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Home > Coriolanus > ACT III - SCENE III. The same. The Forum.

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ACT III - SCENE III. The same. The Forum.
Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS

BRUTUS
1    In this point charge him home, that he affects
2    Tyrannical power: if he evade us there,
3    Enforce him with his envy to the people,
4    And that the spoil got on the Antiates
5    Was ne'er distributed.
Enter an AEdile
6    What, will he come?
AEdile
7    He's coming.
BRUTUS
8    How accompanied?
AEdile
9    With old Menenius, and those senators
10   That always favour'd him.
SICINIUS
11   Have you a catalogue
12   Of all the voices that we have procured
13   Set down by the poll?
AEdile
14   I have; 'tis ready.
SICINIUS
15   Have you collected them by tribes?
AEdile
16   I have.
SICINIUS
17   Assemble presently the people hither;
18   And when they bear me say 'It shall be so
19   I' the right and strength o' the commons,' be it either
20   For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them
21   If I say fine, cry 'Fine;' if death, cry 'Death.'
22   Insisting on the old prerogative
23   And power i' the truth o' the cause.
AEdile
24   I shall inform them.
BRUTUS
25   And when such time they have begun to cry,
26   Let them not cease, but with a din confused
27   Enforce the present execution
28   Of what we chance to sentence.
AEdile
29   Very well.
SICINIUS
30   Make them be strong and ready for this hint,
31   When we shall hap to give 't them.
BRUTUS
32   Go about it.
Exit AEdile
33   Put him to choler straight: he hath been used
34   Ever to conquer, and to have his worth
35   Of contradiction: being once chafed, he cannot
36   Be rein'd again to temperance; then he speaks
37   What's in his heart; and that is there which looks
38   With us to break his neck.
SICINIUS
39   Well, here he comes.
MENENIUS
40   Calmly, I do beseech you.
CORIOLANUS
41   Ay, as an ostler, that for the poorest piece
42   Will bear the knave by the volume. The honour'd gods
43   Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice
44   Supplied with worthy men! plant love among 's!
45   Throng our large temples with the shows of peace,
46   And not our streets with war!
First Senator
47   Amen, amen.
MENENIUS
48   A noble wish.
Re-enter AEdile, with Citizens

SICINIUS
49   Draw near, ye people.
AEdile
50   List to your tribunes. Audience: peace, I say!
CORIOLANUS
51   First, hear me speak.
Both Tribunes
52   Well, say. Peace, ho!
CORIOLANUS
53   Shall I be charged no further than this present?
54   Must all determine here?
SICINIUS
55   I do demand,
56   If you submit you to the people's voices,
57   Allow their officers and are content
58   To suffer lawful censure for such faults
59   As shall be proved upon you?
CORIOLANUS
60   I am content.
MENENIUS
61   Lo, citizens, he says he is content:
62   The warlike service he has done, consider; think
63   Upon the wounds his body bears, which show
64   Like graves i' the holy churchyard.
CORIOLANUS
65   Scratches with briers,
66   Scars to move laughter only.
MENENIUS
67   Consider further,
68   That when he speaks not like a citizen,
69   You find him like a soldier: do not take
70   His rougher accents for malicious sounds,
71   But, as I say, such as become a soldier,
72   Rather than envy you.
COMINIUS
73   Well, well, no more.
CORIOLANUS
74   What is the matter
75   That being pass'd for consul with full voice,
76   I am so dishonour'd that the very hour
77   You take it off again?
SICINIUS
78   Answer to us.
CORIOLANUS
79   Say, then: 'tis true, I ought so.
SICINIUS
80   We charge you, that you have contrived to take
81   From Rome all season'd office and to wind
82   Yourself into a power tyrannical;
83   For which you are a traitor to the people.
CORIOLANUS
84   How! traitor!
MENENIUS
85   Nay, temperately; your promise.
CORIOLANUS
86   The fires i' the lowest hell fold-in the people!
87   Call me their traitor! Thou injurious tribune!
88   Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths,
89   In thy hand clutch'd as many millions, in
90   Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say
91   'Thou liest' unto thee with a voice as free
92   As I do pray the gods.
SICINIUS
93   Mark you this, people?
Citizens
94   To the rock, to the rock with him!
SICINIUS
95   Peace!
96   We need not put new matter to his charge:
97   What you have seen him do and heard him speak,
98   Beating your officers, cursing yourselves,
99   Opposing laws with strokes and here defying
100  Those whose great power must try him; even this,
101  So criminal and in such capital kind,
102  Deserves the extremest death.
BRUTUS
103  But since he hath
104  Served well for Rome,--
CORIOLANUS
105  What do you prate of service?
BRUTUS
106  I talk of that, that know it.
CORIOLANUS
107  You?
MENENIUS
108  Is this the promise that you made your mother?
COMINIUS
109  Know, I pray you,--
CORIOLANUS
110  I know no further:
111  Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,
112  Vagabond exile, raying, pent to linger
113  But with a grain a day, I would not buy
114  Their mercy at the price of one fair word;
115  Nor cheque my courage for what they can give,
116  To have't with saying 'Good morrow.'
SICINIUS
117  For that he has,
118  As much as in him lies, from time to time
119  Envied against the people, seeking means
120  To pluck away their power, as now at last
121  Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence
122  Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers
123  That do distribute it; in the name o' the people
124  And in the power of us the tribunes, we,
125  Even from this instant, banish him our city,
126  In peril of precipitation
127  From off the rock Tarpeian never more
128  To enter our Rome gates: i' the people's name,
129  I say it shall be so.
Citizens
130  It shall be so, it shall be so; let him away:
131  He's banish'd, and it shall be so.
COMINIUS
132  Hear me, my masters, and my common friends,--
SICINIUS
133  He's sentenced; no more hearing.
COMINIUS
134  Let me speak:
135  I have been consul, and can show for Rome
136  Her enemies' marks upon me. I do love
137  My country's good with a respect more tender,
138  More holy and profound, than mine own life,
139  My dear wife's estimate, her womb's increase,
140  And treasure of my loins; then if I would
141  Speak that,--
SICINIUS
142  We know your drift: speak what?
BRUTUS
143  There's no more to be said, but he is banish'd,
144  As enemy to the people and his country:
145  It shall be so.
Citizens
146  It shall be so, it shall be so.
CORIOLANUS
147  You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate
148  As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize
149  As the dead carcasses of unburied men
150  That do corrupt my air, I banish you;
151  And here remain with your uncertainty!
152  Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!
153  Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
154  Fan you into despair! Have the power still
155  To banish your defenders; till at length
156  Your ignorance, which finds not till it feels,
157  Making not reservation of yourselves,
158  Still your own foes, deliver you as most
159  Abated captives to some nation
160  That won you without blows! Despising,
161  For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
162  There is a world elsewhere.
AEdile
163  The people's enemy is gone, is gone!
Citizens
164  Our enemy is banish'd! he is gone! Hoo! hoo!
Shouting, and throwing up their caps

SICINIUS
165  Go, see him out at gates, and follow him,
166  As he hath followed you, with all despite;
167  Give him deserved vexation. Let a guard
168  Attend us through the city.
Citizens
169  Come, come; let's see him out at gates; come.
170  The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come.
Exeunt

< (Previous) ACT III, SCENE IIACT IV, I (Next) >
Scene Index
ACT I
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV
  • SCENE V
  • SCENE VI
  • SCENE VII
  • SCENE VIII
  • SCENE IX
  • SCENE X


  • ACT II
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE III


  • ACT III
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III


  • ACT IV
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV
  • SCENE V
  • SCENE VI
  • SCENE VII


  • ACT V
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV
  • SCENE V
  • SCENE VI

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