Coriolanus Read online

  The prayers of priests, nor times of sacrifice,

  Embarquements23 all of fury, shall lift up

  Their rotten24 privilege and custom gainst

  My hate to Martius. Where I find him, were it

  At home, upon my brother's guard26, even there,

  Against the hospitable canon27, would I

  Wash my fierce hand in's heart. Go you to th'city:

  Learn how 'tis held, and what29 they are that must

  Be hostages for Rome.

  FIRST SOLDIER Will not you go?

  AUFIDIUS I am attended32 at the cypress grove. I pray you --

  'Tis south33 the city mills -- bring me word thither

  How the world goes, that to the pace of it

  I may spur on my journey.

  FIRST SOLDIER I shall, sir.

  [Exeunt]

  Act 2 [Scene 1]

  running scene 5

  Enter Menenius with the two Tribunes of the people, Sicinius and Brutus

  MENENIUS The augurer1 tells me we shall have news tonight.

  BRUTUS Good or bad?

  MENENIUS Not according to the prayer of the people3, for they

  love not Martius.

  SICINIUS Nature teaches beasts5 to know their friends.

  MENENIUS Pray you, who does the wolf love?

  SICINIUS The lamb.

  MENENIUS Ay, to devour him, as the hungry plebeians would

  the noble Martius.

  BRUTUS He's a lamb indeed that baas10 like a bear.

  MENENIUS He's a bear indeed that lives like a lamb. You two are

  old men: tell me one thing that I shall ask you.

  SICINIUS and BRUTUS Well, sir.

  MENENIUS In what enormity14 is Martius poor in that you two

  have not in abundance?

  BRUTUS He's poor in no one fault, but stored16 with all.

  SICINIUS Especially in pride.

  BRUTUS And topping all others in boasting.

  MENENIUS This is strange now: do you two know how you are

  censured here in the city, I mean of us o'th'right-hand file20?

  Do you?

  SICINIUS and BRUTUS Why? How are we censured?

  MENENIUS Because you talk of pride now: will you not be

  angry?

  SICINIUS and BRUTUS Well, well, sir, well.

  MENENIUS Why, 'tis no great matter: for a very little thief of26

  occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience: give your

  dispositions the reins, and be angry at your pleasures28, at the

  least, if you take it as a pleasure to you in being so: you blame

  Martius for being proud.

  BRUTUS We do it not alone, sir.

  MENENIUS I know you can do very little alone, for your helps

  are many, or else your actions would grow wondrous single33:

  your abilities are too infant-like for doing much alone. You

  talk of pride: O, that you could turn your eyes toward35 the

  napes of your necks, and make but an interior survey of

  your good selves! O, that you could!

  BRUTUS What then, sir?

  MENENIUS Why, then you should discover a brace39 of

  unmeriting, proud, violent, testy40 magistrates, alias fools, as

  any in Rome.

  SICINIUS Menenius, you are known well enough too.

  MENENIUS I am known to be a humorous43 patrician, and one

  that loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber44

  in't: said to be something imperfect45 in favouring the first

  complaint, hasty and tinder-like upon too trivial motion46: one

  that converses more with the buttock of the night47 than with

  the forehead of the morning. What I think, I utter, and spend48

  my malice in my breath. Meeting two such wealsmen49 as you

  are -- I cannot call you Lycurguses50 -- if the drink you give

  me touch my palate adversely, I make a crooked face at it51. I

  can say your worships have delivered52 the matter well, when I

  find the ass in compound53 with the major part of your

  syllables. And though I must be content to bear with those

  that say you are reverend grave men, yet they lie deadly55 that

  tell you have good faces: if you see this in the map of my

  microcosm57, follows it that I am known well enough too?

  What harm can your bisson conspectuities58 glean out of this

  character59, if I be known well enough too?

  BRUTUS Come, sir, come, we know you well enough.

  MENENIUS You know neither me, yourselves nor anything: you

  are ambitious for poor knaves' caps and legs62: you wear out a

  good wholesome forenoon63 in hearing a cause between an

  orange-wife and a faucet-seller, and then rejourn64 the

  controversy of threepence to a second day of audience65.

  When you are hearing a matter between party and party66, if

  you chance to be pinched67 with the colic, you make faces like

  mummers, set up the bloody flag68 against all patience, and in

  roaring for a chamber-pot, dismiss the controversy bleeding69,

  the more entangled by your hearing: all the peace you make169

  in their cause is calling both the parties knaves. You are a

  pair of strange ones.

  BRUTUS Come, come, you are well understood to be a

  perfecter giber for the table than a necessary bencher74 in the

  Capitol.

  MENENIUS Our very priests must become mockers, if they shall

  encounter such ridiculous subjects as you are. When77 you

  speak best unto the purpose, it is not worth the wagging of

  your beards, and your beards deserve not so honourable a

  grave as to stuff a botcher80's cushion, or to be entombed in an

  ass's pack-saddle: yet you must be saying, 'Martius is proud',

  who, in a cheap82 estimation, is worth all your predecessors

  since Deucalion, though peradventure83 some of the best of

  'em were hereditary hangmen. Good e'en84 to your worships:

  more of your conversation would infect my brain, being the

  herdsmen of the beastly plebeians. I will be bold to take my

  leave of you.

  Brutus and Sicinius [stand] aside

  Enter Volumnia, Virgilia and Valeria

  How now, my as fair as noble ladies: and the moon88, were she

  earthly, no nobler: whither do you follow your eyes89 so fast?

  VOLUMNIA Honourable Menenius, my boy Martius approaches:

  for the love of Juno91, let's go.

  MENENIUS Ha? Martius coming home?

  VOLUMNIA Ay, worthy Menenius, and with most prosperous approbation93.

  MENENIUS Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee. Hoo, Martius

  coming home?

  He throws up his cap

  VIRGILIA and VALERIA Nay, 'tis true.

  VOLUMNIA Look, here's a letter from him: the state hath another, his wife

  another, and, I think, there's one at home

  for you.

  MENENIUS I will make my very house reel tonight: a letter

  for me?

  VIRGILIA Yes, certain, there's a letter for you: I saw't.

  MENENIUS A letter for me? It gives me an estate104 of seven years'

  health, in which time I will make a lip at105 the physician: the

  most sovereign prescription in Galen is but empiricutic106, and

  to this preservative, of no better report than a horse-drench107.

  Is he not wounded? He was wont108 to come home wounded.

  VIRGILIA O, no, no, no.

  VOLUMNIA O, he is wounded, I thank the gods for't.

  MENENIUS So do I too, if it be not too much: brings a111 victory in

  his pocket? The wounds become him.r />
  VOLUMNIA On's brows113: Menenius, he comes the third time

  home with the oaken garland.

  MENENIUS Has he disciplined115 Aufidius soundly?

  VOLUMNIA Titus Lartius writes they fought together, but

  Aufidius got off.

  MENENIUS And 'twas time for him too, I'll warrant him that:

  an he had stayed by him, I would not have been so 'fidiussed119

  for all the chests in Corioles, and the gold that's in them. Is

  the senate possessed121 of this?

  VOLUMNIA Good ladies, let's go. Yes, yes, yes: the senate has

  letters from the general, wherein he gives my son the whole

  name of the war: he hath in this action124 outdone his former

  deeds doubly.

  VALERIA In troth, there's wondrous things spoke of him.

  MENENIUS Wondrous: ay, I warrant you, and not without his

  true purchasing128.

  VIRGILIA The gods grant them true.

  VOLUMNIA True? Pow waw!130

  MENENIUS True? I'll be sworn they are true. Where

  To the Tribunes

  is he wounded?-- God save your good worships! Martius is

  coming home: he has more cause to be proud.-- Where is he

  wounded?

  VOLUMNIA I'th'shoulder, and i'th'left arm: there will be large

  cicatrices136 to show the people, when he shall stand for his

  place: he received in the repulse of Tarquin137 seven hurts

  i'th'body.

  MENENIUS One i'th'neck, and two i'th'thigh: there's nine139 that I

  know.

  VOLUMNIA He had, before this last expedition, twenty-five

  wounds upon him.

  MENENIUS Now it's twenty-seven: every gash was an enemy's

  grave.

  A shout and flourish

  Hark, the trumpets.

  VOLUMNIA These are the ushers of Martius: before him he

  carries noise, and behind him he leaves tears:

  Death, that dark spirit, in's nervy148 arm doth lie,

  Which being advanced, declines149, and then men die.

  A sennet. Trumpets sound. Enter Cominius the general, and Titus Lartius: between them Coriolanus, crowned with an oaken garland with Captains and Soldiers, and a Herald

  HERALD Know, Rome, that all alone Martius did fight

  Within Corioles' gates: where he hath won,

  With fame, a name to152 'Martius Caius':

  These in honour follows153 'Coriolanus'.

  Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus!

  Sound [a] flourish

  ALL Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus!

  CORIOLANUS No more of this, it does offend my heart:

  Pray now, no more.

  COMINIUS Look, sir, your mother.

  CORIOLANUS O, you have, I know, petitioned all the gods

  For my prosperity160.

  Kneels

  VOLUMNIA Nay, my good soldier, up:

  He rises

  My gentle162 Martius, worthy Caius,

  And by deed-achieving honour163 newly named:

  What is it? 'Coriolanus' must I call thee?

  But O, thy wife!

  CORIOLANUS My gracious166 silence, hail.

  To Virgilia

  Wouldst thou have laughed had I come coffined home,

  That weep'st to see me triumph? Ah, my dear,

  Such eyes the widows in Corioles wear,

  And mothers that lack sons.

  MENENIUS Now the gods crown thee!

  CORIOLANUS And live you yet? O my sweet lady, pardon.

  To Valeria

  VOLUMNIA I know not where to turn. O, welcome home:

  And welcome, general, and you're welcome all.

  MENENIUS A hundred thousand welcomes: I could weep

  And I could laugh, I am light and heavy: welcome:

  A curse bein at very root on's177 heart

  That is not glad to see thee. You are three

  That Rome should dote on: yet, by the faith of men,

  We have some old crab-trees180 here at home that will not

  Be grafted to your relish181. Yet welcome, warriors:

  We182 call a nettle but a nettle and

  The faults of fools but folly.

  COMINIUS Ever right.

  CORIOLANUS Menenius, ever, ever.

  HERALD Give186 way there, and go on.

  CORIOLANUS Your hand, and yours.

  To Volumnia and Virgilia

  Ere in our own house I do shade188 my head,

  The good patricians must be visited,

  From whom I have received not only greetings,

  But with them change of honours191.

  VOLUMNIA I have lived

  To see inherited193 my very wishes,

  And the buildings of my fancy194: only

  There's one thing wanting195, which I doubt not but

  Our Rome will cast196 upon thee.

  CORIOLANUS Know, good mother,

  I had rather be their servant in my way,

  Than sway199 with them in theirs.

  COMINIUS On, to the Capitol.

  Flourish. Cornets. Exeunt in state, as before

  Enter Brutus and Sicinius

  BRUTUS All tongues speak of him, and the bleared201 sights

  Are spectacled to see him. Your prattling202 nurse

  Into a rapture203 lets her baby cry

  While she chats him: the kitchen malkin204 pins

  Her richest lockram 'bout her reechy205 neck,

  Clamb'ring the walls to eye him: stalls, bulks206, windows

  Are smothered up, leads filled, and ridges horsed207

  With variable complexions, all agreeing208

  In earnestness to see him: seld-shown flamens209

  Do press among the popular throngs and puff210

  To win a vulgar station211: our veiled dames

  Commit the war of white and damask212 in

  Their nicely gauded cheeks to th'wanton spoil213

  Of Phoebus' burning kisses: such a pother214

  As if that whatsoever god who leads him215

  Were slily crept into his human powers216,

  And gave him graceful posture217.

  SICINIUS On the sudden, I warrant218 him consul.

  BRUTUS Then our office may, during his power219, go sleep.

  SICINIUS He cannot temp'rately transport his honours

  From where he should begin and end220, but will

  Lose those he hath won.

  BRUTUS In that there's comfort.

  SICINIUS Doubt not

  The commoners, for whom we stand225, but they

  Upon their ancient226 malice will forget

  With the least cause these his new honours, which227

  That he will give them make I as little question

  As229 he is proud to do't.

  BRUTUS I heard him swear,

  Were he to stand for consul, never would he

  Appear i'th'market-place nor on him put

  The napless vesture233 of humility,

  Nor, showing, as the manner is, his wounds

  To th'people, beg their stinking breaths235.

  SICINIUS 'Tis right.

  BRUTUS It was his word: O, he would miss it237 rather

  Than carry it but238 by the suit of the gentry to him,

  And the desire of the nobles.

  SICINIUS I wish no better

  Than have him hold that purpose and to put it

  In execution.

  BRUTUS 'Tis most like243 he will.

  SICINIUS It shall be to him then, as our good wills244:

  A sure destruction.

  BRUTUS So it must fall out246

  To him or our authorities for an end.

  We must suggest248 the people in what hatred

  He still249 hath held them: that to's power he would

  Have made them mules, silenced their pleaders250,

  And dispropertied251 their fre
edoms, holding them,

  In human action and capacity252,

  Of no more soul nor fitness for the world

  Than camels in their war, who have their provand254

  Only for bearing burdens, and sore blows

  For sinking under them.

  SICINIUS This, as you say, suggested

  At some time when his soaring insolence

  Shall teach the people -- which time shall not want259,

  If he be put upon't260, and that's as easy

  As to set dogs on sheep -- will be his fire

  To kindle their dry stubble, and their blaze

  Shall darken263 him for ever.

  Enter a Messenger

  BRUTUS What's the matter?

  MESSENGER You are sent for to the Capitol: 'tis thought

  That Martius shall be consul: I have seen

  The dumb men throng to see him and the blind

  To hear him speak: matrons268 flung gloves,

  Ladies and maids their scarves and handkerchiefs,

  Upon him as he passed: the nobles bended270

  As to Jove271's statue, and the commons made

  A shower and thunder with their caps and shouts:

  I never saw the like.

  BRUTUS Let's to the Capitol,

  And carry with us ears and eyes for th'time275,

  But hearts for the event276.

  SICINIUS Have with you277.

  Exeunt

  [Act 2 Scene 2]

  running scene 6

  Enter two Officers, to lay cushions, as it were, in the Capitol

  FIRST OFFICER Come, come, they are almost here: how many

  stand for consulships?

  SECOND OFFICER Three, they say: but 'tis thought of3 everyone

  Coriolanus will carry it.

  FIRST OFFICER That's a brave fellow: but he's vengeance5 proud,

  and loves not the common people.

  SECOND OFFICER Faith, there hath been many great men7 that

  have flattered the people, who ne'er loved them8: and there be

  many that they have loved, they know not wherefore9: so that

  if they love they know not why, they hate upon no better a

  ground. Therefore, for Coriolanus neither to care whether

  they love or hate him manifests the true knowledge he has in12

  their disposition, and out of his noble carelessness lets them

  plainly see't.

  FIRST OFFICER If he did not care whether he had their love or no,

  he waved16 indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor

  harm: but he seeks their hate with greater devotion than

  they can render it him, and leaves nothing undone that may

  fully discover him their opposite19. Now to seem to affect19 the

  malice and displeasure of the people is as bad as that which

  he dislikes, to flatter them for their love.

  SECOND OFFICER He hath deserved worthily of his country, and

  his ascent is not by such easy degrees23 as those who, having

  been supple and courteous to the people, bonneted, without24

  any further deed to have them at all into their estimation and

  report: but he hath so planted his honours in their eyes and

  his actions in their hearts that for their tongues to be silent