2.2 Enter two Officers, to lay cushions, as it were in the Capitol.

1 OFFICER     Come, come, they are almost here. How
many stand for consulships?
2 OFFICER     Three, they say; but ’tis thought of everyone
Coriolanus will carry it.
1 OFFICER     That’s a brave fellow; but he’s vengeance	5
proud, and loves not the common people.
2 OFFICER     ’Faith, there hath been many great men that
have flattered the people, who ne’er loved them; and
there be many that they have loved, they know not
wherefore: so that if they love they know not why, they	10
hate upon no better a ground. Therefore, for
Coriolanus     neither to care whether they love or hate
him manifests the true knowledge he has in their
disposition, and out of his noble carelessness lets them
plainly see’t.	15
1 OFFICER     If he did not care whether he had their love
or no, he waved indifferently ’twixt doing them
neither good nor harm; but he seeks their hate with
greater devotion than they can render it him, and
leaves nothing undone that may fully discover him	20
their opposite. Now to seem to affect the malice and
displeasure of the people is as bad as that which he
dislikes, to flatter them for their love.
2 OFFICER     He hath deserved worthily of his country;
and his ascent is not by such easy degrees as those	25
who, having been supple and courteous to the
people, bonneted, without any further deed to have
them at all into their estimation and report; but he
hath so planted his honours in their eyes and his
actions in their hearts, that for their tongues to be	30
silent and not confess so much were a kind of
ingrateful injury. To report otherwise were a malice
that, giving itself the lie, would pluck reproof and
rebuke from every ear that heard it.
1 OFFICER     No more of him; he’s a worthy man: make	35
way, they are coming.
A sennet. Enter the patricians, and the tribunes of the people, lictors before them; CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMINIUS the Consul. SICINIUS and BRUTUS take their places by themselves; Coriolanus stands.
MENENIUS     Having determin’d of the Volsces, and
To send for Titus Lartius, it remains,
As the main point of this our after-meeting,
To gratify his noble service that	40
Hath thus stood for his country. Therefore, please
you,
Most reverend and grave elders, to desire
The present consul, and last general
In our well-found successes, to report
A little of that worthy work perform’d	45
By Martius Caius Coriolanus, whom
We met here, both to thank and to remember,
With honours like himself. [Coriolanus sits.]
1 SENATOR     Speak, good Cominius.
Leave nothing out for length, and make us think
Rather our state’s defective for requital	50
Than we to stretch it out.
[to the tribunes]     Masters o’th’ people,
We do request your kindest ears, and after
Your loving motion toward the common body,
To yield what passes here.
SICINIUS     We are convented
Upon a pleasing treaty, and have hearts	55
Inclinable to honour and advance
The theme of our assembly.
BRUTUS     Which the rather
We shall be bless’d to do, if he remember
A kinder value of the people than
He hath hereto priz’d them at.
MENENIUS     That’s off, that’s off!	60
I would you rather had been silent. Please you
To hear Cominius speak?
BRUTUS     Most willingly;
But yet my caution was more pertinent
Than the rebuke you give it.
MENENIUS     He loves your people,
But tie him not to be their bedfellow.	65
Worthy Cominius, speak.
[Coriolanus rises, and offers to go away.]
Nay, keep your place.
1 SENATOR     Sit, Coriolanus: never shame to hear
What you have nobly done.
CORIOLANUS     Your honours’ pardon:
I had rather have my wounds to heal again
Than hear say how I got them.
BRUTUS     Sir, I hope	70
My words disbench’d you not?
CORIOLANUS     No, sir; yet oft,
When blows have made me stay, I fled from words.
You sooth’d not, therefore hurt not: but your people,
I love them as they weigh –
MENENIUS     Pray now, sit down.
CORIOLANUS
I had rather have one scratch my head i’th’ sun	75
When the alarum were struck, than idly sit
To hear my nothings monster’d.     Exit Coriolanus.
MENENIUS     Masters of the people,
Your multiplying spawn how can he flatter –
That’s thousand to one good one – when you now
see
He had rather venture all his limbs for honour	80
Than one on’s ears to hear it? Proceed, Cominius.
COMINIUS     I shall lack voice: the deeds of Coriolanus
Should not be utter’d feebly. It is held
That valour is the chiefest virtue and
Most dignifies the haver: if it be,	85
The man I speak of cannot in the world
Be singly counter-pois’d. At sixteen years,
When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he fought
Beyond the mark of others; our then dictator,
Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight,	90
When with his Amazonian chin he drove
The bristled lips before him; he bestrid
An o’erpress’d Roman, and i’th’ consul’s view
Slew three opposers; Tarquin’s self he met
And struck him on his knee. In that day’s feats,	95
When he might act the woman in the scene,
He prov’d best man i’th’ field, and for his meed
Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil age
Man-enter’d thus, he waxed like a sea,
And in the brunt of seventeen battles since	100
He lurch’d all swords of the garland. For this last,
Before and in Corioles, let me say
I cannot speak him home. He stopp’d the fliers,
And by his rare example made the coward
Turn terror into sport; as weeds before	105
A vessel under sail, so men obey’d
And fell below his stem: his sword, death’s stamp,
Where it did mark, it took; from face to foot
He was a thing of blood, whose every motion
Was tim’d with dying cries: alone he enter’d	110
The mortal gate of th’ city, which he painted
With shunless destiny, aidless came off,
And with a sudden reinforcement struck
Corioles like a planet. Now all’s his;
When by and by the din of war gan pierce	115
His ready sense, then straight his doubled spirit
Requicken’d what in flesh was fatigate,
And to the battle came he, where he did
Run reeking o’er the lives of men, as if
’Twere a perpetual spoil; and till we call’d	120
BOTH     field and city ours, he never stood
To ease his breast with panting.
MENENIUS     Worthy man.
1 SENATOR
He cannot but with measure fit the honours
Which we devise him.
COMINIUS     Our spoils he kick’d at,
And look’d upon things precious as they were	125
The common muck of the world. He covets less
Than misery itself would give, rewards
His deeds with doing them, and is content
To spend the time to end it.
MENENIUS     He’s right noble.
Let him be call’d for.
1 SENATOR     Call Coriolanus.	130
OFFICER     He doth appear.
Enter CORIOLANUS.
MENENIUS     The senate, Coriolanus, are well pleas’d
To make thee consul.
CORIOLANUS     I do owe them still
My life and services.
MENENIUS     It then remains
That you do speak to the people.
CORIOLANUS     I do beseech you,	135
Let me o’erleap that custom; for I cannot
Put on the gown, stand naked, and entreat them
For my wounds’ sake to give their suffrage. Please
you
That I may pass this doing.
SICINIUS     Sir, the people
Must have their voices; neither will they bate	140
One jot of ceremony.
MENENIUS     Put them not to’t.
Pray you go fit you to the custom and
Take to you, as your predecessors have,
Your honour with your form.
CORIOLANUS     It is a part
That I shall blush in acting, and might well	145
Be taken from the people.
BRUTUS     [to Sicinius]     Mark you that.
CORIOLANUS     To brag unto them, thus I did, and thus,
Show them th’unaching scars which I should hide,
As if I had receiv’d them for the hire
Of their breath only!
MENENIUS     Do not stand upon’t.	150
We recommend to you, tribunes of the people,
Our purpose to them; and to our noble consul
Wish we all joy and honour.
SENATORS     To Coriolanus come all joy and honour!
Flourish cornets. Then exeunt.
[Sicinius and Brutus remain.]
BRUTUS     You see how he intends to use the people.	155
SICINIUS
May they perceive’s intent! He will require them
As if he did contemn what he requested
Should be in them to give.
BRUTUS     Come, we’ll inform them
Of our proceedings here; on th’ market-place
I know they do attend us.     Exeunt.	160

2.3 Enter seven or eight Citizens.

1 CITIZEN     Once, if he do require our voices, we ought
not to deny him.
2 CITIZEN     We may, sir, if we will.
3 CITIZEN     We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is
a power that we have no power to do. For, if he show	5
us his wounds and tell us his deeds, we are to put our
tongues into those wounds and speak for them. So if
he tell us his noble deeds, we must also tell him our
noble acceptance of them. Ingratitude is monstrous,
and for the multitude to be ingrateful, were to make a	10
monster of the multitude; of the which we being
members, should bring ourselves to be monstrous
members.
1 CITIZEN     And to make us no better thought of, a little
help will serve: for once we stood up about the corn,	15
he himself stuck not to call us the many-headed
multitude.
3 CITIZEN     We have been called so of many; not that our
heads are some brown, some black, some abram, some
bald, but that our wits are so diversely coloured; and	20
truly I think, if all our wits were to issue out of one
skull, they would fly east, west, north, south, and their
consent of one direct way should be at once to all the
points o’th’ compass.
2 CITIZEN     Think you so? Which way do you judge my	25
wit would fly?
3 CITIZEN     Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another
man’s will; ’tis strongly wedged up in a blockhead: but
if it were at liberty, ’twould, sure, southward.
2 CITIZEN     Why that way?	30
3 CITIZEN     To lose itself in a fog, where, being three
parts melted away with rotten dews, the fourth would
return for conscience’ sake, to help to get thee a wife.
2 CITIZEN     You are never without your tricks; you may,
you may.	35
3 CITIZEN     Are you all resolved to give your voices? But
that’s no matter, the greater part carries it. I say, if he
would incline to the people, there was never a worthier
man.
Enter CORIOLANUS in a gown of humility, with MENENIUS.
Here he comes, and in the gown of humility: mark his	40
behaviour. We are not to stay all together, but to come
by him where he stands, by ones, by twos and by
threes. He’s to make his requests by particulars,
wherein every one of us has a single honour, in giving
him our own voices with our own tongues: therefore	45
follow me, and I’ll direct you how you shall go by him.
ALL     Content, content.     Exeunt citizens.
MENENIUS
O sir, you are not right. Have you not known
The worthiest men have done’t?
CORIOLANUS     What must I say? –
‘I pray, sir,’ – Plague upon’t! I cannot bring	50
My tongue to such a pace. ‘Look, sir, my wounds!
I got them in my country’s service, when
Some certain of your brethren roar’d and ran
From th’ noise of our own drums.’
MENENIUS     O me, the gods!
You must not speak of that; you must desire them	55
To think upon you.
CORIOLANUS     Think upon me? Hang ’em!
I would they would forget me, like the virtues
Which our divines lose by ’em.
MENENIUS     You’ll mar all.
I’ll leave you. Pray you, speak to ’em, I pray you,
In wholesome manner.     Exit.
Enter three of the Citizens.
CORIOLANUS     Bid them wash their faces,	60
And keep their teeth clean. So, here comes a brace.
You know the cause, sir, of my standing here?
3 CITIZEN     We do, sir; tell us what hath brought you to’t.
CORIOLANUS     Mine own desert.
2 CITIZEN     Your own desert?	65
CORIOLANUS     Ay, but not mine own desire.
3 CITIZEN     How, not your own desire?
CORIOLANUS     No, sir, ’twas never my desire yet to
trouble the poor with begging.
3 CITIZEN     You must think, if we give you anything, we	70
hope to gain by you.
CORIOLANUS     Well then, I pray, your price o’th’
consulship?
1 CITIZEN     The price is, to ask it kindly.
CORIOLANUS     Kindly, sir, I pray let me ha’t. I have	75
wounds to show you, which shall be yours in private.
Your good voice, sir. What say you?
2 CITIZEN     You shall ha’t, worthy sir.
CORIOLANUS     A match, sir. There’s in all two worthy
voices begged. I have your alms: adieu!	80
3 CITIZEN     But this is something odd.
2 CITIZEN     And ’twere to give again – but ’tis no matter.
Exeunt the three Citizens.
Enter two other Citizens.
CORIOLANUS     Pray you now, if it may stand with the
tune of your voices that I may be consul, I have here
the customary gown.	85
4 CITIZEN     You have deserved nobly of your country, and
you have not deserved nobly.
CORIOLANUS     Your enigma?
4 CITIZEN     You have been a scourge to her enemies, you
have been a rod to her friends; you have not indeed	90
loved the common people.
CORIOLANUS     You should account me the more virtuous,
that I have not been common in my love. I will, sir,
flatter my sworn brother the people, to earn a dearer
estimation of them; ’tis a condition they account	95
gentle; and since the wisdom of their choice is rather
to have my hat than my heart, I will practise the
insinuating nod, and be off to them most counter-
feitly; that is, sir, I will counterfeit the bewitchment
of some popular man, and give it bountiful to	100
the desirers. Therefore, beseech you, I may be
consul.
5 CITIZEN     We hope to find you our friend, and therefore
give you our voices heartily.
4 CITIZEN     You have received many wounds for your	105
country.
CORIOLANUS     I will not seal your knowledge with
showing them. I will make much of your voices, and so
trouble you no farther.
BOTH     The gods give you joy, sir, heartily.	110
Exeunt the two Citizens.
CORIOLANUS     Most sweet voices!
Better it is to die, better to starve,
Than crave the hire which first we do deserve.
Why in this wolvish toge should I stand here,
To beg of Hob and Dick that does appear	115
Their needless vouches? Custom calls me to’t.
What custom wills, in all things should we do’t,
The dust on antique time would lie unswept
And mountainous error be too highly heap’d
For truth to o’erpeer. Rather than fool it so,	120
Let the high office and the honour go
To one that would do thus. I am half through,
The one part suffer’d, the other will I do.
Enter three Citizens more.
Here come moe voices.
Your voices! For your voices I have fought,	125
Watch’d for your voices; for your voices, bear
Of wounds two dozen odd; battles thrice six
I have seen and heard of; for your voices have
Done many things, some less, some more: your
voices!
Indeed I would be consul.	130
6 CITIZEN     He has done nobly, and cannot go without
any honest man’s voice.
7 CITIZEN     Therefore let him be consul. The gods give
him joy, and make him good friend to the people!
ALL     Amen, amen. God save thee, noble consul!	135
Exeunt the three Citizens.
CORIOLANUS     Worthy voices!
Enter MENENIUS, with BRUTUS and SICINIUS.
MENENIUS
You have stood your limitation, and the tribunes
Endue you with the people’s voice; remains
That, in th’official marks invested, you
Anon do meet the senate.
CORIOLANUS     Is this done?	140
SICINIUS     The custom of request you have discharg’d.
The people do admit you, and are summon’d
To meet anon upon your approbation.
CORIOLANUS     Where? At the senate-house?
SICINIUS     There, Coriolanus.
CORIOLANUS     May I change these garments?
SICINIUS     You may, sir.	145
CORIOLANUS
That I’ll straight do; and knowing myself again,
Repair to th’ senate-house.
MENENIUS     I’ll keep you company. Will you along?
BRUTUS     We stay here for the people.
SICINIUS     Fare you well.
Exeunt Coriolanus and Menenius.
He has it now; and by his looks, methinks	150
’Tis warm at’s heart.
BRUTUS     With a proud heart he wore
His humble weeds. Will you dismiss the people?
Enter the Plebeians.
SICINIUS
How now, my masters, have you chose this man?
1 CITIZEN     He has our voices, sir.
BRUTUS     We pray the gods he may deserve your loves.	155
2 CITIZEN     Amen, sir. To my poor unworthy notice,
He mock’d us when he begg’d our voices.
3 CITIZEN     Certainly,
He flouted us downright.
1 CITIZEN
No, ’tis his kind of speech; he did not mock us.
2 CITIZEN     Not one amongst us, save yourself, but says	160
He us’d us scornfully: he should have show’d us
His marks of merit, wounds receiv’d for’s country.
SICINIUS     Why, so he did, I am sure.
ALL     No, no; no man saw ’em.
3 CITIZEN
He said he had wounds which he could show in
private;
And with his hat, thus waving it in scorn,	165
‘I would be consul,’ says he; ‘aged custom,
But by your voices, will not so permit me:
Your voices therefore.’ When we granted that,
Here was, ‘I thank you for your voices, thank you;
Your most sweet voices: now you have left your
voices,	170
I have no further with you.’ Was not this mockery?
SICINIUS     Why either were you ignorant to see’t,
Or, seeing it, of such childish friendliness
To yield your voices?
BRUTUS     Could you not have told him
As you were lesson’d: when he had no power,	175
But was a petty servant to the state,
He was your enemy, ever spake against
Your liberties and the charters that you bear
I’th’ body of the weal; and now arriving
A place of potency and sway o’th’ state,	180
If he should still malignantly remain
Fast foe to th’ plebeii, your voices might
Be curses to yourselves? You should have said
That, as his worthy deeds did claim no less
Than what he stood for, so his gracious nature	185
Would think upon you for your voices, and
Translate his malice towards you into love,
Standing your friendly lord.
SICINIUS     Thus to have said,
As you were fore-advis’d, had touch’d his spirit
And tried his inclination: from him pluck’d	190
Either his gracious promise, which you might
As cause had call’d you up, have held him to;
Or else it would have gall’d his surly nature
Which easily endures not article
Tying him to aught; so putting him to rage,	195
You should have ta’en th’advantage of his choler,
And pass’d him unelected.
BRUTUS     Did you perceive
He did solicit you in free contempt
When he did need your loves; and do you think
That his contempt shall not be bruising to you	200
When he hath power to crush? Why, had your bodies
No heart among you? Or had you tongues to cry
Against the rectorship of judgement?
SICINIUS     Have you,
Ere now, denied the asker, and now again,
Of him that did not ask but mock, bestow	205
Your sued-for tongues?
3 CITIZEN     He’s not confirm’d: we may deny him yet.
2 CITIZEN     And will deny him!
I’ll have five hundred voices of that sound.
1 CITIZEN
I twice five hundred, and their friends to piece ’em.	210
BRUTUS     Get you hence instantly, and tell those friends
They have chose a consul that will from them take
Their liberties, make them of no more voice
Than dogs that are as often beat for barking
As therefore kept to do so.
SICINIUS     Let them assemble;	215
And, on a safer judgement, all revoke
Your ignorant election. Enforce his pride
And his old hate unto you. Besides, forget not
With what contempt he wore the humble weed,
How in his suit he scorn’d you; but your loves,	220
Thinking upon his services, took from you
Th’apprehension of his present portance,
Which most gibingly, ungravely, he did fashion
After the inveterate hate he bears you.
BRUTUS     Lay
A fault on us, your tribunes: that we labour’d,	225
No impediment between, but that you must
Cast your election on him.
SICINIUS     Say you chose him
More after our commandment than as guided
By your own true affections; and that your minds
Pre-occupied with what you rather must do,	230
Than what you should, made you against the grain
To voice him consul. Lay the fault on us.
BRUTUS     Ay, spare us not. Say we read lectures to you,
How youngly he began to serve his country,
How long continued, and what stock he springs of –	235
The noble house o’th’ Martians: from whence came
That Ancus Martius, Numa’s daughter’s son,
Who after great Hostilius here was king;
Of the same house Publius and Quintus were,
That our best water brought by conduits hither;	240
And Censorinus that was so surnam’d
And nobly named so, twice being censor,
Was his great ancestor.
SICINIUS     One thus descended,
That hath beside well in his person wrought,
To be set high in place, we did commend	245
To your remembrances; but you have found,
Scaling his present bearing with his past,
That he’s your fixed enemy, and revoke
Your sudden approbation.
BRUTUS     Say you ne’er had done’t –
Harp on that still – but by our putting on;	250
And presently, when you have drawn your number,
Repair to th’ Capitol.
ALL     We will so: almost all
Repent in their election.     Exeunt Plebeians.
BRUTUS     Let them go on;
This mutiny were better put in hazard
Than stay, past doubt, for greater.	255
If, as his nature is, he fall in rage
With their refusal, both observe and answer
The vantage of his anger.
SICINIUS     To th’ Capitol, come:
We will be there before the stream o’th’people;
And this shall seem, as partly ’tis, their own,	260
Which we have goaded onward.     Exeunt.

3.1 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 caus’d
Our swifter composition.
CORIOLANUS     So then the Volsces stand but as at first,
Ready when time shall prompt them to make road	5
Upon’s again.
COMINIUS     They are worn, lord consul, so,
That we shall hardly in our ages see
Their banners wave again.
CORIOLANUS     Saw you Aufidius?
LARTIUS     On safeguard he came to me, and did curse
Against the Volsces for they had so vilely	10
Yielded the town: he is retir’d 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 hated
Your person most; that he would pawn his fortunes	15
To hopeless restitution, so he might
Be call’d 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.	20
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 authority,
Against all noble sufferance.
SICINIUS     Pass no further.
CORIOLANUS     Ha! what is that?	25
BRUTUS     It will be dangerous to go on. No further.
CORIOLANUS     What makes this change?
MENENIUS     The matter?
COMINIUS
Hath he not pass’d the noble and the common?
BRUTUS     Cominius, no.
CORIOLANUS     Have I had children’s voices?	30
1 SENATOR
Tribunes, give way: he shall to th’ market-place.
BRUTUS     The people are incens’d against him.
SICINIUS     Stop,
Or all will fall in broil.
CORIOLANUS     Are these your herd?
Must these have voices, that can yield them now
And straight disclaim their tongues? What are your
offices?	35
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 purpos’d thing, and grows by plot,
To curb the will of the nobility:
Suffer’t, and live with such as cannot rule,	40
Nor ever will be rul’d.
BRUTUS     Call’t not a plot.
The people cry you mock’d them; and of late,
When corn was given them gratis, you repin’d,
Scandal’d the suppliants for the people, call’d them
Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness.	45
CORIOLANUS     Why, this was known before.
BRUTUS     Not to them all.
CORIOLANUS     Have you inform’d 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,	50
Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me
Your fellow tribune.
SICINIUS     You show too much of that
For which the people stir. If you will pass
To where you are bound, you must inquire your way,
Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit,	55
Or never be so noble as a consul,
Nor yoke with him for tribune.
MENENIUS     Let’s be calm.
COMINIUS
The people are abus’d; set on. This palt’ring
Becomes not Rome; nor has Coriolanus
Deserv’d this so dishonour’d rub, laid falsely	60
I’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.
1 SENATOR     Not in this heat, sir, now.
CORIOLANUS     Now as I live, I will. My nobler friends,
I crave their pardons.	65
For the mutable, rank-scented meinie, let them
Regard me as I do not flatter, and
Therein behold themselves. I say again,
In soothing them, we nourish ’gainst our senate
The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition,	70
Which we ourselves have plough’d for, sow’d and
scatter’d,
By mingling them with us, the honour’d number
Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that
Which they have given to beggars.
MENENIUS     Well, no more.
1 SENATOR     No more words, we beseech you.
CORIOLANUS     How? no more!	75
As for my country I have shed my blood,
Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs
Coin words till their decay, against those measles
Which we disdain should tetter us, yet sought
The very way to catch them.
BRUTUS     You speak o’th’ people	80
As if you were a god to punish, not
A man of their infirmity.
SICINIUS     ’     ’Twere well
We let the people know’t.
MENENIUS     What, what? His choler?
CORIOLANUS     Choler!
Were I as patient as the midnight sleep,	85
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!’	90
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’th’ monster’s, wants not spirit	95
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,	100
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’,	105
His popular ‘shall’, against a graver bench
Than ever frown’d 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	110
May enter ’twixt the gap of both, and take
The one by th’other.
COMINIUS     Well, on to th’ market place.
CORIOLANUS     Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth
The corn o’th’ storehouse gratis, as ’twas us’d
Sometime in Greece –
MENENIUS     Well, well, no more of that.	115
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	120
Was not our recompense, resting well assur’d
They 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’th’ war,	125
Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they show’d
Most valour, spoke not for them. Th’accusation
Which they have often made against the senate,
All cause unborn, could never be the native
Of our so frank donation. Well, what then?	130
How shall this bosom multiplied 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	135
The nature of our seats, and make the rabble
Call our cares fears; which will in time
Break ope the locks o’th’ senate, and bring in
The crows to peck the eagles.
MENENIUS     Come, enough.
BRUTUS     Enough, with over-measure.
CORIOLANUS     No, take more!	140
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	145
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,	150
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	155
The multitudinous tongue: let them not lick
The sweet which is their poison. Your dishonour
Mangles true judgement, and bereaves the state
Of that integrity which should becom’t,
Not having the power to do the good it would	160
For th’ill 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?	165
On whom depending, their obedience fails
To 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,	170
And throw their power i’th’ 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,	175
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     Aged sir, hands off.
CORIOLANUS
Hence rotten thing! or I shall shake thy bones
Out of thy garments.
SICINIUS     Help, ye citizens!	180
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!
2 SENATOR Weapons, weapons, weapons!	185
[They all bustle about Coriolanus.]
ALL     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	190
To 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	195
Whom late you have nam’d for consul.
MENENIUS     Fie, fie, fie!
This is the way to kindle, not to quench.
2 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.	200
BRUTUS     By the consent of all we were establish’d
The 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 foundation,	205
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’th’ people, in whose power	210
We were elected theirs, Martius is worthy
Of present death.
SICINIUS     Therefore lay hold of him.
Bear him to th’ rock Tarpeian, and from thence
Into destruction cast him.
BRUTUS     Aediles, seize him!
ALL PLEBEIANS     Yield, Martius, yield!
MENENIUS     Hear me one word.	215
Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word.
AEDILE     Peace, peace!
MENENIUS
Be that you seem, truly your country’s friend,
And temp’rately proceed to what you would
Thus violently redress.
BRUTUS     Sir, those cold ways,	220
That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonous
Where 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!	225
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 and exeunt.
MENENIUS     Go, get you to your house: be gone, away!	230
All will be naught else.
2 SENATOR     Get you gone.
CORIOLANUS     Stand fast.
We have as many friends as enemies.
MENENIUS     Shall it be put to that?
1 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	235
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 calv’d i’th’ porch o’th’ Capitol.
MENENIUS     Be gone!	240
Put not your worthy rage into your tongue.
One time will owe another.
CORIOLANUS     On fair ground
I could beat forty of them.
MENENIUS     I could myself
Take up a brace o’th’ best of them; yea, the two
tribunes.
COMINIUS     But now ’tis odds beyond arithmetic;	245
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 us’d to bear.
MENENIUS     Pray you be gone.	250
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 and Cominius, and others.
PATRICIAN     This man has marr’d his fortune.
MENENIUS     His nature is too noble for the world:	255
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.]	260
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 viper
That would depopulate the city and
Be every man himself?
MENENIUS     You worthy tribunes –	265
SICINIUS     He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock
With rigorous hands: he hath resisted law,
And therefore law shall scorn him further trial
Than the severity of the public power,
Which he so sets at naught.
1 CITIZEN     He shall well know	270
The 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 hunt
With modest warrant.
SICINIUS     Sir, how comes’t that you	275
Have 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.	280
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 harm
Than so much loss of time.
SICINIUS     Speak briefly then:
For we are peremptory to dispatch	285
This viperous traitor. To eject him hence
Were but our danger, and to keep him here
Our certain death. Therefore it is decreed
He dies tonight.
MENENIUS     Now the good gods forbid
That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude	290
Towards her deserved children is enroll’d
In Jove’s own book, like an unnatural dam
Should now eat up her own!
SICINIUS     He’s a disease that must be cut away.
MENENIUS     Oh, he’s a limb that has but a disease:	295
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 hath
By many an ounce) he dropp’d it for his country;	300
And what is left, to lose it by his country
Were to us all that do’t and suffer it
A brand to th’end o’th’ world.
SICINIUS     This is clean kam.
BRUTUS     Merely awry. When he did love his country,
It honour’d him.
SICINIUS     The service of the foot,	305
Being once gangren’d, is not then respected
For 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.	310
This tiger-footed rage, when it shall find
The harm of unscann’d swiftness will, too late,
Tie leaden pounds to’s heels. Proceed by process,
Lest parties, as he is belov’d, break out
And sack great Rome with Romans.
BRUTUS     If it were so!	315
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’ wars
Since a could draw a sword, and is ill school’d	320
In bolted language; meal and bran together
He throws without distinction. Give me leave,
I’ll go to him, and undertake to bring him
Where he shall answer by a lawful form –
In peace – to his utmost peril.
1 SENATOR     Noble tribunes,	325
It is the humane way. The other course
Will prove too bloody, and the end of it
Unknown to the beginning.
SICINIUS     Noble Menenius,
Be you then as the people’s officer.
Masters, lay down your weapons.
BRUTUS     Go not home.	330
SICINIUS
Meet on the market-place: we’ll attend to you there,
Where, if you bring not Martius, we’ll proceed
In our first way.
MENENIUS     I’ll bring him to you.
[to the Senators] Let me desire your company. He
must come,
Or what is worst will follow.
1 SENATOR     Pray you, let’s to him.	335
Exeunt.

3.2 Enter CORIOLANUS with Nobles.

CORIOLANUS
Let them pull 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
Below the beam of sight: yet will I still	5
Be thus to them.
Enter VOLUMNIA.
PATRICIAN     You do the nobler.
CORIOLANUS     I muse my mother
Does not approve me further, who was wont
To call them woollen vassals, things created
To buy and sell with groats, to show bare heads	10
In congregations, to yawn, be still, and wonder,
When one but of my ordinance stood up
To speak of peace or war. I talk of you.
Why did you wish me milder? Would you have me
False to my nature? Rather say I play	15
The man I am.
VOLUMNIA     O sir, sir, sir.
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	20
The thwartings of your dispositions, if
You had not show’d them how ye were dispos’d,
Ere they lack’d power to cross you.
CORIOLANUS     Let them hang.
VOLUMNIA     Ay, and burn too.
Enter MENENIUS with the Senators.
MENENIUS
Come, come, you have been too rough, something too
rough.	25
You must return and mend it.
1 SENATOR     There’s no remedy,
Unless by not so doing, our good city
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	30
To better vantage.
MENENIUS     Well said, noble woman.
Before he should thus stoop to th’ herd, but that
The violent fit o’th’ time craves it as physic
For the whole state, I would put mine armour on,
Which I can scarcely bear.
CORIOLANUS     What must I do?	35
MENENIUS     Return to th’ tribunes.
CORIOLANUS     Well, what then? what then?
MENENIUS     Repent what you have spoke.
CORIOLANUS     For them? I cannot do it to the gods,
Must I then do’t to them?
VOLUMNIA     You are too absolute.
Though therein you can never be too noble,	40
But when extremities speak. I have heard you say,
Honour and policy, like unsever’d friends,
I’th’ war do grow together: grant that, and tell me,
In peace what each of them by th’other lose
That they combine not there.
CORIOLANUS     Tush, tush!
MENENIUS     A good demand.	45
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	50
It stands in like request?
CORIOLANUS     Why force you this?
VOLUMNIA     Because that now it lies you on to speak
To th’ people; not by your own instruction,
Nor by th’matter which your heart prompts you,
But with such words that are but roted in	55
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
Which else would put you to your fortune and	60
The hazard of much blood.
I would dissemble with my nature where
My fortunes and my friends at stake requir’d
I should do so in honour. I am in this
Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles;	65
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.
MENENIUS     Noble lady!
Come, go with us; speak fair; you may salve so	70
Not what is dangerous present, but the loss
Of what is past.
VOLUMNIA     I prithee now, my son,
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	75
Action is eloquence, and the eyes of th’ignorant
More learned than the ears – waving thy head,
Which often, thus, correcting thy stout heart,
Now humble as the ripest mulberry
That will not hold the handling; or say to them,	80
Thou art their soldier, and being bred in broils,
Hast not the soft way which, thou dost confess,
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	85
As thou hast power and person.
MENENIUS     This but done,
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 rul’d; although I know thou hadst rather	90
Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf
Than flatter him in a bower.
Enter COMINIUS.
Here is Cominius.
COMINIUS
I have been i’th’ market place; and, sir, ’tis fit
You make strong party, or defend yourself
By calmness or by absence. All’s in anger.	95
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.
CORIOLANUS
Must I go show them my unbarb’d sconce? Must I
With my base tongue give to my noble heart	100
A lie that it must bear? Well, I will do’t:
Yet were there but this single plot to lose,
This mould of Martius, they to dust should grind it
And throw’t against the wind. To th’ market-place!
You have put me now to such a part which never	105
I shall discharge to th’ life.
COMINIUS     Come, come, we’ll prompt you.
VOLUMNIA     I prithee now, sweet son, as thou hast said
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.	110
Away my disposition, and possess me
Some harlot’s spirit! My throat of war be turn’d,
Which choired with my drum, into a pipe
Small as an eunuch, or the virgin voice
That babies lull asleep! The smiles of knaves	115
Tent in my cheeks, and schoolboys’ tears take up
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 receiv’d an alms! I will not do’t,	120
Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth,
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	125
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’st it from me,
But owe thy pride thyself.
CORIOLANUS     Pray be content.	130
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 belov’d
Of all the trades in Rome. Look, I am going.
Commend me to my wife. I’ll return consul,	135
Or never trust to what my tongue can do
I’th’way of flattery further.
VOLUMNIA     Do your will.     Exit.
COMINIUS
Away! The tribunes do attend you: arm yourself
To answer mildly; for they are prepar’d
With accusations, as I hear, more strong	140
Than are upon you yet.
CORIOLANUS     The word is ‘mildly’. Pray you, let us go.
Let them accuse me by invention: I
Will answer in mine honour.
MENENIUS     Ay, but mildly.
CORIOLANUS     Well, mildly be it then. Mildly!	145
Exeunt.

3.3 Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS.

BRUTUS     In this point charge him home, that he affects
Tyrannical power. If he evade us there,
Enforce him with his envy to the people,
And that the spoil got on the Antiates
Was ne’er distributed.
Enter an Aedile.
What, will he come?	5
AEDILE     He’s coming.
BRUTUS     How accompanied?
AEDILE     With old Menenius, and those senators
That always favour’d him.
SICINIUS     Have you a catalogue
Of all the voices that we have procur’d,
Set down by th’ poll?
AEDILE     I have: ’tis ready.	10
SICINIUS     Have you collected them by tribes?
AEDILE     I have.
SICINIUS     Assemble presently the people hither:
And when they hear me say, ‘It shall be so
I’th’ right and strength o’th’ commons,’ be it either
For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them	15
If I say fine, cry ‘Fine’, if death, cry ‘Death’,
Insisting on the old prerogative
And power i’th’ truth o’th’ cause.
AEDILE     I shall inform them.
BRUTUS     And when such time they have begun to cry,
Let them not cease, but with a din confus’d	20
Enforce the present execution
Of what we chance to sentence.
AEDILE     Very well.
SICINIUS     Make them be strong, and ready for this hint
When we shall hap to give’t them.
BRUTUS     Go about it.
Exit Aedile.
Put him to choler straight; he hath been us’d	25
Ever to conquer, and to have his worth
Of contradiction. Being once chaf’d, he cannot
Be rein’d again to temperance; then he speaks
What’s in his heart, and that is there which looks
With us to break his neck.
SICINIUS     Well, here he comes.	30
Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS and COMINIUS, with others.
MENENIUS     Calmly, I do beseech you.
CORIOLANUS
Ay, as an hostler, that for th’ poorest piece
Will bear the knave by th’ volume. Th’honour’d gods
Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice
Supplied with worthy men, plant love among’s,	35
Throng our large temples with the shows of peace
And not our streets with war.
1 SENATOR     Amen, amen.
MENENIUS     A noble wish.
Enter the Aedile with the Plebeians.
SICINIUS     Draw near, ye people.
AEDILE     List to your tribunes. Audience! Peace, I say!	40
CORIOLANUS     First, hear me speak!
BOTH TRIBUNES     Well, say. Peace, ho!
CORIOLANUS
Shall I be charg’d no further than this present?
Must all determine here?
SICINIUS     I do demand,
If you submit you to the people’s voices,
Allow their officers, and are content	45
To suffer lawful censure for such faults
As shall be prov’d upon you.
CORIOLANUS     I am content.
MENENIUS     Lo, citizens, he says he is content.
The warlike service he has done, consider: think
Upon the wounds his body bears, which show	50
Like graves i’th’ holy churchyard.
CORIOLANUS     Scratches with briers,
Scars to move laughter only.
MENENIUS     Consider further,
That when he speaks not like a citizen,
You find him like a soldier. Do not take
His rougher accents for malicious sounds,	55
But, as I say, such as become a soldier,
Rather than envy you.
COMINIUS     Well, well, no more.
CORIOLANUS     What is the matter,
That being pass’d for consul with full voice,
I am so dishonour’d that the very hour	60
You take it off again?
SICINIUS     Answer to us.
CORIOLANUS     Say then: ’tis true, I ought so.
SICINIUS
We charge you, that you have contriv’d to take
From Rome all season’d office, and to wind
Yourself into a power tyrannical;	65
For which you are a traitor to the people.
CORIOLANUS     How! Traitor?
MENENIUS     Nay, temperately: your promise!
CORIOLANUS
The fires i’th’ lowest hell fold in the people!
Call me their traitor! Thou injurious tribune!
Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths,	70
In thy hands clutch’d as many millions, in
Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say
‘Thou liest’ unto thee, with a voice as free
As I do pray the gods.
SICINIUS     Mark you this, people?
ALL PLEBEIANS     To th’ rock, to th’ rock with him.	75
SICINIUS     Peace!
We need not put new matter to his charge.
What you have seen him do, and heard him speak,
Beating your officers, cursing yourselves,
Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying	80
Those whose great power must try him – even this,
So criminal and in such capital kind,
Deserves th’extremest death.
BRUTUS     But since he hath
Serv’d well for Rome –
CORIOLANUS     What do you prate of service?
BRUTUS     I talk of that, that know it.
CORIOLANUS     You?	85
MENENIUS
Is this the promise that you made your mother?
COMINIUS     Know, I pray you –
CORIOLANUS     I’ll know no further.
Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,
Vagabond exile, flaying, pent to linger
But with a grain a day, I would not buy	90
Their mercy at the price of one fair word,
Nor check my courage for what they can give,
To have’t with saying, ‘Good morrow’.
SICINIUS     For that he has,
As much as in him lies, from time to time
Envied against the people, seeking means	95
To pluck away their power, as now at last
Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence
Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers
That doth distribute it – in the name o’th’ people,
And in the power of us the tribunes, we,	100
Ev’n from this instant, banish him our city,
In peril of precipitation
From off the rock Tarpeian, never more
To enter our Rome gates. I’th’ people’s name,
I say it shall be so.	105
ALL PLEBEIANS
It shall be so, it shall be so! Let him away!
He’s banish’d, and it shall be so!
COMINIUS
Hear me, my masters, and my common friends!
SICINIUS     He’s sentenc’d: no more hearing.
COMINIUS     Let me speak.
I have been consul, and can show for Rome	110
Her enemies’ marks upon me. I do love
My country’s good with a respect more tender,
More holy and profound, than mine own life,
My dear wife’s estimate, her womb’s increase
And treasure of my loins: then if I would	115
Speak that –
SICINIUS     We know your drift. Speak what?
BRUTUS     There’s no more to be said but he is banish’d,
As enemy to the people and his country.
It shall be so!
ALL PLEBEIANS     It shall be so, it shall be so!
CORIOLANUS
You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate	120
As reek o’th’ rotten fens, whose loves I prize
As the dead carcasses of unburied men
That do corrupt my air: I banish you!
And here remain with your uncertainty!
Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!	125
Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
Fan you into despair! Have the power still
To banish your defenders, till at length
Your ignorance – which finds not till it feels,
Making but reservation of yourselves,	130
Still your own foes – deliver you as most
Abated captives to some nation
That won you without blows! Despising
For you the city, thus I turn my back.
There is a world elsewhere!	135
Exeunt Coriolanus, Cominius, Menenius with the other
senators and patricians.
AEDILE     The people’s enemy is gone, is gone!
ALL PLEBEIANS
Our enemy is banish’d! He is gone! Hoo! hoo!
[They all shout, and throw up their caps.]
SICINIUS     Go see him out at gates, and follow him
As he hath follow’d you, with all despite.
Give him deserv’d vexation. Let a guard
Attend us through the city.	140
ALL PLEBEIANS
Come, come, let’s see him out at gates! Come!
The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come!
Exeunt.

4.1 Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, with the young nobility of Rome.

CORIOLANUS
Come, leave your tears. A brief farewell! The beast
With many heads butts me away. Nay, mother,
Where is your ancient courage? You were us’d
To say, extremities was the trier of spirits;
That common chances common men could bear,	5
That when the sea was calm all boats alike
Show’d mastership in floating; fortune’s blows,
When most struck home, being gentle wounded,
craves
A noble cunning. You were us’d to load me
With precepts that would make invincible	10
The heart that conn’d them.
VIRGILIA     O heavens! O heavens!
CORIOLANUS     Nay, I prithee woman.
VOLUMNIA
Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome,
And occupations perish!
CORIOLANUS     What, what, what!
I shall be lov’d when I am lack’d. Nay, mother,	15
Resume that spirit when you were wont to say,
If you had been the wife of Hercules,
Six of his labours you’d have done, and sav’d
Your husband so much sweat. Cominius,
Droop not: adieu. Farewell, my wife, my mother:	20
I’ll do well yet. Thou old and true Menenius,
Thy tears are salter than a younger man’s,
And venomous to thine eyes. My sometime general,
I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld
Heart-hard’ning spectacles; tell these sad women,	25
’Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes,
As ’tis to laugh at ’em. My mother, you wot well
My hazards still have been your solace; and
Believ’t not lightly, though I go alone,
Like to a lonely dragon that his fen	30
Makes fear’d and talk’d of more than seen, your son
Will or exceed the common, or be caught
With cautelous baits and practice.
VOLUMNIA     My first son,
Whither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius
With thee awhile; determine on some course	35
More than a wild exposture to each chance
That starts i’th’ way before thee.
VIRGILIA     O the gods!
COMINIUS     I’ll follow thee a month, devise with thee
Where thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of us
And we of thee. So if the time thrust forth	40
A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send
O’er the vast world to seek a single man
And lose advantage, which doth ever cool
I’th’ absence of the needer.
CORIOLANUS     Fare ye well.
Thou hast years upon thee, and thou art too full	45
Of the wars’ surfeits to go rove with one
That’s yet unbruis’d: bring me but out at gate.
Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and
My friends of noble touch: when I am forth,
Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you, come:	50
While I remain above the ground you shall
Hear from me still, and never of me aught
But what is like me formerly.
MENENIUS     That’s worthily
As any ear can hear. Come, let’s not weep.
If I could shake off but one seven years	55
From these old arms and legs, by the good gods
I’d with thee every foot.
CORIOLANUS     Give me thy hand.
Come.     Exeunt.

4.2 Enter the two tribunes, SICINIUS and BRUTUS, with the Aedile.

SICINIUS
Bid them all home; he’s gone, and we’ll no further.
The nobility are vex’d, whom we see have sided
In his behalf.
BRUTUS     Now we have shown our power,
Let us seem humbler after it is done
Than when it was a-doing.
SICINIUS     Bid them home.	5
Say their great enemy is gone and they
Stand in their ancient strength.
BRUTUS     Dismiss them home.
Exit Aedile.
Here comes his mother.
Enter VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA and MENENIUS.
SICINIUS     Let’s not meet her.
BRUTUS     Why?
SICINIUS     They say she’s mad.
BRUTUS     They have ta’en note of us: keep on your way.	10
VOLUMNIA
Oh, y’are well met: the hoarded plague o’th’ gods
Requite your love!
MENENIUS     Peace, peace, be not so loud.
VOLUMNIA
If that I could for weeping, you should hear –
Nay, and you shall hear some.
[to Brutus]     Will you be gone?
[to Sicinius] You shall stay too.
VIRGILIA     I would I had the power	15
To say so to my husband.
SICINIUS     Are you mankind?
VOLUMNIA     Ay, fool; is that a shame? Note but this fool.
Was not a man my father? Hadst thou foxship
To banish him that struck more blows for Rome
Than thou hast spoken words?
SICINIUS     Oh blessed heavens!	20
VOLUMNIA
Moe noble blows than ever thou wise words;
And for Rome’s good. I’ll tell thee what – yet go!
Nay, but thou shalt stay too: I would my son
Were in Arabia, and thy tribe before him,
His good sword in his hand.
SICINIUS     What then?
VIRGILIA     What then!	25
VOLUMNIA     He’d make an end of thy posterity,
Bastards and all.
Good man, the wounds that he does bear for Rome!
MENENIUS     Come, come, peace!
SICINIUS     I would he had continued to his country	30
As he began, and not unknit himself
The noble knot he made.
BRUTUS     I would he had.
VOLUMNIA
‘I would he had!’ ’Twas you incens’d the rabble:
Cats, that can judge as fitly of his worth
As I can of those mysteries which heaven	35
Will not have earth to know.
BRUTUS     Pray let’s go.
VOLUMNIA     Now, pray sir, get you gone.
You have done a brave deed. Ere you go, hear this:
As far as doth the Capitol exceed
The meanest house in Rome, so far my son –	40
This lady’s husband here, this, do you see? –
Whom you have banish’d, does exceed you all.
BRUTUS     Well, well, we’ll leave you.
SICINIUS     Why stay we to be baited
With one that wants her wits?     Exeunt tribunes.
VOLUMNIA     Take my prayers with you.
I would the gods had nothing else to do	45
But to confirm my curses! Could I meet ’em
But once a day, it would unclog my heart
Of what lies heavy to’t.
MENENIUS     You have told them home,
And, by my troth, you have cause. You’ll sup with
me?
VOLUMNIA     Anger’s my meat: I sup upon myself	50
And so shall starve with feeding. Come, let’s go.
Leave this faint puling, and lament as I do,
In anger, Juno-like. Come, come, come!
Exeunt Volumnia and Virgilia.
MENENIUS     Fie, fie, fie!     Exit.