| ACT III SCENE III. The same. The Forum. |
| [Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS] |
| BRUTUS | In this point charge him home, that he affects |
| Tyrannical power: if he evade us there, |
| Enforce him with his envy to the people, |
| And that the spoil got on the Antiates |
| Was ne'er distributed. | 5 |
[Enter an AEdile] |
| What, will he come? |
| AEdile | He's coming. |
| BRUTUS | How accompanied? |
| AEdile | With old Menenius, and those senators |
| That always favour'd him. | 10 |
| SICINIUS | Have you a catalogue |
| Of all the voices that we have procured |
| Set down by the poll? |
| AEdile | I have; 'tis ready. |
| SICINIUS | Have you collected them by tribes? | 15 |
| AEdile | I have. |
| SICINIUS | Assemble presently the people hither; |
| And when they bear me say 'It shall be so |
| I' the right and strength o' the commons,' be it either |
| For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them | 20 |
| If I say fine, cry 'Fine;' if death, cry 'Death.' |
| Insisting on the old prerogative |
| And power i' the truth o' the cause. |
| AEdile | I shall inform them. |
| BRUTUS | And when such time they have begun to cry, | 25 |
| Let them not cease, but with a din confused |
| Enforce the present execution |
| Of what we chance to sentence. |
| AEdile | Very well. |
| SICINIUS | Make them be strong and ready for this hint, | 30 |
| When we shall hap to give 't them. |
| BRUTUS | Go about it. |
[Exit AEdile] |
| Put him to choler straight: he hath been used |
| Ever to conquer, and to have his worth |
| Of contradiction: being once chafed, he cannot | 35 |
| Be rein'd again to temperance; then he speaks |
| What's in his heart; and that is there which looks |
| With us to break his neck. |
| SICINIUS | Well, here he comes. |
| [
Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, and COMINIUS,
with Senators and Patricians
] |
| MENENIUS | Calmly, I do beseech you. | 40 |
| CORIOLANUS | Ay, as an ostler, that for the poorest piece |
| Will bear the knave by the volume. The honour'd gods |
| Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice |
| Supplied with worthy men! plant love among 's! |
| Throng our large temples with the shows of peace, | 45 |
| And not our streets with war! |
| First Senator | Amen, amen. |
| MENENIUS | A noble wish. |
| [Re-enter AEdile, with Citizens] |
| SICINIUS | Draw near, ye people. |
| AEdile | List to your tribunes. Audience: peace, I say! | 50 |
| CORIOLANUS | First, hear me speak. |
| Both Tribunes | Well, say. Peace, ho! |
| CORIOLANUS | Shall I be charged no further than this present? |
| Must all determine here? |
| SICINIUS | I do demand, | 55 |
| If you submit you to the people's voices, |
| Allow their officers and are content |
| To suffer lawful censure for such faults |
| As shall be proved upon you? |
| CORIOLANUS | I am content. | 60 |
| MENENIUS | Lo, citizens, he says he is content: |
| The warlike service he has done, consider; think |
| Upon the wounds his body bears, which show |
| Like graves i' the holy churchyard. |
| CORIOLANUS | Scratches with briers, | 65 |
| Scars to move laughter only. |
| MENENIUS | Consider further, |
| That when he speaks not like a citizen, |
| You find him like a soldier: do not take |
| His rougher accents for malicious sounds, | 70 |
| But, as I say, such as become a soldier, |
| Rather than envy you. |
| COMINIUS | Well, well, no more. |
| CORIOLANUS | What is the matter |
| That being pass'd for consul with full voice, | 75 |
| I am so dishonour'd that the very hour |
| You take it off again? |
| SICINIUS | Answer to us. |
| CORIOLANUS | Say, then: 'tis true, I ought so. |
| SICINIUS | We charge you, that you have contrived to take | 80 |
| From Rome all season'd office and to wind |
| Yourself into a power tyrannical; |
| For which you are a traitor to the people. |
| CORIOLANUS | How! traitor! |
| MENENIUS | Nay, temperately; your promise. | 85 |
| CORIOLANUS | The fires i' the lowest hell fold-in the people! |
| Call me their traitor! Thou injurious tribune! |
| Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths, |
| In thy hand clutch'd as many millions, in |
| Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say | 90 |
| 'Thou liest' unto thee with a voice as free |
| As I do pray the gods. |
| SICINIUS | Mark you this, people? |
| Citizens | To the rock, to the rock with him! |
| SICINIUS | Peace! | 95 |
| We need not put new matter to his charge: |
| What you have seen him do and heard him speak, |
| Beating your officers, cursing yourselves, |
| Opposing laws with strokes and here defying |
| Those whose great power must try him; even this, | 100 |
| So criminal and in such capital kind, |
| Deserves the extremest death. |
| BRUTUS | But since he hath |
| Served well for Rome,-- |
| CORIOLANUS | What do you prate of service? | 105 |
| BRUTUS | I talk of that, that know it. |
| CORIOLANUS | You? |
| MENENIUS | Is this the promise that you made your mother? |
| COMINIUS | Know, I pray you,-- |
| CORIOLANUS | I know no further: | 110 |
| Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death, |
| Vagabond exile, raying, pent to linger |
| But with a grain a day, I would not buy |
| Their mercy at the price of one fair word; |
| Nor cheque my courage for what they can give, | 115 |
| To have't with saying 'Good morrow.' |
| SICINIUS | For that he has, |
| As much as in him lies, from time to time |
| Envied against the people, seeking means |
| To pluck away their power, as now at last | 120 |
| Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence |
| Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers |
| That do distribute it; in the name o' the people |
| And in the power of us the tribunes, we, |
| Even from this instant, banish him our city, | 125 |
| In peril of precipitation |
| From off the rock Tarpeian never more |
| To enter our Rome gates: i' the people's name, |
| I say it shall be so. |
| Citizens | It shall be so, it shall be so; let him away: | 130 |
| He's banish'd, and it shall be so. |
| COMINIUS | Hear me, my masters, and my common friends,-- |
| SICINIUS | He's sentenced; no more hearing. |
| COMINIUS | Let me speak: |
| I have been consul, and can show for Rome | 135 |
| Her enemies' marks upon me. I do love |
| My country's good with a respect more tender, |
| More holy and profound, than mine own life, |
| My dear wife's estimate, her womb's increase, |
| And treasure of my loins; then if I would | 140 |
| Speak that,-- |
| SICINIUS | We know your drift: speak what? |
| BRUTUS | There's no more to be said, but he is banish'd, |
| As enemy to the people and his country: |
| It shall be so. | 145 |
| Citizens | It shall be so, it shall be so. |
| CORIOLANUS | You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate |
| As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize |
| As the dead carcasses of unburied men |
| That do corrupt my air, I banish you; | 150 |
| And here remain with your uncertainty! |
| Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts! |
| Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes, |
| Fan you into despair! Have the power still |
| To banish your defenders; till at length | 155 |
| Your ignorance, which finds not till it feels, |
| Making not reservation of yourselves, |
| Still your own foes, deliver you as most |
| Abated captives to some nation |
| That won you without blows! Despising, | 160 |
| For you, the city, thus I turn my back: |
| There is a world elsewhere. |
| [
Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENENIUS, Senators,
and Patricians
] |
| AEdile | The people's enemy is gone, is gone! |
| Citizens | Our enemy is banish'd! he is gone! Hoo! hoo! |
| [Shouting, and throwing up their caps] |
| SICINIUS | Go, see him out at gates, and follow him, | 165 |
| As he hath followed you, with all despite; |
| Give him deserved vexation. Let a guard |
| Attend us through the city. |
| Citizens | Come, come; let's see him out at gates; come. |
| The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come. | 170 |
| [Exeunt] |
Shakespeare's Sources for Coriolanus