By Jove, ‘twould be my mind!
SICINIUS 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 you
His absolute ‘shall’?
COMINIUS ‘Twas from the canon.
CORIOLANUS ‘Shall’!
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
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,
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,’
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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.
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,
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,
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
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
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
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,
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!
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
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, &C
We’ll surety him.
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), 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!
Citizens Down with him! down with him!
Senators, &C.Weapons, weapons, weapons!
They all bustle about CORIOLANUS, crying
‘Tribunes!’ ‘Patricians!’ ‘Citizens!’ ‘What, ho!’
‘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!
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,
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?
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.
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.
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
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!
Citizens Yield, Marcius, yield!
MENENIUS Hear me one word;
Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word.
AEdile Peace, peace!
MENENIUS [To BRUTUS]
Be that you seem, truly your
country’s friend,
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,
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.
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 the People, are beat in
MENENIUS Go, get you to your house; be gone, away!
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?
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.
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;
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
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,
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
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:
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.
A noise within
Here’s goodly work!
Second Patrician I would they were abed!