The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 100

by William Shakespeare


  35

  A noble servant to them, but he could not

  Carry his honours even. Whether ’twas pride,

  Which out of daily fortune ever taints

  The happy man; whether defect of judgement,

  To fail in the disposing of those chances

  40

  Which he was lord of; or whether nature,

  Not to be other than one thing, not moving

  From th’ casque to th’ cushion, but commanding

  peace

  Even with the same austerity and garb

  As he controll’d the war; but one of these –

  45

  As he hath spices of them all, not all,

  For I dare so far free him – made him fear’d,

  So hated, and so banish’d: but he has a merit

  To choke it in the utt’rance. So our virtues

  Lie in th’interpretation of the time,

  50

  And power, unto itself most commendable,

  Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair

  T’extol what it hath done.

  One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;

  Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail.

  55

  Come, let’s away. When, Caius, Rome is thine,

  Thou art poor’st of all: then shortly art thou mine.

  Exeunt.

  5.1 Enter MENENIUS, COMINIUS; SICINIUS, BRUTUS (the two tribunes), with others.

  MENENIUS No, I’ll not go: you hear what he hath said

  Which was sometime his general, who lov’d him

  In a most dear particular. He call’d me father:

  But what o’ that? Go you that banish’d him;

  A mile before his tent fall down, and knee

  5

  The way into his mercy. Nay, if he coy’d

  To hear Cominius speak, I’ll keep at home.

  COMINIUS He would not seem to know me.

  MENENIUS Do you hear?

  COMINIUS Yet one time he did call me by my name.

  I urg’d our old acquaintance, and the drops

  10

  That we have bled together. ‘Coriolanus’

  He would not answer to; forbad all names:

  He was a kind of nothing, titleless,

  Till he had forg’d himself a name o’th’ fire

  Of burning Rome.

  MENENIUS Why, so: you have made good work!

  15

  A pair of tribunes that have wrack’d for Rome

  To make coals cheap: a noble memory!

  COMINIUS I minded him how royal ’twas to pardon

  When it was less expected. He replied

  It was a bare petition of a state

  20

  To one whom they had punish’d.

  MENENIUS Very well.

  Could he say less?

  COMINIUS I offer’d to awaken his regard

  For’s private friends. His answer to me was

  He could not stay to pick them in a pile

  25

  Of noisome musty chaff. He said ’twas folly,

  For one poor grain or two, to leave unburnt

  And still to nose th’offence.

  MENENIUS For one poor grain or two?

  I am one of those; his mother, wife, his child,

  And this brave fellow too: we are the grains,

  30

  You are the musty chaff, and you are smelt

  Above the moon. We must be burnt for you.

  SICINIUS Nay, pray be patient. If you refuse your aid

  In this so never-needed help, yet do not

  Upbraid’s with our distress. But sure, if you

  35

  Would be your country’s pleader, your good tongue

  More than the instant army we can make,

  Might stop our countryman.

  MENENIUS No, I’ll not meddle.

  SICINIUS Pray you go to him.

  MENENIUS What should I do?

  BRUTUS Only make trial what your love can do

  40

  For Rome, towards Martius.

  MENENIUS Well, and say that Martius

  Return me, as Cominius is return’d,

  Unheard; what then?

  But as a discontented friend, grief-shot

  With his unkindness? Say’t be so?

  SICINIUS Yet your good will

  45

  Must have that thanks from Rome after the measure

  As you intended well.

  MENENIUS I’ll undertake’t.

  I think he’ll hear me. Yet to bite his lip

  And hum at good Cominius, much unhearts me.

  He was not taken well; he had not din’d:

  50

  The veins unfill’d, our blood is cold, and then

  We pout upon the morning, are unapt

  To give or to forgive; but when we have stuff’d

  These pipes and these conveyances of our blood

  With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls

  55

  Than in our priest-like fasts. Therefore I’ll watch

  him

  Till he be dieted to my request,

  And then I’ll set upon him.

  BRUTUS You know the very road into his kindness,

  And cannot lose your way.

  MENENIUS Good faith, I’ll prove him,

  60

  Speed how it will. I shall ere long have knowledge

  Of my success. Exit.

  COMINIUS He’ll never hear him.

  SICINIUS Not?

  COMINIUS I tell you, he does sit in gold, his eye

  Red as ’twould burn Rome; and his injury

  The gaoler to his pity. I kneel’d before him:

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  ’Twas very faintly he said ‘Rise’, dismiss’d me

  Thus, with his speechless hand. What he would do

  He sent in writing after me: what he would not,

  Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions:

  So that all hope is vain,

  70

  Unless his noble mother and his wife,

  Who, as I hear, mean to solicit him

  For mercy to his country. Therefore let’s hence,

  And with our fair entreaties haste them on. Exeunt.

  5.2 Enter MENENIUS to the Watch or guard.

  1 WATCH Stay! Whence are you?

  2 WATCH Stand, and go back!

  MENENIUS

  You guard like men; ’tis well. But, by your leave,

  I am an officer of state, and come

  To speak with Coriolanus.

  1 WATCH From whence?

  MENENIUS From Rome.

  1 WATCH

  You may not pass; you must return: our general

  5

  Will no more hear from thence.

  2 WATCH

  You’ll see your Rome embrac’d with fire before

  You’ll speak with Coriolanus.

  MENENIUS Good my friends,

  If you have heard your general talk of Rome

  And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks

  10

  My name hath touch’d your ears: it is Menenius.

  1 WATCH

  Be it so, go back: the virtue of your name

  Is not here passable.

  MENENIUS I tell thee, fellow,

  Thy general is my lover. I have been

  The book of his good acts whence men have read

  15

  His fame unparallel’d, haply amplified;

  For I have ever verified my friends,

  Of whom he’s chief, with all the size that verity

  Would without lapsing suffer. Nay, sometimes,

  Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground,

  20

  I have tumbled past the throw, and in his praise

  Have almost stamp’d the leasing. Therefore, fellow,

  I must have leave to pass.

  1 WATCH Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in his />
  behalf as you have uttered words in your own, you

  25

  should not pass here; no, though it were as virtuous to

  lie as to live chastely. Therefore go back.

  MENENIUS Prithee, fellow, remember my name is

  Menenius, always factionary on the party of your

  general.

  30

  2 WATCH Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say

  you have, I am one that, telling true under him, must

  say you cannot pass. Therefore go back.

  MENENIUS Has he dined, canst thou tell? For I would

  not speak with him till after dinner.

  35

  1 WATCH You are a Roman, are you?

  MENENIUS I am as thy general is.

  1 WATCH Then you should hate Rome, as he does.

  Can you, when you have pushed out your gates the

  very defender of them, and, in a violent popular

  40

  ignorance, given your enemy your shield, think to

  front his revenges with the easy groans of old women,

  the virginal palms of your daughters, or with the

  palsied intercession of such a decayed dotant as you

  seem to be? Can you think to blow out the intended

  45

  fire your city is ready to flame in, with such weak

  breath as this? No, you are deceived; therefore back

  to Rome, and prepare for your execution. You are

  condemned; our general has sworn you out of reprieve

  and pardon.

  50

  MENENIUS Sirrah, if thy captain knew I were here, he

  would use me with estimation.

  1 WATCH Come, my captain knows you not.

  MENENIUS I mean thy general.

  1 WATCH My general cares not for you. Back, I say, go:

  55

  lest I let forth your half-pint of blood. Back, that’s the

  utmost of your having. Back!

  MENENIUS Nay, but fellow, fellow –

  Enter CORIOLANUS with AUFIDIUS.

  CORIOLANUS What’s the matter?

  MENENIUS Now, you companion, I’ll say an errand for

  60

  you; you shall know now that I am in estimation; you

  shall perceive that a Jack guardant cannot office me

  from my son Coriolanus. Guess but by my

  entertainment with him, if thou stand’st not i’th’ state

  of hanging, or of some death more long in

  65

  spectatorship and crueller in suffering. Behold now

  presently, and swound for what’s to come upon thee.

  [to Coriolanus] The glorious gods sit in hourly synod

  about thy particular prosperity, and love thee no worse

  than thy old father Menenius does! O my son, my son,

  70

  thou art preparing fire for us: look thee, here’s water

  to quench it. I was hardly moved to come to thee, but

  being assured none but myself could move thee, I have

  been blown out of your gates with sighs, and conjure

  thee to pardon Rome and thy petitionary countrymen.

  75

  The good gods assuage thy wrath, and turn the dregs

  of it upon this varlet here – this, who, like a block, hath

  denied my access to thee.

  CORIOLANUS Away!

  MENENIUS How! Away?

  80

  CORIOLANUS

  Wife, mother, child, I know not. My affairs

  Are servanted to others. Though I owe

  My revenge properly, my remission lies

  In Volscian breasts. That we have been familiar,

  Ingrate forgetfulness shall poison rather

  85

  Than pity note how much. Therefore be gone.

  Mine ears against your suits are stronger than

  Your gates against my force. Yet, for I lov’d thee,

  Take this along; I writ it for thy sake,

  And would have sent it. [Gives him a letter.]

  Another word, Menenius,

  90

  I will not hear thee speak. This man, Aufidius,

  Was my belov’d in Rome: yet thou behold’st.

  AUFIDIUS You keep a constant temper.

  Exeunt Coriolanus and Aufidius.

  [The Watch and Menenius remain.]

  1 WATCH Now, sir, is your name Menenius?

  2 WATCH ’Tis a spell, you see, of much power. You know

  95

  the way home again.

  1 WATCH Do you hear how we are shent for keeping

  your greatness back?

  2 WATCH What cause do you think I have to swound?

  MENENIUS I neither care for th’ world nor your general.

 

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