Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
Act 5 - Scene 1
Rome. A public place.
Menenius Agrippa : No, I'll not go: you hear what he hath said
[p]Which was sometime his
general; who loved him
[p]In a most dear particular. He call'd me
father:
[p]But what o' that? Go, you that banish'd him;
[p]A mile
before his tent fall down, and knee
[p]The way into his mercy: nay, if
he coy'd
[p]To hear Cominius speak, I'll keep at home.
Cominius : He would not seem to know me.
Menenius Agrippa : Do you hear?
Cominius : Yet one time he did call me by my name:
[p]I urged our old
acquaintance, and the drops
[p]That we have bled together.
Coriolanus
[p]He would not answer to: forbad all names;
[p]He was a
kind of nothing, titleless,
[p]Till he had forged himself a name o'
the fire
[p]Of burning Rome.
Menenius Agrippa : Why, so: you have made good work!
[p]A pair of tribunes that have
rack'd for Rome,
[p]To make coals cheap,--a noble memory!
Cominius : I minded him how royal 'twas to pardon
[p]When it was less expected:
he replied,
[p]It was a bare petition of a state
[p]To one whom they
had punish'd.
Menenius Agrippa : Very well:
[p]Could he say less?
Cominius : I offer'd to awaken his regard
[p]For's private friends: his answer to
me was,
[p]He could not stay to pick them in a pile
[p]Of noisome
musty chaff: he said 'twas folly,
[p]For one poor grain or two, to
leave unburnt,
[p]And still to nose the offence.
Menenius Agrippa : For one poor grain or two!
[p]I am one of those; his mother, wife, his
child,
[p]And this brave fellow too, we are the grains:
[p]You are the
musty chaff; and you are smelt
[p]Above the moon: we must be burnt for
you.
Sicinius Velutus : Nay, pray, be patient: if you refuse your aid
[p]In this so
never-needed help, yet do not
[p]Upbraid's with our distress. But,
sure, if you
[p]Would be your country's pleader, your good
tongue,
[p]More than the instant army we can make,
[p]Might stop our
countryman.
Menenius Agrippa : No, I'll not meddle.
Sicinius Velutus : Pray you, go to him.
Menenius Agrippa : What should I do?
Junius Brutus : Only make trial what your love can do
[p]For Rome, towards
CORIOLANUS.
Menenius Agrippa : Well, and say that CORIOLANUS
[p]Return me, as Cominius is
return'd,
[p]Unheard; what then?
[p]But as a discontented friend,
grief-shot
[p]With his unkindness? say't be so?
Sicinius Velutus : Yet your good will
[p]must have that thanks from Rome, after the
measure
[p]As you intended well.
Menenius Agrippa : I'll undertake 't:
[p]I think he'll hear me. Yet, to bite his
lip
[p]And hum at good Cominius, much unhearts me.
[p]He was not taken
well; he had not dined:
[p]The veins unfill'd, our blood is cold, and
then
[p]We pout upon the morning, are unapt
[p]To give or to forgive;
but when we have stuff'd
[p]These and these conveyances of our
blood
[p]With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls
[p]Than in our
priest-like fasts: therefore I'll watch him
[p]Till he be dieted to my
request,
[p]And then I'll set upon him.
Junius Brutus : You know the very road into his kindness,
[p]And cannot lose your
way.
Menenius Agrippa : Good faith, I'll prove him,
[p]Speed how it will. I shall ere long
have knowledge
[p]Of my success.
Cominius : He'll never hear him.
Sicinius Velutus : Not?
Cominius : I tell you, he does sit in gold, his eye
[p]Red as 'twould burn Rome;
and his injury
[p]The gaoler to his pity. I kneel'd before
him;
[p]'Twas very faintly he said 'Rise;' dismiss'd me
[p]Thus, with
his speechless hand: what he would do,
[p]He sent in writing after me;
what he would not,
[p]Bound with an oath to yield to his
conditions:
[p]So that all hope is vain.
[p]Unless his noble mother,
and his wife;
[p]Who, as I hear, mean to solicit him
[p]For mercy to
his country. Therefore, let's hence,
[p]And with our fair entreaties
haste them on.
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Next: Act 5 - Scene 2
