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The Same. The Forum. | |
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Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS. | |
| Bru. In this point charge him home, that he affects | |
| Tyrannical power: if he evade us there, | |
| Enforce him with his envy to the people, | 5 |
| And that the spoil got on the Antiates | |
| Was ne’er distributed.— | |
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Enter an Ædile. | |
| What, will he come? | |
| Æd. He’s coming. | 10 |
| Bru. How accompanied? | |
| Æd. With old Menenius, and those senators | |
| That always favour’d him. | |
| Sic. Have you a catalogue | |
| Of all the voices that we have procur’d, | 15 |
| Set down by the poll? | |
| Æd. I have; ’tis ready. | |
| Sic. Have you collected them by tribes? | |
| Æd. I have. | |
| Sic. Assemble presently the people hither; | 20 |
| And when they hear me say, ‘It shall be so, | |
| I’ the right and strength o’ the commons,’ be it either | |
| For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them, | |
| If I say, fine, cry ‘fine,’—if death, cry ‘death,’ | |
| Insisting on the old prerogative | 25 |
| And power i’ the truth o’ the cause. | |
| Æd. I shall inform them. | |
| Bru. And when such time they have begun to cry, | |
| Let them not cease, but with a din confus’d | |
| Enforce the present execution | 30 |
| Of what we chance to sentence. | |
| Æd. Very well. | |
| Sic. Make them be strong and ready for this hint, | |
| When we shall hap to give ’t them. | |
| Bru. Go about it. [Exit Ædile. | 35 |
| Put him to choler straight. He hath been us’d | |
| Ever to conquer, and to have his worth | |
| Of contradiction: being once chaf’d, he cannot | |
| Be rein’d again to temperance; then he speaks | |
| What’s in his heart; and that is there which looks | 40 |
| With us to break his neck. | |
| Sic. Well, here he comes. | |
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Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, Senators, and Patricians. | |
| Men. Calmly, I do beseech you. | |
| Cor. Ay, as an ostler, that for the poorest piece | 45 |
| Will bear the knave by the volume. The honour’d gods | |
| Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice | |
| Supplied with worthy men! plant love among us! | |
| Throng our large temples with the shows of peace, | |
| And not our streets with war! | 50 |
| First Sen. Amen, amen. | |
| Men. A noble wish. | |
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Re-enter Ædile, with Citizens. | |
| Sic. Draw near, ye people. | |
| Æd. List to your tribunes; audience; peace! I say. | 55 |
| Cor. First, hear me speak. | |
| Both Tri. Well, say. Peace, ho! | |
| Cor. Shall I be charg’d no further than this present? | |
| Must all determine here? | |
| Sic. I do demand, | 60 |
| If you submit you to the people’s voices, | |
| Allow their officers, and are content | |
| To suffer lawful censure for such faults | |
| As shall be prov’d upon you? | |
| Cor. I am content. | 65 |
| Men. Lo! citizens, he says he is content: | |
| The war-like service he has done, consider; think | |
| Upon the wounds his body bears, which show | |
| Like graves i’ the holy churchyard. | |
| Cor. Scratches with briers, | 70 |
| Scars to move laughter only. | |
| Men. Consider further, | |
| That when he speaks not like a citizen, | |
| You find him like a soldier: do not take | |
| His rougher accents for malicious sounds, | 75 |
| But, as I say, such as become a soldier, | |
| Rather than envy you. | |
| Com. Well, well; no more. | |
| Cor. What is the matter, | |
| That being pass’d for consul with full voice | 80 |
| I am so dishonour’d that the very hour | |
| You take it off again? | |
| Sic. Answer to us. | |
| Cor. Say, then: ’tis true, I ought so. | |
| Sic. We charge you, that you have contriv’d to take | 85 |
| From Rome all season’d office, and to wind | |
| Yourself into a power tyrannical; | |
| For which you are a traitor to the people. | |
| Cor. How! Traitor! | |
| Men. Nay, temperately; your promise. | 90 |
| Cor. The fires i’ the lowest hell fold-in the people! | |
| Call me their traitor! Thou injurious tribune! | |
| Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths, | |
| In thy hands clutch’d as many millions, in | |
| Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say | 95 |
| ‘Thou liest’ unto thee with a voice as free | |
| As I do pray the gods. | |
| Sic. Mark you this, people? | |
| Citizens. To the rock!—to the rock with him! | |
| Sic. Peace! | 100 |
| We need not put new matter to his charge: | |
| What you have seen him do, and heard him speak, | |
| Beating your officers, cursing yourselves, | |
| Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying | |
| Those whose great power must try him; even this, | 105 |
| So criminal and in such capital kind, | |
| Deserves the extremest death. | |
| Bru. But since he hath | |
| Serv’d well for Rome,— | |
| Cor. What do you prate of service? | 110 |
| Bru. I talk of that, that know it. | |
| Cor. You! | |
| Men. Is this the promise that you made your mother? | |
| Com. Know, I pray you,— | |
| Cor. I’ll know no further: | 115 |
| Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death, | |
| Vagabond exile, flaying, pent to linger | |
| But with a grain a day, I would not buy | |
| Their mercy at the price of one fair word, | |
| Nor check my courage for what they can give, | 120 |
| To have ’t with saying ‘Good morrow.’ | |
| Sic. For that he has,— | |
| As much as in him lies,—from time to time | |
| Envied against the people, seeking means | |
| To pluck away their power, as now at last | 125 |
| Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence | |
| Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers | |
| That do distribute it; in the name o’ the people, | |
| And in the power of us the tribunes, we, | |
| Even from this instant, banish him our city, | 130 |
| In peril of precipitation | |
| From off the rock Tarpeian, never more | |
| To enter our Rome gates: i’ the people’s name, | |
| I say, it shall be so. | |
| Citizens. It shall be so,—It shall be so,—Let him away.— | 135 |
| He’s banish’d, and it shall be so. | |
| Com. Hear me, my masters, and my common friends,— | |
| Sic. He’s sentenc’d; no more hearing. | |
| Com. Let me speak: | |
| I have been consul, and can show for Rome | 140 |
| Her enemies’ marks upon me. I do love | |
| My country’s good with a respect more tender, | |
| More holy, and profound, than mine own life, | |
| My dear wife’s estimate, her womb’s increase, | |
| And treasure of my loins; then if I would | 145 |
| Speak that— | |
| Sic. We know your drift: speak what? | |
| Bru. There’s no more to be said, but he is banish’d, | |
| As enemy to the people and his country: | |
| It shall be so. | 150 |
| Citizens. It shall be so,—it shall be so. | |
| Cor. You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate | |
| As reek o’ the rotten fens, whose loves I prize | |
| As the dead carcases of unburied men | |
| That do corrupt my air, I banish you; | 155 |
| And here remain with your uncertainty! | |
| Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts! | |
| Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes, | |
| Fan you into despair! Have the power still | |
| To banish your defenders; till at length | 160 |
| Your ignorance,—which finds not, till it feels,— | |
| Making but reservation of yourselves,— | |
| Still your own foes,—deliver you as most | |
| Abated captives to some nation | |
| That won you without blows! Despising, | 165 |
| For you, the city, thus I turn my back: | |
| There is a world elsewhere. [Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENENIUS, Senators, and Patricians. | |
| Æd. The people’s enemy is gone, is gone! | |
| Citizens. Our enemy is banish’d!—he is gone!—Hoo! hoo! [They all shout and throw up their caps. | |
| Sic. Go, see him out at gates, and follow him, | 170 |
| As he hath follow’d you, with all despite; | |
| Give him deserv’d vexation. Let a guard | |
| Attend us through the city. | |
| Citizens. Come, come,—let us see him out at gates! come! | |
| The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come! [Exeunt. | 175 |
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