Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word. AEdile Peace, peace! MENENIUS [To BRUTUS] Be that you seem, truly your country's friend, And temperately proceed to what you would Thus violently redress. BRUTUS Sir, those cold ways, That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonous Where the disease is violent. Lay hands upon him, And bear him to the rock. CORIOLANUS No, I'll die here.
Drawing his sword There's some among you have beheld me fighting:
Come, try upon yourselves what you have seen me. MENENIUS Down with that sword! Tribunes, withdraw awhile. BRUTUS Lay hands upon him. COMINIUS Help Marcius, help, You that be noble; help him, young and old! Citizens Down with him, down with him!
In this mutiny, the Tribunes, the AEdiles, and the People, are beat in MENENIUS Go, get you to your house; be gone, away!
All will be naught else. Second Senator Get you gone. COMINIUS Stand fast;
We have as many friends as enemies. MENENIUS Sham it be put to that? First Senator The gods forbid!
I prithee, noble friend, home to thy house;
Leave us to cure this cause. MENENIUS For 'tis a sore upon us, You cannot tent yourself: be gone, beseech you. COMINIUS Come, sir, along with us. CORIOLANUS I would they were barbarians--as they are, Though in Rome litter'd--not Romans--as they are not, Though calved i' the porch o' the Capitol-- MENENIUS Be gone;
Put not your worthy rage into your tongue;
One time will owe another. CORIOLANUS On fair ground I could beat forty of them. COMINIUS I could myself Take up a brace o' the best of them; yea, the two tribunes:
But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetic;
And manhood is call'd foolery, when it stands Against a falling fabric. Will you hence, Before the tag return? whose rage doth rend Like interrupted waters and o'erbear What they are used to bear. MENENIUS Pray you, be gone:
I'll try whether my old wit be in request With those that have but little: this must be patch'd With cloth of any colour. COMINIUS Nay, come away.
Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, and others A Patrician This man has marr'd his fortune. MENENIUS His nature is too noble for the world:
He would not flatter Neptune for his trident, Or Jove for's power to thunder. His heart's his mouth:
What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent;
And, being angry, does forget that ever He heard the name of death.
A noise within Here's goodly work! Second Patrician I would they were abed! MENENIUS I would they were in Tiber! What the vengeance!
Could he not speak 'em fair?
Re-enter BRUTUS and SICINIUS, with the rabble SICINIUS Where is this viper That would depopulate the city and Be every man himself? MENENIUS You worthy tribunes,-- SICINIUS He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock With rigorous hands: he hath resisted law, And therefore law shall scorn him further trial Than the severity of the public power Which he so sets at nought. First Citizen He shall well know The noble tribunes are the people's mouths, And we their hands. Citizens He shall, sure on't. MENENIUS Sir, sir,-- SICINIUS Peace! MENENIUS Do not cry havoc, where you should but hunt With modest warrant. SICINIUS Sir, how comes't that you Have holp to make this rescue? MENENIUS Hear me speak:
As I do know the consul's worthiness, So can I name his faults,-- SICINIUS Consul! what consul? MENENIUS The consul Coriolanus. BRUTUS He consul! Citizens No, no, no, no, no. MENENIUS If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours, good people, I may be heard, I would crave a word or two;
The which shall turn you to no further harm Than so much loss of time. SICINIUS Speak briefly then;
For we are peremptory to dispatch This viperous traitor: to eject him hence Were but one danger, and to keep him here Our certain death: therefore it is decreed He dies to-night. MENENIUS Now the good gods forbid That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude Towards her deserved children is enroll'd In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam Should now eat up her own! SICINIUS He's a disease that must be cut away. MENENIUS O, he's a limb that has but a disease;
Mortal, to cut it off; to cure it, easy.
What has he done to Rome that's worthy death?
Killing our enemies, the blood he hath lost--Which, I dare vouch, is more than that he hath, By many an ounce--he dropp'd it for his country;
And what is left, to lose it by his country, Were to us all, that do't and suffer it, A brand to the end o' the world. SICINIUS This is clean kam. BRUTUS Merely awry: when he did love his country, It honour'd him. MENENIUS The service of the foot Being once gangrened, is not then respected For what before it was. BRUTUS We'll hear no more.
Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence:
Lest his infection, being of catching nature, Spread further. MENENIUS One word more, one word.
This tiger-footed rage, when it shall find The harm of unscann'd swiftness, will too late Tie leaden pounds to's heels. Proceed by process;
Lest parties, as he is beloved, 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' the wars Since he 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.
