WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

from Coriolanus, Act III, Scene 3

BRUTUS

There’s no more to be said, but he is banished,

As enemy to the people and his country.

It shall be so.

CITIZENS

It shall be so, it shall be so.

CORIOLANUS

You common cry of curs, whose breath I hate

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;

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,

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.