If one thought only of the royal rose.
Coriolanus
Thanks for the lesson. But just one thing more:
Your vote! Your vote!
(Three more citizens have joined them)
Good day, gentlemen! If you have no objection to my face,
I’d like to be consul. I’m wearing the customary dress.
Sixth Citizen You’ve deserved nobly of your country, and you have not deserved nobly.
Coriolanus The answer to your riddle?
Sixth Citizen You’ve been a scourge to her enemies and a rod to her friends. To put it plainly, you haven’t loved the common people.
Coriolanus I love them according to their deserts. But you hold that I haven’t made myself common with my love for the common people. I understand. There are certain needs, and to meet them you need public establishments and public men. However, if you set more store by my hat than by my heart, I will tear out my heart, remove my hat, and pray you humbly: let me be consul.
Third Citizen You have received many wounds for your country?
Coriolanus I won’t bother you to look at them. But if you demand entertainment, I can sing you a song about the gratitude of the she-wolf. (To the tune of a bagpiper who has begun to play for small coins)
Here stands C. Marcius Coriolan
Trying to please the common man
He’s selling the Roman eagle here
(Don’t fight over the feathers, children dear!)
Gentlemen, my wounds. These. And these.
Look closely. Touch them if you please.
I’ll serve you for a penny; I’ll dance
Attendance. Gather round! Step up! Last chance!
(More citizens step up)
Here come more votes.
Your votes! I went to battle for your votes.
Stood sleepless for your votes. For your votes
I’ve got two dozen scars. I’ve fought
In eighteen battles. For your votes I’ve done
All manner of things and not done others.
Give me your votes and I’ll be consul.
Third Citizen (frightened) Of course. Of course. Calm down.
Fourth Citizen Let him be consul if that’s what he wants. Bravery is the one thing that counts in these warlike times.
Fifth Citizen Amen.
(Coriolanus bows low)
(Enter Senators and tribunes)
Menenius
You’ve carried out the program.
Coriolanus
Then I’m through?
Sicinius
You’ve pressed your candidacy singly and
In person, no objection has been raised.
The senate and the tribunes can confirm you.
Coriolanus
Where? In the senate?
Sicinius
Yes.
Coriolanus
But can I change
This toga now?
Sicinius
Yes, that you may. One thing perhaps
Remains: before the assembled people to
Question the candidate concerning
His program and his general opinions.
Menenius
No!
That’s not provided in the charter.
Sicinius
The tribunes
Aren’t mentioned in the charter either. The people
Have won a new law in the field, and now
In victory they want to use it, sirs.
Fifth Citizen
That’s right.
Sicinius
Coriolanus
You are descended from the noble house
Of Marcius, from which house sprang also
That Ancus Marcius, Numa’s daughter’s son
Who followed great Hostilius as our king.
Of the same house were Publius and Quintus
Who brought us our best water with their conduits.
And now, before I put my questions in
The people’s name, I ask you to look back
Most earnestly upon your beloved ancestors.
Coriolanus, ships from conquered Antium
Have just put into port. Their cargo is grain
Tribute and booty taken in the bloody
War with the Volscians. Noble Marcius, what
Will you do with this grain if chosen consul?
Menenius
Easy does it, Marcius.
Coriolanus
This is a plot.
Brutus
When free grain was apportioned to the people
Some seven months ago, you, Marcius, literally
Reviled all those who took it as lazy scoundrels.
Coriolanus
Yes, yes, it’s long since known.
Sicinius
But not to all.
Coriolanus
Then tell the others!
Menenius
Easy now.
Cominius
You’re stirring up the people!
Coriolanus
Speaking to me of grain! Would it please you
To hear it again? It would? Then I’ll repeat it.
Menenius
Not now. Not here.
Cominius
Not now and in this heat.
Coriolanus
Here and at any time. I say what I think.
You don’t feed virtue when you give free grain.
You’re feeding disobedience, fattening it
For insurrection, for with every wish
You satisfy, you give the filthy rabble
New wishes.
Fifth Citizen
Oho!
Menenius
Let well enough alone.
Sicinius
Let me ask you this: why should the people vote
For a man who speaks of them like that?
Coriolanus
Was it then children’s votes I got by my begging?
Cominius
Keep calm!
Brutus
You’ve not yet been confirmed in office.
Coriolanus
Whoever suggested that the granaries
Be emptied free of charge, as may perhaps
Be customary in Greece …
Brutus
Where the people
Are really consulted, and not just on paper!
Coriolanus
In Greece? Then go to Greece.
This city’s name is Rome.
Cominius
Enough!
Sicinius
And then some.
Coriolanus
No, I’ll give you something more
For your constituents. It’s free. I happen
To know that when war threatened this city
With sudden doom, the scum who live in
The stinking districts by the lower Tiber
Demanded grain before they’d take up arms.
Some people thought the time had come to feather
Their nests by blackmailing the state.
Cominius
No more, I beg you, sir.
Fourth Citizen
Instead of blackmail, certain others steal.
Where, Coriolanus, are the spoils
Of Corioli?
Menenius
Be still!
Coriolanus
That’s dual sovereignty, where one part
Despises with good ground and the other part
Flings groundless insults, where greatness, power and wisdom
Can’t move a step without the yes or no
Of the unreasoning mob.
Citizens
It’s us he means.
Brutus
He’s said enough.
Sicinius
He’s spoken as a traitor.
He’ll answer for it as a traitor should.
You dogs, you crippled sons of turmoil
Because you were confirmed in time of turmoil
When not what’s right, but only what cannot
Be helped becomes the law. But now that Rome
No longer has the Volscians at its throat—
And thanks to me—Rome will know how to laugh
And wash away this scurf.
Brutus
Manifest treason!
Sicinius
This a consul? Never!
Brutus
The aediles, ho!—Arrest this man.
Sicinius
Summon the people. In their name
I apprehend you as an innovator
Rebel and enemy of the state.
(Brutus goes out)
Coriolanus
Go away, old goat!
Menenius
Hands off, old man!
(Coriolanus takes Cominius’ shortsword)
Coriolanus
Or else I’ll shake your bones
Out of your clothes.
Citizens
Careful, Sicinius!—Watch out for his sword!
Coriolanus
A plot, I knew it, to end
The rule of the patricians.
Sicinius
This way!
(Brutus re-enters with Aediles and Citizens)
Brutus
He’s drawn the shortsword now!
Cominius
Stand back!
Here stands the victor of Corioli.
Senator
Put that sword away.
Sicinius
Here stands a usurper of the people’s sovereignty.
Menenius
On both sides more respect.
Brutus
Seize him, aediles!
Citizens Down with him.—Down with the grain robber!—Weapons, weapons!
(The Patricians crowd around Coriolanus)
Patricians
You’ll take him over our dead bodies!—
Lead him away!—Menenius
You speak to them!—Away!
Menenius
I can’t.
Tribunes, speak to the people.
Coriolanus, quiet! Speak, friend Sicinius!
Sicinius
Hear me, citizens! Quiet!
Citizens
Hear the tribune!
Sicinius
The man you see before you has outraged the tribunes.
Menenius
That’s stirring up the fire, not putting it out.
First Senator
That’s making war on Rome!
Brutus
Who’s Rome? You or
Its people?
Sicinius
For laying hands on a tribune, the penalty
Is death. Take him away. Take him to
The Tarpeian Rock.
Brutus
Aediles, go seize him.
Citizens
Surrender, Marcius.
Menenius
Patricians! Here! Defend our Marcius!
Citizens
Down with him—To the Rock!
First Senator
The man’s his own worst enemy!
Quick! Let’s be going! Hold him up! Oh, why
The devil couldn’t he speak gently!
(The Patricians push the bewildered Coriolanus out. The Citizens follow)
Brutus
Seize the viper
Who’s ready to depopulate a city
To be its one and all.
Act Three
1
Rome. Coriolanus’ house.
Volumnia, Coriolanus and a few friends.
Coriolanus
Only one thing surprises me, that my mother
Is not more pleased with me. She used to call
Them churlish vassals, creatures made
To sell themselves for pennies, and to stand
Bareheaded in assemblies, yawning and
Scratching their heads in puzzlement when one
Of my rank stood up and spoke for peace or war.
Why would you wish me milder? Would you want me
To make a dovecote of my heart? I play
The man I am, and that’s the end of it.
Volumnia
Son, son. I only wish
You’d taken time to put your power on
Before you wore it out.
Coriolanus
Forget it.
Volumnia
You could have been the man you are more fully
If you had shown it less. When once you hold
The power, they’ll no longer have
The power to defy you.
Coriolanus
Hang ’em!
Volumnia
Yes,
And burn them too.
(Enter Menenius and Senators)
Menenius
Come, come, you have been too rough, a bit too rough.
Come back with me and make amends.
Senator
It can’t be helped.
Our city, if you don’t, will break in two
And perish.
Volumnia
Son, my heart is no more faint
Than yours; my brain, however, tells
Me when it’s time for anger and when not.
Take my advice.
Menenius
That’s it. A little time
Will turn the trick. If not, I’d put
My armor on that I can scarcely carry
Sooner than see you grovel to the mob.
Coriolanus
What must I do?
Menenius
Return to the tribunes.
Coriolanus
Very well. But what then? What then?
Menenius
Repent of what you said.
Coriolanus
To them? To the gods I cannot.
Volumnia
You’re too unbending. I have heard you say
That guile and honor are compatible
In war. Why not in peace?
Coriolanus
Be still.
Menenius
Well questioned.
Volumnia
If in your wars it brings you honor to seem
What you are not—and that you’ve always done
When great ends could be won by it—then why
Should that same policy dishonor you
In peace?
Coriolanus
Why do you press me so?