Текст книги "William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition"

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2.3 Enter seven or eight Citizens

FIRST CITIZEN Once, if he do require our voices we ought not to deny him.

SECOND CITIZEN We may, sir, if we will.

THIRD 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 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 monster of the multitude, of the which we, being members, should bring ourselves to be monstrous members.

FIRST CITIZEN And to make us no better thought of, a little help will serve; for once we stood up about the corn, he himself stuck not to call us the many-headed multitude.

THIRD 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 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.

SECOND CITIZEN Think you so? Which way do you judge my wit would fly?

THIRD 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. SECOND CITIZEN Why that way?

THIRD 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.

SECOND CITIZEN You are never without your tricks. You may, you may.

THIRD 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 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 follow me, and I’ll direct you how you shall go by him. ALL THE CITIZENS 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

My tongue to such a pace. ‘Look, sir, my wounds.

I got them in my country’s service, when

Some certain of your brethren roared and ran

From th’ noise of our own drums’?

MENENIUS O me, the gods! 55

You must not speak of that, you must desire them

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, 60

In wholesome manner.

CORIOLANUS Bid them wash their faces

And keep their teeth clean.

Exit Menenius

Enter three of the Citizens

So, here comes a brace.

You know the cause, sir, of my standing here.

THIRD CITIZEN

We do, sir. Tell us what hath brought you to’t.

CORIOLANUS Mine own desert.

SECOND CITIZEN Your own desert?

CORIOLANUS Ay, but not mine own desire.

THIRD CITIZEN How not your own desire?

CORIOLANUS No, sir, ’twas never my desire yet to trouble the poor with begging.

THIRD CITIZEN You must think if we give you anything we hope to gain by you.

CORIOLANUS Well then, I pray, your price o’th’ consulship?

FIRST CITIZEN The price is to ask it kindly.

CORIOLANUS Kindly, sir, I pray let me ha’t. I have wounds to show you which shall be yours in private. (To Second Citizen) Your good voice, sir. What say you?

SECOND CITIZEN You shall ha’t, worthy sir.

CORIOLANUS A match, sir. There’s in all two worthy voices begged. I have your alms. Adieu.

THIRD CITIZEN (to the other Citizens) But this is something odd.

SECOND CITIZEN An ‘twere to give again—but ’tis no matter. Exeunt 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.

⌈FOURTH⌉ CITIZEN You have deserved nobly of your country, and you have not deserved nobly.

CORIOLANUS Your enigma? ⌈FOURTH⌉ CITIZEN You have been a scourge to her enemies, you have been a rod to her friends. You have not, indeed, 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 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 counterfeitly; that is, sir, I will counterfeit the bewitchment of some popular man, and give it bountiful to the desirers. Therefore, beseech you I may be consul.

⌈FIFTH⌉ CITIZEN We hope to find you our friend, and therefore give you our voices heartily.

⌈FOURTH⌉ CITIZEN You have received many wounds for your 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 CITIZENS The gods give you joy, sir, heartily. CORIOLANUS Most sweet voices.

Exeunt Citizens

Better it is to die, better to starve,

Than crave the hire which first we do deserve.

Why in this womanish toge should I stand here

To beg of Hob and Dick that does appear

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 heaped

For truth to o’erpeer. Rather than fool it so,

Let the high office and the honour go

To one that would do thus. I am half through.

The one part suffered, the other will I do.

Enter three Citizens more

Here come more voices.

Your voices! For your voices I have fought,

Watched 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.

⌈SIXTH⌉ CITIZEN He has done nobly, and cannot go without any honest man’s voice.

⌈SEVENTH⌉ CITIZEN Therefore let him be consul. The gods give him joy and make him good friend to the people!

ALL THE CITIZENS Amen, amen. God save thee, noble consul!

CORIOLANUS Worthy voices.

Exeunt Citizens

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?

SICINIUS

The custom of request you have discharged.

The people do admit you, and are summoned

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.

CORIOLANUS

That I’ll straight do, and, knowing myself again,

Repair to th’ senate-house.

MENENIUS

I’ll keep you company. (To the tribunes) 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

’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?

FIRST CITIZEN He has our voices, sir.

BRUTUS

We pray the gods he may deserve your loves.

SECOND CITIZEN

Amen, sir. To my poor unworthy notice

He mocked us when he begged our voices.

THIRD CITIZEN

Certainly. He flouted us downright.

FIRST CITIZEN

No, ’tis his kind of speech. He did not mock us.

SECOND CITIZEN

Not one amongst us save yourself but says

He used us scornfully. He should have showed us

His marks of merit, wounds received for’s country.

SICINIUS

Why, so he did, I am sure.

ALL THE CITIZENS

No, no; no man saw ’em.

THIRD CITIZEN

He said he had wounds which he could show in

private,

And with his hat, thus waving it in scorn,

‘I would be consul,’ says he. ‘Agèd 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

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 (to the Citizens) Could you not have told him

As you were lessoned: when he had no power

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,

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

Would think upon you for your voices and

Translate his malice towards you into love,

Standing your friendly lord.

SICINIUS (to the Citizens) Thus to have said

As you were fore-advised had touched his spirit

And tried his inclination, from him plucked

Either his gracious promise which you might,

As cause had called you up, have held him to,

Or else it would have galled his surly nature,

Which easily endures not article

Tying him to aught. So putting him to rage,

You should have ta‘en th’advantage of his choler

And passed him unelected.

BRUTUS (to the Citizens) 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

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 (to the Citizens) Have you

Ere now denied the asker, and now again,

Of him that did not ask but mock, bestow

Your sued-for tongues?

THIRD CITIZEN

He’s not confirmed, we may deny him yet.

SECOND CITIZEN And will deny him.

I’ll have five hundred voices of that sound.

FIRST CITIZEN

I twice five hundred, and their friends to piece ’em.

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 therefor kept to do so.

SICINIUS (to the Citizens) Let them assemble,

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 scorned you; but your loves,

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 (to the Citizens) Lay

A fault on us your tribunes, that we laboured

No impediment between, but that you must

Cast your election on him.

SICINIUS (to the Citizens) Say you chose him

More after our commandment than as guided

By your own true affections, and that your minds,

Preoccupied with what you rather must do

Than what you should, made you against the grain

To voice him consul. Lay the fault on us.

BRUTUS (to the Citizens)

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,

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;

And Censorinus that was so surnamed,

And nobly named so, twice being censor,

Was his great ancestor.

SICINIUS (to the Citizens) One thus descended,

That hath beside well in his person wrought

To be set high in place, we did commend

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 (to the Citizens) Say you ne‘er had done’t—

Harp on that still—but by our putting on;

And presently when you have drawn your number,

Repair to th’ Capitol.

⌈A CITIZEN⌉ We will so.

⌈ANOTHER CITIZEN⌉ Almost all

Repent in their election.

Exeunt Citizens

BRUTUS Let them go on.

This mutiny were better put in hazard

Than stay, past doubt, for greater.

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,

Which we have goaded onward.

Exeunt

3.1 Cornetts. Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, all the gentry; Cominius, Lartius, and other Senators

CORIOLANUS

Tullus Aufidius then had made new head?

LARTIUS

He had, my lord, and that it was which caused

Our swifter composition.

CORIOLANUS

So then the Volsces stand but as at first,

Ready when time shall prompt them to make raid

Upon’s again.

COMINIUS They are worn, lord consul, so

That we shall hardly in our ages see

Their banners wave again.

CORIOLANUS (to Lartius) Saw you Aufidius?

LARTIUS

On safeguard he came to me, and did curse

Against the Volsces for they had so vilely

Yielded 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 hated

Your person most; that he would pawn his fortunes

To hopeless restitution, so he might

Be 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 authority

Against 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 th’ market-place.

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 now

And 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 rule

Nor 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,

Scandalled the suppliants for the people, called them

Time-pleasers, 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?

⌈CORIOLANUS⌉

You are like to do such business.

BRUTUS Not unlike

Each way to better yours.

CORIOLANUS

Why then should I be consul? By yon clouds,

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 enquire 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‘ring

Becomes not Rome, nor has Coriolanus

Deserved this so dishonoured rub, laid falsely

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.

⌈FIRST⌉ SENATOR Not in this heat, sir, now.

CORIOLANUS Now as I live,

I will. My nobler friends, I crave their pardons.

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,

Which we ourselves have ploughed for, sowed, and

scattered

By mingling them with us, the honoured number

Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that

Which 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 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 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,

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‘th’ 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 impotence; if none, awake

Your 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 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 frowned in Greece. By Jove himself, no

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 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 used

Sometime in Greece—

MENENIUS

Well, well, no more of that.

CORIOLANUS

Though there the people had more absolute power—

I say they nourished 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

They 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 service

Did not deserve corn gratis. Being i’th’ war,

Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they showed

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?

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

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.

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 barred, 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 judgement, and bereaves the state

Of that integrity which should become’t,

Not having the power to do the good it would

For th’ill which doth control’t.

BRUTUS

He’s said enough.

SICINIUS

He’s 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 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, hot

Enter an Aedile

Let him be apprehended.

SICINIUS

Go call the people,

⌈Exit Aedile

(To Coriolanus) in whose name myself

Attach 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 ⌈THE PATRICIANS⌉

We’ll surety him.

COMINIUS (to Sicinius) Aged sir, hands off.

CORIOLANUS (to Sicinius)

Hence, rotten thing, or I shall shake thy bones

Out 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 ⌈THE CITIZENS⌉

Down with him, down with him!

SECOND SENATOR

Weapons, weapons, weapons!

They all bustle about Coriolanus

⌈CITIZENS and PATRICIANS⌉ ⌈in dispersed cries⌉

Tribunes! Patricians! Citizens! What ho!

Siciniusl Brutus! Coriolanusl Citizens!

⌈SOME CITIZENS and PATRICIANS⌉

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 th’ people, Coriolanus, patience!

Speak, good Sicinius.

SICINIUS

Hear me, people, peace.

ALL ⌈THE CITIZENS⌉

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 ⌈THE CITIZENS⌉

True,

The people are the city.

BRUTUS

By the consent of all

We were established the people’s magistrates.

ALL ⌈THE CITIZENS⌉

You so remain.

MENENIUS

And so are like to do.

⌈CORIOLANUS⌉

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’th’ people in whose power

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 THE CITIZENS

Yield, Martius, yield.

MENENIUS

Hear me one word.

Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word.

AEDILES Peace, peace!

MENENIUS (to the tribunes)

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

That seem like prudent helps are very poisons

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.

MENENIUS

Down with that sword. Tribunes, withdraw a while.

BRUTUS

Lay hands upon him.

MENENIUS

Help Martius, help!

You that be noble, help him, young and old.

ALL ⌈THE CITIZENS⌉ Down with him, down with him!

In this mutiny the tribunes, the Aediles, and the people are beat in

MENENIUS (to Coriolanus)

Go get you to your house. Be gone, away!

All will be naught else.

SECOND SENATOR (to Coriolanus) 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!

(To Coriolanus) 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 littered; not Romans, as they are

not,

Though calved i‘th’ porch o’th’ 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.

MENENIUS I could myself

Take 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 stands

Against a falling fabric.

(To Coriolanus) Will you hence

Before the tag return, whose rage doth rend

Like interrupted waters, and o’erbear

What they are used to bear?

MENENIUS (to Coriolanus) Pray you be gone.

I’ll try whether my old wit be in request

With those that have but little. This must be patched

With cloth of any colour.

COMINIUS Nay, come away.

Exeunt Coriolanus and Cominius

A PATRICIAN This man has marred 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.

A 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—

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.

FIRST CITIZEN

He shall well know

The noble tribunes are the people’s mouths,

And we their hands.

ALL ⌈THE CITIZENS⌉

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

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 ⌈THE CITIZENS⌉ 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 harm

Than so much loss of time.

SICINIUS

Speak briefly, then,

For we are peremptory to dispatch

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

Towards her deserved children is enrolled

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

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 hath

By many an ounce—he dropped it for his country;

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 cam.

BRUTUS

Merely awry. When he did love his country

It honoured him.

⌈SICINIUS⌉ S⌉

The service of the foot,

Being once gangrened, 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!

This tiger-footed rage, when it shall find

The harm of unscanned swiftness, will too late

Tie leaden pounds to’s heels. Proceed by process,

Lest parties—as he is beloved—break out

And sack great Rome with Romans.

BRUTUS If it were so?

SICINIUS (to Menenius) 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-schooled

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.

FIRST SENATOR

Noble tribunes,

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.

(To the Citizens) Masters, lay down your weapons.

BRUTUS

Go not home.

SICINIUS

Meet on the market-place. (To Menenius) We’ll attend

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.

⌈FIRST⌉ SENATOR

Pray you, let’s to him.

Exeunt ⌈tribunes and Citizens at one door, Patricians at another door⌉