ACT IVSCENE I. Rome. Before a gate of the cityEnterCoriolanus, Volumnia, Virgilia, Menenius, Cominiuswith the young nobility of Rome.CORIOLANUS.Come, leave your tears. A brief farewell. The beastWith many heads butts me away. Nay, mother,Where is your ancient courage? You were usedTo say extremities was the trier of spirits;That common chances common men could bear;That when the sea was calm, all boats alikeShowed mastership in floating; fortune’s blowsWhen most struck home, being gentle wounded cravesA noble cunning. You were used to load meWith precepts that would make invincibleThe heart that conned them.VIRGILIA.O heavens! O heavens!CORIOLANUS.Nay, I prithee, woman—VOLUMNIA.Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome,And occupations perish!CORIOLANUS.What, what, what!I shall be loved when I am lacked. Nay, mother,Resume that spirit when you were wont to sayIf you had been the wife of Hercules,Six of his labours you’d have done and savedYour 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’sAnd venomous to thine eyes.—My sometime general,I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheldHeart-hard’ning spectacles. Tell these sad women’Tis fond to wail inevitable strokesAs ’tis to laugh at ’em.—My mother, you wot wellMy hazards still have been your solace, and—Believe’t not lightly—though I go alone,Like to a lonely dragon that his fenMakes feared and talked of more than seen, your sonWill or exceed the common or be caughtWith cautelous baits and practice.VOLUMNIA.My first son,Whither wilt thou go? Take good CominiusWith thee awhile. Determine on some courseMore than a wild exposture to each chanceThat starts i’ th’ way before thee.VIRGILIA.O the gods!COMINIUS.I’ll follow thee a month, devise with theeWhere thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of usAnd we of thee; so if the time thrust forthA cause for thy repeal, we shall not sendO’er the vast world to seek a single manAnd lose advantage, which doth ever coolI’ th’ absence of the needer.CORIOLANUS.Fare ye well.Thou hast years upon thee, and thou art too fullOf the wars’ surfeits to go rove with oneThat’s yet unbruised. Bring me but out at gate.—Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, andMy friends of noble touch. When I am forth,Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you, come.While I remain above the ground, you shallHear from me still, and never of me aughtBut what is like me formerly.MENENIUS.That’s worthilyAs any ear can hear. Come, let’s not weep.If I could shake off but one seven yearsFrom 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 gateEnter two Tribunes,Sicinius, Brutuswith theAedile.SICINIUS.Bid them all home. He’s gone, and we’ll no further.The nobility are vexed, whom we see have sidedIn his behalf.BRUTUS.Now we have shown our power,Let us seem humbler after it is doneThan when it was a-doing.SICINIUS.Bid them home.Say their great enemy is gone, and theyStand in their ancient strength.BRUTUS.Dismiss them home.[ExitAedile.]Here comes his mother.EnterVolumnia, VirgiliaandMenenius.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.VOLUMNIA.O, you’re well met. The hoarded plague o’ th’ godsRequite 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 Sicinius.] Will you be gone?VIRGILIA.[To Brutus.] You shall stay too. I would I had the powerTo 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 foxshipTo banish him that struck more blows for RomeThan thou hast spoken words?SICINIUS.O blessed heavens!VOLUMNIA.More 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 sonWere 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 continued to his countryAs he began, and not unknit himselfThe noble knot he made.BRUTUS.I would he had.VOLUMNIA.“I would he had?” ’Twas you incensed the rabble.Cats, that can judge as fitly of his worthAs I can of those mysteries which heavenWill not have Earth to know.BRUTUS.Pray, let’s go.VOLUMNIA.Now, pray, sir, get you gone.You have done a brave deed. Ere you go, hear this:As far as doth the Capitol exceedThe meanest house in Rome, so far my son—This lady’s husband here, this, do you see?—Whom you have banished, does exceed you all.BRUTUS.Well, well, we’ll leave you.SICINIUS.Why stay we to be baitedWith one that wants her wits?[ExeuntTribunes.]VOLUMNIA.Take my prayers with you.I would the gods had nothing else to doBut to confirm my curses. Could I meet ’emBut once a day, it would unclog my heartOf 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 myselfAnd 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![ExitMenenius.]SCENE III. A highway between Rome and AntiumEnter aRomanand aVolsce.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 th’ 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 houseEnterCoriolanusin mean apparel, disguised and muffled.CORIOLANUS.A goodly city is this Antium. City,’Tis I that made thy widows. Many an heirOf these fair edifices ’fore my warsHave I heard groan and drop. Then know me not,Lest that thy wives with spits and boys with stonesIn puny battle slay me.Enter aCitizen.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 stateAt his house this night.CORIOLANUS.Which is his house, beseech you?CITIZEN.This here before you.CORIOLANUS.Thank you, sir. Farewell.[ExitCitizen.]O world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn,Whose double bosoms seems to wear one heart,Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal and exerciseAre still together, who twin, as ’twere, in loveUnseparable, shall within this hour,On a dissension of a doit, break outTo bitterest enmity; so fellest foes,Whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleepTo take the one the other, by some chance,Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friendsAnd interjoin their issues. So with me:My birthplace hate I, and my love’s uponThis enemy town. I’ll enter. If he slay me,He does fair justice; if he give me way,I’ll do his country service.[Exit.]SCENE V. Antium. A hall in Aufidius’s houseMusic plays. Enter aServingman.FIRST SERVINGMAN.Wine, wine, wine! What service is here? I think our fellows are asleep.[Exit.]Enter anotherServingman.SECOND SERVINGMAN.Where’s Cotus? My master calls for him. Cotus![Exit.]EnterCoriolanus.CORIOLANUS.A goodly house. The feast smells well, but IAppear not like a guest.Enter the FirstServingman.FIRST SERVINGMAN.What would you have, friend? Whence are you? Here’s no place for you. Pray go to the door.[Exit.]CORIOLANUS.I have deserved no better entertainmentIn being Coriolanus.Enter SecondServingman.SECOND SERVINGMAN.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 SERVINGMAN.Away? Get you away.CORIOLANUS.Now th’ art troublesome.SECOND SERVINGMAN.Are you so brave? I’ll have you talked with anon.Enter ThirdServingman;the First, entering, meets him.THIRD SERVINGMAN.What fellow’s this?FIRST SERVINGMAN.A strange one as ever I looked on. I cannot get him out o’ th’ house. Prithee call my master to him.THIRD SERVINGMAN.What have you to do here, fellow? Pray you, avoid the house.CORIOLANUS.Let me but stand. I will not hurt your hearth.THIRD SERVINGMAN.What are you?CORIOLANUS.A gentleman.THIRD SERVINGMAN.A marv’llous poor one.CORIOLANUS.True, so I am.THIRD SERVINGMAN.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 from him.]THIRD SERVINGMAN.What, you will not?—Prithee, tell my master what a strange guest he has here.SECOND SERVINGMAN.And I shall.[Exit.]THIRD SERVINGMAN.Where dwell’st thou?CORIOLANUS.Under the canopy.THIRD SERVINGMAN.Under the canopy?CORIOLANUS.Ay.THIRD SERVINGMAN.Where’s that?CORIOLANUS.I’ th’ city of kites and crows.THIRD SERVINGMAN.I’ th’ 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 SERVINGMAN.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.][ExitThird Servingman.]EnterAufidiuswith the SecondServingman.AUFIDIUS.Where is this fellow?SECOND SERVINGMAN.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.[Removing his muffler.] If, Tullus,Not yet thou know’st me, and, seeing me, dost notThink me for the man I am, necessityCommands me name myself.AUFIDIUS.What is thy name?CORIOLANUS.A name unmusical to the Volscians’ earsAnd harsh in sound to thine.AUFIDIUS.Say, what’s thy name?Thou has a grim appearance, and thy faceBears 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 Martius, who hath doneTo thee particularly and to all the VolscesGreat hurt and mischief; thereto witness mayMy surname Coriolanus. The painful service,The extreme dangers, and the drops of bloodShed for my thankless country are requitedBut with that surname, a good memoryAnd witness of the malice and displeasureWhich thou shouldst bear me. Only that name remains.The cruelty and envy of the people,Permitted by our dastard nobles, whoHave all forsook me, hath devoured the rest,And suffered me by th’ voice of slaves to beWhooped out of Rome. Now this extremityHath brought me to thy hearth, not out of hope—Mistake me not—to save my life; for ifI had feared death, of all the men i’ th’ worldI would have ’voided thee, but in mere spite,To be full quit of those my banishers,Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hastA heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revengeThine own particular wrongs and stop those maimsOf shame seen through thy country, speed thee straightAnd make my misery serve thy turn. So use itThat my revengeful services may proveAs benefits to thee, for I will fightAgainst my cankered country with the spleenOf all the under fiends. But if so beThou dar’st not this, and that to prove more fortunesThou ’rt tired, then, in a word, I also amLonger to live most weary, and presentMy throat to thee and to thy ancient malice,Which not to cut would show thee but a fool,Since I have ever followed thee with hate,Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country’s breast,And cannot live but to thy shame, unlessIt be to do thee service.AUFIDIUS.O Martius, Martius,Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heartA root of ancient envy. If JupiterShould from yond cloud speak divine thingsAnd say ’tis true, I’d not believe them moreThan thee, all-noble Martius. Let me twineMine arms about that body, whereagainstMy grained ash an hundred times hath brokeAnd scarred the moon with splinters. Here I clipThe anvil of my sword and do contestAs hotly and as nobly with thy loveAs ever in ambitious strength I didContend against thy valour. Know thou first,I loved the maid I married; never manSighed truer breath. But that I see thee here,Thou noble thing, more dances my rapt heartThan when I first my wedded mistress sawBestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars, I tell theeWe have a power on foot, and I had purposeOnce more to hew thy target from thy brawnOr lose mine arm for’t. Thou hast beat me outTwelve several times, and I have nightly sinceDreamt of encounters ’twixt thyself and me;We have been down together in my sleep,Unbuckling helms, fisting each other’s throat,And waked half dead with nothing. Worthy Martius,Had we no other quarrel else to Rome but thatThou art thence banished, we would muster allFrom twelve to seventy and, pouring warInto the bowels of ungrateful Rome,Like a bold flood o’erbear ’t. O, come, go in,And take our friendly senators by th’ hands,Who now are here, taking their leaves of me,Who am prepared against your territories,Though not for Rome itself.CORIOLANUS.You bless me, gods!AUFIDIUS.Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt haveThe leading of thine own revenges, takeTh’ one half of my commission and set down—As best thou art experienced, since thou know’stThy country’s strength and weakness—thine own ways,Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,Or rudely visit them in parts remoteTo fright them ere destroy. But come in.Let me commend thee first to those that shallSay yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes!And more a friend than e’er an enemy—Yet, Martius, that was much. Your hand. Most welcome![ExeuntCoriolanusandAufidius.]Two of theServingmencome forward.FIRST SERVINGMAN.Here’s a strange alteration!SECOND SERVINGMAN.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 SERVINGMAN.What an arm he has! He turned me about with his finger and his thumb as one would set up a top.SECOND SERVINGMAN.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 SERVINGMAN.He had so, looking as it were—Would I were hanged, but I thought there was more in him than I could think.SECOND SERVINGMAN.So did I, I’ll be sworn. He is simply the rarest man i’ th’ world.FIRST SERVINGMAN.I think he is. But a greater soldier than he you wot one.SECOND SERVINGMAN.Who, my master?FIRST SERVINGMAN.Nay, it’s no matter for that.SECOND SERVINGMAN.Worth six on him.FIRST SERVINGMAN.Nay, not so neither. But I take him to be the greater soldier.SECOND SERVINGMAN.Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that. For the defence of a town our general is excellent.FIRST SERVINGMAN.Ay, and for an assault too.Enter the ThirdServingman.THIRD SERVINGMAN.O slaves, I can tell you news, news, you rascals!FIRST and SECOND SERVINGMAN.What, what, what? Let’s partake.THIRD SERVINGMAN.I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lief be a condemned man.FIRST and SECOND SERVINGMAN.Wherefore? Wherefore?THIRD SERVINGMAN.Why, here’s he that was wont to thwack our general, Caius Martius.FIRST SERVINGMAN.Why do you say, “thwack our general”?THIRD SERVINGMAN.I do not say “thwack our general,” but he was always good enough for him.SECOND SERVINGMAN.Come, we are fellows and friends. He was ever too hard for him; I have heard him say so himself.FIRST SERVINGMAN.He was too hard for him directly, to say the troth on’t, before Corioles; he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado.SECOND SERVINGMAN.An he had been cannibally given, he might have boiled and eaten him too.FIRST SERVINGMAN.But, more of thy news?THIRD SERVINGMAN.Why, he is so made on here within as if he were son and heir to Mars; set at upper end o’ th’ 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’ th’ eye to his discourse. But the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i’ th’ 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 th’ ears. He will mow all down before him and leave his passage polled.SECOND SERVINGMAN.And he’s as like to do’t as any man I can imagine.THIRD SERVINGMAN.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 whilest he’s in directitude.FIRST SERVINGMAN.Directitude? What’s that?THIRD SERVINGMAN.But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again, and the man in blood, they will out of their burrows like coneys after rain, and revel all with him.FIRST SERVINGMAN.But when goes this forward?THIRD SERVINGMAN.Tomorrow, today, 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 SERVINGMAN.Why then, we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers.FIRST SERVINGMAN.Let me have war, say I. It exceeds peace as far as day does night. It’s sprightly walking, 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 SERVINGMAN.’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 SERVINGMAN.Ay, and it makes men hate one another.THIRD SERVINGMAN.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 placeEnter the two Tribunes.SiciniusandBrutus.SICINIUS.We hear not of him, neither need we fear him.His remedies are tame—the present peace,And quietness of the people, which beforeWere in wild hurry. Here do we make his friendsBlush that the world goes well, who rather had,Though they themselves did suffer by’t, beholdDissentious numbers pest’ring streets than seeOur tradesmen singing in their shops and goingAbout their functions friendly.BRUTUS.We stood to’t in good time.EnterMenenius.Is this Menenius?SICINIUS.’Tis he, ’tis he. O, he is grown most kindOf late.—Hail, sir!MENENIUS.Hail to you both.SICINIUS.Your Coriolanus is not much missedBut 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 ifHe could have temporized.SICINIUS.Where is he, hear you?MENENIUS.Nay, I hear nothing;His mother and his wife hear nothing from him.Enter three or fourCitizens.ALL CITIZENS.The gods preserve you both!SICINIUS.Good e’en, our neighbours.BRUTUS.Good e’en to you all, good e’en to you all.FIRST CITIZEN.Ourselves, our wives, and children, on our kneesAre bound to pray for you both.SICINIUS.Live and thrive!BRUTUS.Farewell, kind neighbours. We wished CoriolanusHad loved you as we did.CITIZENS.Now the gods keep you!BOTH TRIBUNES.Farewell, farewell.[ExeuntCitizens.]SICINIUS.This is a happier and more comely timeThan when these fellows ran about the streetsCrying confusion.BRUTUS.Caius Martius wasA worthy officer i’ th’ war, but insolent,O’ercome with pride, ambitious, past all thinkingSelf-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 RomeSits safe and still without him.Enter anAedile.AEDILE.Worthy tribunes,There is a slave, whom we have put in prison,Reports the Volsces with two several powersAre entered in the Roman territories,And with the deepest malice of the warDestroy what lies before ’em.MENENIUS.’Tis Aufidius,Who, hearing of our Martius’ banishment,Thrusts forth his horns again into the world,Which were inshelled when Martius stood for Rome,And durst not once peep out.SICINIUS.Come, what talk you of Martius?BRUTUS.Go see this rumourer whipped. It cannot beThe Volsces dare break with us.MENENIUS.Cannot be?We have record that very well it can,And three examples of the like hath beenWithin my age. But reason with the fellowBefore you punish him, where he heard this,Lest you shall chance to whip your informationAnd beat the messenger who bids bewareOf what is to be dreaded.SICINIUS.Tell not me.I know this cannot be.BRUTUS.Not possible.Enter aMessenger.MESSENGER.The nobles in great earnestness are goingAll to the Senate House. Some news is comingThat 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 delivered.SICINIUS.What more fearful?MESSENGER.It is spoke freely out of many mouths—How probable I do not know—that Martius,Joined with Aufidius, leads a power ’gainst RomeAnd vows revenge as spacious as betweenThe young’st and oldest thing.SICINIUS.This is most likely!BRUTUS.Raised only that the weaker sort may wishGood Martius home again.SICINIUS.The very trick on ’t.MENENIUS.This is unlikely;He and Aufidius can no more atoneThan violent’st contrariety.Enter a SecondMessenger.SECOND MESSENGER.You are sent for to the Senate.A fearful army, led by Caius MartiusAssociated with Aufidius, ragesUpon our territories, and have alreadyO’erborne their way, consumed with fire and tookWhat lay before them.EnterCominius.COMINIUS.O, you have made good work!MENENIUS.What news? What news?COMINIUS.You have holp to ravish your own daughters andTo melt the city leads upon your pates,To see your wives dishonoured to your noses—MENENIUS.What’s the news? What’s the news?COMINIUS.Your temples burned in their cement, andYour franchises, whereon you stood, confinedInto an auger’s bore.MENENIUS.Pray now, your news?—You have made fair work, I fear me.—Pray, your news?If Martius should be joined with Volscians—COMINIUS.If?He is their god; he leads them like a thingMade by some other deity than Nature,That shapes man better; and they follow himAgainst us brats with no less confidenceThan boys pursuing summer butterfliesOr butchers killing flies.MENENIUS.You have made good work,You and your apron-men, you that stood so muchUpon the voice of occupation andThe 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 paleBefore you find it other. All the regionsDo smilingly revolt, and who resistsAre mocked for valiant ignoranceAnd perish constant fools. Who is’t can blame him?Your enemies and his find something in him.MENENIUS.We are all undone unlessThe noble man have mercy.COMINIUS.Who shall ask it?The Tribunes cannot do’t for shame; the peopleDeserve such pity of him as the wolfDoes of the shepherds. For his best friends, if theyShould say “Be good to Rome,” they charged him evenAs those should do that had deserved his hateAnd therein showed like enemies.MENENIUS.’Tis true.If he were putting to my house the brandThat should consume it, I have not the faceTo say “Beseech you, cease.”—You have made fair hands,You and your crafts! You have crafted fair!COMINIUS.You have broughtA trembling upon Rome such as was neverS’ incapable of help.TRIBUNES.Say not we brought it.MENENIUS.How? Was it we? We loved him, but like beastsAnd cowardly nobles, gave way unto your clusters,Who did hoot him out o’ th’ city.COMINIUS.But I fearThey’ll roar him in again. Tullus Aufidius,The second name of men, obeys his pointsAs if he were his officer. DesperationIs all the policy, strength, and defenceThat Rome can make against them.Enter a troop ofCitizens.MENENIUS.Here comes the clusters.—And is Aufidius with him? You are theyThat made the air unwholesome when you castYour stinking, greasy caps in hooting atCoriolanus’ exile. Now he’s coming,And not a hair upon a soldier’s headWhich will not prove a whip. As many coxcombsAs you threw caps up will he tumble downAnd pay you for your voices. ’Tis no matter.If he could burn us all into one coalWe 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 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?[ExeuntCominiusandMenenius.]SICINIUS.Go, masters, get you home. Be not dismayed.These are a side that would be glad to haveThis 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.[ExeuntCitizens.]BRUTUS.I do not like this news.SICINIUS.Nor I.BRUTUS.Let’s to the Capitol. Would half my wealthWould buy this for a lie!SICINIUS.Pray let’s go.[Exeunt.]SCENE VII. A camp at a short distance from RomeEnterAufidiuswith hisLieutenant.AUFIDIUS.Do they still fly to th’ Roman?LIEUTENANT.I do not know what witchcraft’s in him, butYour soldiers use him as the grace ’fore meat,Their talk at table, and their thanks at end;And you are dark’ned in this action, sir,Even by your own.AUFIDIUS.I cannot help it now,Unless by using means I lame the footOf our design. He bears himself more proudlier,Even to my person, than I thought he wouldWhen first I did embrace him. Yet his natureIn that’s no changeling, and I must excuseWhat cannot be amended.LIEUTENANT.Yet I wish, sir—I mean for your particular—you had notJoined in commission with him, but eitherHad borne the action of yourself or elseTo him had left it solely.AUFIDIUS.I understand thee well, and be thou sure,When he shall come to his account, he knows notWhat I can urge against him, although it seems,And so he thinks and is no less apparentTo th’ vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly,And shows good husbandry for the Volscian state,Fights dragonlike, and does achieve as soonAs draw his sword; yet he hath left undoneThat which shall break his neck or hazard mineWhene’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 peopleWill be as rash in the repeal as hastyTo expel him thence. I think he’ll be to RomeAs is the osprey to the fish, who takes itBy sovereignty of nature. First, he wasA noble servant to them, but he could notCarry his honours even. Whether ’twas pride,Which out of daily fortune ever taintsThe happy man; whether defect of judgment,To fail in the disposing of those chancesWhich he was lord of; or whether nature,Not to be other than one thing, not movingFrom th’ casque to th’ cushion, but commanding peaceEven with the same austerity and garbAs he controlled the war; but one of these—As he hath spices of them all—not all,For I dare so far free him—made him feared,So hated, and so banished. But he has a meritTo choke it in the utt’rance. So our virtuesLie in th’ interpretation of the time,And power, unto itself most commendable,Hath not a tomb so evident as a chairT’ 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.]
EnterCoriolanus, Volumnia, Virgilia, Menenius, Cominiuswith the young nobility of Rome.
CORIOLANUS.Come, leave your tears. A brief farewell. The beastWith many heads butts me away. Nay, mother,Where is your ancient courage? You were usedTo say extremities was the trier of spirits;That common chances common men could bear;That when the sea was calm, all boats alikeShowed mastership in floating; fortune’s blowsWhen most struck home, being gentle wounded cravesA noble cunning. You were used to load meWith precepts that would make invincibleThe heart that conned them.
VIRGILIA.O heavens! O heavens!
CORIOLANUS.Nay, I prithee, woman—
VOLUMNIA.Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome,And occupations perish!
CORIOLANUS.What, what, what!I shall be loved when I am lacked. Nay, mother,Resume that spirit when you were wont to sayIf you had been the wife of Hercules,Six of his labours you’d have done and savedYour 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’sAnd venomous to thine eyes.—My sometime general,I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheldHeart-hard’ning spectacles. Tell these sad women’Tis fond to wail inevitable strokesAs ’tis to laugh at ’em.—My mother, you wot wellMy hazards still have been your solace, and—Believe’t not lightly—though I go alone,Like to a lonely dragon that his fenMakes feared and talked of more than seen, your sonWill or exceed the common or be caughtWith cautelous baits and practice.
VOLUMNIA.My first son,Whither wilt thou go? Take good CominiusWith thee awhile. Determine on some courseMore than a wild exposture to each chanceThat starts i’ th’ way before thee.
VIRGILIA.O the gods!
COMINIUS.I’ll follow thee a month, devise with theeWhere thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of usAnd we of thee; so if the time thrust forthA cause for thy repeal, we shall not sendO’er the vast world to seek a single manAnd lose advantage, which doth ever coolI’ th’ absence of the needer.
CORIOLANUS.Fare ye well.Thou hast years upon thee, and thou art too fullOf the wars’ surfeits to go rove with oneThat’s yet unbruised. Bring me but out at gate.—Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, andMy friends of noble touch. When I am forth,Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you, come.While I remain above the ground, you shallHear from me still, and never of me aughtBut what is like me formerly.
MENENIUS.That’s worthilyAs any ear can hear. Come, let’s not weep.If I could shake off but one seven yearsFrom these old arms and legs, by the good gods,I’d with thee every foot.
CORIOLANUS.Give me thy hand.Come.
[Exeunt.]
Enter two Tribunes,Sicinius, Brutuswith theAedile.
SICINIUS.Bid them all home. He’s gone, and we’ll no further.The nobility are vexed, whom we see have sidedIn his behalf.
BRUTUS.Now we have shown our power,Let us seem humbler after it is doneThan when it was a-doing.
SICINIUS.Bid them home.Say their great enemy is gone, and theyStand in their ancient strength.
BRUTUS.Dismiss them home.
[ExitAedile.]
Here comes his mother.
EnterVolumnia, VirgiliaandMenenius.
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.
VOLUMNIA.O, you’re well met. The hoarded plague o’ th’ godsRequite 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 Sicinius.] Will you be gone?
VIRGILIA.[To Brutus.] You shall stay too. I would I had the powerTo 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 foxshipTo banish him that struck more blows for RomeThan thou hast spoken words?
SICINIUS.O blessed heavens!
VOLUMNIA.More 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 sonWere 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 continued to his countryAs he began, and not unknit himselfThe noble knot he made.
BRUTUS.I would he had.
VOLUMNIA.“I would he had?” ’Twas you incensed the rabble.Cats, that can judge as fitly of his worthAs I can of those mysteries which heavenWill not have Earth to know.
BRUTUS.Pray, let’s go.
VOLUMNIA.Now, pray, sir, get you gone.You have done a brave deed. Ere you go, hear this:As far as doth the Capitol exceedThe meanest house in Rome, so far my son—This lady’s husband here, this, do you see?—Whom you have banished, does exceed you all.
BRUTUS.Well, well, we’ll leave you.
SICINIUS.Why stay we to be baitedWith one that wants her wits?
[ExeuntTribunes.]
VOLUMNIA.Take my prayers with you.I would the gods had nothing else to doBut to confirm my curses. Could I meet ’emBut once a day, it would unclog my heartOf 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 myselfAnd 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!
[ExitMenenius.]
Enter aRomanand aVolsce.
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 th’ 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.]
EnterCoriolanusin mean apparel, disguised and muffled.
CORIOLANUS.A goodly city is this Antium. City,’Tis I that made thy widows. Many an heirOf these fair edifices ’fore my warsHave I heard groan and drop. Then know me not,Lest that thy wives with spits and boys with stonesIn puny battle slay me.
Enter aCitizen.
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 stateAt his house this night.
CORIOLANUS.Which is his house, beseech you?
CITIZEN.This here before you.
CORIOLANUS.Thank you, sir. Farewell.
[ExitCitizen.]
O world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn,Whose double bosoms seems to wear one heart,Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal and exerciseAre still together, who twin, as ’twere, in loveUnseparable, shall within this hour,On a dissension of a doit, break outTo bitterest enmity; so fellest foes,Whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleepTo take the one the other, by some chance,Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friendsAnd interjoin their issues. So with me:My birthplace hate I, and my love’s uponThis enemy town. I’ll enter. If he slay me,He does fair justice; if he give me way,I’ll do his country service.
[Exit.]
Music plays. Enter aServingman.
FIRST SERVINGMAN.Wine, wine, wine! What service is here? I think our fellows are asleep.
[Exit.]
Enter anotherServingman.
SECOND SERVINGMAN.Where’s Cotus? My master calls for him. Cotus!
[Exit.]
EnterCoriolanus.
CORIOLANUS.A goodly house. The feast smells well, but IAppear not like a guest.
Enter the FirstServingman.
FIRST SERVINGMAN.What would you have, friend? Whence are you? Here’s no place for you. Pray go to the door.
[Exit.]
CORIOLANUS.I have deserved no better entertainmentIn being Coriolanus.
Enter SecondServingman.
SECOND SERVINGMAN.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 SERVINGMAN.Away? Get you away.
CORIOLANUS.Now th’ art troublesome.
SECOND SERVINGMAN.Are you so brave? I’ll have you talked with anon.
Enter ThirdServingman;the First, entering, meets him.
THIRD SERVINGMAN.What fellow’s this?
FIRST SERVINGMAN.A strange one as ever I looked on. I cannot get him out o’ th’ house. Prithee call my master to him.
THIRD SERVINGMAN.What have you to do here, fellow? Pray you, avoid the house.
CORIOLANUS.Let me but stand. I will not hurt your hearth.
THIRD SERVINGMAN.What are you?
CORIOLANUS.A gentleman.
THIRD SERVINGMAN.A marv’llous poor one.
CORIOLANUS.True, so I am.
THIRD SERVINGMAN.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 from him.]
THIRD SERVINGMAN.What, you will not?—Prithee, tell my master what a strange guest he has here.
SECOND SERVINGMAN.And I shall.
[Exit.]
THIRD SERVINGMAN.Where dwell’st thou?
CORIOLANUS.Under the canopy.
THIRD SERVINGMAN.Under the canopy?
CORIOLANUS.Ay.
THIRD SERVINGMAN.Where’s that?
CORIOLANUS.I’ th’ city of kites and crows.
THIRD SERVINGMAN.I’ th’ 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 SERVINGMAN.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.]
[ExitThird Servingman.]
EnterAufidiuswith the SecondServingman.
AUFIDIUS.Where is this fellow?
SECOND SERVINGMAN.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.[Removing his muffler.] If, Tullus,Not yet thou know’st me, and, seeing me, dost notThink me for the man I am, necessityCommands me name myself.
AUFIDIUS.What is thy name?
CORIOLANUS.A name unmusical to the Volscians’ earsAnd harsh in sound to thine.
AUFIDIUS.Say, what’s thy name?Thou has a grim appearance, and thy faceBears 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 Martius, who hath doneTo thee particularly and to all the VolscesGreat hurt and mischief; thereto witness mayMy surname Coriolanus. The painful service,The extreme dangers, and the drops of bloodShed for my thankless country are requitedBut with that surname, a good memoryAnd witness of the malice and displeasureWhich thou shouldst bear me. Only that name remains.The cruelty and envy of the people,Permitted by our dastard nobles, whoHave all forsook me, hath devoured the rest,And suffered me by th’ voice of slaves to beWhooped out of Rome. Now this extremityHath brought me to thy hearth, not out of hope—Mistake me not—to save my life; for ifI had feared death, of all the men i’ th’ worldI would have ’voided thee, but in mere spite,To be full quit of those my banishers,Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hastA heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revengeThine own particular wrongs and stop those maimsOf shame seen through thy country, speed thee straightAnd make my misery serve thy turn. So use itThat my revengeful services may proveAs benefits to thee, for I will fightAgainst my cankered country with the spleenOf all the under fiends. But if so beThou dar’st not this, and that to prove more fortunesThou ’rt tired, then, in a word, I also amLonger to live most weary, and presentMy throat to thee and to thy ancient malice,Which not to cut would show thee but a fool,Since I have ever followed thee with hate,Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country’s breast,And cannot live but to thy shame, unlessIt be to do thee service.
AUFIDIUS.O Martius, Martius,Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heartA root of ancient envy. If JupiterShould from yond cloud speak divine thingsAnd say ’tis true, I’d not believe them moreThan thee, all-noble Martius. Let me twineMine arms about that body, whereagainstMy grained ash an hundred times hath brokeAnd scarred the moon with splinters. Here I clipThe anvil of my sword and do contestAs hotly and as nobly with thy loveAs ever in ambitious strength I didContend against thy valour. Know thou first,I loved the maid I married; never manSighed truer breath. But that I see thee here,Thou noble thing, more dances my rapt heartThan when I first my wedded mistress sawBestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars, I tell theeWe have a power on foot, and I had purposeOnce more to hew thy target from thy brawnOr lose mine arm for’t. Thou hast beat me outTwelve several times, and I have nightly sinceDreamt of encounters ’twixt thyself and me;We have been down together in my sleep,Unbuckling helms, fisting each other’s throat,And waked half dead with nothing. Worthy Martius,Had we no other quarrel else to Rome but thatThou art thence banished, we would muster allFrom twelve to seventy and, pouring warInto the bowels of ungrateful Rome,Like a bold flood o’erbear ’t. O, come, go in,And take our friendly senators by th’ hands,Who now are here, taking their leaves of me,Who am prepared against your territories,Though not for Rome itself.
CORIOLANUS.You bless me, gods!
AUFIDIUS.Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt haveThe leading of thine own revenges, takeTh’ one half of my commission and set down—As best thou art experienced, since thou know’stThy country’s strength and weakness—thine own ways,Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,Or rudely visit them in parts remoteTo fright them ere destroy. But come in.Let me commend thee first to those that shallSay yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes!And more a friend than e’er an enemy—Yet, Martius, that was much. Your hand. Most welcome!
[ExeuntCoriolanusandAufidius.]
Two of theServingmencome forward.
FIRST SERVINGMAN.Here’s a strange alteration!
SECOND SERVINGMAN.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 SERVINGMAN.What an arm he has! He turned me about with his finger and his thumb as one would set up a top.
SECOND SERVINGMAN.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 SERVINGMAN.He had so, looking as it were—Would I were hanged, but I thought there was more in him than I could think.
SECOND SERVINGMAN.So did I, I’ll be sworn. He is simply the rarest man i’ th’ world.
FIRST SERVINGMAN.I think he is. But a greater soldier than he you wot one.
SECOND SERVINGMAN.Who, my master?
FIRST SERVINGMAN.Nay, it’s no matter for that.
SECOND SERVINGMAN.Worth six on him.
FIRST SERVINGMAN.Nay, not so neither. But I take him to be the greater soldier.
SECOND SERVINGMAN.Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that. For the defence of a town our general is excellent.
FIRST SERVINGMAN.Ay, and for an assault too.
Enter the ThirdServingman.
THIRD SERVINGMAN.O slaves, I can tell you news, news, you rascals!
FIRST and SECOND SERVINGMAN.What, what, what? Let’s partake.
THIRD SERVINGMAN.I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lief be a condemned man.
FIRST and SECOND SERVINGMAN.Wherefore? Wherefore?
THIRD SERVINGMAN.Why, here’s he that was wont to thwack our general, Caius Martius.
FIRST SERVINGMAN.Why do you say, “thwack our general”?
THIRD SERVINGMAN.I do not say “thwack our general,” but he was always good enough for him.
SECOND SERVINGMAN.Come, we are fellows and friends. He was ever too hard for him; I have heard him say so himself.
FIRST SERVINGMAN.He was too hard for him directly, to say the troth on’t, before Corioles; he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado.
SECOND SERVINGMAN.An he had been cannibally given, he might have boiled and eaten him too.
FIRST SERVINGMAN.But, more of thy news?
THIRD SERVINGMAN.Why, he is so made on here within as if he were son and heir to Mars; set at upper end o’ th’ 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’ th’ eye to his discourse. But the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i’ th’ 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 th’ ears. He will mow all down before him and leave his passage polled.
SECOND SERVINGMAN.And he’s as like to do’t as any man I can imagine.
THIRD SERVINGMAN.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 whilest he’s in directitude.
FIRST SERVINGMAN.Directitude? What’s that?
THIRD SERVINGMAN.But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again, and the man in blood, they will out of their burrows like coneys after rain, and revel all with him.
FIRST SERVINGMAN.But when goes this forward?
THIRD SERVINGMAN.Tomorrow, today, 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 SERVINGMAN.Why then, we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers.
FIRST SERVINGMAN.Let me have war, say I. It exceeds peace as far as day does night. It’s sprightly walking, 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 SERVINGMAN.’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 SERVINGMAN.Ay, and it makes men hate one another.
THIRD SERVINGMAN.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.]
Enter the two Tribunes.SiciniusandBrutus.
SICINIUS.We hear not of him, neither need we fear him.His remedies are tame—the present peace,And quietness of the people, which beforeWere in wild hurry. Here do we make his friendsBlush that the world goes well, who rather had,Though they themselves did suffer by’t, beholdDissentious numbers pest’ring streets than seeOur tradesmen singing in their shops and goingAbout their functions friendly.
BRUTUS.We stood to’t in good time.
EnterMenenius.
Is this Menenius?
SICINIUS.’Tis he, ’tis he. O, he is grown most kindOf late.—Hail, sir!
MENENIUS.Hail to you both.
SICINIUS.Your Coriolanus is not much missedBut 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 ifHe could have temporized.
SICINIUS.Where is he, hear you?
MENENIUS.Nay, I hear nothing;His mother and his wife hear nothing from him.
Enter three or fourCitizens.
ALL CITIZENS.The gods preserve you both!
SICINIUS.Good e’en, our neighbours.
BRUTUS.Good e’en to you all, good e’en to you all.
FIRST CITIZEN.Ourselves, our wives, and children, on our kneesAre bound to pray for you both.
SICINIUS.Live and thrive!
BRUTUS.Farewell, kind neighbours. We wished CoriolanusHad loved you as we did.
CITIZENS.Now the gods keep you!
BOTH TRIBUNES.Farewell, farewell.
[ExeuntCitizens.]
SICINIUS.This is a happier and more comely timeThan when these fellows ran about the streetsCrying confusion.
BRUTUS.Caius Martius wasA worthy officer i’ th’ war, but insolent,O’ercome with pride, ambitious, past all thinkingSelf-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 RomeSits safe and still without him.
Enter anAedile.
AEDILE.Worthy tribunes,There is a slave, whom we have put in prison,Reports the Volsces with two several powersAre entered in the Roman territories,And with the deepest malice of the warDestroy what lies before ’em.
MENENIUS.’Tis Aufidius,Who, hearing of our Martius’ banishment,Thrusts forth his horns again into the world,Which were inshelled when Martius stood for Rome,And durst not once peep out.
SICINIUS.Come, what talk you of Martius?
BRUTUS.Go see this rumourer whipped. It cannot beThe Volsces dare break with us.
MENENIUS.Cannot be?We have record that very well it can,And three examples of the like hath beenWithin my age. But reason with the fellowBefore you punish him, where he heard this,Lest you shall chance to whip your informationAnd beat the messenger who bids bewareOf what is to be dreaded.
SICINIUS.Tell not me.I know this cannot be.
BRUTUS.Not possible.
Enter aMessenger.
MESSENGER.The nobles in great earnestness are goingAll to the Senate House. Some news is comingThat 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 delivered.
SICINIUS.What more fearful?
MESSENGER.It is spoke freely out of many mouths—How probable I do not know—that Martius,Joined with Aufidius, leads a power ’gainst RomeAnd vows revenge as spacious as betweenThe young’st and oldest thing.
SICINIUS.This is most likely!
BRUTUS.Raised only that the weaker sort may wishGood Martius home again.
SICINIUS.The very trick on ’t.
MENENIUS.This is unlikely;He and Aufidius can no more atoneThan violent’st contrariety.
Enter a SecondMessenger.
SECOND MESSENGER.You are sent for to the Senate.A fearful army, led by Caius MartiusAssociated with Aufidius, ragesUpon our territories, and have alreadyO’erborne their way, consumed with fire and tookWhat lay before them.
EnterCominius.
COMINIUS.O, you have made good work!
MENENIUS.What news? What news?
COMINIUS.You have holp to ravish your own daughters andTo melt the city leads upon your pates,To see your wives dishonoured to your noses—
MENENIUS.What’s the news? What’s the news?
COMINIUS.Your temples burned in their cement, andYour franchises, whereon you stood, confinedInto an auger’s bore.
MENENIUS.Pray now, your news?—You have made fair work, I fear me.—Pray, your news?If Martius should be joined with Volscians—
COMINIUS.If?He is their god; he leads them like a thingMade by some other deity than Nature,That shapes man better; and they follow himAgainst us brats with no less confidenceThan boys pursuing summer butterfliesOr butchers killing flies.
MENENIUS.You have made good work,You and your apron-men, you that stood so muchUpon the voice of occupation andThe 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 paleBefore you find it other. All the regionsDo smilingly revolt, and who resistsAre mocked for valiant ignoranceAnd perish constant fools. Who is’t can blame him?Your enemies and his find something in him.
MENENIUS.We are all undone unlessThe noble man have mercy.
COMINIUS.Who shall ask it?The Tribunes cannot do’t for shame; the peopleDeserve such pity of him as the wolfDoes of the shepherds. For his best friends, if theyShould say “Be good to Rome,” they charged him evenAs those should do that had deserved his hateAnd therein showed like enemies.
MENENIUS.’Tis true.If he were putting to my house the brandThat should consume it, I have not the faceTo say “Beseech you, cease.”—You have made fair hands,You and your crafts! You have crafted fair!
COMINIUS.You have broughtA trembling upon Rome such as was neverS’ incapable of help.
TRIBUNES.Say not we brought it.
MENENIUS.How? Was it we? We loved him, but like beastsAnd cowardly nobles, gave way unto your clusters,Who did hoot him out o’ th’ city.
COMINIUS.But I fearThey’ll roar him in again. Tullus Aufidius,The second name of men, obeys his pointsAs if he were his officer. DesperationIs all the policy, strength, and defenceThat Rome can make against them.
Enter a troop ofCitizens.
MENENIUS.Here comes the clusters.—And is Aufidius with him? You are theyThat made the air unwholesome when you castYour stinking, greasy caps in hooting atCoriolanus’ exile. Now he’s coming,And not a hair upon a soldier’s headWhich will not prove a whip. As many coxcombsAs you threw caps up will he tumble downAnd pay you for your voices. ’Tis no matter.If he could burn us all into one coalWe 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 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?
[ExeuntCominiusandMenenius.]
SICINIUS.Go, masters, get you home. Be not dismayed.These are a side that would be glad to haveThis 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.
[ExeuntCitizens.]
BRUTUS.I do not like this news.
SICINIUS.Nor I.
BRUTUS.Let’s to the Capitol. Would half my wealthWould buy this for a lie!
SICINIUS.Pray let’s go.
[Exeunt.]
EnterAufidiuswith hisLieutenant.
AUFIDIUS.Do they still fly to th’ Roman?
LIEUTENANT.I do not know what witchcraft’s in him, butYour soldiers use him as the grace ’fore meat,Their talk at table, and their thanks at end;And you are dark’ned in this action, sir,Even by your own.
AUFIDIUS.I cannot help it now,Unless by using means I lame the footOf our design. He bears himself more proudlier,Even to my person, than I thought he wouldWhen first I did embrace him. Yet his natureIn that’s no changeling, and I must excuseWhat cannot be amended.
LIEUTENANT.Yet I wish, sir—I mean for your particular—you had notJoined in commission with him, but eitherHad borne the action of yourself or elseTo him had left it solely.
AUFIDIUS.I understand thee well, and be thou sure,When he shall come to his account, he knows notWhat I can urge against him, although it seems,And so he thinks and is no less apparentTo th’ vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly,And shows good husbandry for the Volscian state,Fights dragonlike, and does achieve as soonAs draw his sword; yet he hath left undoneThat which shall break his neck or hazard mineWhene’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 peopleWill be as rash in the repeal as hastyTo expel him thence. I think he’ll be to RomeAs is the osprey to the fish, who takes itBy sovereignty of nature. First, he wasA noble servant to them, but he could notCarry his honours even. Whether ’twas pride,Which out of daily fortune ever taintsThe happy man; whether defect of judgment,To fail in the disposing of those chancesWhich he was lord of; or whether nature,Not to be other than one thing, not movingFrom th’ casque to th’ cushion, but commanding peaceEven with the same austerity and garbAs he controlled the war; but one of these—As he hath spices of them all—not all,For I dare so far free him—made him feared,So hated, and so banished. But he has a meritTo choke it in the utt’rance. So our virtuesLie in th’ interpretation of the time,And power, unto itself most commendable,Hath not a tomb so evident as a chairT’ 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.]