1    Tullus Aufidius then had made new head?

2    He had, my lord; and that it was which caused
3    Our swifter composition.

4    So then the Volsces stand but as at first,
5    Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road.
6    Upon's again.

7    They are worn, lord consul, so,
8    That we shall hardly in our ages see
9    Their banners wave again.

10   Saw you Aufidius?

11   On safe-guard he came to me; and did curse
12   Against the Volsces, for they had so vilely
13   Yielded the town: he is retired to Antium.

14   Spoke he of me?

15   He did, my lord.

16   How? what?

17   How often he had met you, sword to sword;
18   That of all things upon the earth he hated
19   Your person most, that he would pawn his fortunes
20   To hopeless restitution, so he might
21   Be call'd your vanquisher.

22   At Antium lives he?

23   At Antium.

24   I wish I had a cause to seek him there,
25   To oppose his hatred fully. Welcome home.
Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS
26   Behold, these are the tribunes of the people,
27   The tongues o' the common mouth: I do despise them;
28   For they do prank them in authority,
29   Against all noble sufferance.

30   Pass no further.

31   Ha! what is that?

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

33   What makes this change?

34   The matter?

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

36   Cominius, no.

37   Have I had children's voices?

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

39   The people are incensed against him.

40   Stop,
41   Or all will fall in broil.

42   Are these your herd?
43   Must these have voices, that can yield them now
44   And straight disclaim their tongues? What are
45   your offices?
46   You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth?
47   Have you not set them on?

48   Be calm, be calm.

49   It is a purposed thing, and grows by plot,
50   To curb the will of the nobility:
51   Suffer't, and live with such as cannot rule
52   Nor ever will be ruled.

53   Call't not a plot:
54   The people cry you mock'd them, and of late,
55   When corn was given them gratis, you repined;
56   Scandal'd the suppliants for the people, call'd them
57   Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness.

58   Why, this was known before.

59   Not to them all.

60   Have you inform'd them sithence?

61   How! I inform them!

62   You are like to do such business.

63   Not unlike,
64   Each way, to better yours.

65   Why then should I be consul? By yond clouds,
66   Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me
67   Your fellow tribune.

68   You show too much of that
69   For which the people stir: if you will pass
70   To where you are bound, you must inquire your way,
71   Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit,
72   Or never be so noble as a consul,
73   Nor yoke with him for tribune.

74   Let's be calm.

75   The people are abused; set on. This paltering
76   Becomes not Rome, nor has Coriolanus
77   Deserved this so dishonour'd rub, laid falsely
78   I' the plain way of his merit.

79   Tell me of corn!
80   This was my speech, and I will speak't again--

81   Not now, not now.

82   Not in this heat, sir, now.

83   Now, as I live, I will. My nobler friends,
84   I crave their pardons:
85   For the mutable, rank-scented many, let them
86   Regard me as I do not flatter, and
87   Therein behold themselves: I say again,
88   In soothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate
89   The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition,
90   Which we ourselves have plough'd for, sow'd,
91   and scatter'd,
92   By mingling them with us, the honour'd number,
93   Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that
94   Which they have given to beggars.

95   Well, no more.

96   No more words, we beseech you.

97   How! no more!
98   As for my country I have shed my blood,
99   Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs
100  Coin words till their decay against those measles,
101  Which we disdain should tatter us, yet sought
102  The very way to catch them.

103  You speak o' the people,
104  As if you were a god to punish, not
105  A man of their infirmity.

106  'Twere well
107  We let the people know't.

108  What, what? his choler?

109  Choler!
110  Were I as patient as the midnight sleep,
111  By Jove, 'twould be my mind!

112  It is a mind
113  That shall remain a poison where it is,
114  Not poison any further.

115  Shall remain!
116  Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you
117  His absolute 'shall'?

118  'Twas from the canon.

119  'Shall'!
120  O good but most unwise patricians! why,
121  You grave but reckless senators, have you thus
122  Given Hydra here to choose an officer,
123  That with his peremptory 'shall,' being but
124  The horn and noise o' the monster's, wants not spirit
125  To say he'll turn your current in a ditch,
126  And make your channel his? If he have power
127  Then vail your ignorance; if none, awake
128  Your dangerous lenity. If you are learn'd,
129  Be not as common fools; if you are not,
130  Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians,
131  If they be senators: and they are no less,
132  When, both your voices blended, the great'st taste
133  Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate,
134  And such a one as he, who puts his 'shall,'
135  His popular 'shall' against a graver bench
136  Than ever frown in Greece. By Jove himself!
137  It makes the consuls base: and my soul aches
138  To know, when two authorities are up,
139  Neither supreme, how soon confusion
140  May enter 'twixt the gap of both and take
141  The one by the other.

142  Well, on to the market-place.

143  Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth
144  The corn o' the storehouse gratis, as 'twas used
145  Sometime in Greece,--

146  Well, well, no more of that.

147  Though there the people had more absolute power,
148  I say, they nourish'd disobedience, fed
149  The ruin of the state.

150  Why, shall the people give
151  One that speaks thus their voice?

152  I'll give my reasons,
153  More worthier than their voices. They know the corn
154  Was not our recompense, resting well assured
155  That ne'er did service for't: being press'd to the war,
156  Even when the navel of the state was touch'd,
157  They would not thread the gates. This kind of service
158  Did not deserve corn gratis. Being i' the war
159  Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they show'd
160  Most valour, spoke not for them: the accusation
161  Which they have often made against the senate,
162  All cause unborn, could never be the motive
163  Of our so frank donation. Well, what then?
164  How shall this bisson multitude digest
165  The senate's courtesy? Let deeds express
166  What's like to be their words: 'we did request it;
167  We are the greater poll, and in true fear
168  They gave us our demands.' Thus we debase
169  The nature of our seats and make the rabble
170  Call our cares fears; which will in time
171  Break ope the locks o' the senate and bring in
172  The crows to peck the eagles.

173  Come, enough.

174  Enough, with over-measure.

175  No, take more:
176  What may be sworn by, both divine and human,
177  Seal what I end withal! This double worship,
178  Where one part does disdain with cause, the other
179  Insult without all reason, where gentry, title, wisdom,
180  Cannot conclude but by the yea and no
181  Of general ignorance,--it must omit
182  Real necessities, and give way the while
183  To unstable slightness: purpose so barr'd,
184  it follows,
185  Nothing is done to purpose. Therefore, beseech you,--
186  You that will be less fearful than discreet,
187  That love the fundamental part of state
188  More than you doubt the change on't, that prefer
189  A noble life before a long, and wish
190  To jump a body with a dangerous physic
191  That's sure of death without it, at once pluck out
192  The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick
193  The sweet which is their poison: your dishonour
194  Mangles true judgment and bereaves the state
195  Of that integrity which should become't,
196  Not having the power to do the good it would,
197  For the in which doth control't.

198  Has said enough.

199  Has spoken like a traitor, and shall answer
200  As traitors do.

201  Thou wretch, despite o'erwhelm thee!
202  What should the people do with these bald tribunes?
203  On whom depending, their obedience fails
204  To the greater bench: in a rebellion,
205  When what's not meet, but what must be, was law,
206  Then were they chosen: in a better hour,
207  Let what is meet be said it must be meet,
208  And throw their power i' the dust.

209  Manifest treason!

210  This a consul? no.

211  The aediles, ho!
Enter an AEdile
212  Let him be apprehended.

213  Go, call the people:
Exit AEdile
214  in whose name myself
215  Attach thee as a traitorous innovator,
216  A foe to the public weal: obey, I charge thee,
217  And follow to thine answer.

218  Hence, old goat!

219  We'll surety him.

220  Aged sir, hands off.

221  Hence, rotten thing! or I shall shake thy bones
222  Out of thy garments.

223  Help, ye citizens!

224  On both sides more respect.

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

226  Seize him, AEdiles!

227  Down with him! down with him!

228  Weapons, weapons, weapons!
They all bustle about CORIOLANUS, crying
229  'Tribunes!' 'Patricians!' 'Citizens!' 'What, ho!'
230  'Sicinius!' 'Brutus!' 'Coriolanus!' 'Citizens!'
231  'Peace, peace, peace!' 'Stay, hold, peace!'

232  What is about to be? I am out of breath;
233  Confusion's near; I cannot speak. You, tribunes
234  To the people! Coriolanus, patience!
235  Speak, good Sicinius.

236  Hear me, people; peace!

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

238  You are at point to lose your liberties:
239  Marcius would have all from you; Marcius,
240  Whom late you have named for consul.

241  Fie, fie, fie!
242  This is the way to kindle, not to quench.

243  To unbuild the city and to lay all flat.

244  What is the city but the people?

245  True,
246  The people are the city.

247  By the consent of all, we were establish'd
248  The people's magistrates.

249  You so remain.

250  And so are like to do.

251  That is the way to lay the city flat;
252  To bring the roof to the foundation,
253  And bury all, which yet distinctly ranges,
254  In heaps and piles of ruin.

255  This deserves death.

256  Or let us stand to our authority,
257  Or let us lose it. We do here pronounce,
258  Upon the part o' the people, in whose power
259  We were elected theirs, Marcius is worthy
260  Of present death.

261  Therefore lay hold of him;
262  Bear him to the rock Tarpeian, and from thence
263  Into destruction cast him.

264  AEdiles, seize him!

265  Yield, Marcius, yield!

266  Hear me one word;
267  Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word.

268  Peace, peace!

To BRUTUS
269   Be that you seem, truly your
270  country's friend,
271  And temperately proceed to what you would
272  Thus violently redress.

273  Sir, those cold ways,
274  That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonous
275  Where the disease is violent. Lay hands upon him,
276  And bear him to the rock.

277  No, I'll die here.
Drawing his sword
278  There's some among you have beheld me fighting:
279  Come, try upon yourselves what you have seen me.

280  Down with that sword! Tribunes, withdraw awhile.

281  Lay hands upon him.

282  Help Marcius, help,
283  You that be noble; help him, young and old!

284  Down with him, down with him!

285  Go, get you to your house; be gone, away!
286  All will be naught else.

287  Get you gone.

288  Stand fast;
289  We have as many friends as enemies.

290  Sham it be put to that?

291  The gods forbid!
292  I prithee, noble friend, home to thy house;
293  Leave us to cure this cause.

294  For 'tis a sore upon us,
295  You cannot tent yourself: be gone, beseech you.

296  Come, sir, along with us.

297  I would they were barbarians--as they are,
298  Though in Rome litter'd--not Romans--as they are not,
299  Though calved i' the porch o' the Capitol--

300  Be gone;
301  Put not your worthy rage into your tongue;
302  One time will owe another.

303  On fair ground
304  I could beat forty of them.

305  I could myself
306  Take up a brace o' the best of them; yea, the
307  two tribunes:
308  But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetic;
309  And manhood is call'd foolery, when it stands
310  Against a falling fabric. Will you hence,
311  Before the tag return? whose rage doth rend
312  Like interrupted waters and o'erbear
313  What they are used to bear.

314  Pray you, be gone:
315  I'll try whether my old wit be in request
316  With those that have but little: this must be patch'd
317  With cloth of any colour.

318  Nay, come away.

319  This man has marr'd his fortune.

320  His nature is too noble for the world:
321  He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
322  Or Jove for's power to thunder. His heart's his mouth:
323  What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent;
324  And, being angry, does forget that ever
325  He heard the name of death.
A noise within
326  Here's goodly work!

327  I would they were abed!

328  I would they were in Tiber! What the vengeance!
329  Could he not speak 'em fair?

330  Where is this viper
331  That would depopulate the city and
332  Be every man himself?

333  You worthy tribunes,--

334  He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock
335  With rigorous hands: he hath resisted law,
336  And therefore law shall scorn him further trial
337  Than the severity of the public power
338  Which he so sets at nought.

339  He shall well know
340  The noble tribunes are the people's mouths,
341  And we their hands.

342  He shall, sure on't.

343  Sir, sir,--

344  Peace!

345  Do not cry havoc, where you should but hunt
346  With modest warrant.

347  Sir, how comes't that you
348  Have holp to make this rescue?

349  Hear me speak:
350  As I do know the consul's worthiness,
351  So can I name his faults,--

352  Consul! what consul?

353  The consul Coriolanus.

354  He consul!

355  No, no, no, no, no.

356  If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours, good people,
357  I may be heard, I would crave a word or two;
358  The which shall turn you to no further harm
359  Than so much loss of time.

360  Speak briefly then;
361  For we are peremptory to dispatch
362  This viperous traitor: to eject him hence
363  Were but one danger, and to keep him here
364  Our certain death: therefore it is decreed
365  He dies to-night.

366  Now the good gods forbid
367  That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude
368  Towards her deserved children is enroll'd
369  In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam
370  Should now eat up her own!

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

372  O, he's a limb that has but a disease;
373  Mortal, to cut it off; to cure it, easy.
374  What has he done to Rome that's worthy death?
375  Killing our enemies, the blood he hath lost--
376  Which, I dare vouch, is more than that he hath,
377  By many an ounce--he dropp'd it for his country;
378  And what is left, to lose it by his country,
379  Were to us all, that do't and suffer it,
380  A brand to the end o' the world.

381  This is clean kam.

382  Merely awry: when he did love his country,
383  It honour'd him.

384  The service of the foot
385  Being once gangrened, is not then respected
386  For what before it was.

387  We'll hear no more.
388  Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence:
389  Lest his infection, being of catching nature,
390  Spread further.

391  One word more, one word.
392  This tiger-footed rage, when it shall find
393  The harm of unscann'd swiftness, will too late
394  Tie leaden pounds to's heels. Proceed by process;
395  Lest parties, as he is beloved, break out,
396  And sack great Rome with Romans.

397  If it were so,--

398  What do ye talk?
399  Have we not had a taste of his obedience?
400  Our aediles smote? ourselves resisted? Come.

401  Consider this: he has been bred i' the wars
402  Since he could draw a sword, and is ill school'd
403  In bolted language; meal and bran together
404  He throws without distinction. Give me leave,
405  I'll go to him, and undertake to bring him
406  Where he shall answer, by a lawful form,
407  In peace, to his utmost peril.

408  Noble tribunes,
409  It is the humane way: the other course
410  Will prove too bloody, and the end of it
411  Unknown to the beginning.

412  Noble Menenius,
413  Be you then as the people's officer.
414  Masters, lay down your weapons.

415  Go not home.

416  Meet on the market-place. We'll attend you there:
417  Where, if you bring not Marcius, we'll proceed
418  In our first way.

419  I'll bring him to you.
To the Senators
420  Let me desire your company: he must come,
421  Or what is worst will follow.

422  Pray you, let's to him.