The Complete Tragedies of William Shakespeare - All 12 Books in One Edition. William Shakespeare

Till he be dieted to my request,

       And then I’ll set upon him.

       BRUTUS.

       You know the very road into his kindness

       And cannot lose your way.

       MENENIUS.

       Good faith, I’ll prove him,

       Speed how it will. I shall ere long have knowledge

       Of my success.

       [Exit.]

       COMINIUS.

       He’ll never hear him.

       SICINIUS.

       Not?

       COMINIUS.

       I tell you he does sit in gold, his eye

       Red as ‘twould burn Rome: and his injury

       The gaoler to his pity. I kneel’d 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 that all hope is vain,

       Unless his noble mother and his wife;

       Who, as I hear, mean to solicit him

       For mercy to his country. Therefore, let’s hence,

       And with our fair entreaties haste them on.

       [Exeunt.]

       SCENE II. An Advanced post of the Volscian camp before Rome. The Guards at their station.

       [Enter to them MENENIUS.]

       FIRST GUARD.

       Stay: whence are you?

       SECOND GUARD.

       Stand, and go back.

       MENENIUS.

       You guard like men; ‘tis well: but, by your leave,

       I am an officer of state, and come

       To speak with Coriolanus.

       FIRST GUARD.

       From whence?

       MENENIUS.

       From Rome.

       FIRST GUARD.

       You may not pass; you must return: our general

       Will no more hear from thence.

       SECOND GUARD.

       You’ll see your Rome embrac’d with fire before

       You’ll speak with Coriolanus.

       MENENIUS.

       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 touch’d your ears: it is Menenius.

       FIRST GUARD.

       Be it so; go back: the virtue of your name

       Is not here passable.

       MENENIUS.

       I tell thee, fellow,

       Thy general is my lover: I have been

       The book of his good acts, whence men have read

       His fame unparallel’d, haply amplified;

       For I have ever verified my friends,—

       Of whom he’s chief,—with all the size that verity

       Would without lapsing suffer: nay, sometimes,

       Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground,

       I have tumbled past the throw: and in his praise

       Have almost stamp’d the leasing: therefore, fellow,

       I must have leave to pass.

       FIRST GUARD. Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in his behalf as you have uttered words in your own, you should not pass here: no, though it were as virtuous to lie as to live chastely. Therefore, go back.

       MENENIUS. Pr’ythee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius, always factionary on the party of your general.

       SECOND GUARD. 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.

       MENENIUS. Has he dined, canst thou tell? For I would not speak with him till after dinner.

       FIRST GUARD.

       You are a Roman, are you?

       MENENIUS.

       I am as thy general is.

       FIRST GUARD. Then you should hate Rome, as he does. Can you, when you have pushed out 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? Can you think to blow out the intended fire your city is ready to flame in, with such weak breath as this? 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.

       MENENIUS. Sirrah, if thy captain knew I were here he would use me with estimation.

       SECOND GUARD.

       Come, my captain knows you not.

       MENENIUS.

       I mean thy general.

       FIRST GUARD. My general cares not for you. Back, I say; go, lest I let forth your half pint of blood;—back; that’s the utmost of your having:—back.

       MENENIUS.

       Nay, but fellow, fellow,—

       [Enter CORIOLANUS with AUFIDIUS.]

       CORIOLANUS.

       What’s the matter?

       MENENIUS. Now, you companion, I’ll say an errand for you; you shall know now that I am in estimation; you shall perceive that a jack guardant cannot office me from my son Coriolanus: guess but by my entertainment with him if thou standest not i’ the state of hanging, or of some death more long in spectatorship and crueller in suffering; behold now presently, and swoon for what’s to come upon thee.—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 varlet here; this, who, like a block, hath denied my access to thee.

       CORIOLANUS.

       Away!

       MENENIUS.

       How! away!

       CORIOLANUS.

       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 be gone.

       Mine ears against your suits are stronger than

       Your gates against my force. Yet, for I lov’d thee,

       Take this along; I writ it for thy sake,

       [Gives a letter.]

       And would have sent it. Another word, Menenius,

       I will not hear thee speak.—This man, Aufidius,