Coriolanus

the fault on us. Brutus

Ay, spare us not. Say we read lectures to you,
How youngly he began to serve his country,
How long continued, and what stock he springs of,
The noble house o’ the Marcians, from whence came
That Ancus Marcius, Numa’s daughter’s son,
Who, after great Hostilius, here was king;
Of the same house Publius and Quintus were,
That our best water brought by conduits hither;
And Censorinus, nobly named so,
Twice being by the people chosen censor,1
Was his great ancestor.

Sicinius

One thus descended,
That hath beside well in his person wrought
To be set high in place, we did commend
To your remembrances: but you have found,
Scaling his present bearing with his past,
That he’s your fixed enemy, and revoke
Your sudden approbation.

Brutus

Say, you ne’er had done’t⁠—
Harp on that still⁠—but by our putting on:
And presently, when you have drawn your number,
Repair to the Capitol.

All

We will so: almost all
Repent in their election. Exeunt Citizens.

Brutus

Let them go on;
This mutiny were better put in hazard,
Than stay, past doubt, for greater:
If, as his nature is, he fall in rage
With their refusal, both observe and answer
The vantage of his anger.

Sicinius

To the Capitol, come:
We will be there before the stream o’ the people;
And this shall seem, as partly ’tis, their own,
Which we have goaded onward. Exeunt.

Act III

Scene I

Rome. A street.

	Cornets. Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, all the Gentry, Cominius, Titus Lartius, and other Senators.
Coriolanus	Tullus Aufidius then had made new head?
Lartius	He had, my lord; and that it was which caused 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 retired 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’ the 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 the market-place.
Brutus	The people are incensed 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 purposed 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 ruled.
Brutus	Call’t not a plot: The people cry you mock’d them, and of late, When corn was given them gratis, you repined; 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!
Coriolanus	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 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 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.
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 have power, Then vail your ignorance; if none, awake Your dangerous lenity. If you are learn’d, Be not as common fools;