The Tragedy of Coriolanus - William Shakespeare (best books to read in life .txt) 📗

Look, I am going. Commend me to my wife. I'll return consul; Or never trust to what my tongue can do I' the way of flattery further.

VOLUMNIA. Do your will.

[Exit.]

COMINIUS. Away! The tribunes do attend you: arm yourself To answer mildly; for they are prepar'd With accusations, as I hear, more strong Than are upon you yet.

CORIOLANUS. The word is, mildly. - Pray you let us go: Let them accuse me by invention, I Will answer in mine honour.

MENENIUS. Ay, but mildly.

CORIOLANUS. Well, mildly be it then; mildly.

[Exeunt.]


SCENE III. Rome. The Forum.

[Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS.]

BRUTUS. In this point charge him home, that he affects Tyrannical power: if he evade us there, Enforce him with his envy to the people; And that the spoil got on the Antiates Was ne'er distributed.

[Enter an AEDILE.]

What, will he come?

AEDILE. He's coming.

BRUTUS. How accompanied?

AEDILE. With old Menenius, and those senators That always favour'd him.

SICINIUS. Have you a catalogue Of all the voices that we have procur'd, Set down by the poll?

AEDILE. I have; 'tis ready.

SICINIUS. Have you collected them by tribes?

AEDILE. I have.

SICINIUS. Assemble presently the people hither: And when they hear me say 'It shall be so I' the right and strength o' the commons,' be it either For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them, If I say fine, cry 'Fine!'- if death, cry 'Death;' Insisting on the old prerogative And power i' the truth o' the cause.

AEDILE. I shall inform them.

BRUTUS. And when such time they have begun to cry, Let them not cease, but with a din confus'd Enforce the present execution Of what we chance to sentence.

AEDILE. Very well.

SICINIUS. Make them be strong, and ready for this hint, When we shall hap to give't them.

BRUTUS. Go about it.

[Exit AEDILE.] Put him to choler straight: he hath been us'd Ever to conquer, and to have his worth Of contradiction; being once chaf'd, he cannot Be rein'd again to temperance; then he speaks What's in his heart; and that is there which looks With us to break his neck.

SICINIUS. Well, here he comes.

[Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, Senators, and Patricians.]

MENENIUS. Calmly, I do beseech you.

CORIOLANUS. Ay, as an ostler, that for the poorest piece Will bear the knave by the volume. - The honoured gods Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice Supplied with worthy men! plant love among's! Throng our large temples with the shows of peace, And not our streets with war!

FIRST SENATOR. Amen, amen!

MENENIUS. A noble wish.

[Re-enter the AEDILE, with Citizens.]

SICINIUS. Draw near, ye people.

AEDILE. List to your tribunes; audience: peace, I say!

CORIOLANUS. First, hear me speak.

BOTH TRIBUNES. Well, say. - Peace, ho!

CORIOLANUS. Shall I be charg'd no further than this present? Must all determine here?

SICINIUS. I do demand, If you submit you to the people's voices, Allow their officers, and are content To suffer lawful censure for such faults As shall be proved upon you.

CORIOLANUS. I am content.

MENENIUS. Lo, citizens, he says he is content: The warlike service he has done, consider; think Upon the wounds his body bears, which show Like graves i' the holy churchyard.

CORIOLANUS. Scratches with briers, Scars to move laughter only.

MENENIUS. Consider further, That when he speaks not like a citizen, You find him like a soldier: do not take His rougher accents for malicious sounds, But, as I say, such as become a soldier, Rather than envy you.

COMINIUS. Well, well, no more.

CORIOLANUS. What is the matter, That being pass'd for consul with full voice, I am so dishonour'd that the very hour You take it off again?

SICINIUS. Answer to us.

CORIOLANUS. Say then: 'tis true, I ought so.

SICINIUS. We charge you that you have contriv'd to take From Rome all season'd office, and to wind Yourself into a power tyrannical; For which you are a traitor to the people.

CORIOLANUS. How! traitor!

MENENIUS. Nay, temperately; your promise.

CORIOLANUS. The fires i' the lowest hell fold in the people! Call me their traitor! - Thou injurious tribune! Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths, In thy hands clutch'd as many millions, in Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say, Thou liest unto thee with a voice as free As I do pray the gods.

SICINIUS. Mark you this, people?

CITIZENS. To the rock, to the rock, with him!

SICINIUS. Peace! We need not put new matter to his charge: What you have seen him do and heard him speak, Beating your officers, cursing yourselves, Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying Those whose great power must try him; even this, So criminal and in such capital kind, Deserves the extremest death.

BRUTUS. But since he hath Serv'd well for Rome, -

CORIOLANUS. What do you prate of service?

BRUTUS. I talk of that that know it.

CORIOLANUS. You?

MENENIUS. Is this the promise that you made your mother?

COMINIUS. Know, I pray you, -

CORIOLANUS. I'll know no further: Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death, Vagabond exile, flaying, pent to linger But with a grain a day, I would not buy Their mercy at the price of one fair word, Nor check my courage for what they can give, To have't with saying Good-morrow.

SICINIUS. For that he has, - As much as in him lies, - from time to time Envied against the people, seeking means To pluck away their power; as now at last Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers That do distribute it; - in the name o' the people, And in the power of us the tribunes, we, Even from this instant, banish him our city, In peril of precipitation From off the rock Tarpeian, never more To enter our Rome gates: I' the people's name, I say it shall be so.

CITIZENS. It shall be so, it shall be so; let him away; He's banished, and it shall be so.

COMINIUS. Hear me, my masters and my common friends, -

SICINIUS. He's sentenc'd; no more hearing.

COMINIUS. Let me speak: I have been consul, and can show for Rome Her enemies' marks upon me. I do love My country's good with a respect more tender, More holy and profound, than mine own life, My dear wife's estimate, her womb's increase, And treasure of my loins; then if I would Speak that, -

SICINIUS. We know your drift. Speak what?

BRUTUS. There's no more to be said, but he is banish'd, As enemy to the people and his country: It shall be so.

CITIZENS. It shall be so, it shall be so.

CORIOLANUS. You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize As the dead carcasses of unburied men That do corrupt my air, - I banish you; And here remain with your uncertainty! Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts! Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes, Fan you into despair! Have the power still To banish your defenders; till at length Your ignorance, - which finds not till it feels, - Making but reservation of yourselves, - Still your own foes, - deliver you, as most Abated captives to some nation That won you without blows! Despising, For you, the city, thus I turn my back: There is a world elsewhere.

[Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENENIUS, Senators, and Patricians.]

AEDILE. The people's enemy is gone, is gone!

CITIZENS. Our enemy is banish'd, he is gone! Hoo! hoo!

[Shouting, and throwing up their caps.]

SICINIUS. Go, see him out at gates, and follow him, As he hath follow'd you, with all despite; Give him deserv'd vexation. Let a guard Attend us through the city.

CITIZENS. Come, come, let's see him out at gates; come. The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come.

[Exeunt.]


ACT IV.

SCENE I. Rome. Before a gate of the city.

[Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS,and several young Patricians.]

CORIOLANUS. Come, leave your tears; a brief farewell: - he beast With many heads butts me away. - Nay, mother, Where is your ancient courage? you were us'd To say extremities was the trier of spirits; That common chances common men could bear; That when the sea was calm all boats alike Show'd mastership in floating; fortune's blows, When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves A noble cunning; you were us'd to load me With precepts that would make invincible The heart that conn'd them.

VIRGILIA. O heavens! O heavens!

CORIOLANUS. Nay, I pr'ythee, woman, -

VOLUMNIA. Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome, And occupations perish!

CORIOLANUS. What, what, what! I shall be lov'd when I am lack'd. Nay, mother, Resume that spirit when you were wont to say, If you had been the wife of Hercules, Six of his labours you'd have done, and sav'd Your husband so much sweat. - Cominius, Droop not; adieu. - Farewell, my wife, - my mother: I'll do well yet. - Thou old and true Menenius, Thy tears are salter than a younger man's, And venomous to thine eyes. - My sometime general, I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld Heart-hard'ning spectacles; tell these sad women 'Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes, As 'tis to laugh at 'em. - My mother, you wot well My hazards still have been your solace: and Believe't not lightly, - though I go alone, Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen Makes fear'd and talk'd of more than seen, - your son Will or exceed the common or be caught With cautelous baits and practice.

VOLUMNIA. My first son, Whither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius With thee awhile: determine on some course More than a wild exposture to each chance That starts i' the way before thee.

CORIOLANUS. O the gods!

COMINIUS. I'll follow thee a month, devise with thee Where thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of us, And we of thee: so, if the time thrust forth A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send O'er the vast world to seek a single man; And lose advantage, which doth ever cool I' the absence of the needer.

CORIOLANUS. Fare ye well: Thou hast years upon thee; and thou art too full Of the wars' surfeits to go rove with one That's yet unbruis'd: bring me but out at gate. - Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and My friends of noble touch; when I am forth, Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you, come. While I remain above the ground, you shall Hear from me still; and never of me aught But what is like me formerly.

MENENIUS. That's worthily As any ear can hear. - Come, let's not weep. - If I could shake off but one seven years From these old arms and legs, by the good gods, I'd with thee every foot.

CORIOLANUS. Give me thy hand: - Come.

[Exeunt.]


SCENE II. Rome. A street near the gate.

[Enter SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and an AEDILE.]


SICINIUS. Bid them all home; he's gone, and we'll no further. - The nobility are vex'd, whom we see have sided In his behalf.

BRUTUS. Now we have shown our power,