35
A noble servant to them, but he could not
Carry his honours even. Whether ’twas pride,
Which out of daily fortune ever taints
The happy man; whether defect of judgement,
To fail in the disposing of those chances
40
Which he was lord of; or whether nature,
Not to be other than one thing, not moving
From th’ casque to th’ cushion, but commanding
peace
Even with the same austerity and garb
As he controll’d the war; but one of these –
45
As he hath spices of them all, not all,
For I dare so far free him – made him fear’d,
So hated, and so banish’d: but he has a merit
To choke it in the utt’rance. So our virtues
Lie in th’interpretation of the time,
50
And power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair
T’extol what it hath done.
One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;
Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail.
55
Come, let’s away. When, Caius, Rome is thine,
Thou art poor’st of all: then shortly art thou mine.
Exeunt.
5.1 Enter MENENIUS, COMINIUS; SICINIUS, BRUTUS (the two tribunes), with others.
MENENIUS No, I’ll not go: you hear what he hath said
Which was sometime his general, who lov’d him
In a most dear particular. He call’d me father:
But what o’ that? Go you that banish’d him;
A mile before his tent fall down, and knee
5
The way into his mercy. Nay, if he coy’d
To hear Cominius speak, I’ll keep at home.
COMINIUS He would not seem to know me.
MENENIUS Do you hear?
COMINIUS Yet one time he did call me by my name.
I urg’d our old acquaintance, and the drops
10
That we have bled together. ‘Coriolanus’
He would not answer to; forbad all names:
He was a kind of nothing, titleless,
Till he had forg’d himself a name o’th’ fire
Of burning Rome.
MENENIUS Why, so: you have made good work!
15
A pair of tribunes that have wrack’d for Rome
To make coals cheap: a noble memory!
COMINIUS I minded him how royal ’twas to pardon
When it was less expected. He replied
It was a bare petition of a state
20
To one whom they had punish’d.
MENENIUS Very well.
Could he say less?
COMINIUS I offer’d to awaken his regard
For’s private friends. His answer to me was
He could not stay to pick them in a pile
25
Of noisome musty chaff. He said ’twas folly,
For one poor grain or two, to leave unburnt
And still to nose th’offence.
MENENIUS For one poor grain or two?
I am one of those; his mother, wife, his child,
And this brave fellow too: we are the grains,
30
You are the musty chaff, and you are smelt
Above the moon. We must be burnt for you.
SICINIUS Nay, pray be patient. If you refuse your aid
In this so never-needed help, yet do not
Upbraid’s with our distress. But sure, if you
35
Would be your country’s pleader, your good tongue
More than the instant army we can make,
Might stop our countryman.
MENENIUS No, I’ll not meddle.
SICINIUS Pray you go to him.
MENENIUS What should I do?
BRUTUS Only make trial what your love can do
40
For Rome, towards Martius.
MENENIUS Well, and say that Martius
Return me, as Cominius is return’d,
Unheard; what then?
But as a discontented friend, grief-shot
With his unkindness? Say’t be so?
SICINIUS Yet your good will
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Must have that thanks from Rome after the measure
As you intended well.
MENENIUS I’ll undertake’t.
I think he’ll hear me. Yet to bite his lip
And hum at good Cominius, much unhearts me.
He was not taken well; he had not din’d:
50
The veins unfill’d, our blood is cold, and then
We pout upon the morning, are unapt
To give or to forgive; but when we have stuff’d
These pipes and these conveyances of our blood
With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls
55
Than in our priest-like fasts. Therefore I’ll watch
him
Till he be dieted to my request,
And then I’ll set upon him.
BRUTUS You know the very road into his kindness,
And cannot lose your way.
MENENIUS Good faith, I’ll prove him,
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Speed how it will. I shall ere long have knowledge
Of my success. Exit.
COMINIUS He’ll never hear him.
SICINIUS Not?
COMINIUS I tell you, he does sit in gold, his eye
Red as ’twould burn Rome; and his injury
The gaoler to his pity. I kneel’d before him:
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’Twas very faintly he said ‘Rise’, dismiss’d me
Thus, with his speechless hand. What he would do
He sent in writing after me: what he would not,
Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions:
So that all hope is vain,
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Unless his noble mother and his wife,
Who, as I hear, mean to solicit him
For mercy to his country. Therefore let’s hence,
And with our fair entreaties haste them on. Exeunt.
5.2 Enter MENENIUS to the Watch or guard.
1 WATCH Stay! Whence are you?
2 WATCH Stand, and go back!
MENENIUS
You guard like men; ’tis well. But, by your leave,
I am an officer of state, and come
To speak with Coriolanus.
1 WATCH From whence?
MENENIUS From Rome.
1 WATCH
You may not pass; you must return: our general
5
Will no more hear from thence.
2 WATCH
You’ll see your Rome embrac’d with fire before
You’ll speak with Coriolanus.
MENENIUS Good my friends,
If you have heard your general talk of Rome
And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks
10
My name hath touch’d your ears: it is Menenius.
1 WATCH
Be it so, go back: the virtue of your name
Is not here passable.
MENENIUS I tell thee, fellow,
Thy general is my lover. I have been
The book of his good acts whence men have read
15
His fame unparallel’d, haply amplified;
For I have ever verified my friends,
Of whom he’s chief, with all the size that verity
Would without lapsing suffer. Nay, sometimes,
Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground,
20
I have tumbled past the throw, and in his praise
Have almost stamp’d the leasing. Therefore, fellow,
I must have leave to pass.
1 WATCH Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in his
behalf as you have uttered words in your own, you
25
should not pass here; no, though it were as virtuous to
lie as to live chastely. Therefore go back.
MENENIUS Prithee, fellow, remember my name is
Menenius, always factionary on the party of your
general.
30
2 WATCH Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say
you have, I am one that, telling true under him, must
say you cannot pass. Therefore go back.
MENENIUS Has he dined, canst thou tell? For I would
not speak with him till after dinner.
35
1 WATCH You are a Roman, are you?
MENENIUS I am as thy general is.
1 WATCH Then you should hate Rome, as he does.
Can you, when you have pushed out your gates the
very defender of them, and, in a violent popular
40
ignorance, given your enemy your shield, think to
front his revenges with the easy groans of old women,
the virginal palms of your daughters, or with the
palsied intercession of such a decayed dotant as you
seem to be? Can you think to blow out the intended
45
fire your city is ready to flame in, with such weak
breath as this? No, you are deceived; therefore back
to Rome, and prepare for your execution. You are
condemned; our general has sworn you out of reprieve
and pardon.
50
MENENIUS Sirrah, if thy captain knew I were here, he
would use me with estimation.
1 WATCH Come, my captain knows you not.
MENENIUS I mean thy general.
1 WATCH My general cares not for you. Back, I say, go:
55
lest I let forth your half-pint of blood. Back, that’s the
utmost of your having. Back!
MENENIUS Nay, but fellow, fellow –
Enter CORIOLANUS with AUFIDIUS.
CORIOLANUS What’s the matter?
MENENIUS Now, you companion, I’ll say an errand for
60
you; you shall know now that I am in estimation; you
shall perceive that a Jack guardant cannot office me
from my son Coriolanus. Guess but by my
entertainment with him, if thou stand’st not i’th’ state
of hanging, or of some death more long in
65
spectatorship and crueller in suffering. Behold now
presently, and swound for what’s to come upon thee.
[to Coriolanus] The glorious gods sit in hourly synod
about thy particular prosperity, and love thee no worse
than thy old father Menenius does! O my son, my son,
70
thou art preparing fire for us: look thee, here’s water
to quench it. I was hardly moved to come to thee, but
being assured none but myself could move thee, I have
been blown out of your gates with sighs, and conjure
thee to pardon Rome and thy petitionary countrymen.
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The good gods assuage thy wrath, and turn the dregs
of it upon this varlet here – this, who, like a block, hath
denied my access to thee.
CORIOLANUS Away!
MENENIUS How! Away?
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CORIOLANUS
Wife, mother, child, I know not. My affairs
Are servanted to others. Though I owe
My revenge properly, my remission lies
In Volscian breasts. That we have been familiar,
Ingrate forgetfulness shall poison rather
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Than pity note how much. Therefore be gone.
Mine ears against your suits are stronger than
Your gates against my force. Yet, for I lov’d thee,
Take this along; I writ it for thy sake,
And would have sent it. [Gives him a letter.]
Another word, Menenius,
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I will not hear thee speak. This man, Aufidius,
Was my belov’d in Rome: yet thou behold’st.
AUFIDIUS You keep a constant temper.
Exeunt Coriolanus and Aufidius.
[The Watch and Menenius remain.]
1 WATCH Now, sir, is your name Menenius?
2 WATCH ’Tis a spell, you see, of much power. You know
95
the way home again.
1 WATCH Do you hear how we are shent for keeping
your greatness back?
2 WATCH What cause do you think I have to swound?
MENENIUS I neither care for th’ world nor your general.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 100
