The Tragedy Of Coriolanus

1 Enter a company of mutinous Citizens, with staves, clubs, and other
2 weapons.
3 FIRST CITIZEN.
4 Before we proceed any further, hear me speak.
5 ALL.
6 Speak, speak!
7 FIRST CITIZEN.
8 You are all resolved rather to die than to famish?
9 ALL.
10 Resolved, resolved!
11 FIRST CITIZEN.
12 First, you know Caius Martius is chief enemy to the people.
13 ALL.
14 We know’t, we know’t!
15 FIRST CITIZEN.
16 Let us kill him, and we’ll have corn at our own price. Is’t a verdict?
17 ALL.
18 No more talking on’t; let it be done. Away, away!
19 SECOND CITIZEN.
20 One word, good citizens.
21 FIRST CITIZEN.
22 We are accounted poor citizens, the patricians good. What authority
23 surfeits on would relieve us. If they would yield us but the
24 superfluity while it were wholesome, we might guess they relieved us
25 humanely. But they think we are too dear. The leanness that afflicts
26 us, the object of our misery, is as an inventory to particularize their
27 abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this with
28 our pikes ere we become rakes; for the gods know I speak this in hunger
29 for bread, not in thirst for revenge.
30 SECOND CITIZEN.
31 Would you proceed especially against Caius Martius?
32 FIRST CITIZEN.
33 Against him first. He’s a very dog to the commonalty.
34 SECOND CITIZEN.
35 Consider you what services he has done for his country?
36 FIRST CITIZEN.
37 Very well, and could be content to give him good report for’t, but that
38 he pays himself with being proud.
39 SECOND CITIZEN.
40 Nay, but speak not maliciously.
41 FIRST CITIZEN.
42 I say unto you, what he hath done famously he did it to that end.
43 Though soft-conscienced men can be content to say it was for his
44 country, he did it to please his mother and to be partly proud, which
45 he is, even to the altitude of his virtue.
46 SECOND CITIZEN.
47 What he cannot help in his nature you account a vice in him. You must
48 in no way say he is covetous.
49 FIRST CITIZEN.
50 If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations. He hath faults,
51 with surplus, to tire in repetition. [_Shouts within_.] What shouts are
52 these? The other side o’ th’ city is risen. Why stay we prating here?
53 To th’ Capitol!
54 ALL.
55 Come, come!
56 Enter Menenius Agrippa.
57 FIRST CITIZEN.
58 Soft, who comes here?
59 SECOND CITIZEN.
60 Worthy Menenius Agrippa, one that hath always loved the people.
61 FIRST CITIZEN.
62 He’s one honest enough. Would all the rest were so!
63 MENENIUS.
64 What work’s, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you
65 With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray you.
66 FIRST CITIZEN.
67 Our business is not unknown to th’ Senate. They have had inkling this
68 fortnight what we intend to do, which now we’ll show ’em in deeds. They
69 say poor suitors have strong breaths; they shall know we have strong
70 arms too.
71 MENENIUS.
72 Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours,
73 Will you undo yourselves?
74 FIRST CITIZEN.
75 We cannot, sir; we are undone already.
76 MENENIUS.
77 I tell you, friends, most charitable care
78 Have the patricians of you. For your wants,
79 Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well
80 Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them
81 Against the Roman state, whose course will on
82 The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs
83 Of more strong link asunder than can ever
84 Appear in your impediment. For the dearth,
85 The gods, not the patricians, make it, and
86 Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack,
87 You are transported by calamity
88 Thither where more attends you, and you slander
89 The helms o’ th’ state, who care for you like fathers,
90 When you curse them as enemies.
91 FIRST CITIZEN.
92 Care for us? True, indeed! They ne’er cared for us yet. Suffer us to
93 famish, and their storehouses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury
94 to support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act established against
95 the rich, and provide more piercing statutes daily to chain up and
96 restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there’s
97 all the love they bear us.
98 MENENIUS.
99 Either you must confess yourselves wondrous malicious
100 Or be accused of folly. I shall tell you
101 A pretty tale. It may be you have heard it,
102 But since it serves my purpose, I will venture
103 To stale’t a little more.
104 FIRST CITIZEN.
105 Well, I’ll hear it, sir; yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace
106 with a tale. But, an’t please you, deliver.
107 MENENIUS.
108 There was a time when all the body’s members
109 Rebelled against the belly, thus accused it:
110 That only like a gulf it did remain
111 I’ th’ midst o’ th’ body, idle and unactive,
112 Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing
113 Like labour with the rest, where th’ other instruments
114 Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,
115 And, mutually participate, did minister
116 Unto the appetite and affection common
117 Of the whole body. The belly answered—
118 FIRST CITIZEN.
119 Well, sir, what answer made the belly?
120 MENENIUS.
121 Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile,
122 Which ne’er came from the lungs, but even thus—
123 For, look you, I may make the belly smile
124 As well as speak—it tauntingly replied
125 To th’ discontented members, the mutinous parts
126 That envied his receipt; even so most fitly
127 As you malign our senators for that
128 They are not such as you.
129 FIRST CITIZEN.
130 Your belly’s answer—what?
131 The kingly crowned head, the vigilant eye,
132 The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,
133 Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter,
134 With other muniments and petty helps
135 Is this our fabric, if that they—
136 MENENIUS.
137 What then?
138 ’Fore me, this fellow speaks. What then? What then?
139 FIRST CITIZEN.
140 Should by the cormorant belly be restrained,
141 Who is the sink o’ th’ body—
142 MENENIUS.
143 Well, what then?
144 FIRST CITIZEN.
145 The former agents, if they did complain,
146 What could the belly answer?
147 MENENIUS.
148 I will tell you,
149 If you’ll bestow a small—of what you have little—
150 Patience awhile, you’st hear the belly’s answer.
151 FIRST CITIZEN.
152 You are long about it.
153 MENENIUS.
154 Note me this, good friend;
155 Your most grave belly was deliberate,
156 Not rash like his accusers, and thus answered:
157 “True is it, my incorporate friends,” quoth he,
158 “That I receive the general food at first
159 Which you do live upon; and fit it is,
160 Because I am the storehouse and the shop
161 Of the whole body. But, if you do remember,
162 I send it through the rivers of your blood
163 Even to the court, the heart, to th’ seat o’ th’ brain;
164 And, through the cranks and offices of man,
165 The strongest nerves and small inferior veins
166 From me receive that natural competency
167 Whereby they live. And though that all at once,
168 You, my good friends”—this says the belly, mark me—
169 FIRST CITIZEN.
170 Ay, sir, well, well.
171 MENENIUS.
172 “Though all at once cannot
173 See what I do deliver out to each,
174 Yet I can make my audit up, that all
175 From me do back receive the flour of all,
176 And leave me but the bran.” What say you to’t?
177 FIRST CITIZEN.
178 It was an answer. How apply you this?
179 MENENIUS.
180 The senators of Rome are this good belly,
181 And you the mutinous members. For examine
182 Their counsels and their cares, digest things rightly
183 Touching the weal o’ th’ common, you shall find
184 No public benefit which you receive
185 But it proceeds or comes from them to you
186 And no way from yourselves. What do you think,
187 You, the great toe of this assembly?
188 FIRST CITIZEN.
189 I the great toe? Why the great toe?
190 MENENIUS.
191 For that, being one o’ th’ lowest, basest, poorest,
192 Of this most wise rebellion, thou goest foremost.
193 Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run,
194 Lead’st first to win some vantage.
195 But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs.
196 Rome and her rats are at the point of battle;
197 The one side must have bale.
198 Enter Caius Martius.
199 Hail, noble Martius.
200 MARTIUS.
201 Thanks.—What’s the matter, you dissentious rogues,
202 That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,
203 Make yourselves scabs?
204 FIRST CITIZEN.
205 We have ever your good word.
206 MARTIUS.
207 He that will give good words to thee will flatter
208 Beneath abhorring. What would you have, you curs,
209 That like nor peace nor war? The one affrights you;
210 The other makes you proud. He that trusts to you,
211 Where he should find you lions, finds you hares;
212 Where foxes, geese. You are no surer, no,
213 Than is the coal of fire upon the ice
214 Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is
215 To make him worthy whose offence subdues him,
216 And curse that justice did it. Who deserves greatness
217 Deserves your hate; and your affections are
218 A sick man’s appetite, who desires most that
219 Which would increase his evil. He that depends
220 Upon your favours swims with fins of lead,
221 And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye?
222 With every minute you do change a mind
223 And call him noble that was now your hate,
224 Him vile that was your garland. What’s the matter,
225 That in these several places of the city
226 You cry against the noble senate, who,
227 Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else
228 Would feed on one another?—What’s their seeking?
229 MENENIUS.
230 For corn at their own rates, whereof they say
231 The city is well stored.
232 MARTIUS.
233 Hang ’em! They say?
234 They’ll sit by th’ fire and presume to know
235 What’s done i’ th’ Capitol, who’s like to rise,
236 Who thrives and who declines; side factions and give out
237 Conjectural marriages, making parties strong
238 And feebling such as stand not in their liking
239 Below their cobbled shoes. They say there’s grain enough?
240 Would the nobility lay aside their ruth
241 And let me use my sword, I’d make a quarry
242 With thousands of these quartered slaves as high
243 As I could pick my lance.
244 MENENIUS.
245 Nay, these are almost thoroughly persuaded;
246 For though abundantly they lack discretion,
247 Yet are they passing cowardly. But I beseech you,
248 What says the other troop?
249 MARTIUS.
250 They are dissolved. Hang ’em!
251 They said they were an-hungry, sighed forth proverbs
252 That hunger broke stone walls, that dogs must eat,
253 That meat was made for mouths, that the gods sent not
254 Corn for the rich men only. With these shreds
255 They vented their complainings, which being answered
256 And a petition granted them—a strange one,
257 To break the heart of generosity
258 And make bold power look pale—they threw their caps
259 As they would hang them on the horns o’ th’ moon,
260 Shouting their emulation.
261 MENENIUS.
262 What is granted them?
263 MARTIUS.
264 Five tribunes to defend their vulgar wisdoms,
265 Of their own choice. One’s Junius Brutus,
266 Sicinius Velutus, and I know not. ’Sdeath!
267 The rabble should have first unroofed the city
268 Ere so prevailed with me. It will in time
269 Win upon power and throw forth greater themes
270 For insurrection’s arguing.
271 MENENIUS.
272 This is strange.
273 MARTIUS.
274 Go get you home, you fragments.
275 Enter a Messenger hastily.
276 MESSENGER.
277 Where’s Caius Martius?
278 MARTIUS.
279 Here. What’s the matter?
280 MESSENGER.
281 The news is, sir, the Volsces are in arms.
282 MARTIUS.
283 I am glad on’t. Then we shall ha’ means to vent
284 Our musty superfluity.
285 Enter Sicinius Velutus, Junius Brutus, two Tribunes; Cominius, Titus
286 Lartius with other Senators.
287 See, our best elders.
288 FIRST SENATOR.
289 Martius, ’tis true that you have lately told us:
290 The Volsces are in arms.
291 MARTIUS.
292 They have a leader,
293 Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to’t.
294 I sin in envying his nobility,
295 And, were I anything but what I am,
296 I would wish me only he.
297 COMINIUS.
298 You have fought together.
299 MARTIUS.
300 Were half to half the world by th’ ears and he
301 Upon my party, I’d revolt, to make
302 Only my wars with him. He is a lion
303 That I am proud to hunt.
304 FIRST SENATOR.
305 Then, worthy Martius,
306 Attend upon Cominius to these wars.
307 COMINIUS.
308 It is your former promise.
309 MARTIUS.
310 Sir, it is,
311 And I am constant.—Titus Lartius, thou
312 Shalt see me once more strike at Tullus’ face.
313 What, art thou stiff? Stand’st out?
314 TITUS LARTIUS.
315 No, Caius Martius,
316 I’ll lean upon one crutch and fight with th’ other
317 Ere stay behind this business.
318 MENENIUS.
319 O, true bred!
320 FIRST SENATOR.
321 Your company to th’ Capitol, where I know
322 Our greatest friends attend us.
323 TITUS LARTIUS.
324 Lead you on.
325 Follow Cominius. We must follow you;
326 Right worthy your priority.
327 COMINIUS.
328 Noble Martius.
329 FIRST SENATOR.
330 [_To the Citizens_.]
331 Hence to your homes, begone.
332 MARTIUS.
333 Nay, let them follow.
334 The Volsces have much corn; take these rats thither
335 To gnaw their garners. Worshipful mutineers,
336 Your valour puts well forth. Pray follow.
337 [_Exeunt. Sicinius and Brutus remain_.]
338 SICINIUS.
339 Was ever man so proud as is this Martius?
340 BRUTUS.
341 He has no equal.
342 SICINIUS.
343 When we were chosen tribunes for the people—
344 BRUTUS.
345 Marked you his lip and eyes?
346 SICINIUS.
347 Nay, but his taunts.
348 BRUTUS.
349 Being moved, he will not spare to gird the gods.
350 SICINIUS.
351 Bemock the modest moon.
352 BRUTUS.
353 The present wars devour him! He is grown
354 Too proud to be so valiant.
355 SICINIUS.
356 Such a nature,
357 Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow
358 Which he treads on at noon. But I do wonder
359 His insolence can brook to be commanded
360 Under Cominius.
361 BRUTUS.
362 Fame, at the which he aims,
363 In whom already he’s well graced, cannot
364 Better be held nor more attained than by
365 A place below the first; for what miscarries
366 Shall be the General’s fault, though he perform
367 To th’ utmost of a man, and giddy censure
368 Will then cry out of Martius “O, if he
369 Had borne the business!”
370 SICINIUS.
371 Besides, if things go well,
372 Opinion that so sticks on Martius shall
373 Of his demerits rob Cominius.
374 BRUTUS.
375 Come.
376 Half all Cominius’ honours are to Martius,
377 Though Martius earned them not, and all his faults
378 To Martius shall be honours, though indeed
379 In aught he merit not.
380 SICINIUS.
381 Let’s hence and hear
382 How the dispatch is made, and in what fashion,
383 More than in singularity, he goes
384 Upon this present action.
385 BRUTUS.
386 Let’s along.
387 [_Exeunt._]