CORIOLANUS.You?
MENENIUS.
Is this the promise that you made your mother?
COMINIUS.
Know, I pray you,—
CORIOLANUS.
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,
Nor check my courage for what they can give,
To have’t with saying Good-morrow.
SICINIUS.
For that he has,—
As much as in him lies,—from time to time
Envied against the people, seeking means
To pluck away their power; as now at last
Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence
Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers
That do distribute it;—in the name o’ the people,
And in the power of us the tribunes, we,
Even from this instant, banish him our city,
In peril of precipitation
From off the rock Tarpeian, never more
To enter our Rome gates: I’ the people’s name,
I say it shall be so.
CITIZENS.
It shall be so, it shall be so; let him away;
He’s banished, and it shall be so.
COMINIUS.
Hear me, my masters and my common friends,—
SICINIUS.
He’s sentenc’d; no more hearing.
COMINIUS.
Let me speak:
I have been consul, and can show for Rome
Her enemies’ marks upon me. I do love
My country’s good with a respect more tender,
More holy and profound, than mine own life,
My dear wife’s estimate, her womb’s increase,
And treasure of my loins; then if I would
Speak that,—
SICINIUS.
We know your drift. Speak what?
BRUTUS.
There’s no more to be said, but he is banish’d,
As enemy to the people and his country:
It shall be so.
CITIZENS.
It shall be so, it shall be so.
CORIOLANUS.
You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate
As reek o’ 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,—
Making but reservation of yourselves,—
Still your own foes,—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.
[Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENENIUS, Senators, and
Patricians.]
AEDILE.
The people’s enemy is gone, is gone!
CITIZENS.
Our enemy is banish’d, he is gone! Hoo! hoo!
[Shouting, and throwing up their caps.]
SICINIUS.
Go, see him out at gates, and follow him,
As he hath follow’d you, with all despite;
Give him deserv’d vexation. Let a guard
Attend us through the city.
CITIZENS.
Come, come, let’s see him out at gates; come.
The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come.
[Exeunt.]
ACT IV.
SCENE I. Rome. Before a gate of the city.
[Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS,and several young Patricians.]
CORIOLANUS.
Come, leave your tears; a brief farewell:—he beast
With many heads butts me away.—Nay, mother,
Where is your ancient courage? you were us’d
To say extremities was the trier of spirits;
That common chances common men could bear;
That when the sea was calm all boats alike
Show’d mastership in floating; fortune’s blows,
When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves
A noble
