Original subtitles

Before we proceed any further, hear me speak.

Speak!

You are all resolved rather to die than to famish?

Resolved!

First, you know Caius Martius is chief enemy to the people

We know it!

Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price. Is it a verdict?

One word, good citizens

We are accounted poor citizens, the patricians good.

What authority surfeits on would relieve us

The leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery...

...is as an inventory to particularise their abundance

Our sufferance is a gain to them.

Let us revenge this with our sticks ere we become rakes

For the gods know I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge

Would you proceed especially against Caius Martius?

Against him first

Consider you what services he has done for his country?

Very well

And could be content to give him good report for it...

...but that he pays himself with being proud

Nay, but speak not maliciously

I say unto you, what he hath done famously he did it to that end

Though soft-conscienced men can be content to say it was for his country...

...he did it to please his mother and to be partly proud...

...which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue

What he cannot help in his nature you account a vice in him

He hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition

What shouts are these?

The other side of the city is risen. Why stay we prating here? To the Capitol!

Soft, who comes here?

Worthy Menenius Agrippa, one that hath always loved the people

He's one honest enough. Would all the rest were so

What work's, my countrymen, in hand?

The matter? Speak, I pray you

Our business is not unknown to the Senate

Why, my good friends, mine honest neighbours, will you undo yourselves?

We cannot, sir, we are undone already

I tell you, friends, most charitable care have the patricians of you

For your wants, you may as well strike at the heaven with your staves...

...as lift them against the Roman state

Care for us? They never cared for us yet

Suffer us to famish, and their storehouses crammed with grain

Either you must confess yourselves wondrous malicious or be accused of folly

I shall tell you a pretty tale. It may be you have heard it

But since it serves my purpose, I will venture to stale it a little more

Well, I'll hear it, sir.

Yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale

There was a time

when all the body's members rebelled against the belly

thus accused it:

That only like a gulf it did remain in the midst of the body

idle and unactive, still cupboarding the viand

Never bearing like labour with the rest, where the other instruments

did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel...

...and, mutually participate...

...did minister unto the appetite and affection common of the whole body

Your most grave belly was deliberate...

...not rash like his accusers, and thus answered:

'True is it, my incorporate friends,' quoth he...

'...that I receive the general food at first which you do live upon'

'And fit it is, because I am the storehouse and the shop of the whole body'

'But, if you do remember...

'...I send it through the rivers of your blood...

'...even to the court, the heart, to the seat of the brain'

'And though that all at once, cannot see what I do deliver out to each...

'...yet I can make my audit up...

'...that all from me do back receive the flour of all, and leave me but the bran'

- What say you to it? - It was an answer. How apply you this?

The senators of Rome are this good belly, and you the mutinous members

You shall find no public benefit which you receive...

...but it proceeds or comes from them to you and no way from yourselves

What do you think? You, the great toe of this assembly?

I the great toe? Why the great toe?

For there being one of the lowest, basest, poorest, of this most wise rebellion...

...thou goest foremost, lead'st first to win some vantage

But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs.

Rome and her rats are at the point of battle

- Hail, noble Martius - Thanks

What's the matter, you dissentious rogues...

...that, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion...

...make yourselves scabs? - We have ever your good word

What would you have, you curs, that like nor peace nor war?

The one affrights you, the other makes you proud

He that trusts to you, where he should find you lions...

...finds you hares. Where foxes, geese...

Who deserves greatness deserves your hate

And your affections are a sick man's appetite...

...who desires most that which would increase his evil

Hang you!

Trust you?

With every minute you do change a mind and call him noble that was now your hate...

...him vile that was your garland

What's the matter, that in these several places of the city...

...you cry against the noble Senate...

...who, under the gods, keep you in awe, which else would feed on one another?

What's their seeking?

For corn at their own rates, whereof they say the city is well stored

Hang 'em! They say?

They'll sit by the fire and presume to know what's done in the Capitol

They say there's grain enough?

Would the nobility lay aside their ruth and let me use my sword...

...I'd make a quarry with thousands of these quartered slaves...

...as high as I could pitch my lance

Nay, these are almost thoroughly persuaded

For though abundantly they lack discretion, yet are they passing cowardly

But I beseech you, what says the other troop?

They are dissolved. Hang 'em!

They said they were an-hungry...

sighed forth proverbs that hunger broke stone walls...

...that dogs must eat, that meat was made for mouths...

...that the gods sent not corn for the rich men only

With these shreds they vented their complainings, which being answered...

- ...and a petition granted them - What is granted them?

Five tribunes to defend their vulgar wisdoms, of their own choice

One's Junius Brutus, Sicinius Velutus, and I know not

'Sdeath! The rabble should have first unroofed the city...

...ere so prevailed with me

It will in time win upon power...

...and throw forth greater themes for insurrection's arguing

This is strange

Go, get you home, you fragments

- Where's Caius Martius? - Here. What's the matter?

The news is, sir, the Volsces are in arms

I am glad on 't. Then we shall have means to vent our musty superfluity

Martius, 'tis true that you have lately told us. The Volsces are in arms

They have a leader, Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to it

I sin in envying his nobility...

...and, were I anything but what I am, I would wish me only he

You have fought together

Were half to half the world by the ears and he upon my party...

...I'd revolt, to make only my wars with him

He is a lion I am proud to hunt

Then, worthy Martius, attend upon Cominius to these wars

- It is your former promise - Sir, it is, and I am constant

Your company to the Capitol, where I know our greatest friends attend us

Lead you on. Follow Cominius

We must follow you. Right worthy you priority

Noble Martius

- Hence to your homes, begone - Nay, let them follow

The Volsces have much corn. Take these rats thither to gnaw their garners

Worshipful mutineers, your valour puts well forth. Pray follow

- Was ever man so proud as is this Martius? - He has no equal

When we were chosen tribunes for the people...

- Marked you his lip and eyes? - Nay, but his taunts

The present wars devour him! He is grown too proud to be so valiant

Let's hence and hear how the dispatch is made

Let's along

So, your opinion is, Aufidius...

...that they of Rome are entered into our counsel and know how we proceed

Is it not yours?

Whatever have been thought on in this state that could be brought to bodily act...

...ere Rome had circumvention?

'Tis not four days gone since I heard thence. These are the words

They have pressed a power...

...but it is not known whether for east or west

The dearth is great, the people mutinous.

And, it is rumoured, Cominius, Martius your old enemy...

Who is of Rome worse hated than of you...

and Titus Lartius, a most valiant Roman...

These three lead on this preparation, whither 'tis bent

Most likely 'tis for you. Consider of it

Our army's in the field. We never yet made doubt but Rome was ready to answer us

Nor did you think it folly to keep your great pretences veiled...

...till when they needs must show themselves, which...

...in the hatching, it seemed, appeared to Rome

By the discovery we shall be shortened in our aim...

...which was to take in many towns ere almost Rome should know we were afoot

Noble Aufidius...

...take your commission, hie you to your bands

Let us alone to guard Corioles

If they set down before us, for the remove bring up your army

But I think you'll find they have not prepared for us

O, doubt not that

I speak from certainties. Nay, more

Some parcels of their power are forth already, and only hitherward

I leave your honours

If we and Caius Martius chance to meet...

...'tis sworn between us we shall ever strike till one can do no more

- The gods assist you - And keep your honours safe

Farewell

I pray you, daughter, sing, or express yourself in a more comfortable sort

If my son were my husband...

...I should freelier rejoice in that absence wherein he won honour...

...than in the embracements of his bed where he would show most love

When yet he was but tender-bodied and the only son of my womb...

When youth with comeliness plucked all gaze his way...

When for a day of kings' entreaties...

...a mother should not sell him an hour from her beholding...

I, considering how honour would become such a person...

...was pleased to let him seek danger where he was like to find fame

To a cruel war I sent him...

...from whence he returned, his brows bound with oak

I tell thee, daughter, I sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child...

...than then at first seeing he had proved himself a man

But had he died in the business, madam, how then?

Then his good report should have been my son

I therein would have found issue

Hear me profess sincerely

Had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike...

...and none less dear than thine and my good Martius...

...I had rather had eleven die nobly for their country...

...than one voluptuously surfeit out of action

Madam, the Lady Valeria is come to visit you

- Beseech you, give me leave to retire myself - Indeed you shall not

Methinks I hear hither your husband's drum

See him pluck Aufidius down by the hair...

...as children from a bear, the Volsces shunning him

Methinks I see him stamp thus and call thus:

'Come on, you cowards! You were got in fear, though you were born in Rome'

His bloody brow with his mailed hand then wiping, forth he goes

His bloody brow? O Jupiter, no blood!

Away, you fool. It more becomes a man than gilt his trophy

Tell Valeria we are fit to bid her welcome

Heavens bless my lord from fell Aufidius!

He'll beat Aufidius' head below his knee and tread upon his neck

My ladies both, how do you?

- Sweet madam - I am glad to see your ladyship

- How do you? How does your little boy? - I thank your ladyship. Well, good madam

He had rather see the swords and hear a drum than look upon his schoolmaster

On my word, the father's son! I'll swear he is a very pretty boy

I saw him run after a gilded butterfly, and when he caught it, he let it go again

And after it again, and over and over he comes, and catched it again

Or whether his fall enraged him or how 'twas, he did so set his teeth and tear it

O, I warrant how he mammocked it!

One on 's father's moods

Come, I must have you play the idle huswife with me this afternoon

- No, good madam, I will not out of doors - Not out of doors?

- She shall, she shall - Indeed, no, by your patience

I'll not over the threshold till my lord return from the wars

You would be another Penelope

Yet I swear all the yarn she spun in Ulysses' absence...

...did but fill Ithaca full of moths

Come, you shall go with us

No, good madam, pardon me. Indeed, I will not forth

Indeed, la, go with me, and I'll tell you excellent news of your husband

O, good madam, there can be none yet

In earnest, it's true. I heard a senator speak it

Thus it is: the Volsces have an army forth...

...against whom Cominius the general is gone with one part of our Roman power

Your lord and Titus Lartius are set down before Corioles

They nothing doubt prevailing, and to make it brief wars

This is true, on mine honour, and so, I pray, go with us

Give me excuse, good madam. I will obey you in everything hereafter

Let her alone, lady

As she is now, she will but disease our better mirth

In truth, I think you're right. Fare you well, then. Come, good sweet madam

Prithee, Virgilia, turn thy solemness out of doors and come along with us

No, at a word, good madam. Indeed, I must not. I wish you much mirth

Well, then, farewell

Yonder comes news

- How far off lie these armies? - Within this mile and half

Then shall we hear their alarum and they ours

Now, Mars, I prithee, make us quick in work...

...that we with smoking swords...

...may march from hence to help our fielded friends

Tullus Aufidius, is he within your walls?

No, nor a man that fears you less than he. That's lesser than a little

Hark you, far off! There is Aufidius

List what work he makes amongst your cloven army

- O, they are at it! - Their noise be our instruction

They fear us not but issue forth their city

Now put your shields before your hearts, and fight with hearts more proof than shields

Advance, brave Titus! Come on, my fellows!

He that retires, I'll take him for a Volsce, and he shall feel mine edge

All the contagion of the south light on you, you shames of Rome!

You souls of geese, that bear the shapes of men...

...how have you run from slaves that apes would beat!

Pluto and hell! All hurt behind

Backs red, and faces pale with flight and agued fear

Mend, and charge home

Or, by the fires of heaven, I'll leave the foe and make my wars on you

Look to it. Come on!

If you'll stand fast, we'll beat them to their wives...

...as they us to our trenches. Follow us!

So, now the gates are ope. Now prove good seconds!

'Tis for the followers fortune widens them, not for the fliers. Mark me, and do the like

- Foolhardiness, not I - Nor I

- See, they have shut him in - To the pot, I warrant him

- What is become of Martius? - Slain, sir, doubtless

Following the fliers at the very heels, with them he enters

Who upon the sudden clapped to their gates

He is himself alone, to answer all the city

O, noble fellow!

Thou wast a soldier even to Cato's wish. Not fierce and terrible only in strokes

But with thy grim looks and the thunderlike percussion of thy sounds...

...thou madest thine enemies shake, as if the world were feverous and did tremble

Look, sir

O, 'tis Martius! Let's fetch him off or make remain alike

- We should have news tonight - Good or bad?

Not according to the prayer of the people, for they love not Martius

Nature teaches beasts to know their friends

- Pray you, who does the wolf love? - The lamb

Ay, to devour him, as the hungry plebeians would the noble Martius

- He's a lamb indeed, that baas like a bear - He's a bear indeed, that lives like a lamb

You two are wise tribunes. Tell me one thing that I shall ask you

Well, sir

In what enormity is Martius poor in, that you two have not in abundance?

He's poor in no one fault, but stored with all

- Especially in pride - And topping all others in boasting

This is strange now. Do you two know how you are censured here in the city?

I mean of us of the right-hand file, do you?

Why, how are we censured?

Why, 'tis no great matter...

...for a very little thief of occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience

- You blame Martius for being proud - We do it not alone, sir

I know you can do very little alone...

...your abilities are too infant-like for doing much alone

You talk of pride

O, that you could turn your eyes toward the napes of your necks...

...and make but an interior survey of your good selves

- O, that you could! - What then, sir?

Why, then you should discover a brace of unmeriting, proud...

...violent, testy magistrates...

...alias fools, as any in Rome

Menenius, you are known well enough, too

I am known to be a humorous patrician...

...and one that loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in it

One that converses more with the buttock of the night...

...than with the forehead of the morning

What I think I utter, and spend my malice in my breath

Come, sir, come. We know you well enough

You know neither me, yourselves, nor anything

You are ambitious for poor knaves' caps and legs

All the peace you make in their cause is calling both the parties knaves

You are a pair of strange ones

Come, come. You are well understood to be a perfecter giber for the table...

...than a necessary bencher in the Capitol

Our very priests must become mockers...

...if they shall encounter such ridiculous subjects as you are

Yet you must be saying Martius is proud. Good e'en to your worships

More of your conversation would infect my brain...

...being the herdsmen of the beastly plebeians

I will be bold to take my leave of you

- Well, well, sir - Well

And hark, what noise the general makes! To him!

There is the man of my soul's hate, Aufidius, piercing our Romans

Then, valiant Titus, take convenient numbers to make good the city...

...whilst I will haste to help Cominius

Worthy sir, thou bleedest.

Thy exercise hath been too violent for a second course of fight

Sir, praise me not. My work hath yet not warmed me

Fare you well

The blood I drop is rather physical to me than dangerous

To Aufidius thus I will appear and fight

Now the fair goddess Fortune fall deep in love with thee

And her great charms misguide thy opposers' swords

Bold gentleman, prosperity be thy page!

- Thy friend no less - Thou worthiest Martius

Breathe you, my friends. Well fought!

We are come off like Romans...

...neither foolish in our stands...

...nor cowardly in retire

Believe me, sirs, we shall be charged again

Thy news?

The citizens of Corioles...

...have given to Titus Lartius and to Caius Martius battle

I saw our party to their trenches driven, and then I came away

Though thou speakest truth, methinks thou speak'st not well

- How long is it since? - Above an hour, my lord

'Tis not a mile. How couldst thou in a mile confound an hour and bring thy news so late?

Spies of the Volsces held me in chase...

...that I was forced to wheel three or four miles about

Else had I, sir, half an hour since brought my report

Who's yonder, that does appear as he were flayed?

O gods, he has the stamp of Martius, and I have before-time seen him thus

Come I too late?

I know the sound of Martius' tongue from every meaner man

Come I too late?

Ay, if you come not in the blood of others, but mantled in your own

O, let me clip thee in arms as sound as when I wooed

In heart as merry as when our nuptial day was done and tapers burnt to bedward

Flower of warriors, how is it with Titus Lartius?

As with a man busied about decrees, condemning some to death and some to exile

Holding Corioles in the name of Rome

Where is that slave which told me they had beat you to your trenches?

- Come hither - Let him alone. He did inform the truth

- But how prevailed you? - Will the time serve to tell? I do not think

Where is the enemy? Are you lords of the field?

If not, why cease you till you are so?

Martius, we have at disadvantage fought and did retire to win our purpose

I do beseech you, by all the battles wherein we have fought...

By the blood we have shed together, by the vows we have made to endure friends...

...that you directly set me against Aufidius

Though I could wish you were conducted to a gentle bath and balms applied to you...

...yet dare I never deny your asking

Take your choice of those that best can aid your action

Those are they that most are willing

If any such be here, as it were sin to doubt...

...that love this painting wherein you see me smeared...

If any fear lesser his person than an ill report

If any think brave death outweighs bad life, and that his country's dearer than himself...

...let him alone, or so many so minded...

...wave thus to express his disposition and follow Martius

O, me alone! Make you a sword of me?

If these shows be not outward, which of you but is four Volsces?

Please you to march

March on, my fellows.

Make good this ostentation, and you shall divide in all with us

Keep your duties as I have set them down

If I do send, dispatch those centuries to our aid.

If we lose the field, we cannot keep the town

- Fear not our care, sir - Hence, and shut your gates upon us

Our guider, come. To the Roman camp conduct us

I'll fight with none but thee...

...for I do hate thee worse than a promise-breaker

We hate alike.

Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor more than thy fame and envy

Fix thy foot

Within these three hours, Tullus...

...alone I fought in your Corioles' walls and made what work I pleased

'Tis not my blood wherein thou seest me masked

For thy revenge, wrench up thy power to the highest

Wert thou the Hector that was the whip of your bragged progeny...

...thou shouldst not scape me here

Officious and not valiant...

...you have shamed me in your condemned seconds

Well fought!

If I should tell thee o'er this thy day's work, thou 't not believe thy deeds

The dull tribunes, that with the fusty plebeians hate thine honours...

...shall say against their hearts 'We thank the gods our Rome hath such a soldier'

Pray now, no more

My mother, who has a charter to extol her blood...

...when she does praise me grieves me

I have done as you have done. That's what I can

You shall not be the grave of your deserving. Rome must know the value of her own

Therefore, I beseech you, before our army hear me

I have some wounds upon me, and they smart to hear themselves remembered

Should they not, well might they fester 'gainst ingratitude

Of all the treasure in this field achieved and city, we render you the tenth

I thank you, general, but...

cannot make my heart consent to take a bribe to pay my sword

I do refuse it and stand upon my common part with those that have beheld the doing

Martius! Martius!

May these same instruments, which you profane, never sound more.

No more, I say

For that I have not washed my nose that bled, or foiled some debile wretch...

...which, without note, here is many else have done...

...you shout me forth in acclamations hyperbolical

As if I loved my little should be dieted in praises sauced with lies

Too modest are you. If 'gainst yourself you be incensed...

...we'll put you, like one that means his proper harm...

...in manacles, then reason safely with you

Therefore be it known, as to us to all the world...

...that Caius Martius wears this war's garland

And from this time, for what he did before and in Corioles...

...call him, with all the applause and clamour of the host...

Caius Martius Coriolanus!

Bear the addition nobly ever

I will go wash

And when my face is fair, you shall perceive whether I blush or no

Howbeit, I thank you

So, go we to our tent, where we will write to Rome of our success

You, Titus Lartius, must to Corioles back

Send us to Rome the best, with whom we may articulate for their own good and ours

I shall, my lord

The gods begin to mock me. I, that now refused most princely gifts...

- ...am bound to beg of my lord general - Take it, 'tis yours. What is it?

I sometime lay here in Corioles at a poor man's house. He used me kindly

He cried to me, I saw him prisoner

But then Aufidius was within my view, and wrath o'erwhelmed my pity

- I beseech you to give my poor host freedom - O, well begged

Were he the butcher of my son, he should be free as is the wind

- Deliver him, Titus - Martius, his name?

By Jupiter, forgot

I am weary. Yea, my memory is tired. Have we no wine here?

Go we to our tent. The blood upon your visage dries...

...'tis time it should be looked to. Come

- The town is taken - 'Twill be delivered back on good condition

Condition?

I would I were a Roman, for I cannot, being a Volsce, be that I am

Condition? What good condition can a treaty find in the part that is at mercy?

Five times, Martius, I have fought with thee. So often hast thou beat me

And wouldst do so, I think, should we encounter as often as we eat

By the elements, if ever again I find him...

...beard to beard, he's mine...

...or I am his

Mine emulation hath not that honour in it it had

For where I thought to crush him in an equal force, true sword to sword...

...I'll poach at him some way. Or wrath or craft may get him

- He's the devil - Bolder, though not so subtle

My valour's poisoned...

with only suffering stain by him, by him shall fly out of itself

Where I find him, were it at home, upon my brother's guard...

Even there would I wash my fierce hand in his heart

Go you to the city. Learn how 'tis held...

...and what they are that must be hostages for Rome

- Will not you go? - I am attended at the cypress grove

I pray you, 'tis south the city mills

Bring me word thither how the world goes, that to the pace of it...

...I may spur on my journey

I shall, sir

How now, my as fair as noble ladies, whither do you follow your eyes so fast?

Honorable Menenius, my boy Martius approaches

- For the love of Juno, let's go - Ha? Martius coming home?

Ay, worthy Menenius, and with most prosperous approbation

Jupiter, I thank thee! Hoo!

- Martius coming home? - Nay, 'tis true

Look, here's a letter from him. The state hath another, his wife another...

...and I think there's one at home for you

I will make my very house reel tonight. A letter for me?

Is he not wounded? He was wont to come home wounded

O, he is wounded, I thank the gods for it

So do I too, if it be not too much

Brings he victory in his pocket, the wounds become him

On his brows, Menenius. He comes the third time home with the oaken garland

- Is the Senate possessed of this? - Good ladies, let's go. Yes, yes, yes

The Senate has letters from the general, wherein he gives my son...

...the whole name of the war

He hath in this action outdone his former deeds doubly

In troth, there's wondrous things spoke of him

Ay, wondrous? I warrant you, and not without his true purchasing

- The gods grant them true - True? Pow waw!

True? I'll be sworn they are true

- Where is he wounded? - In the shoulder and in the left arm

There will be large cicatrices to show the people...

...when he shall stand for his place

He received in the his first battle seven hurts in the body

One in the neck and two in the thigh. There's nine that I know

He had, before this last expedition, twenty-five wounds upon him

Now it's twenty-seven. Every gash was an enemy's grave

- Hark! - These are the ushers of Martius

Before him he carries noise, and behind him he leaves tears

Death, that dark spirit, in his nervy arm doth lie...

...which, being advanced, declines, and then men die

Know, Rome, that all alone Martius did fight within Corioles' gates

Where he hath won, with fame, a name to Martius Caius

These in honour follows 'Coriolanus'

Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus

No more of this

It does offend my heart. Pray now, no more

Look, sir, your mother

You have, I know, petitioned all the gods for my prosperity

Nay, my good soldier, up

My gentle Martius, worthy Caius...

...and by deed-achieving honour newly named

What is it? Coriolanus must I call thee?

But, O, thy wife

My gracious silence, hail

Wouldst thou have laughed...

had I come coffined home, that weep'st to see me triumph?

Ah, my dear, such eyes the widows in Corioles wear and mothers that lack sons

- Now the gods crown thee - And live you yet?

- O, my sweet lady, pardon - I know not where to turn

O, welcome home! And, welcome, general. And you're welcome all

A hundred thousand welcomes.

I could weep, and I could laugh, I am light and heavy. Welcome

Give way there, and go on

Your hand...

and yours

Ere in our own house I do shade my head, the good patricians must be visited

From whom I have received not only greetings, but with them change of honours

I have lived to see inherited my very wishes and the buildings of my fancy

Only there's one thing wanting...

...which I doubt not but our Rome will cast upon thee

Know, good mother

I had rather be their servant in my way, than sway with them in theirs

On, to the Capitol

All tongues speak of him...

...and the bleared sights are spectacled to see him

Your prattling nurse into a rapture lets her baby cry while she chats him

The kitchen malkin pins her richest lockram 'bout her reechy neck...

...clambering the walls to eye him

Stalls, bulks, windows are smothered up, leads filled

And ridges horsed with variable complexions...

...all agreeing in earnestness to see him

Seld-shown flamens do press among the popular throngs...

...and puff to win a vulgar station

Our veiled dames commit the war of white and damask...

...in their nicely-gauded cheeks...

...to the wanton spoil of Phoebus' burning kisses

Such a pother, as if that whatsoever god who leads him...

...were slyly crept into his human powers and gave him graceful posture

On the sudden I warrant him consul

Then our power may, during his office, go sleep

He cannot temperately transport his honours from where he should begin and end...

- ...but will lose those he hath won - In that there's comfort

Doubt not the commoners, for whom we stand, but they upon their ancient malice...

...will forget with the least cause these his new honours

Which that he will give them, make I as little question as he is proud to do it

I heard him swear, were he to stand for consul

never would he appear in the marketplace

Nor on him put the napless vesture of humility...

...nor showing, as the manner is...

...his wounds to the people, beg their stinking breaths

- 'Tis right - It was his word

I wish no better than have him hold that purpose and to put it in execution

'Tis most like he will

It shall be to him then as our good wills, a sure destruction

So it must fall out to him, or our authority's for an end

We must suggest the people in what hatred he still hath held them

That to his power he would have made them mules...

...silenced their pleaders, and dispropertied their freedoms

This, as you say, suggested...

...at some time when his soaring insolence shall touch the people

Which time shall not want, if he be put upon it...

...will be his fire to kindle their dry stubble

and their blaze shall darken him forever

What's the matter?

You are sent for to the Capitol. 'Tis thought that Martius shall be consul

Let's to the Capitol, and carry with us ears and eyes for the time...

- ...but hearts for the event - Have with you

Come, come. They are almost here

How many stand for consulships?

Three, they say, but 'tis thought of everyone Coriolanus will carry it

That's a brave fellow...

but he's vengeance proud and loves not the common people

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

No more of him, he's a worthy man. Make way, they are coming

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

Speak, good Cominius

Tribunes of the people...

...we do request your kindest ears

And, after, your loving motion toward the common body to yield what passes here

We are convented upon a pleasing treaty

And have hearts inclinable to honour and advance the theme of our assembly

Which the rather we shall be blest to do...

...if he remember a kinder value of the people than he hath hereto prized them at

That's off, that's off! I would you rather had been silent

- Please you to hear Cominius speak? - Most willingly

But yet my caution was more pertinent than the rebuke you give it

He loves your people, but tie him not to be their bedfellow

Worthy Cominius, speak

Nay, keep your place

Sit, Coriolanus. Never shame to hear what you have nobly done

Your honours, pardon.

I had rather have my wounds to heal again than hear say how I got them

Sir, I hope my words disbenched you not?

No, ma'am. 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 - Pray now, sit down

I had rather have one scratch my head in the sun when the alarum were struck...

...than idly sit to hear my nothings monstered

Tribunes of the people, you now see he had rather venture all his limbs for honour...

...than one on 's ears to hear it. Proceed, 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, he fought beyond the mark of others

He bestrid an o'erpressed Roman and in the consul's view slew three opposers

In that day's feats, when he might act the woman in the scene,

he proved best man in the 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 flyers and by his rare example made the coward turn terror into sport

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 the city, 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 our 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

Worthy man!

He cannot but with measure fit the honours which we devise him

Our spoils he kicked at...

...and looked upon things precious as they were the common muck of the world

He's right noble. Let him be called for

Call Coriolanus

He doth appear

The Senate, Coriolanus, are well pleased to make thee consul

I do owe them still my life and services

- It then remains that you do speak to the people - 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

Sir, the people must have their voices, neither will they bate one jot of ceremony

Put them not to it. Pray you, go fit you to the custom

It is a part that I shall blush in acting, and might well be taken from the people

Mark you that?

To brag unto them 'Thus I did, and thus!' Show them the unaching scars...

...which I should hide, as if I had received them for the hire of their breath only

Stand not upon it

We recommend to you, tribunes of the people, our purpose to them

And to our noble consul wish we all joy and honour

To Coriolanus come all joy and honour

- You see how he intends to use the people - May they perceive his intent!

He will require them as if he did condemn what he requested should be in them to give

Come, we'll inform them of our proceedings here. On the marketplace I know they do attend us

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

We may, sir, if we will

We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to use

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

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

Been called so of many

Not that our heads are some brown, some black, some abram...

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 of the compass

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

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

- Content? - Content

O sir, you are not right

Have you not known the worthiest men have done it?

What must I say?

'Look, sir, my wounds! I got them in my country's service...

'...when some certain of your brethren roared and ran at the noise of our own drums'

O me, the gods! You must not speak of that. You must desire them to think upon you

Think upon me? Hang 'em! I would they would forget me

You'll mar all. I'll leave you. Pray you, speak to them...

...I pray you, in wholesome manner

Bid them wash their faces and keep their teeth clean

So, here comes a brace

- You know the cause, sir, of my standing here - We do, sir. Tell us what hath brought you to 't

- Mine own desert - Your own desert?

- Ay, but not mine own desire - How, not your own desire?

No, sir, 'twas never my desire yet to trouble the poor with begging

You must think if we give you anything, we hope to gain by you

- Well then, I pray, your price of the consulship? - The price is to ask it kindly

Kindly, ma'am?

I pray, let me ha 't

I have wounds to show you...

...which shall be yours in private

- Your good voice, sir. What say you? - You shall ha 't, worthy sir

A match, sir

There's in all two worthy voices begged. I have your alms. Adieu

Pray you now, if it may stand with the tune of your voices that I may be consul...

...see, I have here the customary gown

You have deserved nobly of your country, and you have not deserved nobly

Your enigma?

You have been a scourge to her enemies, you have been a rod to her friends

You have not indeed loved the common people

You should account me the more virtuous that I have not been common in my love

We hope to find you our friend...

...and therefore give you our voices heartily

You have received many wounds for your country

I shall not seal your knowledge with showing them

I will make much of your voices and so trouble you no farther

- The gods give you joy, sir - Heartily

Most sweet voices!

Better it is to die, better to starve, than crave the hire which first we do deserve

Why in this wolvish toge should I stand here...

...to beg of Hob and Dick that does appear their needless vouches?

Custom calls me to it. What custom wills, in all things should we do it?

The dust on antique time would lie unswept

And mountainous error be too highly heapt for truth to o'er-peer

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

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

He has done nobly, and cannot go without any honest man's voice

Therefore let him be consul

The gods give him joy, and make him good friend to the people

- God save thee, noble consul. - Worthy voices!

You have stood your limitation...

...and the tribunes endue you with the people's voice

Remains that in the official marks invested, you anon do meet the Senate

- Is this done? - The custom of request you have discharged

The people do admit you, and are summoned to meet anon upon your approbation

- Where? At the Senate House? - There, Coriolanus

- May I change these garments? - You may, sir

That I'll straight do and, knowing myself again, repair to the Senate House

I'll keep you company. Will you along?

- We stay here for the people - Farewell

He has it now. And by his looks, methinks, 'tis warm at 's heart

With a proud heart he wore his humble weeds. Will you dismiss the people?

- How now, my masters...

...have you chose this man? - He has our voices

- We pray the gods he may deserve your loves - Amen

To my poor unworthy notice, he mocked us when he begged our voices

- Certainly, he flouted us downright - No, 'tis his kind of speech

He did not mock us

Not one amongst us, save yourself, but says he used us scornfully

He should have shown us his wounds, marks of merit received for his country

- Why, so he did, I am sure - No, no. No man saw 'em

He said he had wounds, which he could show in private

And with his hat, thus waving it in scorn, 'I would be consul,' says he

'Aged custom, but by your voices, will not so permit me. Your voices therefore'

When we granted that, here was 'I thank you for your voices

Thank you, your most sweet voices'

'Now you have left your voices, I have no further with you.' Was not this mockery?

Why either were you ignorant to see it...

...or, seeing it, of such childish friendliness to yield your voices?

Could you not have told him as you were lessoned?

When he had no power, but was a petty servant to the state, he was your enemy

Ever spake against your liberties and the charters that you bear in the body of the weal

You should have said that as his worthy deeds did claim no less than what he stood for...

...so his gracious nature would think upon you for your voices

And translate his malice towards you into love, standing your friendly lord

Thus to have said, as you were fore-advised, had touched his spirit and tried his inclination

So putting him to rage...

...you should have taken the advantage of his choler and passed him unelected

Did you perceive he did solicit you in free contempt when he did need your loves?

And do you think that his contempt shall not be bruising to you when he hath power to crush?

- He's not confirmed. We may deny him yet - And will deny him

I'll have five hundred voices of that sound

I twice five hundred, and their friends to piece 'em

Get you hence instantly, and tell those friends they have chose a consul...

...that will from them take their liberties, make them of no more voice...

...than dogs that are as often beat for barking as therefore kept to do so

Let them assemble and, on a safer judgment, all revoke your ignorant election

Enforce his pride and his old hate unto you

Besides, forget not with what contempt he wore the humble weed...

...how in his suit he scorned you

Lay the blame on us, your tribunes...

...say we laboured, no impediment between, but that you must cast your election on him

Say you chose him more after our commandment than as guided by your own true affections

And that your minds, preoccupied with what you rather must do than what you should...

...made you against the grain to voice him consul

Lay the fault on us

Say you ne'er had done it, harp on that still, but by our putting on

And presently, when you have drawn your number, repair to the Capitol

- We will so - Almost all repent in their election

Let them go on

This mutiny were better put in hazard than stay, past doubt, for greater

If, as his nature is, he fall in rage with their refusal...

...both observe and answer the vantage of his anger

To the Capitol, come. We will be there before the stream of the people

And this shall seem, as partly 'tis, their own, which we have goaded onwards

Tullus Aufidius then had made new head?

He had, my lord, and that it was which caused our swifter composition

So then the Volsces stand but as at first

Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road upon us again

They are worn, lord consul...

...so, that we shall hardly in our ages see their banners wave again

- Saw you Aufidius? - On safeguard he came to me

And did curse against the Volsces...

...for they had so vilely yielded the town. He is retired to Antium

- Spoke he of me? - He did, my lord

- How? What? - How often he had met you sword to sword

That of all things upon the earth he hated your person most

That he would pawn his fortunes to hopeless restitution...

...so he might be called your vanquisher

- At Antium lives he? - At Antium

I wish I had a cause to seek him there, to oppose his hatred fully

Welcome home

Behold, these are the tribunes of the people, the tongues of the common mouth

I do despise them, for they do prank them in authority against all noble sufferance

- Pass no further - Ha? What's that?

- It will be dangerous to go on. No further - What makes this change?

- The matter? - Hath he not passed the noble and the common?

- Cominius, no - Have I had children's voices?

- Tribunes, give way. He shall to the marketplace - The people are incensed against him

- Stop, or all will fall in broil - Are these your herd?

Must these have voices, that can yield them now and straight disclaim their tongues?

What are your offices? You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth?

- Have you not set them on? - Be calm, be calm

It is a purposed thing, and grows by plot, to curb the will of the nobility

Suffer it, and live with such as cannot rule nor ever will be ruled

Call it not a plot. The people cry you mocked them

And, of late, when corn was given them gratis...

...you called them timepleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness

- Why, this was known before - Not to them all

- Have you informed them since? - How? I inform them?

- You are like to do such business - Not unlike, each way, to better yours

Why then should I be consul?

By yond clouds, let me deserve so ill as you, and make me your fellow tribune

You show too much of that for which the people stir

Let's be calm

The people are abused, set on. This paltering becomes not Rome

Nor has Coriolanus deserved this so dishonoured rub...

...laid falsely in the plain way of his merit

Tell me of corn! This was my speech, and I will speak it again

- Not now, not now - Not in this heat, sir, now

Now, as I live, I will

My nobler friends, I crave their pardons

For the mutable, rank-scented meiny...

...let them regard me, as I do not flatter, and therein behold themselves

I say again, in soothing them, we nourish 'gainst our Senate the cockle of rebellion...

Insolence, sedition, which we ourselves have ploughed for, sowed, and scattered...

...by mingling them with us, the honoured number

Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that which we have given to beggars

- Well, no more - No more words, we beseech you

How? No more?

As for my country I have shed my blood, not fearing outward force...

... so shall my lungs coin words till their decay against those measles

You speak of the people as if you were a god to punish, not a man of their infirmity

- 'Twere well we let the people know it - What, what? His choler?

Choler? Were I as patient as the midnight sleep, by Jove, 'twould be my mind

It is a mind that shall remain a poison where it is, not poison any further

'Shall remain'?

Hear you this Triton of the minnows? Mark you her absolute 'shall'?

- 'Twas from the canon. - 'Shall'?

O good but most unwise patricians, why, you grave but reckless senators...

...have you thus given Hydra here...

...to choose an officer, that with her peremptory 'shall'...

...being but the horn and noise of the monster's...

...wants not spirit to say she'll turn your current in a ditch...

...and make your channel hers?

If she have power...

...then vail your ignorance. If none, awake your dangerous lenity

If you are learned, be not as common fools. You are plebeians, if they be senators

Well, on to the marketplace

Whoever gave that counsel to give forth the corn of the storehouse gratis...

Well, well, no more of that

I say they nourished disobedience, fed the ruin of the state

Why shall the people give one that speaks thus their voice?

I'll give my reasons, more worthier than their voices

They know the corn was not our recompense...

...resting well assured they ne'er did service for it

Being pressed to the war...

...even when the navel of the state was touched, they would not thread the gates

Being in the war, their mutinies and revolts...

...wherein they showed most valour, spoke not for them

Well, what then?

How shall this bosom multiplied digest the Senate's courtesy?

Let deeds express what's like to be their words:

'We did request it. We are the greater poll, and in true fear they gave us our demands'

Thus we debase the nature of our seats and make the rabble call our cares fears

Which will in time break ope the locks of the Senate...

...and bring in the crows to peck the eagles

- Come, enough - Enough, with over-measure

No, take more!

What may be sworn by, both divine and human, seal what I end withal

This double worship...

...where one part does disdain with cause, the other insult without all reason...

Where gentry, title, wisdom cannot conclude...

...but by the yea or no of general ignorance...

Purpose so barred, it follows nothing is done to purpose

Therefore, beseech you

At once pluck out the multitudinous tongue, let them not lick the sweet which is their poison

Your dishonour mangles true judgment...

...and bereaves the state of that integrity which should become it...

...not having the power to do the good it would for the ill which doth control it

- 'Has said enough - 'Has spoken like a traitor...

...and shall answer as traitors do - Thou wretch...

...despite o'erwhelm thee!

What should the people do with these bold tribunes...

...on whom depending, their obedience fails to the greater bench?

In a rebellion, when what's not meet but what must be was law, then were they chosen

In a better hour, let what is meet be said it must be meet...

...and throw their power in the dust

- Manifest treason - This a consul? No

- The aediles, ho! Let him be apprehended - Go, call the people

In whose name myself attach thee as a traitorous innovator...

...a foe to the public weal

- Obey, I charge thee, and follow to thine answer - Hence, you goat

- We'll surety him - Hands off

Hence, rotten thing, or I shall shake thy bones out of thy garments

Help, you citizens!

On both sides more respect!

Seize him, aediles!

Hear me, people! Peace!

Let's hear our tribune. Peace!

You are at point to lose your liberties

Martius would have all from you, Martius, whom late you have named for consul

Fie, fie, fie! This is the way to kindle, not to quench

- To unbuild the city and to lay all flat - What is the city but the people?

By the consent of all, we were established the people's magistrates

- You so remain - And so are like to do

That is the way to lay the city flat, to bury all in heaps and piles of ruin

This deserves death

Or let us stand to our authority or let us lose it

We do here pronounce, upon the part of the people...

...in whose power we were elected theirs...

...Martius is worthy of present death

Therefore lay hold of him...

...bear him to the rock Tarpeian, and from thence into destruction cast him

- Aediles, seize him! - Yield, Martius, yield!

Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word

Be that you seem, truly your country's friend

And temperately proceed to what you would thus violently redress

Sir, those cold ways, that seem like prudent helps...

...are very poisonous where the disease is violent

Lay hands upon him, and bear him to the rock

No, I'll die here

Down with that sword!

Tribunes, withdraw awhile

Lay hands upon him!

Go, get you to your house. Begone, beseech you. All will be naught else

Get you gone

Stand fast! We have as many friends as enemies

- Shall it be put to that? - The gods forbid!

I prithee, noble friend, home to thy house. Leave us to cure this cause

For 'tis a sore upon us you cannot tent yourself. Begone, beseech you

Come, sir, along with us

I would they were barbarians, as they are, though in Rome littered

Not Romans, as they are not, though calved in the porch of the Capitol

Begone! Put not your worthy rage into your tongue

One time will owe another

On fair ground I could beat forty of them

I could myself take up a brace of the best of them, yea, the two tribunes

But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetic. Will you hence, before the tag return...

Whose rage doth rend like interrupted waters and o'erbear what they are used to bear?

Pray you, begone

I'll try whether my old wit be in request with those that have but little

This must be patched with cloth of any colour

Nay, come away

- This man has marred his fortune - His nature is too noble for the world

He would not flatter Neptune for his trident or Jove for his power to thunder

His heart's his mouth

What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent

And, being angry, does forget that ever he heard the name of death

Here's goodly work

- I would they were abed - I would they were in Tiber

What the vengeance, could he not speak them fair?

Where is this viper that would depopulate the city and be every man himself?

You worthy tribunes...

He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock with rigorous hands

He hath resisted law...

...and therefore law shall scorn him further trial...

...than the severity of the public power which he so sets at naught

He shall well know the noble tribunes are the people's mouths, and we their hands

Sir, sir. Do not cry havoc where you should but hunt with modest warrant

Sir, how com'st that you have holp to make this rescue?

Hear me speak

As I do know the consul's worthiness, so can I name his faults

- Consul? What consul? - The consul Coriolanus

- He consul? - No

If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours, good people, I may be heard...

...I would crave a word or two

The which shall turn you to no further harm but so much loss of time

Speak briefly then, for we are peremptory to dispatch this viperous traitor

To eject him hence were but one danger, and to keep him here our certain death

Therefore it is decreed he dies tonight

Now the gods forbid...

...that our renowned Rome, like an unnatural dam, should now eat up her own

He's a disease that must be cut away

O, he's a limb that has but a disease

Mortal to cut it off, to cure it easy

What has he done to Rome that's worthy death?

We'll hear no more. Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence

Lest his infection, being of catching nature, spread further

- To his house One word more, one word!

Proceed by process

Lest parties, as he is beloved, break out and sack great Rome with Romans

- If it were so! - What do you talk?

Have we not had a taste of his obedience? Our aediles smote, ourselves resisted. Come

Consider this

He has been bred in the wars since he could draw a sword...

...and is ill schooled in bolted language

Meal and bran together he throws without distinction

Give me leave...

I'll go to him...

...and undertake to bring him where he shall answer by a lawful form...

...in peace, to his utmost peril

Noble tribunes, it is the humane way

The other course will prove too bloody, and the end of it unknown to the beginning

Noble Menenius...

...be you then as the people's officer

- Masters, lay down your weapons - Go not home

Meet on the marketplace. We'll attend you there

Where if you bring not Martius, we'll proceed in our first way

I'll bring him to you

I do desire your company

He must come, or what is worst will follow

Pray you, let's to him

Let them pull all about mine ears...

...present me death on the wheel or at wild horses' heels

Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock...

...that the precipitation might down stretch below the beam of sight

- Yet will I still be thus to them - You do the nobler

I muse my mother does not approve me further...

...who was wont to call them woollen vassals, things created to buy and sell with groats

I talk of you. Why did you wish me milder?

Would you have me false to my nature? Rather say I play the man I am

O sir, sir, sir

I would have had you put your power well on before you had worn it out

Let go

You might have been enough the man you are with striving less to be so

Lesser had been the thwartings of your dispositions...

...if you had'nt showed them how you were disposed...

...ere they lacked power to cross you

- Let them hang - Ay, and burn too

Come, come...

...you have been too rough, something too rough. You must return and mend it

There is no remedy...

...unless, by not so doing, our good city cleave in the midst and perish

Pray be counselled

I have a heart as little apt as yours...

...but yet a brain that leads my use of anger to better vantage

Well said, noble woman

What must I do?

Return to the tribunes

- Well, what then? What then? - Repent what you have spoke

For them? I cannot do it to the gods. Must I then do it to them?

You are too absolute...

...though therein you can never be too noble but when extremities speak

I have heard you say...

...honour and policy...

...like unsevered friends, in the war do grow together

Grant that, and tell me in peace...

...what each of them by the other lose that they combine not there?

- Tush, tush! - A good demand

- Why force you this? - Because that now it lies you on...

...to speak to the people

Not by your own instruction, nor by the matter which your heart prompts you

But with such words as are but roted in your tongue...

...though but bastards and syllables of no allowance to your bosom's truth

Now, this no more dishonours you at all than to take in a town with gentle words

Which else would put you to your fortunes and the hazard of much blood

I would dissemble with my nature...

...where my fortunes and my friends at stake required I should do so in honour

I am in this your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles

And you will rather show our general louts...

...how you can frown than spend a fawn upon 'em...

...for the inheritance of their loves and safeguard of what that want might ruin

Noble lady

Come, go with us. Speak fair

You may salve so not what is dangerous present, but the loss of what is past

I prithee now, my son...

...go to them with this bonnet in thy hand

And thus far having stretched it here be with them...

thy knee bussing the stones

For in such business action is eloquence...

...and the eyes of the ignorant more learned than the ears

Or say to them...

...thou art their soldier, and being bred in broils hast not the soft way

Which, thou dost confess, were fit for thee to use as they to claim, in asking their good loves

But thou wilt frame thyself, forsooth...

...hereafter theirs, so far as thou hast power and person

This but done, even as she speaks, why, their hearts were yours

Prithee now, go, and be ruled

Although I know thou hadst rather follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf than flatter him in a bower

- Here is Cominius - I have been in the marketplace. And, sir...

...'tis fit you make strong party or defend yourself...

...by calmness or by absence. All's in anger

Only fair speech

I think 'twill serve, if he can thereto frame his spirit

He must, and will

Prithee, now...

...say you will, and go about it

Must I go show them my unbarbed sconce?

Must I with my base tongue give to my noble heart a lie that it must bear?

Well, I will do it. To the marketplace!

You have put me now to such a part that never I shall discharge to the life

Come, come, we'll prompt you

I prithee now, sweet son...

...as thou hast said...

...my praises made thee first a soldier...

...so, to have my praise for this...

...perform a part thou hast not done before

Well, I must do it

Away, my disposition, and possess me some harlot's spirit!

My throat of war be turned, which choired with my drum...

...into a pipe small as an eunuch...

...or the virgin voice that babies lull asleep

A beggar's tongue make motion through my lips

And my armed knees, who bowed but in my stirrup...

...bend like his that hath received an alms

I will not do it, lest I surcease to honour mine own truth

And by my body's action teach my mind a most inherent baseness

At thy choice, then

To beg of thee, it is my more dishonour than thou of them

Come all to ruin

Let thy mother rather feel thy pride...

...than fear thy dangerous stubborness, for I mock at death with as big heart as thou

Do as thou list

Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck'dst it from me, but owe thy pride thyself

Pray, be content...

...mother, I am going to the market-place. Chide me no more

I'll mountebank their loves...

...cog their hearts from them, and come home beloved of all the trades in Rome

Look, I am going

Commend me to my wife

I'll return consul, or never trust to what my tongue can do...

...in the way of flattery further

Do your will

Away! The tribunes do attend you. Arm yourself to answer mildly

For they are prepared with accusations, as I hear, more strong than are upon you yet

The word is 'mildly'. Pray you, let us go

Let them accuse me by invention, I will answer in mine honour

Ay, but mildly

Well, mildly be it, then. Mildly

In this point charge him home, that he affects tyrannical power

If he evade us there, enforce him with his envy to the people

What, will he come?

- He's coming - How accompanied?

With old Menenius and those senators that always favoured him

Have you a catalogue of all the voices that we have procured, set down by the poll?

I have. 'Tis ready

Assemble presently the people hither

And when they hear me say 'It shall be so in the right and strength of 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 and power in the truth of the cause

I shall inform them

And when such time they have begun to cry, let them not cease

But with a din confused enforce the present execution of what we chance to sentence

Very well

Make them be strong and ready for this hint when we shall hap to give it them

Go about it

Bring him to choler straight

He hath been used ever to conquer and to have his worth of contradiction

Being once chafed, he cannot be reined again to temperance

Then he speaks what's in his heart...

...and that is there which looks with us to break his neck

Well, here he comes

- Calmly, I do beseech you - Ay

The honoured gods keep Rome in safety...

...and the chairs of justice supplied with worthy men!

- Plant love among us - Amen, amen

- A noble wish - Draw near, you people

List to your tribunes. Audience: peace!

First, hear me speak

Peace, ho!

Well, say.

Shall I be charged no further than this present? Must all determine here?

I do demand if you submit you to the people's voices

- Submit? - Ay!

Allow their officers...

...and are content to suffer lawful censure for such faults as shall be proved upon you

- I am content - Lo, citizens, he says he is content

The warlike service he has done, consider. Think upon the wounds his body bears

Scratches with briars, scars to move laughter only

Consider further...

...that when he speaks not like a citizen, you find him like a soldier

Well, well, no more

What is the matter, that, being passed for consul with full voice...

...I am so dishonoured that the very hour you take it off again?

- Answer to us - Say then

'Tis true, I ought so

We charge you that you have contrived to take from Rome all seasoned office

And to wind yourself into a power tyrannical, for which you are a traitor to the people

- How? Traitor? - Nay, temperately! Your promise

Call me their traitor? Thou injurious tribune!

Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths...

...I would say 'Thou liest' unto thee with a voice as free as I do pray the gods

- Mark you this, people? - To the rock, to the rock with him!

Peace! 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, so criminal and of such capital kind...

...deserves the extremest death

- Since he hath served well for Rome... - What do you prate of service?

- I talk of that that know it - You?

Is this the promise that you made your mother?

- Know, I pray you... - I'll know no further

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

For that he has envied against the people, seeking means to pluck away their power...

In the name of the people and in the power of us the tribunes...

We, even from this instant, banish him our city...

...never more to enter our Rome gates

In the people's name, I say it shall be so

It shall be so, it shall be so!

- Hear me, my masters - He's sentenced. No more hearing

Let me speak

I have been consul and can show for Rome her enemies' marks upon me

I do love our 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 speak that... - We know your drift. Speak what?

There's no more to be said, but he is banished as enemy to the people and his country

It shall be so!

You common cry of curs...

...whose breath I hate as reek of the rotten fens

Whose loves I prize as the dead carcasses of unburied men that do corrupt my air

I banish you

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 your ignorance, which finds not till it feels...

...deliver you as most abated captives to some nation that won you without blows

Despising, for you, the city, thus I turn my back

There is a world elsewhere

The people's enemy is gone!

Go, see him out at gates and follow him, as he hath followed you, with all despite

Give him deserved vexation

Let a guard attend us through the city

Come, leave your tears. A brief farewell. The beast with many heads butts me away

Nay, mother, where is your ancient courage?

You were used to say extremities were the trier of spirits...

...that common chances common men could bear

You were used to load me with precepts...

...that would make invincible the heart that conned them

- O heavens! - Nay, I prithee, woman

Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome, and occupations perish!

What, what, what!

I shall be loved when I am lacked

Nay, mother, resume that spirit where you were wont to say...

...if you had been the wife of Hercules...

...six of his labours you'd have done to save your husband so much sweat

Cominius, droop not. Adieu

Farewell, my wife

My mother, I'll do well yet

Thou old and true Menenius...

...thy tears are salter than a younger man's and venomous to thine eyes

My sometime general

I have seen thee stern, and oft hast thou beheld heart-hardening spectacles

Tell these sad women 'tis fond to wail inevitable strokes as 'tis to laugh at them

My mother, you wot well my hazards still have been your solace, and...

...believe 't not lightly, though I go alone...

...like to a lonely dragon that his fen makes feared and talked of more than seen...

...your son will or exceed the common or be caught with cautelous baits and practice

My first son, whither wilt thou go?

Take good Cominius with thee awhile

Determine on some course more than a wild exposure to each chance...

...that starts in the way before thee

O the gods!

I'll follow thee a month, devise with thee where thou shalt rest...

...that thou mayst hear of us and we of thee

Fare you well

Thou art too full of the wars' surfeits to go rove with one that's yet unbruised

Bring me but out at gate

Come, my sweet wife

My dearest mother...

...and my friends of noble touch

When I am forth, bid me farewell, and smile

I pray you, let us go

While I remain above the ground, you shall hear from me still

And never of me aught but what is like me formerly

Come, let's not weep

If I could shake off but one seven years from these old arms and legs...

...by the good gods, I'd with thee every foot

Give me thy hand

Come

He's gone, and we'll no further

The nobility are vexed, whom we see have sided in his behalf

Now we have shown our power, let us seem humbler...

...after it is done than when it was a-doing

- Here comes his mother - Let's not meet her

- Why? - They say she's mad

They have taken note of us. Keep on your way

O, you're well met

The hoarded plague of the gods requite your love

Peace, peace! Be not so loud

If that I could for weeping, you should hear...

Nay, and you shall hear some

Will you be gone?

You shall stay too. I would I had the power to say so to my husband

Hadst thou foxship to banish him that struck more blows for Rome than thou hast spoken words?

O blessed heavens!

More noble blows than ever thou wise words, and for Rome's good

I'll tell thee what...

...yet go

Nay, but thou shalt stay too

I would my son...

...were in Arabia and thy tribe before him, his good sword in his hand

- What then? - What then? He'd make an end of thy posterity

Bastards and all

Good man, the wounds that he does bear for Rome!

Come, come, peace

I would he had continued to his country as he began...

...and not unknit himself the noble knot he made

- I would he had - 'I would he had'?

'Twas you incensed the rabble

Cats, that can judge as fitly of his worth...

...as I can of those mysteries which heaven will not have earth to know

- Pray, let's go. - Now, pray, get you gone

You have done a brave deed

Ere you go, hear this

As far as doth the Capitol exceed the meanest house in Rome, so far my son...

This lady's husband here, this, do you see?

Whom you have banished, does exceed you all

Well, well, we'll leave you

Why stay we to be baited with one that wants her wits?

Take my prayers with you

I would the gods had nothing else to do but to confirm my curses

Could I meet 'em but once a day...

...it would unclog my heart of what lies heavy to it

You have told them home, and, by my troth, you have cause

You'll sup with me?

Anger's my meat

I sup upon myself...

...and so shall starve with feeding

Come, let's go

Leave this faint puling, and lament as I do, in anger...

...Juno-like

Come

Come

Come

Fie, fie, fie

Know you me yet?

I am a Roman, and my services are, as you are, against them

Say!

What's the news in Rome?

There hath been in Rome strange insurrections...

...the people against the senators, patricians, and nobles

Hath been? Is it ended, then?

The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing would make it flame again

The nobles receive so to heart the banishment of that worthy Coriolanus

- Coriolanus banished? - Banished, sir

Your noble Tullus Aufidius will appear well in these wars...

...his great opposer Coriolanus being now in no request of his country

I am most fortunate thus accidentally to encounter you

Have you an army ready?

A most royal one

A goodly city is this Antium

City, 'tis I that made thy widows

Then, know me not, lest that thy wives with spits and boys with stones in puny battle slay me

- Save you, ma'am - And you

Direct me, if it be your will, where great Aufidius lies. Is he in Antium?

He is, and feasts the nobles of the state at his house this night

Which is his house, beseech you?

This here before you

Thank you, ma'am. Farewell

O world, thy slippery turns!

Friends now fast sworn, whose double bosoms seems to wear one heart

Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal and exercise are still together

Who twin, as 'twere, in love unseparable...

...shall within this hour, on a dissension of a doit, break out to bitterest enmity

So fellest foes, whose passions and whose plots do break their sleep to take the one the other...

...shall by some chance, some trick not worth an egg...

...grow dearest friends and interjoin their issues

So with me. My birthplace hate I, and my love's upon this enemy town

I'll enter

If he slay me, he does fair justice. If he give me way...

...I'll do his country service

Wine!

Wine!

Wine!

What service have we here? I think our fellows are asleep

A goodly house. The feast smells well, but I appear not like a guest

What would you have, friend?

Whence are you?

Here is no place for you, sir. Pray you, get to the door

I have deserved no better entertainment in being Coriolanus

Whence are you, sir?

Has the porter his eyes in his head that he gives entrance to such companions?

- Pray, get you out - Away!

Away? Get you away

Now thou art troublesome

Art thou so brave?

I'll have you talked with anon

- What fellow's this? - A strange one as ever I looked on

I cannot get him out of the house. Prithee, call my master to him

What have you to do here, fellow? Pray you, avoid the house

Let me but stand

- What are you? - A gentleman

- A marvellous poor one - True, so I am

Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other station

Here's no place for you. Pray you, avoid

Come

Follow your function, go, and batten on cold bits

What, you will not? Prithee, tell my master what a strange guest he has here

And I shall

- Where dwell'st thou? - Under the canopy

- Under the canopy? - Ay

- Where's that? - In the city of kites and crows

In the city of kites and crows? What an ass it is! Then thou dwell'st with daws too?

- No, I serve not thy master - How, sir? Do you meddle with my master?

Ay, 'tis an honester service than to meddle with thy mistress

Thou prat'st and prat'st. Serve with thy trencher. Hence!

- Where is this fellow? - Here, sir

I'd have beaten him like a dog, but for disturbing the lords within

Whence com'st thou? What wouldst thou?

Thy name?

Why speak'st not? Speak, man. What's thy name?

If, Tullus, not yet thou know'st me...

...and seeing me, dost not think me for the man I am...

...necessity commands me name myself - What is thy name?

A name unmusical to the Volscians' ears and harsh in sound to thine

Say, what's thy name?

Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face bears a command in it

Though thy tackle's torn, thou show'st a noble vessel. What's thy name?

- Prepare thy brow to frown. Know'st thou me yet? - I know thee not. Thy name?

My name is Caius Martius

Who hath done to thee particularly and to all the Volsces great hurt and mischief

Thereto witness may my surname...

...Coriolanus

The painful service...

the extreme dangers and the drops of blood shed for my thankless country...

...are requited but with that surname. Only that name remains

The cruelty and envy of the people, permitted by our dastard nobles, who have all forsook me...

...hath devoured the rest, and suffered me by the voice of slaves to be whooped out of Rome

Now this extremity hath brought me to thy hearth, not out of hope, mistake me not, to save my life

For if I had feared death, of all the men in the world I would have avoided thee

But in mere spite...

...to be full quit of those my banishers, stand I before thee here

Then if thou hast a heart of wreak in thee...

...that wilt revenge thine own particular wrongs...

...and stop those maims of shame seen through thy country...

....speed thee straight and make my misery serve thy turn

So use it that my revengeful services may prove as benefits to thee

For I will fight against my cankered country with the spleen of all the under fiends

But if so be thou dar'st not this, and that to prove more fortunes thou art tired...

Then, in a word, I also am longer to live most weary...

...and present my throat to thee and to thy ancient malice

Which not to cut would show thee but a fool, since I have ever followed thee in hate

Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country's breast, and cannot live but to thy shame...

...unless it be to do thee service

Martius

Martius

Each word thou hast spoke...

...hath weeded from my heart a root of ancient envy

If Jupiter should from yond cloud speak divine things and say 'tis true...

...I'd not believe them more than thee, all-noble Martius

Let me twine mine arms about that body, where against my grained ash...

...an hundred times hath broke and scarred the moon with splinters

No, here I clip the anvil of my sword...

...and do contest as hotly and as nobly with thy love...

...as ever in ambitious strength I did contend against thy valour

Know thou first, I loved the maid I married. Never man sighed truer breath

But that I see thee here, thou noble thing...

...more dances my rapt heart...

...than when I first my wedded mistress saw bestride my threshold

Why, thou Mars, I tell thee we have a power on foot

And I had purpose once more to hew thy target from thy brawn...

...or lose mine arm for it

Thou hast beat me out...

...twelve several times...

...and I have nightly since dreamt of encounters...

...'twixt thyself and me

We have been down together in my sleep...

...unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throats...

...and waked half dead with nothing

Worthy Martius, had we no other quarrel else to Rome...

...but that thou art thence banished...

...we would muster all from twelve to seventy...

...and, pouring war into the bowels of ungrateful Rome...

...like a bold flood o'erbear it

O, come, go in, and take our friendly senators by the hands

Who now are here, taking their leaves of me, who am prepared against your territories...

- ...though not for Rome itself - You bless me, gods

Therefore, most absolute sir...

...if thou wilt have the leading of thine own revenges...

...take the one half of my commission...

...and set down, as best thou art experienced...

...since thou knowest thy country's strength and weakness, thine own ways

Whether to knock against the gates of Rome...

...or rudely visit them in parts remote to fright them ere destroy

But come in

A thousand welcomes! And more a friend than ere an enemy

Yet, Martius, that was much

Your hand. Most welcome

Here's a strange alteration!

Nay, I knew by his face there was something in him

He had, friend, a kind of face, methought, I cannot tell how to term it

- He is simply the rarest man in the world - I think so too

And a greater soldier than he you wot one

- Who, my master? - Nay, it's no matter for that

- Worth six on him - Nay, not so neither

O slaves, I can tell you news, news, you rascals

- What, what, what? - Let's partake

I would not be a Roman, of all nations. I had as lief be a condemned man

Wherefore?

Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general, Caius Martius

But, more of thy news

Why, he is so made on here within as if he were son and heir to Mars

Our general himself makes a mistress of him

He will mow all down before him and leave his passage polled

Why then, we shall have a stirring world again

This peace is nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers

The war's for my money. I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volscians

They are rising

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

We stood to 't in good time

Is this Menenius?

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

- Hail, sir - Hail to you both

Your Coriolanus is not much missed, but with his friends

The commonwealth doth stand, and so would do were he more angry at it

All's well, and might have been much better if he could have temporised

Where is he, hear you?

Nay, I hear nothing. His mother and his wife hear nothing from him

- The gods preserve you both - Good e'en, our neighbours

Ourselves, our wives, and children, on our knees are bound to pray for you both

Live, and thrive

Farewell, kind neighbours. We wished Coriolanus had loved you as we did

- Now the gods keep you - Farewell, farewell

This is a happier and more comely time...

...than when these fellows ran about the streets crying confusion

Caius Martius was a worthy officer in the war

But insolent, o'ercome with pride, ambitious, past all thinking self-loving

And affecting one sole throne, without assistance

I think not so

We should by this, to all our lamentation, if he had gone forth consul, found it so

The gods have well prevented it, and Rome sits safe and still without him

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 them

'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

Come, what talk you of Martius?

Go see this rumourer whipped. It cannot be the Volsces dare break with us

Cannot be? We have record that very well it can

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

- Tell not me. I know this cannot be - Not possible

The nobles in great earnestness are going all to the Senate House

Some news is coming that turns their countenances

'Tis this slave, go whip him 'fore the people's eyes...

...his raising, nothing but his report

Yes, worthy lady, the slave's report is seconded

- And more, more fearful, is delivered - What more fearful?

It is spoke freely out of many mouths, how probable I do not know...

...that Martius, joined with Aufidius, leads a power against Rome

And vows revenge as spacious as between the youngest and oldest thing

This is most likely!

Raised only that the weaker sort may wish good Martius home again

The very trick on 't!

This is unlikely

He and Aufidius can no more atone than violent'st contrariety

We are sent for to the Senate

A fearful army, led by Coriolanus associated with Aufidius...

...rages upon our territories, consumed with fire and took what lay before them

- O, you have made good work! - What news? What news?

You have holp to ravish your own daughters and to melt the city leads upon your pates

- To see your sons dishonoured to your noses... - What's the news? What's the news?

Your temples burned in their cement...

...and your franchises, whereon you stood, confined into an auger's bore

Pray now, your news? You have made fair work, I fear me

Pray, your news? If Martius should be joined with the Volscians...

If? He is their god

He leads them like a thing made by some other deity than Nature

And they follow him against us brats...

...with no less confidence than boys pursuing summer butterflies...

...or butchers killing flies

Why, 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

He'll shake your Rome about your ears

But is this true, sir?

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?

We are all undone, unless the noble man have mercy

Who shall ask it? The tribunes cannot do it for shame

The people deserve such pity of him as the wolf does of the shepherds

For his best friends, if we should say 'Be good to Rome'...

...we charged him even as those should do that had deserved his hate...

...and therein showed like enemies

'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'

You have made fair hands, you and your apron-men. You have crafted fair!

You have brought a trembling upon Rome such as was never so incapable of help

- Say not we brought it - How? Was 't we?

We loved him, but like beasts and cowardly nobles, gave way unto your clusters...

- ...who did hoot him out of the city - 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

Here come the clusters. 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

But 'tis no matter. If he could burn us all into one coal, we have deserved it

Faith, we hear fearful news

For mine own part, when I said banish him, I said 'twas pity

- And so did I - 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

You're goodly things, you voices

You have made good work, you and your cry

- Shall 's to the Capitol? - O, ay, what else?

Go, masters, get you home. Be not dismayed. Go home, and show no sign of fear

The gods be good to us! Masters, let's home

I ever said we were in the wrong when we banished him

So did we all. But, come, let's home

I do not like this news

Nor I

Come, let's to the Capitol

Would half my wealth would buy this for a lie

Pray, let's go

Do they still fly to the Roman?

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

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

Yet I wish, sir

And 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

I understand thee well, and be thou sure...

...when he shall come to his account, he knows not what I can urge against him

Sir, I beseech you...

...think you he'll carry Rome?

All places yields to him ere he sits down

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 loyal 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 judgment...

...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 the casque to the 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 utterance

So our virtues lie in the interpretation of the time

One fire drives out one fire, one nail one nail

Rights by rights do falter, strengths by strengths do fail

Come, let's away

When, Caius, Rome is thine...

...thou art poorest of all. Then shortly art thou mine

No, I'll not go

He called me father, but what of that? Go you that banished him

A mile before his tent, fall down, and knee the way into his mercy. I'll keep at home

- He would not seem to know me - Do you hear?

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 in the fire of burning Rome

Why, so. You have made good work!

A pair of tribunes that have wracked Rome to make coals cheap

We must be burnt for you

But sure, if you would be our country's pleader...

...your good tongue, more than the instant army we can make, might stop our countryman

No, I'll not meddle

- Pray you, go to him - What should I do?

Only make trial what your love can do for Rome, towards Martius

Well, and say that Martius return me, as Cominius is returned, unheard, what then?

But as a discontented friend, grief-shot with his unkindness? Say 't be so?

Yet your good will must have that thanks from Rome after the measure as you intended well

I'll undertake it. I think he'll hear me

But to bite his lip and hum at good Cominius much unhearts me

He was not taken well. He had not dined

You know the very road into his kindness and cannot lose your way

Good faith, I'll prove him, speed how it will

I shall ere long have knowledge of my success

He'll never hear him

Not?

I tell you, he does sit in gold, his eye red as 'twould burn Rome

And his injury the gaoler to his pity

I kneeled before him

'Twas very faintly he said 'Rise', dismissed me thus with his speechless hand

What he would do he sent in writing after me

What he would not, bound with an oath to yield to his conditions

So all hope is vain

Stay! Whence are you?

Stand, and go back

You guard like men, 'tis well

But by your leave, I am an officer of state and come to speak with Coriolanus

- From whence? - From Rome

You may not pass. You must return. Our general will no more hear from thence

You'll see your Rome embraced with fire before you'll speak with Coriolanus

Good my friends, if you have heard your general talk of Rome and of his friends there...

...it is lots to blanks my name hath touched your ears. It is Menenius

Be it so, go back. The virtue of your name is not here passable

I tell thee, friend, thy general is my lover

I have been the book of his good acts, whence men have read his fame unparalleled happily amplified

Therefore I must have leave to pass

Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say you have...

...I am one that, telling true under him, must say you cannot pass. Therefore, go back

Has he dined, can'st thou tell? For I would not speak with him till after dinner

- You are a Roman, are you? - I am, as thy general is

Then you should hate Rome as he does

Can you, when you have pushed out of your gates the very defender of them...

And, in a violent popular ignorance given your enemy your shield...

...think to front his revenges with the easy groans of old women...

...the virginal palms of your daughters?

Or with the palsied intercession of such a decayed dotant as you seem to be?

No, you are deceived

Therefore, back to Rome and prepare for your execution

You are condemned. Our general has sworn you out of reprieve and pardon. Back!

- That's the utmost of your having. Back! - Nay, friend, good friend

What's the matter?

Now, you companion, I'll say an errand for you

You shall know now that I am in estimation

The glorious gods sit in hourly synod about thy particular prosperity

And love thee no worse than thy old father Menenius does

O my son, my son!

Thou art preparing fire for us

Look thee, here's water to quench it

I was hardly moved to come to thee

But being assured none but myself could move thee...

...I have been blown out of your gates with sighs

And conjure thee to pardon Rome and thy petitionary countrymen

The good gods assuage thy wrath and turn the dregs of it upon this creature

This, who, like a block, hath denied my access to thee

Away!

How? Away?

Wife, mother, child, I know not

My affairs are servanted to others

Though I owe my revenge properly, my remission lies in Volscian breasts

That we have been familiar, ingrate forgetfulness shall poison...

...rather than pity note how much. Therefore, begone

Mine ears against your suits are stronger than your gates against my force

Another word, Menenius, I will not hear thee speak

This man, Aufidius, was my beloved in Rome, yet thou behold'st

You keep a constant temper

Now, sir, is your name Menenius?

'Tis a spell, you see, of much power. You know the way home again

I neither care for the world nor your general

For such things as you, I can scarce think there's any, you're so slight

He that hath a will to die by himself fears it not from another

Let your general do his worst

I say to you, as I was said to, away!

A noble fellow, I warrant him

The worthy fellow is our general. He's the rock, the oak not to be wind-shaken

We will before the walls of Rome tomorrow set down our host

My partner in this action, you must report to the Volscian lords...

...how plainly I have borne this business

Only their ends you have respected, stopped your ear against the general suit of Rome

Nay, never admitted a private whisper...

...not with such friends that thought them sure of you

This last old man, whom with a cracked heart I have sent to Rome...

...loved me above the measure of a father. Nay, godded me indeed

Fresh embassies and suits, nor from the state nor private friends, hereafter will I lend ear to

Ha? What shouts are those?

Shall I be tempted to infringe my vow in the same time 'tis made? I will not

My wife comes foremost...

...then the honoured mould wherein this trunk was framed

And in her hand the grandchild to her blood

But out, affection!

All bond and privilege of nature, break. Let it be virtuous to be obstinate

What is that curtsy worth?

Or those doves' eyes, which can make gods forsworn?

I melt, and am not of stronger earth than others

My mother bows, as if Olympus to a molehill should in supplication nod

And my young boy hath an aspect of intercession which great nature cries 'Deny not'

Let the Volsces plough Rome and harrow Italy, I'll never be such a gosling to obey instinct

But stand as if a man were author of himself, and knew no other kin

- My lord and husband - These eyes are not the same I wore in Rome

The sorrow that delivers us thus changed makes you think so

Like a dull actor now, I have forgot my part, and I am out, even to a full disgrace

Best of my flesh, forgive my tyranny, but do not say for that 'Forgive our Romans'

O, a kiss...

...long as my exile, sweet as my revenge

Now, by the jealous queen of heaven...

...that kiss I carried from thee, dear, and my true lip hath virgined it ever since

You gods! I prate and the most noble mother of the world leave unsaluted

Sink, my knee, in the earth. Of thy deep duty more impression show than that of common sons

O, stand up blest...

...whilst with no softer cushion than the flint...

...I kneel before thee

And unproperly show duty, as mistaken all this while between the child and parent

What's this? Your knees to me? To your corrected son?

Then let the pebbles on the hungry beach fillip the stars

Then let the mutinous winds strike the proud cedars 'gainst the fiery sun...

...murdering impossibility to make what cannot be slight work

Thou art my warrior. I holp to frame thee

- Do you know this lady? - The noble sister of Publicola, dear Valeria

This is a poor epitome of yours...

...which by the interpretation of full time may show like all yourself

The god of soldiers, with the consent of supreme Jove...

...inform thy thoughts with nobleness

Your knee, sirrah

That's my brave boy

Even he, your wife...

...this lady, and myself...

...are suitors to you

I beseech you, peace

Or if you'd ask, remember this before

The thing I have forsworn to grant may never be held by you denials

Do not bid me dismiss my soldiers or capitulate again with Rome's mechanics

Tell me not wherein I seem unnatural

Desire not to allay my rages and revenges with your colder reasons

O, no more, no more!

You have said you will not grant us anything

For we have nothing else to ask but that which you deny already

Yet we will ask...

...that if you fail in our request, the blame may hang upon your hardness

Therefore hear us

Aufidius, and you Volsces, mark, for we'll hear naught from Rome in private

Your request?

Should we be silent and not speak...

...our raiment and state of bodies would bewray what life we have led since thy exile

Think with thyself how more unfortunate than all living women are we come hither

Since that thy sight, which should make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with comforts...

...constrains them weep and shake with fear and sorrow

Making the mother, wife and child to see the son...

...the husband and the father tearing his country's bowels out

And to poor we, thine enmity's most capital

Thou barrest us our prayers to the gods...

... which is a comfort that all but we enjoy

For how can we, alas, how can we for our country pray, whereto we are bound...

...together with thy victory, whereto we are bound?

Alack, we must find an evident calamity...

...though we had our wish, which side should win

For either thou...

...must, as a foreign recreant, be led with manacles through our streets

Or else triumphantly tread on thy country's ruin

And bear the palm for having bravely shed thy wife and children's blood

For myself, son...

...I purpose not to wait on fortune till these wars determine

If I cannot persuade thee rather to show a noble grace to both parts...

...than seek the end of one...

...thou shalt no sooner march to assault thy country than to tread...

...trust to it, thou shalt not...

...on thy mother's womb, that brought thee to this world

Ay, and mine, that brought you forth this boy to keep your name living to time

He shall not tread on me. I'll run away till I am bigger, but then I'll fight

Not of a woman's tenderness to be requires nor child nor woman's face to see

- I have sat too long - Nay, go not from us thus

If it were so that our request did tend to save the Romans...

...thereby to destroy the Volsces whom you serve...

...you might condemn us, as poisonous of your honour

No. Our suit is that you reconcile them

While the Volsces may say, 'This mercy we have showed'...

...the Romans, 'This we received'

And each in either side give the all-hail to thee...

...and cry 'Be blest for making up this peace'

Thou knowest, great son, the end of war's uncertain...

...but this certain: that if thou conquer Rome...

...the benefit which thou shalt thereby reap is such a name...

...whose repetition will be dogged with curses

Whose chronicle thus writ: 'The man was noble...

...but with his last attempt he wiped it out'

'Destroyed his country, and his name remains to the ensuing age abhorred'

Speak to me, son

Thou hast affected the fine strains of honour to imitate the graces of the gods...

To tear with thunder the wide cheeks of the air...

...and yet to charge thy sulphur with a bolt that should but rive an oak

Why dost not speak?

Think'st thou it honourable for a noble man still to remember wrongs?

Daughter, speak you

He cares not for your weeping

Speak thou, boy. Perhaps thy childishness will move him more than can our reasons

There's no man in the world more bound to his mother, yet here...

...he lets me prate like one in the stocks

Thou hast never in thy life showed thy dear mother any courtesy...

...when she, poor hen...

...fond of no second brood, has clucked thee...

...to the wars and safely home, loaden with honour

Say my request's unjust and spurn me back. But if it be not so...

...thou art not honest

And the gods will plague thee...

...that thou restrain'st from me the duty which to a mother's part belongs

He turns away

Down, ladies!

Let us shame him with our knees

To his surname Coriolanus 'longs more pride...

...than pity to our prayers

Down!

An end

This is the last

So...

...we will home to Rome and die among our neighbours

Nay, behold 's

This boy that cannot tell what he would have...

...but kneels and holds up hands for fellowship...

...does reason our petition with more strength than thou hast to deny it

Come, let us go

This fellow...

had a Volscian to his mother

His wife is in Corioles, and his child like him by chance

Yet give us our dispatch

I am hushed until our city be afire

and then I'll speak a little

O mother...

mother!

What have you done?

Behold, the heavens do ope...

the gods look down, and this unnatural scene they laugh at

O, my mother, mother, O!

You have won a happy victory to Rome

But, for your son, believe it, O, believe it...

...most dangerously you have with him prevailed...

if not most mortal to him

But let it come

Aufidius...

...though I cannot make true wars, I'll frame convenient peace

Now, good Aufidius, were you in my stead...

...would you have heard a mother less? Or granted less, Aufidius?

- I was moved withal - I dare be sworn you were

And, sir, it is no little thing to make mine eyes to sweat compassion

But, good sir, what peace you'll make advise me

For my part...

...I'll not to Rome

I'll back with you. And pray you, stand to me in this cause

O mother! Wife!

I am glad thou hast set thy mercy and thy honour at difference in thee

Out of that I'll work myself a former fortune

Ay, by and by. But we will drink together

And you will bear a better witness back than words...

...which we, on like conditions, will have countersealed

Come, enter with us.

Ladies, you deserve to have a temple built you

All the swords in Italy, and their confederate arms...

...could not have made this peace

See you yond coign of the Capitol,

- yond cornerstone? - Why, what of that?

If it be possible for you to displace it with your little finger...

...there is some hope the ladies of Rome, especially his mother, may prevail with him

But I say there is no hope in 't.

Our throats are sentenced and stay upon execution

Is 't possible that so short a time can alter the condition of a man?

There is differency between a grub and a butterfly...

...yet your butterfly was a grub

This Martius is grown from man

to dragon. He has wings

- He loved his mother dearly - So did he me

And he no more remembers his mother now than an eight-year-old horse

He sits in his state as a thing made for Alexander

He wants nothing of a god but eternity and a heaven to throne in

Yes, mercy, if you report him truly

There is no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male tiger

- The gods be good unto us - No...

in such a case the gods will not be good unto us

When we banished him, we respected not them.

And he returning to break our necks, they respect not us

Ma'am, if you'd save your life, fly to your house

The plebeians have got your fellow tribune and hale her up and down

All swearing if the Roman ladies bring not comfort home...

...they'll give her death by inches

- What's the news? - Good news...

...good news! The ladies have prevailed

The Volscians are dislodged and Martius gone.

A merrier day did never yet greet Rome

Friend, Art thou certain this is true? Is 't most certain?

As certain as I know the sun is fire.

Where have you lurked that you make doubt of it?

This is good news. I will go meet the ladies

This Volumnia is worth of consuls, senators, patricians a city full

Of tribunes such as you a sea and land full.

You have prayed well today

This morning for ten thousand of your throats I'd not have given a doit

Hark, how they joy!

First, the gods bless you for your tidings

Next, accept my thankfulness

We have all great cause to give great thanks

- They are near the city? - Almost at point to enter

We'll meet them, and help the joy

Behold our patroness, the life of Rome!

Strew flowers before them, cry 'Welcome, ladies, welcome!'

Go tell the lords of the city I am here. Deliver them this paper

I, even in theirs and in the commons' ears, will vouch the truth of it. Dispatch

- Most welcome - How is it with our general?

Even so as with a man by his own alms empoisoned...

...and with his charity slain

Most noble sir, if you do hold the same intent wherein you wished us parties...

...we'll deliver you of your great danger

Sir, I cannot tell. We must proceed as we do find the people

The people will remain uncertain whilst 'twixt you there's difference

But the fall of either makes the survivor heir of all

I know it, and my pretext to strike at him admits a good construction

I raised him...

...and I pawned mine honour for his truth, who, being so heightened...

...he watered his new plants with dews of flattery...

...seducing so my friends

And to this end, he bowed his nature

never known before but to be rough, unswayable, and free

Sir, his stoutness when he did stand for consul...

...which he lost by lack of stooping...

That I would have spoke of

I took him, made him joint servant with me, gave him way in all his own desires

Nay, let him choose out of my files...

his projects to accomplish, my best and freshest men

Served his designments in mine own person...

...and took some pride to do myself this wrong

Till at the last I seemed his follower...

...not partner

And he waged me with his countenance as if I had been mercenary

So he did, my lord. The army marvelled at it

And, in the last, when he had carried Rome and that we looked...

...for no less spoil than glory...

There was it for which my sinews shall be stretched upon him

At a few drops of women's rheum, which are as cheap as lies...

...he sold the blood and labour of our great action

Therefore shall he die, and I'll renew me in his fall.

But hark!

Your native town you entered like a post and had no welcomes home

But he returns splitting the air with noise

And patient fools, whose children he hath slain...

...their base throats tear with giving him glory

Therefore at your vantage, ere he express himself...

...or move the people with what he would say...

- ...let him feel your sword - Say no more. Here come the lords

- You are most welcome home - I have not deserved it

But, noble lords, have you...

with heed perused what I have written to you?

- We have - And grieve to hear it

What faults he made before the last, I think might have found easy fines

But there to end where he was to begin and give away the benefit of our levies...

Answering us with our own charge, making a treaty where there was a yielding...

...this admits no excuse

He approaches. You shall hear him

Hail, lords! I am returned your soldier

No more infected with my country's love than when I parted hence...

...but still subsisting under your great command

You are to know that prosperously I have attempted, and with bloody passage...

...led your wars even to the gates of Rome

Our spoils we do bring home...

...do more than counterpoise a full third part the charges of the action

We have made peace with no less honour to the Antiates than shame to the Romans

And we here deliver...

...subscribed by the consuls and patricians, together with the seal of the Senate...

...what we have compounded on

Read it not, noble lords...

but tell the traitor in the highest degree he hath abused your powers

- Traitor? How now? - Ay, traitor, Martius

- Martius? - Ay, Martius, Caius Martius

Dost thou think I'll grace thee with that robbery...

...thy stolen name Coriolanus, in Corioles?

You lords and heads of the state, perfidiously he has betrayed your business

And given up for certain drops of salt...

your city Rome, I say your city, to his wife and mother

Breaking his oath and resolution like a twist of rotten silk...

Never admitting counsel of the war, but at his nurse's tears...

...he whined and roared away your victory...

...that pages blushed at him and men of heart looked wondering each at other

- Hear'st thou, Mars? - Name not the god, thou boy of tears

- Ha? - No more

Measureless liar...

...thou hast made my heart too great for what contains it

'Boy'? O slave!

Pardon me, lords, 'tis the first time that ever I was forced to scold

Your judgments, my grave lords, must give this cur the lie.

And his own notion...

Who wears my stripes impressed upon him, that must bear my beating to his grave

...shall join to thrust the lie unto him

Peace, both, and hear me speak

Cut me to pieces, Volsces. Men and lads, stain all your edges on me

'Boy'? False hound!

If you have writ your annals true, 'tis there that like an eagle in a dovecote...

...I fluttered your Volscians in Corioles. Alone I did it. 'Boy'!

Why, noble lords, will you be put in mind of his blind fortune, which was your shame...

...by this unholy braggart, 'fore your own eyes and ears?

Let him die for it!

Peace, peace I say!

The man is noble, and his fame folds in this orb of the earth

For his last offences to us he shall have judicious hearing

Stand, Aufidius, and trouble not the peace

O, that I had him, with six Aufidiuses...

...or more, his tribe, to use my lawful sword

Insolent villain!

- Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill! - Hold!

- My noble masters, hear me speak - O Tullus

Thou hast done a deed whereat valour will weep

When you shall know, as in this rage, provoked by him, you cannot...

...the great danger which this man's life did owe you...

...you'll rejoice that he is thus cut off

Please it your honours to call me to your senate

I'll deliver myself your loyal servant or endure your heaviest censure

Bear from hence his body, and mourn you for him

His own impatience takes from Aufidius a great part of blame

Let's make the best of it

My rage is gone...

and I am struck with sorrow

Take him up

Help, three of the chiefest soldiers. I'll be one

Though in this city he hath widowed...

...and unchilded many a one, which to this hour bewail the injury...

...yet he shall have a noble memory

Assist