The Complete Works of William Shakespeare In Plain and Simple English (Translated)
Page 489
SICINIUS.
Come closer, you people.
Draw near, ye people.
AEDILE.
Listen to your tribunes. Attention! Quiet, I say!
List to your tribunes; audience: peace, I say!
CORIOLANUS.
First, listen to me.
First, hear me speak.
BOTH TRIBUNES.
So, speak. Quiet, please!
Well, say.--Peace, ho!
CORIOLANUS.
Will I charged with anything other than this?
Shall I be charg'd no further than this present?
Will everything end here?
Must all determine here?
SICINIUS.
I demand,
I do demand,
if you will submit to the authority of the people’s votes,
If you submit you to the people's voices,
and allow the tribunes to exist, and are willing
Allow their officers, and are content
to accept to the lawful punishment for whatever crimes
To suffer lawful censure for such faults
you are convicted of.
As shall be proved upon you.
CORIOLANUS.
I will submit to all that.
I am content.
MENENIUS.
Hey, people, he says he will go along with it.
Lo, citizens, he says he is content:
Consider his service during wartime; think
The warlike service he has done, consider; think
about the wounds he bears, which look
Upon the wounds his body bears, which show
like graves in a graveyard.
Like graves i' the holy churchyard.
CORIOLANUS.
They’re just scratches,
Scratches with briers,
scars that should provoke laughter, nothing more.
Scars to move laughter only.
MENENIUS.
Consider also
Consider further,
that when you doesn’t sound like a common person
That when he speaks not like a citizen,
it’s because he sounds like a soldier. Don’t mistake
You find him like a soldier: do not take
his rough speech for unkindness,
His rougher accents for malicious sounds,
because it is an appropriate tone for a soldier,
But, as I say, such as become a soldier,
not ill-will against you.
Rather than envy you.
COMINIUS.
That’s enough of that.
Well, well, no more.
CORIOLANUS.
Why is it
What is the matter,
that having been elected consul with all of your votes,
That being pass'd for consul with full voice,
I am now dishonored by you
I am so dishonour'd that the very hour
all revoking your votes?
You take it off again?
SICINIUS.
Defend yourself against our charges, don’t accuse us of anything.
Answer to us.
CORIOLANUS.
Speak then. You’re right, I ought to be defending myself.
Say then: 'tis true, I ought so.
SICINIUS.
We allege that you have attempted to remove
We charge you that you have contriv'd to take
all of Rome’s moderate politicians, and to insinuate
From Rome all season'd office, and to wind
yourself as a tyrant;
Yourself into a power tyrannical;
For which you are a traitor to the people.
For which you are a traitor to the people.
CORIOLANUS.
How am I traitor?
How! traitor!
MENENIUS.
Stay calm. You promised.
Nay, temperately; your promise.
CORIOLANUS.
I hope you all burn in hell!
The fires i' the lowest hell fold in the people!
Call me a traitor! You insulting tribune!
Call me their traitor!--Thou injurious tribune!
If you were within eyeshot of twenty thousand deaths,
Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths,
and if you held 20 million more in your hand,
In thy hands clutch'd as many millions, in
and you tried to talk about both numbers, I would
Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say,
you were a liar in a voice as frank
Thou liest unto thee with a voice as free
as the one I use to pray.
As I do pray the gods.
SICINIUS.
Do you hear this, people?
Mark you this, people?
CITIZENS.
Kill him!
To the rock, to the rock, with him!
SICINIUS.
Quiet
Peace!
We don’t need to add more charges against him.
We need not put new matter to his charge:
What you have seen do and heard him say,
What you have seen him do and heard him speak,
beating your officers, cursing you,
Beating your officers, cursing yourselves,
breaking the law by threatening people with his sword, and now defying you,
Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying
who have the power to put him on trial. For all of these
Those whose great power must try him; even this,
crimes, some of which are capital offenses,
So criminal and in such capital kind,
he deserves to be put to extreme death.
Deserves the extremest death.
BRUTUS.
But since he has
But since he hath
served his country well—
Serv'd well for Rome,--
CORIOLANUS.
Why do you babble about service?
What do you prate of service?
BRUTUS.
I speak as one who knows about it.
I talk of that that know it.
CORIOLANUS.
You?
You?
MENENIUS.
Is this how you keep your promise to your mother to behave yourself?
Is this the promise that you made your mother?
COMINIUS.
Listen, please—
Know, I pray you,--
CORIOLANUS.
I won’t listen to anything else.
I'll know no further:
Let them sentence me to death,
Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,
or exile, or to be whipped, imprisoned
Vagabond exile, flaying, pent to linger
without enough food. I wouldn’t try to convince them to spare me
But with a grain a day, I would not buy
if I had to say one nice thing to them,
Their mercy at the price of one fair word,
nor would I limit my spirit out of fear for what they can do,
Nor check my courage for what they can give,
because I can have it just be saying hello.
To have't with saying Good-morrow.
SICINIUS.
Because he has,
For that he has,--
as much as he could, sometimes
As much as in him lies,--from time to time
spoken against the people, and tried to
Envied against the people, seeking means
take away their power, and has just now
To pluck away their power; as now at last
used his sword against us, and done so not only in the presence
Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence
of important government officials, but also of officers
Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers<
br />
of the law. In the name of the people,
That do distribute it;--in the name o' the people,
and by the power vested in us as tribunes, we
And in the power of us the tribunes, we,
banish him from Rome, effective immediately,
Even from this instant, banish him our city,
on pain of being thrown
In peril of precipitation
off of a cliff, and he may never again
From off the rock Tarpeian, never more
enter the city of Rome. In the people’s name,
To enter our Rome gates: I' the people's name,
I declare it.
I say it shall be so.
CITIZENS.
It will be so. Take him away.
It shall be so, it shall be so; let him away;
He’s banished, and it will be so.
He's banished, and it shall be so.
COMINIUS.
Listen to me, friends—
Hear me, my masters and my common friends,--
SICINIUS.
He has been sentenced. There will be no more discussion.
He's sentenc'd; no more hearing.
COMINIUS.
Let me speak:
Let me speak:
I have been consul, and I have scars that I
I have been consul, and can show for Rome
got defending Rome. I love
Her enemies' marks upon me. I do love
my country more
My country's good with a respect more tender,
than my own life,
More holy and profound, than mine own life,
or my wife, or my future children,
My dear wife's estimate, her womb's increase,
so if I want
And treasure of my loins; then if I would
speak—
Speak that,--
SICINIUS.
We get the idea. What do you have to say?
We know your drift. Speak what?
BRUTUS.
There’s no more to be said. He is banished
There's no more to be said, but he is banish'd,
as an enemy of the people and his country.
As enemy to the people and his country:
It will be so.
It shall be so.
CITIZENS.
It will be so.
It shall be so, it shall be so.
CORIOLANUS.
You pack of dogs!
You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate
Your breath stinks!
As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize
I love you as much as a rotting corpse.
As the dead carcasses of unburied men
I banish you!
That do corrupt my air,--I banish you;
And may you remain here with your anxieties!
And here remain with your uncertainty!
I hope every rumor of attack terrifies you!
Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!
Your enemies will scare you to death!
Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
May you always have the power
Fan you into despair! Have the power still
to banish the people who defend your city, until finally
To banish your defenders; till at length
your ignorance (which doesn’t know anything until it sees it firsthand
Your ignorance,--which finds not till it feels,--
except when it sees yourselves,
Making but reservation of yourselves,--
who are your own worst enemies) leaves you
Still your own foes,--deliver you, as most
as the defeated slaves to some other nation
Abated captives to some nation
that beat you without even a fair fight!
That won you without blows! Despising,
I despise Rome because of you, and I’m happy to leave.
For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
There is world outside of Rome.
There is a world elsewhere.
[Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENENIUS, Senators, and
Patricians.]
AEDILE.
The people's enemy is gone, is gone!
The people's enemy is gone, is gone!
CITIZENS.
Our enemy is banished, he is gone! Hoo! hoo!
Our enemy is banish'd, he is gone! Hoo! hoo!
[Shouting, and throwing up their caps.]
SICINIUS.
Go see him out the gates, and follow him,
Go, see him out at gates, and follow him,
like he followed you, with scorn.
As he hath follow'd you, with all despite;
Give him the harassment he deserves. Have a group of bodyguards
Give him deserv'd vexation. Let a guard
accompany us all day.
Attend us through the city.
CITIZENS.
Come, let’s watch him leave.
Come, come, let's see him out at gates; come.
God bless our great tribunes!
The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come.
[Exeunt.]
[Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS,and
several young Patricians.]
CORIOLANUS.
Oh, stop crying. Let’s say goodbye quickly. The mob
Come, leave your tears; a brief farewell:--The beast
has kicked me out. Mother,
With many heads butts me away.--Nay, mother,
be brave like you used to be. You were used
Where is your ancient courage? you were us'd
to say that hard times were a good test for the spirits,
To say extremities was the trier of spirits;
that ordinary people could endure ordinary mishaps,
That common chances common men could bear;
that when everything was fine everyone
That when the sea was calm all boats alike
did alright. When things get
Show'd mastership in floating; fortune's blows,
really tough, and we bear our misfortunes like noblemen, that when it demands
When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves
the skills of a nobleman to cope. You used to tell me al kinds
A noble cunning; you were us'd to load me
of rules and sayings that would strengthen the
With precepts that would make invincible
person who learned them.
The heart that conn'd them.
VIRGILIA.
Oh, God!
O heavens! O heavens!
CORIOLANUS.
No, please, woman—
Nay, I pr'ythee, woman,--
VOLUMNIA.
I hope everyone in Rome gets sick and dies,
Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome,
and the economy crashes!
And occupations perish!
CORIOLANUS.
What?
What, what, what!
They will love me once they miss me. No, mother,
I shall be lov'd when I am lack'd. Nay, mother,
Go back to the attitude you had when you used to say,
Resume that spirit when you were wont to say,
if you had been the wife of Hercules [mythical hero who performed 12 impossible tasks],
If you had been the wife of Hercules,
you would have done 6 of his impossible tasks, and saved
Six of his labours you'd have done, and sav'd
your husband from having to do so much work. Cominius,
Your husband so much sweat.--Cominius,
don’t be upset—goodbye. Goodbye, wife. Mother,
Droop not; adieu.--Farewell, my wife,--my mother:
I’ll be ok. You good old man, Menenius,
I'll do well yet.--Thou old and true Menenius,
your tears are saltier than a younger man’s,
Thy tears are salter than a younger man's,
and harmful to your eyes. My former general,
And venomous to thine eyes.--My sometime general,
I’m used to seeing you look tough, and you’ve often seen
I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld
terrible sights that harden your heart—tell these sad women
Heart-hard'ning spectacles; tell these sad women
that’s it’s foolish to get upset about something that can’t be helped,
'Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes,
and it’s better to laugh at them. Mother, you well know
As 'tis to laugh at 'em.--My mother, you wot well
that your proud of me when I’m in danger, and
My hazards still have been your solace: and
now I’m really in trouble. I’m going alone,
Believe't not lightly,--though I go alone,
and I feel like I’m going to fight a dragon in his marshy home
Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen
that I have heard scary rumors about but never seen. Your son
Makes fear'd and talk'd of more than seen,--your son
will either exceed the deeds of ordinary men or be trapped
Will or exceed the common or be caught
by crafty tricks and intrigue.
With cautelous baits and practice.
VOLUMNIA.
My firstborn son,
My first son,
where will you go? Take Cominius
Whither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius
with you for a while. Choose a path
With thee awhile: determine on some course
that doesn’t expose you to every danger
More than a wild exposture to each chance
that spring up on your way.
That starts i' the way before thee.
CORIOLANUS.
Oh, God!
O the gods!
COMINIUS.
I’ll travel with you for a month, help you decide
I'll follow thee a month, devise with thee
where to hide out, someplace that you’ll be able to stay in touch
Where thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of us,
with us, so that if in time your conviction