Coriolanus/Source

DRAMATIS PERSONAE (Persons Represented):


 * CAIUS MARCIUS CORIOLANUS, a noble Roman


 * TITUS LARTIUS, General against the Volscians
 * COMINIUS, General against the Volscians
 * MENENIUS AGRIPPA, Friend to Coriolanus
 * SICINIUS VELUTUS, Tribune of the People
 * JUNIUS BRUTUS, Tribune of the People
 * YOUNG MARCIUS, son to Coriolanus
 * A ROMAN HERALD
 * TULLUS AUFIDIUS, General of the Volscians
 * LIEUTENANT, to Aufidius
 * Conspirators with Aufidius
 * A CITIZEN of Antium
 * TWO VOLSCIAN GUARDS


 * VOLUMNIA, Mother to Coriolanus
 * VIRGILIA, Wife to Coriolanus
 * VALERIA, Friend to Virgilia
 * GENTLEWOMAN attending on Virgilia


 * Roman and Volscian Senators, Patricians, Aediles, Lictors,
 * Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, Servants to Aufidius, and other
 * Attendants

SCENE: Partly in Rome, and partly in the territories of the Volscians and Antiates.

SCENE I. Rome. A street.
[Enter a company of mutinous citizens, with staves, clubs, and other weapons.]

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Before we proceed any further, hear me speak.

ALL.
 * Speak, speak.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * You are all resolved rather to die than to famish?

ALL.
 * Resolved, resolved.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * First, you know Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the people.

ALL.
 * We know't, we know't.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price. Is't a
 * verdict?

ALL.
 * No more talking on't; let it be done: away, away!

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * One word, good citizens.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * We are accounted poor citizens; the patricians good.
 * What authority surfeits on would relieve us; if they would yield
 * us but the superfluity, while it were wholesome, we might guess
 * they relieved us humanely; but they think we are too dear: the
 * leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an
 * inventory to particularize their abundance; our sufferance is a
 * gain to them.—Let us revenge this with our pikes ere we become
 * rakes: for the gods know I speak this in hunger for bread, not in
 * thirst for revenge.

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Against him first: he's a very dog to the commonalty.

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * Consider you what services he has done for his country?

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Very well; and could be content to give him good report for't,
 * but that he pays himself with being proud.

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * Nay, but speak not maliciously.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * I say unto you, what he hath done famously he did it to that end:
 * though soft-conscienced men can be content to say it was for his
 * country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud;
 * which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue.

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * What he cannot help in his nature you account a vice in him. You
 * must in no way say he is covetous.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations; he hath
 * faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts within.]
 * What shouts are these? The other side o' the city is risen: why
 * stay we prating here? to the Capitol!

ALL.
 * Come, come.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Soft! who comes here?

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved the people.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * He's one honest enough; would all the rest were so!

[Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA.]

MENENIUS.
 * What work's, my countrymen, in hand? where go you
 * With bats and clubs? the matter? speak, I pray you.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have had inkling
 * this fortnight what we intend to do, which now we'll show 'em in
 * deeds. They say poor suitors have strong breaths; they shall know
 * we have strong arms too.

MENENIUS.
 * Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours,
 * Will you undo yourselves?

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * We cannot, sir; we are undone already.

MENENIUS.
 * I tell you, friends, most charitable care
 * Have the patricians of you. For your wants,
 * Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well
 * Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them
 * Against the Roman state; whose course will on
 * The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs
 * Of more strong link asunder than can ever
 * Appear in your impediment: for the dearth,
 * The gods, not the patricians, make it; and
 * Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack,
 * You are transported by calamity
 * Thither where more attends you; and you slander
 * The helms o' th' state, who care for you like fathers,
 * When you curse them as enemies.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Care for us! True, indeed! They ne'er cared for us yet. Suffer us
 * to famish, and their storehouses crammed with grain; make edicts
 * for usury, to support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
 * established against the rich, and provide more piercing statutes
 * daily to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not
 * up, they will; and there's all the love they bear us.

MENENIUS.
 * Either you must
 * Confess yourselves wondrous malicious,
 * Or be accus'd of folly. I shall tell you
 * A pretty tale: it may be you have heard it;
 * But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture
 * To stale't a little more.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Well, I'll hear it, sir; yet you must not think to fob off our
 * disgrace with a tale: but, an't please you, deliver.

MENENIUS.
 * There was a time when all the body's members
 * Rebell'd against the belly; thus accus'd it:—
 * That only like a gulf it did remain
 * I' the midst o' the body, idle and unactive,
 * Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing
 * Like labour with the rest; where th' other instruments
 * Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,
 * And, mutually participate, did minister
 * Unto the appetite and affection common
 * Of the whole body. The belly answered,—

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Well, sir, what answer made the belly?

MENENIUS.
 * Sir, I shall tell you.—With a kind of smile,
 * Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus,—
 * For, look you, I may make the belly smile
 * As well as speak,—it tauntingly replied
 * To the discontented members, the mutinous parts
 * That envied his receipt; even so most fitly
 * As you malign our senators for that
 * They are not such as you.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Your belly's answer? What!
 * The kingly crowned head, the vigilant eye,
 * The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,
 * Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter,
 * With other muniments and petty helps
 * Is this our fabric, if that they,—

MENENIUS.
 * What then?—
 * 'Fore me, this fellow speaks!—what then? what then?

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd,
 * Who is the sink o' the body,—

MENENIUS.
 * Well, what then?

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * The former agents, if they did complain,
 * What could the belly answer?

MENENIUS.
 * I will tell you;
 * If you'll bestow a small,—of what you have little,—
 * Patience awhile, you'll hear the belly's answer.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * You are long about it.

MENENIUS.
 * Note me this, good friend;
 * Your most grave belly was deliberate,
 * Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer'd:
 * 'True is it, my incorporate friends,' quoth he,
 * 'That I receive the general food at first
 * Which you do live upon; and fit it is,
 * Because I am the storehouse and the shop
 * Of the whole body: but, if you do remember,
 * I send it through the rivers of your blood,
 * Even to the court, the heart,—to the seat o' the brain;
 * And, through the cranks and offices of man,
 * The strongest nerves and small inferior veins
 * From me receive that natural competency
 * Whereby they live: and though that all at once
 * You, my good friends,'—this says the belly,—mark me,—

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Ay, sir; well, well.

MENENIUS.
 * 'Though all at once cannot
 * See what I do deliver out to each,
 * Yet I can make my audit up, that all
 * From me do back receive the flour of all,
 * And leave me but the bran.' What say you to't?

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * It was an answer: how apply you this?

MENENIUS.
 * The senators of Rome are this good belly,
 * And you the mutinous members; for, examine
 * Their counsels and their cares; digest things rightly
 * Touching the weal o' the common; you shall find
 * No public benefit which you receive
 * But it proceeds or comes from them to you,
 * And no way from yourselves.—What do you think,
 * You, the great toe of this assembly?

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * I the great toe? why the great toe?

MENENIUS.
 * For that, being one o' the lowest, basest, poorest,
 * Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st foremost:
 * Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run,
 * Lead'st first to win some vantage.—
 * But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs:
 * Rome and her rats are at the point of battle;
 * The one side must have bale.—

[Enter CAIUS MARCIUS.]

Hail, noble Marcius!

MARCIUS.
 * Thanks.—What's the matter, you dissentious rogues
 * That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,
 * Make yourselves scabs?

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * We have ever your good word.

MARCIUS.
 * He that will give good words to thee will flatter
 * Beneath abhorring.—What would you have, you curs,
 * That like nor peace nor war? The one affrights you,
 * The other makes you proud. He that trusts to you,
 * Where he should find you lions, finds you hares;
 * Where foxes, geese: you are no surer, no,
 * Than is the coal of fire upon the ic,
 * Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is
 * To make him worthy whose offence subdues him,
 * And curse that justice did it. Who deserves greatness
 * Deserves your hate; and your affections are
 * A sick man's appetite, who desires most that
 * Which would increase his evil. He that depends
 * Upon your favours swims with fins of lead,
 * And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye!
 * With every minute you do change a mind;
 * And call him noble that was now your hate,
 * Him vile that was your garland. What's the matter,
 * That in these several places of the city
 * You cry against the noble senate, who,
 * Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else
 * Would feed on one another?—What's their seeking?

MENENIUS.
 * For corn at their own rates; whereof they say
 * The city is well stor'd.

MARCIUS.
 * Hang 'em! They say!
 * They'll sit by th' fire and presume to know
 * What's done i' the Capitol; who's like to rise,
 * Who thrives and who declines; side factions, and give out
 * Conjectural marriages; making parties strong,
 * And feebling such as stand not in their liking
 * Below their cobbled shoes. They say there's grain enough!
 * Would the nobility lay aside their ruth
 * And let me use my sword, I'd make a quarry
 * With thousands of these quarter'd slaves, as high
 * As I could pick my lance.

MENENIUS.
 * Nay, these are almost thoroughly persuaded;
 * For though abundantly they lack discretion,
 * Yet are they passing cowardly. But, I beseech you,
 * What says the other troop?

MARCIUS.
 * They are dissolved: hang 'em!
 * They said they were an-hungry; sigh'd forth proverbs,—
 * That hunger broke stone walls, that dogs must eat,
 * That meat was made for mouths, that the gods sent not
 * Corn for the rich men only:—with these shreds
 * They vented their complainings; which being answer'd,
 * And a petition granted them,—a strange one,
 * To break the heart of generosity,
 * And make bold power look pale,—they threw their caps
 * As they would hang them on the horns o' the moon,
 * Shouting their emulation.

MENENIUS.
 * What is granted them?

MARCIUS.
 * Five tribunes, to defend their vulgar wisdoms,
 * Of their own choice: one's Junius Brutus,
 * Sicinius Velutus, and I know not.—'Sdeath!
 * The rabble should have first unroof'd the city
 * Ere so prevail'd with me: it will in time
 * Win upon power, and throw forth greater themes
 * For insurrection's arguing.

MENENIUS.
 * This is strange.

MARCIUS.
 * Go get you home, you fragments!

[Enter a MESSENGER, hastily.]

MESSENGER.
 * Where's Caius Marcius?

MARCIUS.
 * Here: what's the matter?

MESSENGER.
 * The news is, sir, the Volsces are in arms.

MARCIUS.
 * I am glad on't: then we shall ha' means to vent
 * Our musty superfluity.—See, our best elders.

[Enter COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, and other SENATORS; JUNIUS BRUTUS
 * and SICINIUS VELUTUS.]

FIRST SENATOR.
 * Marcius, 'tis true that you have lately told us:—
 * The Volsces are in arms.

MARCIUS.
 * They have a leader,
 * Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to't.
 * I sin in envying his nobility;
 * And were I anything but what I am,
 * I would wish me only he.

COMINIUS.
 * You have fought together.

MARCIUS.
 * Were half to half the world by the ears, and he
 * Upon my party, I'd revolt, to make
 * Only my wars with him: he is a lion
 * That I am proud to hunt.

FIRST SENATOR.
 * Then, worthy Marcius,
 * Attend upon Cominius to these wars.

COMINIUS.
 * It is your former promise.

MARCIUS.
 * Sir, it is;
 * And I am constant.—Titus Lartius, thou
 * Shalt see me once more strike at Tullus' face.
 * What, art thou stiff? stand'st out?

TITUS LARTIUS.
 * No, Caius Marcius;
 * I'll lean upon one crutch and fight with the other
 * Ere stay behind this business.

MENENIUS.
 * O, true bred!

FIRST SENATOR.
 * Your company to the Capitol; where, I know,
 * Our greatest friends attend us.

TITUS LARTIUS.
 * Lead you on.
 * Follow, Cominius; we must follow you;
 * Right worthy your priority.

COMINIUS.
 * Noble Marcius!

FIRST SENATOR.
 * Hence to your homes; be gone!

[To the Citizens.]

MARCIUS.
 * Nay, let them follow:
 * The Volsces have much corn; take these rats thither
 * To gnaw their garners.—Worshipful mutineers,
 * Your valour puts well forth: pray follow.

[Exeunt Senators, COM., MAR, TIT., and MENEN. Citizens steal
 * away.]

SICINIUS.
 * Was ever man so proud as is this Marcius?

BRUTUS.
 * He has no equal.

SICINIUS.
 * When we were chosen tribunes for the people,—

BRUTUS.
 * Mark'd you his lip and eyes?

SICINIUS.
 * Nay, but his taunts!

BRUTUS.
 * Being mov'd, he will not spare to gird the gods.

SICINIUS.
 * Bemock the modest moon.

BRUTUS.
 * The present wars devour him: he is grown
 * Too proud to be so valiant.

SICINIUS.
 * Such a nature,
 * Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow
 * Which he treads on at noon: but I do wonder
 * His insolence can brook to be commanded
 * Under Cominius.

BRUTUS.
 * Fame, at the which he aims,—
 * In whom already he is well grac'd,—cannot
 * Better be held, nor more attain'd, than by
 * A place below the first: for what miscarries
 * Shall be the general's fault, though he perform
 * To th' utmost of a man; and giddy censure
 * Will then cry out of Marcius 'O, if he
 * Had borne the business!'

SICINIUS.
 * Besides, if things go well,
 * Opinion, that so sticks on Marcius, shall
 * Of his demerits rob Cominius.

BRUTUS.
 * Come:
 * Half all Cominius' honours are to Marcius,
 * Though Marcius earn'd them not; and all his faults
 * To Marcius shall be honours, though, indeed,
 * In aught he merit not.

SICINIUS.
 * Let's hence and hear
 * How the dispatch is made; and in what fashion,
 * More than in singularity, he goes
 * Upon this present action.

BRUTUS.
 * Let's along.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE II. Corioli. The Senate House.
[Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS and certain SENATORS.]

FIRST SENATOR.
 * So, your opinion is, Aufidius,
 * That they of Rome are enter'd in our counsels
 * And know how we proceed.

AUFIDIUS.
 * Is it not yours?
 * What ever have been thought on in this state,
 * That could be brought to bodily act ere Rome
 * Had circumvention! 'Tis not four days gone
 * Since I heard thence; these are the words: I think
 * I have the letter here;yes, here it is:

[Reads.]
 * 'They have pressed a power, but it is not known
 * Whether for east or west: the dearth is great;
 * The people mutinous: and it is rumour'd,
 * Cominius, Marcius your old enemy,—
 * Who is of Rome worse hated than of you,—
 * And Titus Lartius, a most valiant Roman,
 * These three lead on this preparation
 * Whither 'tis bent: most likely 'tis for you:
 * Consider of it.'

FIRST SENATOR.
 * Our army's in the field:
 * We never yet made doubt but Rome was ready
 * To answer us.

AUFIDIUS.
 * Nor did you think it folly
 * To keep your great pretences veil'd till when
 * They needs must show themselves; which in the hatching,
 * It seem'd, appear'd to Rome. By the discovery
 * We shall be shorten'd in our aim; which was,
 * To take in many towns ere, almost, Rome
 * Should know we were afoot.

SECOND SENATOR.
 * Noble Aufidius,
 * Take your commission; hie you to your bands;
 * Let us alone to guard Corioli:
 * If they set down before's, for the remove
 * Bring up your army; but I think you'll find
 * They've not prepared for us.

AUFIDIUS.
 * O, doubt not that;
 * I speak from certainties. Nay, more,
 * Some parcels of their power are forth already,
 * And only hitherward. I leave your honours.
 * If we and Caius Marcius chance to meet,
 * 'Tis sworn between us we shall ever strike
 * Till one can do no more.

ALL.
 * The gods assist you!

AUFIDIUS.
 * And keep your honours safe!

FIRST SENATOR.
 * Farewell.

SECOND SENATOR.
 * Farewell.

ALL. Farewell.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE III. Rome. An apartment in MARCIUS' house.
[Enter VOLUMNIA and VIRGILIA; they sit down on two low stools and sew.]

VOLUMNIA.
 * I pray you, daughter, sing, or express yourself in a more
 * comfortable sort; if my son were my husband, I should freelier
 * rejoice in that absence wherein he won honour than in the
 * embracements of his bed where he would show most love. When yet
 * he was but tender-bodied, and the only son of my womb; when youth
 * with comeliness pluck'd all gaze his way; when, for a day of
 * kings' entreaties, a mother should not sell him an hour from her
 * beholding; I,—considering how honour would become such a person;
 * that it was no better than picture-like to hang by th' wall if
 * renown made it not stir;—was pleased to let him seek danger
 * where he was to find fame. To a cruel war I sent him; from whence
 * he returned his brows bound with oak. I tell thee, daughter, I
 * sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child than
 * now in first seeing he had proved himself a man.

VIRGILIA.
 * But had he died in the business, madam? how then?

VOLUMNIA.
 * Then his good report should have been my son; I therein
 * would have found issue. Hear me profess sincerely,—had I a dozen
 * sons, each in my love alike, and none less dear than thine and my
 * good Marcius, I had rather had eleven die nobly for their country
 * than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.

[Enter a GENTLEWOMAN.]

GENTLEWOMAN.
 * Madam, the Lady Valeria is come to visit you.

VIRGILIA.
 * Beseech you, give me leave to retire myself.

VOLUMNIA.
 * Indeed you shall not.
 * Methinks I hear hither your husband's drum;
 * See him pluck Aufidius down by the hair;
 * As children from a bear, the Volsces shunning him:
 * Methinks I see him stamp thus, and call thus:—
 * 'Come on, you cowards! you were got in fear
 * Though you were born in Rome:' his bloody brow
 * With his mail'd hand then wiping, forth he goes,
 * Like to a harvest-man that's tasked to mow
 * Or all, or lose his hire.

VIRGILIA.
 * His bloody brow! O Jupiter, no blood!

VOLUMNIA.
 * Away, you fool! It more becomes a man
 * Than gilt his trophy: the breasts of Hecuba,
 * When she did suckle Hector, looked not lovelier
 * Than Hector's forehead when it spit forth blood
 * At Grecian swords contending.—Tell Valeria
 * We are fit to bid her welcome.

[Exit GENTLEWOMAN.]

VIRGILIA.
 * Heavens bless my lord from fell Aufidius!

VOLUMNIA.
 * He'll beat Aufidius' head below his knee,
 * And tread upon his neck.

[Re-enter GENTLEWOMAN, with VALERIA and her Usher.]

VALERIA.
 * My ladies both, good-day to you.

VOLUMNIA.
 * Sweet madam.

VIRGILIA.
 * I am glad to see your ladyship.

VALERIA.
 * How do you both? you are manifest housekeepers. What are
 * you sewing here? A fine spot, in good faith.—How does your
 * little son?

VIRGILIA.
 * I thank your ladyship; well, good madam.

VOLUMNIA.
 * He had rather see the swords and hear a drum than look upon his
 * schoolmaster.

VALERIA.
 * O' my word, the father's son: I'll swear 'tis a very pretty boy.
 * O' my troth, I looked upon him o' Wednesday, half an hour
 * together: has such a confirmed countenance. I saw him run after a
 * gilded butterfly; and when he caught it he let it go again; and
 * after it again; and over and over he comes, and up again; catched
 * it again; or whether his fall enraged him, or how 'twas, he did
 * so set his teeth and tear it; O, I warrant, how he mammocked it!

VOLUMNIA.
 * One on's father's moods.

VALERIA.
 * Indeed, la, 'tis a noble child.

VIRGILIA.
 * A crack, madam.

VALERIA.
 * Come, lay aside your stitchery; I must have you play the idle
 * huswife with me this afternoon.

VIRGILIA.
 * No, good madam; I will not out of doors.

VALERIA.
 * Not out of doors!

VOLUMNIA.
 * She shall, she shall.

VIRGILIA.
 * Indeed, no, by your patience; I'll not over the threshold till my
 * lord return from the wars.

VALERIA.
 * Fie, you confine yourself most unreasonably; come, you must go
 * visit the good lady that lies in.

VIRGILIA.
 * I will wish her speedy strength, and visit her with my prayers;
 * but I cannot go thither.

VOLUMNIA.
 * Why, I pray you?

VIRGILIA.
 * 'Tis not to save labour, nor that I want love.

VALERIA.
 * You would be another Penelope; yet they say all the yarn she spun
 * in Ulysses' absence did but fill Ithaca full of moths. Come; I
 * would your cambric were sensible as your finger, that you might
 * leave pricking it for pity.—Come, you shall go with us.

VIRGILIA.
 * No, good madam, pardon me; indeed I will not forth.

VALERIA.
 * In truth, la, go with me; and I'll tell you excellent news
 * of your husband.

VIRGILIA.
 * O, good madam, there can be none yet.

VALERIA.
 * Verily, I do not jest with you; there came news from him last
 * night.

VIRGILIA.
 * Indeed, madam?

VALERIA.
 * In earnest, it's true; I heard a senator speak it. Thus it
 * is:—the Volsces have an army forth; against whom Cominius the
 * general is gone, with one part of our Roman power: your lord and
 * Titus Lartius are set down before their city Corioli; they
 * nothing doubt prevailing, and to make it brief wars. This is
 * true, on mine honour; and so, I pray, go with us.

VIRGILIA.
 * Give me excuse, good madam; I will obey you in everything
 * hereafter.

VOLUMNIA.
 * Let her alone, lady; as she is now, she will but disease our
 * better mirth.

VALERIA.
 * In troth, I think she would.—Fare you well, then.—Come,
 * good sweet lady.—Pr'ythee, Virgilia, turn thy solemness out o'
 * door and go along with us.

VIRGILIA.
 * No, at a word, madam; indeed I must not. I wish you much mirth.

VALERIA.
 * Well then, farewell.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE IV. Before Corioli.
[Enter, with drum and colours, MARCIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, Officers, and soldiers.]

MARCIUS.
 * Yonder comes news:—a wager they have met.

LARTIUS.
 * My horse to yours, no.

MARCIUS.
 * 'Tis done.

LARTIUS.
 * Agreed.

[Enter a Messenger.]

MARCIUS.
 * Say, has our general met the enemy?

MESSENGER.
 * They lie in view; but have not spoke as yet.

LARTIUS.
 * So, the good horse is mine.

MARCIUS.
 * I'll buy him of you.

LARTIUS.
 * No, I'll nor sell nor give him: lend you him I will
 * For half a hundred years.—Summon the town.

MARCIUS.
 * How far off lie these armies?

MESSENGER.
 * Within this mile and half.

MARCIUS.
 * Then shall we hear their 'larum, and they ours.—
 * Now, Mars, I pr'ythee, make us quick in work,
 * That we with smoking swords may march from hence
 * To help our fielded friends!—Come, blow thy blast.

[They sound a parley. Enter, on the Walls, some Senators and
 * others.]

Tullus Aufidius, is he within your walls?

FIRST SENATOR.
 * No, nor a man that fears you less than he,
 * That's lesser than a little.

[Drum afar off]
 * Hark, our drums
 * Are bringing forth our youth! we'll break our walls
 * Rather than they shall pound us up: our gates,
 * Which yet seem shut, we have but pinn'd with rushes;
 * They'll open of themselves.

[Alarum far off.]
 * Hark you far off!
 * There is Aufidius; list what work he makes
 * Amongst your cloven army.

MARCIUS.
 * O, they are at it!

LARTIUS.
 * Their noise be our instruction.—Ladders, ho!

[The Volsces enter and pass over.]

MARCIUS.
 * They fear us not, but issue forth their city.
 * Now put your shields before your hearts, and fight
 * With hearts more proof than shields.—Advance, brave Titus:
 * They do disdain us much beyond our thoughts,
 * Which makes me sweat with wrath.—Come on, my fellows:
 * He that retires, I'll take him for a Volsce,
 * And he shall feel mine edge.

[Alarums, and exeunt Romeans and Volsces fighting. Romans are
 * beaten back to their trenches. Re-enter MARCIUS.]

MARCIUS.
 * All the contagion of the south light on you,
 * You shames of Rome!—you herd of—Boils and plagues
 * Plaster you o'er, that you may be abhorr'd
 * Farther than seen, and one infect another
 * Against the wind a mile! You souls of geese
 * That bear the shapes of men, how have you run
 * From slaves that apes would beat! Pluto and hell!
 * All hurt behind; backs red, and faces pale
 * With flight and agued fear! Mend, and charge home,
 * Or, by the fires of heaven, I'll leave the foe
 * And make my wars on you: look to't: come on;
 * If you'll stand fast we'll beat them to their wives,
 * As they us to our trenches.

[Another alarum. The Volsces and Romans re-enter, and the fight
 * is renewed. The Volsces retire into Corioli, and MARCIUS follows
 * them to the gates.]

So, now the gates are ope:—now prove good seconds:
 * 'Tis for the followers fortune widens them,
 * Not for the fliers: mark me, and do the like.

[He enters the gates]

FIRST SOLDIER.
 * Fool-hardiness: not I.

SECOND SOLDIER.
 * Nor I.

[MARCIUS is shut in.]

FIRST SOLDIER.
 * See, they have shut him in.

ALL.
 * To th' pot, I warrant him.

[Alarum continues]

[Re-enter TITUS LARTIUS.]

LARTIUS.
 * What is become of Marcius?

ALL.
 * Slain, sir, doubtless.

FIRST SOLDIER.
 * Following the fliers at the very heels,
 * With them he enters; who, upon the sudden,
 * Clapp'd-to their gates: he is himself alone,
 * To answer all the city.

LARTIUS.
 * O noble fellow!
 * Who sensible, outdares his senseless sword,
 * And when it bows stands up! Thou art left, Marcius:
 * A carbuncle entire, as big as thou art,
 * Were not so rich a jewel. Thou wast a soldier
 * Even to Cato's wish, not fierce and terrible
 * Only in strokes; but with thy grim looks and
 * The thunder-like percussion of thy sounds
 * Thou mad'st thine enemies shake, as if the world
 * Were feverous and did tremble.

[Re-enter MARCIUS, bleeding, assaulted by the enemy.]

FIRST SOLDIER.
 * Look, sir.

LARTIUS.
 * O, 'tis Marcius!
 * Let's fetch him off, or make remain alike.

[They fight, and all enter the city.]

SCENE V. Within Corioli. A street.
[Enter certain Romans, with spoils.]

FIRST ROMAN.
 * This will I carry to Rome.

SECOND ROMAN.
 * And I this.

THIRD ROMAN.
 * A murrain on't! I took this for silver.

[Alarum continues still afar off.]

[Enter MARCIUS and TITUS LARTIUS with a trumpet.]

MARCIUS.
 * See here these movers that do prize their hours
 * At a crack'd drachma! Cushions, leaden spoons,
 * Irons of a doit, doublets that hangmen would
 * Bury with those that wore them, these base slaves,
 * Ere yet the fight be done, pack up:—down with them!—
 * And hark, what noise the general makes!—To him!—
 * There is the man of my soul's hate, Aufidius,
 * Piercing our Romans; then, valiant Titus, take
 * Convenient numbers to make good the city;
 * Whilst I, with those that have the spirit, will haste
 * To help Cominius.

LARTIUS.
 * Worthy sir, thou bleed'st;
 * Thy exercise hath been too violent
 * For a second course of fight.

MARCIUS.
 * Sir, praise me not;
 * My work hath yet not warm'd me: fare you well;
 * The blood I drop is rather physical
 * Than dangerous to me: to Aufidius thus
 * I will appear, and fight.

LARTIUS.
 * Now the fair goddess, Fortune,
 * Fall deep in love with thee; and her great charms
 * Misguide thy opposers' swords! Bold gentleman,
 * Prosperity be thy page!

MARCIUS.
 * Thy friend no less
 * Than those she placeth highest!—So farewell.

LARTIUS.
 * Thou worthiest Marcius!—

[Exit MARCIUS.]

Go, sound thy trumpet in the market-place;
 * Call thither all the officers o' the town,
 * Where they shall know our mind: away!

[Exeunt.]

SCENE VI. Near the camp of COMINIUS.
[Enter COMINIUS and Foreces, retreating.]

COMINIUS.
 * Breathe you, my friends: well fought; we are come off
 * Like Romans, neither foolish in our stands
 * Nor cowardly in retire: believe me, sirs,
 * We shall be charg'd again. Whiles we have struck,
 * By interims and conveying gusts we have heard
 * The charges of our friends. The Roman gods,
 * Lead their successes as we wish our own,
 * That both our powers, with smiling fronts encountering,
 * May give you thankful sacrifice!—

[Enter A MESSENGER.]

Thy news?

MESSENGER.
 * The citizens of Corioli have issued,
 * And given to Lartius and to Marcius battle:
 * I saw our party to their trenches driven,
 * And then I came away.

COMINIUS.
 * Though thou speak'st truth,
 * Methinks thou speak'st not well. How long is't since?

MESSENGER.
 * Above an hour, my lord.

COMINIUS.
 * 'Tis not a mile; briefly we heard their drums:
 * How couldst thou in a mile confound an hour,
 * And bring thy news so late?

MESSENGER.
 * Spies of the Volsces
 * Held me in chase, that I was forc'd to wheel
 * Three or four miles about; else had I, sir,
 * Half an hour since brought my report.

COMINIUS.
 * Who's yonder,
 * That does appear as he were flay'd? O gods!
 * He has the stamp of Marcius; and I have
 * Before-time seen him thus.

MARCIUS.
 * [Within.] Come I too late?

COMINIUS.
 * The shepherd knows not thunder from a tabor
 * More than I know the sound of Marcius' tongue
 * From every meaner man.

[Enter MARCIUS.]

MARCIUS.
 * Come I too late?

COMINIUS.
 * Ay, if you come not in the blood of others,
 * But mantled in your own.

MARCIUS.
 * O! let me clip ye
 * In arms as sound as when I woo'd; in heart
 * As merry as when our nuptial day was done,
 * And tapers burn'd to bedward.

COMINIUS.
 * Flower of warriors,
 * How is't with Titus Lartius?

MARCIUS.
 * As with a man busied about decrees:
 * Condemning some to death and some to exile;
 * Ransoming him or pitying, threat'ning the other;
 * Holding Corioli in the name of Rome,
 * Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash,
 * To let him slip at will.

COMINIUS.
 * Where is that slave
 * Which told me they had beat you to your trenches?
 * Where's he? call him hither.

MARCIUS.
 * Let him alone;
 * He did inform the truth: but for our gentlemen,
 * The common file,—a plague!—tribunes for them!—
 * The mouse ne'er shunned the cat as they did budge
 * From rascals worse than they.

COMINIUS.
 * But how prevail'd you?

MARCIUS.
 * Will the time serve to tell? I do not think.
 * Where is the enemy? are you lords o' the field?
 * If not, why cease you till you are so?

COMINIUS.
 * Marcius,
 * We have at disadvantage fought, and did
 * Retire, to win our purpose.

MARCIUS.
 * How lies their battle? know you on which side
 * They have placed their men of trust?

COMINIUS.
 * As I guess, Marcius,
 * Their bands in the vaward are the Antiates,
 * Of their best trust; o'er them Aufidius,
 * Their very heart of hope.

MARCIUS.
 * I do beseech you,
 * By all the battles wherein we have fought,
 * By the blood we have shed together, by the vows
 * We have made to endure friends, that you directly
 * Set me against Aufidius and his Antiates;
 * And that you not delay the present, but,
 * Filling the air with swords advanc'd and darts,
 * We prove this very hour.

COMINIUS.
 * Though I could wish
 * You were conducted to a gentle bath,
 * And balms applied to you, yet dare I never
 * Deny your asking: take your choice of those
 * That best can aid your action.

MARCIUS.
 * Those are they
 * That most are willing.—If any such be here,—
 * As it were sin to doubt,—that love this painting
 * Wherein you see me smear'd; if any fear
 * Lesser his person than an ill report;
 * If any think brave death outweighs bad life,
 * And that his country's dearer than himself;
 * Let him alone, or so many so minded,
 * Wave thus [waving his hand], to express his disposition,
 * And follow Marcius.

[They all shout and wave their swords; take him up in their arms
 * and cast up their caps.]

O, me alone! Make you a sword of me?
 * If these shows be not outward, which of you
 * But is four Volsces? none of you but is
 * Able to bear against the great Aufidius
 * A shield as hard as his. A certain number,
 * Though thanks to all, must I select from all: the rest
 * Shall bear the business in some other fight,
 * As cause will be obey'd. Please you to march;
 * And four shall quickly draw out my command,
 * Which men are best inclin'd.

COMINIUS.
 * March on, my fellows;
 * Make good this ostentation, and you shall
 * Divide in all with us.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE VII. The gates of Corioli.
[TITUS LARTIUS, having set a guard upon Corioli, going with drum and trumpet toward COMINIUS and CAIUS MARCIUS, enters with a LIEUTENANT, a party of Soldiers, and a Scout.]

LARTIUS.
 * So, let the ports be guarded: keep your duties
 * As I have set them down. If I do send, despatch
 * Those centuries to our aid; the rest will serve
 * For a short holding: if we lose the field
 * We cannot keep the town.

LIEUTENANT.
 * Fear not our care, sir.

LARTIUS.
 * Hence, and shut your gates upon's.—
 * Our guider, come; to the Roman camp conduct us.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE VIII. A field of battle between the Roman and the Volscian camps.
[Alarum. Enter, from opposite sides, MARCIUS and AUFIDIUS.]

MARCIUS.
 * I'll fight with none but thee, for I do hate thee
 * Worse than a promise-breaker.

AUFIDIUS.
 * We hate alike:
 * Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor
 * More than thy fame and envy. Fix thy foot.

MARCIUS.
 * Let the first budger die the other's slave,
 * And the gods doom him after!

AUFIDIUS.
 * If I fly, Marcius,
 * Halloo me like a hare.

MARCIUS.
 * Within these three hours, Tullus,
 * Alone I fought in your Corioli walls,
 * And made what work I pleas'd: 'tis not my blood
 * Wherein thou seest me mask'd: for thy revenge
 * Wrench up thy power to the highest.

AUFIDIUS.
 * Wert thou the Hector
 * That was the whip of your bragg'd progeny,
 * Thou shouldst not scape me here.—

[They fight, and certain Volsces come to the aid of AUFIDIUS.]

Officious, and not valiant,—you have sham'd me
 * In your condemned seconds.

[Exeunt fighting, driven in by MAR.]

SCENE IX. The Roman camp.
[Alarum. A retreat is sounded. Flourish. Enter, at one side, COMINIUS and Romans; at the other side, MARCIUS, with his arm in a scarf, and other Romans.]

COMINIUS.
 * If I should tell thee o'er this thy day's work,
 * Thou't not believe thy deeds: but I'll report it
 * Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles;
 * Where great patricians shall attend, and shrug,
 * I' the end admire; where ladies shall be frighted
 * And, gladly quak'd, hear more; where the dull tribunes,
 * That, with the fusty plebeians, hate thine honours,
 * Shall say, against their hearts 'We thank the gods
 * Our Rome hath such a soldier.'
 * Yet cam'st thou to a morsel of this feast,
 * Having fully dined before.

[Enter TITUS LARTIUS, with his power, from the pursuit.]

LARTIUS.
 * O general,
 * Here is the steed, we the caparison:
 * Hadst thou beheld,—

MARCIUS.
 * Pray now, no more: my mother,
 * Who has a charter to extol her blood,
 * When she does praise me grieves me. I have done
 * As you have done,—that's what I can; induced
 * As you have been,—that's for my country:
 * He that has but effected his good will
 * Hath overta'en mine act.

COMINIUS.
 * You shall not be
 * The grave of your deserving; Rome must know
 * The value of her own: 'twere a concealment
 * Worse than a theft, no less than a traducement,
 * To hide your doings; and to silence that
 * Which, to the spire and top of praises vouch'd,
 * Would seem but modest: therefore, I beseech you,—
 * In sign of what you are, not to reward
 * What you have done,—before our army hear me.

MARCIUS.
 * I have some wounds upon me, and they smart
 * To hear themselves remember'd.

COMINIUS.
 * Should they not,
 * Well might they fester 'gainst ingratitude,
 * And tent themselves with death. Of all the horses,—
 * Whereof we have ta'en good, and good store,—of all
 * The treasure in this field achiev'd and city,
 * We render you the tenth; to be ta'en forth
 * Before the common distribution at
 * Your only choice.

MARCIUS.
 * I thank you, general,
 * But cannot make my heart consent to take
 * A bribe to pay my sword: I do refuse it;
 * And stand upon my common part with those
 * That have beheld the doing.

[A long flourish. They all cry 'Marcius, Marcius!', cast up their
 * caps and lances. COMINIUS and LARTIUS stand bare.]

May these same instruments which you profane
 * Never sound more! When drums and trumpets shall
 * I' the field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be
 * Made all of false-fac'd soothing.
 * When steel grows soft as the parasite's silk,
 * Let him be made a coverture for the wars.
 * No more, I say! for that I have not wash'd
 * My nose that bled, or foil'd some debile wretch,—
 * Which, without note, here's many else have done,—
 * You shout me forth in acclamations hyperbolical;
 * As if I loved my little should be dieted
 * In praises sauc'd with lies.

COMINIUS.
 * Too modest are you;
 * More cruel to your good report than grateful
 * To us that give you truly; by your patience,
 * If 'gainst yourself you be incens'd, we'll put you,—
 * Like one that means his proper harm,—in manacles,
 * Then reason safely with you.—Therefore be it known,
 * As to us, to all the world, that Caius Marcius
 * Wears this war's garland: in token of the which,
 * My noble steed, known to the camp, I give him,
 * With all his trim belonging; and from this time,
 * For what he did before Corioli, call him,
 * With all the applause—and clamour of the host,
 * 'Caius Marcius Coriolanus.'—
 * Bear the addition nobly ever!

[Flourish. Trumpets sound, and drums]

ALL.
 * Caius Marcius Coriolanus!

CORIOLANUS.
 * I will go wash;
 * And when my face is fair you shall perceive
 * Whether I blush or no: howbeit, I thank you;—
 * I mean to stride your steed; and at all times
 * To undercrest your good addition
 * To the fairness of my power.

COMINIUS.
 * So, to our tent;
 * Where, ere we do repose us, we will write
 * To Rome of our success.—You, Titus Lartius,
 * Must to Corioli back: send us to Rome
 * The best, with whom we may articulate
 * For their own good and ours.

LARTIUS.
 * I shall, my lord.

CORIOLANUS.
 * The gods begin to mock me. I, that now
 * Refus'd most princely gifts, am bound to beg
 * Of my lord general.

COMINIUS.
 * Take't: 'tis yours.—What is't?

CORIOLANUS.
 * I sometime lay here in Corioli
 * At a poor man's house; he used me kindly:
 * He cried to me; I saw him prisoner;
 * But then Aufidius was within my view,
 * And wrath o'erwhelmed my pity: I request you
 * To give my poor host freedom.

COMINIUS.
 * O, well begg'd!
 * Were he the butcher of my son, he should
 * Be free as is the wind. Deliver him, Titus.

LARTIUS.
 * Marcius, his name?

CORIOLANUS.
 * By Jupiter, forgot:—
 * I am weary; yea, my memory is tir'd.—
 * Have we no wine here?

COMINIUS.
 * Go we to our tent:
 * The blood upon your visage dries; 'tis time
 * It should be look'd to: come.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE X. The camp of the Volsces.
[A flourish. Cornets. Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS, bloody, with two or three soldiers.]

AUFIDIUS.
 * The town is ta'en.

FIRST SOLDIER.
 * 'Twill be delivered back on good condition.

AUFIDIUS.
 * Condition!
 * I would I were a Roman; for I cannot,
 * Being a Volsce, be that I am.—Condition?
 * What good condition can a treaty find
 * I' the part that is at mercy?—Five times, Marcius,
 * I have fought with thee; so often hast thou beat me;
 * And wouldst do so, I think, should we encounter
 * As often as we eat.—By the elements,
 * If e'er again I meet him beard to beard,
 * He's mine or I am his: mine emulation
 * Hath not that honour in't it had; for where
 * I thought to crush him in an equal force,—
 * True sword to sword,—I'll potch at him some way,
 * Or wrath or craft may get him.

FIRST SOLDIER.
 * He's the devil.

AUFIDIUS.
 * Bolder, though not so subtle. My valour's poisoned
 * With only suffering stain by him; for him
 * Shall fly out of itself: nor sleep nor sanctuary,
 * Being naked, sick; nor fane nor Capitol,
 * The prayers of priests nor times of sacrifice,
 * Embarquements all of fury, shall lift up
 * Their rotten privilege and custom 'gainst
 * My hate to Marcius: where I find him, were it
 * At home, upon my brother's guard, even there,
 * Against the hospitable canon, would I
 * Wash my fierce hand in's heart. Go you to the city;
 * Learn how 'tis held; and what they are that must
 * Be hostages for Rome.

FIRST SOLDIER.
 * Will not you go?

AUFIDIUS.
 * I am attended at the cypress grove: I pray you,—
 * 'Tis south the city mills,—bring me word thither
 * How the world goes, that to the pace of it
 * I may spur on my journey.

FIRST SOLDIER.
 * I shall, sir.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE I. Rome. A public place
[Enter MENENIUS, SICINIUS, and BRUTUS.]

MENENIUS.
 * The augurer tells me we shall have news tonight.

BRUTUS.
 * Good or bad?

MENENIUS.
 * Not according to the prayer of the people, for they love not
 * Marcius.

SICINIUS.
 * Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.

MENENIUS.
 * Pray you, who does the wolf love?

SICINIUS.
 * The lamb.

MENENIUS.
 * Ay, to devour him, as the hungry plebeians would the noble
 * Marcius.

BRUTUS.
 * He's a lamb indeed, that baas like a bear.

MENENIUS.
 * He's a bear indeed, that lives like a lamb. You two are old men:
 * tell me one thing that I shall ask you.

BOTH TRIBUNES.
 * Well, sir.

MENENIUS.
 * In what enormity is Marcius poor in, that you two have not
 * in abundance?

BRUTUS.
 * He's poor in no one fault, but stored with all.

SICINIUS.
 * Especially in pride.

BRUTUS.
 * And topping all others in boasting.

MENENIUS.
 * This is strange now: do you two know how you are censured here in
 * the city, I mean of us o' the right-hand file? Do you?

BOTH TRIBUNES.
 * Why, how are we censured?

MENENIUS.
 * Because you talk of pride now,—will you not be angry?

BOTH TRIBUNES.
 * Well, well, sir, well.

MENENIUS.
 * Why, 'tis no great matter; for a very little thief of occasion
 * will rob you of a great deal of patience: give your dispositions
 * the reins, and be angry at your pleasures; at the least, if you
 * take it as a pleasure to you in being so. You blame Marcius for
 * being proud?

BRUTUS.
 * We do it not alone, sir.

MENENIUS.
 * I know you can do very little alone; for your helps are many, or
 * else your actions would grow wondrous single: your abilities are
 * too infant-like for doing much alone. You talk of pride: O that
 * you could turn your eyes toward the napes of your necks, and make
 * but an interior survey of your good selves! O that you could!

BOTH TRIBUNES.
 * What then, sir?

MENENIUS.
 * Why, then you should discover a brace of unmeriting, proud,
 * violent, testy magistrates,—alias fools,—as any in Rome.

SICINIUS.
 * Menenius, you are known well enough too.

MENENIUS.
 * I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that loves a cup
 * of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in't; said to
 * be something imperfect in favouring the first complaint, hasty
 * and tinder-like upon too trivial motion; one that converses more
 * with the buttock of the night than with the forehead of the
 * morning. What I think I utter, and spend my malice in my breath.
 * Meeting two such wealsmen as you are,—I cannot call you
 * Lycurguses,—if the drink you give me touch my palate adversely,
 * I make a crooked face at it. I cannot say your worships have
 * delivered the matter well when I find the ass in compound with
 * the major part of your syllables; and though I must be content to
 * bear with those that say you are reverend grave men, yet they lie
 * deadly that tell you have good faces. If you see this in the map
 * of my microcosm, follows it that I am known well enough too? What
 * harm can your bisson conspectuities glean out of this character,
 * if I be known well enough too?

BRUTUS.
 * Come, sir, come, we know you well enough.

MENENIUS.
 * You know neither me, yourselves, nor anything. You are ambitious
 * for poor knaves' caps and legs; you wear out a good wholesome
 * forenoon in hearing a cause between an orange-wife and a
 * fosset-seller, and then rejourn the controversy of threepence
 * to a second day of audience.—When you are hearing a matter
 * between party and party, if you chance to be pinched with the
 * colic, you make faces like mummers, set up the bloody flag
 * against all patience, and, in roaring for a chamber-pot, dismiss
 * the controversy bleeding, the more entangled by your hearing: all
 * the peace you make in their cause is calling both the parties
 * knaves. You are a pair of strange ones.

BRUTUS.
 * Come, come, you are well understood to be a perfecter giber
 * for the table than a necessary bencher in the Capitol.

MENENIUS.
 * Our very priests must become mockers if they shall encounter such
 * ridiculous subjects as you are. When you speak best unto the
 * purpose, it is not worth the wagging of your beards; and your
 * beards deserve not so honourable a grave as to stuff a botcher's
 * cushion or to be entombed in an ass's pack-saddle. Yet you must
 * be saying, Marcius is proud; who, in a cheap estimation, is worth
 * all your predecessors since Deucalion; though peradventure some
 * of the best of 'em were hereditary hangmen. God-den to your
 * worships: more of your conversation would infect my brain, being
 * the herdsmen of the beastly plebeians: I will be bold to take my
 * leave of you.

[BRUTUS and SICINIUS retire.]

[Enter VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, VALERIA, &c.]

How now, my as fair as noble ladies,—and the moon, were she
 * earthly, no nobler,—whither do you follow your eyes so fast?

VOLUMNIA.
 * Honourable Menenius, my boy Marcius approaches; for the love of
 * Juno, let's go.

MENENIUS.
 * Ha! Marcius coming home!

VOLUMNIA.
 * Ay, worthy Menenius, and with most prosperous approbation.

MENENIUS.
 * Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee.—Hoo! Marcius coming
 * home!

VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA.
 * Nay, 'tis true.

VOLUMNIA.
 * Look, here's a letter from him: the state hath another,
 * his wife another; and I think there's one at home for you.

MENENIUS.
 * I will make my very house reel to-night.—A letter for me?

VIRGILIA.
 * Yes, certain, there's a letter for you; I saw it.

MENENIUS.
 * A letter for me! It gives me an estate of seven years'
 * health; in which time I will make a lip at the physician: the
 * most sovereign prescription in Galen is but empiricutic, and, to
 * this preservative, of no better report than a horse-drench. Is he
 * not wounded? he was wont to come home wounded.

VIRGILIA.
 * O, no, no, no.

VOLUMNIA.
 * O, he is wounded, I thank the gods for't.

MENENIUS.
 * So do I too, if it be not too much.—Brings a victory in
 * his pocket?—The wounds become him.

VOLUMNIA.
 * On's brows: Menenius, he comes the third time home with the oaken
 * garland.

MENENIUS.
 * Has he disciplined Aufidius soundly?

VOLUMNIA.
 * Titus Lartius writes,—they fought together, but Aufidius
 * got off.

MENENIUS.
 * And 'twas time for him too, I'll warrant him that: an he
 * had stayed by him, I would not have been so fidiused for all the
 * chests in Corioli and the gold that's in them. Is the Senate
 * possessed of this?

VOLUMNIA.
 * Good ladies, let's go.—Yes, yes, yes; the Senate has letters
 * from the general, wherein he gives my son the whole name of the
 * war: he hath in this action outdone his former deeds doubly.

VALERIA.
 * In troth, there's wondrous things spoke of him.

MENENIUS.
 * Wondrous! ay, I warrant you, and not without his true purchasing.

VIRGILIA.
 * The gods grant them true!

VOLUMNIA.
 * True! pow, wow.

MENENIUS.
 * True! I'll be sworn they are true. Where is he wounded?—[To the
 * TRIBUNES, who come forward.] God save your good worships! Marcius
 * is coming home; he has more cause to be proud.—Where is he
 * wounded?

VOLUMNIA.
 * I' the shoulder and i' the left arm; there will be large
 * cicatrices to show the people when he shall stand for his place.
 * He received in the repulse of Tarquin seven hurts i' the body.

MENENIUS.
 * One i' the neck and two i' the thigh,—there's nine that I
 * know.

VOLUMNIA.
 * He had, before this last expedition, twenty-five wounds upon him.

MENENIUS.
 * Now it's twenty-seven: every gash was an enemy's grave.

[A shout and flourish.]
 * Hark! the trumpets.

VOLUMNIA.
 * These are the ushers of Marcius: before him
 * He carries noise, and behind him he leaves tears;
 * Death, that dark spirit, in's nervy arm doth lie;
 * Which, being advanc'd, declines, and then men die.

[A sennet. Trumpets sound. Enter COMINIUS and TITUS LARTIUS;
 * between them, CORIOLANUS, crowned with an oaken garland; with
 * CAPTAINS and Soldiers and a HERALD.]

HERALD.
 * Know, Rome, that all alone Marcius did fight
 * Within Corioli gates: where he hath won,
 * With fame, a name to Caius Marcius; these
 * In honour follows Coriolanus:—
 * Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus!

[Flourish.]

ALL.
 * Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus!

CORIOLANUS.
 * No more of this, it does offend my heart;
 * Pray now, no more.

COMINIUS.
 * Look, sir, your mother!

CORIOLANUS.
 * O,
 * You have, I know, petition'd all the gods
 * For my prosperity!

[Kneels.]

VOLUMNIA.
 * Nay, my good soldier, up;
 * My gentle Marcius, worthy Caius, and
 * By deed-achieving honour newly nam'd,—
 * What is it?—Coriolanus must I call thee?
 * But, O, thy wife!

CORIOLANUS.
 * My gracious silence, hail!
 * Wouldst thou have laugh'd had I come coffin'd home,
 * That weep'st to see me triumph? Ah, my dear,
 * Such eyes the widows in Corioli wear,
 * And mothers that lack sons.

MENENIUS.
 * Now the gods crown thee!

CORIOLANUS.
 * And live you yet? [To VALERIA]—O my sweet lady, pardon.

VOLUMNIA.
 * I know not where to turn.—O, welcome home;—and welcome,
 * general;—and you are welcome all.

MENENIUS.
 * A hundred thousand welcomes.—I could weep
 * And I could laugh; I am light and heavy.—Welcome:
 * A curse begin at very root on's heart
 * That is not glad to see thee!—You are three
 * That Rome should dote on: yet, by the faith of men,
 * We have some old crab trees here at home that will not
 * Be grafted to your relish. Yet welcome, warriors.
 * We call a nettle but a nettle; and
 * The faults of fools but folly.

COMINIUS.
 * Ever right.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Menenius ever, ever.

HERALD.
 * Give way there, and go on!

CORIOLANUS.
 * [To his wife and mother.] Your hand, and yours:
 * Ere in our own house I do shade my head,
 * The good patricians must be visited;
 * From whom I have receiv'd not only greetings,
 * But with them change of honours.

VOLUMNIA.
 * I have lived
 * To see inherited my very wishes,
 * And the buildings of my fancy; only
 * There's one thing wanting, which I doubt not but
 * Our Rome will cast upon thee.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Know, good mother,
 * I had rather be their servant in my way
 * Than sway with them in theirs.

COMINIUS.
 * On, to the Capitol.

[Flourish. Cornets. Exeunt in state, as before. The tribunes
 * remain.]

BRUTUS.
 * All tongues speak of him and the bleared sights
 * Are spectacled to see him: your prattling nurse
 * Into a rapture lets her baby cry
 * While she chats him: the kitchen malkin pins
 * Her richest lockram 'bout her reechy neck,
 * Clamb'ring the walls to eye him: stalls, bulks, windows,
 * Are smother'd up, leads fill'd and ridges hors'd
 * With variable complexions; all agreeing
 * In earnestness to see him: seld-shown flamens
 * Do press among the popular throngs, and puff
 * To win a vulgar station: our veil'd dames
 * Commit the war of white and damask, in
 * Their nicely gawded cheeks, to the wanton spoil
 * Of Phoebus' burning kisses; such a pother,
 * As if that whatsoever god who leads him
 * Were slily crept into his human powers,
 * And gave him graceful posture.

SICINIUS.
 * On the sudden
 * I warrant him consul.

BRUTUS.
 * Then our office may
 * During his power go sleep.

SICINIUS.
 * He cannot temp'rately transport his honours
 * From where he should begin and end; but will
 * Lose those he hath won.

BRUTUS.
 * In that there's comfort.

SICINIUS.
 * Doubt not the commoners, for whom we stand,
 * But they, upon their ancient malice will forget,
 * With the least cause these his new honours; which
 * That he will give them make as little question
 * As he is proud to do't.

BRUTUS.
 * I heard him swear,
 * Were he to stand for consul, never would he
 * Appear i' the market-place, nor on him put
 * The napless vesture of humility;
 * Nor, showing, as the manner is, his wounds
 * To the people, beg their stinking breaths.

SICINIUS.
 * 'Tis right.

BRUTUS.
 * It was his word: O, he would miss it rather
 * Than carry it but by the suit of the gentry to him,
 * And the desire of the nobles.

SICINIUS.
 * I wish no better
 * Than have him hold that purpose, and to put it
 * In execution.

BRUTUS.
 * 'Tis most like he will.

SICINIUS.
 * It shall be to him then, as our good wills,
 * A sure destruction.

BRUTUS.
 * So it must fall out
 * To him or our authorities. For an end,
 * We must suggest the people in what hatred
 * He still hath held them; that to's power he would
 * Have made them mules, silenc'd their pleaders, and
 * Dispropertied their freedoms; holding them,
 * In human action and capacity,
 * Of no more soul nor fitness for the world
 * Than camels in their war; who have their provand
 * Only for bearing burdens, and sore blows
 * For sinking under them.

SICINIUS.
 * This, as you say, suggested
 * At some time when his soaring insolence
 * Shall touch the people,—which time shall not want,
 * If it be put upon't; and that's as easy
 * As to set dogs on sheep,—will be his fire
 * To kindle their dry stubble; and their blaze
 * Shall darken him for ever.

[Enter A MESSENGER.]

BRUTUS.
 * What's the matter?

MESSENGER.
 * You are sent for to the Capitol. 'Tis thought
 * That Marcius shall be consul:
 * I have seen the dumb men throng to see him, and
 * The blind to hear him speak: matrons flung gloves,
 * Ladies and maids their scarfs and handkerchers,
 * Upon him as he pass'd; the nobles bended
 * As to Jove's statue; and the commons made
 * A shower and thunder with their caps and shouts:
 * I never saw the like.

BRUTUS.
 * Let's to the Capitol;
 * And carry with us ears and eyes for the time,
 * But hearts for the event.

SICINIUS.
 * Have with you.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE II. Rome. The Capitol.
[Enter two OFFICERS, to lay cushions.]

FIRST OFFICER.
 * Come, come; they are almost here. How many stand for consulships?

SECOND OFFICER.
 * Three, they say; but 'tis thought of every one Coriolanus will
 * carry it.

FIRST OFFICER.
 * That's a brave fellow; but he's vengeance proud and loves not the
 * common people.

SECOND OFFICER.
 * Faith, there have 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 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.

FIRST 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 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.

SECOND OFFICER.
 * He hath deserved worthily of his country: and his ascent is not
 * by such easy degrees as those who, having been supple and
 * courteous to the people, bonnetted, 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 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.

FIRST OFFICER.
 * No more of him; he is a worthy man.: make way, they are coming.

[A sennet. Enter, with Lictors before them, COMINIUS the Consul,
 * MENENIUS, CORIOLANUS, Senators, SICINIUS and BRUTUS. The Senators

take their places; the Tribunes take theirs also by themselves.]

MENENIUS.
 * Having determined 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
 * 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
 * By Caius Marcius Coriolanus; whom
 * We met here both to thank and to remember
 * With honours like himself.

FIRST SENATOR.
 * Speak, good Cominius:
 * Leave nothing out for length, and make us think
 * Rather our state's defective for requital
 * Than we to stretch it out.—Masters o' the 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
 * 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;
 * 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.—
 * Worthy Cominius, speak.

[CORIOLANUS rises, and offers to go away.]

Nay, keep your place.

FIRST 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
 * 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' the sun
 * When the alarum were struck, than idly sit
 * To hear my nothings monster'd.

[Exit.]

MENENIUS.
 * Masters o' 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
 * 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,
 * The man I speak of cannot in the world
 * Be singly counterpois'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,
 * When with his Amazonian chin he drove
 * The bristled lips before him: he bestrid
 * An o'erpress'd Roman and i' the consul's view
 * Slew three opposers: Tarquin's self he met,
 * And struck him on his knee: in that day's feats,
 * When he might act the woman in the scene,
 * He proved best man i' the 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
 * He lurch'd all swords of the garland. For this last,
 * Before and in Corioli, 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
 * 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 timed with dying cries: alone he enter'd
 * The mortal gate of the city, which he painted
 * With shunless destiny; aidless came off,
 * And with a sudden re-enforcement struck
 * Corioli like a planet. Now all's his:
 * When, by and by, the din of war 'gan pierce
 * His ready sense; then straight his doubled spirit
 * Re-quick'ned 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
 * Both field and city ours he never stood
 * To ease his breast with panting.

MENENIUS.
 * Worthy man!

FIRST SENATOR.
 * He cannot but with measure fit the honours
 * Which we devise him.

COMINIUS.
 * Our spoils he kick'd at;
 * And looked upon things precious as they were
 * 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.

FIRST SENATOR.
 * Call Coriolanus.

OFFICER.
 * He doth appear.

[Re-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
 * 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
 * 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
 * Be taken from the people.

BRUTUS.
 * Mark you that?

CORIOLANUS.
 * To brag unto them,—thus I did, and thus;—
 * Show them the 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.—
 * 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. Exeunt all but SICINIUS and BRUTUS.]

BRUTUS.
 * You see how he intends to use the people.

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 the market-place
 * I know they do attend us.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE III. Rome. The Forum.
[Enter several 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 auburn, 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' the 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 block-head; 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. 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.
 * Content, content.

[Exeunt.]

[Enter CORIOLANUS and MENENIUS.]


 * 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 roar'd, and ran
 * From the noise of our own drums.'

MENENIUS.
 * O me, the gods!
 * 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,
 * In wholesome manner.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Bid them wash their faces
 * And keep their teeth clean.

[Exit MENENIUS.]

So, here comes a brace:

[Re-enter two citizens.]

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

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * We do, sir; tell us what hath brought you to't.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Mine own desert.

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * Your own desert?

CORIOLANUS.
 * Ay, not mine own desire.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * How! not your own desire!

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

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * You must think, if we give you anything, we hope to gain by you.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Well then, I pray, your price o' the 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.—Your good voice, sir; what
 * say you?

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * You shall ha' it, worthy sir.

CORIOLANUS.
 * A match, sir.—There's in all two worthy voices begg'd.—I have
 * your alms: adieu.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * But this is something odd.

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * An 'twere to give again,— but 'tis no matter.

[Exeunt two citizens.]

[Re-enter other two 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.

THIRD CITIZEN.
 * You have deserved nobly of your country, and you have not
 * deserved nobly.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Your enigma?

THIRD 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 bountifully to the desirers. Therefore, beseech you,
 * I may be consul.

FOURTH CITIZEN.
 * We hope to find you our friend; and therefore give you our voices
 * heartily.

THIRD 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 further.

BOTH CITIZENS.
 * The gods give you joy, sir, heartily!

[Exeunt 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 do 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 heap'd
 * 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 suffer'd, the other will I do.
 * Here come more voices.

[Re-enter other three citizens.]

Your voices: for your voices I have fought;
 * 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.

FIFTH CITIZEN.
 * He has done nobly, and cannot go without any honest man's voice.

SIXTH CITIZEN.
 * Therefore let him be consul: the gods give him joy, and make him
 * good friend to the people!

ALL THREE CITIZENS.
 * Amen, amen.—God save thee, noble consul!

[Exeunt.]

CORIOLANUS.
 * Worthy voices!

[Re-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 the official marks invested, you
 * Anon do meet the senate.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Is this done?

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.

CORIOLANUS.
 * That I'll straight do; and, knowing myself again,
 * Repair to the 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
 * 'Tis warm at his heart.

BRUTUS.
 * With a proud heart he wore his humble weeds.
 * Will you dismiss the people?

[Re-enter citizens.]

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 begg'd 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 us'd us scornfully: he should have show'd us
 * His marks of merit, wounds received for's country.

SICINIUS.
 * Why, so he did, I am sure.

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; '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
 * 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,
 * But was a petty servant to the state,
 * He was your enemy; ever spake against
 * Your liberties, and the charters that you bear
 * I' the body of the weal: and now, arriving
 * A place of potency and sway o' the state,
 * If he should still malignantly remain
 * Fast foe to the 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.
 * Thus to have said,
 * As you were fore-advis'd, had touch'd his spirit
 * And tried his inclination; from him pluck'd
 * 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,
 * You should have ta'en the 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
 * When he hath power to crush? Why, had your bodies
 * No heart among you? Or had you tongues to cry
 * Against the rectorship of judgment?

SICINIUS.
 * Have you
 * Ere now denied the asker, and now again,
 * Of him that did not ask but mock, bestow
 * Your su'd-for tongues?

THIRD CITIZEN.
 * He's not confirm'd: 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 therefore kept to do so.

SICINIUS.
 * Let them assemble;
 * And, on a safer judgment, 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,
 * 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,—
 * 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
 * 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—
 * The noble house o' the Marcians; from whence came
 * That Ancus Marcius, 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, darling of the people,
 * And nobly nam'd 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
 * 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:
 * And presently when you have drawn your number,
 * Repair to the Capitol.

CITIZENS.
 * We will so; almost all
 * Repent in their election.

[Exeunt.]

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 the Capitol,
 * Come: we will be there before the stream o' the people;
 * And this shall seem, as partly 'tis, their own,
 * Which we have goaded onward.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE I. Rome. A street
[Cornets. Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS,
 * Senators, and Patricians.]

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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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. [To Laertes.]

[Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS.]

Behold! these are the tribunes of the people;
 * The tongues o' the 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 pass'd the noble and the commons?

BRUTUS.
 * Cominius, no.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Have I had children's voices?

FIRST SENATOR.
 * Tribunes, give way; he shall to the 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?
 * 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,
 * 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.

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,
 * 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;
 * 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
 * I' the 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 many, 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 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.

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' the 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 leave to choose an officer,
 * That with his peremptory 'shall,' being but
 * The horn and noise o' the monster, wants not spirit
 * To say he'll turn your current in a ditch,
 * And make your channel his? If he have power,
 * Then vail your ignorance: if none, awake
 * Your dangerous lenity. If you are learn'd,
 * Be not as common fools; if you are not,
 * Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians,
 * If they be senators: and they are no less
 * When, both your voices blended, the great'st taste
 * Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate;
 * And such a one as he, who puts his 'shall,'
 * His popular 'shall,' against a graver bench
 * Than ever frown'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
 * May enter 'twixt the gap of both and take
 * The one by the other.

COMINIUS.
 * Well, on to the market-place.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth
 * The corn o' the storehouse gratis, as 'twas us'd
 * Sometime in Greece,—

MENENIUS.
 * Well, well, no more of that.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Though there the people had more absolute power,—
 * I say they nourish'd disobedience, fed
 * The ruin of the state.

BRUTUS.
 * Why shall the people give
 * One that speaks thus their voice?

CORIOLANUS.
 * I'll give my reasons,
 * More worthier than their voices. They know the corn
 * Was not our recompense, resting well 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' the war,
 * Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they show'd
 * Most valour, spoke not for them. The accusation
 * Which they have often made against the senate,
 * All cause unborn, could never be the motive
 * Of our so frank donation. Well, what then?
 * How shall this bisson multitude digest
 * The senate's courtesy? Let deeds express
 * What's like to be their words:—'We did request it;
 * We are the greater poll, and in true fear
 * They gave us our demands:'— Thus we debase
 * The nature of our seats, and make the rabble
 * Call our cares fears; which will in time
 * Break ope the locks o' the senate and bring in
 * The crows to peck the eagles.—

MENENIUS.
 * Come, enough.

BRUTUS.
 * Enough, with over-measure.

CORIOLANUS.
 * No, take more:
 * What may be sworn by, both divine and human,
 * Seal what I end withal!—This double worship,—
 * Where one part does disdain with cause, the other
 * Insult without all reason; where gentry, title, wisdom,
 * Cannot conclude but by the yea and no
 * Of general ignorance—it must omit
 * Real necessities, and give way the while
 * To unstable slightness: purpose so barr'd, it follows,
 * Nothing is done to purpose. Therefore, beseech you,—
 * You that will be less fearful than discreet;
 * That love the fundamental part of state
 * More than you doubt the change on't; that prefer
 * A noble life before a long, and wish
 * To jump a body with a dangerous physic
 * That's sure of death without it,—at once pluck out
 * The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick
 * The sweet which is their poison: your dishonour
 * Mangles true judgment, and bereaves the state
 * Of that integrity which should become't;
 * Not having the power to do the good it would,
 * For the 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?
 * On whom depending, their obedience fails
 * To the greater bench: in a rebellion,
 * When what's not meet, but what must be, was law,
 * Then were they chosen; in a better hour
 * Let what is meet be said it must be meet,
 * And throw their power i' the dust.

BRUTUS.
 * Manifest treason!

SICINIUS.
 * This a consul? no.

BRUTUS.
 * The aediles, ho!—Let him be apprehended.

SICINIUS.
 * Go call the people [Exit BRUTUS.]; in whose name myself
 * Attach thee as a traitorous innovator,
 * A foe to the public weal. Obey, I charge thee,
 * And follow to thine answer.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Hence, old goat!

SENATORS and 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!

[Re-enter Brutus, with the AEDILES and a rabble of Citizens.]

MENENIUS.
 * On both sides more respect.

SICINIUS.
 * Here's he that would take from you all your power.

BRUTUS.
 * Seize him, aediles.

PLEBEIANS.
 * Down with him! down with him!

SECOND SENATOR.
 * Weapons, weapons, weapons!

[They all bustle about CORIOLANUS.]

Tribunes! patricians! citizens!—What, ho!—
 * Sicinius, Brutus, Coriolanus, Citizens!


 * CITIZENS.
 * Peace, peace, peace; stay, hold, peace!

MENENIUS.
 * What is about to be?—I am out of breath;
 * Confusion's near: I cannot speak.—You tribunes
 * To the people,—Coriolanus, patience:—
 * Speak, good Sicinius.

SICINIUS.
 * Hear me, people: peace!

CITIZENS.
 * Let's hear our tribune: peace!—
 * Speak, speak, speak.

SICINIUS.
 * You are at point to lose your liberties;
 * Marcius would have all from you; Marcius,
 * Whom late you have nam'd for consul.

MENENIUS.
 * Fie, fie, fie!
 * This is the way to kindle, not to quench.

FIRST SENATOR.
 * To unbuild the city, and to lay all flat.

SICINIUS.
 * What is the city but the people?
 * CITIZENS.
 * True,
 * The people are the city.

BRUTUS.
 * By the consent of all, we were establish'd
 * The people's magistrates.

CITIZENS.
 * You so remain.

MENENIUS.
 * And so are like to do.

COMINIUS.
 * That is the way to lay the city flat;
 * To bring the roof to the foundation,
 * And bury all which yet distinctly ranges,
 * In heaps and piles of ruin.

SICINIUS.
 * This deserves death.

BRUTUS.
 * Or let us stand to our authority,
 * Or let us lose it.—We do here pronounce,
 * Upon the part o' the people, in whose power
 * We were elected theirs, Marcius is worthy
 * Of present death.

SICINIUS.
 * Therefore lay hold of him;
 * Bear him to the rock Tarpeian, and from thence
 * Into destruction cast him.

BRUTUS.
 * Aediles, seize him!

CITIZENS.
 * Yield, Marcius, yield!

MENENIUS.
 * Hear me one word;
 * Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word.

AEDILES.
 * Peace, peace!

MENENIUS.
 * Be that you seem, truly your country's friends,
 * And temperately proceed to what you would
 * Thus violently redress.

BRUTUS.
 * Sir, those cold ways,
 * That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonous
 * Where the disease is violent.—Lay hands upon him
 * And bear him to the rock.

CORIOLANUS.
 * No; I'll die here. [Draws his sword.]
 * There's some among you have beheld me fighting;
 * Come, try upon yourselves what you have seen me.

MENENIUS.
 * Down with that sword!—Tribunes, withdraw awhile.

BRUTUS.
 * Lay hands upon him.

MENENIUS.
 * Help Marcius, help,
 * You that be noble; help him, young and old!

CITIZENS.
 * Down with him, down with him!

[In this mutiny the TRIBUNES, the AEDILES, and the people are
 * beat in.]

MENENIUS.
 * Go, get you to your house; be gone, away!
 * All will be nought else.

SECOND SENATOR.
 * 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:
 * I pr'ythee, noble friend, home to thy house;
 * Leave us to cure this cause.

MENENIUS.
 * For 'tis a sore upon us
 * You cannot tent yourself; be gone, beseech you.

COMINIUS.
 * Come, sir, along with us.

CORIOLANUS.
 * I would they were barbarians,—as they are,
 * Though in Rome litter'd,—not Romans,—as they are not,
 * Though calv'd i' the porch o' the Capitol.

MENENIUS.
 * Be gone;
 * Put not your worthy rage into your tongue;
 * One time will owe another.

CORIOLANUS.
 * On fair ground
 * I could beat forty of them.

MENENIUS.
 * I could myself
 * Take up a brace o' the best of them; yea, the two tribunes.

COMINIUS.
 * But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetic;
 * And manhood is call'd foolery when it stands
 * Against a falling fabric.—Will you hence,
 * Before the tag return? whose rage doth rend
 * Like interrupted waters, and o'erbear
 * What they are used to bear.

MENENIUS.
 * Pray you be gone:
 * I'll try whether my old wit be in request
 * With those that have but little: this must be patch'd
 * With cloth of any colour.

COMINIUS.
 * Nay, come away.

[Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, and others.]

FIRST PATRICIAN.
 * This man has marr'd his fortune.

MENENIUS.
 * His nature is too noble for the world:
 * He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
 * Or Jove for's power to thunder. His heart's his mouth:
 * What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent;
 * And, being angry, does forget that ever
 * He heard the name of death.

[A noise within.]

Here's goodly work!

SECOND PATRICIAN.
 * I would they were a-bed!

MENENIUS.
 * I would they were in Tiber!
 * What the vengeance, could he not speak 'em fair?

[Re-enter BRUTUS and SICINIUS, with the rabble.]

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 nought.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * He shall well know
 * The noble tribunes are the people's mouths,
 * And we their hands.

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!

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 one danger; and to keep him here
 * Our certain death: therefore it is decreed
 * He dies to-night.

MENENIUS.
 * Now the good gods forbid
 * That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude
 * 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.
 * 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 dropt 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 the end o' the world.

SICINIUS.
 * This is clean kam.

BRUTUS.
 * Merely awry: when he did love his country,
 * It honour'd him.

MENENIUS.
 * The service of the foot,
 * 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.
 * 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,—

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' the wars
 * Since 'a could draw a sword, and is ill school'd
 * 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.—
 * Masters, lay down your weapons.

BRUTUS.
 * Go not home.

SICINIUS.
 * Meet on the market-place.—We'll attend you there:
 * Where, if you bring not Marcius, 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.]

SCENE II. Rome. A room in CORIOLANUS'S house.
[Enter CORIOLANUS and Patricians.]

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
 * Be thus to them.

FIRST 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
 * In congregations, to yawn, be still, and wonder,
 * When one but of my ordinance stood up
 * To speak of peace or war.

[Enter VOLUMNIA.]

I talk of you: [To Volumnia.]
 * Why did you wish me milder? Would you have me
 * False to my nature? Rather say, I play
 * 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
 * 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;
 * You must return and mend it.

FIRST 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
 * To better vantage.

MENENIUS.
 * Well said, noble woman!
 * Before he should thus stoop to the herd, but that
 * The violent fit o' the 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?

MENENIUS.
 * Return to the 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
 * But when extremities speak. I have heard you say
 * Honour and policy, like unsever'd friends,
 * I' the 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.

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
 * It stands in like request?

CORIOLANUS.
 * Why force you this?

VOLUMNIA.
 * Because that now it lies you on to speak
 * To the people; not by your own instruction,
 * Nor by the matter which your heart prompts you,
 * But with such words that are but rooted in
 * 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
 * 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;
 * 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,
 * Not what is dangerous present, but the loss
 * Of what is past.

VOLUMNIA.
 * I pr'ythee 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 busines
 * Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the 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
 * 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
 * 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.
 * Pr'ythee now,
 * Go, and be rul'd; although I know thou had'st rather
 * Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf
 * Than flatter him in a bower.

[Enter COMINIUS.]

Here is Cominius.

COMINIUS.
 * I have been i' the market-place; and, sir, 'tis fit
 * You make strong party, or defend yourself
 * By calmness or by absence: all's in anger.

MENENIUS.
 * Only fair speech.

COMINIUS.
 * I think 'twill serve, if he
 * Can thereto frame his spirit.

VOLUMNIA.
 * He must, and will.—
 * Pr'ythee 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
 * A lie, that it must bear? Well, I will do't:
 * Yet, were there but this single plot to lose,
 * This mould of Marcius, they to dust should grind it,
 * And throw't against the wind.—To the market-place:—
 * You have put me now to such a part which never
 * I shall discharge to the life.

COMINIUS.
 * Come, come, we'll prompt you.

VOLUMNIA.
 * I pr'ythee 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:
 * Away, my disposition, and possess me
 * Some harlot's spirit! My throat of war be turn'd,
 * Which quired with my drum, into a pipe
 * Small as an eunuch, or the virgin voice
 * That babies lulls asleep! the smiles of knaves
 * Tent in my cheeks; and school-boys' 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;
 * 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
 * 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'dst it from me;
 * But owe thy pride thyself.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Pray, be content:
 * 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;
 * Or never trust to what my tongue can do
 * I' the 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
 * 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.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE III. Rome. The Forum.
[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?

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 the poll?

AEDILE.
 * I have; 'tis ready.

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' the right and strength o' the commons,' be it either
 * For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them,
 * If I say fine, cry 'Fine!'- if death, cry 'Death;'
 * Insisting on the old prerogative
 * And power i' the truth o' the 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
 * 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
 * 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.

[Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, Senators, and Patricians.]

MENENIUS.
 * Calmly, I do beseech you.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Ay, as an ostler, that for the poorest piece
 * Will bear the knave by the volume.—The honoured gods
 * Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice
 * Supplied with worthy men! plant love among's!
 * Throng our large temples with the shows of peace,
 * And not our streets with war!

FIRST SENATOR.
 * Amen, amen!

MENENIUS.
 * A noble wish.

[Re-enter the AEDILE, with Citizens.]

SICINIUS.
 * Draw near, ye people.

AEDILE.
 * List to your tribunes; audience: peace, I say!

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
 * To suffer lawful censure for such faults
 * As shall be proved 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
 * Like graves i' the 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,
 * 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
 * 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;
 * For which you are a traitor to the people.

CORIOLANUS.
 * How! traitor!

MENENIUS.
 * Nay, temperately; your promise.

CORIOLANUS.
 * The fires i' the lowest hell fold in the people!
 * Call me their traitor!—Thou injurious tribune!
 * Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths,
 * 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?

CITIZENS.
 * To the rock, to the rock, with him!

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
 * Those whose great power must try him; even this,
 * So criminal and in such capital kind,
 * Deserves the 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?

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
 * 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
 * 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 do distribute it;—in the name o' the people,
 * And in the power of us the tribunes, we,
 * Even from this instant, banish him our city,
 * In peril of precipitation
 * From off the rock Tarpeian, never more
 * To enter our Rome gates: I' the people's name,
 * I say it shall be so.

CITIZENS.
 * It shall be so, it shall be so; let him away;
 * He's banished, 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
 * 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
 * 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.

CITIZENS.
 * It shall be so, it shall be so.

CORIOLANUS.
 * You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate
 * As reek o' the 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.

[Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENENIUS, Senators, and
 * Patricians.]

AEDILE.
 * The people's enemy is gone, is gone!

CITIZENS.
 * Our enemy is banish'd, he is gone! Hoo! hoo!

[Shouting, and throwing 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.

CITIZENS.
 * Come, come, let's see him out at gates; come.
 * The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE I. Rome. Before a gate of the city.
[Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS,and several young Patricians.]

CORIOLANUS.
 * Come, leave your tears; a brief farewell:—he 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;
 * 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
 * The heart that conn'd them.

VIRGILIA.
 * O heavens! O heavens!

CORIOLANUS.
 * Nay, I pr'ythee, 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,
 * 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:
 * 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
 * '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
 * Believe't not lightly,—though I go alone,
 * Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen
 * 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
 * More than a wild exposture to each chance
 * That starts i' the way before thee.

CORIOLANUS.
 * 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
 * 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' the absence of the needer.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Fare ye well:
 * Thou hast years upon thee; and thou art too full
 * 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.
 * 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
 * From these old arms and legs, by the good gods,
 * I'd with thee every foot.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Give me thy hand:—
 * Come.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE II. Rome. A street near the gate.
[Enter SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and an 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:
 * Say their great enemy is gone, and they
 * Stand in their ancient strength.

BRUTUS.
 * Dismiss them home.

[Exit AEDILE.]

Here comes his mother.

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.

[Enter VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, and MENENIUS.]

VOLUMNIA.
 * O, you're well met: the hoarded plague o' the 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?

VIRGILIA.
 * You shall stay too[To SICINIUS.]: I would I had the power
 * 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.
 * O blessed heavens!

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!
 * He'd make an end of thy posterity.

VOLUMNIA.
 * Bastards and all.—
 * Good man, the wounds that he does bear for Rome!

MENENIUS.
 * Come, come, peace.

SICINIUS.
 * I would he had continu'd to his country
 * 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
 * Will not have earth to know.

BRUTUS.
 * Pray, let us 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,—
 * 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?

VOLUMNIA.
 * Take my prayers with you.—

[Exeunt TRIBUNES.]

I would the gods had nothing else to do
 * 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,
 * 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.]

MENENIUS.
 * Fie, fie, fie!

SCENE III. A highway between Rome and Antium.
[Enter a ROMAN and a VOLSCE, meeting.]

ROMAN.
 * I know you well, sir, and you know me; your name, I think,
 * is Adrian.

VOLSCE.
 * It is so, sir: truly, I have forgot you.

ROMAN.
 * I am a Roman; and my services are, as you are, against 'em: know
 * you me yet?

VOLSCE.
 * Nicanor? no!

ROMAN.
 * The same, sir.

VOLSCE.
 * You had more beard when I last saw you; but your favour is
 * well approved by your tongue. What's the news in Rome? I have a
 * note from the Volscian state, to find you out there; you have
 * well saved me a day's journey.

ROMAN.
 * There hath been in Rome strange insurrections: the people
 * against the senators, patricians, and nobles.

VOLSCE.
 * Hath been! is it ended, then? Our state thinks not so;
 * they are in a most warlike preparation, and hope to come upon
 * them in the heat of their division.

ROMAN.
 * The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing would make it
 * flame again; for the nobles receive so to heart the banishment
 * of that worthy Coriolanus that they are in a ripe aptness to take
 * all power from the people, and to pluck from them their tribunes
 * for ever. This lies glowing, I can tell you, and is almost mature
 * for the violent breaking out.

VOLSCE.
 * Coriolanus banished!

ROMAN.
 * Banished, sir.

VOLSCE.
 * You will be welcome with this intelligence, Nicanor.

ROMAN.
 * The day serves well for them now. I have heard it said the
 * fittest time to corrupt a man's wife is when she's fallen out
 * with her husband. Your noble Tullus Aufidius will appear well in
 * these wars, his great opposer, Coriolanus, being now in no
 * request of his country.

VOLSCE.
 * He cannot choose. I am most fortunate thus accidentally to
 * encounter you; you have ended my business, and I will merrily
 * accompany you home.

ROMAN.
 * I shall between this and supper tell you most strange things
 * from Rome; all tending to the good of their adversaries. Have you
 * an army ready, say you?

VOLSCE.
 * A most royal one; the centurions and their charges, distinctly
 * billeted, already in the entertainment, and to be on foot at an
 * hour's warning.

ROMAN.
 * I am joyful to hear of their readiness, and am the man, I think,
 * that shall set them in present action. So, sir, heartily well
 * met, and most glad of your company.

VOLSCE.
 * You take my part from me, sir; I have the most cause to be
 * glad of yours.

ROMAN.
 * Well, let us go together.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE IV. Antium. Before AUFIDIUS'S house.
[Enter CORIOLANUS, in mean apparel, disguised and muffled.]

CORIOLANUS.
 * A goodly city is this Antium. City,
 * 'Tis I that made thy widows: many an heir
 * Of these fair edifices 'fore my wars
 * Have I heard groan and drop: then know me not.
 * Lest that thy wives with spits and boys with stones,
 * In puny battle slay me.

[Enter a CITIZEN.]

Save you, sir.

CITIZEN.
 * And you.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Direct me, if it be your will,
 * Where great Aufidius lies; is he in Antium?

CITIZEN.
 * He is, and feasts the nobles of the state
 * At his house this night.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Which is his house, beseech you?

CITIZEN.
 * This, here, before you.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Thank you, sir; farewell.

[Exit CITIZEN.]

O world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn,
 * Whose double bosoms seems to wear one heart,
 * Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal and exercise
 * Are still together, who twin, as 'twere, in love
 * Unseparable, shall within this hour,
 * On a dissension of a doit, break out
 * To bitterest enmity; so fellest foes,
 * Whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleep
 * To take the one the other, by some chance,
 * Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends
 * And interjoin their issues. So with me:—
 * My birthplace hate I, and my love's upon
 * This enemy town.—I'll enter; if he slay me,
 * He does fair justice; if he give me way,
 * I'll do his country service.

SCENE V. Antium. A hall in AUFIDIUS'S house.
[Music within. Enter A SERVANT.]

FIRST SERVANT.
 * Wine, wine, wine! What service is here!
 * I think our fellows are asleep.

[Exit.]

[Enter a second SERVANT.]

SECOND SERVANT.
 * Where's Cotus? my master calls for him.—Cotus!

[Exit.]

[Enter CORIOLANUS.]

CORIOLANUS.
 * A goodly house: the feast smells well; but I
 * Appear not like a guest.

[Re-enter the first SERVANT.]

FIRST SERVANT.
 * What would you have, friend? whence are you? Here's no place for
 * you: pray go to the door.

CORIOLANUS.
 * I have deserv'd no better entertainment
 * In being Coriolanus.

[Re-enter second SERVANT.]

SECOND SERVANT.
 * Whence are you, sir? Has the porter his eyes in his head that he
 * gives entrance to such companions? Pray, get you out.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Away!

SECOND SERVANT.
 * Away? Get you away.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Now the art troublesome.

SECOND SERVANT.
 * Are you so brave? I'll have you talked with anon.

[Enter a third SERVANT. The first meets him.]

THIRD SERVANT.
 * What fellow's this?

FIRST SERVANT.
 * A strange one as ever I looked on: I cannot get him
 * out o' the house. Pr'ythee call my master to him.

THIRD SERVANT.
 * What have you to do here, fellow? Pray you avoid the house.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Let me but stand; I will not hurt your hearth.

THIRD SERVANT.
 * What are you?

CORIOLANUS.
 * A gentleman.

THIRD SERVANT.
 * A marvellous poor one.

CORIOLANUS.
 * True, so I am.

THIRD SERVANT.
 * Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other station; here's no
 * place for you. Pray you avoid; come.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Follow your function, go,
 * And batten on cold bits.

[Pushes him away.]

THIRD SERVANT.
 * What, you will not?—Pr'ythee, tell my master what a strange
 * guest he has here.

SECOND SERVANT.
 * And I shall.

[Exit.]

THIRD SERVANT.
 * Where dwell'st thou?

CORIOLANUS.
 * Under the canopy.

THIRD SERVANT.
 * Under the canopy?

CORIOLANUS.
 * Ay.

THIRD SERVANT.
 * Where's that?

CORIOLANUS.
 * I' the city of kites and crows.

THIRD SERVANT.
 * I' the city of kites and crows!—What an ass it is!—Then thou
 * dwell'st with daws too?

CORIOLANUS.
 * No, I serve not thy master.

THIRD SERVANT.
 * How, sir! Do you meddle with my master?

CORIOLANUS.
 * Ay; 'tis an honester service than to meddle with thy mistress.
 * Thou prat'st and prat'st; serve with thy trencher, hence!

[Beats him away.]

[Enter AUFIDIUS and the second SERVANT.]

AUFIDIUS.
 * Where is this fellow?

SECOND SERVANT.
 * Here, sir; I'd have beaten him like a dog, but for
 * disturbing the lords within.

AUFIDIUS.
 * Whence com'st thou? what wouldst thou? thy name?
 * Why speak'st not? speak, man: what's thy name?

CORIOLANUS.
 * [Unmuffling.] If, Tullus,
 * Not yet thou know'st me, and, seeing me, dost not
 * Think me for the man I am, necessity
 * Commands me name myself.

AUFIDIUS.
 * What is thy name?

[Servants retire.]

CORIOLANUS.
 * A name unmusical to the Volscians' ears,
 * And harsh in sound to thine.

AUFIDIUS.
 * Say, what's thy name?
 * Thou has a grim appearance, and thy face
 * Bears a command in't; though thy tackle's torn,
 * Thou show'st a noble vessel: what's thy name?

CORIOLANUS.
 * Prepare thy brow to frown:—know'st thou me yet?

AUFIDIUS.
 * I know thee not:—thy name?

CORIOLANUS.
 * My name is Caius Marcius, who hath done
 * To thee particularly, and to all the Volsces,
 * Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may
 * My surname, Coriolanus: the painful service,
 * The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood
 * Shed for my thankless country, are requited
 * But with that surname; a good memory,
 * And witness of the malice and displeasure
 * Which thou shouldst bear me: only that name remains;
 * The cruelty and envy of the people,
 * Permitted by our dastard nobles, who
 * Have all forsook me, hath devour'd the rest,
 * And suffer'd me by the voice of slaves to be
 * Whoop'd out of Rome. Now, this extremity
 * Hath brought me to thy hearth: not out of hope,
 * Mistake me not, to save my life; for if
 * I had fear'd death, of all the men i' the world
 * I would have 'voided thee; but in mere spite,
 * To be full quit of those my banishers,
 * Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast
 * A heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revenge
 * Thine own particular wrongs, and stop those maims
 * Of shame seen through thy country, speed thee straight
 * And make my misery serve thy turn: so use it
 * That my revengeful services may prove
 * As benefits to thee; for I will fight
 * Against my canker'd country with the spleen
 * Of all the under fiends. But if so be
 * Thou dar'st not this, and that to prove more fortunes
 * Th'art tir'd, then, in a word, I also am
 * Longer to live most weary, and present
 * My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice;
 * Which not to cut would show thee but a fool,
 * Since I have ever follow'd thee with hate,
 * Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country's breast,
 * And cannot live but to thy shame, unless
 * It be to do thee service.

AUFIDIUS.
 * O Marcius, Marcius!
 * Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart
 * A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter
 * Should from yond cloud speak divine things,
 * And say ''Tis true,' I'd not believe them more
 * Than thee, all noble Marcius.—Let me twine
 * Mine arms about that body, where against
 * My grained ash an hundred times hath broke
 * And scar'd the moon with splinters; here I clip
 * The anvil of my sword, and do contest
 * As hotly and as nobly with thy love
 * As ever in ambitious strength I did
 * Contend against thy valour. Know thou first,
 * I lov'd the maid I married; never man
 * Sighed truer breath; but that I see thee here,
 * Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart
 * Than when I first my wedded mistress saw
 * Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell thee
 * We have a power on foot; and I had purpose
 * Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn,
 * Or lose mine arm for't: thou hast beat me out
 * Twelve several times, and I have nightly since
 * Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me;
 * We have been down together in my sleep,
 * Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat,
 * And wak'd half dead with nothing. Worthy Marcius,
 * Had we no other quarrel else to Rome, but that
 * Thou art thence banish'd, we would muster all
 * From twelve to seventy; and, pouring war
 * Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,
 * Like a bold flood o'erbear. O, come, go in,
 * And take our friendly senators by the hands;
 * Who now are here, taking their leaves of me,
 * Who am prepar'd against your territories,
 * Though not for Rome itself.

CORIOLANUS.
 * You bless me, gods!

AUFIDIUS.
 * Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have
 * The leading of thine own revenges, take
 * Th' one half of my commission; and set down,—
 * As best thou art experienc'd, since thou know'st
 * Thy country's strength and weakness,—thine own ways;
 * Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,
 * Or rudely visit them in parts remote,
 * To fright them, ere destroy. But come in;
 * Let me commend thee first to those that shall
 * Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes!
 * And more a friend than e'er an enemy;
 * Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand: most welcome!

[Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS.]


 * FIRST SERVANT.
 * Here's a strange alteration!

SECOND SERVANT.
 * By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with a cudgel; and
 * yet my mind gave me his clothes made a false report of him.

FIRST SERVANT.
 * What an arm he has! He turned me about with his finger and his
 * thumb, as one would set up a top.

SECOND SERVANT.
 * Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him; he had,
 * sir, a kind of face, methought,—I cannot tell how to term it.

FIRST SERVANT.
 * He had so, looking as it were,—would I were hanged, but I
 * thought there was more in him than I could think.

SECOND SERVANT.
 * So did I, I'll be sworn: he is simply the rarest man i' the
 * world.

FIRST SERVANT.
 * I think he is; but a greater soldier than he you wot on.

SECOND SERVANT.
 * Who, my master?

FIRST SERVANT.
 * Nay, it's no matter for that.

SECOND SERVANT.
 * Worth six on him.

FIRST SERVANT.
 * Nay, not so neither: but I take him to be the greater soldier.

SECOND SERVANT.
 * Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that: for the defence
 * of a town our general is excellent.

FIRST SERVANT.
 * Ay, and for an assault too.

[Re-enter third SERVANT.]

THIRD SERVANT.
 * O slaves, I can tell you news,—news, you rascals!

FIRST and SECOND SERVANT.
 * What, what, what? let's partake.

THIRD SERVANT.
 * I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lief be a
 * condemned man.

FIRST and SECOND SERVANT.
 * Wherefore? wherefore?

THIRD SERVANT.
 * Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general,—Caius
 * Marcius.

FIRST SERVANT.
 * Why do you say, thwack our general?

THIRD SERVANT.
 * I do not say thwack our general; but he was always good enough
 * for him.

SECOND SERVANT.
 * Come, we are fellows and friends: he was ever too hard for him; I
 * have heard him say so himself.

FIRST SERVANT.
 * He was too hard for him directly, to say the troth on't; before
 * Corioli he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado.

SECOND SERVANT.
 * An he had been cannibally given, he might have broiled and eaten
 * him too.

FIRST SERVANT.
 * But more of thy news?

THIRD SERVANT.
 * Why, he is so made on here within as if he were son and heir to
 * Mars; set at upper end o' the table: no question asked him by any
 * of the senators but they stand bald before him: our general
 * himself makes a mistress of him, sanctifies himself with's hand,
 * and turns up the white o' the eye to his discourse. But the
 * bottom of the news is, our general is cut i' the middle, and but
 * one half of what he was yesterday; for the other has half, by the
 * entreaty and grant of the whole table. He'll go, he says, and
 * sowl the porter of Rome gates by the ears; he will mow all down
 * before him, and leave his passage polled.

SECOND SERVANT.
 * And he's as like to do't as any man I can imagine.

THIRD SERVANT.
 * Do't! he will do't; for look you, sir, he has as many friends as
 * enemies; which friends, sir, as it were, durst not, look you,
 * sir, show themselves, as we term it, his friends, whilst he's in
 * dejectitude.

FIRST SERVANT.
 * Dejectitude! what's that?

THIRD SERVANT.
 * But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again, and the man in
 * blood, they will out of their burrows, like conies after rain,
 * and revel all with him.

FIRST SERVANT.
 * But when goes this forward?

THIRD SERVANT.
 * To-morrow; to-day; presently; you shall have the drum struck up
 * this afternoon: 'tis as it were parcel of their feast, and to be
 * executed ere they wipe their lips.

SECOND SERVANT.
 * Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is
 * nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed
 * ballad-makers.

FIRST SERVANT.
 * Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as day does
 * night; it's spritely, waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is
 * a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a
 * getter of more bastard children than war's a destroyer of men.

SECOND SERVANT.
 * 'Tis so: and as war in some sort, may be said to be a ravisher,
 * so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.

FIRST SERVANT.
 * Ay, and it makes men hate one another.

THIRD SERVANT.
 * Reason: because they then less need one another. The wars for my
 * money. I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volscians. They are
 * rising, they are rising.

ALL.
 * In, in, in, in!

[Exeunt.]

SCENE VI. Rome. A public place.
[Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS.]

SICINIUS.
 * We hear not of him, neither need we fear him;
 * His remedies are tame i' the present peace
 * And quietness of the people, which before
 * Were in wild hurry. Here do make his friends
 * Blush that the world goes well; who rather had,
 * Though they themselves did suffer by't, behold
 * Dissentious numbers pestering streets than see
 * Our tradesmen singing in their shops, and going
 * About their functions friendly.

BRUTUS.
 * We stood to't in good time.—Is this Menenius?

SICINIUS.
 * 'Tis he, 'tis he. O, he is grown most kind
 * Of late.

[Enter MENENIUS

BRUTUS.
 * Hail, sir!

MENENIUS.
 * Hail to you both!

SICINIUS.
 * Your Coriolanus is not much miss'd
 * But with his friends: the commonwealth doth stand;
 * And so would do, were he more angry at it.

MENENIUS.
 * All's well, and might have been much better if
 * He could have temporiz'd.

SICINIUS.
 * Where is he, hear you?

MENENIUS.
 * Nay, I hear nothing: his mother and his wife
 * Hear nothing from him.

[Enter three or four Citizens.]

CITIZENS. The gods preserve you both!

SICINIUS.
 * God-den, our neighbours.

BRUTUS.
 * God-den to you all, God-den to you all.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Ourselves, our wives, and children, on our knees,
 * Are bound to pray for you both.

SICINIUS.
 * Live and thrive!

BRUTUS.
 * Farewell, kind neighbours: we wish'd Coriolanus
 * Had lov'd you as we did.

CITIZENS.
 * Now the gods keep you!

BOTH TRIBUNES.
 * Farewell, farewell.

[Exeunt Citizens.]

SICINIUS.
 * This is a happier and more comely time
 * Than when these fellows ran about the streets
 * Crying confusion.

BRUTUS.
 * Caius Marcius was
 * A worthy officer i' the war; but insolent,
 * O'ercome with pride, ambitious past all thinking,
 * Self-loving,—

SICINIUS.
 * And affecting one sole throne,
 * Without assistance.

MENENIUS.
 * I think not so.

SICINIUS.
 * We should by this, to all our lamentation,
 * If he had gone forth consul, found it so.

BRUTUS.
 * The gods have well prevented it, and Rome
 * Sits safe and still without him.

[Enter an AEDILE.]

AEDILE.
 * Worthy tribunes,
 * There is a slave, whom we have put in prison,
 * Reports,—the Volsces with several powers
 * Are enter'd in the Roman territories,
 * And with the deepest malice of the war
 * Destroy what lies before 'em.

MENENIUS.
 * 'Tis Aufidius,
 * Who, hearing of our Marcius' banishment,
 * Thrusts forth his horns again into the world;
 * Which were inshell'd when Marcius stood for Rome,
 * And durst not once peep out.

SICINIUS.
 * Come, what talk you of Marcius?

BRUTUS.
 * Go see this rumourer whipp'd.—It cannot be
 * The Volsces dare break with us.

MENENIUS.
 * Cannot be!
 * We have record that very well it can;
 * And three examples of the like hath been
 * Within my age. But reason with the fellow,
 * Before you punish him, where he heard this;
 * Lest you shall chance to whip your information
 * And beat the messenger who bids beware
 * Of what is to be dreaded.

SICINIUS.
 * Tell not me:
 * I know this cannot be.

BRUTUS.
 * Not possible.

[Enter A MESSENGER.]

MESSENGER.
 * The nobles in great earnestness are going
 * All to the senate-house: some news is come
 * That turns their countenances.

SICINIUS.
 * 'Tis this slave,—
 * Go whip him fore the people's eyes:—his raising;
 * Nothing but his report.

MESSENGER.
 * Yes, worthy sir,
 * The slave's report is seconded, and more,
 * More fearful, is deliver'd.

SICINIUS.
 * What more fearful?

MESSENGER.
 * It is spoke freely out of many mouths,—
 * How probable I do not know,—that Marcius,
 * Join'd with Aufidius, leads a power 'gainst Rome,
 * And vows revenge as spacious as between
 * The young'st and oldest thing.

SICINIUS.
 * This is most likely!

BRUTUS.
 * Rais'd only, that the weaker sort may wish
 * Good Marcius home again.

SICINIUS.
 * The very trick on 't.

MENENIUS.
 * This is unlikely:
 * He and Aufidius can no more atone
 * Than violentest contrariety.

[Enter a second MESSENGER.]

SECOND MESSENGER.
 * You are sent for to the senate:
 * A fearful army, led by Caius Marcius
 * Associated with Aufidius, rages
 * Upon our territories; and have already
 * O'erborne their way, consum'd with fire and took
 * What lay before them.

[Enter COMINIUS.]

COMINIUS.
 * O, you have made good work!

MENENIUS.
 * What news? what news?

COMINIUS.
 * You have holp to ravish your own daughters, and
 * To melt the city leads upon your pates;
 * To see your wives dishonour'd to your noses,—

MENENIUS.
 * What's the news? what's the news?

COMINIUS.
 * Your temples burned in their cement; and
 * Your franchises, whereon you stood, confin'd
 * Into an auger's bore.

MENENIUS.
 * Pray now, your news?—
 * You have made fair work, I fear me.—Pray, your news.
 * If Marcius should be join'd wi' the Volscians,—

COMINIUS.
 * If!
 * He is their god: he leads them like a thing
 * Made by some other deity than nature,
 * That shapes man better; and they follow him,
 * Against us brats, with no less confidence
 * Than boys pursuing summer butterflies,
 * Or butchers killing flies.

MENENIUS.
 * You have made good work,
 * You and your apron men; you that stood so much
 * Upon the voice of occupation and
 * The breath of garlic-eaters!

COMINIUS.
 * He'll shake
 * Your Rome about your ears.

MENENIUS.
 * As Hercules
 * Did shake down mellow fruit.—You have made fair work!

BRUTUS.
 * But is this true, sir?

COMINIUS.
 * Ay; and you'll look pale
 * Before you find it other. All the regions
 * Do smilingly revolt; and who resists
 * Are mock'd for valiant ignorance,
 * And perish constant fools. Who is't can blame him?
 * Your enemies and his find something in him.

MENENIUS.
 * We are all undone unless
 * The noble man have mercy.

COMINIUS.
 * Who shall ask it?
 * The tribunes cannot do't for shame; the people
 * Deserve such pity of him as the wolf
 * Does of the shepherds: for his best friends, if they
 * Should say 'Be good to Rome,' they charg'd him even
 * As those should do that had deserv'd his hate,
 * And therein show'd like enemies.

MENENIUS.
 * 'Tis true:
 * If he were putting to my house the brand
 * That should consume it, I have not the face
 * To say 'Beseech you, cease.'—You have made fair hands,
 * You and your crafts! You have crafted fair!

COMINIUS.
 * You have brought
 * A trembling upon Rome, such as was never
 * So incapable of help.

BOTH TRIBUNES.
 * Say not, we brought it.

MENENIUS.
 * How! Was it we? we lov'd him, but, like beasts,
 * And cowardly nobles, gave way unto your clusters,
 * Who did hoot him out o' the city.

COMINIUS.
 * But I fear
 * They'll roar him in again. Tullus Aufidius,
 * The second name of men, obeys his points
 * As if he were his officer:—desperation
 * Is all the policy, strength, and defence,
 * That Rome can make against them.

[Enter a troop of citizens.]

MENENIUS.
 * Here comes the clusters.—
 * And is Aufidius with him?—You are they
 * That made the air unwholesome, when you cast
 * Your stinking greasy caps in hooting at
 * Coriolanus' exile. Now he's coming;
 * And not a hair upon a soldier's head
 * Which will not prove a whip: as many coxcombs
 * As you threw caps up will he tumble down,
 * And pay you for your voices. 'Tis no matter;
 * If he could burn us all into one coal
 * We have deserv'd it.

CITIZENS.
 * Faith, we hear fearful news.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * For mine own part,
 * When I said banish him, I said 'twas pity.

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * And so did I.

THIRD CITIZEN.
 * And so did I; and, to say the truth, so did very many of us. That
 * we did, we did for the best; and though we willingly consented to
 * his banishment, yet it was against our will.

COMINIUS.
 * You are goodly things, you voices!

MENENIUS.
 * You have made
 * Good work, you and your cry!—Shall's to the Capitol?

COMINIUS.
 * O, ay; what else?

[Exeunt COMINIUS and MENENIUS.]

SICINIUS.
 * Go, masters, get you home; be not dismay'd;
 * These are a side that would be glad to have
 * This true which they so seem to fear. Go home,
 * And show no sign of fear.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * The gods be good to us!—Come, masters, let's home. I
 * ever said we were i' the wrong when we banished him.

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * So did we all. But come, let's home.

[Exeunt Citizens.]

BRUTUS.
 * I do not like this news.

SICINIUS.
 * Nor I.

BRUTUS.
 * Let's to the Capitol:—would half my wealth
 * Would buy this for a lie!

SICINIUS.
 * Pray let's go.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE VII. A camp at a short distance from Rome.
[Enter AUFIDIUS and his LIEUTENANT.]

AUFIDIUS.
 * Do they still fly to the Roman?

LIEUTENANT.
 * I do not know what witchcraft's in him, but
 * Your soldiers use him as the grace 'fore meat,
 * Their talk at table, and their thanks at end;
 * And you are darken'd in this action, sir,
 * Even by your own.

AUFIDIUS.
 * I cannot help it now,
 * Unless by using means, I lame the foot
 * Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier,
 * Even to my person, than I thought he would
 * When first I did embrace him: yet his nature
 * In that's no changeling; and I must excuse
 * What cannot be amended.

LIEUTENANT.
 * Yet I wish, sir,—
 * I mean, for your particular,—you had not
 * Join'd in commission with him; but either
 * Had borne the action of yourself, or else
 * To him had left it solely.

AUFIDIUS.
 * I understand thee well; and be thou sure,
 * When he shall come to his account, he knows not
 * What I can urge against him. Although it seems,
 * And so he thinks, and is no less apparent
 * To the vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly,
 * And shows good husbandry for the Volscian state,
 * Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon
 * As draw his sword: yet he hath left undone
 * That which shall break his neck or hazard mine
 * Whene'er we come to our account.

LIEUTENANT.
 * Sir, I beseech you, think you he'll carry Rome?

AUFIDIUS.
 * All places yield to him ere he sits down;
 * And the nobility of Rome are his;
 * The senators and patricians love him too:
 * The tribunes are no soldiers; and their people
 * Will be as rash in the repeal as hasty
 * To expel him thence. I think he'll be to Rome
 * As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it
 * By sovereignty of nature. First he was
 * A noble servant to them; but he could not
 * Carry his honours even: whether 'twas pride,
 * Which out of daily fortune ever taints
 * The happy man; whether defect of judgment,
 * To fail in the disposing of those chances
 * Which he was lord of; or whether nature,
 * Not to be other than one thing, not moving
 * From the casque to the cushion, but commanding peace
 * Even with the same austerity and garb
 * As he controll'd the war; but one of these,—
 * As he hath spices of them all, not all,
 * For I dare so far free him,—made him fear'd,
 * So hated, and so banish'd: but he has a merit
 * To choke it in the utterance. So our virtues
 * Lie in the interpretation of the time:
 * And power, unto itself most commendable,
 * Hath not a tomb so evident as a cheer
 * To extol what it hath done.
 * One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;
 * Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail.
 * Come, let's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine,
 * Thou art poor'st of all; then shortly art thou mine.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE I. Rome. A public place
[Enter MENENIUS, COMINIUS, SICINIUS and BRUTUS, and others.]

MENENIUS.
 * No, I'll not go: you hear what he hath said
 * Which was sometime his general; who lov'd him
 * In a most dear particular. He call'd me father:
 * But what o' that? Go, you that banish'd him;
 * A mile before his tent fall down, and knee
 * The way into his mercy: nay, if he coy'd
 * To hear Cominius speak, I'll keep at home.

COMINIUS.
 * He would not seem to know me.

MENENIUS.
 * Do you hear?

COMINIUS.
 * Yet one time he did call me by my name:
 * I urged our old acquaintance, and the drops
 * That we have bled together. Coriolanus
 * He would not answer to: forbad all names;
 * He was a kind of nothing, titleless,
 * Till he had forg'd himself a name i' the fire
 * Of burning Rome.

MENENIUS.
 * Why, so!—you have made good work!
 * A pair of tribunes that have rack'd for Rome,
 * To make coals cheap,—a noble memory!

COMINIUS.
 * I minded him how royal 'twas to pardon
 * When it was less expected: he replied,
 * It was a bare petition of a state
 * To one whom they had punish'd.

MENENIUS.
 * Very well:
 * Could he say less?

COMINIUS.
 * I offer'd to awaken his regard
 * For's private friends: his answer to me was,
 * He could not stay to pick them in a pile
 * Of noisome musty chaff: he said 'twas folly,
 * For one poor grain or two, to leave unburnt
 * And still to nose the offence.

MENENIUS.
 * For one poor grain
 * Or two! I am one of those; his mother, wife,
 * His child, and this brave fellow too- we are the grains:
 * You are the musty chaff; and you are smelt
 * Above the moon: we must be burnt for you.

SICINIUS.
 * Nay, pray be patient: if you refuse your aid
 * In this so never-needed help, yet do not
 * Upbraid's with our distress. But, sure, if you
 * Would be your country's pleader, your good tongue,
 * 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 din'd;
 * 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 pipes 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'; dismissed 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 II. An Advanced post of the Volscian camp before Rome.
[TheGuards at their station.]

[Enter to them MENENIUS.]

FIRST GUARD.
 * Stay: whence are you?

SECOND GUARD.
 * 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 GUARD.
 * From whence?

MENENIUS.
 * From Rome.

FIRST GUARD.
 * You may not pass; you must return: our general
 * Will no more hear from thence.

SECOND GUARD.
 * You'll see your Rome embrac'd 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 GUARD.
 * Be it so; go back: the virtue of your name
 * Is not here passable.

MENENIUS.
 * I tell thee, fellow,
 * Thy general is my lover: I have been
 * The book of his good acts, whence men have read
 * His fame 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 GUARD.
 * 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.
 * Pr'ythee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius, always
 * factionary on the party of your general.

SECOND GUARD.
 * 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 GUARD.
 * You are a Roman, are you?

MENENIUS.
 * I am as thy general is.

FIRST GUARD.
 * 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 GUARD.
 * Come, my captain knows you not.

MENENIUS.
 * I mean thy general.

FIRST GUARD.
 * 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 with 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.—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 lov'd thee,
 * Take this along; I writ it for thy sake,

[Gives a letter.]

And would have sent 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 GUARD.
 * Now, sir, is your name Menenius?

SECOND GUARD.
 * 'Tis a spell, you see, of much power: you know the way home
 * again.

FIRST GUARD.
 * Do you hear how we are shent for keeping your greatness back?

SECOND GUARD.
 * 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, y'are 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 GUARD.
 * A noble fellow, I warrant him.

SECOND GUARD.
 * The worthy fellow is our general: he is the rock, the oak not to
 * be wind-shaken.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE III. The tent of CORIOLANUS.
[Enter CORIOLANUS, AUFIDIUS, and others.]

CORIOLANUS.
 * We will before the walls of Rome to-morrow
 * 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; stopped 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 crack'd heart I have sent to Rome,
 * Lov'd 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.—

[Shout within.]

Ha! what shout is this?
 * 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 fram'd, and in her hand
 * The grandchild to her blood. But, out, affection!
 * All bond and privilege of nature, break!
 * Let it be virtuous to be obstinate.—
 * What is that curt'sy worth? or those doves' eyes,
 * Which can make gods forsworn?—I melt, and am not
 * Of stronger earth than others.—My mother bows,
 * As if Olympus to a molehill should
 * In supplication nod: and my young boy
 * Hath an aspect of intercession which
 * Great nature cries "Deny not.'—Let the Volsces
 * Plough Rome and harrow Italy: I'll never
 * Be such a gosling to obey instinct; but stand,
 * As if a man were author of himself,
 * And knew no other kin.

VIRGILIA.
 * My lord and husband!

CORIOLANUS.
 * These eyes are not the same I wore in Rome.

VIRGILIA.
 * The sorrow that delivers us thus chang'd
 * Makes you think so.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Like a dull actor now,
 * I have forgot my part and I am out,
 * Even to a full disgrace. Best of my flesh,
 * Forgive my tyranny; but do not say,
 * For that, 'Forgive our Romans.'—O, a kiss
 * Long as my exile, sweet as my revenge;
 * Now, by the jealous queen of heaven, that kiss
 * I carried from thee, dear; and my true lip
 * Hath virgin'd it e'er since.—You gods! I prate,
 * And the most noble mother of the world
 * Leave unsaluted: sink, my knee, i' the earth;

[Kneels.]

Of thy deep duty more impression show
 * Than that of common sons.

VOLUMNIA.
 * O, stand up bless'd!
 * Whilst, with no softer cushion than the flint,
 * I kneel before thee; and unproperly
 * Show duty, as mistaken all this while
 * Between the child and parent.

[Kneels.]

CORIOLANUS.
 * What is this?
 * Your knees to me? to your corrected son?
 * Then let the pebbles on the hungry beach
 * Fillip the stars; then let the mutinous winds
 * Strike the proud cedars 'gainst the fiery sun,;
 * Murdering impossibility, to make
 * What cannot be, slight work.

VOLUMNIA.
 * Thou art my warrior;
 * I holp to frame thee. Do you know this lady?

CORIOLANUS.
 * The noble sister of Publicola,
 * The moon of Rome; chaste as the icicle
 * That's curded by the frost from purest snow,
 * And hangs on Dian's temple:—dear Valeria!

VOLUMNIA.
 * This is a poor epitome of yours,
 * Which, by the interpretation of full time,
 * May show like all yourself.

CORIOLANUS.
 * The god of soldiers,
 * With the consent of supreme Jove, inform
 * Thy thoughts with nobleness; that thou mayst prove
 * To shame unvulnerable, and stick i' the wars
 * Like a great sea-mark, standing every flaw,
 * And saving those that eye thee!

VOLUMNIA.
 * Your knee, sirrah.

CORIOLANUS.
 * That's my brave boy.

VOLUMNIA.
 * Even he, your wife, this lady, and myself,
 * Are suitors to you.

CORIOLANUS.
 * I beseech you, peace:
 * Or, if you'd ask, remember this before,—
 * The thing I have forsworn to grant may never
 * Be held by you denials. Do not bid me
 * Dismiss my soldiers, or capitulate
 * Again with Rome's mechanics.—Tell me not
 * Wherein I seem unnatural: desire not
 * To allay my rages and revenges with
 * Your colder reasons.

VOLUMNIA.
 * O, no more, no more!
 * You have said you will not grant us anything;
 * For we have nothing else to ask but that
 * Which you deny already: yet we will ask;
 * That, if you fail in our request, the blame
 * May hang upon your hardness; therefore hear us.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Aufidius, and you Volsces, mark: for we'll
 * Hear nought from Rome in private.—Your request?

VOLUMNIA.
 * Should we be silent and not speak, our raiment
 * And state of bodies would bewray what life
 * We have led since thy exile. Think with thyself,
 * How more unfortunate than all living women
 * Are we come hither: since that thy sight, which should
 * Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with comforts,
 * Constrains them weep, and shake with fear and sorrow;
 * Making the mother, wife, and child, to see
 * The son, the husband, and the father, tearing
 * His country's bowels out. And to poor we,
 * Thine enmity's most capital: thou barr'st us
 * Our prayers to the gods, which is a comfort
 * That all but we enjoy; for how can we,
 * Alas, how can we for our country pray,
 * Whereto we are bound,—together with thy victory,
 * Whereto we are bound? alack, or we must lose
 * The country, our dear nurse, or else thy person,
 * Our comfort in the country. We must find
 * An evident calamity, though we had
 * Our wish, which side should win; for either thou
 * Must, as a foreign recreant, be led
 * With manacles through our streets, or else
 * Triumphantly tread on thy country's ruin,
 * And bear the palm for having bravely shed
 * Thy wife and children's blood. For myself, son,
 * I purpose not to wait on fortune till
 * These wars determine: if I can not persuade thee
 * Rather to show a noble grace to both parts
 * Than seek the end of one, thou shalt no sooner
 * March to assault thy country than to tread,—
 * Trust to't, thou shalt not,—on thy mother's womb
 * That brought thee to this world.

VIRGILIA.
 * Ay, and mine,
 * That brought you forth this boy, to keep your name
 * Living to time.

BOY.
 * 'A shall not tread on me;
 * I'll run away till I am bigger; but then I'll fight.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Not of a woman's tenderness to be,
 * Requires nor child nor woman's face to see.
 * I have sat too long.

[Rising.]

VOLUMNIA.
 * Nay, go not from us thus.
 * If it were so that our request did tend
 * To save the Romans, thereby to destroy
 * The Volsces whom you serve, you might condemn us,
 * As poisonous of your honour: no; our suit
 * Is that you reconcile them: while the Volsces
 * May say 'This mercy we have show'd,' the Romans
 * 'This we receiv'd,' and each in either side
 * Give the all-hail to thee, and cry, 'Be bless'd
 * For making up this peace!' Thou know'st, great son,
 * The end of war's uncertain; but this certain,
 * That, if thou conquer Rome, the benefit
 * Which thou shalt thereby reap is such a name
 * Whose repetition will be dogg'd with curses;
 * Whose chronicle thus writ:—'The man was noble,
 * But with his last attempt he wip'd it out;
 * Destroy'd his country, and his name remains
 * To the ensuing age abhorr'd.' Speak to me, son:
 * Thou hast affected the fine strains of honour,
 * To imitate the graces of the gods,
 * To tear with thunder the wide cheeks o' the air,
 * And yet to charge thy sulphur with a bolt
 * That should but rive an oak. Why dost not speak?
 * Think'st thou it honourable for a noble man
 * Still to remember wrongs?—Daughter, speak you:
 * He cares not for your weeping.—Speak thou, boy:
 * Perhaps thy childishness will move him more
 * Than can our reasons.—There's no man in the world
 * More bound to's mother; yet here he lets me prate
 * Like one i' the stocks. Thou hast never in thy life
 * Show'd thy dear mother any courtesy;
 * When she,—poor hen,—fond of no second brood,
 * Has cluck'd thee to the wars, and safely home,
 * Loaden with honour. Say my request's unjust,
 * And spurn me back: but if it be not so,
 * Thou art not honest; and the gods will plague thee,
 * That thou restrain'st from me the duty which
 * To a mother's part belongs.—He turns away:
 * Down, ladies: let us shame him with our knees.
 * To his surname Coriolanus 'longs more pride
 * Than pity to our prayers. Down: an end;
 * This is the last.—So we will home to Rome,
 * And die among our neighbours.—Nay, behold's:
 * This boy, that cannot tell what he would have
 * But kneels and holds up hands for fellowship,
 * Does reason our petition with more strength
 * Than thou hast to deny't.—Come, let us go:
 * This fellow had a Volscian to his mother;
 * His wife is in Corioli, and his child
 * Like him by chance.—Yet give us our despatch:
 * I am hush'd until our city be afire,
 * And then I'll speak a little.

CORIOLANUS. [After holding VOLUMNIA by the hands, in silence.]
 * O mother, mother!
 * What have you done? Behold, the heavens do ope,
 * The gods look down, and this unnatural scene
 * They laugh at. O my mother, mother! O!
 * You have won a happy victory to Rome;
 * But for your son,—believe it, O, believe it,
 * Most dangerously you have with him prevail'd,
 * If not most mortal to him. But let it come.—
 * Aufidius, though I cannot make true wars,
 * I'll frame convenient peace. Now, good Aufidius,
 * Were you in my stead, would you have heard
 * A mother less? or granted less, Aufidius?

AUFIDIUS.
 * I was mov'd withal.

CORIOLANUS.
 * I dare be sworn you were:
 * And, sir, it is no little thing to make
 * Mine eyes to sweat compassion. But, good sir,
 * What peace you'll make, advise me: for my part,
 * I'll not to Rome, I'll back with you; and, pray you
 * Stand to me in this cause.—O mother! wife!

AUFIDIUS.
 * [Aside.] I am glad thou hast set thy mercy and thy honour
 * At difference in thee; out of that I'll work
 * Myself a former fortune.

[The Ladies make signs to CORIOLANUS.]

CORIOLANUS.
 * [To VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, &c.] Ay, by and by;
 * But we'll drink together; and you shall bear
 * A better witness back than words, which we,
 * On like conditions, will have counter-seal'd.
 * Come, enter with us. Ladies, you deserve
 * To have a temple built you: all the swords
 * In Italy, and her confederate arms,
 * Could not have made this peace.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE IV. Rome. A public place.
[Enter MENENIUS and SICINIUS.]

MENENIUS.
 * See you yond coign o' the Capitol,—yond corner-stone?

SICINIUS.
 * Why, what of that?

MENENIUS.
 * If it be possible for you to displace it with your little
 * finger, there is some hope the ladies of Rome, especially his
 * mother, may prevail with him. But I say there is no hope in't:
 * our throats are sentenced, and stay upon execution.

SICINIUS.
 * Is't possible that so short a time can alter the condition of a
 * man?

MENENIUS.
 * There is differency between a grub and a butterfly; yet your
 * butterfly was a grub. This Marcius is grown from man to dragon;
 * he has wings; he's more than a creeping thing.

SICINIUS.
 * He loved his mother dearly.

MENENIUS.
 * So did he me: and he no more remembers his mother now than an
 * eight-year-old horse. The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes:
 * when he walks, he moves like an engine, and the ground shrinks
 * before his treading: he is able to pierce a corslet with his eye,
 * talks like a knell, and his hum is a battery. He sits in his
 * state as a thing made for Alexander. What he bids be done is
 * finished with his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but
 * eternity, and a heaven to throne in.

SICINIUS.
 * Yes, mercy, if you report him truly.

MENENIUS.
 * I paint him in the character. Mark what mercy his mother shall
 * bring from him. There is no more mercy in him than there is
 * milk in a male tiger; that shall our poor city find: and all this
 * is 'long of you.

SICINIUS.
 * The gods be good unto us!

MENENIUS.
 * No, in such a case the gods will not be good unto us. When we
 * banished him we respected not them; and, he returning to break
 * our necks, they respect not us.

[Enter a MESSENGER

MESSENGER.
 * Sir, if you'd save your life, fly to your house:
 * The plebeians have got your fellow-tribune
 * And hale him up and down; all swearing, if
 * The Roman ladies bring not comfort home
 * They'll give him death by inches.

[Enter a second MESSENGER.]

SICINIUS.
 * What's the news?

SECOND MESSENGER.
 * Good news, good news;—the ladies have prevail'd,
 * The Volscians are dislodg'd, and Marcius gone:
 * A merrier day did never yet greet Rome,
 * No, not the expulsion of the Tarquins.

SICINIUS.
 * Friend,
 * Art thou certain this is true? is't most certain?

SECOND MESSENGER.
 * As certain as I know the sun is fire:
 * Where have you lurk'd, that you make doubt of it?
 * Ne'er through an arch so hurried the blown tide
 * As the recomforted through the gates. Why, hark you!

[Trumpets and hautboys sounded, drums beaten, aand shouting
 * within.]

The trumpets, sackbuts, psalteries, and fifes,
 * Tabors and cymbals, and the shouting Romans,
 * Make the sun dance. Hark you!

[Shouting within.]

MENENIUS.
 * This is good news.
 * I will go meet the ladies. This Volumnia
 * Is worth of consuls, senators, patricians,
 * A city full: of tribunes such as you,
 * A sea and land full. You have pray'd well to-day:
 * This morning for ten thousand of your throats
 * Ied not have given a doit. Hark, how they joy!

[Shouting and music.]

SICINIUS.
 * First, the gods bless you for your tidings; next,
 * Accept my thankfulness.

SECOND MESSENGER.
 * Sir, we have all
 * Great cause to give great thanks.

SICINIUS.
 * They are near the city?

MESSENGER.
 * Almost at point to enter.

SICINIUS.
 * We'll meet them,
 * And help the joy.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE V. Rome. A street near the gate.
[Enter VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, VALERIA, &c., accompanied by Senators, Patricians, and Citizens.]

FIRST SENATOR.
 * Behold our patroness, the life of Rome!
 * Call all your tribes together, praise the gods,
 * And make triumphant fires; strew flowers before them:
 * Unshout the noise that banish'd Marcius,
 * Repeal him with the welcome of his mother;
 * Cry, 'Welcome, ladies, welcome!'—

ALL.
 * Welcome, ladies,
 * Welcome!

[Exeunt.]

SCENE VI. Antium. A public place.
[Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS, with attendants.]

AUFIDIUS.
 * Go tell the lords o' the city I am here:
 * Deliver them this paper; having read it,
 * Bid them repair to the market-place: where I,
 * Even in theirs and in the commons' ears,
 * Will vouch the truth of it. Him I accuse
 * The city ports by this hath enter'd and
 * Intends t' appear before the people, hoping
 * To purge himself with words: despatch.

[Exeunt attendants.]

[Enter three or four CONSPIRATORS of AUFIDIUS' faction.]

Most welcome!

FIRST CONSPIRATOR.
 * How is it with our general?

AUFIDIUS.
 * Even so
 * As with a man by his own alms empoison'd,
 * And with his charity slain.

SECOND CONSPIRATOR.
 * Most noble sir,
 * If you do hold the same intent wherein
 * You wish'd us parties, we'll deliver you
 * Of your great danger.

AUFIDIUS.
 * Sir, I cannot tell:
 * We must proceed as we do find the people.

THIRD CONSPIRATOR.
 * The people will remain uncertain whilst
 * 'Twixt you there's difference: but the fall of either
 * Makes the survivor heir of all.

AUFIDIUS.
 * I know it;
 * And my pretext to strike at him admits
 * A good construction. I rais'd him, and I pawn'd
 * Mine honour for his truth: who being so heighten'd,
 * He water'd his new plants with dews of flattery,
 * Seducing so my friends; and to this end
 * He bow'd his nature, never known before
 * But to be rough, unswayable, and free.

THIRD CONSPIRATOR.
 * Sir, his stoutness
 * When he did stand for consul, which he lost
 * By lack of stooping,—

AUFIDIUS.
 * That I would have spoken of:
 * Being banish'd for't, he came unto my hearth;
 * Presented to my knife his throat: I took him;
 * Made him joint-servant with me; gave him way
 * In all his own desires; nay, let him choose
 * Out of my files, his projects to accomplish,
 * My best and freshest men; serv'd his designments
 * In mine own person; holp to reap the fame
 * Which he made all his; and took some pride
 * To do myself this wrong: till, at the last,
 * I seem'd his follower, not partner; and
 * He wag'd me with his countenance as if
 * I had been mercenary.

FIRST CONSPIRATOR.
 * So he did, my lord:
 * The army marvell'd at it; and, in the last,
 * When he had carried Rome, and that we look'd
 * For no less spoil than glory,—

AUFIDIUS.
 * There was it;—
 * For which my sinews shall be stretch'd upon him.
 * At a few drops of women's rheum, which are
 * As cheap as lies, he sold the blood and labour
 * Of our great action: therefore shall he die,
 * And I'll renew me in his fall. But, hark!

[Drums and trumpets sound, with great shouts of the people.]

FIRST CONSPIRATOR.
 * Your native town you enter'd like a post,
 * And had no welcomes home; but he returns
 * Splitting the air with noise.

SECOND CONSPIRATOR.
 * And patient fools,
 * Whose children he hath slain, their base throats tear
 * With giving him glory.

THIRD CONSPIRATOR.
 * Therefore, at your vantage,
 * Ere he express himself or move the people
 * With what he would say, let him feel your sword,
 * Which we will second. When he lies along,
 * After your way his tale pronounc'd shall bury
 * His reasons with his body.

AUFIDIUS.
 * Say no more:
 * Here come the lords.

[Enter the LORDS of the city.]

LORDS.
 * You are most welcome home.

AUFIDIUS.
 * I have not deserv'd it.
 * But, worthy lords, have you with heed perus'd
 * What I have written to you?

LORDS.
 * We have.

FIRST LORD.
 * And grieve to hear't.
 * What faults he made before the last, I think
 * Might have found easy fines: but there to end
 * Where he was to begin, and give away
 * The benefit of our levies, answering us
 * With our own charge: making a treaty where
 * There was a yielding.—This admits no excuse.

AUFIDIUS.
 * He approaches: you shall hear him.

[Enter CORIOLANUS, with drum and colours; a crowd of Citizens
 * with him.]

CORIOLANUS.
 * Hail, lords! I am return'd your soldier;
 * No more infected with my country's love
 * Than when I parted hence, but still subsisting
 * Under your great command. You are to know
 * That prosperously I have attempted, and
 * With bloody passage led your wars even to
 * The gates of Rome. Our spoils we have brought home
 * Do more than counterpoise a full third part
 * The charges of the action. We have made peace
 * With no less honour to the Antiates
 * Than shame to the Romans: and we here deliver,
 * Subscribed by the consuls and patricians,
 * Together with the seal o' the senate, what
 * We have compounded on.

AUFIDIUS.
 * Read it not, noble lords;
 * But tell the traitor, in the highest degree
 * He hath abus'd your powers.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Traitor!—How now?

AUFIDIUS.
 * Ay, traitor, Marcius.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Marcius!

AUFIDIUS.
 * Ay, Marcius, Caius Marcius! Dost thou think
 * I'll grace thee with that robbery, thy stol'n name
 * Coriolanus, in Corioli?—
 * You lords and heads o' the state, perfidiously
 * He has betray'd your business, and given up,
 * For certain drops of salt, your city Rome,—
 * I say your city,—to his wife and mother;
 * Breaking his oath and resolution, like
 * A twist of rotten silk; never admitting
 * Counsel o' the war; but at his nurse's tears
 * He whin'd and roar'd away your victory;
 * That pages blush'd at him, and men of heart
 * Look'd wondering each at others.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Hear'st thou, Mars?

AUFIDIUS.
 * Name not the god, thou boy of tears,—

CORIOLANUS.
 * Ha!

AUFIDIUS.
 * No more.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Measureless liar, thou hast made my heart
 * Too great for what contains it. Boy! O slave!—
 * Pardon me, lords, 'tis the first time that ever
 * I was forc'd to scold. Your judgments, my grave lords,
 * Must give this cur the lie: and his own notion,—
 * Who wears my stripes impress'd upon him; that must bear
 * My beating to his grave,—shall join to thrust
 * The lie unto him.

FIRST LORD.
 * Peace, both, and hear me speak.

CORIOLANUS.
 * Cut me to pieces, Volsces; men and lads,
 * Stain all your edges on me.—Boy! False hound!
 * If you have writ your annals true, 'tis there,
 * That, like an eagle in a dove-cote, I
 * Flutter'd your Volscians in Corioli:
 * Alone I did it.—Boy!

AUFIDIUS.
 * Why, noble lords,
 * Will you be put in mind of his blind fortune,
 * Which was your shame, by this unholy braggart,
 * 'Fore your own eyes and ears?

CONSPIRATORS.
 * Let him die for't.

CITIZENS.
 * Tear him to pieces, do it presently:—he killed my son; my
 * daughter; he killed my cousin Marcus; he killed my father,—

SECOND LORD.
 * Peace, ho!—no outrage;—peace!
 * The man is noble, and his fame folds in
 * This orb o' the earth. His last offences to us
 * Shall have judicious hearing.—Stand, Aufidius,
 * And trouble not the peace.

CORIOLANUS.
 * O that I had him,
 * With six Aufidiuses, or more, his tribe,
 * To use my lawful sword!

AUFIDIUS.
 * Insolent villain!

CONSPIRATORS.
 * Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill him!

[AUFIDIUS and the CONSPIRATORS draw, and kill CORIOLANUS,who
 * falls. AUFIDIUS stands on him.]

LORDS.
 * Hold, hold, hold, hold!

AUFIDIUS.
 * My noble masters, hear me speak.

FIRST LORD.
 * O Tullus,—

SECOND LORD.
 * Thou hast done a deed whereat valour will weep.

THIRD LORD.
 * Tread not upon him.—Masters all, be quiet;
 * Put up your swords.

AUFIDIUS.
 * My lords, when you shall know,—as in this rage,
 * Provok'd by him, you cannot,—the great danger
 * Which this man's life did owe you, you'll rejoice
 * That he is thus cut off. Please it your honours
 * To call me to your senate, I'll deliver
 * Myself your loyal servant, or endure
 * Your heaviest censure.

FIRST LORD.
 * Bear from hence his body,
 * And mourn you for him. Let him be regarded
 * As the most noble corse that ever herald
 * Did follow to his um.

SECOND LORD.
 * His own impatience
 * Takes from Aufidius a great part of blame.
 * Let's make the best of it.

AUFIDIUS.
 * My rage is gone;
 * And I am struck with sorrow.—Take him up:—
 * Help, three o' the chiefest soldiers; I'll be one.—
 * Beat thou the drum, that it speak mournfully;
 * Trail your steel pikes. Though in this city he
 * Hath widow'd and unchilded many a one,
 * Which to this hour bewail the injury,
 * Yet he shall have a noble memory.—
 * Assist.

[Exeunt, bearing the body of CORIOLANUS. A dead march sounded.]