The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  SECOND OFFICER Faith, there hath been many great men that have flattered the people who ne’er loved them; and there be many that they have loved they know not wherefore, 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 in 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 waved 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 opposite. Now to seem to affect 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 degrees as those who, having been supple and courteous to the people, bonneted, without 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 and not confess so much were a kind of ingrateful injury. To report otherwise were a malice that, giving itself the lie, would pluck reproof and rebuke from every ear that heard it.

  FIRST OFFICER No more of him. He’s a worthy man. Make way, they are coming.

  A sennet. Enter the Patricians, and Sicinius and Brutus, the tribunes of the people, lictors before them; Coriolanus, Menenius, Cominius the consul. ⌈The Patricians take their places and sit.⌉ Sicinius and Brutus take their places by themselves. Coriolanus stands

  MENENIUS

  Having determined of the Volsces, and

  To send for Titus Lartius, it remains

  As the main point of this our after-meeting

  To gratify his noble service that

  Hath thus stood for his country. Therefore please

  you,

  Most reverend and grave elders, to desire

  The present consul and last general

  In our well-found successes to report

  A little of that worthy work performed

  By Martius Caius Coriolanus, whom

  We met here both to thank and to remember

  With honours like himself.

  ⌈Coriolanus sits⌉

  FIRST SENATOR Speak, good Cominius.

  Leave nothing out for length, and make us think

  Rather our state’s defective for requital

  Than we to stretch it out.

  (To the tribunes) Masters o’th’ people,

  We do request your kindest ears and, after,

  Your loving motion toward the common body

  To yield what passes here.

  SICINIUS We are convented

  Upon a pleasing treaty, and have hearts

  Inclinable to honour and advance

  The theme of our assembly.

  BRUTUS Which the rather

  We shall be blessed to do if he remember

  A kinder value of the people than

  He hath hereto prized them at.

  MENENIUS That’s off, that’s off.

  I would you rather had been silent. Please you

  To hear Cominius speak?

  BRUTUS Most willingly,

  But yet my caution was more pertinent

  Than the rebuke you give it.

  MENENIUS He loves your people,

  But tie him not to be their bedfellow.

  Worthy Cominius, speak.

  Coriolanus rises and offers to go away

  (To Coriolanus) Nay, keep your place. ⌈FIRST⌉ SENATOR Sit, Coriolanus. Never shame to hear

  What you have nobly done.

  CORIOLANUS Your honours’ pardon,

  I had rather have my wounds to heal again

  Than hear say how I got them.

  BRUTUS

  Sir, I hope

  My words disbenched you not?

  CORIOLANUS No, sir, yet oft

  When blows have made me stay I fled from words.

  You soothed not, therefore hurt not; but your people,

  I love them as they weigh—

  MENENIUS Pray now, sit down.

  CORIOLANUS

  I had rather have one scratch my head i’th’ sun

  When the alarum were struck than idly sit

  To hear my nothings monstered.

  Exit

  MENENIUS Masters of the people,

  Your multiplying spawn how can he flatter—

  That’s thousand to one good one—when you now see

  He had rather venture all his limbs for honour

  Than one on’s ears to hear it? Proceed, Cominius.

  COMINIUS

  I shall lack voice; the deeds of Coriolanus

  Should not be uttered feebly. It is held

  That valour is the chiefest virtue, and

  Most dignifies the haver. If it be,

  The man I speak of cannot in the world

  Be singly counterpoised. At sixteen years,

  When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he fought

  Beyond the mark of others. Our then dictator,

  Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight

  When with his Amazonian chin he drove

  The bristled lips before him. He bestrid

  An o‘erpressed Roman, and, i’th’ consul’s view,

  Slew three opposers. Tarquin’s self he met,

  And struck him on his knee. In that day’s feats,

  When he might act the woman in the scene,

  He proved best man i‘th’ field, and for his meed

  Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil age

  Man-entered thus, he waxed like a sea,

  And in the brunt of seventeen battles since

  He lurched all swords of the garland. For this last

  Before and in Corioles, let me say

  I cannot speak him home. He stopped the fliers,

  And by his rare example made the coward

  Turn terror into sport. As weeds before

  A vessel under sail, so men obeyed

  And fell below his stem. His sword, death’s stamp,

  Where it did mark, it took. From face to foot

  He was a thing of blood, whose every motion

  Was timed with dying cries. Alone he entered

  The mortal gate of th’ city, which he, painted

  With shunless destiny, aidless came off,

  And with a sudden reinforcement struck

  Corioles like a planet. Now all’s his.

  When by and by the din of war gan pierce

  His ready sense, then straight his doubled spirit

  Requickened what in flesh was fatigate,

  And to the battle came he, where he did

  Run reeking o’er the lives of men as if

  ’Twere a perpetual spoil; and till we called

  Both field and city ours he never stood

  To ease his breast with panting.

  MENENIUS Worthy man.

  ⌈FIRST⌉ SENATOR

  He cannot but with measure fit the honours

  Which we devise him.

  COMINIUS Our spoils he kicked at,

  And looked upon things precious as they were

  The common muck of the world. He covets less

  Than misery itself would give, rewards

  His deeds with doing them, and is content

  To spend the time to end it.

  MENENIUS He’s right noble.

  Let him be called for.

  ⌈FIRST⌉ SENATOR Call Coriolanus.

  OFFICER He doth appear.

  Enter Coriolanus

  MENENIUS

  The senate, Coriolanus, are well pleased

  To make thee consul.

  CORIOLANUS I do owe them still

  My life and services.

  MENENIUS It then remains

  That you do speak to the people.

  CORIOLANUS I do beseech you,

 
; Let me o’erleap that custom, for I cannot

  Put on the gown, stand naked, and entreat them

  For my wounds’ sake to give their suffrage.

  Please you that I may pass this doing.

  SICINIUS Sir, the people

  Must have their voices, neither will they bate

  One jot of ceremony.

  MENENIUS (to Coriolanus) Put them not to’t.

  Pray you, go fit you to the custom and

  Take to you, as your predecessors have,

  Your honour with your form.

  CORIOLANUS It is a part

  That I shall blush in acting, and might well

  Be taken from the people.

  BRUTUS (to Sicinius) Mark you that?

  CORIOLANUS

  To brag unto them ‘Thus I did, and thus’,

  Show them th’unaching scars, which I should hide,

  As if I had received them for the hire

  Of their breath only!

  MENENIUS Do not stand upon’t.—

  We recommend to you, tribunes of the people,

  Our purpose to them; and to our noble consul

  Wish we all joy and honour.

  SENATORS

  To Coriolanus come all joy and honour!

  A flourish of cornetts, then exeunt all but Sicinius and Brutus

  BRUTUS

  You see how he intends to use the people.

  SICINIUS

  May they perceive’s intent! He will require them

  As if he did contemn what he requested

  Should be in them to give.

  BRUTUS Come, we’ll inform them

  Of our proceedings here. On th’ market-place

  I know they do attend us. Exeunt

  2.3 Enter seven or eight Citizens

  FIRST CITIZEN Once, if he do require our voices we ought not to deny him.

  SECOND CITIZEN We may, sir, if we will.

  THIRD CITIZEN We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do. For if he show us his wounds and tell us his deeds, we are to put our tongues into those wounds and speak for them; so if he tell us his noble deeds we must also tell him our noble acceptance of them. Ingratitude is monstrous, and for the multitude to be ingrateful were to make a monster of the multitude, of the which we, being members, should bring ourselves to be monstrous members.

  FIRST CITIZEN And to make us no better thought of, a little help will serve; for once we stood up about the corn, he himself stuck not to call us the many-headed multitude.

  THIRD CITIZEN We have been called so of many, not that our heads are some brown, some black, some abram, some bald, but that our wits are so diversely coloured; and truly I think if all our wits were to issue out of one skull, they would fly east, west, north, south, and their consent of one direct way should be at once to all the points o’th’ compass.

  SECOND CITIZEN Think you so? Which way do you judge my wit would fly?

  THIRD CITIZEN Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another man’s will, ‘tis strongly wedged up in a blockhead. But if it were at liberty, ’twould sure southward. SECOND CITIZEN Why that way?

  THIRD CITIZEN To lose itself in a fog where, being three parts melted away with rotten dews, the fourth would return for conscience’ sake, to help to get thee a wife.

  SECOND CITIZEN You are never without your tricks. You may, you may.

  THIRD CITIZEN Are you all resolved to give your voices? But that’s no matter, the greater part carries it. I say, if he would incline to the people there was never a worthier man.

  Enter Coriolanus in a gown of humility, with Menenius

  Here he comes, and in the gown of humility. Mark his behaviour. We are not to stay all together, but to come by him where he stands by ones, by twos, and by threes. He’s to make his requests by particulars, wherein every one of us has a single honour in giving him our own voices with our own tongues. Therefore follow me, and I’ll direct you how you shall go by him. ALL THE CITIZENS Content, content. Exeunt Citizens

  MENENIUS

  O sir, you are not right. Have you not known

  The worthiest men have done’t?

  CORIOLANUS What must I say?

  ‘I pray, sir’? Plague upon‘t, I cannot bring

  My tongue to such a pace. ‘Look, sir, my wounds.

  I got them in my country’s service, when

  Some certain of your brethren roared and ran

  From th’ noise of our own drums’?

  MENENIUS O me, the gods! 55

  You must not speak of that, you must desire them

  To think upon you.

  CORIOLANUS Think upon me? Hang ’em.

  I would they would forget me like the virtues

  Which our divines lose by ’em.

  MENENIUS You’ll mar all.

  I’ll leave you. Pray you, speak to ’em, I pray you, 60

  In wholesome manner.

  CORIOLANUS Bid them wash their faces

  And keep their teeth clean.

  Exit Menenius

  Enter three of the Citizens

  So, here comes a brace.

  You know the cause, sir, of my standing here.

  THIRD CITIZEN

  We do, sir. Tell us what hath brought you to’t.

  CORIOLANUS Mine own desert.

  SECOND CITIZEN Your own desert?

  CORIOLANUS Ay, but not mine own desire.

  THIRD CITIZEN How not your own desire?

  CORIOLANUS No, sir, ’twas never my desire yet to trouble the poor with begging.

  THIRD CITIZEN You must think if we give you anything we hope to gain by you.

  CORIOLANUS Well then, I pray, your price o’th’ consulship?

  FIRST CITIZEN The price is to ask it kindly.

  CORIOLANUS Kindly, sir, I pray let me ha’t. I have wounds to show you which shall be yours in private. (To Second Citizen) Your good voice, sir. What say you?

  SECOND CITIZEN You shall ha’t, worthy sir.

  CORIOLANUS A match, sir. There’s in all two worthy voices begged. I have your alms. Adieu.

  THIRD CITIZEN (to the other Citizens) But this is something odd.

  SECOND CITIZEN An ‘twere to give again—but ’tis no matter. Exeunt Citizens

  Enter two other Citizens

  CORIOLANUS Pray you now, if it may stand with the tune of your voices that I may be consul, I have here the customary gown.

  ⌈FOURTH⌉ CITIZEN You have deserved nobly of your country, and you have not deserved nobly.

  CORIOLANUS Your enigma? ⌈FOURTH⌉ CITIZEN You have been a scourge to her enemies, you have been a rod to her friends. You have not, indeed, loved the common people.

  CORIOLANUS You should account me the more virtuous that I have not been common in my love. I will, sir, flatter my sworn brother the people to earn a dearer estimation of them. ’Tis a condition they account gentle. And since the wisdom of their choice is rather to have my hat than my heart, I will practise the insinuating nod and be off to them most counterfeitly; that is, sir, I will counterfeit the bewitchment of some popular man, and give it bountiful to the desirers. Therefore, beseech you I may be consul.

  ⌈FIFTH⌉ CITIZEN We hope to find you our friend, and therefore give you our voices heartily.

  ⌈FOURTH⌉ CITIZEN You have received many wounds for your country.

  CORIOLANUS I will not seal your knowledge with showing them. I will make much of your voices, and so trouble you no farther.

  BOTH CITIZENS The gods give you joy, sir, heartily. CORIOLANUS Most sweet voices.

  Exeunt Citizens

  Better it is to die, better to starve,

  Than crave the hire which first we do deserve.

  Why in this womanish toge should I stand here

  To beg of Hob and Dick that does appear

  Their needless vouches? Custom calls me to’t.

  What custom wills, in all things should we do‘t,

  The dust on antique time would lie unswept,

  And mounta
inous error be too highly heaped

  For truth to o’erpeer. Rather than fool it so,

  Let the high office and the honour go

  To one that would do thus. I am half through.

  The one part suffered, the other will I do. Enter three Citizens more

  Here come more voices.

  Your voices! For your voices I have fought,

  Watched for your voices, for your voices bear

  Of wounds two dozen odd; battles thrice six

  I have seen and heard of for your voices, have

  Done many things, some less, some more. Your

  voices!

  Indeed I would be consul.

  ⌈SIXTH⌉ CITIZEN He has done nobly, and cannot go without any honest man’s voice.

  ⌈SEVENTH⌉ CITIZEN Therefore let him be consul. The gods give him joy and make him good friend to the people!

  ALL THE CITIZENS Amen, amen. God save thee, noble consul!

  CORIOLANUS Worthy voices.

  Exeunt Citizens

  Enter Menenius with Brutus and Sicinius

  MENENIUS

  You have stood your limitation, and the tribunes

  Endue you with the people’s voice. Remains

  That in th’ official marks invested, you

  Anon do meet the senate.

  CORIOLANUS

  Is this done?

  SICINIUS

  The custom of request you have discharged.

  The people do admit you, and are summoned

  To meet anon upon your approbation.

  CORIOLANUS

  Where, at the senate-house?

  SICINIUS

  There, Coriolanus.

  CORIOLANUS

  May I change these garments?

  SICINIUS

  You may, sir.

  CORIOLANUS

  That I’ll straight do, and, knowing myself again,

  Repair to th’ senate-house.

  MENENIUS

  I’ll keep you company. (To the tribunes) Will you

  along?

  BRUTUS

  We stay here for the people.

  SICINIUS Fare you well.

  Exeunt Coriolanus and Menenius

  He has it now, and by his looks methinks

  ’Tis warm at’s heart.

  BRUTUS With a proud heart he wore

  His humble weeds. Will you dismiss the people?

  Enter the Plebeians

  SICINIUS

  How now, my masters, have you chose this man?