Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
Act 3 - Scene 3
The same. The Forum.
Junius Brutus : In this point charge him home, that he affects
[p]Tyrannical power: if
he evade us there,
[p]Enforce him with his envy to the people,
[p]And
that the spoil got on the Antiates
[p]Was ne'er distributed.
[p][Enter
an AEdile]
[p]What, will he come?
Aedile : He's coming.
Junius Brutus : How accompanied?
Aedile : With old Menenius, and those senators
[p]That always favour'd him.
Sicinius Velutus : Have you a catalogue
[p]Of all the voices that we have procured
[p]Set
down by the poll?
Aedile : I have; 'tis ready.
Sicinius Velutus : Have you collected them by tribes?
Aedile : I have.
Sicinius Velutus : Assemble presently the people hither;
[p]And when they bear me say 'It
shall be so
[p]I' the right and strength o' the commons,' be it
either
[p]For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them
[p]If I
say fine, cry 'Fine;' if death, cry 'Death.'
[p]Insisting on the old
prerogative
[p]And power i' the truth o' the cause.
Aedile : I shall inform them.
Junius Brutus : And when such time they have begun to cry,
[p]Let them not cease, but
with a din confused
[p]Enforce the present execution
[p]Of what we
chance to sentence.
Aedile : Very well.
Sicinius Velutus : Make them be strong and ready for this hint,
[p]When we shall hap to
give 't them.
Junius Brutus : Go about it.
[p][Exit AEdile]
[p]Put him to choler straight: he hath
been used
[p]Ever to conquer, and to have his worth
[p]Of
contradiction: being once chafed, he cannot
[p]Be rein'd again to
temperance; then he speaks
[p]What's in his heart; and that is there
which looks
[p]With us to break his neck.
Sicinius Velutus : Well, here he comes.
[p][Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, and
COMINIUS,]
[p]with Senators and Patricians]
Menenius Agrippa : Calmly, I do beseech you.
Coriolanus : Ay, as an ostler, that for the poorest piece
[p]Will bear the knave by
the volume. The honour'd gods
[p]Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs
of justice
[p]Supplied with worthy men! plant love among 's!
[p]Throng
our large temples with the shows of peace,
[p]And not our streets with
war!
First Senator : Amen, amen.
Menenius Agrippa : A noble wish.
Sicinius Velutus : 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?
[p]Must all determine
here?
Sicinius Velutus : I do demand,
[p]If you submit you to the people's voices,
[p]Allow
their officers and are content
[p]To suffer lawful censure for such
faults
[p]As shall be proved upon you?
Coriolanus : I am content.
Menenius Agrippa : Lo, citizens, he says he is content:
[p]The warlike service he has
done, consider; think
[p]Upon the wounds his body bears, which
show
[p]Like graves i' the holy churchyard.
Coriolanus : Scratches with briers,
[p]Scars to move laughter only.
Menenius Agrippa : Consider further,
[p]That when he speaks not like a citizen,
[p]You
find him like a soldier: do not take
[p]His rougher accents for
malicious sounds,
[p]But, as I say, such as become a
soldier,
[p]Rather than envy you.
Cominius : Well, well, no more.
Coriolanus : What is the matter
[p]That being pass'd for consul with full
voice,
[p]I am so dishonour'd that the very hour
[p]You take it off
again?
Sicinius Velutus : Answer to us.
Coriolanus : Say, then: 'tis true, I ought so.
Sicinius Velutus : We charge you, that you have contrived to take
[p]From Rome all
season'd office and to wind
[p]Yourself into a power
tyrannical;
[p]For which you are a traitor to the people.
Coriolanus : How! traitor!
Menenius Agrippa : Nay, temperately; your promise.
Coriolanus : The fires i' the lowest hell fold-in the people!
[p]Call me their
traitor! Thou injurious tribune!
[p]Within thine eyes sat twenty
thousand deaths,
[p]In thy hand clutch'd as many millions, in
[p]Thy
lying tongue both numbers, I would say
[p]'Thou liest' unto thee with
a voice as free
[p]As I do pray the gods.
Sicinius Velutus : Mark you this, people?
Citizens : To the rock, to the rock with him!
Sicinius Velutus : Peace!
[p]We need not put new matter to his charge:
[p]What you have
seen him do and heard him speak,
[p]Beating your officers, cursing
yourselves,
[p]Opposing laws with strokes and here defying
[p]Those
whose great power must try him; even this,
[p]So criminal and in such
capital kind,
[p]Deserves the extremest death.
Junius Brutus : But since he hath
[p]Served well for Rome,--
Coriolanus : What do you prate of service?
Junius Brutus : I talk of that, that know it.
Coriolanus : You?
Menenius Agrippa : Is this the promise that you made your mother?
Cominius : Know, I pray you,--
Coriolanus : I know no further:
[p]Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian
death,
[p]Vagabond exile, raying, pent to linger
[p]But with a grain a
day, I would not buy
[p]Their mercy at the price of one fair
word;
[p]Nor cheque my courage for what they can give,
[p]To have't
with saying 'Good morrow.'
Sicinius Velutus : For that he has,
[p]As much as in him lies, from time to
time
[p]Envied against the people, seeking means
[p]To pluck away
their power, as now at last
[p]Given hostile strokes, and that not in
the presence
[p]Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers
[p]That do
distribute it; in the name o' the people
[p]And in the power of us the
tribunes, we,
[p]Even from this instant, banish him our city,
[p]In
peril of precipitation
[p]From off the rock Tarpeian never more
[p]To
enter our Rome gates: i' the people's name,
[p]I say it shall be so.
Citizens : It shall be so, it shall be so; let him away:
[p]He's banish'd, and it
shall be so.
Cominius : Hear me, my masters, and my common friends,--
Sicinius Velutus : He's sentenced; no more hearing.
Cominius : Let me speak:
[p]I have been consul, and can show for Rome
[p]Her
enemies' marks upon me. I do love
[p]My country's good with a respect
more tender,
[p]More holy and profound, than mine own life,
[p]My dear
wife's estimate, her womb's increase,
[p]And treasure of my loins;
then if I would
[p]Speak that,--
Sicinius Velutus : We know your drift: speak what?
Junius Brutus : There's no more to be said, but he is banish'd,
[p]As enemy to the
people and his country:
[p]It shall be so.
Citizens : It shall be so, it shall be so.
Coriolanus : You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate
[p]As reek o' the rotten
fens, whose loves I prize
[p]As the dead carcasses of unburied
men
[p]That do corrupt my air, I banish you;
[p]And here remain with
your uncertainty!
[p]Let every feeble rumour shake your
hearts!
[p]Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
[p]Fan you into
despair! Have the power still
[p]To banish your defenders; till at
length
[p]Your ignorance, which finds not till it feels,
[p]Making not
reservation of yourselves,
[p]Still your own foes, deliver you as
most
[p]Abated captives to some nation
[p]That won you without blows!
Despising,
[p]For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
[p]There is a
world elsewhere.
[p][Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENENIUS,
Senators,]
[p]and Patricians]
Aedile : The people's enemy is gone, is gone!
Citizens : Our enemy is banish'd! he is gone! Hoo! hoo!
Sicinius Velutus : Go, see him out at gates, and follow him,
[p]As he hath followed you,
with all despite;
[p]Give him deserved vexation. Let a guard
[p]Attend
us through the city.
Citizens : Come, come; let's see him out at gates; come.
[p]The gods preserve our
noble tribunes! Come.
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