William Shakespeare - William Shakespeare - Complete Works

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.

BRUTUS. You speak o' th' 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' th' 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; if you are not,

Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians,

If they be senators; and they are no less,

When, both your voices blended, the great'st taste

Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate;

And such a one as he, who puts his 'shall,'

His popular 'shall,' against a graver bench

Than ever frown'd in Greece. By Jove himself,

It makes the consuls base; and my soul aches

To know, when two authorities are up,

Neither supreme, how soon confusion

May enter 'twixt the gap of both and take

The one by th' other.

COMINIUS. Well, on to th' market-place.

CORIOLANUS. Whoever gave that counsel to give forth

The corn o' th' storehouse gratis, as 'twas us'd

Sometime in Greece-

MENENIUS. Well, well, no more of that.

CORIOLANUS. Though there the people had more absolute pow'r-

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 assur'd

They ne'er did service for't; being press'd to th' 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. Being i' th' war,

Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they show'd

Most valour, spoke not for them. Th' accusation

Which they have often made against the Senate,

All cause unborn, could never be the native

Of our so frank donation. Well, what then?

How shall this bosom multiplied digest

The Senate's courtesy? Let deeds express

What's like to be their words: 'We did request it;

We are the greater poll, and in true fear

They gave us our demands.' Thus we debase

The nature of our seats, and make the rabble

Call our cares fears; which will in time

Break ope the locks o' th' Senate and bring in

The crows to peck the eagles.

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 give way the while

To unstable slightness. Purpose so barr'd, it follows

Nothing is done to purpose. Therefore, beseech you-

You that will be less fearful than discreet;

That love the fundamental part of state

More than you doubt the change on't; that prefer

A noble life before a long, and wish

To jump a body with a dangerous physic

That's sure of death without it- at once pluck out

The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick

The sweet which is their poison. Your dishonour

Mangles true judgment, and bereaves the state

Of that integrity which should become't,

Not having the power to do the good it would,

For th' ill which doth control't.

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 throw their power i' th' dust.

BRUTUS. Manifest treason!

SICINIUS. This a consul? No.

BRUTUS. The aediles, ho!

Enter an AEDILE

Let him be apprehended.