CORIOLANUS 1.1

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CORIOLANUS 1.1

Rome. A street.

[Enter a company of mutinous Citizens, with staves,

clubs, and other weapons]

First Citizen Before we proceed any further, hear me speak.

All Speak, speak.

First Citizen You are all resolved rather to die than to famish?

All Resolved. resolved.

First Citizen First, you know Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the people. 5

All We know't, we know't.

First Citizen Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price.

Is't a verdict?

All No more talking on't; let it be done: away, away!

Second Citizen One word, good citizens. 10

First Citizen We are accounted poor citizens, the patricians good.

What authority surfeits on would relieve us: if they

would yield us but the superfluity, while it were

wholesome, we might guess they relieved us humanely;

but they think we are too dear: the leanness that 15

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 pikes, ere we become rakes: for the gods know I

speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge. 20

Second Citizen Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?

All Against him first: he's a very dog to the commonalty.

Second Citizen Consider you what services he has done for his country?

First Citizen Very well; and could be content to give him good

report fort, but that he pays himself with being proud. 25

Second Citizen Nay, but speak not maliciously.

First Citizen 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 30

is, even till the altitude of his virtue.

Second Citizen What he cannot help in his nature, you account a

vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous.

First Citizen If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations;

he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. 35

[Shouts within]

What shouts are these? The other side o' the city

is risen: why stay we prating here? to the Capitol!

All Come, come.

First Citizen Soft! who comes here?

[Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA]

Second Citizen Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved 40

the people.

First Citizen He's one honest enough: would all the rest were so!

MENENIUS What work's, my countrymen, in hand? where go you

With bats and clubs? The matter? speak, I pray you.

First Citizen Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have 45

had inkling this fortnight what we intend to do,

which now we'll show 'em in deeds. They say poor

suitors have strong breaths: they shall know we

have strong arms too.

MENENIUS Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours, 50

Will you undo yourselves?

First Citizen We cannot, sir, we are undone already.

MENENIUS I tell you, friends, most charitable care

Have the patricians of you. For your wants,

Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well 55

Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them

Against the Roman state, whose course will on

The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs

Of more strong link asunder than can ever

Appear in your impediment. For the dearth, 60

The gods, not the patricians, make it, and

Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack,

You are transported by calamity

Thither where more attends you, and you slander

The helms o' the state, who care for you like fathers, 65

When you curse them as enemies.

First Citizen Care for us! True, indeed! They ne'er cared for us

yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses

crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to

support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act 70

established against the rich, and provide more

piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain

the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and

there's all the love they bear us.

MENENIUS Either you must 75

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 't a little more. 80

First Citizen Well, I'll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to

fob off our disgrace with a tale: but, an 't please

you, deliver.

MENENIUS There was a time when all the body's members

Rebell'd against the belly, thus accused it: 85

That only like a gulf it did remain

I' the midst o' 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, 90

And, mutually participate, did minister

Unto the appetite and affection common

Of the whole body. The belly answer'd--

First Citizen Well, sir, what answer made the belly?

MENENIUS Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile, 95

Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus--

For, look you, I may make the belly smile

As well as speak--it tauntingly replied

To the discontented members, the mutinous parts

That envied his receipt; even so most fitly 100

As you malign our senators for that

They are not such as you.

First Citizen Your belly's answer? What!

The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,

The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier, 105

Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter.

With other muniments and petty helps

In this our fabric, if that they--

MENENIUS What then?

'Fore me, this fellow speaks! What then? what then? 110

First Citizen Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd,

Who is the sink o' the body,--

MENENIUS Well, what then?

First Citizen The former agents, if they did complain,

What could the belly answer? 115

MENENIUS I will tell you

If you'll bestow a small--of what you have little--

Patience awhile, you'll hear the belly's answer.

First Citizen Ye're long about it.

MENENIUS Note me this, good friend; 120

Your most grave belly was deliberate,

Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer'd:

'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, 125

Because I am the store-house 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 o' the brain;

And, through the cranks and offices of man, 130

The strongest nerves and small inferior veins

From me receive that natural competency

Whereby they live: and though that all at once,

You, my good friends,'--this says the belly, mark me,--

First Citizen Ay, sir; well, well. 135

MENENIUS 'Though 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't? 140

First Citizen It was an answer: how apply you this?

MENENIUS The senators of Rome are this good belly,

And you the mutinous members; for examine

Their counsels and their cares, digest things rightly

Touching the weal o' the common, you shall find 145

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?

First Citizen I the great toe! why the great toe? 150

MENENIUS For that, being one o' the lowest, basest, poorest,

Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st foremost:

Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run,

Lead'st first to win some vantage.

But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs: 155

Rome and her rats are at the point of battle;

The one side must have bale.

[Enter CAIUS MARCIUS]

Hail, noble Marcius!

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

That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, 160

Make yourselves scabs?

First Citizen We have ever your good word.

MARCIUS He that will give good words to thee will flatter

Beneath abhorring. What would you have, you curs,

That like nor peace nor war? the one affrights you, 165

The other makes you proud. He that trusts to you,

Where he should find you lions, finds you hares;

Where foxes, geese: you are no surer, no,

Than is the coal of fire upon the ice,

Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is 170

To make him worthy whose offence subdues him

And curse that justice did it.

Who deserves greatness

Deserves your hate; and your affections are

A sick man's appetite, who desires most that 175

Which would increase his evil. He that depends

Upon your favours swims with fins of lead

And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust Ye?

With every minute you do change a mind,

And call him noble that was now your hate, 180

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? 185

MENENIUS For corn at their own rates; whereof, they say,

The city is well stored.

MARCIUS Hang 'em! They say!

They'll sit by the fire, and presume to know

What's done i' the Capitol; who's like to rise, 190

Who thrives and who declines; side factions

and give out

Conjectural marriages; making parties strong

And feebling such as stand not in their liking

Below their cobbled shoes. They say there's 195

grain enough!

Would the nobility lay aside their ruth,

And let me use my sword, I'll make a quarry

With thousands of these quarter'd slaves, as high

As I could pick my lance. 200

MENENIUS 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?

MARCIUS They are dissolved: hang 'em! 205

They said they were an-hungry; sigh'd 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 answer'd, 210

And a petition granted them, a strange one--

To break the heart of generosity,

And make bold power look pale--they threw their caps

As they would hang them on the horns o' the moon,

Shouting their emulation. 215

MENENIUS What is granted them?

MARCIUS 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 unroof'd the city, 220

Ere so prevail'd with me: it will in time

Win upon power and throw forth greater themes

For insurrection's arguing.

MENENIUS This is strange.

MARCIUS Go, get you home, you fragments! 225

[Enter a Messenger, hastily]

Messenger Where's Caius Marcius?

MARCIUS Here: what's the matter?

Messenger The news is, sir, the Volsces are in arms.

MARCIUS I am glad on 't: then we shall ha' means to vent

Our musty superfluity. See, our best elders. 230

[Enter COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, and other Senators;

JUNIUS BRUTUS and SICINIUS VELUTUS]

First Senator Marcius, 'tis true that you have lately told us;

The Volsces are in arms.

MARCIUS They have a leader,

Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to 't.

I sin in envying his nobility, 235

And were I any thing but what I am,

I would wish me only he.

COMINIUS You have fought together.

MARCIUS Were half to half the world by the ears and he.

Upon my party, I'ld revolt to make 240

Only my wars with him: he is a lion

That I am proud to hunt.

First Senator Then, worthy Marcius,

Attend upon Cominius to these wars.

COMINIUS It is your former promise. 245

MARCIUS Sir, it is;

And I am constant. Titus Lartius, thou

Shalt see me once more strike at Tullus' face.

What, art thou stiff? stand'st out?

TITUS No, Caius Marcius; 250

I'll lean upon one crutch and fight with t'other,

Ere stay behind this business.

MENENIUS O, true-bred!

First Senator Your company to the Capitol; where, I know,

Our greatest friends attend us. 255

TITUS [To COMINIUS] Lead you on.

[To MARCIUS] Follow Cominius; we must follow you;

Right worthy you priority.

COMINIUS Noble Marcius!

First Senator [To the Citizens] Hence to your homes; be gone!

MARCIUS Nay, let them follow:

The Volsces have much corn; take these rats thither 260

To gnaw their garners. Worshipful mutiners,

Your valour puts well forth: pray, follow.

[Citizens steal away. Exeunt all but SICINIUS

and BRUTUS]

SICINIUS Was ever man so proud as is this Marcius?

BRUTUS He has no equal.

SICINIUS When we were chosen tribunes for the people,-- 265

BRUTUS Mark'd you his lip and eyes?

SICINIUS Nay. but his taunts.

BRUTUS Being moved, he will not spare to gird the gods.

SICINIUS Be-mock the modest moon.

BRUTUS The present wars devour him: he is grown 270

Too proud to be so valiant.

SICINIUS Such a nature,

Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow

Which he treads on at noon: but I do wonder

His insolence can brook to be commanded 275

Under Cominius.

BRUTUS Fame, at the which he aims,

In whom already he's well graced, can not

Better be held nor more attain'd than by

A place below the first: for what miscarries 280

Shall be the general's fault, though he perform

To the utmost of a man, and giddy censure

Will then cry out of Marcius 'O if he

Had borne the business!'

SICINIUS Besides, if things go well, 285

Opinion that so sticks on Marcius shall

Of his demerits rob Cominius.

BRUTUS Come:

Half all Cominius' honours are to Marcius.

Though Marcius earned them not, and all his faults 290

To Marcius shall be honours, though indeed

In aught he merit not.

SICINIUS Let's hence, and hear

How the dispatch is made, and in what fashion,

More than his singularity, he goes 295

Upon this present action.

BRUTUS Lets along.

[Exeunt]

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		[Enter a company of mutinous Citizens, with staves,
		clubs, and other weapons]

First Citizen		Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price.
		Is't a verdict?

First Citizen	We are accounted poor citizens, the patricians good.
	What authority surfeits on would relieve us: if they
	would yield us but the superfluity, while it were
	wholesome, we might guess they relieved us humanely;
	but they think we are too dear: the leanness that	15
	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 pikes, ere we become rakes: for the gods know I
	speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge.	20

First Citizen		Very well; and could be content to give him good
		report fort, but that he pays himself with being proud.	25

First Citizen	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	30
	is, even till the altitude of his virtue.

Second Citizen		What he cannot help in his nature, you account a
		vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous.

First Citizen	If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations;
	he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition.	35
	[Shouts within]
	What shouts are these? The other side o' the city
	is risen: why stay we prating here? to the Capitol!

Second Citizen		Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved	40
		the people.

MENENIUS		What work's, my countrymen, in hand? where go you
		With bats and clubs? The matter? speak, I pray you.

First Citizen	Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have	45
	had inkling this fortnight what we intend to do,
	which now we'll show 'em in deeds. They say poor
	suitors have strong breaths: they shall know we
	have strong arms too.

MENENIUS		Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours,	50
		Will you undo yourselves?

MENENIUS	I tell you, friends, most charitable care
	Have the patricians of you. For your wants,
	Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well	55
	Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them
	Against the Roman state, whose course will on
	The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs
	Of more strong link asunder than can ever
	Appear in your impediment. For the dearth,	60
	The gods, not the patricians, make it, and
	Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack,
	You are transported by calamity
	Thither where more attends you, and you slander
	The helms o' the state, who care for you like fathers,	65
	When you curse them as enemies.

First Citizen	Care for us! True, indeed! They ne'er cared for us
	yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
	crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
	support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act	70
	established against the rich, and provide more
	piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
	the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
	there's all the love they bear us.

MENENIUS	Either you must	75
	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 't a little more.	80

First Citizen		Well, I'll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to
		fob off our disgrace with a tale: but, an 't please
		you, deliver.

MENENIUS	There was a time when all the body's members
	Rebell'd against the belly, thus accused it:	85
	That only like a gulf it did remain
	I' the midst o' 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,	90
	And, mutually participate, did minister
	Unto the appetite and affection common
	Of the whole body. The belly answer'd--

MENENIUS	Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile,	95
	Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus--
	For, look you, I may make the belly smile
	As well as speak--it tauntingly replied
	To the discontented members, the mutinous parts
	That envied his receipt; even so most fitly	100
	As you malign our senators for that
	They are not such as you.

First Citizen	Your belly's answer? What!
	The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,
	The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,	105
	Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter.
	With other muniments and petty helps
	In this our fabric, if that they--

MENENIUS		What then?
		'Fore me, this fellow speaks! What then? what then?	110

First Citizen		Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd,
		Who is the sink o' the body,--

First Citizen		The former agents, if they did complain,
		What could the belly answer?	115

MENENIUS		I will tell you
		If you'll bestow a small--of what you have little--
		Patience awhile, you'll hear the belly's answer.

MENENIUS	Note me this, good friend;	120
	Your most grave belly was deliberate,
	Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer'd:
	'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,	125
	Because I am the store-house 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 o' the brain;
	And, through the cranks and offices of man,	130
	The strongest nerves and small inferior veins
	From me receive that natural competency
	Whereby they live: and though that all at once,
	You, my good friends,'--this says the belly, mark me,--

MENENIUS	'Though 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't?	140

MENENIUS	The senators of Rome are this good belly,
	And you the mutinous members; for examine
	Their counsels and their cares, digest things rightly
	Touching the weal o' the common, you shall find	145
	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?

MENENIUS	For that, being one o' the lowest, basest, poorest,
	Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st foremost:
	Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run,
	Lead'st first to win some vantage.
	But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs:	155
	Rome and her rats are at the point of battle;
	The one side must have bale.
	[Enter CAIUS MARCIUS]
	Hail, noble Marcius!

MARCIUS	Thanks. What's the matter, you dissentious rogues,
	That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,	160
	Make yourselves scabs?

MARCIUS	He that will give good words to thee will flatter
	Beneath abhorring. What would you have, you curs,
	That like nor peace nor war? the one affrights you,	165
	The other makes you proud. He that trusts to you,
	Where he should find you lions, finds you hares;
	Where foxes, geese: you are no surer, no,
	Than is the coal of fire upon the ice,
	Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is	170
	To make him worthy whose offence subdues him
	And curse that justice did it.
	Who deserves greatness
	Deserves your hate; and your affections are
	A sick man's appetite, who desires most that	175
	Which would increase his evil. He that depends
	Upon your favours swims with fins of lead
	And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust Ye?
	With every minute you do change a mind,
	And call him noble that was now your hate,	180
	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?	185

MENENIUS		For corn at their own rates; whereof, they say,
		The city is well stored.

MARCIUS	Hang 'em! They say!
	They'll sit by the fire, and presume to know
	What's done i' the Capitol; who's like to rise,	190
	Who thrives and who declines; side factions
	and give out
	Conjectural marriages; making parties strong
	And feebling such as stand not in their liking
	Below their cobbled shoes. They say there's	195
	grain enough!
	Would the nobility lay aside their ruth,
	And let me use my sword, I'll make a quarry
	With thousands of these quarter'd slaves, as high
	As I could pick my lance.	200