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SICINIUS
Where is this viper
That would depopulate the city and
Be every man himself?
MENENIUS
You worthy tribunes,--
SICINIUS
He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock
With rigorous hands: he hath resisted law,
And therefore law shall scorn him further trial
Than the severity of the public power
Which he so sets at nought.
First Citizen
He shall well know
The noble tribunes are the people's mouths,
And we their hands.
Citizens
He shall, sure on't.
MENENIUS
Sir, sir,--
SICINIUS
Peace!
MENENIUS
Do not cry havoc, where you should but hunt
With modest warrant.
SICINIUS
Sir, how comes't that you
Have holp to make this rescue?
MENENIUS
Hear me speak:
As I do know the consul's worthiness,
So can I name his faults,--
SICINIUS
Consul! what consul?
MENENIUS
The consul Coriolanus.
BRUTUS
He consul!
Citizens
No, no, no, no, no.
MENENIUS
If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours, good people,
I may be heard, I would crave a word or two;
The which shall turn you to no further harm
Than so much loss of time.
SICINIUS
Speak briefly then;
For we are peremptory to dispatch
This viperous traitor: to eject him hence
Were but one danger, and to keep him here
Our certain death: therefore it is decreed
He dies to-night.
MENENIUS
Now the good gods forbid
That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude
Towards her deserved children is enroll'd
In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam
Should now eat up her own!
SICINIUS
He's a disease that must be cut away.
MENENIUS
O, he's a limb that has but a disease;
Mortal, to cut it off; to cure it, easy.
What has he done to Rome that's worthy death?
Killing our enemies, the blood he hath lost--
Which, I dare vouch, is more than that he hath,
By many an ounce--he dropp'd it for his country;
And what is left, to lose it by his country,
Were to us all, that do't and suffer it,
A brand to the end o' the world.
SICINIUS
This is clean cam.
BRUTUS
Merely awry: when he did love his country,
It honour'd him.
MENENIUS
The service of the foot
Being once gangrened, is not then respected
For what before it was.
BRUTUS
We'll hear no more.
Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence:
Lest his infection, being of catching nature,
Spread further.
MENENIUS
One word more, one word.
This tiger-footed rage, when it shall find
The harm of unscann'd swiftness, will too late
Tie leaden pounds to's heels. Proceed by process;
Lest parties, as he is beloved, break out,
And sack great Rome with Romans.
BRUTUS
If it were so,--
SICINIUS
What do ye talk?
Have we not had a taste of his obedience?
Our aediles smote? ourselves resisted? Come.
MENENIUS
Consider this: he has been bred i' the wars
Since he could draw a sword, and is ill school'd
In bolted language; meal and bran together
He throws without distinction. Give me leave,
I'll go to him, and undertake to bring him
Where he shall answer, by a lawful form,
In peace, to his utmost peril.
First Senator
Noble tribunes,
It is the humane way: the other course
Will prove too bloody, and the end of it
Unknown to the beginning.
SICINIUS
Noble Menenius,
Be you then as the people's officer.
Masters, lay down your weapons.
BRUTUS
Go not home.
SICINIUS
Meet on the market-place. We'll attend you there:
Where, if you bring not Marcius, we'll proceed
In our first way.
MENENIUS
I'll bring him to you.
To the Senators
Let me desire your company: he must come,
Or what is worst will follow.
First Senator
Pray you, let's to him.
Exeunt
SCENE II. A room in CORIOLANUS'S
house
Enter CORIOLANUS with Patricians
CORIOLANUS
Let them puff all about mine ears, present me
Death on the wheel or at wild horses' heels,
Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock,
That the precipitation might down stretch
Below the beam of sight, yet will I still
Be thus to them.
A Patrician
You do the nobler.
CORIOLANUS
I muse my mother
Does not approve me further, who was wont
To call them woollen vassals, things created
To buy and sell with groats, to show bare heads
In congregations, to yawn, be still and wonder,
When one but of my ordinance stood up
To speak of peace or war.
Enter VOLUMNIA
I talk of you:
Why did you wish me milder? would you have me
False to my nature? Rather say I play
The man I am.
VOLUMNIA
O, sir, sir, sir,
I would have had you put your power well on,
Before you had worn it out.
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