SCENE III. The same. The Forum. The Tragedy of Coriolanus  Shakespeare homepage  |  Coriolanus  | Act 3, Scene 3 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE III. The same. The Forum. 

 Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS  BRUTUS  In this point charge him home, that he affects 

 Tyrannical power: if he evade us there, 

 Enforce him with his envy to the people, 

 And that the spoil got on the Antiates 

 Was ne'er distributed. 



 Enter an AEdile  What, will he come? 

 AEdile  He's coming. 

 BRUTUS  How accompanied? 

 AEdile  With old Menenius, and those senators 

 That always favour'd him. 

 SICINIUS  Have you a catalogue 

 Of all the voices that we have procured 

 Set down by the poll? 

 AEdile  I have; 'tis ready. 

 SICINIUS  Have you collected them by tribes? 

 AEdile  I have. 

 SICINIUS  Assemble presently the people hither; 

 And when they bear me say 'It shall be so 

 I' the right and strength o' the commons,' be it either 

 For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them 

 If I say fine, cry 'Fine;' if death, cry 'Death.' 

 Insisting on the old prerogative 

 And power i' the truth o' the cause. 

 AEdile  I shall inform them. 

 BRUTUS  And when such time they have begun to cry, 

 Let them not cease, but with a din confused 

 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 used 

 Ever to conquer, and to have his worth 

 Of contradiction: being once chafed, 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. 



 Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, and COMINIUS, with Senators and Patricians  MENENIUS  Calmly, I do beseech you. 

 CORIOLANUS  Ay, as an ostler, that for the poorest piece 

 Will bear the knave by the volume. The honour'd gods 

 Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice 

 Supplied with worthy men! plant love among 's! 

 Throng our large temples with the shows of peace, 

 And not our streets with war! 

 First Senator  Amen, amen. 

 MENENIUS  A noble wish. 



 Re-enter AEdile, with Citizens  SICINIUS  Draw near, ye people. 

 AEdile  List to your tribunes. Audience: peace, I say! 

 CORIOLANUS  First, hear me speak. 

 Both Tribunes  Well, say. Peace, ho! 

 CORIOLANUS  Shall I be charged 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 

 To suffer lawful censure for such faults 

 As shall be proved 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 

 Like graves i' the 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, 

 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 

 You take it off again? 

 SICINIUS  Answer to us. 

 CORIOLANUS  Say, then: 'tis true, I ought so. 

 SICINIUS  We charge you, that you have contrived to take 

 From Rome all season'd office and to wind 

 Yourself into a power tyrannical; 

 For which you are a traitor to the people. 

 CORIOLANUS  How! traitor! 

 MENENIUS  Nay, temperately; your promise. 

 CORIOLANUS  The fires i' the lowest hell fold-in the people! 

 Call me their traitor! Thou injurious tribune! 

 Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths, 

 In thy hand 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? 

 Citizens  To the rock, to the rock with him! 

 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 

 Those whose great power must try him; even this, 

 So criminal and in such capital kind, 

 Deserves the extremest death. 

 BRUTUS  But since he hath 

 Served well for Rome,-- 

 CORIOLANUS  What do you prate of service? 

 BRUTUS  I talk of that, that know it. 

 CORIOLANUS  You? 

 MENENIUS  Is this the promise that you made your mother? 

 COMINIUS  Know, I pray you,-- 

 CORIOLANUS  I know no further: 

 Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death, 

 Vagabond exile, raying, pent to linger 

 But with a grain a day, I would not buy 

 Their mercy at the price of one fair word; 

 Nor cheque 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 

 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 do distribute it; in the name o' the people 

 And in the power of us the tribunes, we, 

 Even from this instant, banish him our city, 

 In peril of precipitation 

 From off the rock Tarpeian never more 

 To enter our Rome gates: i' the people's name, 

 I say it shall be so. 

 Citizens  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 sentenced; no more hearing. 

 COMINIUS  Let me speak: 

 I have been consul, and can show for Rome 

 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 

 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. 

 Citizens  It shall be so, it shall be so. 

 CORIOLANUS  You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate 

 As reek o' the 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! 

 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 not reservation of yourselves, 

 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. 



 Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENENIUS, Senators, and Patricians  AEdile  The people's enemy is gone, is gone! 

 Citizens  Our enemy is banish'd! he is gone! Hoo! hoo! 



 Shouting, and throwing up their caps  SICINIUS  Go, see him out at gates, and follow him, 

 As he hath followed you, with all despite; 

 Give him deserved vexation. Let a guard 

 Attend us through the city. 

 Citizens  Come, come; let's see him out at gates; come. 

 The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come. 



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