A street. Cornets. Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, all the Gentry, COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, and other Senators CORIOLANUS Tullus Aufidius then had made new head? LARTIUS He had, my lord; and that it was which caused Our swifter composition. CORIOLANUS So then the Volsces stand but as at first, Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make 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 safe-guard he came to me; and did curse Against the Volsces, for they had so vilely Yielded the town: he is retired to Antium. CORIOLANUS Spoke he of me? LARTIUS He did, my lord. CORIOLANUS How? what? LARTIUS How often he had met you, sword to sword;
That of all things upon the earth he hated Your person most, that he would pawn his fortunes To hopeless restitution, so he might Be 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.
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 common? 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 incensed against him. SICINIUS Stop, Or all will fall in broil. CORIOLANUS Are these your herd?
Must these have voices, that can yield them now And straight disclaim their tongues? What are your offices?
You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth?
Have you not set them on? MENENIUS Be calm, be calm. CORIOLANUS It is a purposed thing, and grows by plot, To curb the will of the nobility:
Suffer't, and live with such as cannot rule Nor ever will be ruled. BRUTUS Call't not a plot:
The people cry you mock'd them, and of late, When corn was given them gratis, you repined;
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! CORIOLANUS 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 abused; set on. This paltering Becomes not Rome, nor has Coriolanus Deserved 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 tatter 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 here to choose an officer, That with his peremptory 'shall,' being but The horn and noise o' the monster's, wants not spirit To say he'll turn your current in a ditch, And make your channel his? If he have power Then vail your 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 in Greece. By Jove himself!
