Now he’s coming,
And not a hair upon a soldier’s head
Which will not prove a whip: as many coxcombs163
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 coal166,
We have deserved it.
ALL 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’re goodly things, you voices.
MENENIUS You have made good work,
You and your cry. Shall’s177 to the Capitol?
COMINIUS O, ay, what else?
Exeunt [Cominius and Menenius]
SICINIUS Go, masters, get you home: be not dismayed:
These are a side180 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’th’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 lie188.
SICINIUS Pray, let’s go.
Exeunt Tribunes
running scene 17
Enter Aufidius with his Lieutenant
AUFIDIUS Do they still fly to th’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 darkened5 in this action, sir,
Even by your own6.
AUFIDIUS I cannot help it now,
Unless by using means I lame8 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 changeling12, and I must excuse
What cannot be amended.
LIEUTENANT Yet I wish, sir —
I mean for your particular15 — you had not
Joined in commission16 with him, but either
Have borne the action of yourself17, or else
To him had left it solely.
AUFIDIUS I understand thee well, and be thou sure,
When he shall come to his account20, he knows not
What I can urge21 against him. Although it seems,
And so he thinks, and is no less apparent
To th’vulgar eye, that he bears23 all things fairly,
And shows good husbandry for24 the Volscian state,
Fights dragon-like, and does achieve25 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 carry29 Rome?
AUFIDIUS All places yields to him ere he sits down30,
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 repeal34, as hasty
To expel him thence. I think he’ll be to Rome
As is the osprey to the fish36, who takes it
By sovereignty of nature. First he was
A noble servant to them, but he could not
Carry his honours even39: whether ’twas pride,
Which out of daily fortune40 ever taints
The happy41 man: whether defect of judgement,
To fail in the disposing42 of those chances
Which he was lord of: or whether nature43,
Not to be other than one thing, not moving
From th’casque to th’cushion45, but commanding peace
Even with the same austerity and garb46
As he controlled the war. But one of these —
As he hath spices48 of them all — not all,
For I dare so far free49 him — made him feared,
So50 hated, and so banished: but he50 has a merit,
To choke it in the utt’rance. So our virtues
Lie in th’interpretation of the time52,
And power53, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair54
T’extol55 what it hath done.
One fire drives out one fire: one nail, one nail:
Rights by rights foulder57, 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
running scene 18
Enter Menenius, Cominius, Sicinius, Brutus, the two Tribunes, with others
MENENIUS No, I’ll not go: you hear what he1 hath said
Which was sometime2 his general: who loved him
In a most dear particular. He3 called me ‘father’:
But what o’that?— Go, you that banished him:
To the Tribunes
A mile before his tent fall down, and knee5
The way into his mercy: nay, if he coyed6
To hear Cominius speak, I’ll keep at home.
COMINIUS He would not seem to8 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 forged himself a name o’th’fire
Of burning Rome.
MENENIUS Why, so! You have made good work:
To the Tribunes
A pair of tribunes that have wracked18 for Rome,
To make coals cheap: a noble memory19!
COMINIUS I minded20 him how royal ’twas to pardon
When it was less expected. He replied
It was a bare22 petition of a state
To one whom they had punished.
MENENIUS Very well: could he say less?
COMINIUS I offered25 to awaken his regard
For’s private26 friends. His answer to me was
He could not stay to pick them in27 a pile
Of noisome28 musty chaff. He said ’twas folly
For one poor grain or two to leave unburnt,
And still to nose th’offence30.
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 help37, yet do not
Upbraid’s with our distress38. But sure, if you
Would be your country’s pleader, your good tongue,
More than the instant40 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 Martius.
MENENIUS Well, and say that Martius return me,
As Cominius is returned, unheard: what then?
But as a discontented friend, grief-shot49
With his unkindness? Say’t be so?
SICINIUS Yet your good will
Must have that thanks from Rome, after the measure52
As you intended well.
MENENIUS I’ll undertake’t:
I think he’ll hear me. Yet to bite55 his lip
And hum at good Cominius much unhearts56 me.
He was not taken well57, he had not dined:
The veins unfilled, our blood is cold, and then
We pout upon59 the morning, are unapt
To give or to forgive: but when we have stuffed
These pipes and these conveyances61 of our blood
With wine and feeding, we have suppler62 souls
Than in our priest-like fasts: therefore I’ll watch him
Till he be dieted to64 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 prove68 him,
Speed69 how it will. I shall ere long have knowledge
Of my success70.
Exit
COMINIUS He’ll never hear him.
SICINIUS Not?
COMINIUS I tell you, he does sit in gold73, his eye
Red as ’twould burn Rome, and his injury74
The jailer to his pity. I kneeled before him:
’Twas very faintly76 he said ‘Rise’: dismissed me
Thus with his speechless hand. What77 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
running scene 19
Enter Menenius to the Watch or Guard
FIRST WATCHMAN Stay: whence are you?
SECOND WATCHMAN 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 WATCHMAN From whence?
MENENIUS From Rome.
FIRST WATCHMAN You may not pass, you must return: our
general will no more hear from thence.
SECOND WATCHMAN You’ll see your Rome embraced with fire
before you’ll speak with Coriolanus.
MENENIUS Good my friends,
If you have heard your general talk of Rome,
And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks14,
My name hath touched your ears: it is Menenius.
FIRST WATCHMAN Be it so: go back: the virtue16 of your name is not
here passable17.
MENENIUS I tell thee, fellow,
The general is my lover19: I have been
The book20 of his good acts, whence men have read
His fame unparalleled, happily21 amplified:
For I have ever verified22 my friends,
Of whom he’s chief, with all the size that verity23
Would without lapsing suffer24: nay, sometimes,
Like to a bowl upon a subtle25 ground,
I have tumbled past the throw26: and in his praise
Have almost stamped the leasing27. Therefore, fellow,
I must have leave to pass.
FIRST WATCHMAN 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
chastely32. Therefore, go back.
MENENIUS Prithee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius,
always factionary34 on the party of your general.
SECOND WATCHMAN Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say
you have, I am one that, telling true under36 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 WATCHMAN You are a Roman, are you?
MENENIUS I am as thy general is.
FIRST WATCHMAN 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 ignorance44, given your
enemy your shield, think to front his revenges with the easy45
groans of old women, the virginal palms46 of your daughters,
or with the palsied intercession of such a decayed dotant47 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 of52 reprieve and pardon.
MENENIUS Sirrah53, if thy captain knew I were here, he would
use me with estimation54.
FIRST WATCHMAN Come, my captain knows you not.
MENENIUS I mean, thy general.
FIRST WATCHMAN My general cares not for you.
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