The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  FIRST SERVINGMAN Dejectitude? What’s that?

  THIRD SERVINGMAN But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again and the man in blood, they will out of their burrows like conies after rain, and revel all with him.

  FIRST SERVINGMAN But when goes this forward?

  THIRD SERVINGMAN Tomorrow, today, presently. You shall have the drum struck up this afternoon. ’Tis as it were a parcel of their feast, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips.

  SECOND SERVINGMAN Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers.

  FIRST SERVINGMAN Let me have war, say I. It exceeds peace as far as day does night. It’s sprightly walking, audible and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war’s a destroyer of men.

  SECOND SERVINGMAN ’Tis so, and as war in some sort may be said to be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.

  FIRST SERVINGMAN Ay, and it makes men hate one another.

  THIRD SERVINGMAN Reason; because they then less need one another. The wars for my money. I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volscians.

  ⌈A sound within ⌉

  They are rising, they are rising.

  FIRST and SECOND SERVINGMEN In, in, in, in.

  Exeunt

  4.6 Enter the two tribunes, Sicinius and Brutus

  SICINIUS

  We hear not of him, neither need we fear him.

  His remedies are tame—the present peace

  And quietness of the people, which before

  Were in wild hurry. Here do we make his friends

  Blush that the world goes well, who rather had,

  Though they themselves did suffer by‘t, behold

  Dissentious numbers pest’ring streets than see

  Our tradesmen singing in their shops and going

  About their functions friendly.

  Enter Menenius

  BRUTUS

  We stood to’t in good time. Is this Menenius?

  SICINIUS

  ‘Tis he, ’tis he. O, he is grown most kind of late.

  Hail, sir.

  MENENIUS Hail to you both.

  SICINIUS

  Your Coriolanus is not much missed

  But with his friends. The commonwealth doth stand,

  And so would do were he more angry at it.

  MENENIUS

  All’s well, and might have been much better if

  He could have temporized.

  SICINIUS Where is he, hear you?

  MENENIUS Nay, I hear nothing.

  His mother and his wife hear nothing from him.

  Enter three or four Citizens

  ALL THE CITIZENS (to the tribunes)

  The gods preserve you both.

  SICINIUS

  Good e’en, our neighbours.

  BRUTUS

  Good e‘en to you all, good e’en to you all.

  FIRST CITIZEN

  Ourselves, our wives and children, on our knees

  Are bound to pray for you both.

  SICINIUS

  Live and thrive.

  BRUTUS Farewell, kind neighbours.

  We wished Coriolanus had loved you as we did.

  ALL THE CITIZENS

  Now the gods keep you!

  SICINIUS and BRUTUS

  Farewell, farewell.

  Exeunt Citizens

  SICINIUS

  This is a happier and more comely time

  Than when these fellows ran about the streets

  Crying confusion.

  BRUTUS

  Caius Martius was

  A worthy officer i‘th’ war, but insolent,

  O’ercome with pride, ambitious past all thinking,

  Self-loving—

  SICINIUS

  And affecting one sole throne

  Without assistance.

  MENENIUS

  I think not so.

  SICINIUS

  We should by this, to all our lamentation,

  If he had gone forth consul found it so.

  BRUTUS

  The gods have well prevented it, and Rome

  Sits safe and still without him.

  Enter an Aedile

  AEDILE

  Worthy tribunes,

  There is a slave whom we have put in prison

  Reports the Volsces, with two several powers,

  Are entered in the Roman territories,

  And with the deepest malice of the war

  Destroy what lies before ’em.

  MENENIUS

  ’Tis Aufidius,

  Who, hearing of our Martius’ banishment,

  Thrusts forth his horns again into the world,

  Which were inshelled when Martius stood for Rome,

  And durst not once peep out.

  SICINIUS

  Come, what talk you of Martius? BRUTUS (to the Aedile)

  Go see this rumourer whipped. It cannot be

  The Volsces dare break with us.

  MENENIUS

  Cannot be?

  We have record that very well it can,

  And three examples of the like hath been

  Within my age. But reason with the fellow,

  Before you punish him, where he heard this,

  Lest you shall chance to whip your information

  And beat the messenger who bids beware

  Of what is to be dreaded.

  SICINIUS

  Tell not me.

  I know this cannot be.

  BRUTUS Not possible.

  Enter a Messenger

  MESSENGER

  The nobles in great earnestness are going

  All to the senate-house. Some news is come

  That turns their countenances.

  SICINIUS

  ’Tis this slave.

  (To the Aedile) Go whip him fore the people’s eyes.—

  His raising,

  Nothing but his report.

  Exit Aedile

  MESSENGER

  Yes, worthy sir,

  The slave’s report is seconded, and more,

  More fearful, is delivered.

  SICINIUS

  What more fearful?

  MESSENGER

  It is spoke freely out of many mouths—

  How probable I do not know—that Martius,

  Joined with Aufidius, leads a power ‘gainst Rome,

  And vows revenge as spacious as between

  The young’st and oldest thing.

  SICINIUS

  This is most likely!

  BRUTUS

  Raised only that the weaker sort may wish

  Good Martius home again.

  SICINIUS The very trick on’t.

  MENENIUS This is unlikely.

  He and Aufidius can no more atone

  Than violent’st contrariety.

  Enter another Messenger

  SECOND MESSENGER

  You are sent for to the senate.

  A fearful army, led by Caius Martius

  Associated with Aufidius, rages

  Upon our territories, and have already

  O’erborne their way, consumed with fire and took

  What lay before them.

  Enter Cominius

  COMINIUS O, you have made good work!

  MENENIUS What news? What news?

  COMINIUS

  You have holp to ravish your own daughters and

  To melt the city leads upon your pates,

  To see your wives dishonoured to your noses.

  MENENIUS What’s the news? What’s the news?

  COMINIUS

  Your temples burned in their cement, and

  Your franchises, whereon you stood, confined

  Into an auger’s bore.

  MENENIUS Pray now, your news?

  (To the tribunes) You have made fair work, I fear me.

  (To Cominius) Pray, your news.

  If Martius should be j
oined wi’th’ Volscians—

  COMINIUS

  If? He is their god. He leads them like a thing

  Made by some other deity than nature,

  That shapes man better, and they follow him

  Against us brats with no less confidence

  Than boys pursuing summer butterflies,

  Or butchers killing flies.

  MENENIUS (to the tribunes) You have made good work,

  You and your apron-men, you that stood so much

  Upon the voice of occupation and

  The breath of garlic-eaters!

  COMINIUS (to the tribunes)

  He’ll shake your Rome about your ears.

  MENENIUS

  As Hercules did shake down mellow fruit. (To the tribunes) You have made fair work.

  BRUTUS But is this true, sir?

  COMINIUS Ay, and you’ll look pale

  Before you find it other. All the regions

  Do smilingly revolt, and who resists

  Are mocked for valiant ignorance,

  And perish constant fools. Who is’t can blame him?

  Your enemies and his find something in him.

  MENENIVS We are all undone unless

  The noble man have mercy.

  COMINIUS

  Who shall ask it?

  The tribunes cannot do‘t, for shame; the people

  Deserve such pity of him as the wolf

  Does of the shepherds. For his best friends, if they

  Should say ‘Be good to Rome’, they charged him even

  As those should do that had deserved his hate,

  And therein showed like enemies.

  MENENIUS

  ’Tis true.

  If he were putting to my house the brand

  That should consume it, I have not the face

  To say ‘Beseech you, cease.’

  (To the tribunes) You have made fair hands,

  You and your crafts! You have crafted fair!

  COMINIUS (to the tribunes)

  You have brought

  A trembling upon Rome such as was never

  S’incapable of help.

  SICINIUS and BRUTUS Say not we brought it.

  MENENIUS How? Was’t we?

  We loved him, but like beasts and cowardly nobles

  Gave way unto your clusters, who did hoot

  Him out o’th’ city.

  COMINIUS

  But I fear

  They’ll roar him in again. Tullus Aufidius,

  The second name of men, obeys his points

  As if he were his officer. Desperation

  Is all the policy, strength, and defence

  That Rome can make against them.

  Enter a troop of Citizens

  MENENIUS

  Here come the clusters.

  (To the Citizens) And is Aufidius with him? You are they

  That made the air unwholesome when you cast

  Your stinking greasy caps in hooting at

  Coriolanus’ exile. Now he’s coming,

  And not a hair upon a soldier’s head

  Which will not prove a whip. As many coxcombs

  As you threw caps up will he tumble down,

  And pay you for your voices. ’Tis no matter.

  If he could burn us all into one coal,

  We have deserved it.

  ALL THE CITIZENS Faith, we hear fearful news.

  FIRST CITIZEN For mine own part,

  When I said ‘banish him’ I said ’twas pity.

  SECOND CITIZEN And so did I.

  THIRD CITIZEN And so did I, and to say the truth so did very many of us. That we did, we did for the best, and though we willingly consented to his banishment, yet it was against our will.

  COMINIUS

  You’re goodly things, you voices.

  MENENIUS You have made good work,

  You and your cry. Shall’s to the Capitol?

  COMINIUS O, ay, what else?

  Exeunt Menenius and Cominius

  SICINIUS

  Go, masters, get you home. Be not dismayed.

  These are a side that would be glad to have

  This true which they so seem to fear. Go home,

  And show no sign of fear.

  FIRST CITIZEN The gods be good to us! Come, masters, let’s home. I ever said we were i’th’ wrong when we banished him.

  SECOND CITIZEN So did we all. But come, let’s home.

  Exeunt Citizens

  BRUTUS

  I do not like this news.

  SICINIUS

  Nor I.

  BRUTUS

  Let’s to the Capitol. Would half my wealth

  Would buy this for a lie.

  SICINIUS

  Pray let’s go.

  Exeunt

  4.7 Enter Aufidius with his Lieutenant

  AUFIDIUS Do they still fly to th’ Roman?

  LIEUTENANT

  I do not know what witchcraft’s in him, but

  Your soldiers use him as the grace fore meat,

  Their talk at table, and their thanks at end,

  And you are darkened in this action, sir,

  Even by your own.

  AUFIDIUS

  I cannot help it now,

  Unless by using means I lame the foot

  Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier,

  Even to my person, than I thought he would

  When first I did embrace him. Yet his nature

  In that’s no changeling, and I must excuse

  What cannot be amended.

  LIEUTENANT

  Yet I wish, sir

  I mean for your particular—you had not

  Joined in commission with him, but either

  Have borne the action of yourself or else

  To him had left it solely.

  AUFIDIUS

  I understand thee well, and be thou sure,

  When he shall come to his account, he knows not

  What I can urge against him. Although it seems—

  And so he thinks, and is no less apparent

  To th’ vulgar eye—that he bears all things fairly

  And shows good husbandry for the Volscian state,

  Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon

  As draw his sword, yet he hath left undone

  That which shall break his neck or hazard mine

  Whene’er we come to our account.

  LIEUTENANT

  Sir, I beseech you, think you he’ll carry Rome?

  AUFIDIUS

  All places yields to him ere he sits down,

  And the nobility of Rome are his.

  The senators and patricians love him too.

  The tribunes are no soldiers, and their people

  Will be as rash in the repeal as hasty

  To expel him thence. I think he’ll be to Rome

  As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it

  By sovereignty of nature. First he was

  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

  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 controlled the war: but one of these—

  As he hath spices of them all—not all,

  For I dare so far free him—made him feared,

  So hated, and so banished. But he has a merit

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

  Lie in th‘interpretation of the time,

  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 r
ights falter, strengths by strengths do fail.

  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 and Brutus, the two tribunes, with others

  MENENIUS

  No, I’ll not go. You hear what he hath said

  Which was sometime his general, who loved him

  In a most dear particular. He called me father,

  But what o’ that? (To the tribunes) Go, you that

  banished him.

  A mile before his tent fall down, and knee

  The way into his mercy. Nay, if he coyed

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

  COMINIUS

  He would not seem to know me.

  MENENIUS (to the tribunes) Do you hear?

  COMINIUS

  Yet one time he did call me by my name.

  I urged our old acquaintance and the drops

  That we have bled together. ‘Coriolanus’

  He would not answer to, forbade all names.

  He was a kind of nothing, titleless,

  Till he had forged himself a name o’th’ fire

  Of burning Rome.

  MENENIUS (to the tribunes)

  Why, so! You have made good work.

  A pair of tribunes that have wracked fair 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

  To one whom they had punished.

  MENENIUS Very well.

  Could he say less?

  COMINIUS

  I offered to awaken his regard

  For’s private friends. His answer to me was

  He could not stay to pick them in a pile

  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.

  (To the tribunes) 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

  Would be your country’s pleader, your good tongue,