to be entombed in an ass’s packsaddle. Yet you must be saying Martius is proud, who, in a cheap estimation, is worth all your predecessors since Deucalion, though peradventure95 some of the best of ’em were hereditary
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hangmen. Good e’en to your Worships. More of your conversation would infect my brain, being the herdsmen of the beastly plebeians. I will be bold to take my leave of you.⌜He begins to exit.⌝ Brutus and Sicinius ⌜stand⌝ aside.Enter Volumnia, Virgilia, and Valeria.100 How now, my as fair as noble ladies—and the moon, were she earthly, no nobler—whither do you follow your eyes so fast?VOLUMNIA Honorable Menenius, my boy Martius approaches. For the love of Juno, let’s go!MENENIUS 105Ha? Martius coming home?VOLUMNIA Ay, worthy Menenius, and with most prosperous approbation.MENENIUS Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee! ⌜(He
throws his cap in the air.)⌝ Hoo! Martius coming110 home?⌜VALERIA, VIRGILIA⌝ Nay, ’tis true.VOLUMNIA Look, here’s a letter from him. ⌜She produces
a paper.⌝ The state hath another, his wife another, and I think there’s one at home for you.MENENIUS 115I will make my very house reel tonight. A letter for me?VIRGILIA Yes, certain, there’s a letter for you; I saw ’t.MENENIUS A letter for me? It gives me an estate of seven years’ health, in which time I will make a lip120 at the physician. The most sovereign prescription in Galen is but empiricutic and, to this preservative, of no better report than a horse drench. Is he not wounded? He was wont to come home wounded.VIRGILIA O no, no, no!VOLUMNIA 125O, he is wounded, I thank the gods for ’t.MENENIUS So do I too, if it be not too much. Brings he victory in his pocket, the wounds become him.
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VOLUMNIA On ’s brows, Menenius. He comes the third time home with the oaken garland.MENENIUS 130Has he disciplined Aufidius soundly?VOLUMNIA Titus Lartius writes they fought together, but Aufidius got off.MENENIUS And ’twas time for him too, I’ll warrant him that. An he had stayed by him, I would not have135 been so ’fidiused for all the chests in Corioles and the gold that’s in them. Is the Senate possessed of this?VOLUMNIA Good ladies, let’s go.—Yes, yes, yes. The Senate has letters from the General, wherein he140 gives my son the whole name of the war. He hath in this action outdone his former deeds doubly.VALERIA In troth, there’s wondrous things spoke of him.MENENIUS Wondrous? Ay, I warrant you, and not without145 his true purchasing.VIRGILIA The gods grant them true.VOLUMNIA True? Pow waw!MENENIUS True? I’ll be sworn they are true. Where is he wounded? ⌜(To the Tribunes.)⌝ God save your150 good Worships! Martius is coming home; he has more cause to be proud.—Where is he wounded?VOLUMNIA I’ th’ shoulder and i’ th’ left arm. There will be large cicatrices to show the people when he shall stand for his place. He received in the repulse155 of Tarquin seven hurts i’ th’ body.MENENIUS One i’ th’ neck and two i’ th’ thigh—there’s nine that I know.VOLUMNIA He had, before this last expedition, twenty-five wounds upon him.MENENIUS 160Now it’s twenty-seven. Every gash was an enemy’s grave. (A shout and flourish.) Hark, the trumpets!
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VOLUMNIA These are the ushers of Martius: before him he carries noise, and behind him he leaves tears.165 Death, that dark spirit, in ’s nervy arm doth lie, Which, being advanced, declines, and then men die.A sennet.Enter Cominius the General and Titus Lartius, between
them Coriolanus crowned with an oaken garland, with
Captains and Soldiers and a Herald. Trumpets sound.HERALD Know, Rome, that all alone Martius did fight Within Corioles’ gates, where he hath won, With fame, a name to Martius Caius; these170 In honor follows “Coriolanus.” Welcome to Rome, renownèd Coriolanus.Sound flourish.ALL Welcome to Rome, renownèd Coriolanus!CORIOLANUS No more of this. It does offend my heart. Pray now, no more.COMINIUS 175 Look, sir, your mother.CORIOLANUS O, You have, I know, petitioned all the gods For my prosperity.Kneels.VOLUMNIA Nay, my good soldier, up.⌜He stands.⌝180 My gentle Martius, worthy Caius, and By deed-achieving honor newly named— What is it? Coriolanus must I call thee? But, O, thy wife—CORIOLANUS My gracious silence, hail.185 Wouldst thou have laughed had I come coffined home, That weep’st to see me triumph? Ah, my dear,
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Such eyes the widows in Corioles wear And mothers that lack sons.MENENIUS 190 Now the gods crown thee!⌜CORIOLANUS⌝ And live you yet? ⌜(To Valeria.)⌝ O, my sweet lady, pardon.VOLUMNIA I know not where to turn. O, welcome home!—195 And, welcome, general.—And you’re welcome all.MENENIUS A hundred thousand welcomes! I could weep, And I could laugh; I am light and heavy. Welcome. A curse begin at very root on ’s heart That is not glad to see thee! ⌜You⌝ are three200 That Rome should dote on; yet, by the faith of men, We have some old crab trees here at home that will not Be grafted to your relish. Yet welcome, warriors! We call a nettle but a nettle, and205 The faults of fools but folly.COMINIUS Ever right.CORIOLANUS Menenius ever, ever.HERALD Give way there, and go on!CORIOLANUS, ⌜to Volumnia and Virgilia⌝ Your hand210 and yours. Ere in our own house I do shade my head, The good patricians must be visited, From whom I have received not only greetings, But with them change of honors.VOLUMNIA 215 I have lived To see inherited my very wishes And the buildings of my fancy. Only There’s one thing wanting, which I doubt not but Our Rome will cast upon thee.
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CORIOLANUS 220 Know, good mother, I had rather be their servant in my way Than sway with them in theirs.COMINIUS On, to the Capitol.Flourish ⌜of⌝ cornets. They exit in state, as before.Brutus and Sicinius ⌜come forward.⌝BRUTUS All tongues speak of him, and the blearèd sights225 Are spectacled to see him. Your prattling nurse Into a rapture lets her baby cry While she chats him. The kitchen malkin pins Her richest lockram ’bout her reechy neck, Clamb’ring the walls to eye him. Stalls, bulks,230 windows Are smothered up, leads filled, and ridges horsed With variable complexions, all agreeing In earnestness to see him. Seld-shown flamens Do press among the popular throngs and puff235 To win a vulgar station. Our veiled dames Commit the war of white and damask in Their nicely-gauded cheeks to th’ wanton spoil Of Phoebus’ burning kisses. Such a pother, As if that whatsoever god who leads him240 Were slyly crept into his human powers And gave him graceful posture.SICINIUS On the sudden I warrant him consul.BRUTUS Then our office may,245 During his power, go sleep.SICINIUS He cannot temp’rately transport his honors From where he should begin and end, but will Lose those he hath won.BRUTUS In that there’s comfort.
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SICINIUS 250 Doubt not The commoners, for whom we stand, but they Upon their ancient malice will forget With the least cause these his new honors—which255 That he will give them make I as little question As he is proud to do ’t.BRUTUS I heard him swear, Were he to stand for consul, never would he Appear i’ th’ marketplace nor on him put260 The napless vesture of humility, Nor showing, as the manner is, his wounds To th’ people, beg their stinking breaths.SICINIUS ’Tis right.BRUTUS It was his word. O, he would miss it rather265 Than carry it but by the suit of the gentry to him And the desire of the nobles.SICINIUS I wish no better Than have him hold that purpose and to put it In execution.BRUTUS 270 ’Tis most like he will.SICINIUS It shall be to him then as our good wills, A sure destruction.BRUTUS So it must fall out To him, or our authority’s for an end.275 We must suggest the people in what hatred He still hath held them; that to ’s power he would Have made them mules, silenced their pleaders, and Dispropertied their freedoms; holding them In human action and capacity280 Of no more soul nor fitness for the world Than camels in their war, who have their provand Only for bearing burdens, and sore blows For sinking under them.
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SICINIUS This, as you say, suggested285 At some time when his soaring insolence Shall ⌜touch⌝ the people—which time shall not want If he be put upon ’t, and that’s as easy As to set dogs on sheep—will be his fire To kindle their dry stubble, and their blaze290 Shall darken him forever.Enter a Messenger.BRUTUS What’s the matter?MESSENGER You are sent for to the Capitol. ’Tis thought That Martius shall be consul. I have seen The dumb men throng to see him, and the blind295 To hear him speak; matrons flung gloves, Ladies and maids their scarves and handkerchiefs, Upon him as he passed; the nobles bended As to Jove’s statue, and the Commons made A shower and thunder with their caps and shouts.300 I never saw the like.BRUTUS Let’s to the Capitol, And carry with us ears and eyes for th’ time, But hearts for the event.SICINIUS Have with you.They exit.
Enter two Officers, to lay cushions, as it were
in the Capitol.FIRST OFFICER Come, come. They are almost here. How many stand for consulships?SECOND OFFICER Three, they say; but ’tis thought of everyone Coriolanus will carry it.
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FIRST OFFICER 5That’s a brave fellow, but he’s vengeance proud and loves not the common people.SECOND OFFICER ’Faith, there hath been many great men that have flattered the people who ne’er loved them; and there be many that they have loved they10 know not wherefore; so that, if they love they know not why, they hate upon no better a ground. Therefore, for Coriolanus neither to care whether they love or hate him manifests the true knowledge he has in their disposition and, out of his noble15 carelessness, lets them plainly see ’t.FIRST OFFICER If he did not care whether he had their love or no, he waved indifferently ’twixt doing them neither good nor harm; but he seeks their hate with greater devotion than they can render it him and20 leaves nothing undone that may fully discover him their opposite. Now, to seem to affect the malice and displeasure of the people is as bad as that which he dislikes, to flatter them for their love.SECOND OFFICER He hath deserved worthily of his25 country, and his ascent is not by such easy degrees as those who, having been supple and courteous to the people, bonneted, without any further deed to have them at all into their estimation and report; but he hath so planted his honors in their eyes and30 his actions in their hearts that for their tongues to be silent and not confess so much were a kind of ingrateful injury. To report otherwise were a malice that, giving itself the lie, would pluck reproof and rebuke from every ear that heard it.FIRST OFFICER 35No more of him; he’s a worthy man. Make way. They are coming.A sennet. Enter the Patricians and the Tribunes of the
people, Lictors before them; Coriolanus, Menenius,
Cominius the consul. ⌜The Patricians sit.⌝ Sicinius
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and Brutus take their places by themselves.
Coriolanus stands.MENENIUS Having determined of the Volsces and To send for Titus Lartius, it remains, As the main point of this our after-meeting,40 To gratify his noble service that Hath thus stood for his country. Therefore please you, Most reverend and grave elders, to desire The present consul and last general45 In our well-found successes to report A little of that worthy work performed By Martius Caius Coriolanus, whom We met here both to thank and to remember With honors like himself.⌜Coriolanus sits.⌝FIRST SENATOR 50 Speak, good Cominius. Leave nothing out for length, and make us think Rather our state’s defective for requital, Than we to stretch it out. ⌜(To the Tribunes.)⌝ Masters o’ th’ people,55 We do request your kindest ears and, after, Your loving motion toward the common body To yield what passes here.SICINIUS We are convented Upon a pleasing treaty and have hearts60 Inclinable to honor and advance The theme of our assembly.BRUTUS Which the rather We shall be blest to do if he remember A kinder value of the people than65 He hath hereto prized them at.MENENIUS That’s off, that’s off! I would you rather had been silent. Please you To hear Cominius speak?
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BRUTUS Most willingly,70 But yet my caution was more pertinent Than the rebuke you give it.MENENIUS He loves your people, But tie him not to be their bedfellow.— Worthy Cominius, speak.Coriolanus rises and offers to go away.75 Nay, keep your place.⌜FIRST⌝ SENATOR Sit, Coriolanus. Never shame to hear What you have nobly done.CORIOLANUS Your Honors, pardon. I had rather have my wounds to heal again80 Than hear say how I got them.BRUTUS Sir, I hope My words disbenched you not?CORIOLANUS No, sir. Yet oft, When blows have made me stay, I fled from words.85 You soothed not, therefore hurt not; but your people, I love them as they weigh.MENENIUS Pray now, sit down.CORIOLANUS I had rather have one scratch my head i’ th’ sun90 When the alarum were struck than idly sit To hear my nothings monstered.Coriolanus exits.MENENIUS Masters of the people, Your multiplying spawn how can he flatter— That’s thousand to one good one—when you now95 see He had rather venture all his limbs for honor Than one on ’s ears to hear it.—Proceed, Cominius.COMINIUS I shall lack voice. The deeds of Coriolanus Should not be uttered feebly. It is held100 That valor is the chiefest virtue and
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Most dignifies the haver; if it be, The man I speak of cannot in the world Be singly counterpoised. At sixteen years, When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he fought105 Beyond the mark of others. Our then dictator, Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight When with his Amazonian chin he drove The bristled lips before him. He bestrid An o’erpressed Roman and i’ th’ Consul’s view110 Slew three opposers. Tarquin’s self he met And struck him on his knee. In that day’s feats, When he might act the woman in the scene, He proved best man i’ th’ field and for his meed Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil age115 Man-entered thus, he waxèd like a sea, And in the brunt of seventeen battles since He lurched all swords of the garland. For this last, Before and in Corioles, let me say, I cannot speak him home. He stopped the flyers120 And by his rare example made the coward Turn terror into sport. As weeds before A vessel under sail, so men obeyed And fell below his stem. His sword, Death’s stamp, Where it did mark, it took; from face to foot125 He was a thing of blood, whose every motion Was timed with dying cries. Alone he entered The mortal gate o’ th’ city, which he painted With shunless destiny; aidless came off And with a sudden reinforcement struck130 Corioles like a planet. Now all’s his, When by and by the din of war gan pierce His ready sense; then straight his doubled spirit Requickened what in flesh was fatigate, And to the battle came he, where he did135 Run reeking o’er the lives of men as if ’Twere a perpetual spoil; and till we called
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Both field and city ours, he never stood To ease his breast with panting.MENENIUS Worthy man!⌜FIRST⌝ SENATOR 140 He cannot but with measure fit the honors Which we devise him.COMINIUS Our spoils he kicked at And looked upon things precious as they were The common muck of the world. He covets less145 Than misery itself would give, rewards His deeds with doing them, and is content To spend the time to end it.MENENIUS He’s right noble. Let him be called for.⌜FIRST⌝ SENATOR 150Call Coriolanus.OFFICER He doth appear.Enter Coriolanus.MENENIUS The Senate, Coriolanus, are well pleased To make thee consul.CORIOLANUS I do owe them still155 My life and services.MENENIUS It then remains That you do speak to the people.CORIOLANUS I do beseech you, Let me o’erleap that custom, for I cannot160 Put on the gown, stand naked, and entreat them For my wounds’ sake to give their suffrage. Please you That I may pass this doing.SICINIUS Sir, the people165 Must have their voices; neither will they bate One jot of ceremony.MENENIUS, ⌜to Coriolanus⌝ Put them not to ’t. Pray you, go fit you to the custom, and
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Take to you, as your predecessors have,170 Your honor with your form.CORIOLANUS It is a part That I shall blush in acting, and might well Be taken from the people.BRUTUS, ⌜to Sicinius⌝ Mark you that?CORIOLANUS 175 To brag unto them “Thus I did, and thus!” Show them th’ unaching scars, which I should hide, As if I had received them for the hire Of their breath only!MENENIUS Do not stand upon ’t.—180 We recommend to you, tribunes of the people, Our purpose to them, and to our noble consul Wish we all joy and honor.SENATORS To Coriolanus come all joy and honor!Flourish cornets. Then they exit. Sicinius and
Brutus remain.BRUTUS You see how he intends to use the people.SICINIUS 185 May they perceive ’s intent! He will require them As if he did contemn what he requested Should be in them to give.BRUTUS Come, we’ll inform them Of our proceedings here. On th’ marketplace190 I know they do attend us.⌜They exit.⌝
Enter seven or eight Citizens.FIRST CITIZEN Once, if he do require our voices, we ought not to deny him.
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SECOND CITIZEN We may, sir, if we will.THIRD CITIZEN We have power in ourselves to do it, but5 it is a power that we have no power to do; for, if he show us his wounds and tell us his deeds, we are to put our tongues into those wounds and speak for them. So, if he tell us his noble deeds, we must also tell him our noble acceptance of them.10 Ingratitude is monstrous, and for the multitude to be ingrateful were to make a monster of the multitude, of the which, we being members, should bring ourselves to be monstrous members.FIRST CITIZEN And to make us no better thought of, a15 little help will serve; for once we stood up about the corn, he himself stuck not to call us the many-headed multitude.THIRD CITIZEN We have been called so of many; not that our heads are some brown, some black, some20 abram, some bald, but that our wits are so diversely colored; and truly I think if all our wits were to issue out of one skull, they would fly east, west, north, south, and their consent of one direct way should be at once to all the points o’ th’ compass.SECOND CITIZEN 25Think you so? Which way do you judge my wit would fly?THIRD CITIZEN Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another man’s will; ’tis strongly wedged up in a blockhead. But if it were at liberty, ’twould sure30 southward.SECOND CITIZEN Why that way?THIRD CITIZEN To lose itself in a fog, where, being three parts melted away with rotten dews, the fourth would return for conscience’ sake, to help to get35 thee a wife.SECOND CITIZEN You are never without your tricks. You may, you may.
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THIRD CITIZEN Are you all resolved to give your voices? But that’s no matter; the greater part carries it. I40 say, if he would incline to the people, there was never a worthier man.Enter Coriolanus in a gown of humility, with Menenius. Here he comes, and in the gown of humility. Mark his behavior. We are not to stay all together, but to come by him where he stands, by ones, by twos,45 and by threes. He’s to make his requests by particulars, wherein every one of us has a single honor in giving him our own voices with our own tongues. Therefore follow me, and I’ll direct you how you shall go by him.ALL 50Content, content.⌜Citizens exit.⌝MENENIUS O sir, you are not right. Have you not known The worthiest men have done ’t?CORIOLANUS What must I say? “I pray, sir?”—plague upon ’t! I cannot bring55 My tongue to such a pace. “Look, sir, my wounds! I got them in my country’s service when Some certain of your brethren roared and ran From th’ noise of our own drums.”MENENIUS O me, the gods!60 You must not speak of that. You must desire them To think upon you.CORIOLANUS Think upon me? Hang ’em! I would they would forget me, like the virtues Which our divines lose by ’em.MENENIUS 65 You’ll mar all. I’ll leave you. Pray you, speak to ’em, I pray you, In wholesome manner.He exits.CORIOLANUS Bid them wash their faces And keep their teeth clean.
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Enter three of the Citizens.70 So, here comes a brace.— You know the cause, sir, of my standing here.THIRD CITIZEN We do, sir. Tell us what hath brought you to ’t.CORIOLANUS Mine own desert.SECOND CITIZEN Your own desert?CORIOLANUS 75Ay, but ⌜not⌝ mine own desire.THIRD CITIZEN How, not your own desire?CORIOLANUS No, sir, ’twas never my desire yet to trouble the poor with begging.THIRD CITIZEN You must think if we give you anything,80 we hope to gain by you.CORIOLANUS Well then, I pray, your price o’ th’ consulship?FIRST CITIZEN The price is to ask it kindly.CORIOLANUS Kindly, sir, I pray, let me ha ’t. I have85 wounds to show you, which shall be yours in private.—Your good voice, sir. What say you?SECOND CITIZEN You shall ha ’t, worthy sir.CORIOLANUS A match, sir. There’s in all two worthy voices begged. I have your alms. Adieu.THIRD CITIZEN, ⌜to the other Citizens⌝ 90But this is something odd.SECOND CITIZEN An ’twere to give again—but ’tis no matter.⌜These citizens⌝ exit.Enter two other Citizens.CORIOLANUS Pray you now, if it may stand with the95 tune of your voices that I may be consul, I have here the customary gown.⌜FOURTH CITIZEN⌝ You have deserved nobly of your country, and you have not deserved nobly.CORIOLANUS Your enigma?
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⌜FOURTH CITIZEN⌝ 100You have been a scourge to her enemies; you have been a rod to her friends. You have not indeed loved the common people.CORIOLANUS You should account me the more virtuous that I have not been common in my love. I will, sir,105 flatter my sworn brother, the people, to earn a dearer estimation of them; ’tis a condition they account gentle. And since the wisdom of their choice is rather to have my hat than my heart, I will practice the insinuating nod and be off to them most110 counterfeitly. That is, sir, I will counterfeit the bewitchment of some popular man and give it bountiful to the desirers. Therefore, beseech you, I may be consul.⌜FIFTH CITIZEN⌝ We hope to find you our friend, and115 therefore give you our voices heartily.⌜FOURTH CITIZEN⌝ You have received many wounds for your country.CORIOLANUS I will not seal your knowledge with showing them. I will make much of your voices and so120 trouble you no farther.BOTH The gods give you joy, sir, heartily.⌜Citizens exit.⌝CORIOLANUS Most sweet voices! Better it is to die, better to starve, Than crave the ⌜hire⌝ which first we do deserve.125 Why in this woolvish ⌜toge⌝ should I stand here To beg of Hob and Dick that does appear Their needless vouches? Custom calls me to ’t. What custom wills, in all things should we do ’t? The dust on antique time would lie unswept130 And mountainous error be too highly heaped For truth to o’erpeer. Rather than fool it so, Let the high office and the honor go To one that would do thus. I am half through; The one part suffered, the other will I do.
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Enter three Citizens more.135 Here come more voices.— Your voices! For your voices I have fought; Watched for your voices; for your voices bear Of wounds two dozen odd. Battles thrice six I have seen and heard of; for your voices have140 Done many things, some less, some more. Your voices! Indeed, I would be consul.⌜SIXTH⌝ CITIZEN He has done nobly, and cannot go without any honest man’s voice.⌜SEVENTH⌝ CITIZEN 145Therefore let him be consul. The gods give him joy, and make him good friend to the people!ALL Amen, amen. God save thee, noble consul.⌜Citizens exit.⌝CORIOLANUS Worthy voices!Enter Menenius, with Brutus and Sicinius.MENENIUS 150 You have stood your limitation, and the Tribunes Endue you with the people’s voice. Remains That in th’ official marks invested, you Anon do meet the Senate.CORIOLANUS Is this done?SICINIUS 155 The custom of request you have discharged. The people do admit you, and are summoned To meet anon upon your approbation.CORIOLANUS Where? At the Senate House?SICINIUS There, Coriolanus.CORIOLANUS 160 May I change these garments?SICINIUS You may, sir.
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CORIOLANUS That I’ll straight do and, knowing myself again, Repair to th’ Senate House.MENENIUS I’ll keep you company.—Will you along?BRUTUS 165 We stay here for the people.SICINIUS Fare you well.Coriolanus and Menenius exit. He has it now; and by his looks, methinks, ’Tis warm at ’s heart.BRUTUS With a proud heart he wore170 His humble weeds. Will you dismiss the people?Enter the Plebeians.SICINIUS How now, my masters, have you chose this man?FIRST CITIZEN He has our voices, sir.BRUTUS We pray the gods he may deserve your loves.SECOND CITIZEN Amen, sir. To my poor unworthy notice,175 He mocked us when he begged our voices.THIRD CITIZEN Certainly, he flouted us downright.FIRST CITIZEN No, ’tis his kind of speech. He did not mock us.SECOND CITIZEN Not one amongst us, save yourself, but says He used us scornfully. He should have showed us180 His marks of merit, wounds received for ’s country.SICINIUS Why, so he did, I am sure.ALL No, no. No man saw ’em.THIRD CITIZEN He said he had wounds, which he could show in private,
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185 And with his hat, thus waving it in scorn, “I would be consul,” says he. “Agèd custom, But by your voices, will not so permit me; Your voices therefore.” When we granted that, Here was “I thank you for your voices. Thank you.190 Your most sweet voices! Now you have left your voices, I have no further with you.” Was not this mockery?SICINIUS Why either were you ignorant to see ’t Or, seeing it, of such childish friendliness195 To yield your voices?BRUTUS Could you not have told him As you were lessoned? When he had no power, But was a petty servant to the state, He was your enemy, ever spake against200 Your liberties and the charters that you bear I’ th’ body of the weal; and, now arriving A place of potency and sway o’ th’ state, If he should still malignantly remain Fast foe to th’ plebeii, your voices might205 Be curses to yourselves. You should have said That as his worthy deeds did claim no less Than what he stood for, so his gracious nature Would think upon you for your voices, and Translate his malice towards you into love,210 Standing your friendly lord.SICINIUS Thus to have said, As you were fore-advised, had touched his spirit And tried his inclination; from him plucked Either his gracious promise, which you might,215 As cause had called you up, have held him to; Or else it would have galled his surly nature, Which easily endures not article Tying him to aught. So putting him to rage,
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You should have ta’en th’ advantage of his choler220 And passed him unelected.BRUTUS Did you perceive He did solicit you in free contempt When he did need your loves, and do you think That his contempt shall not be bruising to you225 When he hath power to crush? Why, had your bodies No heart among you? Or had you tongues to cry Against the rectorship of judgment?SICINIUS Have you ere now denied the asker? And now230 Again, of him that did not ask but mock, Bestow your sued-for tongues?THIRD CITIZEN He’s not confirmed. We may deny him yet.SECOND CITIZEN And will deny him.235 I’ll have five hundred voices of that sound.FIRST CITIZEN I twice five hundred, and their friends to piece ’em.BRUTUS Get you hence instantly, and tell those friends They have chose a consul that will from them take Their liberties, make them of no more voice240 Than dogs that are as often beat for barking As therefor kept to do so.SICINIUS Let them assemble And, on a safer judgment, all revoke Your ignorant election. Enforce his pride245 And his old hate unto you. Besides, forget not With what contempt he wore the humble weed, How in his suit he scorned you; but your loves, Thinking upon his services, took from you Th’ apprehension of his present portance,250 Which most gibingly, ungravely, he did fashion After the inveterate hate he bears you.
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BRUTUS Lay A fault on us, your tribunes, that we labored, No impediment between, but that you must255 Cast your election on him.SICINIUS Say you chose him More after our commandment than as guided By your own true affections, and that your minds, Preoccupied with what you rather must do260 Than what you should, made you against the grain To voice him consul. Lay the fault on us.BRUTUS Ay, spare us not. Say we read lectures to you, How youngly he began to serve his country, How long continued, and what stock he springs of,265 The noble house o’ th’ Martians, from whence came That Ancus Martius, Numa’s daughter’s son, Who after great Hostilius here was king, Of the same house Publius and Quintus were, That our best water brought by conduits hither;270 ⌜And Censorinus, that was so surnamed,⌝ And nobly namèd so, twice being censor, Was his great ancestor.SICINIUS One thus descended, That hath besides well in his person wrought275 To be set high in place, we did commend To your remembrances; but you have found, Scaling his present bearing with his past, That he’s your fixèd enemy, and revoke Your sudden approbation.BRUTUS 280 Say you ne’er had done ’t— Harp on that still—but by our putting on. And presently, when you have drawn your number, Repair to th’ Capitol.ALL We will so. Almost all285 Repent in their election.Plebeians exit.BRUTUS Let them go on.
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This mutiny were better put in hazard Than stay, past doubt, for greater. If, as his nature is, he fall in rage290 With their refusal, both observe and answer The vantage of his anger.SICINIUS To th’ Capitol, come. We will be there before the stream o’ th’ people, And this shall seem, as partly ’tis, their own,295 Which we have goaded onward.They exit.
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.
Enter Coriolanus with Nobles.CORIOLANUS Let them pull all about mine ears, present me Death on the wheel or at wild horses’ heels, Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock, That the precipitation might down stretch5 Below the beam of sight, yet will I still Be thus to them.NOBLE You do the nobler.CORIOLANUS I muse my mother Does not approve me further, who was wont10 To call them woolen vassals, things created To buy and sell with groats, to show bare heads In congregations, to yawn, be still, and wonder
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When one but of my ordinance stood up To speak of peace or war.Enter Volumnia.15 I talk of you. Why did you wish me milder? Would you have me False to my nature? Rather say I play The man I am.VOLUMNIA O sir, sir, sir,20 I would have had you put your power well on Before you had worn it out.CORIOLANUS Let go.VOLUMNIA You might have been enough the man you are With striving less to be so. Lesser had been25 The ⌜thwartings⌝ of your dispositions if You had not showed them how you were disposed Ere they lacked power to cross you.CORIOLANUS Let them hang!VOLUMNIA Ay, and burn too.Enter Menenius with the Senators.MENENIUS, ⌜to Coriolanus⌝ 30 Come, come, you have been too rough, something too rough. You must return and mend it.⌜FIRST⌝ SENATOR There’s no remedy, Unless, by not so doing, our good city35 Cleave in the midst and perish.VOLUMNIA Pray be counseled. I have a heart as little apt as yours, But yet a brain that leads my use of anger To better vantage.MENENIUS 40 Well said, noble woman. Before he should thus stoop to th’ ⌜herd⌝—but that The violent fit o’ th’ time craves it as physic
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For the whole state—I would put mine armor on, Which I can scarcely bear.CORIOLANUS 45 What must I do?MENENIUS Return to th’ Tribunes.CORIOLANUS Well, what then? What then?MENENIUS Repent what you have spoke.CORIOLANUS For them? I cannot do it to the gods.50 Must I then do ’t to them?VOLUMNIA You are too absolute, Though therein you can never be too noble But when extremities speak. I have heard you say Honor and policy, like unsevered friends,55 I’ th’ war do grow together. Grant that, and tell me In peace what each of them by th’ other lose That they combine not there?CORIOLANUS Tush, tush!MENENIUS A good60 demand.VOLUMNIA If it be honor in your wars to seem The same you are not, which for your best ends You adopt your policy, how is it less or worse That it shall hold companionship in peace65 With honor as in war, since that to both It stands in like request?CORIOLANUS Why force you this?VOLUMNIA Because that now it lies you on to speak To th’ people, not by your own instruction,70 Nor by th’ matter which your heart prompts you, But with such words that are but roted in Your tongue, though but bastards and syllables Of no allowance to your bosom’s truth.
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Now, this no more dishonors you at all75 Than to take in a town with gentle words, Which else would put you to your fortune and The hazard of much blood. I would dissemble with my nature where My fortunes and my friends at stake required80 I should do so in honor. I am in this Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles; And you will rather show our general louts How you can frown than spend a fawn upon ’em For the inheritance of their loves and safeguard85 Of what that want might ruin.MENENIUS Noble lady!— Come, go with us; speak fair. You may salve so, Not what is dangerous present, but the loss Of what is past.VOLUMNIA 90 I prithee now, my son, Go to them with this bonnet in thy hand, And thus far having stretched it—here be with them— Thy knee bussing the stones—for in such business95 Action is eloquence, and the eyes of th’ ignorant More learnèd than the ears—waving thy head, Which often thus correcting thy stout heart, Now humble as the ripest mulberry That will not hold the handling. Or say to them100 Thou art their soldier and, being bred in broils, Hast not the soft way, which thou dost confess Were fit for thee to use as they to claim, In asking their good loves; but thou wilt frame Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs, so far105 As thou hast power and person.MENENIUS This but done Even as she speaks, why, their hearts were yours; For they have pardons, being asked, as free As words to little purpose.
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VOLUMNIA 110 Prithee now, Go, and be ruled; although I know thou hadst rather Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf Than flatter him in a bower.Enter Cominius. Here is Cominius.COMINIUS 115 I have been i’ th’ marketplace; and, sir, ’tis fit You make strong party or defend yourself By calmness or by absence. All’s in anger.MENENIUS Only fair speech.COMINIUS I think ’twill serve, if he120 Can thereto frame his spirit.VOLUMNIA He must, and will.— Prithee, now, say you will, and go about it.CORIOLANUS Must I go show them my unbarbèd sconce? Must I With my base tongue give to my noble heart125 A lie that it must bear? Well, I will do ’t. Yet, were there but this single plot to lose, This mold of Martius, they to dust should grind it And throw ’t against the wind. To th’ marketplace! You have put me now to such a part which never130 I shall discharge to th’ life.COMINIUS Come, come, we’ll prompt you.VOLUMNIA I prithee now, sweet son, as thou hast said My praises made thee first a soldier, so,135 To have my praise for this, perform a part Thou hast not done before.CORIOLANUS Well, I must do ’t. Away, my disposition, and possess me Some harlot’s spirit! My throat of war be turned,
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140 Which choirèd with my drum, into a pipe Small as an eunuch or the virgin voice That babies lull asleep! The smiles of knaves Tent in my cheeks, and schoolboys’ tears take up The glasses of my sight! A beggar’s tongue145 Make motion through my lips, and my armed knees, Who bowed but in my stirrup, bend like his That hath received an alms. I will not do ’t, Lest I surcease to honor mine own truth And, by my body’s action, teach my mind150 A most inherent baseness.VOLUMNIA At thy choice, then. To beg of thee, it is my more dishonor Than thou of them. Come all to ruin. Let Thy mother rather feel thy pride than fear155 Thy dangerous stoutness, for I mock at death With as big heart as thou. Do as thou list. Thy valiantness was mine; thou suck’st it from me, But owe thy pride thyself.CORIOLANUS Pray be content.160 Mother, I am going to the marketplace. Chide me no more. I’ll mountebank their loves, Cog their hearts from them, and come home beloved Of all the trades in Rome. Look, I am going.165 Commend me to my wife. I’ll return consul, Or never trust to what my tongue can do I’ th’ way of flattery further.VOLUMNIA Do your will.Volumnia exits.COMINIUS Away! The Tribunes do attend you. Arm yourself170 To answer mildly, for they are prepared With accusations, as I hear, more strong Than are upon you yet.
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CORIOLANUS The word is “mildly.” Pray you, let us go. Let them accuse me by invention, I175 Will answer in mine honor.MENENIUS Ay, but mildly.CORIOLANUS Well, mildly be it, then. Mildly.They exit.
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.
Enter Coriolanus, Volumnia, Virgilia, Menenius,
Cominius, with the young nobility of Rome.CORIOLANUS Come, leave your tears. A brief farewell. The beast With many heads butts me away. Nay, mother, Where is your ancient courage? You were used To say extremities was the trier of spirits;5 That common chances common men could bear; That when the sea was calm, all boats alike Showed mastership in floating; fortune’s blows When most struck home, being gentle wounded craves10 A noble cunning. You were used to load me With precepts that would make invincible The heart that conned them.VIRGILIA O heavens! O heavens!CORIOLANUS Nay, I prithee,15 woman—VOLUMNIA Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome, And occupations perish!CORIOLANUS What, what, what! I shall be loved when I am lacked. Nay, mother,20 Resume that spirit when you were wont to say If you had been the wife of Hercules,
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Six of his labors you’d have done and saved Your husband so much sweat.—Cominius, Droop not. Adieu.—Farewell, my wife, my mother.25 I’ll do well yet.—Thou old and true Menenius, Thy tears are salter than a younger man’s And venomous to thine eyes.—My sometime general, I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld30 Heart-hard’ning spectacles. Tell these sad women ’Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes As ’tis to laugh at ’em.—My mother, you wot well My hazards still have been your solace, and— Believe ’t not lightly—though I go alone,35 Like to a lonely dragon that his fen Makes feared and talked of more than seen, your son Will or exceed the common or be caught With cautelous baits and practice.VOLUMNIA 40 My first son, Whither ⌜wilt⌝ thou go? Take good Cominius With thee awhile. Determine on some course More than a wild exposure to each chance That starts i’ th’ way before thee.⌜VIRGILIA⌝ 45 O the gods!COMINIUS I’ll follow thee a month, devise with thee Where thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of us And we of thee; so if the time thrust forth A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send50 O’er the vast world to seek a single man And lose advantage, which doth ever cool I’ th’ absence of the needer.CORIOLANUS Fare you well. Thou hast years upon thee, and thou art too full55 Of the wars’ surfeits to go rove with one That’s yet unbruised. Bring me but out at gate.—
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Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and My friends of noble touch. When I am forth, Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you, come.60 While I remain above the ground, you shall Hear from me still, and never of me aught But what is like me formerly.MENENIUS That’s worthily As any ear can hear. Come, let’s not weep.65 If I could shake off but one seven years From these old arms and legs, by the good gods, I’d with thee every foot.CORIOLANUS Give me thy hand. Come.They exit.
Enter the two Tribunes, Sicinius, and Brutus,
with the Aedile.SICINIUS Bid them all home. He’s gone, and we’ll no further. The nobility are vexed, whom we see have sided In his behalf.BRUTUS Now we have shown our power,5 Let us seem humbler after it is done Than when it was a-doing.SICINIUS Bid them home. Say their great enemy is gone, and they Stand in their ancient strength.BRUTUS 10 Dismiss them home.⌜Aedile exits.⌝ Here comes his mother.Enter Volumnia, Virgilia, and Menenius.SICINIUS Let’s not meet her.BRUTUS Why?
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SICINIUS They say she’s mad.BRUTUS 15 They have ta’en note of us. Keep on your way.VOLUMNIA O, you’re well met. The hoarded plague o’ th’ gods Requite your love!MENENIUS Peace, peace! Be not so loud.VOLUMNIA, ⌜to the Tribunes⌝ If that I could for weeping, you should hear—20 Nay, and you shall hear some. ⌜(To Sicinius.)⌝ Will you be gone?VIRGILIA, ⌜to Brutus⌝ You shall stay too. I would I had the power To say so to my husband.SICINIUS, ⌜to Volumnia⌝ Are you mankind?VOLUMNIA 25 Ay, fool, is that a shame? Note but this, fool. Was not a man my father? Hadst thou foxship To banish him that struck more blows for Rome Than thou hast spoken words?SICINIUS O blessèd heavens!VOLUMNIA 30 More noble blows than ever thou wise words, And for Rome’s good. I’ll tell thee what—yet go. Nay, but thou shalt stay too. I would my son Were in Arabia and thy tribe before him, His good sword in his hand.SICINIUS 35 What then?VIRGILIA What then? He’d make an end of thy posterity.VOLUMNIA Bastards and all. Good man, the wounds that he does bear for Rome!MENENIUS 40Come, come, peace.SICINIUS I would he had continued to his country
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As he began, and not unknit himself The noble knot he made.BRUTUS I would he had.VOLUMNIA 45 “I would he had”? ’Twas you incensed the rabble. Cats, that can judge as fitly of his worth As I can of those mysteries which heaven Will not have Earth to know.BRUTUS, ⌜to Sicinius⌝ Pray, let’s go.VOLUMNIA 50Now, pray, sir, get you gone. You have done a brave deed. Ere you go, hear this: As far as doth the Capitol exceed The meanest house in Rome, so far my son— This lady’s husband here, this, do you see?—55 Whom you have banished, does exceed you all.BRUTUS Well, well, we’ll leave you.SICINIUS Why stay we to be baited With one that wants her wits?Tribunes exit.VOLUMNIA Take my prayers with60 you. I would the gods had nothing else to do But to confirm my curses. Could I meet ’em But once a day, it would unclog my heart Of what lies heavy to ’t.MENENIUS 65 You have told them home, And, by my troth, you have cause. You’ll sup with me?VOLUMNIA Anger’s my meat. I sup upon myself And so shall starve with feeding.70 ⌜(To Virgilia.)⌝ Come, let’s go. Leave this faint puling, and lament as I do, In anger, Juno-like. Come, come, come.They exit.MENENIUS Fie, fie, fie!He exits.
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Enter a Roman ⌜(Nicanor)⌝ and a Volsce ⌜(Adrian).⌝ROMAN I know you well, sir, and you know me. Your name I think is Adrian.VOLSCE It is so, sir. Truly, I have forgot you.ROMAN I am a Roman, and my services are, as you are,5 against ’em. Know you me yet?VOLSCE Nicanor, no?ROMAN The same, sir.VOLSCE You had more beard when I last saw you, but your favor is well ⌜approved⌝ by your tongue.10 What’s the news in Rome? I have a note from the Volscian state to find you out there. You have well saved me a day’s journey.ROMAN There hath been in Rome strange insurrections, the people against the senators, patricians,15 and nobles.VOLSCE Hath been? Is it ended, then? Our state thinks not so. They are in a most warlike preparation and hope to come upon them in the heat of their division.ROMAN 20The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing would make it flame again; for the nobles receive so to heart the banishment of that worthy Coriolanus that they are in a ripe aptness to take all power from the people and to pluck from them their tribunes25 forever. This lies glowing, I can tell you, and is almost mature for the violent breaking out.VOLSCE Coriolanus banished?ROMAN Banished, sir.VOLSCE You will be welcome with this intelligence,30 Nicanor.ROMAN The day serves well for them now. I have heard
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it said the fittest time to corrupt a man’s wife is when she’s fall’n out with her husband. Your noble Tullus Aufidius ⌜will⌝ appear well in these wars, his35 great opposer Coriolanus being now in no request of his country.VOLSCE He cannot choose. I am most fortunate thus accidentally to encounter you. You have ended my business, and I will merrily accompany you home.ROMAN 40I shall between this and supper tell you most strange things from Rome, all tending to the good of their adversaries. Have you an army ready, say you?VOLSCE A most royal one. The centurions and their45 charges, distinctly billeted, already in th’ entertainment, and to be on foot at an hour’s warning.ROMAN I am joyful to hear of their readiness and am the man, I think, that shall set them in present action. So, sir, heartily well met, and most glad of50 your company.VOLSCE You take my part from me, sir. I have the most cause to be glad of yours.ROMAN Well, let us go together.They exit.
Enter Coriolanus in mean apparel, disguised,
and muffled.CORIOLANUS A goodly city is this Antium. City, ’Tis I that made thy widows. Many an heir Of these fair edifices ’fore my wars Have I heard groan and drop. Then, know me not,
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5 Lest that thy wives with spits and boys with stones In puny battle slay me.Enter a Citizen. Save you, sir.CITIZEN And you.CORIOLANUS Direct me, if it be your will,10 Where great Aufidius lies. Is he in Antium?CITIZEN He is, and feasts the nobles of the state At his house this night.CORIOLANUS Which is his house, beseech you?CITIZEN 15 This here before you.CORIOLANUS Thank you, sir. Farewell.Citizen exits. O world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn, Whose double bosoms seems to wear one heart, Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal and exercise20 Are still together, who twin, as ’twere, in love Unseparable, shall within this hour, On a dissension of a doit, break out To bitterest enmity; so fellest foes, Whose passions and whose plots have broke their25 sleep To take the one the other, by some chance, Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends And interjoin their issues. So with me: My birthplace ⌜hate⌝ I, and my love’s upon30 This enemy town. I’ll enter. If he slay me, He does fair justice; if he give me way, I’ll do his country service.He exits.
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Music plays. Enter a Servingman.FIRST SERVINGMAN Wine, wine, wine! What service is here? I think our fellows are asleep.⌜He exits.⌝Enter another Servingman.SECOND SERVINGMAN Where’s Cotus? My master calls for him. Cotus!He exits.Enter Coriolanus.CORIOLANUS 5 A goodly house. The feast smells well, but I Appear not like a guest.Enter the First Servingman.FIRST SERVINGMAN What would you have, friend? Whence are you? Here’s no place for you. Pray, go to the door.He exits.CORIOLANUS 10 I have deserved no better entertainment In being Coriolanus.Enter Second ⌜Servingman.⌝SECOND SERVINGMAN Whence are you, sir?—Has the porter his eyes in his head, that he gives entrance to such companions?—Pray, get you out.CORIOLANUS 15Away!SECOND SERVINGMAN Away? Get you away.CORIOLANUS Now th’ art troublesome.SECOND SERVINGMAN Are you so brave? I’ll have you talked with anon.Enter Third Servingman; the First, ⌜entering,⌝
meets him.THIRD SERVINGMAN 20What fellow’s this?
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FIRST SERVINGMAN A strange one as ever I looked on. I cannot get him out o’ th’ house. Prithee, call my master to him.⌜He steps aside.⌝THIRD SERVINGMAN What have you to do here, fellow?25 Pray you, avoid the house.CORIOLANUS Let me but stand. I will not hurt your hearth.THIRD SERVINGMAN What are you?CORIOLANUS A gentleman.THIRD SERVINGMAN 30A marv’llous poor one.CORIOLANUS True, so I am.THIRD SERVINGMAN Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other station. Here’s no place for you. Pray you, avoid. Come.CORIOLANUS 35Follow your function, go, and batten on cold bits.Pushes him away from him.THIRD SERVINGMAN What, you will not?—Prithee, tell my master what a strange guest he has here.SECOND SERVINGMAN And I shall.Second Servingman exits.THIRD SERVINGMAN 40Where dwell’st thou?CORIOLANUS Under the canopy.THIRD SERVINGMAN Under the canopy?CORIOLANUS Ay.THIRD SERVINGMAN Where’s that?CORIOLANUS 45I’ th’ city of kites and crows.THIRD SERVINGMAN I’ th’ city of kites and crows? What an ass it is! Then thou dwell’st with daws too?CORIOLANUS No, I serve not thy master.THIRD SERVINGMAN How, sir? Do you meddle with my50 master?CORIOLANUS Ay, ’tis an honester service than to meddle with thy mistress. Thou prat’st and prat’st. Serve with thy trencher. Hence!Beats him away.⌜Third Servingman exits.⌝
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Enter Aufidius with the ⌜Second⌝ Servingman.AUFIDIUS Where is this fellow?SECOND SERVINGMAN 55Here, sir. I’d have beaten him like a dog, but for disturbing the lords within.⌜He steps aside.⌝AUFIDIUS Whence com’st thou? What wouldst thou? Thy name? Why speak’st not? Speak, man. What’s thy name?CORIOLANUS, ⌜removing his muffler⌝ 60If, Tullus, Not yet thou know’st me, and seeing me, dost not Think me for the man I am, necessity Commands me name myself.AUFIDIUS What is thy name?CORIOLANUS 65 A name unmusical to the Volscians’ ears And harsh in sound to thine.AUFIDIUS Say, what’s thy name? Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face Bears a command in ’t. Though thy tackle’s torn,70 Thou show’st a noble vessel. What’s thy name?CORIOLANUS Prepare thy brow to frown. Know’st thou me yet?AUFIDIUS I know thee not. Thy name?CORIOLANUS My name is Caius Martius, who hath done To thee particularly and to all the Volsces75 Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may My surname Coriolanus. The painful service, The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood Shed for my thankless country are requited But with that surname, a good memory80 And witness of the malice and displeasure Which thou shouldst bear me. Only that name remains. The cruelty and envy of the people,
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Permitted by our dastard nobles, who85 Have all forsook me, hath devoured the rest, And suffered me by th’ voice of slaves to be ⌜Whooped⌝ out of Rome. Now this extremity Hath brought me to thy hearth, not out of hope— Mistake me not—to save my life; for if90 I had feared death, of all the men i’ th’ world I would have ’voided thee, but in mere spite, To be full quit of those my banishers, Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast A heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revenge95 Thine own particular wrongs and stop those maims Of shame seen through thy country, speed thee straight And make my misery serve thy turn. So use it That my revengeful services may prove100 As benefits to thee, for I will fight Against my cankered country with the spleen Of all the under fiends. But if so be Thou dar’st not this, and that to prove more fortunes Thou ’rt tired, then, in a word, I also am105 Longer to live most weary, and present My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice, Which not to cut would show thee but a fool, Since I have ever followed thee with hate, Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country’s breast,110 And cannot live but to thy shame, unless It be to do thee service.AUFIDIUS O Martius, Martius, Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart115 A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter Should from yond cloud speak divine things And say ’tis true, I’d not believe them more Than thee, all-noble Martius. Let me twine
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Mine arms about that body, whereagainst120 My grainèd ash an hundred times hath broke And scarred the moon with splinters.⌜They embrace.⌝ Here I clip The anvil of my sword and do contest As hotly and as nobly with thy love125 As ever in ambitious strength I did Contend against thy valor. Know thou first, I loved the maid I married; never man Sighed truer breath. But that I see thee here, Thou noble thing, more dances my rapt heart130 Than when I first my wedded mistress saw Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars, I tell thee We have a power on foot, and I had purpose Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn Or lose mine arm for ’t. Thou hast beat me out135 Twelve several times, and I have nightly since Dreamt of encounters ’twixt thyself and me; We have been down together in my sleep, Unbuckling helms, fisting each other’s throat, And waked half dead with nothing. Worthy Martius,140 Had we no other quarrel else to Rome but that Thou art thence banished, we would muster all From twelve to seventy and, pouring war Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome, Like a bold flood ⌜o’erbear ’t.⌝ O, come, go in,145 And take our friendly senators by th’ hands, Who now are here, taking their leaves of me, Who am prepared against your territories, Though not for Rome itself.CORIOLANUS You bless me, gods!AUFIDIUS 150 Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have The leading of thine own revenges, take
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Th’ one half of my commission and set down— As best thou art experienced, since thou know’st Thy country’s strength and weakness—thine own155 ways, Whether to knock against the gates of Rome, Or rudely visit them in parts remote To fright them ere destroy. But come in. Let me commend thee first to those that shall160 Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes! And more a friend than ere an enemy— Yet, Martius, that was much. Your hand. Most welcome!⌜Coriolanus and Aufidius⌝ exit.Two of the Servingmen ⌜come forward.⌝FIRST SERVINGMAN Here’s a strange alteration!SECOND SERVINGMAN 165By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with a cudgel, and yet my mind gave me his clothes made a false report of him.FIRST SERVINGMAN What an arm he has! He turned me about with his finger and his thumb as one would170 set up a top.SECOND SERVINGMAN Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him. He had, sir, a kind of face, methought—I cannot tell how to term it.FIRST SERVINGMAN He had so, looking as it were—175 Would I were hanged but I thought there was more in him than I could think.SECOND SERVINGMAN So did I, I’ll be sworn. He is simply the rarest man i’ th’ world.FIRST SERVINGMAN I think he is. But a greater soldier180 than he you wot one.SECOND SERVINGMAN Who, my master?FIRST SERVINGMAN Nay, it’s no matter for that.SECOND SERVINGMAN Worth six on him.FIRST SERVINGMAN Nay, not so neither. But I take him185 to be the greater soldier.
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SECOND SERVINGMAN Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that. For the defense of a town our general is excellent.FIRST SERVINGMAN Ay, and for an assault too.Enter the Third Servingman.THIRD SERVINGMAN 190O slaves, I can tell you news, news, you rascals!BOTH What, what, what? Let’s partake!THIRD SERVINGMAN I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lief be a condemned man.BOTH 195Wherefore? Wherefore?THIRD SERVINGMAN Why, here’s he that was wont to thwack our general, Caius Martius.FIRST SERVINGMAN Why do you say “thwack our general”?THIRD SERVINGMAN 200I do not say “thwack our general,” but he was always good enough for him.SECOND SERVINGMAN Come, we are fellows and friends. He was ever too hard for him; I have heard him say so himself.FIRST SERVINGMAN 205He was too hard for him directly, to say the truth on ’t, before Corioles; he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado.SECOND SERVINGMAN An he had been cannibally given, he might have boiled and eaten him too.FIRST SERVINGMAN 210But, more of thy news.THIRD SERVINGMAN Why, he is so made on here within as if he were son and heir to Mars; set at upper end o’ th’ table; no question asked him by any of the senators but they stand bald before him. Our general215 himself makes a mistress of him, sanctifies himself with ’s hand, and turns up the white o’ th’ eye to his discourse. But the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i’ th’ middle and but one half of
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what he was yesterday, for the other has half, by220 the entreaty and grant of the whole table. He’ll go, he says, and sowl the porter of Rome gates by th’ ears. He will mow all down before him and leave his passage polled.SECOND SERVINGMAN And he’s as like to do ’t as any225 man I can imagine.THIRD SERVINGMAN Do ’t? He will do ’t! For, look you, sir, he has as many friends as enemies, which friends, sir, as it were, durst not, look you, sir, show themselves, as we term it, his friends whilest he’s230 in directitude.FIRST SERVINGMAN Directitude? What’s that?THIRD SERVINGMAN But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again, and the man in blood, they will out of their burrows like coneys after rain, and revel235 all with him.FIRST SERVINGMAN But when goes this forward?THIRD SERVINGMAN Tomorrow, today, presently. You shall have the drum struck up this afternoon. ’Tis, as it were, a parcel of their feast, and to be executed240 ere they wipe their lips.SECOND SERVINGMAN Why then, we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers.FIRST SERVINGMAN Let me have war, say I. It exceeds245 peace as far as day does night. It’s sprightly walking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, ⌜sleepy,⌝ insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war’s a destroyer of men.SECOND SERVINGMAN 250’Tis so, and as wars in some sort may be said to be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.
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FIRST SERVINGMAN Ay, and it makes men hate one another.THIRD SERVINGMAN 255Reason: because they then less need one another. The wars for my money! I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volscians. ⌜(Noise
within.)⌝ They are rising; they are rising.⌜FIRST AND SECOND SERVINGMEN⌝ In, in, in, in!They exit.
Enter the two Tribunes. Sicinius and Brutus.SICINIUS We hear not of him, neither need we fear him. His remedies are tame—the present peace, And quietness of the people, which before Were in wild hurry. Here do we make his friends5 Blush that the world goes well, who rather had, Though they themselves did suffer by ’t, behold Dissentious numbers pest’ring streets than see Our tradesmen singing in their shops and going About their functions friendly.BRUTUS 10 We stood to ’t in good time.Enter Menenius. Is this Menenius?SICINIUS ’Tis he, ’tis he. O, he is grown most kind Of late.—Hail, sir.MENENIUS Hail to you both.SICINIUS 15 Your Coriolanus is not much missed But with his friends. The commonwealth doth stand, And so would do were he more angry at it.
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MENENIUS All’s well, and might have been much better if He could have temporized.SICINIUS 20Where is he, hear you?MENENIUS Nay, I hear nothing; His mother and his wife hear nothing from him.Enter three or four Citizens.ALL ⌜CITIZENS, to the Tribunes⌝ The gods preserve you both!SICINIUS 25 Good e’en, our neighbors.BRUTUS Good e’en to you all, good e’en to you all.FIRST CITIZEN Ourselves, our wives, and children, on our knees Are bound to pray for you both.SICINIUS Live, and thrive!BRUTUS 30 Farewell, kind neighbors. We wished Coriolanus Had loved you as we did.ALL ⌜CITIZENS⌝ Now the gods keep you!BOTH TRIBUNES Farewell, farewell.Citizens exit.SICINIUS This is a happier and more comely time35 Than when these fellows ran about the streets Crying confusion.BRUTUS Caius Martius was A worthy officer i’ th’ war, but insolent, O’ercome with pride, ambitious, past all thinking40 Self-loving.SICINIUS And affecting one sole throne, without assistance.MENENIUS I think not so.SICINIUS We should by this, to all our lamentation, If he had gone forth consul, found it so.
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BRUTUS 45 The gods have well prevented it, and Rome Sits safe and still without him.Enter an Aedile.AEDILE Worthy tribunes, There is a slave, whom we have put in prison, Reports the Volsces with two several powers50 Are entered in the Roman territories, And with the deepest malice of the war Destroy what lies before ’em.MENENIUS ’Tis Aufidius, Who, hearing of our Martius’ banishment,55 Thrusts forth his horns again into the world, Which were inshelled when Martius stood for Rome, And durst not once peep out.SICINIUS Come, what talk you of Martius?BRUTUS Go see this rumorer whipped. It cannot be60 The Volsces dare break with us.MENENIUS Cannot be? We have record that very well it can, And three examples of the like hath been Within my age. But reason with the fellow65 Before you punish him, where he heard this, Lest you shall chance to whip your information And beat the messenger who bids beware Of what is to be dreaded.SICINIUS Tell not me.70 I know this cannot be.BRUTUS Not possible.Enter a Messenger.MESSENGER The nobles in great earnestness are going
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All to the Senate House. Some news is coming That turns their countenances.SICINIUS 75 ’Tis this slave— Go whip him ’fore the people’s eyes—his raising, Nothing but his report.MESSENGER Yes, worthy sir, The slave’s report is seconded, and more,80 More fearful, is delivered.SICINIUS What more fearful?MESSENGER It is spoke freely out of many mouths— How probable I do not know—that Martius, Joined with Aufidius, leads a power ’gainst Rome85 And vows revenge as spacious as between The young’st and oldest thing.SICINIUS This is most likely!BRUTUS Raised only that the weaker sort may wish Good Martius home again.SICINIUS 90The very trick on ’t.MENENIUS This is unlikely; He and Aufidius can no more atone Than violent’st contrariety.Enter ⌜a Second⌝ Messenger.⌜SECOND⌝ MESSENGER You are sent for to the Senate.95 A fearful army, led by Caius Martius Associated with Aufidius, rages Upon our territories, and have already O’erborne their way, consumed with fire and took What lay before them.Enter Cominius.COMINIUS, ⌜to the Tribunes⌝ 100 O, you have made good work!MENENIUS What news? What news?
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COMINIUS, ⌜to the Tribunes⌝ You have holp to ravish your own daughters and To melt the city leads upon your pates,105 To see your wives dishonored to your noses—MENENIUS What’s the news? What’s the news?COMINIUS, ⌜to the Tribunes⌝ Your temples burnèd in their cement, and Your franchises, whereon you stood, confined Into an auger’s bore.MENENIUS 110 Pray now, your news?— You have made fair work, I fear me.—Pray, your news? If Martius should be joined with Volscians—COMINIUS If?115 He is their god; he leads them like a thing Made by some other deity than Nature, That shapes man better; and they follow him Against us brats with no less confidence Than boys pursuing summer butterflies120 Or butchers killing flies.MENENIUS, ⌜to the Tribunes⌝ You have made good work, You and your apron-men, you that stood so much Upon the voice of occupation and The breath of garlic eaters!COMINIUS 125 He’ll shake your Rome about your ears.MENENIUS As Hercules did shake down mellow fruit. You have made fair work.BRUTUS But is this true, sir?COMINIUS Ay, and you’ll look pale130 Before you find it other. All the regions Do smilingly revolt, and who resists Are mocked for valiant ignorance And perish constant fools. Who is ’t can blame him? Your enemies and his find something in him.
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MENENIUS 135We are all undone, unless The noble man have mercy.COMINIUS Who shall ask it? The Tribunes cannot do ’t for shame; the people Deserve such pity of him as the wolf140 Does of the shepherds. For his best friends, if they Should say “Be good to Rome,” they charged him even As those should do that had deserved his hate And therein showed like enemies.MENENIUS 145 ’Tis true. If he were putting to my house the brand That should consume it, I have not the face To say “Beseech you, cease.”—You have made fair hands,150 You and your crafts! You have crafted fair!COMINIUS You have brought A trembling upon Rome such as was never S’ incapable of help.TRIBUNES 155 Say not we brought it.MENENIUS How? Was ’t we? We loved him, but like beasts And cowardly nobles, gave way unto your clusters, Who did hoot him out o’ th’ city.COMINIUS But I fear160 They’ll roar him in again. Tullus Aufidius, The second name of men, obeys his points As if he were his officer. Desperation Is all the policy, strength, and defense That Rome can make against them.Enter a troop of Citizens.MENENIUS 165 Here come the clusters.— And is Aufidius with him? You are they
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That made the air unwholesome when you cast Your stinking, greasy caps in hooting at170 Coriolanus’ exile. Now he’s coming, And not a hair upon a soldier’s head Which will not prove a whip. As many coxcombs As you threw caps up will he tumble down And pay you for your voices. ’Tis no matter.175 If he could burn us all into one coal, We have deserved it.ALL ⌜CITIZENS⌝ Faith, we hear fearful news.FIRST CITIZEN For mine own part, When I said banish him, I said ’twas pity.SECOND CITIZEN 180And so did I.THIRD CITIZEN And so did I. And, to say the truth, so did very many of us. That we did we did for the best; and though we willingly consented to his banishment, yet it was against our will.COMINIUS 185You’re goodly things, you voices!MENENIUS You have made good work, you and your cry!— Shall ’s to the Capitol?COMINIUS O, ay, what else?Both exit.SICINIUS Go, masters, get you home. Be not dismayed.190 These are a side that would be glad to have This true which they so seem to fear. Go home, And show no sign of fear.FIRST CITIZEN The gods be good to us! Come, masters, let’s home. I ever said we were i’ th’ wrong when195 we banished him.SECOND CITIZEN So did we all. But, come, let’s home.Citizens exit.BRUTUS I do not like this news.SICINIUS Nor I.
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BRUTUS Let’s to the Capitol. Would half my wealth200 Would buy this for a lie.SICINIUS Pray, let’s go.Tribunes exit.
Enter Aufidius with his Lieutenant.AUFIDIUS Do they still fly to th’ Roman?LIEUTENANT I do not know what witchcraft’s in him, but Your soldiers use him as the grace ’fore meat, Their talk at table, and their thanks at end;5 And you are dark’ned in this action, sir, Even by your own.AUFIDIUS I cannot help it now, Unless by using means I lame the foot Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier,10 Even to my person, than I thought he would When first I did embrace him. Yet his nature In that’s no changeling, and I must excuse What cannot be amended.LIEUTENANT Yet I wish, sir—15 I mean for your particular—you had not Joined in commission with him, but either Have borne the action of yourself or else To him had left it solely.AUFIDIUS I understand thee well, and be thou sure,20 When he shall come to his account, he knows not What I can urge against him, although it seems, And so he thinks and is no less apparent To th’ vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly, And shows good husbandry for the Volscian state,
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25 Fights dragonlike, and does achieve as soon As draw his sword; yet he hath left undone That which shall break his neck or hazard mine Whene’er we come to our account.LIEUTENANT Sir, I beseech you, think you he’ll carry Rome?AUFIDIUS 30 All places yields to him ere he sits down, And the nobility of Rome are his; The Senators and Patricians love him too. The Tribunes are no soldiers, and their people Will be as rash in the repeal as hasty35 To expel him thence. I think he’ll be to Rome As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it By sovereignty of nature. First, he was A noble servant to them, but he could not Carry his honors even. Whether ⌜’twas⌝ pride,40 Which out of daily fortune ever taints The happy man; whether ⌜defect⌝ of judgment, To fail in the disposing of those chances Which he was lord of; or whether nature, Not to be other than one thing, not moving45 From th’ casque to th’ cushion, but commanding peace Even with the same austerity and garb As he controlled the war; but one of these— As he hath spices of them all—not all,50 For I dare so far free him—made him feared, So hated, and so banished. But he has a merit To choke it in the utt’rance. So our ⌜virtues⌝ Lie in th’ interpretation of the time, And power, unto itself most commendable,55 Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair T’ extol what it hath done. One fire drives out one fire, one nail one nail;
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Rights by rights ⌜falter⌝; strengths by strengths do fail.60 Come, let’s away. When, Caius, Rome is thine, Thou art poor’st of all; then shortly art thou mine.They exit.
Enter Menenius, Cominius, Sicinius, Brutus (the two
Tribunes), with others.MENENIUS No, I’ll not go. You hear what he hath said Which was sometime his general, who loved him In a most dear particular. He called me father, But what o’ that? Go you that banished him;5 A mile before his tent, fall down, and knee The way into his mercy. Nay, if he coyed To hear Cominius speak, I’ll keep at home.COMINIUS He would not seem to know me.MENENIUS Do you hear?COMINIUS 10 Yet one time he did call me by my name. I urged our old acquaintance, and the drops That we have bled together. “Coriolanus” He would not answer to, forbade all names. He was a kind of nothing, titleless,15 Till he had forged himself a name o’ th’ fire Of burning Rome.MENENIUS, ⌜to the Tribunes⌝ Why, so; you have made good work! A pair of tribunes that have wracked Rome To make coals cheap! A noble memory!
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COMINIUS 20 I minded him how royal ’twas to pardon When it was less expected. He replied It was a bare petition of a state To one whom they had punished.MENENIUS Very well.25 Could he say less?COMINIUS I offered to awaken his regard For ’s private friends. His answer to me was He could not stay to pick them in a pile Of noisome musty chaff. He said ’twas folly30 For one poor grain or two to leave unburnt And still to nose th’ offense.MENENIUS For one poor grain or two! I am one of those! His mother, wife, his child, And this brave fellow too, we are the grains;35 You are the musty chaff, and you are smelt Above the moon. We must be burnt for you.SICINIUS Nay, pray, be patient. If you refuse your aid In this so-never-needed help, yet do not Upbraid ’s with our distress. But sure, if you40 Would be your country’s pleader, your good tongue, More than the instant army we can make, Might stop our countryman.MENENIUS No, I’ll not meddle.SICINIUS Pray you, go to him.MENENIUS 45What should I do?BRUTUS Only make trial what your love can do For Rome, towards Martius.MENENIUS Well, and say that Martius50 Return me, as Cominius is returned, unheard,
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What then? But as a discontented friend, Grief-shot with his unkindness? Say ’t be so?SICINIUS Yet your good will Must have that thanks from Rome after the measure55 As you intended well.MENENIUS I’ll undertake ’t. I think he’ll hear me. Yet to bite his lip And hum at good Cominius much unhearts me. He was not taken well; he had not dined.60 The veins unfilled, our blood is cold, and then We pout upon the morning, are unapt To give or to forgive; but when we have stuffed These pipes and these conveyances of our blood With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls65 Than in our priestlike fasts. Therefore I’ll watch him Till he be dieted to my request, And then I’ll set upon him.BRUTUS You know the very road into his kindness And cannot lose your way.MENENIUS 70 Good faith, I’ll prove him, Speed how it will. I shall ere long have knowledge Of my success.He exits.COMINIUS He’ll never hear him.SICINIUS Not?COMINIUS 75 I tell you, he does sit in gold, his eye Red as ’twould burn Rome; and his injury The jailor to his pity. I kneeled before him; ’Twas very faintly he said “Rise”; dismissed me Thus with his speechless hand. What he would do80 He sent in writing after me; what he Would not, bound with an oath to yield to his Conditions. So that all hope is vain Unless his noble mother and his wife, Who, as I hear, mean to solicit him
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85 For mercy to his country. Therefore let’s hence And with our fair entreaties haste them on.They exit.
Enter Menenius to the Watch, or Guard.FIRST WATCH Stay! Whence are you?SECOND WATCH Stand, and go back.MENENIUS You guard like men; ’tis well. But by your leave, I am an officer of state and come5 To speak with Coriolanus.FIRST WATCH From whence?MENENIUS From Rome.FIRST WATCH You may not pass; you must return. Our general Will no more hear from thence.SECOND WATCH 10 You’ll see your Rome embraced with fire before You’ll speak with Coriolanus.MENENIUS Good my friends, If you have heard your general talk of Rome And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks15 My name hath touched your ears. It is Menenius.FIRST WATCH Be it so; go back. The virtue of your name Is not here passable.MENENIUS I tell thee, fellow, Thy general is my lover. I have been20 The book of his good acts, whence men have read His fame unparalleled happily amplified; For I have ever verified my friends— Of whom he’s chief—with all the size that verity Would without lapsing suffer. Nay, sometimes,
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25 Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground, I have tumbled past the throw, and in his praise Have almost stamped the leasing. Therefore, fellow, I must have leave to pass.FIRST WATCH Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in30 his behalf as you have uttered words in your own, you should not pass here, no, though it were as virtuous to lie as to live chastely. Therefore, go back.MENENIUS Prithee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius, always factionary on the party of your35 general.SECOND WATCH Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say you have, I am one that, telling true under him, must say you cannot pass. Therefore, go back.MENENIUS Has he dined, can’st thou tell? For I would40 not speak with him till after dinner.FIRST WATCH You are a Roman, are you?MENENIUS I am, as thy general is.FIRST WATCH Then you should hate Rome as he does. Can you, when you have pushed out your gates the45 very defender of them, and, in a violent popular ignorance given your enemy your shield, think to front his revenges with the easy groans of old women, the virginal palms of your daughters, or with the palsied intercession of such a decayed50 dotant as you seem to be? Can you think to blow out the intended fire your city is ready to flame in with such weak breath as this? No, you are deceived. Therefore, back to Rome and prepare for your execution. You are condemned. Our general55 has sworn you out of reprieve and pardon.MENENIUS Sirrah, if thy captain knew I were here, he would use me with estimation.FIRST WATCH Come, my captain knows you not.MENENIUS I mean thy general.
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FIRST WATCH 60My general cares not for you. Back, I say, go, lest I let forth your half pint of blood. Back! That’s the utmost of your having. Back!MENENIUS Nay, but fellow, fellow—Enter Coriolanus with Aufidius.CORIOLANUS What’s the matter?MENENIUS ⌜to First Watch⌝ 65Now, you companion, I’ll say an errand for you. You shall know now that I am in estimation; you shall perceive that a Jack guardant cannot office me from my son Coriolanus. Guess but ⌜by⌝ my entertainment with him70 if thou stand’st not i’ th’ state of hanging or of some death more long in spectatorship and crueler in suffering; behold now presently, and swoon for what’s to come upon thee. ⌜(To Coriolanus.)⌝ The glorious gods sit in hourly synod about thy particular75 prosperity and love thee no worse than thy old father Menenius does! O my son, my son! ⌜(He
weeps.)⌝ Thou art preparing fire for us; look thee, here’s water to quench it. I was hardly moved to come to thee; but being assured none but myself80 could move thee, I have been blown out of your gates with sighs, and conjure thee to pardon Rome and thy petitionary countrymen. The good gods assuage thy wrath and turn the dregs of it upon this varlet here, this, who, like a block, hath denied85 my access to thee.CORIOLANUS Away!MENENIUS How? Away?CORIOLANUS Wife, mother, child, I know not. My affairs Are servanted to others. Though I owe90 My revenge properly, my remission lies In Volscian breasts. That we have been familiar, Ingrate forgetfulness shall poison rather
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Than pity note how much. Therefore, begone. Mine ears against your suits are stronger than95 Your gates against my force. Yet, for I loved thee, Take this along; I writ it for thy sake,⌜He gives Menenius a paper.⌝ And would have sent it. Another word, Menenius, I will not hear thee speak.—This man, Aufidius, Was my beloved in Rome; yet thou behold’st.AUFIDIUS 100You keep a constant temper.They exit.The Guard and Menenius remain.FIRST WATCH Now, sir, is your name Menenius?SECOND WATCH ’Tis a spell, you see, of much power. You know the way home again.FIRST WATCH Do you hear how we are shent for keeping105 your Greatness back?SECOND WATCH What cause do you think I have to swoon?MENENIUS I neither care for th’ world nor your general. For such things as you, I can scarce think110 there’s any, you’re so slight. He that hath a will to die by himself fears it not from another. Let your general do his worst. For you, be that you are, long; and your misery increase with your age! I say to you, as I was said to, away!He exits.FIRST WATCH 115A noble fellow, I warrant him.SECOND WATCH The worthy fellow is our general. He’s the rock, the oak not to be wind-shaken.Watch exit.
Enter Coriolanus and Aufidius.CORIOLANUS We will before the walls of Rome tomorrow Set down our host. My partner in this action,
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You must report to th’ Volscian lords how plainly I have borne this business.AUFIDIUS 5 Only their ends You have respected, stopped your ears against The general suit of Rome, never admitted A private whisper, no, not with such friends That thought them sure of you.CORIOLANUS 10 This last old man, Whom with a cracked heart I have sent to Rome, Loved me above the measure of a father, Nay, godded me indeed. Their latest refuge Was to send him, for whose old love I have—15 Though I showed sourly to him—once more offered The first conditions, which they did refuse And cannot now accept, to grace him only That thought he could do more. A very little I have yielded to. Fresh embassies and suits,20 Nor from the state nor private friends, hereafter Will I lend ear to.Shout within. Ha? What shout is this? Shall I be tempted to infringe my vow In the same time ’tis made? I will not.Enter Virgilia, Volumnia, Valeria, young Martius,
with Attendants.25 My wife comes foremost, then the honored mold Wherein this trunk was framed, and in her hand The grandchild to her blood. But out, affection! All bond and privilege of nature, break! Let it be virtuous to be obstinate.⌜Virgilia curtsies.⌝30 What is that curtsy worth? Or those doves’ eyes, Which can make gods forsworn? I melt and am not Of stronger earth than others.⌜Volumnia bows.⌝ My mother bows, As if Olympus to a molehill should35 In supplication nod; and my young boy
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Hath an aspect of intercession which Great Nature cries “Deny not!” Let the Volsces Plow Rome and harrow Italy, I’ll never Be such a gosling to obey instinct, but stand40 As if a man were author of himself, And knew no other kin.VIRGILIA My lord and husband.CORIOLANUS These eyes are not the same I wore in Rome.VIRGILIA The sorrow that delivers us thus changed45 Makes you think so.CORIOLANUS Like a dull actor now, I have forgot my part, and I am out, Even to a full disgrace. Best of my flesh, Forgive my tyranny, but do not say50 For that “Forgive our Romans.”⌜They kiss.⌝ O, a kiss Long as my exile, sweet as my revenge! Now, by the jealous queen of heaven, that kiss I carried from thee, dear, and my true lip55 Hath virgined it e’er since. You gods! I ⌜prate⌝ And the most noble mother of the world Leave unsaluted. Sink, my knee, i’ th’ earth;Kneels. Of thy deep duty more impression show Than that of common sons.VOLUMNIA 60 O, stand up blest,⌜He rises.⌝ Whilst with no softer cushion than the flint I kneel before thee and unproperly Show duty, as mistaken all this while Between the child and parent.⌜She kneels.⌝CORIOLANUS 65 What’s this? Your knees to me? To your corrected son?⌜He raises her up.⌝ Then let the pebbles on the hungry beach
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Fillip the stars! Then let the mutinous winds Strike the proud cedars ’gainst the fiery sun,70 Murdering impossibility to make What cannot be slight work.VOLUMNIA Thou art my warrior; I ⌜holp⌝ to frame thee. Do you know this lady?CORIOLANUS The noble sister of Publicola,75 The moon of Rome, chaste as the icicle That’s curdied by the frost from purest snow And hangs on Dian’s temple!—Dear Valeria.VOLUMNIA, ⌜presenting young Martius⌝ This is a poor epitome of yours, Which by th’ interpretation of full time80 May show like all yourself.CORIOLANUS, ⌜to young Martius⌝ The god of soldiers, With the consent of supreme Jove, inform Thy thoughts with nobleness, that thou mayst prove To shame unvulnerable, and stick i’ th’ wars85 Like a great seamark standing every flaw And saving those that eye thee.VOLUMNIA, ⌜to young Martius⌝ Your knee, sirrah.⌜He kneels.⌝CORIOLANUS That’s my brave boy!VOLUMNIA Even he, your wife, this lady, and myself90 Are suitors to you.⌜Young Martius rises.⌝CORIOLANUS I beseech you, peace; Or if you’d ask, remember this before: The thing I have forsworn to grant may never Be held by you denials. Do not bid me95 Dismiss my soldiers or capitulate Again with Rome’s mechanics. Tell me not Wherein I seem unnatural; desire not T’ allay my rages and revenges with Your colder reasons.
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VOLUMNIA 100 O, no more, no more! You have said you will not grant us anything; For we have nothing else to ask but that Which you deny already. Yet we will ask, That if you fail in our request, the blame105 May hang upon your hardness. Therefore hear us.CORIOLANUS Aufidius, and you Volsces, mark, for we’ll Hear naught from Rome in private. ⌜He sits.⌝ Your request?VOLUMNIA Should we be silent and not speak, our raiment110 And state of bodies would bewray what life We have led since thy exile. Think with thyself How more unfortunate than all living women Are we come hither; since that thy sight, which should115 Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with comforts, Constrains them weep and shake with fear and sorrow, Making the mother, wife, and child to see120 The son, the husband, and the father tearing His country’s bowels out. And to poor we Thine enmity’s most capital. Thou barr’st us Our prayers to the gods, which is a comfort That all but we enjoy. For how can we—125 Alas, how can we—for our country pray, Whereto we are bound, together with thy victory, Whereto we are bound? Alack, or we must lose The country, our dear nurse, or else thy person, Our comfort in the country. We must find130 An evident calamity, though we had Our wish, which side should win, for either thou Must as a foreign recreant be led With manacles through our streets, or else
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Triumphantly tread on thy country’s ruin135 And bear the palm for having bravely shed Thy wife and children’s blood. For myself, son, I purpose not to wait on fortune till These wars determine. If I cannot persuade thee Rather to show a noble grace to both parts140 Than seek the end of one, thou shalt no sooner March to assault thy country than to tread— Trust to ’t, thou shalt not—on thy mother’s womb That brought thee to this world.VIRGILIA Ay, and mine,145 That brought you forth this boy to keep your name Living to time.YOUNG MARTIUS He shall not tread on me. I’ll run away till I am bigger, but then I’ll fight.CORIOLANUS Not of a woman’s tenderness to be150 Requires nor child nor woman’s face to see.— I have sat too long.⌜He rises.⌝VOLUMNIA Nay, go not from us thus. If it were so, that our request did tend To save the Romans, thereby to destroy155 The Volsces whom you serve, you might condemn us As poisonous of your honor. No, our suit Is that you reconcile them, while the Volsces May say “This mercy we have showed,” the Romans160 “This we received,” and each in either side Give the all-hail to thee and cry “Be blest For making up this peace!” Thou know’st, great son, The end of war’s uncertain, but this certain, That, if thou conquer Rome, the benefit165 Which thou shalt thereby reap is such a name Whose repetition will be dogged with curses, Whose chronicle thus writ: “The man was noble, But with his last attempt he wiped it out,
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Destroyed his country, and his name remains170 To th’ ensuing age abhorred.” Speak to me, son. Thou hast affected the ⌜fine⌝ strains of honor To imitate the graces of the gods, To tear with thunder the wide cheeks o’ th’ air And yet to ⌜charge⌝ thy sulfur with a bolt175 That should but rive an oak. Why dost not speak? Think’st thou it honorable for a noble man Still to remember wrongs?—Daughter, speak you. He cares not for your weeping.—Speak thou, boy. Perhaps thy childishness will move him more180 Than can our reasons.—There’s no man in the world More bound to ’s mother, yet here he lets me prate Like one i’ th’ stocks. Thou hast never in thy life Showed thy dear mother any courtesy When she, poor hen, fond of no second brood,185 Has ⌜clucked⌝ thee to the wars and safely home, Loaden with honor. Say my request’s unjust And spurn me back; but if it be not so, Thou art not honest, and the gods will plague thee That thou restrain’st from me the duty which190 To a mother’s part belongs.—He turns away.— Down, ladies! Let us shame him with our knees. To his surname Coriolanus ’longs more pride Than pity to our prayers. Down! An end.⌜They kneel.⌝ This is the last. So, we will home to Rome195 And die among our neighbors.—Nay, behold ’s. This boy that cannot tell what he would have, But kneels and holds up hands for fellowship, Does reason our petition with more strength Than thou hast to deny ’t.—Come, let us go.⌜They rise.⌝200 This fellow had a Volscian to his mother, His wife is in Corioles, and his child
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Like him by chance.—Yet give us our dispatch. I am hushed until our city be afire, And then I’ll speak a little.⌜He⌝ holds her by the hand, silent.CORIOLANUS 205 O mother, mother! What have you done? Behold, the heavens do ope, The gods look down, and this unnatural scene They laugh at. O, my mother, mother, O! You have won a happy victory to Rome,210 But, for your son—believe it, O, believe it!— Most dangerously you have with him prevailed, If not most mortal to him. But let it come.— Aufidius, though I cannot make true wars, I’ll frame convenient peace. Now, good Aufidius,215 Were you in my stead, would you have heard A mother less? Or granted less, Aufidius?AUFIDIUS I was moved withal.CORIOLANUS I dare be sworn you were. And, sir, it is no little thing to make220 Mine eyes to sweat compassion. But, good sir, What peace you’ll make advise me. For my part, I’ll not to Rome. I’ll back with you; and pray you, Stand to me in this cause.—O mother!—Wife!⌜He speaks with them aside.⌝AUFIDIUS, ⌜aside⌝ I am glad thou hast set thy mercy and thy honor225 At difference in thee. Out of that I’ll work Myself a former fortune.CORIOLANUS, ⌜to the Women⌝ Ay, by and by; But we will drink together, and you shall bear A better witness back than words, which we,230 On like conditions, will have countersealed. Come, enter with us. Ladies, you deserve To have a temple built you. All the swords
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In Italy, and her confederate arms, Could not have made this peace.They exit.
Enter Menenius and Sicinius.MENENIUS See you yond coign o’ th’ Capitol, yond cornerstone?SICINIUS Why, what of that?MENENIUS If it be possible for you to displace it with5 your little finger, there is some hope the ladies of Rome, especially his mother, may prevail with him. But I say there is no hope in ’t. Our throats are sentenced and stay upon execution.SICINIUS Is ’t possible that so short a time can alter the10 condition of a man?MENENIUS There is differency between a grub and a butterfly, yet your butterfly was a grub. This Martius is grown from man to dragon. He has wings; he’s more than a creeping thing.SICINIUS 15He loved his mother dearly.MENENIUS So did he me; and he no more remembers his mother now than an eight-year-old horse. The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes. When he walks, he moves like an engine, and the ground20 shrinks before his treading. He is able to pierce a corslet with his eye, talks like a knell, and his hum is a battery. He sits in his state as a thing made for Alexander. What he bids be done is finished with his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but eternity25 and a heaven to throne in.SICINIUS Yes, mercy, if you report him truly.MENENIUS I paint him in the character. Mark what mercy his mother shall bring from him. There is
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no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male30 tiger. That shall our poor city find, and all this is long of you.SICINIUS The gods be good unto us.MENENIUS No, in such a case the gods will not be good unto us. When we banished him, we respected not35 them; and he returning to break our necks, they respect not us.Enter a Messenger.MESSENGER, ⌜to Sicinius⌝ Sir, if you’d save your life, fly to your house. The plebeians have got your fellow tribune And hale him up and down, all swearing if40 The Roman ladies bring not comfort home, They’ll give him death by inches.Enter another Messenger.SICINIUS What’s the news?⌜SECOND⌝ MESSENGER Good news, good news! The ladies have prevailed. The Volscians are dislodged and Martius gone.45 A merrier day did never yet greet Rome, No, not th’ expulsion of the Tarquins.SICINIUS Friend, Art thou certain this is true? Is ’t most certain?⌜SECOND⌝ MESSENGER As certain as I know the sun is fire.50 Where have you lurked that you make doubt of it? Ne’er through an arch so hurried the blown tide As the recomforted through th’ gates. Why, hark you!Trumpets, hautboys, drums beat, all together. The trumpets, sackbuts, psalteries, and fifes, Tabors and cymbals, and the shouting Romans55 Make the sun dance. Hark you!A shout within.
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MENENIUS This is good news. I will go meet the ladies. This Volumnia Is worth of consuls, senators, patricians A city full; of tribunes such as you60 A sea and land full. You have prayed well today. This morning for ten thousand of your throats I’d not have given a doit. Hark, how they joy!Sound still with the shouts.SICINIUS, ⌜to Second Messenger⌝ First, the gods bless you for your tidings; next, accept my thankfulness.⌜SECOND⌝ MESSENGER 65 Sir, we have all great cause to give great thanks.SICINIUS They are near the city?⌜SECOND⌝ MESSENGER Almost at point to enter.SICINIUS We’ll meet them, and help the joy.They exit.
Enter two Senators, with Ladies ⌜(Volumnia, Virgilia,
Valeria)⌝ passing over the stage, with other Lords.
SENATOR
Behold our patroness, the life of Rome!
Call all your tribes together, praise the gods,
And make triumphant fires. Strew flowers before
them,
5 Unshout the noise that banished Martius,
Repeal him with the welcome of his mother.
Cry “Welcome, ladies, welcome!”
ALL Welcome, ladies, welcome!
A flourish with drums and trumpets.
⌜They exit.⌝
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Enter Tullus Aufidius, with Attendants.AUFIDIUS Go tell the lords o’ th’ city I am here. Deliver them this paper.⌜(He gives them a paper.)⌝ Having read it, Bid them repair to th’ marketplace, where I,5 Even in theirs and in the commons’ ears, Will vouch the truth of it. Him I accuse The city ports by this hath entered and Intends t’ appear before the people, hoping To purge himself with words. Dispatch.⌜The Attendants exit.⌝Enter three or four Conspirators of Aufidius’s faction.10 Most welcome!FIRST CONSPIRATOR How is it with our general?AUFIDIUS Even so As with a man by his own alms empoisoned And with his charity slain.SECOND CONSPIRATOR 15 Most noble sir, If you do hold the same intent wherein You wished us parties, we’ll deliver you Of your great danger.AUFIDIUS Sir, I cannot tell.20 We must proceed as we do find the people.THIRD CONSPIRATOR The people will remain uncertain whilst ’Twixt you there’s difference, but the fall of either Makes the survivor heir of all.AUFIDIUS I know it,25 And my pretext to strike at him admits A good construction. I raised him, and I pawned Mine honor for his truth, who, being so heightened,
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He watered his new plants with dews of flattery, Seducing so my friends; and to this end,30 He bowed his nature, never known before But to be rough, unswayable, and free.THIRD CONSPIRATOR Sir, his stoutness When he did stand for consul, which he lost By lack of stooping—AUFIDIUS 35 That I would have spoke of. Being banished for ’t, he came unto my hearth, Presented to my knife his throat. I took him, Made him joint servant with me, gave him way In all his own desires; nay, let him choose40 Out of my files, his projects to accomplish, My best and freshest men; served his designments In mine own person; holp to reap the fame Which he did end all his; and took some pride To do myself this wrong; till at the last45 I seemed his follower, not partner; and He waged me with his countenance as if I had been mercenary.FIRST CONSPIRATOR So he did, my lord. The army marvelled at it, and, in the last,50 When he had carried Rome and that we looked For no less spoil than glory—AUFIDIUS There was it For which my sinews shall be stretched upon him. At a few drops of women’s rheum, which are55 As cheap as lies, he sold the blood and labor Of our great action. Therefore shall he die, And I’ll renew me in his fall. But hark!Drums and trumpets sounds, with great shouts
of the people.FIRST CONSPIRATOR Your native town you entered like a post
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And had no welcomes home, but he returns60 Splitting the air with noise.SECOND CONSPIRATOR And patient fools, Whose children he hath slain, their base throats tear With giving him glory.THIRD CONSPIRATOR Therefore at your vantage,65 Ere he express himself or move the people With what he would say, let him feel your sword, Which we will second. When he lies along, After your way his tale pronounced shall bury His reasons with his body.AUFIDIUS 70 Say no more.Enter the Lords of the city. Here come the lords.ALL LORDS You are most welcome home.AUFIDIUS I have not deserved it. But, worthy lords, have you with heed perused75 What I have written to you?ALL ⌜LORDS⌝ We have.FIRST LORD And grieve to hear ’t. What faults he made before the last, I think Might have found easy fines, but there to end80 Where he was to begin and give away The benefit of our levies, answering us With our own charge, making a treaty where There was a yielding—this admits no excuse.Enter Coriolanus marching with Drum and Colors, the
Commoners being with him.AUFIDIUS He approaches. You shall hear him.CORIOLANUS 85 Hail, lords! I am returned your soldier, No more infected with my country’s love
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Than when I parted hence, but still subsisting Under your great command. You are to know That prosperously I have attempted, and90 With bloody passage led your wars even to The gates of Rome. Our spoils we have brought home Doth more than counterpoise a full third part The charges of the action. We have made peace95 With no less honor to the Antiates Than shame to th’ Romans, and we here deliver, Subscribed by’ th’ Consuls and patricians, Together with the seal o’ th’ Senate, what We have compounded on.⌜He offers the lords a paper.⌝AUFIDIUS 100Read it not, noble lords, But tell the traitor in the highest degree He hath abused your powers.CORIOLANUS “Traitor”? How now?AUFIDIUS Ay, traitor, Martius.CORIOLANUS 105Martius?AUFIDIUS Ay, Martius, Caius Martius. Dost thou think I’ll grace thee with that robbery, thy stol’n name Coriolanus, in Corioles? You lords and heads o’ th’ state, perfidiously110 He has betrayed your business and given up For certain drops of salt your city Rome— I say your city—to his wife and mother, Breaking his oath and resolution like A twist of rotten silk, never admitting115 Counsel o’ th’ war, but at his nurse’s tears He whined and roared away your victory, That pages blushed at him and men of heart Looked wond’ring each at ⌜other.⌝CORIOLANUS Hear’st thou, Mars?
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AUFIDIUS 120Name not the god, thou boy of tears.CORIOLANUS Ha?AUFIDIUS No more.CORIOLANUS Measureless liar, thou hast made my heart Too great for what contains it. “Boy”? O slave!—125 Pardon me, lords, ’tis the first time that ever I was forced to scold. Your judgments, my grave lords, Must give this cur the lie; and his own notion— Who wears my stripes impressed upon him, that130 Must bear my beating to his grave—shall join To thrust the lie unto him.FIRST LORD Peace, both, and hear me speak.CORIOLANUS Cut me to pieces, Volsces. Men and lads, Stain all your edges on me. “Boy”? False hound!135 If you have writ your annals true, ’tis there That like an eagle in a dovecote, I ⌜Fluttered⌝ your Volscians in Corioles, Alone I did it. “Boy”!AUFIDIUS Why, noble lords,140 Will you be put in mind of his blind fortune, Which was your shame, by this unholy braggart, ’Fore your own eyes and ears?ALL CONSPIRATORS Let him die for ’t.ALL PEOPLE Tear him to pieces! Do it presently! He145 killed my son! My daughter! He killed my cousin Marcus! He killed my father!SECOND LORD Peace, ho! No outrage! Peace! The man is noble, and his fame folds in This orb o’ th’ Earth. His last offenses to us150 Shall have judicious hearing. Stand, Aufidius, And trouble not the peace.
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CORIOLANUS, ⌜drawing his sword⌝ O, that I had him, With six Aufidiuses, or more, his tribe, To use my lawful sword.AUFIDIUS 155 Insolent villain!ALL CONSPIRATORS Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill him!Draw the Conspirators, and kills Martius, who falls.
Aufidius stands on him.LORDS Hold, hold, hold, hold!AUFIDIUS My noble masters, hear me speak.FIRST LORD O Tullus!SECOND LORD 160 Thou hast done a deed whereat valor will weep.THIRD LORD Tread not upon him.—Masters, all be quiet.— Put up your swords.AUFIDIUS My lords, when you shall know—as in this rage, Provoked by him, you cannot—the great danger165 Which this man’s life did owe you, you’ll rejoice That he is thus cut off. Please it your Honors To call me to your senate, I’ll deliver Myself your loyal servant or endure Your heaviest censure.FIRST LORD 170 Bear from hence his body, And mourn you for him. Let him be regarded As the most noble corse that ever herald Did follow to his urn.SECOND LORD His own impatience175 Takes from Aufidius a great part of blame. Let’s make the best of it.AUFIDIUS My rage is gone, And I am struck with sorrow.—Take him up. Help, three o’ th’ chiefest soldiers; I’ll be one.—180 Beat thou the drum that it speak mournfully.—
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Trail your steel pikes. Though in this city he Hath widowed and unchilded many a one, Which to this hour bewail the injury, Yet he shall have a noble memory.185 Assist.They exit bearing the body of Martius.
A dead march sounded.
