| ACT V SCENE IV. Rome. A public place. |
| [Enter MENENIUS and SICINIUS] |
| MENENIUS | See you yond coign o' the Capitol, yond |
| corner-stone? |
| SICINIUS | Why, what of that? |
| MENENIUS | If it be possible for you to displace it with your |
| little finger, there is some hope the ladies of | 5 |
| 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 the |
| condition of a man! | 10 |
| MENENIUS | There is differency between a grub and a butterfly; |
| yet your butterfly was a grub. This Marcius is grown |
| from man to dragon: he has wings; he's more than a |
| creeping thing. |
| SICINIUS | He loved his mother dearly. | 15 |
| 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 ground shrinks before |
| his treading: he is able to pierce a corslet with | 20 |
| 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 eternity |
| and a heaven to throne in. | 25 |
| 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 no more mercy |
| in him than there is milk in a male tiger; that |
| shall our poor city find: and all this is long of | 30 |
| 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 not them; |
| and, he returning to break our necks, they respect not us. | 35 |
| [Enter a Messenger] |
| Messenger | Sir, if you'ld save your life, fly to your house: |
| The plebeians have got your fellow-tribune |
| And hale him up and down, all swearing, if |
| The Roman ladies bring not comfort home, |
| They'll give him death by inches. | 40 |
| [Enter a second Messenger] |
| SICINIUS | What's the news? |
| Second Messenger | Good news, good news; the ladies have prevail'd, |
| The Volscians are dislodged, and Marcius gone: |
| A merrier day did never yet greet Rome, |
| No, not the expulsion of the Tarquins. | 45 |
| SICINIUS | Friend, |
| Art thou certain this is true? is it most certain? |
| Second Messenger | As certain as I know the sun is fire: |
| Where have you lurk'd, that you make doubt of it? |
| Ne'er through an arch so hurried the blown tide, | 50 |
| As the recomforted through the gates. Why, hark you! |
[Trumpets; hautboys; drums beat; all together] |
| The trumpets, sackbuts, psalteries and fifes, |
| Tabours and cymbals and the shouting Romans, |
| Make the sun dance. Hark you! |
| [A shout within] |
| MENENIUS | This is good news: | 55 |
| I will go meet the ladies. This Volumnia |
| Is worth of consuls, senators, patricians, |
| A city full; of tribunes, such as you, |
| A sea and land full. You have pray'd well to-day: |
| This morning for ten thousand of your throats | 60 |
| I'd not have given a doit. Hark, how they joy! |
| [Music still, with shouts] |
| SICINIUS | First, the gods bless you for your tidings; next, |
| Accept my thankfulness. |
| Second Messenger | Sir, we have all |
| Great cause to give great thanks. | 65 |
| SICINIUS | They are near the city? |
| Second Messenger | Almost at point to enter. |
| SICINIUS | We will meet them, |
| And help the joy. |
| [Exeunt] |
Shakespeare's Sources for Coriolanus