| ACT V SCENE II. Entrance of the Volscian camp before Rome. |
| [Enter to them, MENENIUS] |
| First Senator | Stay: whence are you? |
| Second Senator | Stand, and go back. |
| MENENIUS | You guard like men; 'tis well: but, by your leave, |
| I am an officer of state, and come |
| To speak with Coriolanus. | 5 |
| First Senator | From whence? |
| MENENIUS | From Rome. |
| First Senator | You may not pass, you must return: our general |
| Will no more hear from thence. |
| Second Senator | You'll see your Rome embraced with fire before | 10 |
| You'll speak with Coriolanus. |
| MENENIUS | Good my friends, |
| If you have heard your general talk of Rome, |
| And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks, |
| My name hath touch'd your ears it is Menenius. | 15 |
| First Senator | Be it so; go back: the virtue of your name |
| Is not here passable. |
| MENENIUS | I tell thee, fellow, |
| The general is my lover: I have been |
| The book of his good acts, whence men have read | 20 |
| His name unparallel'd, haply amplified; |
| For I have ever verified my friends, |
| Of whom he's chief, with all the size that verity |
| Would without lapsing suffer: nay, sometimes, |
| Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground, | 25 |
| I have tumbled past the throw; and in his praise |
| Have almost stamp'd the leasing: therefore, fellow, |
| I must have leave to pass. |
| First Senator | Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in his |
| behalf as you have uttered words in your own, you | 30 |
| should not pass here; no, though it were as virtuous |
| to lie as to live chastely. Therefore, go back. |
| MENENIUS | Prithee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius, |
| always factionary on the party of your general. |
| Second Senator | Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say you | 35 |
| have, I am one that, telling true under him, must |
| say, you cannot pass. Therefore, go back. |
| MENENIUS | Has he dined, canst thou tell? for I would not |
| speak with him till after dinner. |
| First Senator | You are a Roman, are you? | 40 |
| MENENIUS | I am, as thy general is. |
| First Senator | Then you should hate Rome, as he does. Can you, |
| when you have pushed out your gates the very |
| defender of them, and, in a violent popular |
| ignorance, given your enemy your shield, think to | 45 |
| front his revenges with the easy groans of old |
| women, the virginal palms of your daughters, or with |
| the palsied intercession of such a decayed dotant as |
| you seem to be? Can you think to blow out the |
| intended fire your city is ready to flame in, with | 50 |
| such weak breath as this? No, you are deceived; |
| therefore, back to Rome, and prepare for your |
| execution: you are condemned, our general has sworn |
| you out of reprieve and pardon. |
| MENENIUS | Sirrah, if thy captain knew I were here, he would | 55 |
| use me with estimation. |
| Second Senator | Come, my captain knows you not. |
| MENENIUS | I mean, thy general. |
| First Senator | My general cares not for you. Back, I say, go; lest |
| I let forth your half-pint of blood; back,--that's | 60 |
| the utmost of your having: back. |
| MENENIUS | Nay, but, fellow, fellow,-- |
| [Enter CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS] |
| CORIOLANUS | What's the matter? |
| MENENIUS | Now, you companion, I'll say an errand for you: |
| You shall know now that I am in estimation; you shall | 65 |
| perceive that a Jack guardant cannot office me from |
| my son Coriolanus: guess, but by my entertainment |
| with him, if thou standest not i' the state of |
| hanging, or of some death more long in |
| spectatorship, and crueller in suffering; behold now | 70 |
| presently, and swoon for what's to come upon thee. |
[To CORIOLANUS] |
| The glorious gods sit in hourly synod about thy |
| particular prosperity, and love thee no worse than |
| thy old father Menenius does! O my son, my son! |
| thou art preparing fire for us; look thee, here's | 75 |
| water to quench it. I was hardly moved to come to |
| thee; but being assured none but myself could move |
| thee, I have been blown out of your gates with |
| sighs; and conjure thee to pardon Rome, and thy |
| petitionary countrymen. The good gods assuage thy | 80 |
| wrath, and turn the dregs of it upon this varlet |
| here,--this, who, like a block, hath denied my |
| access to thee. |
| CORIOLANUS | Away! |
| MENENIUS | How! away! | 85 |
| CORIOLANUS | Wife, mother, child, I know not. My affairs |
| Are servanted to others: though I owe |
| My revenge properly, my remission lies |
| In Volscian breasts. That we have been familiar, |
| Ingrate forgetfulness shall poison, rather | 90 |
| Than pity note how much. Therefore, be gone. |
| Mine ears against your suits are stronger than |
| Your gates against my force. Yet, for I loved thee, |
| Take this along; I writ it for thy sake |
[Gives a letter] |
| And would have rent it. Another word, Menenius, | 95 |
| I will not hear thee speak. This man, Aufidius, |
| Was my beloved in Rome: yet thou behold'st! |
| AUFIDIUS | You keep a constant temper. |
| [Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS] |
| First Senator | Now, sir, is your name Menenius? |
| Second Senator | 'Tis a spell, you see, of much power: you know the | 100 |
| way home again. |
| First Senator | Do you hear how we are shent for keeping your |
| greatness back? |
| Second Senator | What cause, do you think, I have to swoon? |
| MENENIUS | I neither care for the world nor your general: for | 105 |
| such things as you, I can scarce think there's any, |
| ye're so slight. He that hath a will to die by |
| himself fears it not from another: let your general |
| do his worst. For you, be that you are, long; and |
| your misery increase with your age! I say to you, | 110 |
| as I was said to, Away! |
| [Exit] |
| First Senator | A noble fellow, I warrant him. |
| Second Senator | The worthy fellow is our general: he's the rock, the |
| oak not to be wind-shaken. |
| [Exeunt] |
Shakespeare's Sources for Coriolanus