Coriolanus
ACT V SCENE II. Entrance of the Volscian camp before Rome. | ||
[Enter to them, MENENIUS] | ||
First Senator | Stay: whence are you? | |
Second Senator | 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. | 5 | |
First Senator | From whence? | |
MENENIUS | From Rome. | |
First Senator | You may not pass, you must return: our general | |
Will no more hear from thence. | ||
Second Senator | You’ll see your Rome embraced with fire before | 10 |
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. | 15 | |
First Senator | Be it so; go back: the virtue of your name | |
Is not here passable. | ||
MENENIUS | I tell thee, fellow, | |
The general is my lover: I have been | ||
The book of his good acts, whence men have read | 20 | |
His name 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, | 25 | |
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 Senator | Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in his | |
behalf as you have uttered words in your own, you | 30 | |
should not pass here; no, though it were as virtuous | ||
to lie as to live chastely. Therefore, go back. | ||
MENENIUS | Prithee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius, | |
always factionary on the party of your general. | ||
Second Senator | Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say you | 35 |
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 Senator | You are a Roman, are you? | 40 |
MENENIUS | I am, as thy general is. | |
First Senator | 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 | 45 | |
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 | 50 | |
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 | 55 |
use me with estimation. | ||
Second Senator | Come, my captain knows you not. | |
MENENIUS | I mean, thy general. | |
First Senator | My general cares not for you. Back, I say, go; lest | |
I let forth your half-pint of blood; back,–that’s | 60 | |
the utmost of your having: back. | ||
MENENIUS | Nay, but, fellow, fellow,– | |
[Enter CORIOLANUS and 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 | 65 | |
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 | 70 | |
presently, and swoon for what’s to come upon thee. | ||
[To CORIOLANUS] | ||
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 | 75 | |
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 | 80 | |
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! | 85 |
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 | 90 | |
Than pity note how much. Therefore, be gone. | ||
Mine ears against your suits are stronger than | ||
Your gates against my force. Yet, for I loved thee, | ||
Take this along; I writ it for thy sake | ||
[Gives a letter] | ||
And would have rent it. Another word, Menenius, | 95 | |
I will not hear thee speak. This man, Aufidius, | ||
Was my beloved in Rome: yet thou behold’st! | ||
AUFIDIUS | You keep a constant temper. | |
[Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS] | ||
First Senator | Now, sir, is your name Menenius? | |
Second Senator | ‘Tis a spell, you see, of much power: you know the | 100 |
way home again. | ||
First Senator | Do you hear how we are shent for keeping your | |
greatness back? | ||
Second Senator | What cause, do you think, I have to swoon? | |
MENENIUS | I neither care for the world nor your general: for | 105 |
such things as you, I can scarce think there’s any, | ||
ye’re so slight. He that hath a will to die by | ||
himself fears it not from another: let your general | ||
do his worst. For you, be that you are, long; and | ||
your misery increase with your age! I say to you, | 110 | |
as I was said to, Away! | ||
[Exit] | ||
First Senator | A noble fellow, I warrant him. | |
Second Senator | The worthy fellow is our general: he’s the rock, the | |
oak not to be wind-shaken. | ||
[Exeunt] |
Next: Coriolanus, Act 5, Scene 3