The Tragedy Of Coriolanus

1 Enter Sicinius and Brutus.
2 BRUTUS.
3 In this point charge him home, that he affects
4 Tyrannical power. If he evade us there,
5 Enforce him with his envy to the people,
6 And that the spoil got on the Antiates
7 Was ne’er distributed.
8 Enter an Aedile.
9 What, will he come?
10 AEDILE.
11 He’s coming.
12 BRUTUS.
13 How accompanied?
14 AEDILE.
15 With old Menenius, and those senators
16 That always favoured him.
17 SICINIUS.
18 Have you a catalogue
19 Of all the voices that we have procured,
20 Set down by th’ poll?
21 AEDILE.
22 I have. ’Tis ready.
23 SICINIUS.
24 Have you collected them by tribes?
25 AEDILE.
26 I have.
27 SICINIUS.
28 Assemble presently the people hither;
29 And when they hear me say “It shall be so
30 I’ th’ right and strength o’ th’ commons,” be it either
31 For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them
32 If I say “Fine,” cry “Fine,” if “Death,” cry “Death,”
33 Insisting on the old prerogative
34 And power i’ th’ truth o’ th’ cause.
35 AEDILE.
36 I shall inform them.
37 BRUTUS.
38 And when such time they have begun to cry,
39 Let them not cease, but with a din confused
40 Enforce the present execution
41 Of what we chance to sentence.
42 AEDILE.
43 Very well.
44 SICINIUS.
45 Make them be strong and ready for this hint
46 When we shall hap to give’t them.
47 BRUTUS.
48 Go about it.
49 [_Exit Aedile._]
50 Put him to choler straight. He hath been used
51 Ever to conquer and to have his worth
52 Of contradiction. Being once chafed, he cannot
53 Be reined again to temperance; then he speaks
54 What’s in his heart; and that is there which looks
55 With us to break his neck.
56 Enter Coriolanus, Menenius and Cominius with other Senators.
57 SICINIUS.
58 Well, here he comes.
59 MENENIUS.
60 Calmly, I do beseech you.
61 CORIOLANUS.
62 Ay, as an ostler, that for th’ poorest piece
63 Will bear the knave by th’ volume.—Th’ honoured gods
64 Keep Rome in safety and the chairs of justice
65 Supplied with worthy men! Plant love among’s!
66 Throng our large temples with the shows of peace
67 And not our streets with war!
68 FIRST SENATOR.
69 Amen, amen.
70 MENENIUS.
71 A noble wish.
72 Enter the Aedile with the Plebeians.
73 SICINIUS.
74 Draw near, ye people.
75 AEDILE.
76 List to your tribunes. Audience! Peace, I say!
77 CORIOLANUS.
78 First, hear me speak.
79 BOTH TRIBUNES.
80 Well, say.—Peace, ho!
81 CORIOLANUS.
82 Shall I be charged no further than this present?
83 Must all determine here?
84 SICINIUS.
85 I do demand
86 If you submit you to the people’s voices,
87 Allow their officers, and are content
88 To suffer lawful censure for such faults
89 As shall be proved upon you.
90 CORIOLANUS.
91 I am content.
92 MENENIUS.
93 Lo, citizens, he says he is content.
94 The warlike service he has done, consider. Think
95 Upon the wounds his body bears, which show
96 Like graves i’ th’ holy churchyard.
97 CORIOLANUS.
98 Scratches with briars,
99 Scars to move laughter only.
100 MENENIUS.
101 Consider further,
102 That when he speaks not like a citizen,
103 You find him like a soldier. Do not take
104 His rougher accents for malicious sounds,
105 But, as I say, such as become a soldier
106 Rather than envy you.
107 COMINIUS.
108 Well, well, no more.
109 CORIOLANUS.
110 What is the matter,
111 That, being passed for consul with full voice,
112 I am so dishonoured that the very hour
113 You take it off again?
114 SICINIUS.
115 Answer to us.
116 CORIOLANUS.
117 Say then. ’Tis true, I ought so.
118 SICINIUS.
119 We charge you that you have contrived to take
120 From Rome all seasoned office and to wind
121 Yourself into a power tyrannical,
122 For which you are a traitor to the people.
123 CORIOLANUS.
124 How? Traitor?
125 MENENIUS.
126 Nay, temperately! Your promise.
127 CORIOLANUS.
128 The fires i’ th’ lowest hell fold in the people!
129 Call me their traitor? Thou injurious tribune!
130 Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths,
131 In thy hands clutched as many millions, in
132 Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say
133 “Thou liest” unto thee with a voice as free
134 As I do pray the gods.
135 SICINIUS.
136 Mark you this, people?
137 ALL PLEBEIANS.
138 To th’ rock, to th’ rock with him!
139 SICINIUS.
140 Peace!
141 We need not put new matter to his charge.
142 What you have seen him do and heard him speak,
143 Beating your officers, cursing yourselves,
144 Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying
145 Those whose great power must try him—even this,
146 So criminal and in such capital kind,
147 Deserves th’ extremest death.
148 BRUTUS.
149 But since he hath
150 Served well for Rome—
151 CORIOLANUS.
152 What do you prate of service?
153 BRUTUS.
154 I talk of that that know it.
155 CORIOLANUS.
156 You?
157 MENENIUS.
158 Is this the promise that you made your mother?
159 COMINIUS.
160 Know, I pray you—
161 CORIOLANUS.
162 I’ll know no further.
163 Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,
164 Vagabond exile, flaying, pent to linger
165 But with a grain a day, I would not buy
166 Their mercy at the price of one fair word,
167 Nor check my courage for what they can give,
168 To have’t with saying “Good morrow.”
169 SICINIUS.
170 For that he has,
171 As much as in him lies, from time to time
172 Envied against the people, seeking means
173 To pluck away their power, as now at last
174 Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence
175 Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers
176 That do distribute it, in the name o’ th’ people
177 And in the power of us the Tribunes, we,
178 Even from this instant, banish him our city
179 In peril of precipitation
180 From off the rock Tarpeian, never more
181 To enter our Rome gates. I’ th’ people’s name,
182 I say it shall be so.
183 ALL PLEBEIANS.
184 It shall be so, it shall be so! Let him away!
185 He’s banished, and it shall be so.
186 COMINIUS.
187 Hear me, my masters and my common friends—
188 SICINIUS.
189 He’s sentenced. No more hearing.
190 COMINIUS.
191 Let me speak.
192 I have been consul and can show for Rome
193 Her enemies’ marks upon me. I do love
194 My country’s good with a respect more tender,
195 More holy and profound, than mine own life,
196 My dear wife’s estimate, her womb’s increase,
197 And treasure of my loins. Then if I would
198 Speak that—
199 SICINIUS.
200 We know your drift. Speak what?
201 BRUTUS.
202 There’s no more to be said, but he is banished
203 As enemy to the people and his country.
204 It shall be so.
205 ALL PLEBEIANS.
206 It shall be so, it shall be so!
207 CORIOLANUS.
208 You common cry of curs, whose breath I hate
209 As reek o’ th’ rotten fens, whose loves I prize
210 As the dead carcasses of unburied men
211 That do corrupt my air, I banish you!
212 And here remain with your uncertainty;
213 Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts;
214 Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
215 Fan you into despair! Have the power still
216 To banish your defenders, till at length
217 Your ignorance—which finds not till it feels,
218 Making but reservation of yourselves,
219 Still your own foes—deliver you,
220 As most abated captives to some nation
221 That won you without blows! Despising
222 For you the city, thus I turn my back.
223 There is a world elsewhere.
224 [_Exeunt Coriolanus, Cominius, with other Senators._]
225 AEDILE.
226 The people’s enemy is gone, is gone.
227 ALL PLEBEIANS.
228 Our enemy is banished; he is gone. Hoo, hoo!
229 [_They all shout and throw up their caps._]
230 SICINIUS.
231 Go see him out at gates, and follow him,
232 As he hath followed you, with all despite.
233 Give him deserved vexation. Let a guard
234 Attend us through the city.
235 ALL PLEBEIANS.
236 Come, come, let’s see him out at gates! Come!
237 The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come.
238 [_Exeunt._]