More than the instant army we can make,
Might stop our countryman.
MENENIUS No, I’ll not meddle.
SICINIUS Pray you, go to him.
MENENIUS What should I do?
BRUTUS Only make trial what your love can do
For Rome, towards Marcius.
MENENIUS Well, and say that Marcius
Return me, as Cominius is return’d,
Unheard; what then?
But as a discontented friend, grief-shot
With his unkindness? say’t be so?
SICINIUS Yet your good will
must have that thanks from Rome, after the measure
As you intended well.
MENENIUS I’ll undertake ‘t:
I think he’ll hear me. Yet, to bite his lip
And hum at good Cominius, much unhearts me.
He was not taken well; he had not dined:
The veins unfill’d, our blood is cold, and then
We pout upon the morning, are unapt
To give or to forgive; but when we have stuff’d
These and these conveyances of our blood
With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls
Than in our priest-like fasts: therefore I’ll watch him
Till he be dieted to my request,
And then I’ll set upon him.
BRUTUS You know the very road into his kindness,
And cannot lose your way.
MENENIUS Good faith, I’ll prove him,
Speed how it will. I shall ere long have knowledge
Of my success.
Exit
COMINIUS He’ll never hear him.
SICINIUS Not?
COMINIUS I tell you, he does sit in gold, his eye
Red as ‘twould burn Rome; and his injury
The gaoler to his pity. I kneel’d before him;
‘Twas very faintly he said ‘Rise;’ dismiss’d me
Thus, with his speechless hand: what he would do,
He sent in writing after me; what he would not,
Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions:
So that all hope is vain.
Unless his noble mother, and his wife;
Who, as I hear, mean to solicit him
For mercy to his country. Therefore, let’s hence,
And with our fair entreaties haste them on.
Exeunt
Scene 2
Entrance of the Volscian camp before Rome.
Two Sentinels on guard.
Enter to them, MENENIUS
First Senator Stay: whence are you?
Second Senator Stand, and go back.
MENENIUS You guard like men; ’tis well: but, by your leave,
I am an officer of state, and come
To speak with Coriolanus.
First Senator From whence?
MENENIUS From Rome.
First Senator You may not pass, you must return: our general
Will no more hear from thence.
Second Senator You’ll see your Rome embraced with fire before
You’ll speak with Coriolanus.
MENENIUS Good my friends,
If you have heard your general talk of Rome,
And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks,
My name hath touch’d your ears it is Menenius.
First Senator Be it so; go back: the virtue of your name
Is not here passable.
MENENIUS I tell thee, fellow,
The general is my lover: I have been
The book of his good acts, whence men have read
His name unparallel’d, haply amplified;
For I have ever verified my friends,
Of whom he’s chief, with all the size that verity
Would without lapsing suffer: nay, sometimes,
Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground,
I have tumbled past the throw; and in his praise
Have almost stamp’d the leasing: therefore, fellow,
I must have leave to pass.
First Senator Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in his
behalf as you have uttered words in your own, you
should not pass here; no, though it were as virtuous
to lie as to live chastely. Therefore, go back.
MENENIUS Prithee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius,
always factionary on the party of your general.
Second Senator Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say you
have, I am one that, telling true under him, must
say, you cannot pass. Therefore, go back.
MENENIUS Has he dined, canst thou tell? for I would not
speak with him till after dinner.
First Senator You are a Roman, are you?
MENENIUS I am, as thy general is.
First Senator Then you should hate Rome, as he does. Can you,
when you have pushed out your gates the very
defender of them, and, in a violent popular
ignorance, given your enemy your shield, think to
front his revenges with the easy groans of old
women, the virginal palms of your daughters, or with
the palsied intercession of such a decayed dotant as
you seem to be? Can you think to blow out the
intended fire your city is ready to flame in, with
such weak breath as this? No, you are deceived;
therefore, back to Rome, and prepare for your
execution: you are condemned, our general has sworn
you out of reprieve and pardon.
MENENIUS Sirrah, if thy captain knew I were here, he would
use me with estimation.
Second Senator Come, my captain knows you not.
MENENIUS I mean, thy general.
First Senator My general cares not for you. Back, I say, go; lest
I let forth your half-pint of blood; back,–that’s
the utmost of your having: back.
MENENIUS Nay, but, fellow, fellow,–
Enter CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS
CORIOLANUS What’s the matter?
MENENIUS Now, you companion, I’ll say an errand for you:
You shall know now that I am in estimation; you shall
perceive that a Jack guardant cannot office me from
my son Coriolanus: guess, but by my entertainment
with him, if thou standest not i’ the state of
hanging, or of some death more long in
spectatorship, and crueller in suffering; behold now
presently, and swoon for what’s to come upon thee.
To CORIOLANUS
The glorious gods sit in hourly synod about thy
particular prosperity, and love thee no worse than
thy old father Menenius does! O my son, my son!
thou art preparing fire for us; look thee, here’s
water to quench it. I was hardly moved to come to
thee; but being assured none but myself could move
thee, I have been blown out of your gates with
sighs; and conjure thee to pardon Rome, and thy
petitionary countrymen. The good gods assuage thy
wrath, and turn the dregs of it upon this varlet
here,–this, who, like a block, hath denied my
access to thee.
CORIOLANUS Away!
MENENIUS How! away!
CORIOLANUS Wife, mother, child, I know not. My affairs
Are servanted to others: though I owe
My revenge properly, my remission lies
In Volscian breasts. That we have been familiar,
Ingrate forgetfulness shall poison, rather
Than pity note how much. Therefore, be gone.
Mine ears against your suits are stronger than
Your gates against my force. Yet, for I loved thee,
Take this along; I writ it for thy sake
Gives a letter
And would have rent it. Another word, Menenius,
I will not hear thee speak. This man, Aufidius,
Was my beloved in Rome: yet thou behold’st!
AUFIDIUS You keep a constant temper.
Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS
First Senator Now, sir, is your name Menenius?
Second Senator ‘Tis a spell, you see, of much power: you know the
way home again.
First Senator Do you hear how we are shent for keeping your
greatness back?
Second Senator What cause, do you think, I have to swoon?
MENENIUS I neither care for the world nor your general: for
such things as you, I can scarce think there’s any,
ye’re so slight. He that hath a will to die by
himself fears it not from another: let your general
do his worst. For you, be that you are, long; and
your misery increase with your age! I say to you,
as I was said to, Away!
Exit
First Senator A noble fellow, I warrant him.
Second Senator The worthy fellow is our general: he’s the rock, the
oak not to be wind-shaken.
Exeunt
Scene 3
The tent of Coriolanus.
Enter CORIOLANUS, AUFIDIUS, and others
CORIOLANUS We will before the walls of Rome tomorrow
Set down our host. My partner in this action,
You must report to the Volscian lords, how plainly
I have borne this business.
AUFIDIUS Only their ends
You have respected; stopp’d your ears against
The general suit of Rome; never admitted
A private whisper, no, not with such friends
That thought them sure of you.
CORIOLANUS This last old man,
Whom with a crack’d heart I have sent to Rome,
Loved me above the measure of a father;
Nay, godded me, indeed. Their latest refuge
Was to send him; for whose old love I have,
Though I show’d sourly to him, once more offer’d
The first conditions, which they did refuse
And cannot now accept; to grace him only
That thought he could do more, a very little
I have yielded to: fresh embassies and suits,
Nor from the state nor private friends, hereafter
Will I lend ear to. Ha! what shout is this?
Shout within
Shall I be tempted to infringe my vow
In the same time ’tis made? I will not.
Enter in mourning habits, VIRGILIA, VOLUMNIA, leading young MARCIUS, VALERIA, and Attendants
My wife comes foremost; then the honour’d mould
Wherein this trunk was framed, and in her hand