Coriolanus

Coriolanus

ACT III SCENE II	A room in CORIOLANUS'S house.
	Enter CORIOLANUS with Patricians
CORIOLANUS	Let them puff 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 stretch	5
	Below the beam of sight, yet will I still
	Be thus to them.
A Patrician	You do the nobler.
CORIOLANUS	I muse my mother
	Does not approve me further, who was wont	10
	To call them woollen vassals, things created
	To buy and sell with groats, to show bare heads
	In congregations, to yawn, be still and wonder,
	When one but of my ordinance stood up
	To speak of peace or war.	15
	Enter VOLUMNIA
	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 been	25
	The thwartings of your dispositions, if
	You had not show'd them how ye were disposed
	Ere they lack'd power to cross you.
CORIOLANUS	Let them hang.
A Patrician	Ay, and burn too.	30
	Enter MENENIUS and Senators
MENENIUS	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 city	35
	Cleave in the midst, and perish.
VOLUMNIA	Pray, be counsell'd:
	I have a heart as little apt as yours,
	But yet a brain that leads my use of anger
	To better vantage.	40
MENENIUS	Well said, noble woman?
	Before he should thus stoop to the herd, but that
	The violent fit o' the time craves it as physic
	For the whole state, I would put mine armour on,
	Which I can scarcely bear.	45
CORIOLANUS	What must I do?
MENENIUS	Return to the 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,
	Honour and policy, like unsever'd friends,	55
	I' the war do grow together: grant that, and tell me,
	In peace what each of them by the other lose,
	That they combine not there.
CORIOLANUS	Tush, tush!
MENENIUS	A good demand.	60
VOLUMNIA	If it be honour 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 peace
	With honour, as in war, since that to both	65
	It stands in like request?
CORIOLANUS	Why force you this?
VOLUMNIA	Because that now it lies you on to speak
	To the people; not by your own instruction,
	Nor by the matter which your heart prompts you,	70
	But with such words that are but rooted in
	Your tongue, though but bastards and syllables
	Of no allowance to your bosom's truth.
	Now, this no more dishonours you at all
	Than to take in a town with gentle words,	75
	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 required
	I should do so in honour: I am in this,	80
	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 safeguard
	Of what that want might ruin.	85
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	I prithee now, my son,	90
	Go to them, with this bonnet in thy hand;
	And thus far having stretch'd it--here be with them--
	Thy knee bussing the stones--for in such business
	Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant
	More learned than the ears--waving thy head,	95
	Which often, thus, correcting thy stout heart,
	Now humble as the ripest mulberry
	That will not hold the handling: or say to them,
	Thou art their soldier, and being bred in broils
	Hast not the soft way which, thou dost confess,	100
	Were fit for thee to use as they to claim,
	In asking their good loves, but thou wilt frame
	Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs, so far
	As thou hast power and person.
MENENIUS	This but done,	105
	Even as she speaks, why, their hearts were yours;
	For they have pardons, being ask'd, as free
	As words to little purpose.
VOLUMNIA	Prithee now,
	Go, and be ruled: although I know thou hadst rather	110
	Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf
	Than flatter him in a bower. Here is Cominius.
	Enter COMINIUS
COMINIUS	I have been i' the market-place; and, sir,'tis fit
	You make strong party, or defend yourself
	By calmness or by absence: all's in anger.	115
MENENIUS	Only fair speech.
COMINIUS	I think 'twill serve, if he
	Can thereto frame his spirit.
VOLUMNIA	He must, and will
	Prithee now, say you will, and go about it.	120
CORIOLANUS	Must I go show them my unbarbed sconce?
	Must I with base tongue give my noble heart
	A lie that it must bear? Well, I will do't:
	Yet, were there but this single plot to lose,
	This mould of Marcius, they to dust should grind it	125
	And throw't against the wind. To the market-place!
	You have put me now to such a part which never
	I shall discharge to the life.
COMINIUS	Come, come, we'll prompt you.
VOLUMNIA	I prithee now, sweet son, as thou hast said	130
	My praises made thee first a soldier, so,
	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	135
	Some harlot's spirit! my throat of war be turn'd,
	Which quired with my drum, into a pipe
	Small as an eunuch, or the virgin voice
	That babies lulls asleep! the smiles of knaves
	Tent in my cheeks, and schoolboys' tears take up	140
	The glasses of my sight! a beggar's tongue
	Make motion through my lips, and my arm'd knees,
	Who bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his
	That hath received an alms! I will not do't,
	Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth	145
	And by my body's action teach my mind
	A most inherent baseness.
VOLUMNIA	At thy choice, then:
	To beg of thee, it is my more dishonour
	Than thou of them. Come all to ruin; let	150
	Thy mother rather feel thy pride than fear
	Thy dangerous stoutness, for I mock at death
	With as big heart as thou. Do as thou list
	Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck'dst it from me,
	But owe thy pride thyself.	155
CORIOLANUS	Pray, be content:
	Mother, I am going to the market-place;
	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:	160
	Commend me to my wife. I'll return consul;
	Or never trust to what my tongue can do
	I' the way of flattery further.
VOLUMNIA	Do your will.
	Exit
COMINIUS	Away! the tribunes do attend you: arm yourself	165
	To answer mildly; for they are prepared
	With accusations, as I hear, more strong
	Than are upon you yet.
CORIOLANUS	The word is 'mildly.' Pray you, let us go:
	Let them accuse me by invention, I	170
	Will answer in mine honour.
MENENIUS	Ay, but mildly.
CORIOLANUS	Well, mildly be it then. Mildly!
	Exeunt