Act IIIScene I
Rome. A street
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 causedOur swifter composition.
Coriolanus
So then the Volsces stand but as at first,Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make roadUpon’s again.
Cominius
They are worn, lord consul, soThat we shall hardly in our ages seeTheir banners wave again.
Coriolanus
Saw you Aufidius?
Lartius
On safeguard he came to me, and did curseAgainst the Volsces, for they had so vilelyYielded the town. He is retired to Antium.
Coriolanus
Spoke he of me?
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 hatedYour person most; that he would pawn his fortunesTo hopeless restitution, so he mightBe called your vanquisher.
Coriolanus
At Antium lives he?
Lartius
At Antium.
Coriolanus
I wish I had a cause to seek him there,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 authorityAgainst 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
The 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 the marketplace.
Brutus
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 nowAnd 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
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 ruleNor ever will be ruled.
Brutus
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 themTimepleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness.
Coriolanus
Why, this was known before.
Brutus
Not to them all.
Coriolanus
Have you informed them sithence?
Brutus
How? I inform them?
Cominius
You 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 meYour fellow tribune.
Sicinius
You show too much of thatFor which the people stir. If you will passTo 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.
Cominius
The people are abused, set on. This palt’ringBecomes not Rome, nor has CoriolanusDeserved this so dishonoured rub, laid falselyI’ 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
Not in this heat, sir, now.
Coriolanus
Now, as I live, I will.My nobler friends, I crave their pardons. ForThe mutable, rank-scented many, let themRegard me, as I do not flatter, andTherein behold themselves. I say again,In soothing them we nourish ’gainst our senateThe cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition,Which we ourselves have ploughed for, sowed, and scatteredBy mingling them with us, the honoured number,Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but thatWhich they have given to beggars.
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 lungsCoin words till their decay against those measlesWhich we disdain should tetter us, yet soughtThe very way to catch them.
Brutus
You speak o’ th’ peopleAs if you were a god to punish, notA man of their infirmity.
Sicinius
’Twere wellWe 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
It is a mindThat shall remain a poison where it is,Not poison any further.
Coriolanus
“Shall remain”?Hear you this Triton of the minnows? Mark youHis absolute “shall”?
Cominius
’Twas from the canon.
Coriolanus
“Shall”?O good but most unwise patricians, why,You grave but reckless senators, have you thusGiven Hydra leave to choose an officer,That with his peremptory “shall,” being butThe horn and noise o’ th’ monster’s, wants not spiritTo say he’ll turn your current in a ditchAnd make your channel his? If he have power,Then vail your ignorance; if none, awakeYour 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 lessWhen, both your voices blended, the great’st tasteMost palates theirs. They choose their magistrate,And such a one as he, who puts his “shall,”His popular “shall,” against a graver benchThan ever frowned in Greece. By Jove himself,It makes the consuls base! And my soul achesTo know, when two authorities are up,Neither supreme, how soon confusionMay enter ’twixt the gap of both and takeThe one by th’ other.
Cominius
Well, on to th’ marketplace.
Coriolanus
Whoever gave that counsel to give forthThe corn o’ th’ storehouse gratis, as ’twas usedSometime in Greece—
Menenius
Well, well, no more of that.
Coriolanus
Though there the people had more absolute power,I say they nourished disobedience, fedThe ruin of the state.
Brutus
Why shall the people giveOne that speaks thus their voice?
Coriolanus
I’ll give my reasons,More worthier than their voices. They know the cornWas not our recompense, resting well assuredThey ne’er did service for’t. Being pressed to th’ war,Even when the navel of the state was touched,They would not thread the gates. This kind of serviceDid not deserve corn gratis. Being i’ th’ war,Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they showedMost valour, spoke not for them. Th’ accusationWhich they have often made against the Senate,All cause unborn, could never be the nativeOf our so frank donation. Well, what then?How shall this bosom multitude digestThe senate’s courtesy? Let deeds expressWhat’s like to be their words: “We did request it;We are the greater poll, and in true fearThey gave us our demands.” Thus we debaseThe nature of our seats and make the rabbleCall our cares fears, which will in timeBreak ope the locks o’ th’ Senate and bring inThe crows to peck the eagles.
Menenius
Come, enough.
Brutus
Enough, with over-measure.
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 otherInsult without all reason, where gentry, title, wisdomCannot conclude but by the yea and noOf general ignorance—it must omitReal necessities and give way the whileTo unstable slightness. Purpose so barred, it followsNothing is done to purpose. Therefore, beseech you—You that will be less fearful than discreet,That love the fundamental part of stateMore than you doubt the change on’t, that preferA noble life before a long, and wishTo jump a body with a dangerous physicThat’s sure of death without it—at once pluck outThe multitudinous tongue; let them not lickThe sweet which is their poison. Your dishonourMangles true judgment and bereaves the stateOf that integrity which should become’t,Not having the power to do the good it wouldFor th’ ill which doth control’t.
Brutus
’Has said enough.
Sicinius
’Has spoken like a traitor, and shall answerAs traitors do.
Coriolanus
Thou wretch, despite o’erwhelm thee!What should the people do with these bald tribunes,On whom depending, their obedience failsTo 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
Manifest treason.
Sicinius
This a consul? No.
Brutus
The aediles, ho! Let him be apprehended.
Enter an Aedile.
Sicinius
Go call the people;
Exit Aedile.
in whose name myselfAttach 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.
Aged sir, hands off.
Coriolanus
To Sicinius.
Hence, rotten thing, or I shall shake thy bonesOut of thy garments.
Sicinius
Help, ye citizens!
Enter a rabble of Plebeians with the Aediles.
Menenius
On both sides more respect!
Sicinius
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!Sicinius, Brutus, Coriolanus, citizens!
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 tribunesTo th’ people!—Coriolanus, patience!—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,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
True,The people are the city.
Brutus
By the consent of all, we were establishedThe people’s magistrates.
All Plebeians
You so remain.
Menenius
And so are like to do.
Cominius
That is the way to lay the city flat,To bring the roof to the foundationAnd bury all which yet distinctly rangesIn heaps and piles of ruin.
Sicinius
This deserves death.
Brutus
Or let us stand to our authorityOr let us lose it. We do here pronounce,Upon the part o’ th’ people, in whose powerWe were elected theirs, Martius is worthyOf present death.
Sicinius
Therefore lay hold of him,Bear him to th’ rock Tarpeian, and from thenceInto destruction cast him.
Brutus
Aediles, seize him!
All Plebeians
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,And temp’rately proceed to what you wouldThus violently redress.
Brutus
Sir, those cold ways,That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonousWhere the disease is violent.—Lay hands upon him,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
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
Go, get you to your house. Begone, away.All will be naught else.
Second Senator
Get you gone.
Coriolanus
Stand fast!We have as many friends as enemies.
Menenius
Shall it be put to that?
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 usYou cannot tent yourself. Begone, beseech you.
Cominius
Come, 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
Begone!Put not your worthy rage into your tongue.One time will owe another.
Coriolanus
On fair groundI could beat forty of them.
Menenius
I could myselfTake 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 standsAgainst a falling fabric. Will you hence,Before the tag return, whose rage doth rendLike interrupted waters, and o’erbearWhat they are used to bear?
Menenius
Pray you, begone.I’ll try whether my old wit be in requestWith those that have but little. This must be patchedWith cloth of any colour.
Cominius
Nay, come away.
Exeunt Coriolanus and Cominius.
Patrician
This man has marred his fortune.
Menenius
His nature is too noble for the world.He would not flatter Neptune for his tridentOr 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 everHe heard the name of death.
A noise within.
Here’s goodly work.
Patrician
I would they were abed!
Menenius
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 viperThat would depopulate the city andBe every man himself?
Menenius
You worthy tribunes—
Sicinius
He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rockWith rigorous hands. He hath resisted law,And therefore law shall scorn him further trialThan the severity of the public powerWhich he so sets at naught.
First Citizen
He shall well knowThe noble tribunes are the people’s mouths,And we their hands.
All Plebeians
He shall, sure on’t.
Menenius
Sir, sir—
Sicinius
Peace!
Menenius
Do not cry havoc where you should but huntWith modest warrant.
Sicinius
Sir, how comes’t that youHave 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
The 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,The which shall turn you to no further harmThan so much loss of time.
Sicinius
Speak briefly then,For we are peremptory to dispatchThis viperous traitor. To eject him henceWere but one danger, and to keep him hereOur certain death. Therefore it is decreedHe dies tonight.
Menenius
Now the good gods forbidThat our renowned Rome, whose gratitudeTowards her deserved children is enrolledIn Jove’s own book, like an unnatural damShould 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—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 hathBy many an ounce—he dropt it for his country;And what is left, to lose it by his countryWere to us all, that do’t and suffer itA brand to th’ end o’ th’ world.
Sicinius
This is clean cam.
Brutus
Merely awry. When he did love his country,It honoured him.
Menenius
The service of the foot,Being once gangrened, is not then respectedFor 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.
Menenius
One word more, one word!This tiger-footed rage, when it shall findThe harm of unscanned swiftness, will too late,Tie leaden pounds to’s heels. Proceed by process,Lest parties—as he is beloved—break outAnd 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.
Menenius
Consider this: he has been bred i’ th’ warsSince he could draw a sword, and is ill schooledIn bolted language; meal and bran togetherHe throws without distinction. Give me leave,I’ll go to him and undertake to bring himWhere he shall answer by a lawful form,In peace, to his utmost peril.
First Senator
Noble tribunes,It is the humane way: the other courseWill prove too bloody, and the end of itUnknown to the beginning.
Sicinius
Noble Menenius,Be you then as the people’s officer.—Masters, lay down your weapons.
Brutus
Go not home.
Sicinius
Meet on the marketplace. We’ll attend you there,Where if you bring not Martius, we’ll proceedIn our first way.
Menenius
I’ll bring him to you.
To Senators.
Let me desire your company. He must come,Or what is worst will follow.
First Senator
Pray you, let’s to him.
Exeunt.