Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
Act 5 - Scene 2
Entrance of the Volscian camp before Rome.
First Senator : Stay: whence are you?
Second Senator : Stand, and go back.
Menenius Agrippa : You guard like men; 'tis well: but, by your leave,
[p]I am an officer
of state, and come
[p]To speak with Coriolanus.
First Senator : From whence?
Menenius Agrippa : From Rome.
First Senator : You may not pass, you must return: our general
[p]Will no more hear
from thence.
Second Senator : You'll see your Rome embraced with fire before
[p]You'll speak with
Coriolanus.
Menenius Agrippa : Good my friends,
[p]If you have heard your general talk of
Rome,
[p]And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks,
[p]My name
hath touch'd your ears it is Menenius.
First Senator : Be it so; go back: the virtue of your name
[p]Is not here passable.
Menenius Agrippa : I tell thee, fellow,
[p]The general is my lover: I have been
[p]The
book of his good acts, whence men have read
[p]His name unparallel'd,
haply amplified;
[p]For I have ever verified my friends,
[p]Of whom
he's chief, with all the size that verity
[p]Would without lapsing
suffer: nay, sometimes,
[p]Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground,
[p]I
have tumbled past the throw; and in his praise
[p]Have almost stamp'd
the leasing: therefore, fellow,
[p]I must have leave to pass.
First Senator : Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in his
[p]behalf as you have
uttered words in your own, you
[p]should not pass here; no, though it
were as virtuous
[p]to lie as to live chastely. Therefore, go back.
Menenius Agrippa : Prithee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius,
[p]always factionary on
the party of your general.
Second Senator : Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say you
[p]have, I am one
that, telling true under him, must
[p]say, you cannot pass. Therefore,
go back.
Menenius Agrippa : Has he dined, canst thou tell? for I would not
[p]speak with him till
after dinner.
First Senator : You are a Roman, are you?
Menenius Agrippa : I am, as thy general is.
First Senator : Then you should hate Rome, as he does. Can you,
[p]when you have
pushed out your gates the very
[p]defender of them, and, in a violent
popular
[p]ignorance, given your enemy your shield, think to
[p]front
his revenges with the easy groans of old
[p]women, the virginal palms
of your daughters, or with
[p]the palsied intercession of such a
decayed dotant as
[p]you seem to be? Can you think to blow out
the
[p]intended fire your city is ready to flame in, with
[p]such weak
breath as this? No, you are deceived;
[p]therefore, back to Rome, and
prepare for your
[p]execution: you are condemned, our general has
sworn
[p]you out of reprieve and pardon.
Menenius Agrippa : Sirrah, if thy captain knew I were here, he would
[p]use me with
estimation.
Second Senator : Come, my captain knows you not.
Menenius Agrippa : I mean, thy general.
First Senator : My general cares not for you. Back, I say, go; lest
[p]I let forth
your half-pint of blood; back,--that's
[p]the utmost of your having:
back.
Menenius Agrippa : Nay, but, fellow, fellow,--
Coriolanus : What's the matter?
Menenius Agrippa : Now, you companion, I'll say an errand for you:
[p]You shall know now
that I am in estimation; you shall
[p]perceive that a Jack guardant
cannot office me from
[p]my son Coriolanus: guess, but by my
entertainment
[p]with him, if thou standest not i' the state
of
[p]hanging, or of some death more long in
[p]spectatorship, and
crueller in suffering; behold now
[p]presently, and swoon for what's
to come upon thee.
[p][To CORIOLANUS]
[p]The glorious gods sit in
hourly synod about thy
[p]particular prosperity, and love thee no
worse than
[p]thy old father Menenius does! O my son, my son!
[p]thou
art preparing fire for us; look thee, here's
[p]water to quench it. I
was hardly moved to come to
[p]thee; but being assured none but myself
could move
[p]thee, I have been blown out of your gates with
[p]sighs;
and conjure thee to pardon Rome, and thy
[p]petitionary countrymen.
The good gods assuage thy
[p]wrath, and turn the dregs of it upon this
varlet
[p]here,--this, who, like a block, hath denied my
[p]access to
thee.
Coriolanus : Away!
Menenius Agrippa : How! away!
Coriolanus : Wife, mother, child, I know not. My affairs
[p]Are servanted to
others: though I owe
[p]My revenge properly, my remission lies
[p]In
Volscian breasts. That we have been familiar,
[p]Ingrate forgetfulness
shall poison, rather
[p]Than pity note how much. Therefore, be
gone.
[p]Mine ears against your suits are stronger than
[p]Your gates
against my force. Yet, for I loved thee,
[p]Take this along; I writ it
for thy sake
[p][Gives a letter]
[p]And would have rent it. Another
word, Menenius,
[p]I will not hear thee speak. This man,
Aufidius,
[p]Was my beloved in Rome: yet thou behold'st!
Tullus Aufidius : You keep a constant temper.
First Senator : Now, sir, is your name Menenius?
Second Senator : 'Tis a spell, you see, of much power: you know the
[p]way home again.
First Senator : Do you hear how we are shent for keeping your
[p]greatness back?
Second Senator : What cause, do you think, I have to swoon?
Menenius Agrippa : I neither care for the world nor your general: for
[p]such things as
you, I can scarce think there's any,
[p]ye're so slight. He that hath
a will to die by
[p]himself fears it not from another: let your
general
[p]do his worst. For you, be that you are, long; and
[p]your
misery increase with your age! I say to you,
[p]as I was said to,
Away!
First Senator : A noble fellow, I warrant him.
Second Senator : The worthy fellow is our general: he's the rock, the
[p]oak not to be
wind-shaken.
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Next: Act 5 - Scene 3
