Bad news has come in from the mountains.
Sicinius
That slave again! A provocation! Whip him!
Messenger
No, sir. He told the truth. Except it’s worse.
Sicinius
What’s worse?
Messenger
I don’t know if it’s true, but all
Reports concur in saying that Marcius
Joined with Aufidius is leading
An army against Rome, and swears to take
Such vengeance on the city that neither young
Nor old …
Sicinius
A likely story!
Brutus
Trumped up to make
Our weaker sisters wish for Marcius’
Return.
Sicinius
No doubt about it.
Menenius
Most unlikely:
He and Aufidius! That’s mixing oil and water.
(Enter another Messenger)
Second Messenger
They want you in the senate, sir.
A fearful army led by Caius Marcius
In league with Aufidius is driving on Rome.
Corioli’s in flames and fallen to
The enemy.
(Enter Cominius)
Cominius
Good work you’ve done!
Menenius
What news? What news?
Cominius
You’ve helped to ravish your own daughters
And melt the leaden roofs on your own heads.
Menenius
What news?
Cominius
And burn your temples down to their foundations.
Now you can take your precious bill of rights
And stuff it in a mouse hole.
Menenius
In the gods’ name, what news?
If Marcius should indeed have joined the Volscians …
Cominius
If? Why, he’s their god. He leads them like a thing
Made by some other deity than nature
That turns out better men. They follow him
With no less confidence than boys pursuing
Summer butterflies or butchers killing flies.
Menenius
Good work you’ve done! You and your apron men
And garlic eaters, with the mighty voice
Of the Roman working class!
Cominius
He’ll shake your Rome
About your ears.
Brutus
But is this true, sir?
Cominius
Yes! “Is this true, sir?” All the cities
Laugh and rebel against us. Those who choose
Not to rebel are mocked for their brave innocence
And die like fools.
Menenius
We’re lost unless the great man
Takes mercy on us.
Cominius
But who will plead with him?
The tribunes of the people can’t; the people
Deserve his pity as the wolf deserves
The pity of the shepherd. As for his friends
If they should come and say “Be kind to Rome”
They’d merely prove themselves his enemies.
Menenius
That’s true. If he were here now with a torch
To set my house on fire, I wouldn’t have
The gall to say: “Please don’t.” This thing will cost you
Your cowhide aprons and your hides as well.
Cominius
We love him, but like stupid cattle we
Betrayed him to you and your salt of the earth.
And when he comes, he’ll meet not armed resistance
But a despairing mob.
(Enter a group of Citizens)
Menenius
Here comes the salt.
You threw your greasy caps into the air
To drive him from your city. Now he’s coming.
He’ll take himself as many heads as you
Threw caps. But all of us are in for it.
If he could burn us all to cinders
I’d say we had it coming. Shall we go to the Capitol?
Cominius
What else is there to do?
(Cominius and Menenius go out)
Citizens
They say he’s burning every foot of ground
He steps on.
Sicinius
Don’t be discouraged. There are dogs in Rome
Who’d gladly see confirmed what they pretend
To fear. Now go, my friends, I didn’t say
Run. Go back to your districts
And show you’re not afraid.
Second Citizen
I’d rather have
A sword to show than courage. Was it wise
To banish him?
Sicinius
Yes.
(The Citizens go out slowly)
To the Capitol!
4
Camp near Rome.
Aufidius and a Captain.
Aufidius
Are they still flocking to the Roman?
Captain
I can’t make out what witchcraft he has in him.
But to your soldiers he is grace before meat
Their talk at table and their thanks before rising.
You are overshadowed in this action, sir
In your own army.
Aufidius
I can’t help that now.
If I should try to, it would halt the whole
Campaign before it’s fairly started.
Captain
Sir
I wish you had not shared the high command
With him, but taken it yourself, or else
Left it to him entirely.
Aufidius
I understand you well. But rest assured
When the time comes to settle up accounts
He doesn’t know what I can urge against him
Although it seems, and so he thinks, and so
Do people generally think, that he is
Loyal in all his actions. Still, there’s
Something he will not do, and if it’s left
Undone, it will break my neck, and that in turn
Will break his neck.
Captain
Do you think he will take Rome, sir?
Aufidius
Cities surrender to him before he even
Lays siege to them. The Roman nobles
Are for him. The tribunes are
No soldiers. He has spread the word in Rome
That to prevent unprofitable slaughter
A smoke cloud sent up from the Capitol
Should signal unconditional surrender.
Smug as the ocean whale he calmly waits
Into his jaws, but one thing he forgets:
Once he has Rome, I will have him.
For anything he does then will be wrong
Because he does it. If he’s hard on the nobles
He’s done for—the Volscian nobles will object.
And if he’s easy on the nobles, he’s done for—
Then too the Volscian nobles will object.
This man was fortune’s child and yet unable
To use his fortune. He could not exchange
The saddle for the seat of government
Or war for peace. His deeds are great
But he dwarfs them by extolling them. Our merit
Depends upon the use our epoch makes of us.
Our power has no tomb so everlasting
As the speaker’s platform on which it is praised.
The storm puts out the fire it has fanned
Nail drives out nail and power by power’s unmanned.
Act Five
1
Rome. The Forum.
Menenius, Cominius, and other Senators. Sicinius and Brutus.
Cominius
He didn�
�t seem to know me.
Menenius
His
Former commander!
Cominius
Coriolanus, I said.
He forbade that name and every other, shouted
He was a king of nothing, titleless
Until he forged himself a new name in
The fire of burning Rome.
Sicinius
Or fails to.
Menenius
Will he be prevented by a pair of tribunes
Expert at bringing down the price of corn cakes?
Brutus
Whereas you are expert
At bringing down the price of Rome. Send up
Smoke from the Capitol, let your crony know
He’s welcome. Fall upon your knees before
His tent. No, do it a mile away
And on your knees crawl into his good graces.
Make up your minds! Who wants to see the smoke?
(Pause)
Good. No one. Then distribute arms, or else
Those who reject the little smoke
Will see a big smoke from the blaze of Rome.
(Pause)
(Sicinius and Brutus go out)
Cominius
I pointed out
That mercy is more worthy of a king
The less it is expected. To which he
Replied that coming from a city which
Had banished him, my plea was rather tawdry.
Menenius
Indeed.
Cominius
I spoke of consideration for his friends.
He said he hadn’t time to pick them out
From a pile of noisome musty chaff. He said
It was foolish for one poor grain or two
To leave the heap unburned to go on stinking.
Menenius
For one poor grain or two? I’m one of those.
His mother, wife and child, and this brave man
We are the grains.—They are the musty chaff
That stinks above the moon. And we must burn
On their account. All right, I’ll go to him.
You tackled him too early in the morning
He hadn’t had his breakfast. That, perhaps
Is why you found him in so sour a mood.
I’ll wait till he has eaten.
(Menenius goes out)
Cominius
He’ll never gain a hearing.
The Volscian camp near Rome.
Sentries. Enter to them, Menenius.
First Sentry
Halt! Where are you from?
Second Sentry
Go back! Go back!
Menenius
I am a messenger of state. I come
To speak with Coriolanus.
First Sentry
You’re a Roman?
Menenius
Yes.
First Sentry
You can’t go through. Turn back. Our general
Wants no more truck with Rome.
Second Sentry
You’ll see
Rome burning long before you speak to him.
Menenius
Men, if you’ve heard your general speak of Rome
Or of his friends there, I’ll lay ten to one
He mentioned my name too—Menenius.
First Sentry
We’re glad to hear it, but you can’t go through.
Menenius
The general’s my friend, I tell you.
First Sentry
Then
Friend of my general, go back!
Menenius But my dear fellow, haven’t I told you my name is Menenius, a member of your general’s party from way back.
—Has he had his breakfast? Do you know that? I don’t intend to speak to him before he’s had his breakfast.
First Sentry You’re a Roman, aren’t you?
Menenius I’m what your general is.
First Sentry Then you should hate Rome as he does. Let me tell you something. You’ve driven the man out of your city, the same man who defended it for you. You’ve thrown your shield to the enemy. Do you think you can stop what’s coming now with old women’s sighs, with a few virgins wringing their hands, or with the gouty kneeling of a doddering old fool like yourself? Do you, with your weak breath, expect to blow out the fire intended for Rome? Don’t make me laugh.
Go back to Rome and wait for your execution!
Menenius Sir, if your general knew …
(Enter Coriolanus and Aufidius)
Coriolanus What’s going on?
Menenius Now, fellow, you’ve got yourself in a fix. Judge by his manner of speaking to me whether or not you’re ripe for the gallows.—My son, you are preparing a fire for us. Here’s the water to quench it.
(Coriolanus looks to see if smoke is going up)
Menenius I was not easily moved to come here. They know that I alone can move you. Sighs, my son, blew me out of the city gate. And now I beseech you, let Rome live! Turn back, my son!
Coriolanus Go away!
Menenius What’s this? Go away?
Coriolanus
I don’t know you or any other Roman.
What I do now serves others. Moreover
I am entitled to revenge. The power to pardon
Is with the Volscians. Let it rather be
Consigned to forgetfulness that we were friends
Than sorrowfully recalled how much so. Go.
My ears are better fortified against
Your pleas than are your gates against my troops.
And yet, because I loved you, take this letter
I’ve written you. I would have sent it.
And now, Menenius, not another word.
This man, Aufidius, was dear to me in Rome
And yet you see …
Aufidius
You have stood firm.
(Coriolanus and Aufidius go out)
First Sentry Well, sir, so your name is Menenius.
Second Sentry It does wonders, doesn’t it? You know the way home.
First Sentry Did you hear how we were raked over the coals for not admitting a messenger of state?
3
Rome. One of the gates.
Cominius and Senators are waiting for Menenius. He enters.
Menenius I told you there’s no hope. Our throats are sentenced and waiting for the executioner.
Senator Is it possible that a man can change so in so short a time?
Menenius This Marcius has changed from man to dragon. His face turns ripe grapes sour. He moves like a war machine and the ground shrinks under his tread. I’m painting him from life.
(Sicinius and Brutus have entered. With them Citizens)
Cominius The gods take pity on our poor city!
Menenius No, this time the gods will not take pity on us. When we banished him, we disregarded them, and now that he’s coming back, they will disregard us. (To Brutus) And it’s you we have to thank for all this.
(He goes out with the Senators except for Cominius)
Brutus They’ve gone to pack. They prefer to die on their estates. (To the Citizens) It’s just as we told you. The city fathers are leaving Rome to its fate. How do things stand in your districts?
A Citizen The majority have reported for military duty. The ones who were still waiting to see if Menenius would get anywhere with Coriolanus will report now.
Brutus Good. If the people who live off Rome won’t defend it, then we, whom Rome has lived off up to now, will defend it. Why shouldn’t masons defend their walls?