text stringlengths 1 3.08k |
|---|
LARTIUS. He had, my lord; and that it was which caus'd |
Our swifter composition. |
CORIOLANUS. So then the Volsces stand but as at first, |
Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road |
Upon's again. |
COMINIUS. They are worn, Lord Consul, so |
That we shall hardly in our ages see |
Their banners wave again. |
CORIOLANUS. Saw you Aufidius? |
LARTIUS. On safeguard he came to me, and did curse |
Against the Volsces, for they had so vilely |
Yielded the town. He is retir'd to Antium. |
CORIOLANUS. Spoke he of me? |
LARTIUS. He did, my lord. |
CORIOLANUS. How? What? |
LARTIUS. How often he had met you, sword to sword; |
That of all things upon the earth he hated |
Your person most; that he would pawn his fortunes |
To hopeless restitution, so he might |
Be call'd your vanquisher. |
CORIOLANUS. At Antium lives he? |
LARTIUS. At Antium. |
CORIOLANUS. I wish I had a cause to seek him there, |
To oppose his hatred fully. Welcome home. |
Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS |
Behold, these are the tribunes of the people, |
The tongues o' th' common mouth. I do despise them, |
For they do prank them in authority, |
Against all noble sufferance. |
SICINIUS. Pass no further. |
CORIOLANUS. Ha! What is that? |
BRUTUS. It will be dangerous to go on- no further. |
CORIOLANUS. What makes this change? |
MENENIUS. The matter? |
COMINIUS. Hath he not pass'd the noble and the common? |
BRUTUS. Cominius, no. |
CORIOLANUS. Have I had children's voices? |
FIRST SENATOR. Tribunes, give way: he shall to th' market-place. |
BRUTUS. The people are incens'd against him. |
SICINIUS. Stop, |
Or all will fall in broil. |
CORIOLANUS. Are these your herd? |
Must these have voices, that can yield them now |
And straight disclaim their tongues? What are your offices? |
You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth? |
Have you not set them on? |
MENENIUS. Be calm, be calm. |
CORIOLANUS. It is a purpos'd thing, and grows by plot, |
To curb the will of the nobility; |
Suffer't, and live with such as cannot rule |
Nor ever will be rul'd. |
BRUTUS. Call't not a plot. |
The people cry you mock'd them; and of late, |
When corn was given them gratis, you repin'd; |
Scandal'd the suppliants for the people, call'd them |
Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness. |
CORIOLANUS. Why, this was known before. |
BRUTUS. Not to them all. |
CORIOLANUS. Have you inform'd them sithence? |
BRUTUS. How? I inform them! |
COMINIUS. You are like to do such business. |
BRUTUS. Not unlike |
Each way to better yours. |
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 enquire 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 abus'd; set on. This palt'ring |
Becomes not Rome; nor has Coriolanus |
Deserved this so dishonour'd rub, laid falsely |
I' th' 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 meiny, 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 plough'd for, sow'd, and scatter'd, |
By mingling them with us, the honour'd number, |
Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that |
Which they have given to beggars. |
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 tetter us, yet sought |
The very way to catch them. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.