William Shakespeare - William Shakespeare - Complete Works

The harm of unscann'd swiftness, will, too late,

Tie leaden pounds to's heels. Proceed by process,

Lest parties- as he is belov'd- break out,

And sack great Rome with Romans.

BRUTUS. If it were so-

SICINIUS. What do ye talk?

Have we not had a taste of his obedience-

Our aediles smote, ourselves resisted? Come!

MENENIUS. Consider this: he has been bred i' th' wars

Since 'a could draw a sword, and is ill school'd

In bolted language; meal and bran together

He throws without distinction. Give me leave,

I'll go to him and undertake to bring him

Where he shall answer by a lawful form,

In peace, to his utmost peril.

FIRST SENATOR. Noble Tribunes,

It is the humane way; the other course

Will prove too bloody, and the end of it

Unknown to the beginning.

SICINIUS. Noble Menenius,

Be you then as the people's officer.

Masters, lay down your weapons.

BRUTUS. Go not home.

SICINIUS. Meet on the market-place. We'll attend you there;

Where, if you bring not Marcius, we'll proceed

In our first way.

MENENIUS. I'll bring him to you.

[To the SENATORS] Let me desire your company; he must come,

Or what is worst will follow.

FIRST SENATOR. Pray you let's to him. Exeunt

Enter CORIOLANUS with NOBLES

CORIOLANUS. Let them pull all about mine ears, present me

Death on the wheel or at wild horses' heels;

Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock,

That the precipitation might down stretch

Below the beam of sight; yet will I still

Be thus to them.

FIRST PATRICIAN. You do the nobler.

CORIOLANUS. I muse my mother

Does not approve me further, who was wont

To call them woollen vassals, things created

To buy and sell with groats; to show bare heads

In congregations, to yawn, be still, and wonder,

When one but of my ordinance stood up

To speak of peace or war.

Enter VOLUMNIA

I talk of you:

Why did you wish me milder? Would you have me

False to my nature? Rather say I play

The man I am.

VOLUMNIA. O, sir, sir, sir,

I would have had you put your power well on

Before you had worn it out.

CORIOLANUS. Let go.

VOLUMNIA. You might have been enough the man you are

With striving less to be so; lesser had been

The thwartings of your dispositions, if

You had not show'd them how ye were dispos'd,

Ere they lack'd power to cross you.

CORIOLANUS. Let them hang.

VOLUMNIA. Ay, and burn too.

Enter MENENIUS with the SENATORS

MENENIUS. Come, come, you have been too rough, something too rough;

You must return and mend it.

FIRST SENATOR. There's no remedy,

Unless, by not so doing, our good city

Cleave in the midst and perish.

VOLUMNIA. Pray be counsell'd;

I have a heart as little apt as yours,

But yet a brain that leads my use of anger

To better vantage.

MENENIUS. Well said, noble woman!

Before he should thus stoop to th' herd, but that

The violent fit o' th' time craves it as physic

For the whole state, I would put mine armour on,

Which I can scarcely bear.

CORIOLANUS. What must I do?

MENENIUS. Return to th' tribunes.

CORIOLANUS. Well, what then, what then?

MENENIUS. Repent what you have spoke.

CORIOLANUS. For them! I cannot do it to the gods;

Must I then do't to them?

VOLUMNIA. You are too absolute;

Though therein you can never be too noble

But when extremities speak. I have heard you say

Honour and policy, like unsever'd friends,

I' th' war do grow together; grant that, and tell me

In peace what each of them by th' other lose

That they combine not there.

CORIOLANUS. Tush, tush!

MENENIUS. A good demand.

VOLUMNIA. If it be honour in your wars to seem

The same you are not, which for your best ends

You adopt your policy, how is it less or worse

That it shall hold companionship in peace

With honour as in war; since that to both

It stands in like request?

CORIOLANUS. Why force you this?

VOLUMNIA. Because that now it lies you on to speak

To th' people, not by your own instruction,

Nor by th' matter which your heart prompts you,

But with such words that are but roted in

Your tongue, though but bastards and syllables

Of no allowance to your bosom's truth.

Now, this no more dishonours you at all

Than to take in a town with gentle words,

Which else would put you to your fortune and

The hazard of much blood.

I would dissemble with my nature where

My fortunes and my friends at stake requir'd

I should do so in honour. I am in this

Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles;

And you will rather show our general louts

How you can frown, than spend a fawn upon 'em

For the inheritance of their loves and safeguard

Of what that want might ruin.

MENENIUS. Noble lady!

Come, go with us, speak fair; you may salve so,

Not what is dangerous present, but the los

Of what is past.

VOLUMNIA. I prithee now, My son,

Go to them with this bonnet in thy hand;

And thus far having stretch'd it- here be with them-

Thy knee bussing the stones- for in such busines

Action is eloquence, and the eyes of th' ignorant

More learned than the ears- waving thy head,

Which often thus correcting thy-stout heart,

Now humble as the ripest mulberry

That will not hold the handling. Or say to them

Thou art their soldier and, being bred in broils,

Hast not the soft way which, thou dost confess,

Were fit for thee to use, as they to claim,

In asking their good loves; but thou wilt frame

Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs, so far

As thou hast power and person.

MENENIUS. This but done

Even as she speaks, why, their hearts were yours;

For they have pardons, being ask'd, as free

As words to little purpose.

VOLUMNIA. Prithee now,

Go, and be rul'd; although I know thou hadst rather

Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf

Than flatter him in a bower.

Enter COMINIUS

Here is Cominius.

COMINIUS. I have been i' th' market-place; and, sir, 'tis fit

You make strong party, or defend yourself

By calmness or by absence; all's in anger.

MENENIUS. Only fair speech.

COMINIUS. I think 'twill serve, if he

Can thereto frame his spirit.

VOLUMNIA. He must and will.

Prithee now, say you will, and go about it.

CORIOLANUS. Must I go show them my unbarb'd sconce? Must I

With my base tongue give to my noble heart

A lie that it must bear? Well, I will do't;

Yet, were there but this single plot to lose,

This mould of Marcius, they to dust should grind it,

And throw't against the wind. To th' market-place!

You have put me now to such a part which never

I shall discharge to th' life.

COMINIUS. Come, come, we'll prompt you.

VOLUMNIA. I prithee now, sweet son, as thou hast said

My praises made thee first a soldier, so,

To have my praise for this, perform a part

Thou hast not done before.

CORIOLANUS. Well, I must do't.

Away, my disposition, and possess me

Some harlot's spirit! My throat of war be turn'd,

Which quier'd with my drum, into a pipe

Small as an eunuch or the virgin voice

That babies lulls asleep! The smiles of knaves

Tent in my cheeks, and schoolboys' tears take up

The glasses of my sight! A beggar's tongue

Make motion through my lips, and my arm'd knees,

Who bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his