The Tragedy Of Coriolanus

1 Enter Coriolanus, Volumnia, Virgilia, Menenius, Cominius with the young
2 nobility of Rome.
3 CORIOLANUS.
4 Come, leave your tears. A brief farewell. The beast
5 With many heads butts me away. Nay, mother,
6 Where is your ancient courage? You were used
7 To say extremities was the trier of spirits;
8 That common chances common men could bear;
9 That when the sea was calm, all boats alike
10 Showed mastership in floating; fortune’s blows
11 When most struck home, being gentle wounded craves
12 A noble cunning. You were used to load me
13 With precepts that would make invincible
14 The heart that conned them.
15 VIRGILIA.
16 O heavens! O heavens!
17 CORIOLANUS.
18 Nay, I prithee, woman—
19 VOLUMNIA.
20 Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome,
21 And occupations perish!
22 CORIOLANUS.
23 What, what, what!
24 I shall be loved when I am lacked. Nay, mother,
25 Resume that spirit when you were wont to say
26 If you had been the wife of Hercules,
27 Six of his labours you’d have done and saved
28 Your husband so much sweat.—Cominius,
29 Droop not. Adieu.—Farewell, my wife, my mother.
30 I’ll do well yet.—Thou old and true Menenius,
31 Thy tears are salter than a younger man’s
32 And venomous to thine eyes.—My sometime general,
33 I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld
34 Heart-hard’ning spectacles. Tell these sad women
35 ’Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes
36 As ’tis to laugh at ’em.—My mother, you wot well
37 My hazards still have been your solace, and—
38 Believe’t not lightly—though I go alone,
39 Like to a lonely dragon that his fen
40 Makes feared and talked of more than seen, your son
41 Will or exceed the common or be caught
42 With cautelous baits and practice.
43 VOLUMNIA.
44 My first son,
45 Whither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius
46 With thee awhile. Determine on some course
47 More than a wild exposture to each chance
48 That starts i’ th’ way before thee.
49 VIRGILIA.
50 O the gods!
51 COMINIUS.
52 I’ll follow thee a month, devise with thee
53 Where thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of us
54 And we of thee; so if the time thrust forth
55 A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send
56 O’er the vast world to seek a single man
57 And lose advantage, which doth ever cool
58 I’ th’ absence of the needer.
59 CORIOLANUS.
60 Fare ye well.
61 Thou hast years upon thee, and thou art too full
62 Of the wars’ surfeits to go rove with one
63 That’s yet unbruised. Bring me but out at gate.—
64 Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and
65 My friends of noble touch. When I am forth,
66 Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you, come.
67 While I remain above the ground, you shall
68 Hear from me still, and never of me aught
69 But what is like me formerly.
70 MENENIUS.
71 That’s worthily
72 As any ear can hear. Come, let’s not weep.
73 If I could shake off but one seven years
74 From these old arms and legs, by the good gods,
75 I’d with thee every foot.
76 CORIOLANUS.
77 Give me thy hand.
78 Come.
79 [_Exeunt._]