SCENE I. Rome. A street. The Tragedy of Coriolanus  Shakespeare homepage  |  Coriolanus  | Act 3, Scene 1 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE I. Rome. A street. 

 Cornets. Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, all the Gentry, COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, and other Senators  CORIOLANUS  Tullus Aufidius then had made new head? 

 LARTIUS  He had, my lord; and that it was which caused 

 Our swifter composition. 

 CORIOLANUS  So then the Volsces stand but as at first, 

 Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road. 

 Upon's again. 

 COMINIUS  They are worn, lord consul, so, 

 That we shall hardly in our ages see 

 Their banners wave again. 

 CORIOLANUS  Saw you Aufidius? 

 LARTIUS  On safe-guard he  came to me; and did curse 

 Against the Volsces, for they had so vilely 

 Yielded the town: he is retired to Antium. 

 CORIOLANUS  Spoke he of me? 

 LARTIUS  He did, my lord. 

 CORIOLANUS  How? what? 

 LARTIUS  How often he had met you, sword to sword; 

 That of all things upon the earth he hated 

 Your person most, that he would pawn his fortunes 

 To hopeless restitution, so he might 

 Be call'd your vanquisher. 

 CORIOLANUS  At Antium lives he? 

 LARTIUS  At Antium. 

 CORIOLANUS  I wish I had a cause to seek him there, 

 To oppose his hatred fully. Welcome home. 



 Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS  Behold, these are the tribunes of the people, 

 The tongues o' the common mouth: I do despise them; 

 For they do prank them in authority, 

 Against all noble sufferance. 

 SICINIUS  Pass no further. 

 CORIOLANUS  Ha! what is that? 

 BRUTUS  It will be dangerous to go on: no further. 

 CORIOLANUS  What makes this change? 

 MENENIUS  The matter? 

 COMINIUS  Hath he not pass'd the noble and the common? 

 BRUTUS  Cominius, no. 

 CORIOLANUS  Have I had children's voices? 

 First Senator  Tribunes, give way; he shall to the market-place. 

 BRUTUS  The people are incensed against him. 

 SICINIUS  Stop, 

 Or all will fall in broil. 

 CORIOLANUS  Are these your herd? 

 Must these have voices, that can yield them now 

 And straight disclaim their tongues? What are 

 your offices? 

 You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth? 

 Have you not set them on? 

 MENENIUS  Be calm, be calm. 

 CORIOLANUS  It is a purposed thing, and grows by plot, 

 To curb the will of the nobility: 

 Suffer't, and live with such as cannot rule 

 Nor ever will be ruled. 

 BRUTUS  Call't not a plot: 

 The people cry you mock'd them, and of late, 

 When corn was given them gratis, you repined; 

 Scandal'd the suppliants for the people, call'd them 

 Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness. 

 CORIOLANUS  Why, this was known before. 

 BRUTUS  Not to them all. 

 CORIOLANUS  Have you inform'd them sithence? 

 BRUTUS  How! I inform them! 

 CORIOLANUS  You are like to do such business. 

 BRUTUS  Not unlike, 

 Each way, to better yours. 

 CORIOLANUS  Why then should I be consul? By yond clouds, 

 Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me 

 Your fellow tribune. 

 SICINIUS  You show too much of that 

 For which the people stir: if you will pass 

 To where you are bound, you must inquire your way, 

 Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit, 

 Or never be so noble as a consul, 

 Nor yoke with him for tribune. 

 MENENIUS  Let's be calm. 

 COMINIUS  The people are abused; set on. This paltering 

 Becomes not Rome, nor has Coriolanus 

 Deserved this so dishonour'd rub, laid falsely 

 I' the plain way of his merit. 

 CORIOLANUS  Tell me of corn! 

 This was my speech, and I will speak't again-- 

 MENENIUS  Not now, not now. 

 First Senator  Not in this heat, sir, now. 

 CORIOLANUS  Now, as I live, I will. My nobler friends, 

 I crave their pardons: 

 For the mutable, rank-scented many, let them 

 Regard me as I do not flatter, and 

 Therein behold themselves: I say again, 

 In soothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate 

 The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition, 

 Which we ourselves have plough'd for, sow'd, 

 and scatter'd, 

 By mingling them with us, the honour'd number, 

 Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that 

 Which they have given to beggars. 

 MENENIUS  Well, no more. 

 First Senator  No more words, we beseech you. 

 CORIOLANUS  How! no more! 

 As for my country I have shed my blood, 

 Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs 

 Coin words till their decay against those measles, 

 Which we disdain should tatter us, yet sought 

 The very way to catch them. 

 BRUTUS  You speak o' the people, 

 As if you were a god to punish, not 

 A man of their infirmity. 

 SICINIUS  'Twere well 

 We let the people know't. 

 MENENIUS  What, what? his choler? 

 CORIOLANUS  Choler! 

 Were I as patient as the midnight sleep, 

 By Jove, 'twould be my mind! 

 SICINIUS  It is a mind 

 That shall remain a poison where it is, 

 Not poison any further. 

 CORIOLANUS  Shall remain! 

 Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you 

 His absolute 'shall'? 

 COMINIUS  'Twas from the canon. 

 CORIOLANUS  'Shall'! 

 O good but most unwise patricians! why, 

 You grave but reckless senators, have you thus 

 Given Hydra here to choose an officer, 

 That with his peremptory 'shall,' being but 

 The horn and noise o' the monster's, wants not spirit 

 To say he'll turn your current in a ditch, 

 And make your channel his? If he have power 

 Then vail your ignorance; if none, awake 

 Your dangerous lenity. If you are learn'd, 

 Be not as common fools; if you are not, 

 Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians, 

 If they be senators: and they are no less, 

 When, both your voices blended, the great'st taste 

 Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate, 

 And such a one as he, who puts his 'shall,' 

 His popular 'shall' against a graver bench 

 Than ever frown in Greece. By Jove himself! 

 It makes the consuls base: and my soul aches 

 To know, when two authorities are up, 

 Neither supreme, how soon confusion 

 May enter 'twixt the gap of both and take 

 The one by the other. 

 COMINIUS  Well, on to the market-place. 

 CORIOLANUS  Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth 

 The corn o' the storehouse gratis, as 'twas used 

 Sometime in Greece,-- 

 MENENIUS  Well, well, no more of that. 

 CORIOLANUS  Though there the people had more absolute power, 

 I say, they nourish'd disobedience, fed 

 The ruin of the state. 

 BRUTUS  Why, shall the people give 

 One that speaks thus their voice? 

 CORIOLANUS  I'll give my reasons, 

 More worthier than their voices. They know the corn 

 Was not our recompense, resting well assured 

 That ne'er did service for't: being press'd to the war, 

 Even when the navel of the state was touch'd, 

 They would not thread the gates. This kind of service 

 Did not deserve corn gratis. Being i' the war 

 Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they show'd 

 Most valour, spoke not for them: the accusation 

 Which they have often made against the senate, 

 All cause unborn, could never be the motive 

 Of our so frank donation. Well, what then? 

 How shall this bisson multitude digest 

 The senate's courtesy? Let deeds express 

 What's like to be their words: 'we did request it; 

 We are the greater poll, and in true fear 

 They gave us our demands.' Thus we debase 

 The nature of our seats and make the rabble 

 Call our cares fears; which will in time 

 Break ope the locks o' the senate and bring in 

 The crows to peck the eagles. 

 MENENIUS  Come, enough. 

 BRUTUS  Enough, with over-measure. 

 CORIOLANUS  No, take more: 

 What may be sworn by, both divine and human, 

 Seal what I end withal! This double worship, 

 Where one part does disdain with cause, the other 

 Insult without all reason, where gentry, title, wisdom, 

 Cannot conclude but by the yea and no 

 Of general ignorance,--it must omit 

 Real necessities, and give way the while 

 To unstable slightness: purpose so barr'd, 

 it follows, 

 Nothing is done to purpose. Therefore, beseech you,-- 

 You that will be less fearful than discreet, 

 That love the fundamental part of state 

 More than you doubt the change on't, that prefer 

 A noble life before a long, and wish 

 To jump a body with a dangerous physic 

 That's sure of death without it, at once pluck out 

 The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick 

 The sweet which is their poison: your dishonour 

 Mangles true judgment and bereaves the state 

 Of that integrity which should become't, 

 Not having the power to do the good it would, 

 For the in which doth control't. 

 BRUTUS  Has said enough. 

 SICINIUS  Has spoken like a traitor, and shall answer 

 As traitors do. 

 CORIOLANUS  Thou wretch, despite o'erwhelm thee! 

 What should the people do with these bald tribunes? 

 On whom depending, their obedience fails 

 To the greater bench: in a rebellion, 

 When what's not meet, but what must be, was law, 

 Then were they chosen: in a better hour, 

 Let what is meet be said it must be meet, 

 And throw their power i' the dust. 

 BRUTUS  Manifest treason! 

 SICINIUS  This a consul? no. 

 BRUTUS  The aediles, ho! 



 Enter an AEdile  Let him be apprehended. 

 SICINIUS  Go, call the people: 



 Exit AEdile  in whose name myself 

 Attach thee as a traitorous innovator, 

 A foe to the public weal: obey, I charge thee, 

 And follow to thine answer. 

 CORIOLANUS  Hence, old goat! 

 Senators,  & C	We'll surety him. 

 COMINIUS  Aged sir, hands off. 

 CORIOLANUS  Hence, rotten thing! or I shall shake thy bones 

 Out of thy garments. 

 SICINIUS  Help, ye citizens! 



 Enter a rabble of Citizens (Plebeians), with the AEdiles  MENENIUS  On both sides more respect. 

 SICINIUS  Here's he that would take from you all your power. 

 BRUTUS  Seize him, AEdiles! 

 Citizens  Down with him! down with him! 

 Senators,  & C	Weapons, weapons, weapons! 



 They all bustle about CORIOLANUS, crying  'Tribunes!' 'Patricians!' 'Citizens!' 'What, ho!' 

 'Sicinius!' 'Brutus!' 'Coriolanus!' 'Citizens!' 

 'Peace, peace, peace!' 'Stay, hold, peace!' 

 MENENIUS  What is about to be? I am out of breath; 

 Confusion's near; I cannot speak. You, tribunes 

 To the people! Coriolanus, patience! 

 Speak, good Sicinius. 

 SICINIUS  Hear me, people; peace! 

 Citizens  Let's hear our tribune: peace Speak, speak, speak. 

 SICINIUS  You are at point to lose your liberties: 

 Marcius would have all from you; Marcius, 

 Whom late you have named for consul. 

 MENENIUS  Fie, fie, fie! 

 This is the way to kindle, not to quench. 

 First Senator  To unbuild the city and to lay all flat. 

 SICINIUS  What is the city but the people? 

 Citizens  True, 

 The people are the city. 

 BRUTUS  By the consent of all, we were establish'd 

 The people's magistrates. 

 Citizens  You so remain. 

 MENENIUS  And so are like to do. 

 COMINIUS  That is the way to lay the city flat; 

 To bring the roof to the foundation, 

 And bury all, which yet distinctly ranges, 

 In heaps and piles of ruin. 

 SICINIUS  This deserves death. 

 BRUTUS  Or let us stand to our authority, 

 Or let us lose it. We do here pronounce, 

 Upon the part o' the people, in whose power 

 We were elected theirs, Marcius is worthy 

 Of present death. 

 SICINIUS  Therefore lay hold of him; 

 Bear him to the rock Tarpeian, and from thence 

 Into destruction cast him. 

 BRUTUS  AEdiles, seize him! 

 Citizens  Yield, Marcius, yield! 

 MENENIUS  Hear me one word; 

 Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word. 

 AEdile  Peace, peace! 

 MENENIUS  [To BRUTUS]  Be that you seem, truly your 

 country's friend, 

 And temperately proceed to what you would 

 Thus violently redress. 

 BRUTUS  Sir, those cold ways, 

 That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonous 

 Where the disease is violent. Lay hands upon him, 

 And bear him to the rock. 

 CORIOLANUS  No, I'll die here. 



 Drawing his sword  There's some among you have beheld me fighting: 

 Come, try upon yourselves what you have seen me. 

 MENENIUS  Down with that sword! Tribunes, withdraw awhile. 

 BRUTUS  Lay hands upon him. 

 COMINIUS  Help Marcius, help, 

 You that be noble; help him, young and old! 

 Citizens  Down with him, down with him! 



 In this mutiny, the Tribunes, the AEdiles, and the People, are beat in  MENENIUS  Go, get you to your house; be gone, away! 

 All will be naught else. 

 Second Senator  Get you gone. 

 COMINIUS  Stand fast; 

 We have as many friends as enemies. 

 MENENIUS  Sham it be put to that? 

 First Senator  The gods forbid! 

 I prithee, noble friend, home to thy house; 

 Leave us to cure this cause. 

 MENENIUS  For 'tis a sore upon us, 

 You cannot tent yourself: be gone, beseech you. 

 COMINIUS  Come, sir, along with us. 

 CORIOLANUS  I would they were barbarians--as they are, 

 Though in Rome litter'd--not Romans--as they are not, 

 Though calved i' the porch o' the Capitol-- 

 MENENIUS  Be gone; 

 Put not your worthy rage into your tongue; 

 One time will owe another. 

 CORIOLANUS  On fair ground 

 I could beat forty of them. 

 COMINIUS  I could myself 

 Take up a brace o' the best of them; yea, the 

 two tribunes: 

 But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetic; 

 And manhood is call'd foolery, when it stands 

 Against a falling fabric. Will you hence, 

 Before the tag return? whose rage doth rend 

 Like interrupted waters and o'erbear 

 What they are used to bear. 

 MENENIUS  Pray you, be gone: 

 I'll try whether my old wit be in request 

 With those that have but little: this must be patch'd 

 With cloth of any colour. 

 COMINIUS  Nay, come away. 



 Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, and others  A Patrician  This man has marr'd his fortune. 

 MENENIUS  His nature is too noble for the world: 

 He would not flatter Neptune for his trident, 

 Or Jove for's power to thunder. His heart's his mouth: 

 What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent; 

 And, being angry, does forget that ever 

 He heard the name of death. 



 A noise within  Here's goodly work! 

 Second Patrician  I would they were abed! 

 MENENIUS  I would they were in Tiber! What the vengeance! 

 Could he not speak 'em fair? 



 Re-enter BRUTUS and SICINIUS, with the rabble  SICINIUS  Where is this viper 

 That would depopulate the city and 

 Be every man himself? 

 MENENIUS  You worthy tribunes,-- 

 SICINIUS  He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock 

 With rigorous hands: he hath resisted law, 

 And therefore law shall scorn him further trial 

 Than the severity of the public power 

 Which he so sets at nought. 

 First Citizen  He shall well know 

 The noble tribunes are the people's mouths, 

 And we their hands. 

 Citizens  He shall, sure on't. 

 MENENIUS  Sir, sir,-- 

 SICINIUS  Peace! 

 MENENIUS  Do not cry havoc, where you should but hunt 

 With modest warrant. 

 SICINIUS  Sir, how comes't that you 

 Have holp to make this rescue? 

 MENENIUS  Hear me speak: 

 As I do know the consul's worthiness, 

 So can I name his faults,-- 

 SICINIUS  Consul! what consul? 

 MENENIUS  The consul Coriolanus. 

 BRUTUS  He consul! 

 Citizens  No, no, no, no, no. 

 MENENIUS  If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours, good people, 

 I may be heard, I would crave a word or two; 

 The which shall turn you to no further harm 

 Than so much loss of time. 

 SICINIUS  Speak briefly then; 

 For we are peremptory to dispatch 

 This viperous traitor: to eject him hence 

 Were but one danger, and to keep him here 

 Our certain death: therefore it is decreed 

 He dies to-night. 

 MENENIUS  Now the good gods forbid 

 That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude 

 Towards her deserved children is enroll'd 

 In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam 

 Should now eat up her own! 

 SICINIUS  He's a disease that must be cut away. 

 MENENIUS  O, he's a limb that has but a disease; 

 Mortal, to cut it off; to cure it, easy. 

 What has he done to Rome that's worthy death? 

 Killing our enemies, the blood he hath lost-- 

 Which, I dare vouch, is more than that he hath, 

 By many an ounce--he dropp'd it for his country; 

 And what is left, to lose it by his country, 

 Were to us all, that do't and suffer it, 

 A brand to the end o' the world. 

 SICINIUS  This is clean kam. 

 BRUTUS  Merely awry: when he did love his country, 

 It honour'd him. 

 MENENIUS  The service of the foot 

 Being once gangrened, is not then respected 

 For what before it was. 

 BRUTUS  We'll hear no more. 

 Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence: 

 Lest his infection, being of catching nature, 

 Spread further. 

 MENENIUS  One word more, one word. 

 This tiger-footed rage, when it shall find 

 The harm of unscann'd swiftness, will too late 

 Tie leaden pounds to's heels. Proceed by process; 

 Lest parties, as he is beloved, break out, 

 And sack great Rome with Romans. 

 BRUTUS  If it were so,-- 

 SICINIUS  What do ye talk? 

 Have we not had a taste of his obedience? 

 Our aediles smote? ourselves resisted? Come. 

 MENENIUS  Consider this: he has been bred i' the wars 

 Since he could draw a sword, and is ill school'd 

 In bolted language; meal and bran together 

 He throws without distinction. Give me leave, 

 I'll go to him, and undertake to bring him 

 Where he shall answer, by a lawful form, 

 In peace, to his utmost peril. 

 First Senator  Noble tribunes, 

 It is the humane way: the other course 

 Will prove too bloody, and the end of it 

 Unknown to the beginning. 

 SICINIUS  Noble Menenius, 

 Be you then as the people's officer. 

 Masters, lay down your weapons. 

 BRUTUS  Go not home. 

 SICINIUS  Meet on the market-place. We'll attend you there: 

 Where, if you bring not Marcius, we'll proceed 

 In our first way. 

 MENENIUS  I'll bring him to you. 



 To the Senators  Let me desire your company: he must come, 

 Or what is worst will follow. 

 First Senator  Pray you, let's to him. 



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