Coriolanus

Coriolanus

ACT III SCENE I	Rome. A street.
	Cornets. Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, all theGentry, 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.	10
CORIOLANUS	Saw you Aufidius?
LARTIUS	On safe-guard 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?	15
LARTIUS	He did, my lord.
CORIOLANUS	How? what?
LARTIUS	How often he had met you, sword to sword;
	That of all things upon the earth he hated
	Your person most, that he would pawn his fortunes	20
	To hopeless restitution, so he might
	Be call'd 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' the common mouth: I do despise them;
	For they do prank them in authority,
	Against all noble sufferance.	30
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	The matter?	35
COMINIUS	Hath he not pass'd the noble and the common?
BRUTUS	Cominius, no.
CORIOLANUS	Have I had children's voices?
First Senator	Tribunes, give way; he shall to the market-place.
BRUTUS	The people are incensed against him.	40
SICINIUS	Stop,
	Or all will fall in broil.
CORIOLANUS	Are these your herd?
	Must these have voices, that can yield them now
	And straight disclaim their tongues? What are	45
	your offices?
	You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth?
	Have you not set them on?
MENENIUS	Be calm, be calm.
CORIOLANUS	It is a purposed thing, and grows by plot,	50
	To curb the will of the nobility:
	Suffer't, and live with such as cannot rule
	Nor ever will be ruled.
BRUTUS	Call't not a plot:
	The people cry you mock'd them, and of late,	55
	When corn was given them gratis, you repined;
	Scandal'd the suppliants for the people, call'd them
	Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness.
CORIOLANUS	Why, this was known before.
BRUTUS	Not to them all.	60
CORIOLANUS	Have you inform'd them sithence?
BRUTUS	How! I inform them!
CORIOLANUS	You are like to do such business.
BRUTUS	Not unlike,
	Each way, to better yours.	65
CORIOLANUS	Why then should I be consul? By yond clouds,
	Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me
	Your fellow tribune.
SICINIUS	You show too much of that
	For which the people stir: if you will pass	70
	To where you are bound, you must inquire your way,
	Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit,
	Or never be so noble as a consul,
	Nor yoke with him for tribune.
MENENIUS	Let's be calm.	75
COMINIUS	The people are abused; set on. This paltering
	Becomes not Rome, nor has Coriolanus
	Deserved this so dishonour'd rub, laid falsely
	I' the plain way of his merit.
CORIOLANUS	Tell me of corn!	80
	This was my speech, and I will speak't again--
MENENIUS	Not now, not now.
First Senator	Not in this heat, sir, now.
CORIOLANUS	Now, as I live, I will. My nobler friends,
	I crave their pardons:	85
	For the mutable, rank-scented many, let them
	Regard me as I do not flatter, and
	Therein behold themselves: I say again,
	In soothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate
	The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition,	90
	Which we ourselves have plough'd for, sow'd,
	and scatter'd,
	By mingling them with us, the honour'd number,
	Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that
	Which they have given to beggars.	95
MENENIUS	Well, no more.
First Senator	No more words, we beseech you.
CORIOLANUS	How! no more!
	As for my country I have shed my blood,
	Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs	100
	Coin words till their decay against those measles,
	Which we disdain should tatter us, yet sought
	The very way to catch them.
BRUTUS	You speak o' the people,
	As if you were a god to punish, not	105
	A man of their infirmity.
SICINIUS	'Twere well
	We let the people know't.
MENENIUS	What, what? his choler?
CORIOLANUS	Choler!	110
	Were I as patient as the midnight sleep,
	By Jove, 'twould be my mind!
SICINIUS	It is a mind
	That shall remain a poison where it is,
	Not poison any further.	115
CORIOLANUS	Shall remain!
	Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you
	His absolute 'shall'?
COMINIUS	'Twas from the canon.
CORIOLANUS	'Shall'!	120
	O good but most unwise patricians! why,
	You grave but reckless senators, have you thus
	Given Hydra here to choose an officer,
	That with his peremptory 'shall,' being but
	The horn and noise o' the monster's, wants not spirit	125
	To say he'll turn your current in a ditch,
	And make your channel his? If he have power
	Then vail your ignorance; if none, awake
	Your dangerous lenity. If you are learn'd,
	Be not as common fools; if you are not,	130
	Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians,
	If they be senators: and they are no less,
	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,'	135
	His popular 'shall' against a graver bench
	Than ever frown in Greece. By Jove himself!
	It makes the consuls base: and my soul aches
	To know, when two authorities are up,
	Neither supreme, how soon confusion	140
	May enter 'twixt the gap of both and take
	The one by the other.
COMINIUS	Well, on to the market-place.
CORIOLANUS	Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth
	The corn o' the storehouse gratis, as 'twas used	145
	Sometime in Greece,--
MENENIUS	Well, well, no more of that.
CORIOLANUS	Though there the people had more absolute power,
	I say, they nourish'd disobedience, fed
	The ruin of the state.	150
BRUTUS	Why, shall the people give
	One that speaks thus their voice?
CORIOLANUS	I'll give my reasons,
	More worthier than their voices. They know the corn
	Was not our recompense, resting well assured	155
	That ne'er did service for't: being press'd to the war,
	Even when the navel of the state was touch'd,
	They would not thread the gates. This kind of service
	Did not deserve corn gratis. Being i' the war
	Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they show'd	160
	Most valour, spoke not for them: the accusation
	Which they have often made against the senate,
	All cause unborn, could never be the motive
	Of our so frank donation. Well, what then?
	How shall this bisson multitude digest	165
	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 rabble	170
	Call our cares fears; which will in time
	Break ope the locks o' the senate and bring in
	The crows to peck the eagles.
MENENIUS	Come, enough.
BRUTUS	Enough, with over-measure.	175
CORIOLANUS	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, wisdom,	180
	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 barr'd,
	it follows,	185
	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 prefer
	A noble life before a long, and wish	190
	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 dishonour
	Mangles true judgment and bereaves the state	195
	Of that integrity which should become't,
	Not having the power to do the good it would,
	For the in which doth control't.
BRUTUS	Has said enough.
SICINIUS	Has spoken like a traitor, and shall answer	200
	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
	To the greater bench: in a rebellion,	205
	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' the dust.
BRUTUS	Manifest treason!	210
SICINIUS	This a consul? no.
BRUTUS	The aediles, ho!
	Enter an AEdile
	Let him be apprehended.
SICINIUS	Go, call the people:
	Exit AEdile
	in whose name myself	215
	Attach thee as a traitorous innovator,
	A foe to the public weal: obey, I charge thee,
	And follow to thine answer.
CORIOLANUS	Hence, old goat!
Senators,	We'll surety him.	220
COMINIUS	Aged sir, hands off.
CORIOLANUS	Hence, rotten thing! or I shall shake thy bones
	Out of thy garments.
SICINIUS	Help, ye citizens!
	Enter a rabble of Citizens (Plebeians), withthe AEdiles
MENENIUS	On both sides more respect.	225
SICINIUS	Here's he that would take from you all your power.
BRUTUS	Seize him, AEdiles!
Citizens	Down with him! down with him!
Senators,	Weapons, weapons, weapons!
	They all bustle about CORIOLANUS, crying
	'Tribunes!' 'Patricians!' 'Citizens!' 'What, ho!'	230
	'Sicinius!' 'Brutus!' 'Coriolanus!' 'Citizens!'
	'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 the people! Coriolanus, patience!	235
	Speak, good Sicinius.
SICINIUS	Hear me, people; peace!
Citizens	Let's hear our tribune: peace Speak, speak, speak.
SICINIUS	You are at point to lose your liberties:
	Marcius would have all from you; Marcius,	240
	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?	245
Citizens	True,
	The people are the city.
BRUTUS	By the consent of all, we were establish'd
	The people's magistrates.
Citizens	You so remain.	250
MENENIUS	And so are like to do.
COMINIUS	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.	255
SICINIUS	This deserves death.
BRUTUS	Or let us stand to our authority,
	Or let us lose it. We do here pronounce,
	Upon the part o' the people, in whose power
	We were elected theirs, Marcius is worthy	260
	Of present death.
SICINIUS	Therefore lay hold of him;
	Bear him to the rock Tarpeian, and from thence
	Into destruction cast him.
BRUTUS	AEdiles, seize him!	265
Citizens	Yield, Marcius, yield!
MENENIUS	Hear me one word;
	Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word.
AEdile	Peace, peace!
MENENIUS	To BRUTUS
	country's friend,	270
	And temperately 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,	275
	And bear him to the rock.
CORIOLANUS	No, I'll die here.
	Drawing his sword
	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.	280
BRUTUS	Lay hands upon him.
COMINIUS	Help Marcius, help,
	You that be noble; help him, young and old!
Citizens	Down with him, down with him!
	In this mutiny, the Tribunes, the AEdiles, and thePeople, are beat in
MENENIUS	Go, get you to your house; be gone, away!	285
	All will be naught else.
Second Senator	Get you gone.
COMINIUS	Stand fast;
	We have as many friends as enemies.
MENENIUS	Sham it be put to that?	290
First Senator	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: be gone, beseech you.	295
COMINIUS	Come, sir, along with us.
CORIOLANUS	I would they were barbarians--as they are,
	Though in Rome litter'd--not Romans--as they are not,
	Though calved i' the porch o' the Capitol--
MENENIUS	Be gone;	300
	Put not your worthy rage into your tongue;
	One time will owe another.
CORIOLANUS	On fair ground
	I could beat forty of them.
COMINIUS	I could myself	305
	Take up a brace o' the best of them; yea, the
	two tribunes:
	But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetic;
	And manhood is call'd foolery, when it stands
	Against a falling fabric. Will you hence,	310
	Before the tag return? whose rage doth rend
	Like interrupted waters and o'erbear
	What they are used to bear.
MENENIUS	Pray you, be gone:
	I'll try whether my old wit be in request	315
	With those that have but little: this must be patch'd
	With cloth of any colour.
COMINIUS	Nay, come away.
	Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, and others
A Patrician	This man has marr'd his fortune.
MENENIUS	His nature is too noble for the world:	320
	He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
	Or Jove for's power to thunder. His heart's his mouth:
	What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent;
	And, being angry, does forget that ever
	He heard the name of death.	325
	A noise within
	Here's goodly work!
Second Patrician	I would they were abed!
MENENIUS	I would they were in Tiber! What the vengeance!
	Could he not speak 'em fair?
	Re-enter BRUTUS and SICINIUS, with the rabble
SICINIUS	Where is this viper	330
	That would depopulate the city and
	Be every man himself?
MENENIUS	You worthy tribunes,--
SICINIUS	He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock
	With rigorous hands: he hath resisted law,	335
	And therefore law shall scorn him further trial
	Than the severity of the public power
	Which he so sets at nought.
First Citizen	He shall well know
	The noble tribunes are the people's mouths,	340
	And we their hands.
Citizens	He shall, sure on't.
MENENIUS	Sir, sir,--
SICINIUS	Peace!
MENENIUS	Do not cry havoc, where you should but hunt	345
	With modest warrant.
SICINIUS	Sir, how comes't that you
	Have holp to make this rescue?
MENENIUS	Hear me speak:
	As I do know the consul's worthiness,	350
	So can I name his faults,--
SICINIUS	Consul! what consul?
MENENIUS	The consul Coriolanus.
BRUTUS	He consul!
Citizens	No, no, no, no, no.	355
MENENIUS	If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours, good people,
	I may be heard, I would crave a word or two;
	The which shall turn you to no further harm
	Than so much loss of time.
SICINIUS	Speak briefly then;	360
	For we are peremptory to dispatch
	This viperous traitor: to eject him hence
	Were but one danger, and to keep him here
	Our certain death: therefore it is decreed
	He dies to-night.	365
MENENIUS	Now the good gods forbid
	That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude
	Towards her deserved children is enroll'd
	In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam
	Should now eat up her own!	370
SICINIUS	He's a disease that must be cut away.
MENENIUS	O, he's a limb that has but a disease;
	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--	375
	Which, I dare vouch, is more than that he hath,
	By many an ounce--he dropp'd it for his country;
	And what is left, to lose it by his country,
	Were to us all, that do't and suffer it,
	A brand to the end o' the world.	380
SICINIUS	This is clean kam.
BRUTUS	Merely awry: when he did love his country,
	It honour'd him.
MENENIUS	The service of the foot
	Being once gangrened, is not then respected	385
	For what before it was.
BRUTUS	We'll hear no more.
	Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence:
	Lest his infection, being of catching nature,
	Spread further.	390
MENENIUS	One word more, one word.
	This tiger-footed rage, when it shall find
	The harm of unscann'd swiftness, will too late
	Tie leaden pounds to's heels. Proceed by process;
	Lest parties, as he is beloved, break out,	395
	And sack great Rome with Romans.
BRUTUS	If it were so,--
SICINIUS	What do ye talk?
	Have we not had a taste of his obedience?
	Our aediles smote? ourselves resisted? Come.	400
MENENIUS	Consider this: he has been bred i' the wars
	Since he could draw a sword, and is ill school'd
	In bolted language; meal and bran together
	He throws without distinction. Give me leave,
	I'll go to him, and undertake to bring him	405
	Where he shall answer, by a lawful form,
	In peace, to his utmost peril.
First Senator	Noble tribunes,
	It is the humane way: the other course
	Will prove too bloody, and the end of it	410
	Unknown to the beginning.
SICINIUS	Noble Menenius,
	Be you then as the people's officer.
	Masters, lay down your weapons.
BRUTUS	Go not home.	415
SICINIUS	Meet on the market-place. We'll attend you there:
	Where, if you bring not Marcius, we'll proceed
	In our first way.
MENENIUS	I'll bring him to you.
	To the Senators
	Let me desire your company: he must come,	420
	Or what is worst will follow.
First Senator	Pray you, let's to him.
	Exeunt