The arden shakespeare co.., p.96
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works, page 96
For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them
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If I say fine, cry ‘Fine’, if death, cry ‘Death’,
Insisting on the old prerogative
And power i’th’ truth o’th’ cause.
AEDILE I shall inform them.
BRUTUS And when such time they have begun to cry,
Let them not cease, but with a din confus’d
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Enforce the present execution
Of what we chance to sentence.
AEDILE Very well.
SICINIUS Make them be strong, and ready for this hint
When we shall hap to give’t them.
BRUTUS Go about it.
Exit Aedile.
Put him to choler straight; he hath been us’d
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Ever to conquer, and to have his worth
Of contradiction. Being once chaf’d, he cannot
Be rein’d again to temperance; then he speaks
What’s in his heart, and that is there which looks
With us to break his neck.
SICINIUS Well, here he comes.
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Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS and COMINIUS, with others.
MENENIUS Calmly, I do beseech you.
CORIOLANUS
Ay, as an hostler, that for th’ poorest piece
Will bear the knave by th’ volume. Th’honour’d gods
Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice
Supplied with worthy men, plant love among’s,
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Throng our large temples with the shows of peace
And not our streets with war.
1 SENATOR Amen, amen.
MENENIUS A noble wish.
Enter the Aedile with the Plebeians.
SICINIUS Draw near, ye people.
AEDILE List to your tribunes. Audience! Peace, I say!
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CORIOLANUS First, hear me speak!
BOTH TRIBUNES Well, say. Peace, ho!
CORIOLANUS
Shall I be charg’d no further than this present?
Must all determine here?
SICINIUS I do demand,
If you submit you to the people’s voices,
Allow their officers, and are content
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To suffer lawful censure for such faults
As shall be prov’d upon you.
CORIOLANUS I am content.
MENENIUS Lo, citizens, he says he is content.
The warlike service he has done, consider: think
Upon the wounds his body bears, which show
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Like graves i’th’ holy churchyard.
CORIOLANUS Scratches with briers,
Scars to move laughter only.
MENENIUS Consider further,
That when he speaks not like a citizen,
You find him like a soldier. Do not take
His rougher accents for malicious sounds,
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But, as I say, such as become a soldier,
Rather than envy you.
COMINIUS Well, well, no more.
CORIOLANUS What is the matter,
That being pass’d for consul with full voice,
I am so dishonour’d that the very hour
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You take it off again?
SICINIUS Answer to us.
CORIOLANUS Say then: ’tis true, I ought so.
SICINIUS
We charge you, that you have contriv’d to take
From Rome all season’d office, and to wind
Yourself into a power tyrannical;
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For which you are a traitor to the people.
CORIOLANUS How! Traitor?
MENENIUS Nay, temperately: your promise!
CORIOLANUS
The fires i’th’ lowest hell fold in the people!
Call me their traitor! Thou injurious tribune!
Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths,
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In thy hands clutch’d as many millions, in
Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say
‘Thou liest’ unto thee, with a voice as free
As I do pray the gods.
SICINIUS Mark you this, people?
ALL PLEBEIANS To th’ rock, to th’ rock with him.
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SICINIUS Peace!
We need not put new matter to his charge.
What you have seen him do, and heard him speak,
Beating your officers, cursing yourselves,
Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying
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Those whose great power must try him – even this,
So criminal and in such capital kind,
Deserves th’extremest death.
BRUTUS But since he hath
Serv’d well for Rome –
CORIOLANUS What do you prate of service?
BRUTUS I talk of that, that know it.
CORIOLANUS You?
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MENENIUS
Is this the promise that you made your mother?
COMINIUS Know, I pray you –
CORIOLANUS I’ll know no further.
Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,
Vagabond exile, flaying, pent to linger
But with a grain a day, I would not buy
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Their mercy at the price of one fair word,
Nor check my courage for what they can give,
To have’t with saying, ‘Good morrow’.
SICINIUS For that he has,
As much as in him lies, from time to time
Envied against the people, seeking means
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To pluck away their power, as now at last
Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence
Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers
That doth distribute it – in the name o’th’ people,
And in the power of us the tribunes, we,
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Ev’n from this instant, banish him our city,
In peril of precipitation
From off the rock Tarpeian, never more
To enter our Rome gates. I’th’ people’s name,
I say it shall be so.
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ALL PLEBEIANS
It shall be so, it shall be so! Let him away!
He’s banish’d, and it shall be so!
COMINIUS
Hear me, my masters, and my common friends!
SICINIUS He’s sentenc’d: no more hearing.
COMINIUS Let me speak.
I have been consul, and can show for Rome
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Her enemies’ marks upon me. I do love
My country’s good with a respect more tender,
More holy and profound, than mine own life,
My dear wife’s estimate, her womb’s increase
And treasure of my loins: then if I would
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Speak that –
SICINIUS We know your drift. Speak what?
BRUTUS There’s no more to be said but he is banish’d,
As enemy to the people and his country.
It shall be so!
ALL PLEBEIANS It shall be so, it shall be so!
CORIOLANUS
You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate
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As reek o’th’ rotten fens, whose loves I prize
As the dead carcasses of unburied men
That do corrupt my air: I banish you!
And here remain with your uncertainty!
Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!
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Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
Fan you into despair! Have the power still
To banish your defenders, till at length
Your ignorance – which finds not till it feels,
Making but reservation of yourselves,
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Still your own foes – deliver you as most
Abated captives to some nation
That won you without blows! Despising
For you the city, thus I turn my back.
There is a world elsewhere!
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Exeunt Coriolanus, Cominius, Menenius with the other
senators and patricians.
AEDILE The people’s enemy is gone, is gone!
ALL PLEBEIANS
Our enemy is banish’d! He is gone! Hoo! hoo!
[They all shout, and throw up their caps.]
SICINIUS Go see him out at gates, and follow him
As he hath follow’d you, with all despite.
Give him deserv’d vexation. Let a guard
Attend us through the city.
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ALL PLEBEIANS
Come, come, let’s see him out at gates! Come!
The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come!
Exeunt.
4.1 Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, with the young nobility of Rome.
CORIOLANUS
Come, leave your tears. A brief farewell! The beast
With many heads butts me away. Nay, mother,
Where is your ancient courage? You were us’d
To say, extremities was the trier of spirits;
That common chances common men could bear,
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That when the sea was calm all boats alike
Show’d mastership in floating; fortune’s blows,
When most struck home, being gentle wounded,
craves
A noble cunning. You were us’d to load me
With precepts that would make invincible
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The heart that conn’d them.
VIRGILIA O heavens! O heavens!
CORIOLANUS Nay, I prithee woman.
VOLUMNIA
Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome,
And occupations perish!
CORIOLANUS What, what, what!
I shall be lov’d when I am lack’d. Nay, mother,
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Resume that spirit when you were wont to say,
If you had been the wife of Hercules,
Six of his labours you’d have done, and sav’d
Your husband so much sweat. Cominius,
Droop not: adieu. Farewell, my wife, my mother:
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I’ll do well yet. Thou old and true Menenius,
Thy tears are salter than a younger man’s,
And venomous to thine eyes. My sometime general,
I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld
Heart-hard’ning spectacles; tell these sad women,
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’Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes,
As ’tis to laugh at ’em. My mother, you wot well
My hazards still have been your solace; and
Believ’t not lightly, though I go alone,
Like to a lonely dragon that his fen
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Makes fear’d and talk’d of more than seen, your son
Will or exceed the common, or be caught
With cautelous baits and practice.
VOLUMNIA My first son,
Whither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius
With thee awhile; determine on some course
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More than a wild exposture to each chance
That starts i’th’ way before thee.
VIRGILIA O the gods!
COMINIUS I’ll follow thee a month, devise with thee
Where thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of us
And we of thee. So if the time thrust forth
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A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send
O’er the vast world to seek a single man
And lose advantage, which doth ever cool
I’th’ absence of the needer.
CORIOLANUS Fare ye well.
Thou hast years upon thee, and thou art too full
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Of the wars’ surfeits to go rove with one
That’s yet unbruis’d: bring me but out at gate.
Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and
My friends of noble touch: when I am forth,
Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you, come:
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While I remain above the ground you shall
Hear from me still, and never of me aught
But what is like me formerly.
MENENIUS That’s worthily
As any ear can hear. Come, let’s not weep.
If I could shake off but one seven years
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