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CORIOLANUS: Why then should I be consul? By yond clouds, Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me Your fellow tribune. |
SICINIUS: You show too much of that For which the people stir: if you will pass To where you are bound, you must inquire your way, Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit, Or never be so noble as a consul, Nor yoke with him for tribune. |
MENENIUS: Let's be calm. |
COMINIUS: The people are abused; set on. This paltering Becomes not Rome, nor has Coriolanus Deserved this so dishonour'd rub, laid falsely I' the plain way of his merit. |
CORIOLANUS: Tell me of corn! This was my speech, and I will speak't again-- |
MENENIUS: Not now, not now. |
First Senator: Not in this heat, sir, now. |
CORIOLANUS: Now, as I live, I will. My nobler friends, I crave their pardons: For the mutable, rank-scented many, let them Regard me as I do not flatter, and Therein behold themselves: I say again, In soothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition, Which we ourselves have plou... |
MENENIUS: Well, no more. |
First Senator: No more words, we beseech you. |
CORIOLANUS: How! no more! As for my country I have shed my blood, Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs Coin words till their decay against those measles, Which we disdain should tatter us, yet sought The very way to catch them. |
BRUTUS: You speak o' the people, As if you were a god to punish, not A man of their infirmity. |
SICINIUS: 'Twere well We let the people know't. |
MENENIUS: What, what? his choler? |
CORIOLANUS: Choler! Were I as patient as the midnight sleep, By Jove, 'twould be my mind! |
SICINIUS: It is a mind That shall remain a poison where it is, Not poison any further. |
CORIOLANUS: Shall remain! Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you His absolute 'shall'? |
COMINIUS: 'Twas from the canon. |
CORIOLANUS: 'Shall'! O good but most unwise patricians! why, You grave but reckless senators, have you thus Given Hydra here to choose an officer, That with his peremptory 'shall,' being but The horn and noise o' the monster's, wants not spirit To say he'll turn your current in a ditch, And make your channel his? If he... |
COMINIUS: Well, on to the market-place. |
CORIOLANUS: Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth The corn o' the storehouse gratis, as 'twas used Sometime in Greece,-- |
MENENIUS: Well, well, no more of that. |
CORIOLANUS: Though there the people had more absolute power, I say, they nourish'd disobedience, fed The ruin of the state. |
BRUTUS: Why, shall the people give One that speaks thus their voice? |
CORIOLANUS: I'll give my reasons, More worthier than their voices. They know the corn Was not our recompense, resting well assured That ne'er did service for't: being press'd to the war, Even when the navel of the state was touch'd, They would not thread the gates. This kind of service Did not deserve corn gratis. Bein... |
MENENIUS: Come, enough. |
BRUTUS: Enough, with over-measure. |
CORIOLANUS: No, take more: What may be sworn by, both divine and human, Seal what I end withal! This double worship, Where one part does disdain with cause, the other Insult without all reason, where gentry, title, wisdom, Cannot conclude but by the yea and no Of general ignorance,--it must omit Real necessities, and g... |
BRUTUS: Has said enough. |
SICINIUS: Has spoken like a traitor, and shall answer As traitors do. |
CORIOLANUS: Thou wretch, despite o'erwhelm thee! What should the people do with these bald tribunes? On whom depending, their obedience fails To the greater bench: in a rebellion, When what's not meet, but what must be, was law, Then were they chosen: in a better hour, Let what is meet be said it must be meet, And thro... |
BRUTUS: Manifest treason! |
SICINIUS: This a consul? no. |
BRUTUS: The aediles, ho! Let him be apprehended. |
SICINIUS: Go, call the people: in whose name myself Attach thee as a traitorous innovator, A foe to the public weal: obey, I charge thee, And follow to thine answer. |
CORIOLANUS: Hence, old goat! |
Senators, &C: We'll surety him. |
COMINIUS: Aged sir, hands off. |
CORIOLANUS: Hence, rotten thing! or I shall shake thy bones Out of thy garments. |
SICINIUS: Help, ye citizens! |
MENENIUS: On both sides more respect. |
SICINIUS: Here's he that would take from you all your power. |
BRUTUS: Seize him, AEdiles! |
Citizens: Down with him! down with him! |
Senators, &C: Weapons, weapons, weapons! 'Tribunes!' 'Patricians!' 'Citizens!' 'What, ho!' 'Sicinius!' 'Brutus!' 'Coriolanus!' 'Citizens!' 'Peace, peace, peace!' 'Stay, hold, peace!' |
MENENIUS: What is about to be? I am out of breath; Confusion's near; I cannot speak. You, tribunes To the people! Coriolanus, patience! Speak, good Sicinius. |
SICINIUS: Hear me, people; peace! |
Citizens: Let's hear our tribune: peace Speak, speak, speak. |
SICINIUS: You are at point to lose your liberties: Marcius would have all from you; Marcius, Whom late you have named for consul. |
MENENIUS: Fie, fie, fie! This is the way to kindle, not to quench. |
First Senator: To unbuild the city and to lay all flat. |
SICINIUS: What is the city but the people? |
Citizens: True, The people are the city. |
BRUTUS: By the consent of all, we were establish'd The people's magistrates. |
Citizens: You so remain. |
MENENIUS: And so are like to do. |
COMINIUS: That is the way to lay the city flat; To bring the roof to the foundation, And bury all, which yet distinctly ranges, In heaps and piles of ruin. |
SICINIUS: This deserves death. |
BRUTUS: Or let us stand to our authority, Or let us lose it. We do here pronounce, Upon the part o' the people, in whose power We were elected theirs, Marcius is worthy Of present death. |
SICINIUS: Therefore lay hold of him; Bear him to the rock Tarpeian, and from thence Into destruction cast him. |
BRUTUS: AEdiles, seize him! |
Citizens: Yield, Marcius, yield! |
MENENIUS: Hear me one word; Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word. |
AEdile: Peace, peace! |
MENENIUS: |
BRUTUS: Sir, those cold ways, That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonous Where the disease is violent. Lay hands upon him, And bear him to the rock. |
CORIOLANUS: No, I'll die here. There's some among you have beheld me fighting: Come, try upon yourselves what you have seen me. |
MENENIUS: Down with that sword! Tribunes, withdraw awhile. |
BRUTUS: Lay hands upon him. |
COMINIUS: Help Marcius, help, You that be noble; help him, young and old! |
Citizens: Down with him, down with him! |
MENENIUS: Go, get you to your house; be gone, away! All will be naught else. |
Second Senator: Get you gone. |
COMINIUS: Stand fast; We have as many friends as enemies. |
MENENIUS: Sham it be put to that? |
First Senator: The gods forbid! I prithee, noble friend, home to thy house; Leave us to cure this cause. |
MENENIUS: For 'tis a sore upon us, You cannot tent yourself: be gone, beseech you. |
COMINIUS: Come, sir, along with us. |
CORIOLANUS: I would they were barbarians--as they are, Though in Rome litter'd--not Romans--as they are not, Though calved i' the porch o' the Capitol-- |
MENENIUS: Be gone; Put not your worthy rage into your tongue; One time will owe another. |
CORIOLANUS: On fair ground I could beat forty of them. |
COMINIUS: I could myself Take up a brace o' the best of them; yea, the two tribunes: But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetic; And manhood is call'd foolery, when it stands Against a falling fabric. Will you hence, Before the tag return? whose rage doth rend Like interrupted waters and o'erbear What they are used to bear. |
MENENIUS: Pray you, be gone: I'll try whether my old wit be in request With those that have but little: this must be patch'd With cloth of any colour. |
COMINIUS: Nay, come away. |
A Patrician: This man has marr'd his fortune. |
MENENIUS: His nature is too noble for the world: He would not flatter Neptune for his trident, Or Jove for's power to thunder. His heart's his mouth: What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent; And, being angry, does forget that ever He heard the name of death. Here's goodly work! |
Second Patrician: I would they were abed! |
MENENIUS: I would they were in Tiber! What the vengeance! Could he not speak 'em fair? |
SICINIUS: Where is this viper That would depopulate the city and Be every man himself? |
MENENIUS: You worthy tribunes,-- |
SICINIUS: He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock With rigorous hands: he hath resisted law, And therefore law shall scorn him further trial Than the severity of the public power Which he so sets at nought. |
First Citizen: He shall well know The noble tribunes are the people's mouths, And we their hands. |
Citizens: He shall, sure on't. |
MENENIUS: Sir, sir,-- |
SICINIUS: Peace! |
MENENIUS: Do not cry havoc, where you should but hunt With modest warrant. |
SICINIUS: Sir, how comes't that you Have holp to make this rescue? |
MENENIUS: Hear me speak: As I do know the consul's worthiness, So can I name his faults,-- |
SICINIUS: Consul! what consul? |
MENENIUS: The consul Coriolanus. |
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