Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
Act 3 - Scene 2
A room in CORIOLANUS’S house.
Coriolanus : Let them puff all about mine ears, present me
[p]Death on the wheel or
at wild horses' heels,
[p]Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian
rock,
[p]That the precipitation might down stretch
[p]Below the beam
of sight, yet will I still
[p]Be thus to them.
Patrician : You do the nobler.
Coriolanus : I muse my mother
[p]Does not approve me further, who was wont
[p]To
call them woollen vassals, things created
[p]To buy and sell with
groats, to show bare heads
[p]In congregations, to yawn, be still and
wonder,
[p]When one but of my ordinance stood up
[p]To speak of peace
or war.
[p][Enter VOLUMNIA]
[p]I talk of you:
[p]Why did you wish me
milder? would you have me
[p]False to my nature? Rather say I
play
[p]The man I am.
Volumnia : O, sir, sir, sir,
[p]I would have had you put your power well
on,
[p]Before you had worn it out.
Coriolanus : Let go.
Volumnia : You might have been enough the man you are,
[p]With striving less to
be so; lesser had been
[p]The thwartings of your dispositions,
if
[p]You had not show'd them how ye were disposed
[p]Ere they lack'd
power to cross you.
Coriolanus : Let them hang.
Patrician : Ay, and burn too.
Menenius Agrippa : Come, come, you have been too rough, something
[p]too rough;
[p]You
must return and mend it.
First Senator : There's no remedy;
[p]Unless, by not so doing, our good city
[p]Cleave
in the midst, and perish.
Volumnia : Pray, be counsell'd:
[p]I have a heart as little apt as yours,
[p]But
yet a brain that leads my use of anger
[p]To better vantage.
Menenius Agrippa : Well said, noble woman?
[p]Before he should thus stoop to the herd,
but that
[p]The violent fit o' the time craves it as physic
[p]For the
whole state, I would put mine armour on,
[p]Which I can scarcely
bear.
Coriolanus : What must I do?
Menenius Agrippa : Return to the tribunes.
Coriolanus : Well, what then? what then?
Menenius Agrippa : Repent what you have spoke.
Coriolanus : For them! I cannot do it to the gods;
[p]Must I then do't to them?
Volumnia : You are too absolute;
[p]Though therein you can never be too
noble,
[p]But when extremities speak. I have heard you say,
[p]Honour
and policy, like unsever'd friends,
[p]I' the war do grow together:
grant that, and tell me,
[p]In peace what each of them by the other
lose,
[p]That they combine not there.
Coriolanus : Tush, tush!
Menenius Agrippa : A good demand.
Volumnia : If it be honour in your wars to seem
[p]The same you are not, which,
for your best ends,
[p]You adopt your policy, how is it less or
worse,
[p]That it shall hold companionship in peace
[p]With honour, as
in war, since that to both
[p]It stands in like request?
Coriolanus : Why force you this?
Volumnia : Because that now it lies you on to speak
[p]To the people; not by your
own instruction,
[p]Nor by the matter which your heart prompts
you,
[p]But with such words that are but rooted in
[p]Your tongue,
though but bastards and syllables
[p]Of no allowance to your bosom's
truth.
[p]Now, this no more dishonours you at all
[p]Than to take in a
town with gentle words,
[p]Which else would put you to your fortune
and
[p]The hazard of much blood.
[p]I would dissemble with my nature
where
[p]My fortunes and my friends at stake required
[p]I should do
so in honour: I am in this,
[p]Your wife, your son, these senators,
the nobles;
[p]And you will rather show our general louts
[p]How you
can frown than spend a fawn upon 'em,
[p]For the inheritance of their
loves and safeguard
[p]Of what that want might ruin.
Menenius Agrippa : Noble lady!
[p]Come, go with us; speak fair: you may salve so,
[p]Not
what is dangerous present, but the loss
[p]Of what is past.
Volumnia : I prithee now, my son,
[p]Go to them, with this bonnet in thy
hand;
[p]And thus far having stretch'd it--here be with them--
[p]Thy
knee bussing the stones--for in such business
[p]Action is eloquence,
and the eyes of the ignorant
[p]More learned than the ears--waving thy
head,
[p]Which often, thus, correcting thy stout heart,
[p]Now humble
as the ripest mulberry
[p]That will not hold the handling: or say to
them,
[p]Thou art their soldier, and being bred in broils
[p]Hast not
the soft way which, thou dost confess,
[p]Were fit for thee to use as
they to claim,
[p]In asking their good loves, but thou wilt
frame
[p]Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs, so far
[p]As thou hast
power and person.
Menenius Agrippa : This but done,
[p]Even as she speaks, why, their hearts were
yours;
[p]For they have pardons, being ask'd, as free
[p]As words to
little purpose.
Volumnia : Prithee now,
[p]Go, and be ruled: although I know thou hadst
rather
[p]Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf
[p]Than flatter him in a
bower. Here is Cominius.
Cominius : I have been i' the market-place; and, sir,'tis fit
[p]You make strong
party, or defend yourself
[p]By calmness or by absence: all's in
anger.
Menenius Agrippa : Only fair speech.
Cominius : I think 'twill serve, if he
[p]Can thereto frame his spirit.
Volumnia : He must, and will
[p]Prithee now, say you will, and go about it.
Coriolanus : Must I go show them my unbarbed sconce?
[p]Must I with base tongue
give my noble heart
[p]A lie that it must bear? Well, I will
do't:
[p]Yet, were there but this single plot to lose,
[p]This mould
of CORIOLANUS, they to dust should grind it
[p]And throw't against the
wind. To the market-place!
[p]You have put me now to such a part which
never
[p]I shall discharge to the life.
Cominius : Come, come, we'll prompt you.
Volumnia : I prithee now, sweet son, as thou hast said
[p]My praises made thee
first a soldier, so,
[p]To have my praise for this, perform a
part
[p]Thou hast not done before.
Coriolanus : Well, I must do't:
[p]Away, my disposition, and possess me
[p]Some
harlot's spirit! my throat of war be turn'd,
[p]Which quired with my
drum, into a pipe
[p]Small as an eunuch, or the virgin voice
[p]That
babies lulls asleep! the smiles of knaves
[p]Tent in my cheeks, and
schoolboys' tears take up
[p]The glasses of my sight! a beggar's
tongue
[p]Make motion through my lips, and my arm'd knees,
[p]Who
bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his
[p]That hath received an alms!
I will not do't,
[p]Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth
[p]And by
my body's action teach my mind
[p]A most inherent baseness.
Volumnia : At thy choice, then:
[p]To beg of thee, it is my more
dishonour
[p]Than thou of them. Come all to ruin; let
[p]Thy mother
rather feel thy pride than fear
[p]Thy dangerous stoutness, for I mock
at death
[p]With as big heart as thou. Do as thou list
[p]Thy
valiantness was mine, thou suck'dst it from me,
[p]But owe thy pride
thyself.
Coriolanus : Pray, be content:
[p]Mother, I am going to the market-place;
[p]Chide
me no more. I'll mountebank their loves,
[p]Cog their hearts from
them, and come home beloved
[p]Of all the trades in Rome. Look, I am
going:
[p]Commend me to my wife. I'll return consul;
[p]Or never trust
to what my tongue can do
[p]I' the way of flattery further.
Volumnia : Do your will.
Cominius : Away! the tribunes do attend you: arm yourself
[p]To answer mildly;
for they are prepared
[p]With accusations, as I hear, more
strong
[p]Than are upon you yet.
Coriolanus : The word is 'mildly.' Pray you, let us go:
[p]Let them accuse me by
invention, I
[p]Will answer in mine honour.
Menenius Agrippa : Ay, but mildly.
Coriolanus : Well, mildly be it then. Mildly!
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