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Coriolanus: Act III, Scene 3

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Coriolanus
Act III, Scene 3

Rome. The forum.

Henry Irving as Coriolanus at the Lyceum Theatre

Henry Irving as Coriolanus at the Lyceum Theatre

Cyrus Cuneo, 1901

  1. Enter Sicinius and Brutus.

Brutus

1 - 6
  1. In this point charge him home, that he affects
  2. Tyrannical power. If he evade us there,
  3. Enforce him with his envy to the people,
  4. And that the spoil got on the Antiates
  5. Was ne’er distributed.
  6. Enter First Aedile.
  7.                        What, will he come?

First Aedile

7
  1. He’s coming.

Brutus

8
  1.              How accompanied?

First Aedile

9 - 10
  1. With old Menenius and those senators
  2. That always favor’d him.

Sicinius Velutus

11 - 13
  1.                          Have you a catalogue
  2. Of all the voices that we have procur’d,
  3. Set down by th’ poll?

First Aedile

14
  1.                       I have; ’tis ready.

Sicinius Velutus

15
  1. Have you collected them by tribes?

First Aedile

16
  1.                                    I have.

Sicinius Velutus

17 - 23
  1. Assemble presently the people hither;
  2. And when they hear me say, “It shall be so
  3. I’ th’ right and strength a’ th’ commons,” be it either
  4. For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them,
  5. If I say fine, cry “Fine!”; if death, cry “Death!”;
  6. Insisting on the old prerogative
  7. And power i’ th’ truth a’ th’ cause.

First Aedile

24
  1.                                      I shall inform them.

Brutus

25 - 28
  1. And when such time they have begun to cry,
  2. Let them not cease, but with a din confus’d
  3. Enforce the present execution
  4. Of what we chance to sentence.

First Aedile

29
  1.                                Very well.

Sicinius Velutus

30 - 31
  1. Make them be strong, and ready for this hint
  2. When we shall hap to give’t them.

Brutus

32 - 38
  1.                                   Go about it.
  2. Exit First Aedile.
  3. Put him to choler straight, he hath been us’d
  4. Ever to conquer, and to have his worth
  5. Of contradiction. Being once chaf’d, he cannot
  6. Be rein’d again to temperance; then he speaks
  7. What’s in his heart, and that is there which looks
  8. With us to break his neck.
  1. Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, and Cominius, with others,
  2. Senators and Patricians.

Sicinius Velutus

39
  1.                            Well, here he comes.

Menenius

40
  1. Calmly, I do beseech you.

Coriolanus

41 - 46
  1. Ay, as an hostler, that for th’ poorest piece
  2. Will bear the knave by th’ volume. Th’ honor’d gods
  3. Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice
  4. Supplied with worthy men! Plant love among ’s!
  5. Throng our large temples with the shows of peace,
  6. And not our streets with war!

First Roman Senator

47
  1.                               Amen, amen.

Menenius

48
  1. A noble wish.
  1. Enter the First Aedile with the Plebeians.

Sicinius Velutus

49
  1. Draw near, ye people.

First Aedile

50
  1. List to your tribunes. Audience! Peace, I say!

Coriolanus

51
  1. First hear me speak.

Plebeians

52
  1.                      Well, say. Peace ho!

Coriolanus

53 - 54
  1. Shall I be charg’d no further than this present?
  2. Must all determine here?

Sicinius Velutus

55 - 59
  1.                          I do demand
  2. If you submit you to the people’s voices,
  3. Allow their officers, and are content
  4. To suffer lawful censure for such faults
  5. As shall be prov’d upon you.

Coriolanus

60
  1.                              I am content.

Menenius

61 - 64
  1. Lo, citizens, he says he is content.
  2. The warlike service he has done, consider; think
  3. Upon the wounds his body bears, which show
  4. Like graves i’ th’ holy churchyard.

Coriolanus

65 - 66
  1.                                     Scratches with briers,
  2. Scars to move laughter only.

Menenius

67 - 72
  1.                              Consider further:
  2. That when he speaks not like a citizen,
  3. You find him like a soldier; do not take
  4. His rougher accents for malicious sounds,
  5. But as I say, such as become a soldier
  6. Rather than envy you.

Cominius

73
  1.                       Well, well, no more.

Coriolanus

74 - 77
  1. What is the matter
  2. That being pass’d for consul with full voice,
  3. I am so dishonor’d that the very hour
  4. You take it off again?

Sicinius Velutus

78
  1.                        Answer to us.

Coriolanus

79
  1. Say then; ’tis true, I ought so.

Sicinius Velutus

80 - 83
  1. We charge you, that you have contriv’d to take
  2. From Rome all season’d office, and to wind
  3. Yourself into a power tyrannical,
  4. For which you are a traitor to the people.

Coriolanus

84
  1. How? Traitor?

Menenius

85
  1.               Nay, temperately; your promise.

Coriolanus

86 - 92
  1. The fires i’ th’ lowest hell fold in the people!
  2. Call me their traitor, thou injurious tribune!
  3. Within thine eyes sate twenty thousand deaths,
  4. In thy hands clutch’d as many millions, in
  5. Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say
  6. “Thou liest” unto thee with a voice as free
  7. As I do pray the gods.

Sicinius Velutus

93
  1.                        Mark you this, people?

Plebeians

94
  1. To th’ rock, to th’ rock with him!

Sicinius Velutus

95 - 102
  1.                                    Peace!
  2. We need not put new matter to his charge.
  3. What you have seen him do, and heard him speak,
  4. Beating your officers, cursing yourselves,
  5. Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying
  6. Those whose great power must try him—even this
  7. So criminal, and in such capital kind,
  8. Deserves th’ extremest death.

Brutus

103 - 104
  1.                               But since he hath
  2. Serv’d well for Rome—

Coriolanus

105
  1.                       What do you prate of service?

Brutus

106
  1. I talk of that, that know it.

Coriolanus

107
  1. You?

Menenius

108
  1. Is this the promise that you made your mother?

Cominius

109
  1. Know, I pray you—

Coriolanus

110 - 116
  1.                   I’ll know no further.
  2. Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,
  3. Vagabond exile, fleaing, pent to linger
  4. But with a grain a day, I would not buy
  5. Their mercy at the price of one fair word,
  6. Nor check my courage for what they can give,
  7. To have’t with saying “Good morrow.”

Sicinius Velutus

117 - 129
  1.                                      For that he has
  2. (As much as in him lies) from time to time
  3. Envied against the people, seeking means
  4. To pluck away their power, as now at last
  5. Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence
  6. Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers
  7. That doth distribute it—in the name a’ th’ people,
  8. And in the power of us the tribunes, we,
  9. Even from this instant, banish him our city,
  10. In peril of precipitation
  11. From off the rock Tarpeian, never more
  12. To enter our Rome gates. I’ th’ people’s name,
  13. I say it shall be so.

Plebeians

130 - 131
  1. It shall be so, it shall be so. Let him away!
  2. He’s banish’d, and it shall be so.

Cominius

132
  1. Hear me, my masters, and my common friends—

Sicinius Velutus

133
  1. He’s sentenc’d; no more hearing.

Cominius

134 - 141
  1.                                  Let me speak.
  2. I have been consul, and can show for Rome
  3. Her enemies’ marks upon me. I do love
  4. My country’s good with a respect more tender,
  5. More holy and profound, than mine own life,
  6. My dear wive’s estimate, her womb’s increase
  7. And treasure of my loins; then if I would
  8. Speak that—

Sicinius Velutus

142
  1.             We know your drift. Speak what?

Brutus

143 - 145
  1. There’s no more to be said, but he is banish’d
  2. As enemy to the people and his country.
  3. It shall be so.

Plebeians

146
  1.                 It shall be so, it shall be so.

Coriolanus

147 - 162
  1. You common cry of curs, whose breath I hate
  2. As reek a’ th’ rotten fens, whose loves I prize
  3. As the dead carcasses of unburied men
  4. That do corrupt my air—I banish you!
  5. And here remain with your uncertainty!
  6. Let every feeble rumor shake your hearts!
  7. Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
  8. Fan you into despair! Have the power still
  9. To banish your defenders, till at length
  10. Your ignorance (which finds not till it feels,
  11. Making but reservation of yourselves,
  12. Still your own foes) deliver you as most
  13. Abated captives to some nation
  14. That won you without blows! Despising,
  15. For you, the city, thus I turn my back;
  16. There is a world elsewhere.
  1. Exeunt Coriolanus, Cominius, cum aliis (Menenius, Senators,
  2. and Patricians).

First Aedile

163
  1. The people’s enemy is gone, is gone!

Plebeians

164
  1. Our enemy is banish’d, he is gone! Hoo! Hoo!
  1. They all shout and throw up their caps.

Sicinius Velutus

165 - 168
  1. Go see him out at gates, and follow him,
  2. As he hath follow’d you, with all despite;
  3. Give him deserv’d vexation. Let a guard
  4. Attend us through the city.

Plebeians

169 - 170
  1. Come, come, let’s see him out at gates, come.
  2. The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come.
  1. Exeunt.
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