CORIOLANUS

CORIOLANUS FOR Coriolanus, Shakespeare turned once more to Roman history as told by Plutarch and translated by Sir Thomas North in the Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans published in 1579. This time he dramatized early events, not much subsequent to those he had written about many years previously in The Rape of Lucrece. Plutarch gave him most of his material, but he also drew on other writings, including William Camden’s Remains of a Greater Work Concerning Britain, published in 1605, for Menenius’ fable of the belly (I.I) Though he needed no source other than Plutarch for the insurrections and corn riots of ancient Rome, similar happenings in England during 1607 and 1608 may have stimulated his interest in the story. The cumulative evidence suggests that Coriolanus, first printed in the 1623 Folio, is Shakespeare’s last Roman play, written around 1608. In the fifth century BC, following the expulsion of the Tarquins, Rome was an aristocratically controlled republic in which power was invested primarily in two annually elected magistrates, or consuls. For many years the main issues confronting the republic were the internal class struggle between patricians and plebeians, and the external struggle for domination over neighbouring peoples. Among the republic’s early enemies were the Volsci (or Volscians), who inhabited an area to the south and south-east of Rome; their towns included Antium and Corioli. According to ancient historians, Rome’s greatest leader in campaigns against the Volsci was the patrician Gnaeus (or Caius) Marcius, who, at a time of famine which caused the plebeians to rebel against the patricians, led an army against the Volsci and captured Corioli; as a reward he was granted the cognomen, or surname, of Coriolanus. After this he is said to have been charged with behaving tyrannically in opposing the distribution of corn to starving plebeians, and as a result to have abandoned Rome, joined the Volsci, and led a Volscian army against his native city. This is the story of conflict between public and private issues that Shakespeare dramatizes, concentrating on the later part of Plutarch’s Life and speeding up its time-scheme, while also alluding retrospectively to earlier incidents. He increases the responsibility of the Tribunes, Sicinius Velutus and Junius Brutus, for Coriolanus’ banishment, and greatly develops certain characters, such as the Volscian leader Tullus Aufidius and the patrician Menenius Agrippa. The roles of the womenfolk are almost entirely of Shakespeare’s devising up to the scene (5.3) of their embassy; here, as in certain other set speeches, Shakespeare draws heavily on the language of North’s translation. Coriolanus is an austere play, gritty in style, deeply serious in its concern with the relationship between personal characteristics and national destiny, but relieved by flashes of comedy (especially in the scenes in which Coriolanus begs for the plebeians’ votes in his election campaign for the consulship) which are more apparent on the stage than on the page. Though Coriolanus is arrogant, choleric, and self-centered, he is also a blazingly successful warrior, conspicuous for integrity, who ultimately yields to a tenderness which, he knows, will destroy him. Coriolanus is a deeply human as well as a profoundly political play. THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY VOLUMNIA, Coriolanus’ mother VIRGILIA, his wife YOUNG MARTIUS, his son VALERIA, a chaste lady of Rome CITIZENS of Rome SOLDIERS in the Roman army Tullus AUFIDIUS, general of the Volscian army His LIEUTENANT His SERVINGMEN CONSPIRATORS with Aufidius Volscian LORDS Volscian CITIZENS SOLDIERS in the Volscian army ADRIAN, a Volscian NICANOR, a Roman A Roman HERALD MESSENGERS AEDILES A gentlewoman, an usher, Roman and Volscian senators and nobles, captains in the Roman army, officers, lictors

The Tragedy of Coriolanus

Atto 1, Scena 1

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter a company of mutinous Citizens with staves, clubs, and other weapons
FIRST CITIZEN	Before we proceed any further, hear me speak.
ALL	Speak, speak.
FIRST CITIZEN	You are all resolved rather to die than to famish? ALL Resolved, resolved.
FIRST CITIZEN	First, you know Caius Martius is chief enemy to the people.
ALL	We know’t, we know’t.
FIRST CITIZEN	Let us kill him, and we’ll have corn at our own price. Is’t a verdict?
ALL	No more talking on’t, let it be done. Away, away. SECOND CITIZEN One word, good citizens.
FIRST CITIZEN	We are accounted poor citizens, the patricians good. What authority surfeits on would relieve us. If they would yield us but the superfluity while it were wholesome we might guess they relieved us humanely, but they think we are too dear. The leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an inventory to particularize their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this with our pikes ere we become rakes; for the gods know I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge.
SECOND CITIZEN	Would you proceed especially against Caius Martius?
(didascalia)	THIRD CITIZEN Against him first.
(didascalia)	FOURTH CITIZEN He’s a very dog to the commonalty.
SECOND CITIZEN	Consider you what services he has done for his country?
FIRST CITIZEN	Very well, and could be content to give him good report for’t, but that he pays himself with being proud.
(didascalia)	FIFTH CITIZEN Nay, but speak not maliciously.
FIRST CITIZEN	I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end—though soft-conscienced men can be content to say ‘it was for his country’, ‘he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud’—which he is even to the altitude of his virtue.
SECOND CITIZEN	What he cannot help in his nature you account a vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous.
FIRST CITIZEN	If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations. He hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition.
(didascalia)	Shouts within
FIRST CITIZEN	What shouts are these? The other side o’th’ city is risen. Why stay we prating here? To th’ Capitol!
ALL	Come, come.
(didascalia)	Enter Menenius
FIRST CITIZEN	Soft, who comes here?
SECOND CITIZEN	Worthy Menenius Agrippa, one that hath always loved the people.
FIRST CITIZEN	He’s one honest enough. Would all the rest were so!
MENENIUS	What work’s, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you With bats and clubs? The matter. Speak, I pray you.
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN Our business is not unknown to th’ senate. They have had inkling this fortnight what we intend to do, which now we’ll show ’em in deeds. They say poor suitors have strong breaths; they shall know we have strong arms, too.
MENENIUS	Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours, Will you undo yourselves?
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN
MENENIUS	We cannot, sir. We are undone already.
MENENIUS	I tell you, friends, most charitable care Have the patricians of you. For your wants, Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them Against the Roman state, whose course will on The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs Of more strong link asunder than can ever Appear in your impediment. For the dearth, The gods, not the patricians, make it, and Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack, You are transported by calamity Thither where more attends you, and you slander The helms o’th’ state, who care for you like fathers, When you curse them as enemies.
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN Care for us? True, indeed! They ne’er cared for us yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury to support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich; and provide more piercing statutes daily to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there’s all the love they bear us.
MENENIUS	Either you must Confess yourselves wondrous malicious Or be accused of folly. I shall tell you A pretty tale. It may be you have heard it, But since it serves my purpose, I will venture To stale’t a little more.
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN Well, I’ll hear it, sir. Yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale. But an’t please you, deliver.
MENENIUS	There was a time when all the body’s members, Rebelled against the belly, thus accused it: That only like a gulf it did remain I‘th’ midst o’th’ body, idle and unactive, Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing Like labour with the rest; where th’other instruments Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, And, mutually participate, did minister Unto the appetite and affection common Of the whole body. The belly answered—
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN
MENENIUS	Well, sir, what answer made the belly?
MENENIUS	Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile, Which ne’er came from the lungs, but even thus— For look you, I may make the belly smile As well as speak—it tauntingly replied To th’ discontented members, the mutinous parts That envied his receipt; even so most fitly As you malign our senators for that They are not such as you.
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN Your belly’s answer—what?
MENENIUS	The kingly crowned head, the vigilant eye, The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier, Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter, With other muniments and petty helps In this our fabric, if that they—
MENENIUS	What then? Fore me, this fellow speaks! What then? What then?
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN
MENENIUS	Should by the cormorant belly be restrained, Who is the sink o’th’ body—
MENENIUS	Well, what then?
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN
MENENIUS	The former agents, if they did complain, What could the belly answer?
MENENIUS	I will tell you, If you’ll bestow a small of what you have tittle— Patience—a while, you’st hear the belly’s answer.
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN
MENENIUS	You’re long about it.
MENENIUS	Note me this, good friend: Your most grave belly was deliberate, Not rash like his accusers, and thus answered: ‘True is it, my incorporate friends,’ quoth he, ‘That I receive the general food at first Which you do live upon, and fit it is, Because I am the storehouse and the shop Of the whole body. But, if you do remember, I send it through the rivers of your blood Even to the court, the heart, to th’ seat o’th’ brain; And through the cranks and offices of man The strongest nerves and small inferior veins From me receive that natural competency Whereby they live. And though that all at once’— You my good friends, this says the belly, mark me—
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN
MENENIUS	Ay, sir, well, well.
MENENIUS	’Though all at once cannot See what I do deliver out to each, Yet I can make my audit up that all From me do back receive the flour of all And leave me but the bran.’ What say you to’t?
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN
MENENIUS	It was an answer. How apply you this?
MENENIUS	The senators of Rome are this good belly, And you the mutinous members. For examine Their counsels and their cares, digest things rightly Touching the weal o’th’ common, you shall find No public benefit which you receive But it proceeds or comes from them to you, And no way from yourselves. What do you think, You, the great toe of this assembly?
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN
MENENIUS	I the great toe? Why the great toe?
MENENIUS	For that, being one o‘th’ lowest, basest, poorest Of this most wise rebellion, thou goest foremost. Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run, Lead’st first to win some vantage. But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs. Rome and her rats are at the point of battle. The one side must have bale.
(didascalia)	Enter Martius
MENENIUS	Hail, noble Martius!
MARTIUS	Thanks.—What’s the matter, you dissentious rogues, That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, Make yourselves scabs?
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN
MARTIUS	We have ever your good word.
MARTIUS	He that will give good words to thee will flatter Beneath abhorring. What would you have, you curs That like nor peace nor war? The one affrights you, The other makes you proud. He that trusts to you, Where he should find you lions finds you hares, Where foxes, geese. You are no surer, no, Than is the coal of fire upon the ice, Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is To make him worthy whose offence subdues him, And curse that justice did it. Who deserves greatness Deserves your hate, and your affections are A sick man’s appetite, who desires most that Which would increase his evil. He that depends Upon your favours swims with fins of lead, And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye? With every minute you do change a mind, And call him noble that was now your hate, Him vile that was your garland. What’s the matter, That in these several places of the city You cry against the noble senate, who, Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else Would feed on one another? (To Menenius) What’s their seeking?
MENENIUS	For corn at their own rates, whereof they say The city is well stored.
MARTIUS	Hang ’em! They say? They’ll sit by th’ fire and presume to know What’s done i’th’ Capitol, who’s like to rise, Who thrives and who declines; side factions and give out Conjectural marriages, making parties strong And feebling such as stand not in their liking Below their cobbled shoes. They say there’s grain enough! Would the nobility lay aside their ruth And let me use my sword, I’d make a quarry With thousands of these quartered slaves as high As I could pitch my lance.
MENENIUS	Nay, these are all most thoroughly persuaded, For though abundantly they lack discretion, Yet are they passing cowardly. But I beseech you, What says the other troop?
MARTIUS	They are dissolved. Hang ’em. They said they were an-hungry, sighed forth proverbs— That hunger broke stone walls, that dogs must eat, That meat was made for mouths, that the gods sent not Corn for the rich men only. With these shreds They vented their complainings, which being answered, And a petition granted them—a strange one, To break the heart of generosity And make bold power look pale—they threw their caps As they would hang them on the horns o’th’ moon, Shouting their emulation.
MENENIUS	What is granted them?
MARTIUS	Five tribunes to defend their vulgar wisdoms, Of their own choice. One’s Junius Brutus, Sicinius Velutus, and I know not. ’Sdeath, The rabble should have first unroofed the city Ere so prevailed with me! It will in time Win upon power and throw forth greater themes For insurrection’s arguing.
MENENIUS	This is strange.
MARTIUS	(to the Citizens) Go get you home, you fragments.
(didascalia)	Enter a Messenger hastily
MESSENGER	Where’s Caius Martius?
MARTIUS	Here. What’s the matter?
MESSENGER	The news is, sir, the Volsces are in arms.
MARTIUS	I am glad on’t. Then we shall ha’ means to vent Our musty superfluity.
(didascalia)	Enter Sicinius, Brutus, Cominius, Lartius, with other Senators
MARTIUS	See, our best elders.
FIRST SENATOR	Martius, ’tis true that you have lately told us. The Volsces are in arms.
MARTIUS	They have a leader, Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to’t. I sin in envying his nobility, And were I anything but what I am, I would wish me only he.
COMINIUS	You have fought together!
MARTIUS	Were half to half the world by th’ ears and he Upon my party, I’d revolt to make Only my wars with him. He is a lion That I am proud to hunt.
FIRST SENATOR	Then, worthy Martius, Attend upon Cominius to these wars.
COMINIUS	(to Martius) It is your former promise.
MARTIUS	Sir, it is, And I am constant. Titus Lartius, thou Shalt see me once more strike at Tullus’ face. What, art thou stiff? Stand’st out?
LARTIUS	No, Caius Martius. I’ll lean upon one crutch and fight with th’other Ere stay behind this business.
MENENIUS	O true bred!
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR
MENENIUS	Your company to th’ Capitol, where I know Our greatest friends attend us.
LARTIUS	(to Cominius) Lead you on. (To Martius) Follow Cominius. We must follow you, Right worthy your priority.
COMINIUS	Noble Martius.
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR (to the Citizens)
COMINIUS	Hence to your homes, be gone.
MARTIUS	Nay, let them follow. The Volsces have much corn. Take these rats thither To gnaw their garners. Citizens steal away Worshipful mutineers, Your valour puts well forth. (To the Senators) Pray follow.
(didascalia)	Exeunt all but Sicinius and Brutus
SICINIUS	Was ever man so proud as is this Martius?
BRUTUS	He has no equal.
SICINIUS	When we were chosen tribunes for the people—
BRUTUS	Marked you his lip and eyes?
SICINIUS	Nay, but his taunts.
BRUTUS	Being moved, he will not spare to gird the gods.
SICINIUS	Bemock the modest moon.
BRUTES	The present wars devour him! He is grown Too proud to be so valiant.
SICINIUS	Such a nature, Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow Which he treads on at noon. But I do wonder His insolence can brook to be commanded Under Cominius.
BRUTUS	Fame, at the which he aims— In whom already he’s well graced—cannot Better be held nor more attained than by A place below the first; for what miscarries Shall be the general’s fault, though he perform To th’ utmost of a man, and giddy censure Will then cry out of Martius ‘O, if he Had borne the business!’
SICINIUS	Besides, if things go well, Opinion, that so sticks on Martius, shall Of his demerits rob Cominius.
BRUTUS	Come, Half all Cominius’ honours are to Martius, Though Martius earned them not; and all his faults To Martius shall be honours, though indeed In aught he merit not.
SICINIUS	Let’s hence and hear How the dispatch is made, and in what fashion, More than his singularity, he goes Upon this present action.
BRUTUS	Let’s along. Exeunt 1.2 Enter Aufidius, with Senators of Corioles
FIRST SENATOR	So, your opinion is, Aufidius, That they of Rome are entered in our counsels And know how we proceed.
AUFIDIUS	Is it not yours? What ever have been thought on in this state That could be brought to bodily act ere Rome Had circumvention? ’Tis not four days gone Since I heard thence. These are the words. I think I have the letter here—yes, here it is.
(didascalia)	He
AUFIDIUS	reads the
(didascalia)	letter
AUFIDIUS	‘They have pressed a power, but it is not known Whether for east or west. The dearth is great, The people mutinous, and it is rumoured Cominius, Martius your old enemy, Who is of Rome worse hated than of you, And Titus Lartius, a most valiant Roman, These three lead on this preparation Whither ’tis bent. Most likely ‘tis for you. Consider of it.’
FIRST SENATOR	Our army’s in the field. We never yet made doubt but Rome was ready To answer us.
AUFIDIUS	Nor did you think it folly To keep your great pretences veiled till when They needs must show themselves, which in the hatching, It seemed, appeared to Rome. By the discovery We shall be shortened in our aim, which was To take in many towns ere, almost, Rome Should know we were afoot.
SECOND SENATOR	Noble Aufidius, Take your commission, hie you to your bands. Let us alone to guard Corioles. If they set down before’s, for the remove Bring up your army, but I think you’ll find They’ve not prepared for us.
AUFIDIUS	O, doubt not that. I speak from certainties. Nay, more, Some parcels of their power are forth already, And only hitherward. I leave your honours. If we and Caius Martius chance to meet, ’Tis sworn between us we shall ever strike Till one can do no more.
ALL THE SENATORS	The gods assist you!
AUFIDIUS	And keep your honours safe.
FIRST SENATOR	Farewell.
SECOND SENATOR	Farewell.
ALL	Farewell.
(didascalia)	Exeunt, Aufidius at one door,
(didascalia)	Senators at another door

Atto 1, Scena 3

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Volumnia and Virgilia, mother and wife to Martius. They set them down on two low stools and sew
VOLUMNIA	I pray you, daughter, sing, or express yourself in a more comfortable sort. If my son were my husband, I should freelier rejoice in that absence wherein he won honour than in the embracements of his bed where he would show most love. When yet he was but tender-bodied and the only son of my womb, when youth with comeliness plucked all gaze his way, when for a day of kings’ entreaties a mother should not sell him an hour from her beholding, I, considering how honour would become such a person—that it was no better than, picture-like, to hang by th’ wall if renown made it not stir—was pleased to let him seek danger where he was like to find fame. To a cruel war I sent him, from whence he returned his brows bound with oak. I tell thee, daughter, I sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child than now in first seeing he had proved himself a man.
VIRGILIA	But had he died in the business, madam, how then?
VOLUMNIA	Then his good report should have been my son. I therein would have found issue. Hear me profess sincerely: had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike, and none less dear than thine and my good Martius’, I had rather had eleven die nobly for their country than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.
(didascalia)	Enter a Gentlewoman
GENTLEWOMAN	Madam, the Lady Valeria is come to visit you.
VIRGILIA	(to Volumnia) Beseech you give me leave to retire myself.
VOLUMNIA	Indeed you shall not. Methinks I hear hither your husband’s drum, See him pluck Aufidius down by th’ hair; As children from a bear, the Volsces shunning him. Methinks I see him stamp thus, and call thus: ‘Come on, you cowards, you were got in fear Though you were born in Rome!’ His bloody brow With his mailed hand then wiping, forth he goes, Like to a harvest-man that’s tasked to mow Or all or lose his hire.
VIRGILIA	His bloody brow? O Jupiter, no blood!
VOLUMNIA	Away, you fool! It more becomes a man Than gilt his trophy. The breasts of Hecuba When she did suckle Hector looked not lovelier Than Hector’s forehead when it spit forth blood At Grecian sword, contemning. (To the Gentlewoman) Tell Valeria We are fit to bid her welcome. Exit Gentlewoman
VIRGILIA	Heavens bless my lord from fell Aufidius!
VOLUMNIA	He’ll beat Aufidius’ head below his knee And tread upon his neck.
(didascalia)	Enter Valeria, with an usher and the Gentlewoman
VALERIA	My ladies both, good day to you.
VOLUMNIA	Sweet madam.
VIRGILIA	I am glad to see your ladyship.
VALERIA	How do you both? You are manifest housekeepers. What are you sewing here? A fine spot, in good faith. How does your little son?
VIRGILIA	I thank your ladyship; well, good madam.
VOLUMNIA	He had rather see the swords and hear a drum than look upon his schoolmaster.
VALERIA O’	my word, the father’s son! I’ll swear ‘tis a very pretty boy. O’ my troth, I looked upon him o’ Wednesday half an hour together. He’s such a confirmed countenance! I saw him run after a gilded butterfly, and when he caught it he let it go again, and after it again, and over and over he comes, and up again, catched it again. Or whether his fall enraged him, or how ’twas, he did so set his teeth and tear it! O, I warrant, how he mammocked it!
VOLUMNIA	One on’s father’s moods.
VALERIA	Indeed, la, ’tis a noble child.
VIRGILIA	A crack, madam.
VALERIA	Come, lay aside your stitchery. I must have you play the idle housewife with me this afternoon.
VIRGILIA	No, good madam, I will not out of doors.
VALERIA	Not out of doors?
VOLUMNIA	She shall, she shall.
VIRGILIA	Indeed, no, by your patience. I’ll not over the threshold till my lord return from the wars.
VALERIA	Fie, you confine yourself most unreasonably. Come, you must go visit the good lady that lies in.
VIRGILIA	I will wish her speedy strength, and visit her with my prayers, but I cannot go thither.
VOLUMNIA	Why, I pray you?
VIRGILIA	’Tis not to save labour, nor that I want love.
VALERIA	You would be another Penelope. Yet they say all the yarn she spun in Ulysses’ absence did but fill Ithaca full of moths. Come, I would your cambric were sensible as your finger, that you might leave pricking it for pity. Come, you shall go with us.
VIRGILIA	No, good madam, pardon me, indeed I will not forth.
VALERIA	In truth, la, go with me, and I’ll tell you excellent news of your husband.
VIRGILIA	O, good madam, there can be none yet.
VALERIA	Verily, I do not jest with you: there came news from him last night.
VIRGILIA	Indeed, madam?
VALERIA	In earnest, it’s true. I heard a senator speak it. Thus it is: the Volsces have an army forth, against whom Cominius the general is gone with one part of our Roman power. Your lord and Titus Lartius are set down before their city Corioles. They nothing doubt prevailing, and to make it brief wars. This is true, on mine honour; and so, I pray, go with us.
VIRGILIA	Give me excuse, good madam, I will obey you in everything hereafter.
VOLUMNIA	(to Valeria) Let her alone, lady. As she is now she will but disease our better mirth.
VALERIA	In truth, I think she would. Fare you well, then. Come, good sweet lady. Prithee, Virgilia, turn thy solemness out o’ door and go along with us.
VIRGILIA	No, at a word, madam. Indeed, I must not. I wish you much mirth.
VALERIA	Well then, farewell.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Valeri, Volumnia, and usher at one door, Virgilia and Gentlewoman at another door

Atto 1, Scena 4

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Martius, Lartius with a drummer, a trumpeter, and colours, with captains and Soldiers carrying scaling ladders, as before the city Corioles; to them a Messenger
MARTIUS	Yonder comes news. A wager they have met.
LARTIUS	My horse to yours, no.
MARTIUS	’Tis done.
LARTIUS	Agreed.
MARTIUS	(to the Messenger) Say, has our general met the enemy?
MESSENGER	They lie in view, but have not spoke as yet.
LARTIUS	So, the good horse is mine.
MARTIUS	I’ll buy him of you.
LARTIUS	No, I’ll nor sell nor give him. Lend you him I will, For half a hundred years. (To the trumpeter) Summon the town.
MARTIUS	(to the Messenger) How far off lie these armies?
MESSENGER	Within this mile and half.
MARTIUS	Then shall we hear their ’larum, and they ours. Now Mars, I prithee, make us quick in work, That we with smoking swords may march from hence To help our fielded friends. (To the trumpeter) Come, blow thy blast. They sound a parley. Enter two Senators, with others, on the walls of Corioles (To the Senators) Tullus Aufidius, is he within your walls?
FIRST SENATOR	No, nor a man that fears you less than he: That’s lesser than a little.
(didascalia)	Drum afar off
(didascalia)	To the Volscians Hark, our drums
FIRST SENATOR	Are bringing forth our youth. We’ll break our walls Rather than they shall pound us up. Our gates, Which yet seem shut, we have but pinned with rushes. They’ll open of themselves.
(didascalia)	Alarum far off
FIRST SENATOR	(To the Romans) Hark you, far off There is Aufidius. List what work he makes Amongst your cloven army.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Volscians from the walls
MARTIUS	O, they are at it!
LARTIUS	Their noise be our instruction. Ladders, ho!
(didascalia)	They prepare to assault the walls.
(didascalia)	Enter the army of the Volsces from the gates
MARTIUS	They fear us not, but issue forth their city. Now put your shields before your hearts, and fight With hearts more proof than shields. Advance, brave Titus. They do disdain us much beyond our thoughts, Which makes me sweat with wrath. Come on, my fellows. He that retires, I’ll take him for a Volsce, And he shall feel mine edge.
(didascalia)	Alarum. The Romans are beat back and exeunt to their trenches, the Volsces following

Atto 1, Scena 5

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Roman Soldiers, in retreat, followed by Martius, cursing
MARTIUS	All the contagion of the south light on you, You shames of Rome! You herd of—boils and plagues Plaster you o’er, that you may be abhorred Farther than seen, and one infect another Against the wind a mile! You souls of geese That bear the shapes of men, how have you run From slaves that apes would beat! Pluto and hell: All hurt behind! Backs red, and faces pale With flight and agued fear! Mend and charge home, Or by the fires of heaven I’ll leave the foe And make my wars on you. Look to’t. Come on. If you’ll stand fast, we’ll beat them to their wives, As they us to our trenches. Follow.
(didascalia)	The Romans come forward towards the walls. Another alarum, and enter the army of the Volsces. Martius beats them back through the gates
MARTIUS	So, now the gates are ope. Now prove good seconds. ’Tis for the followers fortune widens them, Not for the fliers. Mark me, and do the like. He enters the gates
FIRST SOLDIER	Foolhardiness! Not I.
SECOND SOLDIER	Nor I.
(didascalia)	Alarum continues. The gates close, and Martius is shut in
FIRST SOLDIER	See, they have shut him in.
(didascalia)	THIRD SOLDIER To th’ pot, I warrant him.
(didascalia)	Enter Lartius
LARTIUS	What is become of Martius?
(didascalia)	FOURTH SOLDIER
LARTIUS	Slain, sir, doubtless.
FIRST SOLDIER	Following the fliers at the very heels, With them he enters, who upon the sudden Clapped-to their gates. He is himself alone To answer all the city.
LARTIUS	O noble fellow, Who sensibly outdares his senseless sword And, when it bows, stand‘st up! Thou art lost, Martius. A carbuncle entire, as big as thou art, Were not so rich a jewel. Thou wast a soldier Even to Cato’s wish, not fierce and terrible Only in strokes, but with thy grim looks and The thunder-like percussion of thy sounds Thou mad’st thine enemies shake as if the world Were feverous and did tremble.
(didascalia)	Enter Martius, bleeding, assaulted by the enemy
FIRST SOLDIER	Look, sir.
LARTIUS	O, ’tis Martius! Let’s fetch him off, or make remain alike. They fight, and all exeunt into the city

Atto 1, Scena 6

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter certain Romans with spoils
FIRST ROMAN	This will I carry to Rome.
SECOND ROMAN	And I this.
THIRD ROMAN	A murrain on’t, I took this for silver.
(didascalia)	He throws it away.
(didascalia)	Alarum continues still afar off. Enter Martius,
THIRD ROMAN	bleeding, and Lartius with a trumpeter. Exeunt Romans with spoils
MARTIUS	See here these movers that do prize their honours At a cracked drachma! Cushions, leaden spoons, Irons of a doit, doublets that hangmen would Bury with those that wore them, these base slaves, Ere yet the fight be done, pack up. Down with them! And hark what noise the general makes. To him. There is the man of my soul’s hate, Aufidius, Piercing our Romans. Then, valiant Titus, take Convenient numbers to make good the city, Whilst I, with those that have the spirit, will haste To help Cominius.
LARTIUS	Worthy sir, thou bleed’st. Thy exercise hath been too violent For a second course of fight.
MARTIUS	Sir, praise me not. My work hath yet not warmed me. Fare you well. The blood I drop is rather physical Than dangerous to me. To Aufidius thus I will appear and fight.
LARTIUS	Now the fair goddess fortune Fall deep in love with thee, and her great charms Misguide thy opposers’ swords! Bold gentleman, Prosperity be thy page.
MARTIUS	Thy friend no less Than those she placeth highest. So farewell.
LARTIUS	Thou worthiest Martius!
(didascalia)	Exit Martius
LARTIUS	Go sound thy trumpet in the market-place. Call thither all the officers o’th’ town, Where they shall know our mind. Away.
(didascalia)	Exeunt severally

Atto 1, Scena 7

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Cominius, as it were in retire, with soldiers
COMINIUS	Breathe you, my friends. Well fought. We are come off Like Romans, neither foolish in our stands Nor cowardly in retire. Believe me, sirs, We shall be charged again. Whiles we have struck, By interims and conveying gusts we have heard The charges of our friends. The Roman gods Lead their successes as we wish our own, That both our powers, with smiling fronts encount’ring, May give you thankful sacrifice!
(didascalia)	Enter a Messenger
COMINIUS	Thy news?
MESSENGER	The citizens of Corioles have issued, And given to Lartius and to Martius battle. I saw our party to their trenches driven, And then I came away.
COMINIUS	Though thou speak‘st truth, Methinks thou speak’st not well. How long is’t since?
MESSENGER	Above an hour, my lord.
COMINIUS	’Tis not a mile; briefly we heard their drums. How couldst thou in a mile confound an hour, And bring thy news so late?
MESSENGER	Spies of the Volsces Held me in chase, that I was forced to wheel Three or four miles about; else had I, sir,
(didascalia)	Half an hour since brought my report. Exit
(didascalia)	Enter Martius, bloody
COMINIUS	Who’s yonder, That does appear as he were flayed? O gods! He has the stamp of Martius, and I have Before-time seen him thus.
MARTIUS	Come I too late?
COMINIUS	The shepherd knows not thunder from a tabor More than I know the sound of Martius’ tongue From every meaner man.
MARTIUS	Come I too late?
COMINIUS	Ay, if you come not in the blood of others, But mantled in your own.
MARTIUS	O, let me clip ye In arms as sound as when I wooed, in heart As merry as when our nuptial day was done, And tapers burnt to bedward!
(didascalia)	They embrace
COMINIUS	Flower of warriors! How is’t with Titus Lartius?
MARTIUS	As with a man busied about decrees, Condemning some to death and some to exile, Ransoming him or pitying, threat‘ning th’other; Holding Corioles in the name of Rome Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash, To let him slip at will.
COMINIUS	Where is that slave Which told me they had beat you to your trenches? Where is he? Call him hither.
MARTIUS	Let him alone. He did inform the truth. But for our gentlemen, The common file—a plague—tribunes for them?— The mouse ne’er shunned the cat as they did budge From rascals worse than they.
COMINIUS	But how prevailed you?
MARTIUS	Will the time serve to tell? I do not think. Where is the enemy? Are you lords o’th’ field? If not, why cease you till you are so?
COMINIUS	Martius, we have at disadvantage fought, And did retire to win our purpose.
MARTIUS	How lies their battle? Know you on which side They have placed their men of trust?
COMINIUS	As I guess, Martius, Their bands i‘th’ vanguard are the Antiates, Of their best trust; o’er them Aufidius, Their very heart of hope.
MARTIUS	I do beseech you By all the battles wherein we have fought, By th’ blood we have shed together, by th’ vows we have made To endure friends, that you directly set me Against Aufidius and his Antiates, And that you not delay the present, but, Filling the air with swords advanced and darts, We prove this very hour.
COMINIUS	Though I could wish You were conducted to a gentle bath And balms applied to you, yet dare I never Deny your asking. Take your choice of those That best can aid your action.
MARTIUS	Those are they That most are willing. If any such be here— As it were sin to doubt—that love this painting Wherein you see me smeared; if any fear Lesser his person than an ill report; If any think brave death outweighs bad life, And that his country’s dearer than himself, Let him alone, or so many so minded, He waves his sword Wave thus to express his disposition, And follow Martius.
(didascalia)	They all shout and wave their swords, then some take him up in their arms and they cast up their caps
MARTIUS	O’ me alone, make you a sword of me? If these shows be not outward, which of you But is four Volsces? None of you but is Able to bear against the great Aufidius A shield as hard as his. A certain number— Though thanks to all—must I select from all. The rest shall bear the business in some other fight As cause will be obeyed. Please you to march, And I shall quickly draw out my command, Which men are best inclined.
COMINIUS	March on, my fellows. Make good this ostentation, and you shall Divide in all with us. Exeunt marching

Atto 1, Scena 8

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Lartius Through the gates of Corioles, with a drummer and a trumpeter, a Lieutenant, other soldiers, and a scout
LARTIUS	(to the Lieutenant) So, let the ports be guarded. Keep your duties As I have set them down. If I do send, dispatch Those centuries to our aid. The rest will serve For a short holding. If we lose the field We cannot keep the town.
LIEUTENANT	Fear not our care, sir.
LARTIUS	Hence, and shut your gates upon’s.
(didascalia)	Exit Lieutenant
LARTIUS	(To the scout) Our guider, come; to th’ Roman camp conduct us.
(didascalia)	Exeunt towards Cominius and Caius Martius

Atto 1, Scena 9

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Alarum, as in battle. Enter Martius, bloody, and Aufidius, at several doors
MARTIUS	I’ll fight with none but thee, for I do hate thee Worse than a promise-breaker.
AUFIDIUS	We hate alike. Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor More than thy fame and envy. Fix thy foot.
MARTIUS	Let the first budger die the other’s slave, And the gods doom him after.
AUFIDIUS	If I fly, Martius, Holla me like a hare.
MARTIUS	Within these three hours, Tullus, Alone I fought in your Corioles’ walls, And made what work I pleased. ’Tis not my blood Wherein thou seest me masked. For thy revenge, Wrench up thy power to th’ highest.
AUFIDIUS	Wert thou the Hector That was the whip of your bragged progeny, Thou shouldst not scape me here.
(didascalia)	Here they fight, and certain Volsces come in the aid of Aufidius. Martius fights till the Volsces be driven in breathless, Martius following
AUFIDIUS	Officious and not valiant, you have shamed me In your condemned seconds.
(didascalia)	Exit

Atto 1, Scena 10

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Alarum. A retreat is sounded. Flourish.Enter at one door Cominius with the Romans, at another door Martius with his arm in a scarf
COMINIUS	(to Martius) If I should tell thee o‘er this thy day’s work Thou’lt not believe thy deeds. But I’ll report it Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles, Where great patricians shall attend and shrug, I‘th’ end admire; where ladies shall be frighted And, gladly quaked, hear more; where the dull tribunes, That with the fusty plebeians hate thine honours, Shall say against their hearts ‘We thank the gods Our Rome hath such a soldier.’ Yet cam’st thou to a morsel of this feast, Having fully dined before.
(didascalia)	Enter Lartius, with his power, from the pursuit
LARTIUS	O general, Here is the steed, we the caparison. Hadst thou beheld—
MARTIUS	Pray now, no more. My mother, Who has a charter to extol her blood, When she does praise me grieves me. I have done As you have done, that’s what I can; induced As you have been, that’s for my country. He that has but effected his good will Hath overta’en mine act.
COMINIUS	You shall not be The grave of your deserving. Rome must know The value of her own. ’Twere a concealment Worse than a theft, no less than a traducement, To hide your doings and to silence that Which, to the spire and top of praises vouched, Would seem but modest. Therefore, I beseech you— In sign of what you are, not to reward What you have done—before our army hear me.
MARTIUS	I have some wounds upon me, and they smart To hear themselves remembered.
COMINIUS	Should they not, Well might they fester ‘gainst ingratitude, And tent themselves with death. Of all the horses— Whereof we have ta’en good, and good store—of all The treasure in this field achieved and city, We render you the tenth, to be ta’en forth Before the common distribution At your only choice.
MARTIUS	I thank you, general, But cannot make my heart consent to take A bribe to pay my sword. I do refuse it, And stand upon my common part with those That have upheld the doing. A long flourish. They all cry ‘Martius, Martius!’, casting up their caps and lances. Cominius and Lartius stand bare May these same instruments which you profane Never sound more. When drums and trumpets shall I’th’ field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be Made all of false-faced soothing. When steel grows Soft as the parasite’s silk, let him be made An overture for th’ wars. No more, I say. For that I have not washed my nose that bled, Or foiled some debile wretch, which without note Here’s many else have done, you shout me forth In acclamations hyperbolical, As if I loved my little should be dieted In praises sauced with lies.
COMINIUS	Too modest are you, More cruel to your good report than grateful To us that give you truly. By your patience, If ‘gainst yourself you be incensed we’ll put you, Like one that means his proper harm, in manacles, Then reason safely with you. Therefore be it known, As to us, to all the world, that Caius Martius Wears this war’s garland, in token of the which My noble steed, known to the camp, I give him, With all his trim belonging; and from this time, For what he did before Corioles, call him, With all th’applause and clamour of the host, Martius Caius Coriolanus. Bear th’addition Nobly ever!
(didascalia)	Flourish. Trumpets sound, and drums
ALL	Martius Caius Coriolanus!
CORIOLANUS	(to Cominius) I will go wash, And when my face is fair you shall perceive Whether I blush or no. Howbeit, I thank you. I mean to stride your steed, and at all times To undercrest your good addition To th’ fairness of my power.
COMINIUS	So, to our tent, Where, ere we do repose us, we will write To Rome of our success. You, Titus Lartius, Must to Corioles back. Send us to Rome The best, with whom we may articulate For their own good and ours.
LARTIUS	I shall, my lord.
CORIOLANUS	The gods begin to mock me. I, that now Refused most princely gifts, am bound to beg Of my lord general.
COMINIUS	Take‘t, ’tis yours. What is’t?
CORIOLANUS	I sometime lay here in Corioles, And at a poor man’s house. He used me kindly. He cried to me; I saw him prisoner; But then Aufidius was within my view, And wrath o’erwhelmed my pity. I request you To give my poor host freedom.
COMINIUS	O, well begged! Were he the butcher of my son he should Be free as is the wind. Deliver him, Titus.
LARTIUS	Martius, his name?
CORIOLANUS	By Jupiter, forgot! I am weary, yea, my memory is tired. Have we no wine here?
COMINIUS	Go we to our tent. The blood upon your visage dries; ’tis time It should be looked to. Come.
(didascalia)	A flourish of cornetts. Exeunt

Atto 1, Scena 11

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Aufidius, bloody, with two or three Soldiers AUFIDIUS The town is ta’en.
(didascalia)	A SOLDIER ’Twill be delivered back on good condition.
AUFIDIUS	Condition? I would I were a Roman, for I cannot, Being a Volsce, be that I am. Condition? What good condition can a treaty find I‘th’ part that is at mercy? Five times, Martius, I have fought with thee; so often hast thou beat me, And wouldst do so, I think, should we encounter As often as we eat. By th’ elements, If e’er again I meet him beard to beard, He’s mine, or I am his! Mine emulation Hath not that honour in’t it had, for where I thought to crush him in an equal force, True sword to sword, I’ll potch at him some way Or wrath or craft may get him. A SOLDIER He’s the devil.
AUFIDIUS	Bolder, though not so subtle. My valour, poisoned With only suff‘ring stain by him, for him Shall fly out of itself. Nor sleep nor sanctuary, Being naked, sick, nor fane nor Capitol, The prayers of priests nor times of sacrifice— Embargements all of fury—shall lift up Their rotten privilege and custom ’gainst My hate to Martius. Where I find him, were it At home upon my brother’s guard, even there, Against the hospitable canon, would I Wash my fierce hand in’s heart. Go you to th’ city. Learn how ’tis held, and what they are that must Be hostages for Rome. A SOLDIER Will not you go?
AUFIDIUS	I am attended at the cypress grove. I pray you— ’Tis south the city mills—bring me word thither How the world goes, that to the pace of it I may spur on my journey. A SOLDIER I shall, sir.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Aufidius at one door, Soldiers at another door

Atto 2, Scena 1

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Menenius with the two tribunes of the people, Sicinius and Brutus
MENENIUS	The augurer tells me we shall have news tonight.
BRUTUS	Good or bad?
MENENIUS	Not according to the prayer of the people, for they love not Martius.
SICINIUS	Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.
MENENIUS	Pray you, who does the wolf love?
SICINIUS	The lamb.
MENENIUS	Ay, to devour him, as the hungry plebeians would the noble Martius.
BRUTUS	He’s a lamb indeed that baas like a bear.
MENENIUS	He’s a bear indeed that lives like a lamb. You two are old men. Tell me one thing that I shall ask you.
SICINIUS	and BRUTUS Well, sir?
MENENIUS	In what enormity is Martius poor in that you two have not in abundance?
BRUTUS	He’s poor in no one fault, but stored with all. SICINIUS Especially in pride.
BRUTUS	And topping all others in boasting.
MENENIUS	This is strange now. Do you two know how you are censured here in the city—I mean of us o’th’ right-hand file. Do you?
SICINIUS	and BRUTUS Why, how are we censured?
MENENIUS	Because—you talk of pride now—will you not be angry?
SICINIUS	and BRUTUS Well, well, sir, well?
MENENIUS	Why, ’tis no great matter, for a very little thief of occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience. Give your dispositions the reins, and be angry at your pleasures—at the least, if you take it as a pleasure to you in being so. You blame Martius for being proud?
BRUTUS	We do it not alone, sir.
MENENIUS	I know you can do very little alone, for your helps are many, or else your actions would grow wondrous single. Your abilities are too infant-like for doing much alone. You talk of pride. O that you could turn your eyes toward the napes of your necks, and make but an interior survey of your good selves! O that you could!
SICINIUS	and BRUTUS What then, sir?
MENENIUS	Why, then you should discover a brace of unmeriting, proud, violent, testy magistrates, alias fools, as any in Rome.
SICINIUS	Menenius, you are known well enough too.
MENENIUS	I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in’t; said to be something imperfect in favouring the first complaint, hasty and tinder-like upon too trivial motion; one that converses more with the buttock of the night than with the forehead of the morning. What I think, I utter, and spend my malice in my breath. Meeting two such wealsmen as you are—I cannot call you Lycurguses—if the drink you give me touch my palate adversely, I make a crooked face at it. I cannot say your worships have delivered the matter well, when I find the ass in compound with the major part of your syllables. And though I must be content to bear with those that say you are reverend grave men, yet they lie deadly that tell you have good faces. If you see this in the map of my microcosm, follows it that I am known well enough too? What harm can your bisson conspectuities glean out of this character, if I be known well enough too?
BRUTUS	Come, sir, come, we know you well enough.
MENENIUS	You know neither me, yourselves, nor anything. You are ambitious for poor knaves’ caps and legs. You wear out a good wholesome forenoon in hearing a cause between an orange-wife and a faucet-seller, and then rejourn the controversy of threepence to a second day of audience. When you are hearing a matter between party and party, if you chance to be pinched with the colic, you make faces like mummers, set up the bloody flag against all patience, and in roaring for a chamber-pot, dismiss the controversy bleeding, the more entangled by your hearing. All the peace you make in their cause is calling both the parties knaves. You are a pair of strange ones.
BRUTUS	Come, come, you are well understood to be a perfecter giber for the table than a necessary bencher in the Capitol.
MENENIUS	Our very priests must become mockers if they shall encounter such ridiculous subjects as you are. When you speak best unto the purpose it is not worth the wagging of your beards, and your beards deserve not so honourable a grave as to stuff a botcher’s cushion or to be entombed in an ass’s pack-saddle. Yet you must be saying ‘Martius is proud’, who, in a cheap estimation, is worth all your predecessors since Deucalion, though peradventure some of the best of ‘em were hereditary hangmen. Good e’en to your worships. More of your conversation would infect my brain, being the herdsmen of the beastly plebeians. I will be bold to take my leave of you. He leaves Brutus and Sicinius, who stand aside.
(didascalia)	Enter in haste Volumnia, Virgilia, and Valeria
MENENIUS	How now, my as fair as noble ladies—and the moon, were she earthly, no nobler—whither do you follow your eyes so fast?
VOLUMNIA	Honourable Menenius, my boy Martius approaches. For the love of Juno, let’s go.
MENENIUS	Ha, Martius coming home? 100
VOLUMNIA	Ay, worthy Menenius, and with most prosperous approbation.
(didascalia)	MENENIUS throwing up his cap Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee! Hoo, Martius coming home?
VIRGILIA	and VALERIA Nay, ’tis true.
VOLUMNIA	Look, here’s a letter from him. The state hath another, his wife another, and I think there’s one at home for you.
MENENIUS	I will make my very house reel tonight. A letter for me?
VIRGILIA	Yes, certain, there’s a letter for you; I saw’t.
MENENIUS	A letter for me? It gives me an estate of seven years’ health, in which time I will make a lip at the physician. The most sovereign prescription in Galen is but empiricutic and, to this preservative, of no better report than a horse-drench. Is he not wounded? He was wont to come home wounded.
VIRGILIA	O, no, no, no!
VOLUMNIA	O, he is wounded, I thank the gods for’t!
MENENIUS	So do I, too, if it be not too much. Brings a victory in his pocket, the wounds become him.
VOLUMNIA	On’s brows, Menenius. He comes the third time home with the oaken garland.
MENENIUS	Has he disciplined Aufidius soundly? 124
VOLUMNIA	Titus Lartius writes they fought together, but Aufidius got off.
MENENIUS	And ’twas time for him too, I’ll warrant him that. An he had stayed by him, I would not have been so fidiussed for all the chests in Corioles and the gold that’s in them. Is the senate possessed of this?
VOLUMNIA	Good ladies, let’s go. Yes, yes, yes. The senate has letters from the general, wherein he gives my son the whole name of the war. He hath in this action outdone his former deeds doubly.
VALERIA	In truth, there’s wondrous things spoke of him.
MENENIUS	Wondrous, ay, I warrant you; and not without his true purchasing.
VIRGILIA	The gods grant them true.
VOLUMNIA	True? Pooh-whoo!
MENENIUS	True? I’ll be sworn they are true. Where is he wounded? (To the tribunes) God save your good worships. Martius is coming home. He has more cause to be proud. (To Volumnia) Where is he wounded?
VOLUMNIA	I‘th’ shoulder and i’th’ left arm. There will be large cicatrices to show the people when he shall stand for his place. He received in the repulse of Tarquin seven hurts i’th’ body.
MENENIUS	One i‘th’ neck and two i’th’ thigh—there’s nine that I know.
VOLUMNIA	He had before this last expedition twenty-five wounds upon him.
MENENIUS	Now it’s twenty-seven. Every gash was an enemy’s grave. A shout and flourish Hark, the trumpets.
VOLUMNIA	These are the ushers of Martius. Before him he carries noise, and behind him he leaves tears. Death, that dark spirit, in’s nervy arm doth lie, Which being advanced, declines; and then men die.
(didascalia)	Trumpets sound a sennet. Enter in state Cominius the general and Lartius, between them Coriolanus, crowned with an oaken garland, with captains and soldiers and a Herald
HERALD	Know, Rome, that all alone Martius did fight
(didascalia)	Within Corioles’ gates, where he hath won 160
HERALD	With fame a name to ‘Martius Caius’; these In honour follows ‘Coriolanus’. Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus!
(didascalia)	A flourish sounds
ALL	Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus!
CORIOLANUS	No more of this, it does offend my heart. Pray now, no more.
COMINIUS	Look, sir, your mother.
CORIOLANUS	(to Volumnia) O, You have, I know, petitioned all the gods For my prosperity! He kneels
VOLUMNIA	Nay, my good soldier, up, My gentle Martius, worthy Caius,
(didascalia)	He rises
VOLUMNIA	And, by deed-achieving honour newly named— What is it?—’Coriolanus’ must I call thee? But O, thy wife!
CORIOLANUS	(to Virgilia) My gracious silence, hail. Wouldst thou have laughed had I come coffined home, That weep’st to see me triumph? Ah, my dear, Such eyes the widows in Corioles wear, And mothers that lack sons.
MENENIUS	Now the gods crown thee!
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS to Valeria)
MENENIUS	And live you yet? O my sweet lady, pardon.
VOLUMNIA	I know not where to turn. O, welcome home! And welcome, general, and you’re welcome all!
MENENIUS	A hundred thousand welcomes! I could weep And I could laugh, I am light and heavy. Welcome! A curse begnaw at very root on’s heart That is not glad to see thee. You are three That Rome should dote on. Yet, by the faith of men, We have some old crab-trees here at home that will not Be grafted to your relish. Yet welcome, warriors! We call a nettle but a nettle, and The faults of fools but folly.
COMINIUS	Ever right.
CORIOLANUS	Menenius, ever, ever.
HERALD	Give way there, and go on.
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS to Volumnia and Virgilia
HERALD	Your hand, and yours. Ere in our own house I do shade my head The good patricians must be visited, From whom I have received not only greetings, But with them change of honours.
VOLUMNIA	I have lived To see inherited my very wishes, And the buildings of my fancy. Only There’s one thing wanting, which I doubt not but Our Rome will cast upon thee.
CORIOLANUS	Know, good mother, I had rather be their servant in my way Than sway with them in theirs.
COMINIUS	On, to the Capitol.
(didascalia)	A flourish of cornetts. Exeunt in state, as before, all but Brutus and Sicinius, who come forward
BRUTUS	All tongues speak of him, and the blearèd sights Are spectacled to see him. Your prattling nurse Into a rapture lets her baby cry While she chats him; the kitchen malkin pins Her richest lockram ‘bout her reechy neck, Clamb’ring the walls to eye him. Stalls, bulks, windows Are smothered up, leads filled and ridges horsed With variable complexions, all agreeing In earnestness to see him. Seld-shown flamens Do press among the popular throngs, and puff To win a vulgar station. Our veiled dames Commit the war of white and damask in Their nicely guarded cheeks to th’ wanton spoil Of Phoebus’ burning kisses. Such a pother As if that whatsoever god who leads him Were slily crept into his human powers And gave him graceful posture.
SICINIUS	On the sudden I warrant him consul.
BRUTUS	Then our office may During his power go sleep.
SICINIUS	He cannot temp’rately transport his honours From where he should begin and end, but will Lose those he hath won.
BRUTUS	In that there’s comfort.
SICINIUS	Doubt not The commoners, for whom we stand, but they Upon their ancient malice will forget With the least cause these his new honours, which That he will give them make I as little question As he is proud to do’t.
BRUTUS	I heard him swear, Were he to stand for consul, never would he Appear i’th’ market-place nor on him put The napless vesture of humility, Nor, showing, as the manner is, his wounds To th’ people, beg their stinking breaths.
SICINIUS	’Tis right.
BRUTUS	It was his word. O, he would miss it rather Than carry it, but by the suit of the gentry to him, And the desire of the nobles.
SICINIUS	I wish no better Than have him hold that purpose, and to put it In execution.
BRUTUS	’Tis most like he will.
SICINIUS	It shall be to him then, as our good wills, A sure destruction.
BRUTUS	So it must fall out To him, or our authority’s for an end. We must suggest the people in what hatred He still hath held them; that to’s power he would Have made them mules, silenced their pleaders, And dispropertied their freedoms, holding them In human action and capacity Of no more soul nor fitness for the world Than camels in their war, who have their provand Only for bearing burdens, and sore blows For sinking under them.
SICINIUS	This, as you say, suggested At some time when his soaring insolence Shall touch the people—which time shall not want If he be put upon’t, and that’s as easy As to set dogs on sheep—will be his fire To kindle their dry stubble, and their blaze Shall darken him for ever.
(didascalia)	Enter a Messenger
BRUTUS	What’s the matter?
MESSENGER	You are sent for to the Capitol. ’Tis thought That Martius shall be consul. I have seen The dumb men throng to see him, and the blind To hear him speak. Matrons flung gloves, Ladies and maids their scarves and handkerchiefs, Upon him as he passed. The nobles bended As to Jove’s statue, and the commons made A shower and thunder with their caps and shouts. I never saw the like.
BRUTUS	Let’s to the Capitol, And carry with us ears and eyes for th’ time, But hearts for the event.
SICINIUS	Have with you. Exeunt

Atto 2, Scena 2

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter two Officers, to lay cushions, as it were in the Capitol
FIRST OFFICER	Come, come, they are almost here. How many stand for consulships?
SECOND OFFICER	Three, they say, but ’tis thought of everyone Coriolanus will carry it.
FIRST OFFICER	That’s a brave fellow, but he’s vengeance proud and loves not the common people.
SECOND OFFICER	Faith, there hath been many great men that have flattered the people who ne’er loved them; and there be many that they have loved they know not wherefore, so that if they love they know not why, they hate upon no better a ground. Therefore for Coriolanus neither to care whether they love or hate him manifests the true knowledge he has in their disposition, and out of his noble carelessness lets them plainly see’t.
FIRST OFFICER	If he did not care whether he had their love or no he waved indifferently ’twixt doing them neither good nor harm; but he seeks their hate with greater devotion than they can render it him, and leaves nothing undone that may fully discover him their opposite. Now to seem to affect the malice and displeasure of the people is as bad as that which he dislikes, to flatter them for their love.
SECOND OFFICER	He hath deserved worthily of his country, and his ascent is not by such easy degrees as those who, having been supple and courteous to the people, bonneted, without any further deed to have them at all into their estimation and report. But he hath so planted his honours in their eyes and his actions in their hearts that for their tongues to be silent and not confess so much were a kind of ingrateful injury. To report otherwise were a malice that, giving itself the lie, would pluck reproof and rebuke from every ear that heard it.
FIRST OFFICER	No more of him. He’s a worthy man. Make way, they are coming.
(didascalia)	A sennet. Enter the Patricians, and Sicinius and Brutus, the tribunes of the people, lictors before them; Coriolanus, Menenius, Cominius the consul. The Patricians take their places and sit. Sicinius and Brutus take their places by themselves. Coriolanus stands
MENENIUS	Having determined of the Volsces, and To send for Titus Lartius, it remains As the main point of this our after-meeting To gratify his noble service that Hath thus stood for his country. Therefore please you, Most reverend and grave elders, to desire The present consul and last general In our well-found successes to report A little of that worthy work performed By Martius Caius Coriolanus, whom We met here both to thank and to remember With honours like himself.
(didascalia)	Coriolanus sits
FIRST SENATOR	Speak, good Cominius. Leave nothing out for length, and make us think Rather our state’s defective for requital Than we to stretch it out. (To the tribunes) Masters o’th’ people, We do request your kindest ears and, after, Your loving motion toward the common body To yield what passes here.
SICINIUS	We are convented Upon a pleasing treaty, and have hearts Inclinable to honour and advance The theme of our assembly.
BRUTUS	Which the rather We shall be blessed to do if he remember A kinder value of the people than He hath hereto prized them at.
MENENIUS	That’s off, that’s off. I would you rather had been silent. Please you To hear Cominius speak?
BRUTUS	Most willingly, But yet my caution was more pertinent Than the rebuke you give it.
MENENIUS	He loves your people, But tie him not to be their bedfellow. Worthy Cominius, speak. Coriolanus rises and offers to go away
(didascalia)	(To Coriolanus) Nay, keep your place. FIRST SENATOR Sit, Coriolanus. Never shame to hear
MENENIUS	What you have nobly done.
CORIOLANUS	Your honours’ pardon, I had rather have my wounds to heal again Than hear say how I got them.
BRUTUS	Sir, I hope My words disbenched you not?
CORIOLANUS	No, sir, yet oft When blows have made me stay I fled from words. You soothed not, therefore hurt not; but your people, I love them as they weigh—
MENENIUS	Pray now, sit down.
CORIOLANUS	I had rather have one scratch my head i’th’ sun When the alarum were struck than idly sit To hear my nothings monstered.
(didascalia)	Exit
MENENIUS	Masters of the people, Your multiplying spawn how can he flatter— That’s thousand to one good one—when you now see He had rather venture all his limbs for honour Than one on’s ears to hear it? Proceed, Cominius.
COMINIUS	I shall lack voice; the deeds of Coriolanus Should not be uttered feebly. It is held That valour is the chiefest virtue, and Most dignifies the haver. If it be, The man I speak of cannot in the world Be singly counterpoised. At sixteen years, When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he fought Beyond the mark of others. Our then dictator, Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight When with his Amazonian chin he drove The bristled lips before him. He bestrid An o‘erpressed Roman, and, i’th’ consul’s view, Slew three opposers. Tarquin’s self he met, And struck him on his knee. In that day’s feats, When he might act the woman in the scene, He proved best man i‘th’ field, and for his meed Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil age Man-entered thus, he waxed like a sea, And in the brunt of seventeen battles since He lurched all swords of the garland. For this last Before and in Corioles, let me say I cannot speak him home. He stopped the fliers, And by his rare example made the coward Turn terror into sport. As weeds before A vessel under sail, so men obeyed And fell below his stem. His sword, death’s stamp, Where it did mark, it took. From face to foot He was a thing of blood, whose every motion Was timed with dying cries. Alone he entered The mortal gate of th’ city, which he, painted With shunless destiny, aidless came off, And with a sudden reinforcement struck Corioles like a planet. Now all’s his. When by and by the din of war gan pierce His ready sense, then straight his doubled spirit Requickened what in flesh was fatigate, And to the battle came he, where he did Run reeking o’er the lives of men as if ’Twere a perpetual spoil; and till we called Both field and city ours he never stood To ease his breast with panting.
MENENIUS	Worthy man.
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR
MENENIUS	He cannot but with measure fit the honours Which we devise him.
COMINIUS	Our spoils he kicked at, And looked upon things precious as they were The common muck of the world. He covets less Than misery itself would give, rewards His deeds with doing them, and is content To spend the time to end it.
MENENIUS	He’s right noble. Let him be called for.
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR Call Coriolanus.
OFFICER	He doth appear.
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus
MENENIUS	The senate, Coriolanus, are well pleased To make thee consul.
CORIOLANUS	I do owe them still My life and services.
MENENIUS	It then remains That you do speak to the people.
CORIOLANUS	I do beseech you, Let me o’erleap that custom, for I cannot Put on the gown, stand naked, and entreat them For my wounds’ sake to give their suffrage. Please you that I may pass this doing.
SICINIUS	Sir, the people Must have their voices, neither will they bate One jot of ceremony.
MENENIUS	(to Coriolanus) Put them not to’t. Pray you, go fit you to the custom and Take to you, as your predecessors have, Your honour with your form.
CORIOLANUS	It is a part That I shall blush in acting, and might well Be taken from the people.
BRUTUS	(to Sicinius) Mark you that?
CORIOLANUS	To brag unto them ‘Thus I did, and thus’, Show them th’unaching scars, which I should hide, As if I had received them for the hire Of their breath only!
MENENIUS	Do not stand upon’t.— We recommend to you, tribunes of the people, Our purpose to them; and to our noble consul Wish we all joy and honour.
SENATORS	To Coriolanus come all joy and honour!
(didascalia)	A flourish of cornetts, then exeunt all but
SENATORS	Sicinius and Brutus
BRUTUS	You see how he intends to use the people.
SICINIUS	May they perceive’s intent! He will require them As if he did contemn what he requested Should be in them to give.
BRUTUS	Come, we’ll inform them Of our proceedings here. On th’ market-place I know they do attend us. Exeunt

Atto 2, Scena 3

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter seven or eight Citizens
FIRST CITIZEN	Once, if he do require our voices we ought not to deny him.
SECOND CITIZEN	We may, sir, if we will.
THIRD CITIZEN	We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do. For if he show us his wounds and tell us his deeds, we are to put our tongues into those wounds and speak for them; so if he tell us his noble deeds we must also tell him our noble acceptance of them. Ingratitude is monstrous, and for the multitude to be ingrateful were to make a monster of the multitude, of the which we, being members, should bring ourselves to be monstrous members.
FIRST CITIZEN	And to make us no better thought of, a little help will serve; for once we stood up about the corn, he himself stuck not to call us the many-headed multitude.
THIRD CITIZEN	We have been called so of many, not that our heads are some brown, some black, some abram, some bald, but that our wits are so diversely coloured; and truly I think if all our wits were to issue out of one skull, they would fly east, west, north, south, and their consent of one direct way should be at once to all the points o’th’ compass.
SECOND CITIZEN	Think you so? Which way do you judge my wit would fly?
THIRD CITIZEN	Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another man’s will, ‘tis strongly wedged up in a blockhead. But if it were at liberty, ’twould sure southward. SECOND CITIZEN Why that way?
THIRD CITIZEN	To lose itself in a fog where, being three parts melted away with rotten dews, the fourth would return for conscience’ sake, to help to get thee a wife.
SECOND CITIZEN	You are never without your tricks. You may, you may.
THIRD CITIZEN	Are you all resolved to give your voices? But that’s no matter, the greater part carries it. I say, if he would incline to the people there was never a worthier man.
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus in a gown of humility, with Menenius
THIRD CITIZEN	Here he comes, and in the gown of humility. Mark his behaviour. We are not to stay all together, but to come by him where he stands by ones, by twos, and by threes. He’s to make his requests by particulars, wherein every one of us has a single honour in giving him our own voices with our own tongues. Therefore follow me, and I’ll direct you how you shall go by him. ALL THE CITIZENS Content, content. Exeunt Citizens
MENENIUS	O sir, you are not right. Have you not known The worthiest men have done’t?
CORIOLANUS	What must I say? ‘I pray, sir’? Plague upon‘t, I cannot bring My tongue to such a pace. ‘Look, sir, my wounds. I got them in my country’s service, when Some certain of your brethren roared and ran From th’ noise of our own drums’?
MENENIUS	O me, the gods! 55 You must not speak of that, you must desire them To think upon you.
CORIOLANUS	Think upon me? Hang ’em. I would they would forget me like the virtues Which our divines lose by ’em.
MENENIUS	You’ll mar all. I’ll leave you. Pray you, speak to ’em, I pray you, 60 In wholesome manner.
CORIOLANUS	Bid them wash their faces And keep their teeth clean.
(didascalia)	Exit Menenius
(didascalia)	Enter three of the Citizens
CORIOLANUS	So, here comes a brace. You know the cause, sir, of my standing here.
THIRD CITIZEN	We do, sir. Tell us what hath brought you to’t.
CORIOLANUS	Mine own desert.
SECOND CITIZEN	Your own desert?
CORIOLANUS	Ay, but not mine own desire.
THIRD CITIZEN	How not your own desire?
CORIOLANUS	No, sir, ’twas never my desire yet to trouble the poor with begging.
THIRD CITIZEN	You must think if we give you anything we hope to gain by you.
CORIOLANUS	Well then, I pray, your price o’th’ consulship?
FIRST CITIZEN	The price is to ask it kindly.
CORIOLANUS	Kindly, sir, I pray let me ha’t. I have wounds to show you which shall be yours in private. (To Second Citizen) Your good voice, sir. What say you?
SECOND CITIZEN	You shall ha’t, worthy sir.
CORIOLANUS	A match, sir. There’s in all two worthy voices begged. I have your alms. Adieu.
THIRD CITIZEN	(to the other Citizens) But this is something odd.
SECOND CITIZEN	An ‘twere to give again—but ’tis no matter. Exeunt Citizens
(didascalia)	Enter two other Citizens
CORIOLANUS	Pray you now, if it may stand with the tune of your voices that I may be consul, I have here the customary gown.
(didascalia)	FOURTH CITIZEN You have deserved nobly of your country, and you have not deserved nobly.
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS Your enigma? FOURTH CITIZEN You have been a scourge to her enemies, you have been a rod to her friends. You have not, indeed, loved the common people.
CORIOLANUS	You should account me the more virtuous that I have not been common in my love. I will, sir, flatter my sworn brother the people to earn a dearer estimation of them. ’Tis a condition they account gentle. And since the wisdom of their choice is rather to have my hat than my heart, I will practise the insinuating nod and be off to them most counterfeitly; that is, sir, I will counterfeit the bewitchment of some popular man, and give it bountiful to the desirers. Therefore, beseech you I may be consul.
(didascalia)	FIFTH CITIZEN We hope to find you our friend, and therefore give you our voices heartily.
(didascalia)	FOURTH CITIZEN You have received many wounds for your country.
CORIOLANUS	I will not seal your knowledge with showing them. I will make much of your voices, and so trouble you no farther.
BOTH CITIZENS	The gods give you joy, sir, heartily. CORIOLANUS Most sweet voices.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Citizens
BOTH CITIZENS	Better it is to die, better to starve, Than crave the hire which first we do deserve. Why in this womanish toge should I stand here To beg of Hob and Dick that does appear Their needless vouches? Custom calls me to’t. What custom wills, in all things should we do‘t, The dust on antique time would lie unswept, And mountainous error be too highly heaped For truth to o’erpeer. Rather than fool it so, Let the high office and the honour go To one that would do thus. I am half through. The one part suffered, the other will I do.
(didascalia)	Enter three Citizens more
BOTH CITIZENS	Here come more voices. Your voices! For your voices I have fought, Watched for your voices, for your voices bear Of wounds two dozen odd; battles thrice six I have seen and heard of for your voices, have Done many things, some less, some more. Your voices! Indeed I would be consul.
(didascalia)	SIXTH CITIZEN He has done nobly, and cannot go without any honest man’s voice.
(didascalia)	SEVENTH CITIZEN Therefore let him be consul. The gods give him joy and make him good friend to the people!
ALL THE CITIZENS	Amen, amen. God save thee, noble consul!
CORIOLANUS	Worthy voices.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Citizens
(didascalia)	Enter Menenius with Brutus and Sicinius
MENENIUS	You have stood your limitation, and the tribunes Endue you with the people’s voice. Remains That in th’ official marks invested, you Anon do meet the senate.
CORIOLANUS	Is this done?
SICINIUS	The custom of request you have discharged. The people do admit you, and are summoned To meet anon upon your approbation.
CORIOLANUS	Where, at the senate-house?
SICINIUS	There, Coriolanus.
CORIOLANUS	May I change these garments?
SICINIUS	You may, sir.
CORIOLANUS	That I’ll straight do, and, knowing myself again, Repair to th’ senate-house.
MENENIUS	I’ll keep you company. (To the tribunes) Will you along?
BRUTUS	We stay here for the people.
SICINIUS	Fare you well.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Coriolanus and Menenius
SICINIUS	He has it now, and by his looks methinks ’Tis warm at’s heart.
BRUTUS	With a proud heart he wore His humble weeds. Will you dismiss the people?
(didascalia)	Enter the Plebeians
SICINIUS	How now, my masters, have you chose this man?
FIRST CITIZEN	He has our voices, sir.
BRUTUS	We pray the gods he may deserve your loves.
SECOND CITIZEN	Amen, sir. To my poor unworthy notice He mocked us when he begged our voices.
THIRD CITIZEN	Certainly. He flouted us downright.
FIRST CITIZEN	No, ’tis his kind of speech. He did not mock us.
SECOND CITIZEN	Not one amongst us save yourself but says He used us scornfully. He should have showed us His marks of merit, wounds received for’s country.
SICINIUS	Why, so he did, I am sure.
ALL THE CITIZENS	No, no; no man saw ’em.
THIRD CITIZEN	He said he had wounds which he could show in private, And with his hat, thus waving it in scorn, ‘I would be consul,’ says he. ‘Agèd custom But by your voices will not so permit me. Your voices therefore.’ When we granted that, Here was ‘I thank you for your voices, thank you. Your most sweet voices. Now you have left your voices I have no further with you.’ Was not this mockery?
SICINIUS	Why either were you ignorant to see’t, Or, seeing it, of such childish friendliness To yield your voices?
BRUTUS	(to the Citizens) Could you not have told him As you were lessoned: when he had no power But was a petty servant to the state, He was your enemy, ever spake against Your liberties and the charters that you bear I‘th’ body of the weal; and now arriving A place of potency and sway o’th’ state, If he should still malignantly remain Fast foe to th’ plebeii, your voices might Be curses to yourselves. You should have said That as his worthy deeds did claim no less Than what he stood for, so his gracious nature Would think upon you for your voices and Translate his malice towards you into love, Standing your friendly lord.
SICINIUS	(to the Citizens) Thus to have said As you were fore-advised had touched his spirit And tried his inclination, from him plucked Either his gracious promise which you might, As cause had called you up, have held him to, Or else it would have galled his surly nature, Which easily endures not article Tying him to aught. So putting him to rage, You should have ta‘en th’advantage of his choler And passed him unelected.
BRUTUS	(to the Citizens) Did you perceive He did solicit you in free contempt When he did need your loves, and do you think That his contempt shall not be bruising to you When he hath power to crush? Why, had your bodies No heart among you? Or had you tongues to cry Against the rectorship of judgement?
SICINIUS	(to the Citizens) Have you Ere now denied the asker, and now again, Of him that did not ask but mock, bestow Your sued-for tongues?
THIRD CITIZEN	He’s not confirmed, we may deny him yet.
SECOND CITIZEN	And will deny him. I’ll have five hundred voices of that sound.
FIRST CITIZEN	I twice five hundred, and their friends to piece ’em.
BRUTUS	Get you hence instantly, and tell those friends They have chose a consul that will from them take Their liberties, make them of no more voice Than dogs that are as often beat for barking, As therefor kept to do so.
SICINIUS	(to the Citizens) Let them assemble, And on a safer judgement all revoke Your ignorant election. Enforce his pride And his old hate unto you. Besides, forget not With what contempt he wore the humble weed, How in his suit he scorned you; but your loves, Thinking upon his services, took from you Th’apprehension of his present portance, Which most gibingly, ungravely he did fashion After the inveterate hate he bears you.
BRUTUS	(to the Citizens) Lay A fault on us your tribunes, that we laboured No impediment between, but that you must Cast your election on him.
SICINIUS	(to the Citizens) Say you chose him More after our commandment than as guided By your own true affections, and that your minds, Preoccupied with what you rather must do Than what you should, made you against the grain To voice him consul. Lay the fault on us.
BRUTUS	(to the Citizens) Ay, spare us not. Say we read lectures to you, How youngly he began to serve his country, How long continued, and what stock he springs of, The noble house o’th’ Martians, from whence came That Ancus Martius, Numa’s daughter’s son, Who after great Hostilius here was king; Of the same house Publius and Quintus were, That our best water brought by conduits hither; And Censorinus that was so surnamed, And nobly named so, twice being censor, Was his great ancestor.
SICINIUS	(to the Citizens) One thus descended, That hath beside well in his person wrought To be set high in place, we did commend To your remembrances, but you have found, Scaling his present bearing with his past, That he’s your fixed enemy, and revoke Your sudden approbation.
BRUTUS	(to the Citizens) Say you ne‘er had done’t— Harp on that still—but by our putting on; And presently when you have drawn your number, Repair to th’ Capitol.
(didascalia)	A CITIZEN We will so.
(didascalia)	ANOTHER CITIZEN Almost all
BRUTUS	Repent in their election.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Citizens
BRUTUS	Let them go on. This mutiny were better put in hazard Than stay, past doubt, for greater. If, as his nature is, he fall in rage With their refusal, both observe and answer The vantage of his anger.
SICINIUS	To th’ Capitol, come. We will be there before the stream o‘th’ people, And this shall seem, as partly ’tis, their own, Which we have goaded onward.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 3, Scena 1

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Cornetts. Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, all the gentry; Cominius, Lartius, and other Senators
CORIOLANUS	Tullus Aufidius then had made new head?
LARTIUS	He had, my lord, and that it was which caused Our swifter composition.
CORIOLANUS	So then the Volsces stand but as at first, Ready when time shall prompt them to make raid Upon’s again.
COMINIUS	They are worn, lord consul, so That we shall hardly in our ages see Their banners wave again.
CORIOLANUS	(to Lartius) Saw you Aufidius?
LARTIUS	On safeguard he came to me, and did curse Against the Volsces for they had so vilely Yielded the town. He is retired to Antium.
CORIOLANUS	Spoke he of me?
LARTIUS	He did, my lord.
CORIOLANUS	How? What?
LARTIUS	How often he had met you sword to sword; That of all things upon the earth he hated Your person most; that he would pawn his fortunes To hopeless restitution, so he might Be called your vanquisher.
CORIOLANUS	At Antium lives he?
LARTIUS	At Antium.
CORIOLANUS	I wish I had a cause to seek him there, To oppose his hatred fully. Welcome home.
(didascalia)	Enter Sicinius and Brutus
CORIOLANUS	Behold, these are the tribunes of the people, The tongues o’th’ common mouth. I do despise them, For they do prank them in authority Against all noble sufferance.
SICINIUS	Pass no further.
CORIOLANUS	Ha, what is that?
BRUTUS	It will be dangerous to go on. No further.
CORIOLANUS	What makes this change?
MENENIUS	The matter?
COMINIUS	Hath he not passed the noble and the common?
BRUTUS	Cominius, no.
CORIOLANUS	Have I had children’s voices?
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR
CORIOLANUS	Tribunes, give way. He shall to th’ market-place.
BRUTUS	The people are incensed against him.
SICINIUS	Stop, Or all will fall in broil.
CORIOLANUS	Are these your herd? Must these have voices, that can yield them now And straight disclaim their tongues? What are your offices? You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth? Have you not set them on?
MENENIUS	Be calm, be calm.
CORIOLANUS	It is a purposed thing, and grows by plot To curb the will of the nobility. Suffer’t, and live with such as cannot rule Nor ever will be ruled.
BRUTUS	Call’t not a plot. The people cry you mocked them, and of late When corn was given them gratis, you repined, Scandalled the suppliants for the people, called them Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness.
CORIOLANUS	Why, this was known before.
BRUTUS	Not to them all.
CORIOLANUS	Have you informed them sithence?
BRUTUS	How, I inform them?
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS
BRUTUS	You are like to do such business.
BRUTUS	Not unlike Each way to better yours.
CORIOLANUS	Why then should I be consul? By yon clouds, Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me Your fellow tribune.
SICINIUS	You show too much of that For which the people stir. If you will pass To where you are bound, you must enquire your way, Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit, Or never be so noble as a consul, Nor yoke with him for tribune.
MENENIUS	Let’s be calm.
COMINIUS	The people are abused, set on. This palt‘ring Becomes not Rome, nor has Coriolanus Deserved this so dishonoured rub, laid falsely I’th’ plain way of his merit.
CORIOLANUS	Tell me of corn? This was my speech, and I will speak’t again.
MENENIUS	Not now, not now.
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR Not in this heat, sir, now.
CORIOLANUS	Now as I live, I will. My nobler friends, I crave their pardons. For the mutable rank-scented meinie, Let them regard me, as I do not flatter, And therein behold themselves. I say again, In soothing them we nourish ’gainst our Senate The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition, Which we ourselves have ploughed for, sowed, and scattered By mingling them with us, the honoured number Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that Which they have given to beggars.
MENENIUS	Well, no more.
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR
MENENIUS	No more words, we beseech you.
CORIOLANUS	How, no more? As for my country I have shed my blood, Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs Coin words till their decay against those measles Which we disdain should tetter us, yet sought The very way to catch them.
BRUTUS	You speak o’th’ people as if you were a god To punish, not a man of their infirmity.
SICINIUS	’Twere well we let the people know’t.
MENENIUS	What, what, his choler?
CORIOLANUS	Choler? Were I as patient as the midnight sleep, By Jove, ’twould be my mind.
SICINIUS	It is a mind That shall remain a poison where it is, Not poison any further.
CORIOLANUS	‘Shall remain’? Hear you this Triton of the minnows? Mark you His absolute ‘shall’?
COMINIUS	’Twas from the canon.
CORIOLANUS	‘Shall’? O good but most unwise patricians, why, You grave but reckless senators, have you thus Given Hydra here to choose an officer That, with his peremptory ‘shall’, being but The horn and noise o‘th’ monster’s, wants not spirit To say he’ll turn your current in a ditch And make your channel his? If he have power, Then vail your impotence; if none, awake Your dangerous lenity. If you are learned, Be not as common fools; if you are not, Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians If they be senators, and they are no less When, both your voices blended, the great‘st taste Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate, And such a one as he, who puts his ‘shall’, His popular ‘shall’, against a graver bench Than ever frowned in Greece. By Jove himself, no It makes the consuls base, and my soul aches To know, when two authorities are up, Neither supreme, how soon confusion May enter ’twixt the gap of both and take The one by th’ other.
COMINIUS	Well, on to th’ market-place.
CORIOLANUS	Whoever gave that counsel to give forth The corn o‘th’ storehouse gratis, as ’twas used Sometime in Greece—
MENENIUS	Well, well, no more of that.
CORIOLANUS	Though there the people had more absolute power— I say they nourished disobedience, fed The ruin of the state.
BRUTUS	Why shall the people give One that speaks thus their voice?
CORIOLANUS	I’ll give my reasons, More worthier than their voices. They know the corn Was not our recompense, resting well assured They ne‘er did service for’t. Being pressed to th’ war, Even when the navel of the state was touched, They would not thread the gates. This kind of service Did not deserve corn gratis. Being i’th’ war, Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they showed Most valour, spoke not for them. Th‘accusation Which they have often made against the senate, All cause unborn, could never be the native Of our so frank donation. Well, what then? How shall this bosom multiplied digest The senate’s courtesy? Let deeds express What’s like to be their words: ‘We did request it, We are the greater poll, and in true fear They gave us our demands.’ Thus we debase The nature of our seats, and make the rabble Call our cares fears, which will in time Break ope the locks o’th’ senate and bring in The crows to peck the eagles.
MENENIUS	Come, enough.
BRUTUS	Enough with over-measure.
CORIOLANUS	No, take more. What may be sworn by, both divine and human, Seal what I end withal! This double worship, Where one part does disdain with cause, the other Insult without all reason, where gentry, title, wisdom Cannot conclude but by the yea and no Of general ignorance, it must omit Real necessities, and give way the while To unstable slightness. Purpose so barred, it follows Nothing is done to purpose. Therefore beseech you— You that will be less fearful than discreet, That love the fundamental part of state More than you doubt the change on‘t, that prefer A noble life before a long, and wish To jump a body with a dangerous physic That’s sure of death without it—at once pluck out The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick The sweet which is their poison. Your dishonour Mangles true judgement, and bereaves the state Of that integrity which should become’t, Not having the power to do the good it would For th’ill which doth control’t.
BRUTUS	He’s said enough.
SICINIUS	He’s spoken like a traitor, and shall answer As traitors do.
CORIOLANUS	Thou wretch, despite o’erwhelm thee! What should the people do with these bald tribunes, On whom depending, their obedience fails To th’ greater bench? In a rebellion, When what’s not meet but what must be was law, Then were they chosen. In a better hour Let what is meet be said it must be meet, And throw their power i’th’ dust.
BRUTUS	Manifest treason.
SICINIUS	This a consul? No.
BRUTUS	The aediles, hot
(didascalia)	Enter an Aedile
BRUTUS	Let him be apprehended.
SICINIUS	Go call the people,
(didascalia)	Exit Aedile
SICINIUS	(To Coriolanus) in whose name myself Attach thee as a traitorous innovator, A foe to th’ public weal. Obey, I charge thee, And follow to thine answer.
CORIOLANUS	Hence, old goat!
(didascalia)	ALL THE PATRICIANS
CORIOLANUS	We’ll surety him.
COMINIUS	(to Sicinius) Aged sir, hands off.
CORIOLANUS	(to Sicinius) Hence, rotten thing, or I shall shake thy bones Out of thy garments.
SICINIUS	Help, ye citizens!
(didascalia)	Enter a rabble of Plebeians, with the Aediles
MENENIUS	On both sides more respect.
SICINIUS	Here’s he That would take from you all your power.
BRUTUS	Seize him, aediles.
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS
BRUTUS	Down with him, down with him!
SECOND SENATOR	Weapons, weapons, weapons! They all bustle about Coriolanus
(didascalia)	CITIZENS and PATRICIANS in dispersed cries
SECOND SENATOR	Tribunes! Patricians! Citizens! What ho! Siciniusl Brutus! Coriolanusl Citizens!
(didascalia)	SOME CITIZENS and PATRICIANS
SECOND SENATOR	Peace, peace, peace! Stay! Hold! Peace!
MENENIUS	What is about to be? I am out of breath. Confusion’s near; I cannot speak. You tribunes To th’ people, Coriolanus, patience! Speak, good Sicinius.
SICINIUS	Hear me, people, peace.
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS
SICINIUS	Let’s hear our tribune! Peace! Speak, speak, speak!
SICINIUS	You are at point to lose your liberties. Martius would have all from you—Martius Whom late you have named for consul.
MENENIUS	Fie, fie, fie, This is the way to kindle, not to quench.
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR
MENENIUS	To unbuild the city, and to lay all flat.
SICINIUS	What is the city but the people?
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS
SICINIUS	True, The people are the city.
BRUTUS	By the consent of all We were established the people’s magistrates.
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS
BRUTUS	You so remain.
MENENIUS	And so are like to do.
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS
MENENIUS	That is the way to lay the city flat, To bring the roof to the foundation, And bury all which yet distinctly ranges In heaps and piles of ruin.
SICINIUS	This deserves death.
BRUTUS	Or let us stand to our authority, Or let us lose it. We do here pronounce, Upon the part o’th’ people in whose power We were elected theirs, Martius is worthy Of present death.
SICINIUS	Therefore lay hold of him, Bear him to th’ rock Tarpeian; and from thence Into destruction cast him.
BRUTUS	Aediles, seize him.
ALL THE CITIZENS	Yield, Martius, yield.
MENENIUS	Hear me one word. Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word.
AEDILES	Peace, peace!
MENENIUS	(to the tribunes) Be that you seem, truly your country’s friend, And temp’rately proceed to what you would Thus violently redress.
BRUTUS	Sir, those cold ways That seem like prudent helps are very poisons Where the disease is violent. Lay hands upon him, And bear him to the rock. Coriolanus draws his sword
CORIOLANUS	No, I’ll die here. There’s some among you have beheld me fighting. Come, try upon yourselves what you have seen me.
MENENIUS	Down with that sword. Tribunes, withdraw a while.
BRUTUS	Lay hands upon him.
MENENIUS	Help Martius, help! You that be noble, help him, young and old.
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS Down with him, down with him!
MENENIUS	In this mutiny the tribunes, the Aediles, and the people are beat in
MENENIUS	(to Coriolanus) Go get you to your house. Be gone, away! All will be naught else.
(didascalia)	SECOND SENATOR (to Coriolanus) Get you gone. CORIOLANUS
MENENIUS	Stand fast; we have as many friends as enemies.
MENENIUS	Shall it be put to that?
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR The gods forbid!
MENENIUS	(To Coriolanus) I prithee, noble friend, home to thy house. Leave us to cure this cause.
MENENIUS	For ’tis a sore upon us You cannot tent yourself. Be gone, beseech you.
(didascalia)	COMINIUS Come, sir, along with us.
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS
MENENIUS	I would they were barbarians, as they are, Though in Rome littered; not Romans, as they are not, Though calved i‘th’ porch o’th’ Capitol.
(didascalia)	MENENIUS Be gone.
MENENIUS	Put not your worthy rage into your tongue. One time will owe another.
CORIOLANUS	On fair ground I could beat forty of them.
MENENIUS	I could myself Take up a brace o’th’ best of them, yea, the two tribunes.
COMINIUS	But now ‘tis odds beyond arithmetic, And manhood is called foolery when it stands Against a falling fabric. (To Coriolanus) Will you hence Before the tag return, whose rage doth rend Like interrupted waters, and o’erbear What they are used to bear?
MENENIUS	(to Coriolanus) Pray you be gone. I’ll try whether my old wit be in request With those that have but little. This must be patched With cloth of any colour.
COMINIUS	Nay, come away.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Coriolanus and Cominius
COMINIUS	A PATRICIAN This man has marred his fortune.
MENENIUS	His nature is too noble for the world. He would not flatter Neptune for his trident Or Jove for’s power to thunder. His heart’s his mouth. What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent, And, being angry, does forget that ever He heard the name of death.
(didascalia)	A noise within
MENENIUS	Here’s goodly work. A PATRICIAN I would they were abed.
MENENIUS	I would they were in Tiber. What the vengeance, could he not speak ’em fair?
(didascalia)	Enter Brutus and Sicinius, with the rabble again
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 naught.
FIRST CITIZEN	He shall well know The noble tribunes are the people’s mouths, And we their hands.
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS
FIRST CITIZEN	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?
(didascalia)	ALL THE 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 our danger, and to keep him here Our certain death. Therefore it is decreed He dies tonight.
MENENIUS	Now the good gods forbid That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude Towards her deserved children is enrolled 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 dropped 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 th’ end o’th’ world.
SICINIUS	This is clean cam.
BRUTUS	Merely awry. When he did love his country It honoured him.
(didascalia)	SICINIUS S
BRUTUS	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 unscanned 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	(to Menenius) 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’th’ wars Since a could draw a sword, and is ill-schooled 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. (To the Citizens) Masters, lay down your weapons.
BRUTUS	Go not home.
SICINIUS	Meet on the market-place. (To Menenius) We’ll attend you there, Where if you bring not Martius, 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.
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR
MENENIUS	Pray you, let’s to him.
(didascalia)	Exeunt tribunes and Citizens at one door,
(didascalia)	Patricians at another door

Atto 3, Scena 2

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus, with Nobles
CORIOLANUS	Let them pull 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.
(didascalia)	Enter Volumnia
CORIOLANUS	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. (To 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.
CORIOLANUS	Let go.
VOLUMNIA	You might have been enough the man you are With striving less to be so. Lesser had been The taxings of your dispositions if You had not showed them how ye were disposed Ere they lacked power to cross you.
CORIOLANUS	Let them hang.
VOLUMNIA	Ay, and burn too.
(didascalia)	Enter Menenius, with the Senators
MENENIUS	(to Coriolanus) Come, come, you have been too rough, something too rough. You must return and mend it.
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR
MENENIUS	There’s no remedy Unless, by not so doing, our good city Cleave in the midst and perish.
VOLUMNIA	(to Coriolanus) Pray be counselled. I have a heart as little apt as yours, But yet a brain that leads my use of anger To better vantage.
MENENIUS	Well said, noble woman. Before he should thus stoop to th’ herd, but that The violent fit o’th’ time craves it as physic For the whole state, I would put mine armour on, Which I can scarcely bear.
CORIOLANUS	What must I do?
MENENIUS	Return to th’ tribunes.
CORIOLANUS	Well, what then, what then?
MENENIUS	Repent what you have spoke.
CORIOLANUS	For them? I cannot do it to the gods. Must I then do’t to them?
VOLUMNIA	You are too absolute, Though therein you can never be too noble, But when extremities speak. I have heard you say, Honour and policy, like unsevered friends, I’th’ war do grow together. Grant that, and tell me In peace what each of them by th’ other lose That they combine not there.
CORIOLANUS	Tush, tush!
MENENIUS	A good demand.
VOLUMNIA	If it be honour in your wars to seem The same you are not, which for your best ends You adopt your policy, how is it less or worse That it shall hold companionship in peace With honour, as in war, since that to both It stands in like request?
CORIOLANUS	Why force you this?
VOLUMNIA	Because that now it lies you on to speak to th’ people, Not by your own instruction, nor by th’ matter Which your heart prompts you, but with such words That are but roted in your tongue, though but Bastards and syllables of no allowance To your bosom’s truth. Now this no more Dishonours you at all than to take in A town with gentle words, which else would put you To your fortune and the hazard of much blood. I would dissemble with my nature where My fortunes and my friends at stake required I should do so in honour. I am in this Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles; And you will rather show our general louts How you can frown than spend a fawn upon ’em For the inheritance of their loves and safeguard Of what that want might ruin.
MENENIUS	Noble lady! (To Coriolanus) Come, go with us, speak fair. You may salve so, Not what is dangerous present, but the loss Of what is past.
VOLUMNIA	I prithee now, my son,
(didascalia)	She takes his bonnet
VOLUMNIA	Go to them with this bonnet in thy hand, And thus far having stretched it—here be with them— Thy knee bussing the stones—for in such business Action is eloquence, and the eyes of th’ ignorant More learnèd than the ears—waving thy head, With often, thus, correcting thy stout heart, Now humble as the ripest mulberry That will not hold the handling; or say to them Thou art their soldier and, being bred in broils, Hast not the soft way which, thou dost confess, Were fit for thee to use as they to claim, In asking their good loves; but thou wilt frame Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs so far As thou hast power and person.
MENENIUS	(to Coriolanus) This but done Even as she speaks, why, their hearts were yours; For they have pardons, being asked, as free As words to little purpose.
VOLUMNIA	(to Coriolanus) Prithee now, Go, and be ruled, although I know thou hadst rather Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf Than flatter him in a bower.
(didascalia)	Enter Cominius
VOLUMNIA	Here is Cominius.
COMINIUS	I have been i‘th’ market-place; and, sir, ’tis fit You make strong party, or defend yourself By calmness or by absence. All’s in anger.
MENENIUS	Only fair speech.
COMINIUS	I think ’twill serve, if he Can thereto frame his spirit.
VOLUMNIA	He must, and will. Prithee now, say you will, and go about it.
CORIOLANUS	Must I go show them my unbarbèd sconce? Must I with my base tongue give to my noble heart A lie that it must bear? Well, I will do’t. Yet were there but this single plot to lose, This mould of Martius they to dust should grind it And throw’t against the wind. To th’ market-place. You have put me now to such a part which never I shall discharge to th’ life.
COMINIUS	Come, come, we’ll prompt you.
VOLUMNIA	I prithee now, sweet son, as thou hast said My praises made thee first a soldier, so, To have my praise for this, perform a part Thou hast not done before.
CORIOLANUS	Well, I must do’t. Away, my disposition; and possess me Some harlot’s spirit! My throat of war be turned, Which choired with my drum, into a pipe Small as an eunuch or the virgin voice That babies lull asleep! The smiles of knaves Tent in my cheeks, and schoolboys’ tears take up The glasses of my sight! A beggar’s tongue Make motion through my lips, and my armed knees, Who bowed but in my stirrup, bend like his That hath received an alms! I will not do’t, Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth, And by my body’s action teach my mind A most inherent baseness.
VOLUMNIA	At thy choice, then. To beg of thee it is my more dishonour Than thou of them. Come all to ruin. Let Thy mother rather feel thy pride than fear Thy dangerous stoutness, for I mock at death With as big heart as thou. Do as thou list. Thy valiantness was mine, thou sucked’st it from me, But owe thy pride thyself.
CORIOLANUS	Pray be content. Mother, I am going to the market-place. Chide me no more. I’ll mountebank their loves, Cog their hearts from them, and come home beloved Of all the trades in Rome. Look, I am going. Commend me to my wife. I’ll return consul, Or never trust to what my tongue can do I’th’ way of flattery further.
VOLUMNIA	Do your will.
(didascalia)	Exit Volumnia
COMINIUS	Away! The tribunes do attend you. Arm yourself To answer mildly, for they are prepared With accusations, as I hear, more strong Than are upon you yet.
CORIOLANUS	The word is ‘mildly’. Pray you let us go. Let them accuse me by invention, I Will answer in mine honour.
MENENIUS	Ay, but mildly.
CORIOLANUS	Well, mildly be it, then—mitd)y.
(didascalia)	Exeunt
CORIOLANUS	3.3 Enter Sicinius and Brutus
BRUTUS	In this point charge him home: that he affects Tyrannical power. If he evade us there, Enforce him with his envy to the people, And that the spoil got on the Antiats Was ne’er distributed.
(didascalia)	Enter an Aedile
BRUTUS	What, will he come?
AEDILE	He’s coming.
BRUTUS	How accompanied?
AEDILE	With old Menenius, and those senators That always favoured him.
SICINIUS	Have you a catalogue Of all the voices that we have procured, Set down by th’ poll?
AEDILE	I have, ’tis ready.
SICINIUS	Have you collected them by tribes?
AEDILE	I have.
SICINIUS	Assemble presently the people hither, And when they hear me say ‘It shall be so I’th’ right and strength o‘th’ commons’, be it either For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them, If I say ‘Fine’, cry ‘Fine!’, if ‘Death’, cry ‘Death!’, Insisting on the old prerogative And power i‘th’ truth o’th’ cause.
AEDILE	I shall inform them.
BRUTUS	And when such time they have begun to cry, Let them not cease, but with a din confused Enforce the present execution Of what we chance to sentence.
AEDILE	Very well.
SICINIUS	Make them be strong, and ready for this hint When we shall hap to give’t them.
(didascalia)	BRUTUS to the Aedile Go about it.
(didascalia)	Exit Aedile
SICINIUS	Put him to choler straight. He hath been used Ever to conquer and to have his worth Of contradiction. Being once chafed, he cannot Be reined again to temperance. Then he speaks What’s in his heart, and that is there which looks With us to break his neck.
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, and Cominius, with other Senators and Patricians
SICINIUS	Well, here he comes.
MENENIUS	(to Coriolanus) Calmly, I do beseech you.
CORIOLANUS	Ay, as an hostler that for th’ poorest piece Will bear the knave by th’ volume.—Th‘honoured gods Keep Rome in safety and the chairs of justice Supplied with worthy men, plant love among’s, Throng our large temples with the shows of peace, And not our streets with war!
FIRST SENATOR	Amen, amen.
MENENIUS	A noble wish.
(didascalia)	Enter the Aedile with the Citizens
SICINIUS	Draw near, ye people.
AEDILE	List to your tribunes. Audience! Peace, I say.
CORIOLANUS	First, hear me speak.
SICINIUS	and BRUTUS Well, say.—Peace ho!
CORIOLANUS	Shall I be charged no further than this present? Must all determine here?
SICINIUS	I do demand If you submit you to the people’s voices, Allow their officers, and are content To suffer lawful censure for such faults As shall be proved upon you.
CORIOLANUS	I am content.
MENENIUS	Lo, citizens, he says he is content. The warlike service he has done, consider. Think Upon the wounds his body bears, which show Like graves i’th’ holy churchyard.
CORIOLANUS	Scratches with briers, Scars to move laughter only.
MENENIUS	Consider further That when he speaks not like a citizen, You find him like a soldier. Do not take His rougher accents for malicious sounds, But, as I say, such as become a soldier Rather than envy you.
COMINIUS	Well, well, no more.
CORIOLANUS	What is the matter That, being passed for consul with full voice, I am so dishonoured that the very hour You take it off again?
SICINUS	Answer to us.
CORIOLANUS	Say, then. ’Tis true I ought so.
SICINIUS	We charge you that you have contrived to take From Rome all seasoned office, and to wind Yourself into a power tyrannical, For which you are a traitor to the people.
CORIOLANUS	How, traitor?
MENENIUS	Nay, temperatety—your promise.
CORIOLANUS	The fires i‘th’ lowest hell fold in the people! Call me their traitor, thou injurious tribune?
(didascalia)	Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths,
CORIOLANUS	In thy hands clutched as many millions, in Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say ‘Thou liest’ unto thee with a voice as free As I do pray the gods.
SICINIUS	Mark you this, people?
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS To th’ rock, to th’ rock with him!
SICINIUS	Peace! We need not put new matter to his charge. What you have seen him do and heard him speak, Beating your officers, cursing yourselves, Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying Those whose great power must try him— Even this, so criminal and in such capital kind, Deserves th’extremest death.
BRUTUS	But since he hath Served well for Rome—
CORIOLANUS	What do you prate of service?
BRUTUS	I talk of that that know it.
CORIOLANUS	You?
MENENIUS	Is this the promise that you made your mother?
COMINIUS	Know, I pray you—
CORIOLANUS	I’ll know no further. Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death, Vagabond exile, flaying, pent to linger But with a grain a day, I would not buy Their mercy at the price of one fair word, Nor check my courage for what they can give To have’t with saying ‘Good morrow’.
SICINIUS	For that he has, As much as in him lies, from time to time Inveighed against the people, seeking means To pluck away their power, as now at last Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers That doth distribute it, in the name o‘th’ people, And in the power of us the tribunes, we E’en from this instant banish him our city In peril of precipitation From off the rock Tarpeian, never more To enter our Rome gates. I’th’ people’s name I say it shall be so.
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS It shall be so,
SICINIUS	It shall be so. Let him away. He’s banished, And it shall be so.
COMINIUS	Hear me, my masters and my common friends.
SICINIUS	He’s sentenced. No more hearing.
COMINIUS	Let me speak. I have been consul, and can show for Rome Her enemies’ marks upon me. I do love My country’s good with a respect more tender, More holy and profound, than mine own life, My dear wife’s estimate, her womb’s increase, And treasure of my loins. Then if I would Speak that—
SICINIUS	We know your drift. Speak what?
BRUTUS	There’s no more to be said, but he is banished, As enemy to the people and his country. It shall be so.
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS It shall be so, it shall be so.
CORIOLANUS	You common cry of curs, whose breath I hate As reek o’th’ rotten fens, whose loves I prize As the dead carcasses of unburied men That do corrupt my air: I banish you. And here remain with your uncertainty. Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts; Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes, Fan you into despair! Have the power still To banish your defenders, till at length Your ignorance—which finds not till it feels— Making but reservation of yourselves, Still your own foes, deliver you As most abated captives to some nation That won you without blows! Despising For you the city, thus I turn my back. There is a world elsewhere.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Coriolanus, Cominius, and Menenius, with the rest of the Patricians. The Citizens all shout, and throw up their caps
AEDILE	The people’s enemy is gone, is gone.
ALL THE CITIZENS	Our enemy is banished, he is gone. Hoo-oo!
SICINIUS	Go see him out at gates, and follow him As he hath followed you, with all despite. Give him deserved vexation. Let a guard Attend us through the city.
ALL THE CITIZENS	Come, come, let’s see him out at gates. Come. The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come. Exeunt

Atto 4, Scena 1

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus, Volumnia, Virgilia, Menenius, and Cominius, with the young nobility of Rome
CORIOLANUS	Come, leave your tears. A brief farewell. The beast With many heads butts me away. Nay, mother, Where is your ancient courage? You were used To say extremities was the trier of spirits, That common chances common men could bear, That when the sea was calm all boats alike Showed mastership in floating; fortune’s blows When most struck home, being gentle wounded craves A noble cunning. You were used to load me With precepts that would make invincible The heart that conned them.
VIRGILIA	O heavens, O heavens!
CORIOLANUS	Nay, I prithee, woman—
VOLUMNIA	Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome, And occupations perish!
CORIOLANUS	What, what, what? I shall be loved when I am lacked. Nay, mother, Resume that spirit when you were wont to say, If you had been the wife of Hercules Six of his labours you’d have done, and saved Your husband so much sweat. Cominius, Droop not. Adieu. Farewell, my wife, my mother. I’ll do well yet. Thou old and true Menenius, Thy tears are salter than a younger man‘s, And venomous to thine eyes. My sometime general, I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld Heart-hard’ning spectacles. Tell these sad women ‘Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes As ’tis to laugh at ’em. My mother, you wot well My hazards still have been your solace, and— Believe’t not lightly—though I go alone, Like to a lonely dragon that his fen Makes feared and talked of more than seen, your son Will or exceed the common or be caught With cautelous baits and practice.
VOLUMNIA	My first son, Whither will thou go? Take good Cominius With thee a while. Determine on some course More than a wild exposure to each chance That starts i’th’ way before thee.
(didascalia)	VIRGILIA O the gods!
COMINIUS	I’ll follow thee a month, devise with thee Where thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of us And we of thee. So, if the time thrust forth A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send O‘er the vast world to seek a single man, And lose advantage, which doth ever cool I’th’ absence of the needer.
CORIOLANUS	Fare ye well. Thou hast years upon thee, and thou art too full Of the wars’ surfeits to go rove with one That’s yet unbruised. Bring me but out at gate. Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and My friends of noble touch. When I am forth, Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you come. While I remain above the ground you shall Hear from me still, and never of me aught But what is like me formerly.
MENENIUS	That’s worthily As any ear can hear. Come, let’s not weep. If I could shake off but one seven years From these old arms and legs, by the good gods, I’d with thee every foot.
CORIOLANUS	Give me thy hand. Come.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 4, Scena 2

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter the two tribunes, Sicinius and Brutus, with the Aedile
SICINIUS	(to the Aedile) Bid them all home. He’s gone, and we’ll no further. The nobility are vexed, whom we see have sided In his behalf.
BRUTUS	Now we have shown our power, Let us seem humbler after it is done Than when it was a-doing.
SICINIUS	(to the Aedile) Bid them home. Say their great enemy is gone, and they Stand in their ancient strength.
BRUTUS	Dismiss them home.
(didascalia)	Exit Aedile
(didascalia)	Enter Volumnia, Virgilia, weeping, and Menenius
BRUTUS	Here comes his mother.
SICINIUS	Let’s not meet her.
BRUTUS	Why?
SICINIUS	They say she’s mad.
BRUTUS	They have ta’en note of us. Keep on your way.
VOLUMNIA	O, you’re well met! Th‘hoarded plague o’th’ gods Requite your love!
MENENIUS	Peace, peace, be not so loud.
VOLUMNIA	(to the tribunes) If that I could for weeping, you should hear— Nay, and you shall hear some. Will you be gone?
VIRGILIA	(to the tribunes) You shall stay, too. I would I had the power To say so to my husband.
SICINIUS	(to Volumnia) Are you mankind?
VOLUMNIA	Ay, fool. Is that a shame? Note but this, fool: Was not a man my father? Hadst thou foxship To banish him that struck more blows for Rome Than thou hast spoken words?
SICINIUS	O blessed heavens!
VOLUMNIA	More noble blows than ever thou wise words, And for Rome’s good. I’ll tell thee what—yet go. Nay, but thou shalt stay too. I would my son Were in Arabia, and thy tribe before him, His good sword in his hand.
SICINIUS	What then?
VIRGILIA	What then? He’d make an end of thy posterity.
VOLUMNIA	Bastards and all. Good man, the wounds that he does bear for Romeǃ MENENIUS Come, come, peace.
SICINIUS	I would he had continued to his country As he began, and not unknit himself The noble knot he made.
BRUTUS	I would he had.
VOLUMNIA	‘I would he had’! ’Twas you incensed the rabble— Cats that can judge as fitly of his worth As I can of those mysteries which heaven Will not have earth to know.
BRUTUS	(to Sicinius) Pray, let’s go.
VOLUMNIA	Now pray, sir, get you gone. You have done a brave deed. Ere you go, hear this: As far as doth the Capitol exceed The meanest house in Rome, so far my son— This lady’s husband here, this, do you see?— Whom you have banished does exceed you all.
BRUTUS	Well, well, we’ll leave you.
SICINIUS	Why stay we to be baited With one that wants her wits?
(didascalia)	Exeunt tribunes
VOLUMNIA	Take my prayers with you. I would the gods had nothing else to do But to confirm my curses. Could I meet ’em But once a day, it would unclog my heart Of what lies heavy to’t.
MENENIUS	You have told them home And, by my troth, you have cause. You’ll sup with me?
VOLUMNIA	Anger’s my meat, I sup upon myself, And so shall starve with feeding. (To Virgilia) Come, let’s go. Leave this faint puling and lament as I do, In anger, Juno-like. Come, come, come.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Volumnia and Virgilia
MENENIUS	Fie, fie, fie.
(didascalia)	Exit

Atto 4, Scena 3

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Nicanor, a Roman, and Adrian, a Volscian
NICANOR	I know you well, sir, and you know me. Your name, I think, is Adrian.
ADRIAN	It is so, sir. Truly, I have forgot you.
NICANOR	I am a Roman, and my services are, as you are, against ’em. Know you me yet?
ADRIAN	Nicanor, no?
NICANOR	The same, sir.
ADRIAN	You had more beard when I last saw you, but your favour is well approved by your tongue. What’s the news in Rome? I have a note from the Volscian state to find you out there. You have well saved me a day’s journey.
NICANOR	There hath been in Rome strange insurrections, the people against the senators, patricians, and nobles.
ADRIAN	Hath been?—is it ended then? Our state thinks not so. They are in a most warlike preparation, and hope to come upon them in the heat of their division.
NICANOR	The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing would make it flame again, for the nobles receive so to heart the banishment of that worthy Coriolanus that they are in a ripe aptness to take all power from the people, and to pluck from them their tribunes for ever. This lies glowing, I can tell you, and is almost mature for the violent breaking out.
ADRIAN	Coriolanus banished?
NICANOR	Banished, sir.
ADRIAN	You will be welcome with this intelligence, Nicanor.
NICANOR	The day serves well for them now. I have heard it said the fittest time to corrupt a man’s wife is when she’s fallen out with her husband. Your noble Tullus Aufidius will appear well in these wars, his great opposer Coriolanus being now in no request of his country.
ADRIAN	He cannot choose. I am most fortunate thus accidentally to encounter you. You have ended my business, and I will merrily accompany you home.
NICANOR	I shall between this and supper tell you most strange things from Rome, all tending to the good of their adversaries. Have you an army ready, say you?
ADRIAN	A most royal one—the centurions and their charges distinctly billeted already in th’entertainment, and to be on foot at an hour’s warning.
NICANOR	I am joyful to hear of their readiness, and am the man, I think, that shall set them in present action. So, sir, heartily well met, and most glad of your company.
ADRIAN	You take my part from me, sir. I have the most cause to be glad of yours.
NICANOR	Well, let us go together. Exeunt

Atto 4, Scena 4

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus in mean apparel, disguised and muffled
CORIOLANUS	A goodly city is this Antium. City, ’Tis I that made thy widows. Many an heir Of these fair edifices fore my wars Have I heard groan and drop. Then know me not, Lest that thy wives with spits and boys with stones In puny battle slay me.
(didascalia)	Enter a Citizen
CORIOLANUS	Save you, sir.
CITIZEN	And you.
CORIOLANUS	Direct me, if it be your will, Where great Aufidius lies. Is he in Antium?
CITIZEN	He is, and feasts the nobles of the state At his house this night.
CORIOLANUS	Which is his house, beseech you?
CITIZEN	This here before you.
CORIOLANUS	Thank you, sir. Farewell.
(didascalia)	Exit Citizen
CORIOLANUS	O world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn, Whose double bosoms seem to wear one heart, Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal and exercise Are still together, who twin as ’twere in love Unseparable, shall within this hour, On a dissension of a doit, break out To bitterest enmity. So fellest foes, Whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleep To take the one the other, by some chance, Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends And interjoin their issues. So with me. My birthplace hate I, and my love’s upon This enemy town. I’ll enter. If he slay me, He does fair justice; if he give me way, I’ll do his country service.
(didascalia)	Exit

Atto 4, Scena 5

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Music plays. Enter a Servingman
FIRST SERVINGMAN	Wine, wine, wine! What service is here? I think our fellows are asleep.
(didascalia)	Exit
(didascalia)	Enter a Second Servingman
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Where’s Cotus? My master calls for him. Cotus!
(didascalia)	Exit
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus, as before
CORIOLANUS	A goodly house. The feast Smells well, but I appear not like a guest.
(didascalia)	Enter the First Servingman
FIRST SERVINGMAN	What would you have, friend? Whence are you? Here’s no place for you. Pray go to the door.
(didascalia)	Exit
CORIOLANUS	I have deserved no better entertainment In being Coriolanus.
(didascalia)	Enter Second Servingman
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Whence are you, sir? Has the porter his eyes in his head, that he gives entrance to such companions? Pray get you out.
CORIOLANUS	Away!
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Away? Get you away.
CORIOLANUS	Now thou’rt troublesome.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Are you so brave? I’ll have you talked with anon.
(didascalia)	Enter Third Servingman. The First meets him
THIRD SERVINGMAN	What fellow’s this?
FIRST SERVINGMAN	A strange one as ever I looked on. I cannot get him out o’th’ house. Prithee, call my master to him.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	(to Coriolanus) What have you to do here, fellow? Pray you, avoid the house.
CORIOLANUS	Let me but stand. I will not hurt your hearth.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	What are you?
CORIOLANUS	A gentleman.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	A marvellous poor one.
CORIOLANUS	True, so I am.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other station. Here’s no place for you. Pray you, avoid. Come.
CORIOLANUS	Follow your function. Go and batten on cold bits. He pushes him away from him
THIRD SERVINGMAN	What, you will not?—Prithee tell my master what a strange guest he has here.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	And I shall.
(didascalia)	Exit Second Servingman
THIRD SERVINGMAN	Where dwell’st thou?
CORIOLANUS	Under the canopy.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	Under the canopy?
CORIOLANUS	Ay.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	Where’s that?
CORIOLANUS	I’th’ city of kites and crows.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	I‘th’ city of kites and crows? What an ass it is! Then thou dwell’st with daws, too?
CORIOLANUS	No, I serve not thy master.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	How, sir? Do you meddle with my master?
CORIOLANUS	Ay, ‘tis an honester service than to meddle with thy mistress. Thou prat’st and prat’st. Serve with thy trencher. Hence! He beats him away.
(didascalia)	Enter Aufidius, with the Second Servingman
AUFIDIUS	Where is this fellow?
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Here, sir. I’d have beaten him like a dog but for disturbing the lords within.
(didascalia)	The Servingmen stand aside
AUFIDIUS	Whence com‘st thou? What wouldst thou? Thy name? Why speak’st not? Speak, man. What’s thy name?
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS unmuffling his head
AUFIDIUS	If, Tullus, Not yet thou know’st me, and seeing me dost not Think me for the man I am, necessity Commands me name myself.
AUFIDIUS	What is thy name?
CORIOLANUS	A name unmusical to the Volscians’ ears And harsh in sound to thine.
AUFIDIUS	Say, what’s thy name? Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face Bears a command in’t. Though thy tackle’s torn, Thou show’st a noble vessel. What’s thy name?
CORIOLANUS	Prepare thy brow to frown. Know’st thou me yet?
AUFIDIUS	I know thee not. Thy name?
CORIOLANUS	My name is Caius Martius, who hath done To thee particularly, and to all the Volsces, Great hurt and mischief. Thereto witness may My surname Coriolanus. The painful service, The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood Shed for my thankless country, are requited But with that surname—a good memory And witness of the malice and displeasure Which thou shouldst bear me. Only that name remains. The cruelty and envy of the people, Permitted by our dastard nobles, who Have all forsook me, hath devoured the rest, And suffered me by th’ voice of slaves to be Whooped out of Rome. Now this extremity Hath brought me to thy hearth. Not out of hope— Mistake me not—to save my life, for if I had feared death, of all the men i‘th’ world I would have ’voided thee, but in mere spite To be full quit of those my banishers Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast A heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revenge Thine own particular wrongs and stop those maims Of shame seen through thy country, speed thee straight, And make my misery serve thy turn. So use it That my revengeful services may prove As benefits to thee; for I will fight Against my cankered country with the spleen Of all the under-fiends. But if so be Thou dar‘st not this, and that to prove more fortunes Thou’rt tired, then, in a word, I also am Longer to live most weary, and present My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice, Which not to cut would show thee but a fool, Since I have ever followed thee with hate, Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country’s breast, And cannot live but to thy shame unless It be to do thee service.
AUFIDIUS	O Martius, Martius! Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter Should from yon cloud speak divine things And say “Tis true’, I’d not believe them more Than thee, all-noble Martius. Let me twine Mine arms about that body whereagainst My grained ash an hundred times hath broke, And scarred the moon with splinters. (He embraces Coriolanus) Here I clip The anvil of my sword, and do contest As hotly and as nobly with thy love As ever in ambitious strength I did Contend against thy valour. Know thou first, I loved the maid I married; never man Sighed truer breath. But that I see thee here, Thou noble thing, more dances my rapt heart Than when I first my wedded mistress saw Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars, I tell thee We have a power on foot, and I had purpose Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn, Or lose mine arm for’t. Thou hast beat me out Twelve several times, and I have nightly since Dreamt of encounters ‘twixt thyself and me— We have been down together in my sleep, Unbuckling helms, fisting each other’s throat— And waked half dead with nothing. Worthy Martius, Had we no other quarrel else to Rome but that Thou art thence banished, we would muster all From twelve to seventy, and, pouring war Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome, Like a bold flood o’erbear’t. O, come, go in, And take our friendly senators by th’ hands Who now are here taking their leaves of me, Who am prepared against your territories, Though not for Rome itself.
CORIOLANUS	You bless me, gods.
AUFIDIUS	Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have The leading of thine own revenges, take Th‘one half of my commission and set down— As best thou art experienced, since thou know’st Thy country’s strength and weakness—thine own ways: Whether to knock against the gates of Rome, Or rudely visit them in parts remote To fright them ere destroy. But come in. Let me commend thee first to those that shall Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes! And more a friend than ere an enemy; Yet, Martius, that was much. Your hand. Most welcome!
(didascalia)	Exeunt
(didascalia)	The two Servingmen come forward
FIRST SERVINGMAN	Here’s a strange alteration!
SECOND SERVINGMAN	By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with a cudgel, and yet my mind gave me his clothes made a false report of him.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	What an arm he has! He turned me about with his finger and his thumb as one would set up a top.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him. He had, sir, a kind of face, methought—I cannot tell how to term it.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	He had so, looking, as it were—wou)d I were hanged but I thought there was more in him than I could think.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	So did I, I’ll be sworn. He is simply the rarest man i’th’ world.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	I think he is yet a greater soldier than he you wot on.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Who, my master?
FIRST SERVINGMAN	Nay, it’s no matter for that.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Worth six on him.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	Nay, not so, neither; but I take him to be the greater soldier.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that. For the defence of a town our general is excellent.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	Ay, and for an assault too.
(didascalia)	Enter the Third Servingman
THIRD SERVINGMAN	O, slaves, I can tell you news—news, you rascals!
FIRST	and SECOND SERVINGMEN What, what, what? Let’s partake.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	I would not be a Roman of all nations. I had as lief be a condemned man.
FIRST	and SECOND SERVINGMEN Wherefore? Wherefore?
THIRD SERVINGMAN	Why, here’s he that was wont to thwack our general, Caius Martius.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	Why do you say ‘thwack our general’?
THIRD SERVINGMAN	I do not say ‘thwack our general’; but he was always good enough for him.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Come, we are fellows and friends. He was ever too hard for him. I have heard him say so himself.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	He was too hard for him directly. To say the truth on’t, before Corioles he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	An he had been cannibally given, he might have broiled and eaten him too.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	But more of thy news!
THIRD SERVINGMAN	Why, he is so made on here within as if he were son and heir to Mars; set at upper end o‘th’ table, no question asked him by any of the senators but they stand bald before him. Our general’ himself makes a mistress of him, sanctifies himself with’s hand, and turns up the white o’th’ eye to his discourse. But the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i’th’ middle, and but one half of what he was yesterday, for the other has half by the entreaty and grant of the whole table. He’ll go, he says, and sowl the porter of Rome gates by th’ ears. He will mow all down before him, and leave his passage polled.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	And he’s as like to do’t as any man I can imagine.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	Do’t? He will do’t; for look you, sir, he has as many friends as enemies; which friends, sir, as it were durst not—look you, sir—show themselves, as we term it, his friends whilst he’s in dejectitude.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	Dejectitude? What’s that?
THIRD SERVINGMAN	But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again and the man in blood, they will out of their burrows like conies after rain, and revel all with him.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	But when goes this forward?
THIRD SERVINGMAN	Tomorrow, today, presently. You shall have the drum struck up this afternoon. ’Tis as it were a parcel of their feast, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	Let me have war, say I. It exceeds peace as far as day does night. It’s sprightly walking, audible and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war’s a destroyer of men.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	’Tis so, and as war in some sort may be said to be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	Ay, and it makes men hate one another.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	Reason; because they then less need one another. The wars for my money. I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volscians.
(didascalia)	A sound within
THIRD SERVINGMAN	They are rising, they are rising.
FIRST	and SECOND SERVINGMEN In, in, in, in.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 4, Scena 6

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter the two tribunes, Sicinius and Brutus
SICINIUS	We hear not of him, neither need we fear him. His remedies are tame—the present peace And quietness of the people, which before Were in wild hurry. Here do we make his friends Blush that the world goes well, who rather had, Though they themselves did suffer by‘t, behold Dissentious numbers pest’ring streets than see Our tradesmen singing in their shops and going About their functions friendly.
(didascalia)	Enter Menenius
BRUTUS	We stood to’t in good time. Is this Menenius?
SICINIUS	‘Tis he, ’tis he. O, he is grown most kind of late. Hail, sir.
MENENIUS	Hail to you both.
SICINIUS	Your Coriolanus is not much missed But with his friends. The commonwealth doth stand, And so would do were he more angry at it.
MENENIUS	All’s well, and might have been much better if He could have temporized.
SICINIUS	Where is he, hear you?
MENENIUS	Nay, I hear nothing. His mother and his wife hear nothing from him.
(didascalia)	Enter three or four Citizens
ALL THE CITIZENS	(to the tribunes) The gods preserve you both.
SICINIUS	Good e’en, our neighbours.
BRUTUS	Good e‘en to you all, good e’en to you all.
FIRST CITIZEN	Ourselves, our wives and children, on our knees Are bound to pray for you both.
SICINIUS	Live and thrive.
BRUTUS	Farewell, kind neighbours. We wished Coriolanus had loved you as we did.
ALL THE CITIZENS	Now the gods keep you!
SICINIUS	and BRUTUS Farewell, farewell.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Citizens
SICINIUS	This is a happier and more comely time Than when these fellows ran about the streets Crying confusion.
BRUTUS	Caius Martius was A worthy officer i‘th’ war, but insolent, O’ercome with pride, ambitious past all thinking, Self-loving—
SICINIUS	And affecting one sole throne Without assistance.
MENENIUS	I think not so.
SICINIUS	We should by this, to all our lamentation, If he had gone forth consul found it so.
BRUTUS	The gods have well prevented it, and Rome Sits safe and still without him.
(didascalia)	Enter an Aedile
AEDILE	Worthy tribunes, There is a slave whom we have put in prison Reports the Volsces, with two several powers, Are entered in the Roman territories, And with the deepest malice of the war Destroy what lies before ’em.
MENENIUS	’Tis Aufidius, Who, hearing of our Martius’ banishment, Thrusts forth his horns again into the world, Which were inshelled when Martius stood for Rome, And durst not once peep out.
SICINIUS	Come, what talk you of Martius? BRUTUS (to the Aedile) Go see this rumourer whipped. It cannot be The Volsces dare break with us.
MENENIUS	Cannot be? We have record that very well it can, And three examples of the like hath been
(didascalia)	Within my age. But reason with the fellow,
MENENIUS	Before you punish him, where he heard this, Lest you shall chance to whip your information And beat the messenger who bids beware Of what is to be dreaded.
SICINIUS	Tell not me. I know this cannot be.
BRUTUS	Not possible.
(didascalia)	Enter a Messenger
MESSENGER	The nobles in great earnestness are going All to the senate-house. Some news is come That turns their countenances.
SICINIUS	’Tis this slave. (To the Aedile) Go whip him fore the people’s eyes.— His raising, Nothing but his report.
(didascalia)	Exit Aedile
MESSENGER	Yes, worthy sir, The slave’s report is seconded, and more, More fearful, is delivered.
SICINIUS	What more fearful?
MESSENGER	It is spoke freely out of many mouths— How probable I do not know—that Martius, Joined with Aufidius, leads a power ‘gainst Rome, And vows revenge as spacious as between The young’st and oldest thing.
SICINIUS	This is most likely!
BRUTUS	Raised only that the weaker sort may wish Good Martius home again.
SICINIUS	The very trick on’t.
MENENIUS	This is unlikely. He and Aufidius can no more atone Than violent’st contrariety.
(didascalia)	Enter another Messenger
SECOND MESSENGER	You are sent for to the senate. A fearful army, led by Caius Martius Associated with Aufidius, rages Upon our territories, and have already O’erborne their way, consumed with fire and took What lay before them.
(didascalia)	Enter Cominius
COMINIUS	O, you have made good work!
MENENIUS	What news? What news?
COMINIUS	You have holp to ravish your own daughters and To melt the city leads upon your pates, To see your wives dishonoured to your noses.
MENENIUS	What’s the news? What’s the news?
COMINIUS	Your temples burned in their cement, and Your franchises, whereon you stood, confined Into an auger’s bore.
MENENIUS	Pray now, your news? (To the tribunes) You have made fair work, I fear me. (To Cominius) Pray, your news. If Martius should be joined wi’th’ Volscians—
COMINIUS	If? He is their god. He leads them like a thing Made by some other deity than nature, That shapes man better, and they follow him Against us brats with no less confidence Than boys pursuing summer butterflies, Or butchers killing flies.
MENENIUS	(to the tribunes) You have made good work, You and your apron-men, you that stood so much Upon the voice of occupation and The breath of garlic-eaters!
COMINIUS	(to the tribunes) He’ll shake your Rome about your ears.
MENENIUS	As Hercules did shake down mellow fruit. (To the tribunes) You have made fair work.
BRUTUS	But is this true, sir?
COMINIUS	Ay, and you’ll look pale Before you find it other. All the regions Do smilingly revolt, and who resists Are mocked for valiant ignorance, And perish constant fools. Who is’t can blame him? Your enemies and his find something in him.
MENENIVS	We are all undone unless The noble man have mercy.
COMINIUS	Who shall ask it? The tribunes cannot do‘t, for shame; the people Deserve such pity of him as the wolf Does of the shepherds. For his best friends, if they Should say ‘Be good to Rome’, they charged him even As those should do that had deserved his hate, And therein showed like enemies.
MENENIUS	’Tis true. If he were putting to my house the brand That should consume it, I have not the face To say ‘Beseech you, cease.’ (To the tribunes) You have made fair hands, You and your crafts! You have crafted fair!
COMINIUS	(to the tribunes) You have brought A trembling upon Rome such as was never S’incapable of help.
SICINIUS	and BRUTUS Say not we brought it.
MENENIUS	How? Was’t we? We loved him, but like beasts and cowardly nobles Gave way unto your clusters, who did hoot Him out o’th’ city.
COMINIUS	But I fear They’ll roar him in again. Tullus Aufidius, The second name of men, obeys his points As if he were his officer. Desperation Is all the policy, strength, and defence That Rome can make against them.
(didascalia)	Enter a troop of Citizens
MENENIUS	Here come the clusters. (To the Citizens) And is Aufidius with him? You are they That made the air unwholesome when you cast Your stinking greasy caps in hooting at Coriolanus’ exile. Now he’s coming, And not a hair upon a soldier’s head Which will not prove a whip. As many coxcombs As you threw caps up will he tumble down, And pay you for your voices. ’Tis no matter. If he could burn us all into one coal, We have deserved it.
ALL THE CITIZENS	Faith, we hear fearful news.
FIRST CITIZEN	For mine own part, When I said ‘banish him’ I said ’twas pity.
SECOND CITIZEN	And so did I.
THIRD CITIZEN	And so did I, and to say the truth so did very many of us. That we did, we did for the best, and though we willingly consented to his banishment, yet it was against our will.
COMINIUS	You’re goodly things, you voices.
MENENIUS	You have made good work, You and your cry. Shall’s to the Capitol?
COMINIUS	O, ay, what else?
(didascalia)	Exeunt Menenius and Cominius
SICINIUS	Go, masters, get you home. Be not dismayed. These are a side that would be glad to have This true which they so seem to fear. Go home, And show no sign of fear.
FIRST CITIZEN	The gods be good to us! Come, masters, let’s home. I ever said we were i’th’ wrong when we banished him.
SECOND CITIZEN	So did we all. But come, let’s home.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Citizens
BRUTUS	I do not like this news.
SICINIUS	Nor I.
BRUTUS	Let’s to the Capitol. Would half my wealth Would buy this for a lie.
SICINIUS	Pray let’s go.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 4, Scena 7

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Aufidius with his Lieutenant
AUFIDIUS	Do they still fly to th’ Roman?
LIEUTENANT	I do not know what witchcraft’s in him, but Your soldiers use him as the grace fore meat, Their talk at table, and their thanks at end, And you are darkened in this action, sir, Even by your own.
AUFIDIUS	I cannot help it now, Unless by using means I lame the foot Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier, Even to my person, than I thought he would When first I did embrace him. Yet his nature In that’s no changeling, and I must excuse What cannot be amended.
LIEUTENANT	Yet I wish, sir I mean for your particular—you had not Joined in commission with him, but either Have borne the action of yourself or else To him had left it solely.
AUFIDIUS	I understand thee well, and be thou sure, When he shall come to his account, he knows not What I can urge against him. Although it seems— And so he thinks, and is no less apparent To th’ vulgar eye—that he bears all things fairly And shows good husbandry for the Volscian state, Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon As draw his sword, yet he hath left undone That which shall break his neck or hazard mine Whene’er we come to our account.
LIEUTENANT	Sir, I beseech you, think you he’ll carry Rome?
AUFIDIUS	All places yields to him ere he sits down, And the nobility of Rome are his. The senators and patricians love him too. The tribunes are no soldiers, and their people Will be as rash in the repeal as hasty To expel him thence. I think he’ll be to Rome As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it By sovereignty of nature. First he was A noble servant to them, but he could not Carry his honours even. Whether ‘twas pride, Which out of daily fortune ever taints The happy man; whether defect of judgement, To fail in the disposing of those chances Which he was lord of; or whether nature, Not to be other than one thing, not moving From th’ casque to th’ cushion, but commanding peace Even with the same austerity and garb As he controlled the war: but one of these— As he hath spices of them all—not all, For I dare so far free him—made him feared, So hated, and so banished. But he has a merit To choke it in the utt’rance. So our virtues Lie in th‘interpretation of the time, And power, unto itself most commendable, Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair T’extol what it hath done. One fire drives out one fire, one nail one nail; Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail. Come, let’s away. When, Caius, Rome is thine, Thou art poor’st of all; then shortly art thou mine.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 5, Scena 1

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Menenius, Cominius, Sicinius and Brutus, the two tribunes, with others
MENENIUS	No, I’ll not go. You hear what he hath said Which was sometime his general, who loved him In a most dear particular. He called me father, But what o’ that? (To the tribunes) Go, you that banished him. A mile before his tent fall down, and knee The way into his mercy. Nay, if he coyed To hear Cominius speak, I’ll keep at home.
COMINIUS	He would not seem to know me.
MENENIUS	(to the tribunes) Do you hear?
COMINIUS	Yet one time he did call me by my name. I urged our old acquaintance and the drops That we have bled together. ‘Coriolanus’ He would not answer to, forbade all names. He was a kind of nothing, titleless, Till he had forged himself a name o’th’ fire Of burning Rome.
MENENIUS	(to the tribunes) Why, so! You have made good work. A pair of tribunes that have wracked fair Rome To make coals cheap—a noble memory!
COMINIUS	I minded him how royal ’twas to pardon When it was less expected. He replied It was a bare petition of a state To one whom they had punished.
MENENIUS	Very well. Could he say less?
COMINIUS	I offered to awaken his regard For’s private friends. His answer to me was He could not stay to pick them in a pile Of noisome, musty chaff. He said ‘twas folly, For one poor grain or two, to leave unburnt And still to nose th’offence.
MENENIUS	For one poor grain or two? I am one of those. His mother, wife, his child, And this brave fellow too—we are the grains. (To the tribunes) You are the musty chaff, and you are smelt Above the moon. We must be burnt for you.
SICINIUS	Nay, pray be patient. If you refuse your aid In this so never-needed help, yet do not Upbraid’s with our distress. But sure, if you Would be your country’s pleader, your good tongue, More than the instant army we can make, Might stop our countryman.
MENENIUS	No, I’ll not meddle.
SICINIUS	Pray you go to him.
MENENIUS	What should I do?
BRUTUS	Only make trial what your love can do For Rome towards Martius.
MENENIUS	Well, and say that Martius return me, As Cominius is returned, unheard—what then? But as a discontented friend, grief-shot With his unkindness? Say’t be so?
SICINIUS	Yet your good will Must have that thanks from Rome after the measure As you intended well.
MENENIUS	I’ll undertake’t. I think he’ll hear me. Yet to bite his lip And ’hmh’ at good Cominius much unhearts me. He was not taken well, he had not dined. The veins unfilled, our blood is cold, and then We pout upon the morning, are unapt To give or to forgive; but when we have stuffed These pipes and these conveyances of our blood With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls Than in our priest-like fasts. Therefore I’ll watch him Till he be dieted to my request, And then I’ll set upon him.
BRUTUS	You know the very road into his kindness, And cannot lose your way.
MENENIUS	Good faith, I’ll prove him. Speed how it will, I shall ere long have knowledge Of my success.
(didascalia)	Exit
COMINIUS	He’ll never hear him.
SICINIUS	Not?
COMINIUS	I tell you, he does sit in gold, his eye Red as ‘twould burn Rome, and his injury The jailer to his pity. I kneeled before him; ’Twas very faintly he said ‘Rise’, dismissed me Thus with his speechless hand. What he would do He sent in writing after me, what he would not, Bound with an oath to hold to his conditions. So that all hope is vain unless his noble mother And his wife, who as I hear mean to solicit him For mercy to his country. Therefore let’s hence, And with our fair entreaties haste them on.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 5, Scena 2

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Menenius to the Watch or guard
FIRST WATCHMAN	Stay. Whence are you?
SECOND WATCHMAN	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.
FIRST WATCHMAN	From whence?
MENENIUS	From Rome.
FIRST WATCHMAN	You may not pass, you must return. Our general will no more hear from thence.
SECOND WATCHMAN	You’ll see your Rome embraced with fire before 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 touched your ears. It is Menenius.
FIRST WATCHMAN	Be it so; go back. The virtue of your name Is not here passable.
MENENIUS	I tell thee, fellow, Thy general is my lover. I have been The book of his good acts, whence men have read His fame unparalleled happily 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, I have tumbled past the throw, and in his praise Have almost stamped the leasing. Therefore, fellow, I must have leave to pass.
FIRST WATCHMAN	Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in his behalf as you have uttered words in your own, you 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 WATCHMAN	Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say you 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 WATCHMAN	You are a Roman, are you?
MENENIUS	I am as thy general is.
FIRST WATCHMAN	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 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 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 use me with estimation.
FIRST WATCHMAN	Come, my captain knows you not.
MENENIUS	I mean thy general.
FIRST WATCHMAN	My general cares not for you. Back, I say, go, lest I let forth your half pint of blood. Back. That’s the utmost of your having. Back.
MENENIUS	Nay, but fellow, fellow—
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus with Aufidius
CORIOLANUS	What’s the matter?
MENENIUS	(to First Watchman) Now, you companion, I’ll say an errand for you. You shall know now that I am in estimation. You shall perceive that a jack guardant cannot office me from my son Coriolanus. Guess but by my entertainment with him if thou stand‘st not i’th’ state of hanging, or of some death more long in spectatorship and crueller in suffering. Behold now 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! (Weeping) O, my son, my son, thou art preparing fire for us. Look thee, here’s 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 our gates with sighs, and conjure thee to pardon Rome and thy petitionary countrymen. The good gods assuage thy 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?
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 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, He gives him a letter Take this along. I writ it for thy sake, And would have sent it. Another word, Menenius, I will not hear thee speak.—This man, Aufidius, Was my beloved in Rome; yet thou behold’st.
AUFIDIUS	You keep a constant temper.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Coriolanus and Aufidius
FIRST WATCHMAN	Now, sir, is your name Menenius?
SECOND WATCHMAN	’Tis a spell, you see, of much power. You know the way home again.
FIRST WATCHMAN	Do you hear how we are shent for keeping your greatness back?
SECOND WATCHMAN	What cause do you think I have to swoon?
MENENIUS	I neither care for th’ world nor your general. For such things as you, I can scarce think there’s any, you’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 as I was said to, ‘Away!’
(didascalia)	Exit
FIRST WATCHMAN	A noble fellow, I warrant him.
SECOND WATCHMAN	The worthy fellow is our general. He’s the rock, the oak, not to be wind-shaken. Exeunt

Atto 5, Scena 3

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus and Aufidius, with Volscian soldiers. Coriolanus and Aufidius sit
CORIOLANUS	We will before the walls of Rome tomorrow Set down our host. My partner in this action, You must report to th’ Volscian lords how plainly I have borne this business.
AUFIDIUS	Only their ends You have respected, stopped your ears against The general suit of Rome, never admitted A private whisper, no, not with such friends That thought them sure of you.
CORIOLANUS	This last old man, Whom with a cracked heart I have sent to Rome, Loved me above the measure of a father, Nay, godded me indeed. Their latest refuge Was to send him, for whose old love I have— Though I showed sourly to him—once more offered The first conditions, which they did refuse And cannot now accept, to grace him only That thought he could do more. A very little I have yielded to. Fresh embassies and suits, Nor from the state nor private friends, hereafter Will I lend ear to.
(didascalia)	Shout within
CORIOLANUS	Ha, what shout is this? Shall I be tempted to infringe my vow In the same time ’tis made? I will not.
(didascalia)	Enter Virgilia, Volumnia, Valeria, Young Martius, with attendants
CORIOLANUS	My wife comes foremost, then the honoured mould Wherein this trunk was framed, and in her hand The grandchild to her blood. But out, affection! All bond and privilege of nature break; Let it be virtuous to be obstinate.
(didascalia)	Virgilia curtsies
CORIOLANUS	What is that curtsy worth? Or those dove’s eyes Which can make gods forsworn? I melt, and am not Of stronger earth than others. Volumnia bows My mother bows, As if Olympus to a molehill should In supplication nod; and my young boy Hath an aspect of intercession which Great nature cries ‘Deny not’.—Let the Volsces Plough Rome and harrow Italy! I’ll never Be such a gosling to obey instinct, but stand As if a man were author of himself And knew no other kin.
VIRGILIA	My lord and husband.
CORIOLANUS	These eyes are not the same I wore in Rome.
VIRGILIA	The sorrow that delivers us thus changed Makes you think so.
CORIOLANUS	Like a dull actor now I have forgot my part, and I am out Even to a full disgrace. FRisingl Best of my flesh, Forgive my tyranny, but do not say For that ‘Forgive our Romans’.
(didascalia)	viraiha kisses him
CORIOLANUS	O, a kiss Long as my exile, sweet as my revenge! Now, by the jealous queen of heaven, that kiss I carried from thee, dear, and my true lip Hath virgined it e‘er since. You gods, I prate, And the most noble mother of the world Leave unsaluted! Sink, my knee, i’th’ earth. He kneels Of thy deep duty more impression show Than that of common sons.
VOLUMNIA	O, stand up blest,
(didascalia)	Coriolanus rises
VOLUMNIA	Whilst with no softer cushion than the flint I kneel before thee, and unproperly Show duty as mistaken all this while Between the child and parent. She kneels
CORIOLANUS	What’s this? Your knees to me? To your corrected son?
(didascalia)	He raises her
CORIOLANUS	Then let the pebbles on the hungry beach Fillip the stars; then let the mutinous winds Strike the proud cedars ‘gainst the fiery sun, Murd’ring impossibility to make What cannot be slight work.
VOLUMNIA	Thou art my warrior. I holp to frame thee. Do you know this lady?
CORIOLANUS	The noble sister of Publicola, The moon of Rome, chaste as the icicle That’s candied by the frost from purest snow And hangs on Dian’s temple—dear Valeria!
VOLUMNIA	(showing Coriolanus his son) This is a poor epitome of yours, Which by th’ interpretation of full time May show like all yourself.
CORIOLANUS	(to Young Martius) The god of soldiers, With the consent of supreme Jove, inform Thy thoughts with nobleness, that thou mayst prove To shame unvulnerable, and stick i’th’ wars Like a great sea-mark standing every flaw And saving those that eye thee!
VOLUMNIA	(to Young Martius) Your knee, sirrah.
(didascalia)	Young Martius kneels
CORIOLANUS	That’s my brave boy.
VOLUMNIA	Even he, your wife, this lady, and myself Are suitors to you.
CORIOLANUS	I beseech you, peace. Or if you’d ask, remember this before: The things I have forsworn to grant may never Be held by you denials. Do not bid me Dismiss my soldiers, or capitulate Again with Rome’s mechanics. Tell me not Wherein I seem unnatural. Desire not t’allay My rages and revenges with your colder reasons.
VOLUMNIA	O, no more, no more! You have said you will not grant us anything— For we have nothing else to ask but that Which you deny already. Yet we will ask, That, if you fail in our request, the blame May hang upon your hardness. Therefore hear us.
CORIOLANUS	Aufidius and you Volsces, mark, for we’ll Hear naught from Rome in private.
(didascalia)	He sits
CORIOLANUS	Your request?
VOLUMNIA	Should we be silent and not speak, our raiment And state of bodies would bewray what life We have led since thy exile. Think with thyself How more unfortunate than all living women Are we come hither, since that thy sight, which should Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with comforts, Constrains them weep and shake with fear and sorrow, Making the mother, wife, and child to see The son, the husband, and the father tearing His country’s bowels out; and to poor we Thine enmity’s most capital. Thou barr‘st us Our prayers to the gods, which is a comfort That all but we enjoy. For how can we, Alas, how can we for our country pray, Whereto we are bound, together with thy victory, Whereto we are bound? Alack, or we must lose neo The country, our dear nurse, or else thy person, Our comfort in the country. We must find An evident calamity, though we had Our wish which side should win. For either thou Must as a foreign recreant be led With manacles thorough our streets, or else Triumphantly tread on thy country’s ruin, And bear the palm for having bravely shed Thy wife and children’s blood. For myself, son, I purpose not to wait on fortune till These wars determine. If I cannot persuade thee Rather to show a noble grace to both parts Than seek the end of one, thou shalt no sooner March to assault thy country than to tread— Trust to’t, thou shalt not—on thy mother’s womb That brought thee to this world.
VIRGILIA	Ay, and mine, That brought you forth this boy to keep your name Living to time.
YOUNG MARTIUS	A shall not tread on me. I’ll run away till I am bigger, but then I’ll fight.
CORIOLANUS	Not of a woman’s tenderness to be Requires nor child nor woman’s face to see. I have sat too long.
(didascalia)	He
(didascalia)	rises and turns away
VOLUMNIA	Nay, go not from us thus. If it were so that our request did tend To save the Romans, thereby to destroy The Volsces whom you serve, you might condemn us As poisonous of your honour. No, our suit Is that you reconcile them: while the Volsces May say ‘This mercy we have showed’, the Romans ‘This we received’, and each in either side Give the all-hail to thee and cry ‘Be blest For making up this peace!’ Thou know‘st, great son, The end of war’s uncertain; but this certain, That if thou conquer Rome, the benefit Which thou shalt thereby reap is such a name Whose repetition will be dogged with curses, Whose chronicle thus writ: ‘The man was noble, But with his last attempt he wiped it out, Destroyed his country, and his name remains To th’ ensuing age abhorred.’ Speak to me, son. Thou hast affected the fine strains of honour, To imitate the graces of the gods, To tear with thunder the wide cheeks o’th’ air, And yet to charge thy sulphur with a bolt That should but rive an oak. Why dost not speak? Think‘st thou it honourable for a noble man Still to remember wrongs? Daughter, speak you, He cares not for your weeping. Speak thou, boy. Perhaps thy childishness will move him more Than can our reasons. There’s no man in the world More bound to’s mother, yet here he lets me prate Like one i’th’ stocks. Thou hast never in thy life Showed thy dear mother any courtesy, When she, poor hen, fond of no second brood, Has clucked thee to the wars and safely home, Loaden with honour. Say my request’s unjust, And spurn me back. But if it be not so, Thou art not honest, and the gods will plague thee That thou restrain‘st from me the duty which To a mother’s part belongs.—He turns away. Down, ladies. Let us shame him with our knees. To his surname ‘Coriolanus’ ’longs more pride Than pity to our prayers. Down! An end. This is the last. The ladies and Young Martius kneel So we will home to Rome, And die among our neighbours.—Nay, behold’s. This boy, that cannot tell what he would have, But kneels and holds up hands for fellowship, Does reason our petition with more strength Than thou hast to deny’t.—Come, let us go. This fellow had a Volscian to his mother. His wife is in Codoles, and this child Like him by chance.—Yet give us our dispatch. I am hushed until our city be afire, And then I’ll speak a little. He holds her by the hand, silent
CORIOLANUS	O mother, mother! What have you done? Behold, the heavens do ope, The gods look down, and this unnatural scene They laugh at. O my mother, mother, O! You have won a happy victory to Rome; But for your son, believe it, O believe it, Most dangerously you have with him prevailed, If not most mortal to him. But let it come.
(didascalia)	The ladies and Young Martius rise
CORIOLANUS	Aufidius, though I cannot make true wars, I’ll frame convenient peace. Now, good Aufidius, Were you in my stead would you have heard A mother less, or granted less, Aufidius?
AUFIDIUS	I was moved withal.
CORIOLANUS	I dare be sworn you were. And, sir, it is no little thing to make Mine eyes to sweat compassion. But, good sir, What peace you’ll make, advise me. For my part, I’ll not to Rome; I’ll back with you, and pray you Stand to me in this cause.—O mother! Wife!
AUFIDIUS	(aside) I am glad thou hast set thy mercy and thy honour At difference in thee. Out of that I’ll work Myself a former fortune.
CORIOLANUS	(to Volumnia and Virgilia) Ay, by and by. But we will drink together, and you shall bear A better witness back than words, which we On like conditions will have counter-sealed. Come, enter with us. Ladies, you deserve To have a temple built you. All the swords In Italy, and her confederate arms, Could not have made this peace.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Atto 5, Scena 4

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Menenius and Sicinius
MENENIUS	See you yon coign o’th’ Capitol, yon corner-stone?
SICINIUS	Why, what of that?
MENENIUS	If it be possible for you to displace it with your little finger, there is some hope the ladies of Rome, especially his mother, may prevail with him. But I say there is no hope in’t, our throats are sentenced and stay upon execution.
SICINIUS	Is’t possible that so short a time can alter the condition of a man?
MENENIUS	There is differency between a grub and a butterfly, yet your butterfly was a grub. This Martius is grown from man to dragon. He has wings, he’s more than a creeping thing.
SICINIUS	He loved his mother dearly.
MENENIUS	So did he me, and he no more remembers his mother now than an eight-year old horse. The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes. When he walks, he moves like an engine, and the ground shrinks before his treading. He is able to pierce a corslet with his eye, talks like a knell, and his ‘hmh!’ is a battery. He sits in his state as a thing made for Alexander. What he bids be done is finished with his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but eternity and a heaven to throne in.
SICINIUS	Yes: mercy, if you report him truly.
MENENIUS	I paint him in the character. Mark what mercy his mother shall bring from him. There is no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male tiger. That shall our poor city find; and all this is ’long of you. SICINIUS The gods be good unto us!
VIENENIUS	No, in such a case the gods will not be good unto us. When we banished him we respected not them, and, he returning to break our necks, they respect not us.
(didascalia)	Enter a Messenger
MESSENGER	(to Sicinius) Sir, if you’d save your life, fly to your house. The plebeians have got your fellow tribune And hale him up and down, all swearing if The Roman ladies bring not comfort home They’ll give him death by inches.
(didascalia)	Enter another Messenger
SICINIUS	What’s the news?
SECOND MESSENGER	Good news, good news. The ladies have prevailed, The Volscians are dislodged, and Martius gone. A merrier day did never yet greet Rome, No, not th’expulsion of the Tarquins.
SICINIUS	Friend, Art thou certain this is true? Is’t most certain?
SECOND MESSENGER	As certain as I know the sun is fire. Where have you lurked that you make doubt of it? Ne’er through an arch so hurried the blown tide As the recomforted through th’ gates.
(didascalia)	Trumpets, hautboys, drums, beat all together
SECOND MESSENGER	Why, hark you, The trumpets, sackbuts, psalteries, and fifes, Tabors and cymbals and the shouting Romans Make the sun dance. A shout within Hark you!
MENENIUS	This is good news. I will go meet the ladies. This Volumnia Is worth of consuls, senators, patricians, A city full; of tribunes such as you, A sea and land full. You have prayed well today. This morning for ten thousand of your throats I’d not have given a doit.
(didascalia)	Music sounds still with the shouts
MENENIUS	Hark how they joy!
SICINIUS	(to the Messenger) First, the gods bless you for your tidings. Next,
(didascalia)	Giving money Accept my thankfulness.
SECOND MESSENGER	Sir, we have all great cause to give great thanks.
SICINIUS	They are near the city.
SECOND MESSENGER	Almost at point to enter.
SICINIUS	We’ll meet them, and help the joy.
(didascalia)	Exeunt
(didascalia)	5.5 Enter at one door Lords and Citizens, at another door two Senators with the ladies Volumnia, Virgilia, and Valeria, passing over the stage
SICINIUS	A SENATOR Behold our patroness, the life of Rome! Call all your tribes together, praise the gods, And make triumphant fires. Strew flowers before them. Unshout the noise that banished Martius, Repeal him with the welcome of his mother. Cry ‘Welcome, ladies, welcome!’
ALL	Welcome, ladies, welcome!
(didascalia)	A flourish with drums and trumpets. Exeunt

Atto 5, Scena 6

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Tullus Aufidius with attendants
AUFIDIUS	Go tell the lords o‘th’ city I am here. Deliver them this paper. Having read it, Bid them repair to th’ market-place, where I, Even in theirs and in the commons’ ears, Will vouch the truth of it. Him I accuse The city ports by this hath entered, and Intends t’appear before the people, hoping To purge himself with words. Dispatch.
(didascalia)	Exeunt attendants
(didascalia)	Enter three or four Conspirators of Aufidius’ faction
AUFIDIUS	Most welcome.
FIRST CONSPIRATOR	How is it with our general?
AUFIDIUS	Even so As with a man by his own alms impoisoned, And with his charity slain.
SECOND CONSPIRATOR	Most noble sir, If you do hold the same intent wherein You wished us parties, we’ll deliver you Of your great danger.
AUFIDIUS	Sir, I cannot tell. We must proceed as we do find the people.
THIRD CONSPIRATOR	The people will remain uncertain whilst ’Twixt you there’s difference, but the fall of either Makes the survivor heir of all.
AUFIDIUS	I know it, And my pretext to strike at him admits A good construction. I raised him, and I pawned Mine honour for his truth; who being so heightened, He watered his new plants with dews of flattery, Seducing so my friends; and to this end He bowed his nature, never known before But to be rough, unswayable, and free.
THIRD CONSPIRATOR	Sir, his stoutness When he did stand for consul, which he lost By lack of stooping—
AUFIDIUS	That I would have spoke of. Being banished for’t, he came unto my hearth, Presented to my knife his throat. I took him, Made him joint-servant with me, gave him way In all his own desires; nay, let him choose Out of my files, his projects to accomplish, My best and freshest men; served his designments In mine own person, holp to reap the fame Which he did end all his, and took some pride To do myself this wrong, till at the last I seemed his follower, not partner, and He waged me with his countenance as if I had been mercenary.
FIRST CONSPIRATOR	So he did, my lord. The army marvelled at it, and in the last, When he had carried Rome and that we looked For no less spoil than glory—
AUFIDIUS	There was it, For which my sinews shall be stretched upon him. At a few drops of women’s rheum, which are As cheap as lies, he sold the blood and labour Of our great action; therefore shall he die, And I’ll renew me in his fall.
(didascalia)	Drums and trumpets sound, with great shouts of the people
AUFIDIUS	But hark.
FIRST CONSPIRATOR	Your native town you entered like a post, And had no welcomes home; but he returns Splitting the air with noise.
SECOND CONSPIRATOR	And patient fools, Whose children he hath slain, their base throats tear With giving him glory.
THIRD CONSPIRATOR	Therefore, at your vantage, Ere he express himself or move the people With what he would say, let him feel your sword, Which we will second. When he lies along, After your way his tale pronounced shall bury His reasons with his body.
(didascalia)	Enter the Lords of the city
AUFIDIUS	Say no more. Here come the lords.
ALL THE LORDS	You are most welcome home.
AUFIDIUS	I have not deserved it. But, worthy lords, have you with heed perused What I have written to you?
ALL THE LORDS	We have.
FIRST LORD	And grieve to hear’t. What faults he made before the last, I think Might have found easy fines. But there to end Where he was to begin, and give away The benefit of our levies, answering us With our own charge, making a treaty where There was a yielding—this admits no excuse.
AUFIDIUS	He approaches. You shall hear him.
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus marching with drum and colours, the Commoners being with him
CORIOLANUS	Hail, lords! I am returned your soldier, No more infected with my country’s love Than when I parted hence, but still subsisting Under your great command. You are to know That prosperously I have attempted, and With bloody passage led your wars even to The gates of Rome. Our spoils we have brought home Doth more than counterpoise a full third part The charges of the action. We have made peace With no less honour to the Antiates Than shame to th’ Romans. And we here deliver, Subscribed by th’ consuls and patricians, Together with the seal o’th’ senate, what We have compounded on. He gives the Lords a paper
AUFIDIUS	Read it not, noble lords, But tell the traitor in the highest degree He hath abused your powers.
CORIOLANUS	Traitor? How now?
AUFIDIUS	Ay, traitor, Martius.
CORIOLANUS	Martius?
AUFIDIUS	Ay, Martius, Caius Martius. Dost thou think I’ll grace thee with that robbery, thy stol’n name, ‘Coriolanus’, in Corioles? You lords and heads o‘th’ state, perfidiously He has betrayed your business, and given up, For certain drops of salt, your city, Rome— I say your city—to his wife and mother, Breaking his oath and resolution like A twist of rotten silk, never admitting Counsel o’th’ war. But at his nurse’s tears He whined and roared away your victory, That pages blushed at him, and men of heart Looked wond’ring each at others.
CORIOLANUS	Hear’st thou, Mars?
AUFIDIUS	Name not the god, thou boy of tears.
CORIOLANUS	Ha?
AUFIDIUS	No more.
CORIOLANUS	Measureless liar, thou hast made my heart Too great for what contains it. ‘Boy’? O slave!— Pardon me, lords, ’tis the first time that ever I was forced to scold. Your judgements, my grave lords, Must give this cur the lie, and his own notion— Who wears my stripes impressed upon him, that Must bear my beating to his grave—shall join To thrust the lie unto him.
FIRST LORD	Peace both, and hear me speak.
CORIOLANUS	Cut me to pieces, Volsces. Men and lads, Stain all your edges on me. ‘Boy’! False hound, If you have writ your annals true, ‘tis there That, like an eagle in a dove-cote, I Fluttered your Volscians in Corioles. Alone I did it. ‘Boy’!
AUFIDIUS	Why, noble lords, Will you be put in mind of his blind fortune, Which was your shame, by this unholy braggart, Fore your own eyes and ears?
ALL THE CONSPIRATORS	Let him die for’t.
(didascalia)	ALL THE PEOPLE shouting dispersedly
ALL THE CONSPIRATORS	Tear him to pieces! Do it presently! He killed my son! My daughter! He killed my cousin Marcus! He killed my father!
SECOND LORD	Peace, ho! No outrage, peace. The man is noble, and his fame folds in This orb o’th’ earth. His last offences to us Shall have judicious hearing. Stand, Aufidius, And trouble not the peace.
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS drawing his sword
SECOND LORD	O that I had him with six Aufidiuses, Or more, his tribe, to use my lawful sword!
(didascalia)	AUFIDIUS drawing his sword
SECOND LORD	Insolent villain!
ALL THE CONSPIRATORS	Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill him!
(didascalia)	Two Conspirators draw and kill Martius, who falls. Aufidius and Conspirators stand on him
LORDS	Hold, hold, hold, hold!
AUFIDIUS	My noble masters, hear me speak.
FIRST LORD	O Tullus!
SECOND LORD	(to Aufidius) Thou hast done a deed whereat Valour will weep.
(didascalia)	THIRD LORD to Aufidius and the Conspirators
SECOND LORD	Tread not upon him, masters. All be quiet. Put up your swords.
AUFIDIUS	My lords, When you shall know—as in this rage Provoked by him you cannot—the great danger Which this man’s life did owe you, you’ll rejoice That he is thus cut off. Please it your honours To call me to your senate, I’ll deliver Myself your loyal servant, or endure Your heaviest censure.
FIRST LORD	Bear from hence his body, And mourn you for him. Let him be regarded As the most noble corpse that ever herald Did follow to his urn.
SECOND LORD	His own impatience Takes from Aufidius a great part of blame. Let’s make the best of it.
AUFIDIUS	My rage is gone, And I am struck with sorrow. Take him up. Help three o’th’ chiefest soldiers; I’ll be one. Beat thou the drum, that it speak mournfully. Trail your steel pikes. Though in this city he Hath widowed and unchilded many a one, Which to this hour bewail the injury, Yet he shall have a noble memory. Assist. A dead march sounded. Exeunt bearing the body of Martius
THE	astrologer Simon Forman saw The Winter’s Tale at the Globe on 15 May 1611. Just how much earlier the play was written is not certainly known. During the sheep-shearing feast in Act 4, twelve countrymen perform a satyrs’ dance that three of them are said to have already ‘danced before the King’. This is not necessarily a topical reference, but satyrs danced in Ben Jonson’s Masque of Oberon, performed before King James on 1 January 1611. It seems likely that this dance was incorporated in The Winter’s Tale (just as, later, another masque dance seems to have been transferred to The Two Noble Kinsmen). But it occurs in a self-contained passage that may well have been added after Shakespeare wrote the play itself. The Winter’s Tale, first printed in the 1623 Folio, is usually thought to have been written after Cymbeline, but stylistic evidence places it before that play, perhaps in 1609-10. A mid sixteenth-century book classes ‘winter tales’ along with ‘old wives’ tales‘; Shakespeare’s title prepared his audiences for a tale of romantic improbability, one to be wondered at rather than believed; and within the play itself characters compare its events to ‘an old tale’ (5.2.61; 5.3.118). The comparison is just: Shakespeare is dramatizing a story by his old rival Robert Greene, published as Pandosto: The Triumph of Time in or before 1588. This gave Shakespeare his plot outline, of a king (Leontes) who believes his wife (Hermione) to have committed adultery with another king (Polixenes), his boyhood friend, and who casts off his new-born daughter (Perdita—the lost one) in the belief that she is his friend’s bastard. In both versions the baby is brought up as a shepherdess, falls in love with her supposed father’s son (Florizel in the play), and returns to her real father’s court where she is at last recognized as his daughter. In both versions, too, the wife’s innocence is demonstrated by the pronouncement of the Delphic oracle, and her husband passes the period of his daughter’s absence in penitence; but Shakespeare alters the ending of his source story, bringing it into line with the conventions of romance. He adopts Greene’s tripartite structure, but greatly develops it, adding for instance Leontes’ steward Antigonus and his redoubtable wife Paulina, along with the comic rogue Autolycus, ‘snapper-up of unconsidered trifles’. The intensity of poetic suffering with which Leontes expresses his irrational jealousy is matched by the lyrical rapture of the love episodes between Florizel and Perdita. In both verse and prose The Winter’s Tale shows Shakespeare’s verbal powers at their greatest, and his theatrical mastery is apparent in, for example, Hermione’s trial (3.1) and the daring final scene in which time brings about its triumph.
THE PERSONS OF THE	PLAY LEONTES, King of Sicily HERMIONE, his wife MAMILLIUS, his son PERDITA, his daughter PAULINA, Antigonus’s wife EMILIA, a lady attending on Hermione A JAILER A MARINER Other Lords and Gentlemen, Ladies, Officers, and Servants at Leontes’s court POLIXENES, King of Bohemia FLORIZEL, his son, in love with Perdita; known as Doricles ARCHIDAMUS, a Bohemian lord AUTOLYCUS, a rogue, once in the service of Florizel
OLD SHEPHERD	CLOWN, his son
SERVANT	of the Old Shepherd Other Shepherds and Shepherdesses Twelve countrymen disguised as satyrs TIME, as chorus

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter a company of mutinous Citizens with staves, clubs, and other weapons
FIRST CITIZEN	Before we proceed any further, hear me speak.
ALL	Speak, speak.
FIRST CITIZEN	You are all resolved rather to die than to famish? ALL Resolved, resolved.
FIRST CITIZEN	First, you know Caius Martius is chief enemy to the people.
ALL	We know’t, we know’t.
FIRST CITIZEN	Let us kill him, and we’ll have corn at our own price. Is’t a verdict?
ALL	No more talking on’t, let it be done. Away, away. SECOND CITIZEN One word, good citizens.
FIRST CITIZEN	We are accounted poor citizens, the patricians good. What authority surfeits on would relieve us. If they would yield us but the superfluity while it were wholesome we might guess they relieved us humanely, but they think we are too dear. The leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an inventory to particularize their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this with our pikes ere we become rakes; for the gods know I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge.
SECOND CITIZEN	Would you proceed especially against Caius Martius?
(didascalia)	THIRD CITIZEN Against him first.
(didascalia)	FOURTH CITIZEN He’s a very dog to the commonalty.
SECOND CITIZEN	Consider you what services he has done for his country?
FIRST CITIZEN	Very well, and could be content to give him good report for’t, but that he pays himself with being proud.
(didascalia)	FIFTH CITIZEN Nay, but speak not maliciously.
FIRST CITIZEN	I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end—though soft-conscienced men can be content to say ‘it was for his country’, ‘he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud’—which he is even to the altitude of his virtue.
SECOND CITIZEN	What he cannot help in his nature you account a vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous.
FIRST CITIZEN	If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations. He hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition.
(didascalia)	Shouts within
FIRST CITIZEN	What shouts are these? The other side o’th’ city is risen. Why stay we prating here? To th’ Capitol!
ALL	Come, come.
(didascalia)	Enter Menenius
FIRST CITIZEN	Soft, who comes here?
SECOND CITIZEN	Worthy Menenius Agrippa, one that hath always loved the people.
FIRST CITIZEN	He’s one honest enough. Would all the rest were so!
MENENIUS	What work’s, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you With bats and clubs? The matter. Speak, I pray you.
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN Our business is not unknown to th’ senate. They have had inkling this fortnight what we intend to do, which now we’ll show ’em in deeds. They say poor suitors have strong breaths; they shall know we have strong arms, too.
MENENIUS	Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours, Will you undo yourselves?
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN
MENENIUS	We cannot, sir. We are undone already.
MENENIUS	I tell you, friends, most charitable care Have the patricians of you. For your wants, Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them Against the Roman state, whose course will on The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs Of more strong link asunder than can ever Appear in your impediment. For the dearth, The gods, not the patricians, make it, and Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack, You are transported by calamity Thither where more attends you, and you slander The helms o’th’ state, who care for you like fathers, When you curse them as enemies.
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN Care for us? True, indeed! They ne’er cared for us yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury to support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich; and provide more piercing statutes daily to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there’s all the love they bear us.
MENENIUS	Either you must Confess yourselves wondrous malicious Or be accused of folly. I shall tell you A pretty tale. It may be you have heard it, But since it serves my purpose, I will venture To stale’t a little more.
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN Well, I’ll hear it, sir. Yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale. But an’t please you, deliver.
MENENIUS	There was a time when all the body’s members, Rebelled against the belly, thus accused it: That only like a gulf it did remain I‘th’ midst o’th’ body, idle and unactive, Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing Like labour with the rest; where th’other instruments Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, And, mutually participate, did minister Unto the appetite and affection common Of the whole body. The belly answered—
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN
MENENIUS	Well, sir, what answer made the belly?
MENENIUS	Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile, Which ne’er came from the lungs, but even thus— For look you, I may make the belly smile As well as speak—it tauntingly replied To th’ discontented members, the mutinous parts That envied his receipt; even so most fitly As you malign our senators for that They are not such as you.
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN Your belly’s answer—what?
MENENIUS	The kingly crowned head, the vigilant eye, The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier, Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter, With other muniments and petty helps In this our fabric, if that they—
MENENIUS	What then? Fore me, this fellow speaks! What then? What then?
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN
MENENIUS	Should by the cormorant belly be restrained, Who is the sink o’th’ body—
MENENIUS	Well, what then?
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN
MENENIUS	The former agents, if they did complain, What could the belly answer?
MENENIUS	I will tell you, If you’ll bestow a small of what you have tittle— Patience—a while, you’st hear the belly’s answer.
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN
MENENIUS	You’re long about it.
MENENIUS	Note me this, good friend: Your most grave belly was deliberate, Not rash like his accusers, and thus answered: ‘True is it, my incorporate friends,’ quoth he, ‘That I receive the general food at first Which you do live upon, and fit it is, Because I am the storehouse and the shop Of the whole body. But, if you do remember, I send it through the rivers of your blood Even to the court, the heart, to th’ seat o’th’ brain; And through the cranks and offices of man The strongest nerves and small inferior veins From me receive that natural competency Whereby they live. And though that all at once’— You my good friends, this says the belly, mark me—
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN
MENENIUS	Ay, sir, well, well.
MENENIUS	’Though all at once cannot See what I do deliver out to each, Yet I can make my audit up that all From me do back receive the flour of all And leave me but the bran.’ What say you to’t?
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN
MENENIUS	It was an answer. How apply you this?
MENENIUS	The senators of Rome are this good belly, And you the mutinous members. For examine Their counsels and their cares, digest things rightly Touching the weal o’th’ common, you shall find No public benefit which you receive But it proceeds or comes from them to you, And no way from yourselves. What do you think, You, the great toe of this assembly?
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN
MENENIUS	I the great toe? Why the great toe?
MENENIUS	For that, being one o‘th’ lowest, basest, poorest Of this most wise rebellion, thou goest foremost. Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run, Lead’st first to win some vantage. But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs. Rome and her rats are at the point of battle. The one side must have bale.
(didascalia)	Enter Martius
MENENIUS	Hail, noble Martius!
MARTIUS	Thanks.—What’s the matter, you dissentious rogues, That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, Make yourselves scabs?
(didascalia)	FIRST CITIZEN
MARTIUS	We have ever your good word.
MARTIUS	He that will give good words to thee will flatter Beneath abhorring. What would you have, you curs That like nor peace nor war? The one affrights you, The other makes you proud. He that trusts to you, Where he should find you lions finds you hares, Where foxes, geese. You are no surer, no, Than is the coal of fire upon the ice, Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is To make him worthy whose offence subdues him, And curse that justice did it. Who deserves greatness Deserves your hate, and your affections are A sick man’s appetite, who desires most that Which would increase his evil. He that depends Upon your favours swims with fins of lead, And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye? With every minute you do change a mind, And call him noble that was now your hate, Him vile that was your garland. What’s the matter, That in these several places of the city You cry against the noble senate, who, Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else Would feed on one another? (To Menenius) What’s their seeking?
MENENIUS	For corn at their own rates, whereof they say The city is well stored.
MARTIUS	Hang ’em! They say? They’ll sit by th’ fire and presume to know What’s done i’th’ Capitol, who’s like to rise, Who thrives and who declines; side factions and give out Conjectural marriages, making parties strong And feebling such as stand not in their liking Below their cobbled shoes. They say there’s grain enough! Would the nobility lay aside their ruth And let me use my sword, I’d make a quarry With thousands of these quartered slaves as high As I could pitch my lance.
MENENIUS	Nay, these are all most thoroughly persuaded, For though abundantly they lack discretion, Yet are they passing cowardly. But I beseech you, What says the other troop?
MARTIUS	They are dissolved. Hang ’em. They said they were an-hungry, sighed forth proverbs— That hunger broke stone walls, that dogs must eat, That meat was made for mouths, that the gods sent not Corn for the rich men only. With these shreds They vented their complainings, which being answered, And a petition granted them—a strange one, To break the heart of generosity And make bold power look pale—they threw their caps As they would hang them on the horns o’th’ moon, Shouting their emulation.
MENENIUS	What is granted them?
MARTIUS	Five tribunes to defend their vulgar wisdoms, Of their own choice. One’s Junius Brutus, Sicinius Velutus, and I know not. ’Sdeath, The rabble should have first unroofed the city Ere so prevailed with me! It will in time Win upon power and throw forth greater themes For insurrection’s arguing.
MENENIUS	This is strange.
MARTIUS	(to the Citizens) Go get you home, you fragments.
(didascalia)	Enter a Messenger hastily
MESSENGER	Where’s Caius Martius?
MARTIUS	Here. What’s the matter?
MESSENGER	The news is, sir, the Volsces are in arms.
MARTIUS	I am glad on’t. Then we shall ha’ means to vent Our musty superfluity.
(didascalia)	Enter Sicinius, Brutus, Cominius, Lartius, with other Senators
MARTIUS	See, our best elders.
FIRST SENATOR	Martius, ’tis true that you have lately told us. The Volsces are in arms.
MARTIUS	They have a leader, Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to’t. I sin in envying his nobility, And were I anything but what I am, I would wish me only he.
COMINIUS	You have fought together!
MARTIUS	Were half to half the world by th’ ears and he Upon my party, I’d revolt to make Only my wars with him. He is a lion That I am proud to hunt.
FIRST SENATOR	Then, worthy Martius, Attend upon Cominius to these wars.
COMINIUS	(to Martius) It is your former promise.
MARTIUS	Sir, it is, And I am constant. Titus Lartius, thou Shalt see me once more strike at Tullus’ face. What, art thou stiff? Stand’st out?
LARTIUS	No, Caius Martius. I’ll lean upon one crutch and fight with th’other Ere stay behind this business.
MENENIUS	O true bred!
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR
MENENIUS	Your company to th’ Capitol, where I know Our greatest friends attend us.
LARTIUS	(to Cominius) Lead you on. (To Martius) Follow Cominius. We must follow you, Right worthy your priority.
COMINIUS	Noble Martius.
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR (to the Citizens)
COMINIUS	Hence to your homes, be gone.
MARTIUS	Nay, let them follow. The Volsces have much corn. Take these rats thither To gnaw their garners. Citizens steal away Worshipful mutineers, Your valour puts well forth. (To the Senators) Pray follow.
(didascalia)	Exeunt all but Sicinius and Brutus
SICINIUS	Was ever man so proud as is this Martius?
BRUTUS	He has no equal.
SICINIUS	When we were chosen tribunes for the people—
BRUTUS	Marked you his lip and eyes?
SICINIUS	Nay, but his taunts.
BRUTUS	Being moved, he will not spare to gird the gods.
SICINIUS	Bemock the modest moon.
BRUTES	The present wars devour him! He is grown Too proud to be so valiant.
SICINIUS	Such a nature, Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow Which he treads on at noon. But I do wonder His insolence can brook to be commanded Under Cominius.
BRUTUS	Fame, at the which he aims— In whom already he’s well graced—cannot Better be held nor more attained than by A place below the first; for what miscarries Shall be the general’s fault, though he perform To th’ utmost of a man, and giddy censure Will then cry out of Martius ‘O, if he Had borne the business!’
SICINIUS	Besides, if things go well, Opinion, that so sticks on Martius, shall Of his demerits rob Cominius.
BRUTUS	Come, Half all Cominius’ honours are to Martius, Though Martius earned them not; and all his faults To Martius shall be honours, though indeed In aught he merit not.
SICINIUS	Let’s hence and hear How the dispatch is made, and in what fashion, More than his singularity, he goes Upon this present action.
BRUTUS	Let’s along. Exeunt 1.2 Enter Aufidius, with Senators of Corioles
FIRST SENATOR	So, your opinion is, Aufidius, That they of Rome are entered in our counsels And know how we proceed.
AUFIDIUS	Is it not yours? What ever have been thought on in this state That could be brought to bodily act ere Rome Had circumvention? ’Tis not four days gone Since I heard thence. These are the words. I think I have the letter here—yes, here it is.
(didascalia)	He
AUFIDIUS	reads the
(didascalia)	letter
AUFIDIUS	‘They have pressed a power, but it is not known Whether for east or west. The dearth is great, The people mutinous, and it is rumoured Cominius, Martius your old enemy, Who is of Rome worse hated than of you, And Titus Lartius, a most valiant Roman, These three lead on this preparation Whither ’tis bent. Most likely ‘tis for you. Consider of it.’
FIRST SENATOR	Our army’s in the field. We never yet made doubt but Rome was ready To answer us.
AUFIDIUS	Nor did you think it folly To keep your great pretences veiled till when They needs must show themselves, which in the hatching, It seemed, appeared to Rome. By the discovery We shall be shortened in our aim, which was To take in many towns ere, almost, Rome Should know we were afoot.
SECOND SENATOR	Noble Aufidius, Take your commission, hie you to your bands. Let us alone to guard Corioles. If they set down before’s, for the remove Bring up your army, but I think you’ll find They’ve not prepared for us.
AUFIDIUS	O, doubt not that. I speak from certainties. Nay, more, Some parcels of their power are forth already, And only hitherward. I leave your honours. If we and Caius Martius chance to meet, ’Tis sworn between us we shall ever strike Till one can do no more.
ALL THE SENATORS	The gods assist you!
AUFIDIUS	And keep your honours safe.
FIRST SENATOR	Farewell.
SECOND SENATOR	Farewell.
ALL	Farewell.
(didascalia)	Exeunt, Aufidius at one door,
(didascalia)	Senators at another door

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra una schiera di Cittadini ammutinati con bastoni, randelli e altre armi
PRIMO CITTADINO	Prima di procedere oltre, ascoltatemi parlare.
TUTTI	Parla, parla.
PRIMO CITTADINO	Siete tutti risoluti a morire piuttosto che patire la fame? TUTTI Risoluti, risoluti.
PRIMO CITTADINO	Primo, sapete che Caio Marzio è il nemico capitale del popolo.
TUTTI	Lo sappiamo, lo sappiamo.
PRIMO CITTADINO	Uccidiamolo, e avremo il grano al prezzo che vogliamo. È sentenza?
TUTTI	Basta parlarne, si faccia. Via, via. SECONDO CITTADINO Una parola, buoni cittadini.
PRIMO CITTADINO	Noi siamo tenuti per cittadini poveri, i patrizi per ricchi. Ciò di cui l’autorità si rimpinza ci solleverebbe. Se ci cedessero anche solo il superfluo mentre è ancora sano, potremmo supporre che ci soccorressero con umanità; ma essi ci ritengono troppo cari. La magrezza che ci affligge, l’oggetto della nostra miseria, è come un inventario che particolareggia la loro abbondanza; la nostra sofferenza è per loro un guadagno. Vendichiamo questo con le nostre picche prima di diventare rastrelli; ché gli dèi sanno che parlo così per fame di pane, non per sete di vendetta.
SECONDO CITTADINO	Volete procedere in specie contro Caio Marzio?
(didascalia)	TERZO CITTADINO Contro di lui per primo.
(didascalia)	QUARTO CITTADINO È un vero cane per la plebe.
SECONDO CITTADINO	Considerate i servigi che ha reso al suo paese?
PRIMO CITTADINO	Molto bene, e mi accontenterei di dargliene buona fama, se non che egli si ripaga da sé con l’essere superbo.
(didascalia)	QUINTO CITTADINO No, ma non parlare malignamente.
PRIMO CITTADINO	Io vi dico: ciò che ha fatto di famoso, lo fece a quel fine — benché uomini di coscienza molle possano accontentarsi di dire «fu per il suo paese», «lo fece per compiacere sua madre, e in parte per superbia» — la quale in lui giunge all’altezza stessa della sua virtù.
SECONDO CITTADINO	Ciò a cui non può rimediare nella sua natura voi glielo ascrivete a vizio. In nessun modo potete dire che sia avido.
PRIMO CITTADINO	Se non devo, non per questo sarò sterile d’accuse. Ha colpe, e d’avanzo, da stancare a ripeterle.
(didascalia)	Grida all’interno
PRIMO CITTADINO	Che grida son queste? L’altra parte della città si è sollevata. Perché stiamo qui a cianciare? Al Campidoglio!
TUTTI	Andiamo, andiamo.
(didascalia)	Entra Menenius
PRIMO CITTADINO	Piano, chi viene qui?
SECONDO CITTADINO	Il degno Menenio Agrippa, uno che ha sempre amato il popolo.
PRIMO CITTADINO	È uno abbastanza onesto. Fossero tutti gli altri così!
MENENIUS	Che opera avete per le mani, concittadini? Dove andate con mazze e randelli? La cosa. Parlate, vi prego.
(didascalia)	PRIMO CITTADINO La nostra faccenda non è ignota al senato. Da quindici giorni hanno sentore di ciò che intendiamo fare, e ora glielo mostreremo coi fatti. Dicono che i poveri postulanti hanno il fiato forte; sapranno che abbiamo forti anche le braccia.
MENENIUS	Suvvia, padroni, miei buoni amici, miei onesti vicini, volete rovinarvi?
(didascalia)	PRIMO CITTADINO
MENENIUS	Non possiamo, signore. Siamo già rovinati.
MENENIUS	Vi dico, amici, che i patrizi hanno di voi la più caritatevole cura. Per i vostri bisogni, per la vostra sofferenza in questa carestia, potreste altrettanto bene percuotere il cielo coi vostri bastoni quanto levarli contro lo stato romano, che proseguirà la via che ha preso, spezzando diecimila freni di più salda maglia di quanti mai possano apparire nel vostro impedimento. Quanto alla carestia, la fanno gli dèi, non i patrizi, e le vostre ginocchia a loro, non le armi, vi devono giovare. Ahimè, la calamità vi trasporta là dove altro vi attende, e calunniate i timonieri dello stato, che si curano di voi come padri, quando li maledite come nemici.
(didascalia)	PRIMO CITTADINO Curarsi di noi? Davvero, sì! Non si son mai curati di noi finora: ci lasciano languire di fame, e i loro granai rigonfi di frumento; fanno editti sull’usura per sostenere gli usurai; abrogano ogni giorno qualche sana legge stabilita contro i ricchi; e ogni giorno provvedono statuti più taglienti per incatenare e frenare i poveri. Se non ci divorano le guerre, ci divoreranno loro; ed ecco tutto l’amore che ci portano.
MENENIUS	O dovete confessarvi meravigliosamente maligni o essere accusati di follia. Vi narrerò una graziosa favola. Può darsi che l’abbiate udita, ma poiché serve al mio scopo, mi arrischierò a consumarla un poco di più.
(didascalia)	PRIMO CITTADINO Bene, l’ascolterò, signore. Però non pensate di liquidare la nostra sventura con una favola. Ma se vi piace, dite pure.
MENENIUS	Vi fu un tempo in cui tutte le membra del corpo, si ribellarono contro il ventre, e così l’accusarono: che soltanto come un abisso se ne stava in mezzo al corpo, ozioso e inerte, sempre stipando le vivande, mai sostenendo pari fatica con le altre; mentre gli altri strumenti vedevano e udivano, meditavano, istruivano, camminavano, sentivano, e, in mutua partecipazione, servivano all’appetito e all’affetto comune di tutto il corpo. Il ventre rispose—
(didascalia)	PRIMO CITTADINO
MENENIUS	Bene, signore, che risposta diede il ventre?
MENENIUS	Signore, ve lo dirò. Con una specie di sorriso, che non veniva mai dai polmoni, ma proprio così— ché, vedete, io posso far sorridere il ventre tanto bene quanto parlare—rispose beffardo alle membra scontente, alle parti ammutinate che invidiavano il suo introito; e con tanta convenienza quanta ne avete voi nel malignare sui nostri senatori perché non sono quali siete voi.
(didascalia)	PRIMO CITTADINO La risposta del vostro ventre—quale?
MENENIUS	Il capo regalmente coronato, l’occhio vigile, il cuore consigliere, il braccio nostro soldato, nostro destriero la gamba, la lingua nostro trombettiere, con altri presidi e minuti aiuti in questa nostra fabbrica, se essi—
MENENIUS	E allora? Perbacco, costui parla! E allora? E allora?
(didascalia)	PRIMO CITTADINO
MENENIUS	dovessero esser tenuti a freno dal ventre cormorano, che è la sentina del corpo—
MENENIUS	Bene, e allora?
(didascalia)	PRIMO CITTADINO
MENENIUS	I detti agenti, se si lagnassero, che potrebbe rispondere il ventre?
MENENIUS	Ve lo dirò, se mi concederete un po’ di ciò che avete in briciola— la pazienza—per un poco, udrete la risposta del ventre.
(didascalia)	PRIMO CITTADINO
MENENIUS	Ci mettete molto.
MENENIUS	Notate questo, buon amico: il vostro graveissimo ventre fu ponderato, non avventato come i suoi accusatori, e così rispose: «È vero, amici miei incorporati», disse egli, «che io ricevo per primo il cibo comune di cui vivete, ed è giusto, perché io sono il magazzino e la bottega di tutto il corpo. Ma, se ben ricordate, io lo mando per i fiumi del vostro sangue fino alla corte, il cuore, fino al seggio del cervello; e attraverso i meandri e gli uffici dell’uomo i nervi più forti e le piccole vene inferiori ricevono da me quella naturale sufficienza onde vivono. E benché tutti insieme»— voi miei buoni amici, questo dice il ventre, badate a me—
(didascalia)	PRIMO CITTADINO
MENENIUS	Sì, signore, bene, bene.
MENENIUS	«benché tutti insieme non possano vedere ciò che io distribuisco a ciascuno, pure io posso far tornare i miei conti: che tutti da me ricevono in cambio il fiore d’ogni cosa e a me non lasciano che la crusca». Che ne dite?
(didascalia)	PRIMO CITTADINO
MENENIUS	Fu una risposta. Come l’applicate?
MENENIUS	I senatori di Roma sono questo buon ventre, e voi le membra ammutinate. Ché, esaminando i loro consigli e le loro cure, e digerendo rettamente le cose quanto al bene comune, troverete che nessun pubblico beneficio da voi ricevuto che non proceda o venga da loro a voi, e in nessun modo da voi stessi. Che ne pensi tu, tu, l’alluce di questa assemblea?
(didascalia)	PRIMO CITTADINO
MENENIUS	Io l’alluce? Perché l’alluce?
MENENIUS	Perché, essendo uno dei più bassi, più vili, più poveri di questa sapientissima ribellione, tu vai per primo. Tu furfante, che sei il peggiore per sangue a correre, guidi la testa per guadagnare qualche vantaggio. Ma tenete pronti i vostri duri bastoni e randelli. Roma e i suoi topi sono sul punto di battaglia. Una delle due parti dovrà averne danno.
(didascalia)	Entra Marzio
MENENIUS	Salve, nobile Marzio!
MARTIUS	Grazie.—Che c’è, canaglie sediziose, che, grattando il misero prurito della vostra opinione, vi fate croste?
(didascalia)	PRIMO CITTADINO
MARTIUS	Abbiamo sempre la vostra buona parola.
MARTIUS	Chi vorrà darti buone parole adulerà al di sotto dell’abominio. Che volete, cagnacci cui non piace né pace né guerra? L’una vi spaventa, l’altra vi fa superbi. Chi si fida di voi, dove dovrebbe trovarvi leoni vi trova lepri, dove volpi, oche. Non siete più sicuri, no, di quanto sia il carbone di fuoco sul ghiaccio, o la grandine al sole. La vostra virtù è far degno colui che la sua colpa abbatte, e maledire la giustizia che lo fece. Chi merita grandezza merita il vostro odio, e i vostri affetti sono l’appetito d’un malato, che più desidera ciò che accrescerebbe il suo male. Chi dipende dai vostri favori nuota con pinne di piombo, e abbatte querce con giunchi. Impiccatevi! Fidarmi di voi? Ad ogni minuto voi mutate d’animo, e chiamate nobile chi poco fa odiavate, vile chi era la vostra ghirlanda. Che cosa c’è, che in questi diversi luoghi della città gridate contro il nobile senato, il quale, dopo gli dèi, vi tiene in soggezione, che altrimenti vi divorereste l’un l’altro? (A Menenio) Che cosa cercano?
MENENIUS	Grano ai loro prezzi, del quale dicono che la città è ben fornita.
MARTIUS	Impiccateli! Dicono? Se ne staranno accanto al fuoco e presumeranno di sapere ciò che si fa in Campidoglio, chi è probabile che salga, chi prospera e chi declina; parteggiano per fazioni e mettono fuori matrimoni congetturali, rendendo forti certe parti e infiacchendo quelle che non stanno nel loro favore sotto le loro scarpe rappezzate. Dicono che c’è grano abbastanza! Deponesse la nobiltà la sua pietà e mi lasciasse usare la mia spada, farei un carnaio con migliaia di questi schiavi squartati, alto quanto io possa scagliare la mia lancia.
MENENIUS	Ma no, costoro sono ormai del tutto persuasi, perché, sebbene abbondantemente manchino di discernimento, sono però oltremodo vili. Ma vi supplico, che dice l’altra torma?
MARTIUS	Si sono dispersi. Impiccateli. Dicevano d’aver fame, sospiravano proverbi— che la fame abbatte i muri di pietra, che i cani devono mangiare, che la carne fu fatta per le bocche, che gli dèi non mandarono il grano soltanto per i ricchi. Con questi brandelli sfogarono i loro lamenti, e, ottenuta risposta, e concessa loro una petizione—strana davvero, tale da spezzare il cuore alla generosità e far impallidire l’ardito potere—gettarono i berretti come volessero appenderli alle corna della luna, gridando la loro emulazione.
MENENIUS	Che cosa è stato loro concesso?
MARTIUS	Cinque tribuni a difesa delle loro volgari saggezze, di loro propria scelta. Uno è Giunio Bruto, Sicinio Veluto, e non so chi altri. Per la morte di Dio, la marmaglia avrebbe dovuto prima scoperchiare la città che ottenere tanto da me! Col tempo guadagnerà sul potere e getterà argomenti maggiori alle dispute dell’insurrezione.
MENENIUS	Questo è strano.
MARTIUS	(ai Cittadini) Andatevene a casa, voi frammenti.
(didascalia)	Entra in fretta un Messaggero
MESSAGGERO	Dov’è Caio Marzio?
MARTIUS	Qui. Che c’è?
MESSAGGERO	La notizia è, signore, che i Volsci sono in armi.
MARTIUS	Ne sono lieto. Allora avremo modo di sfogare il nostro ammuffito superfluo.
(didascalia)	Entrano Sicinius, Brutus, Cominius, Lartius, con altri Senatori
MARTIUS	Ecco, i nostri migliori anziani.
PRIMO SENATORE	Marzio, è vero ciò che poco fa ci avete detto. I Volsci sono in armi.
MARTIUS	Hanno un condottiero, Tullo Aufidio, che vi darà del filo da torcere. Pecco nell’invidiare la sua nobiltà, e s’io fossi altro da ciò che sono, vorrei essere lui soltanto.
COMINIUS	Vi siete battuti insieme!
MARTIUS	Fosse il mondo diviso a metà per le orecchie ed egli dalla mia parte, mi rivolterei per fare le mie guerre soltanto con lui. È un leone che sono fiero di cacciare.
PRIMO SENATORE	Allora, degno Marzio, accompagnate Cominio a queste guerre.
COMINIUS	(a Marzio) È la vostra antica promessa.
MARTIUS	Signore, lo è, e sono costante. Tito Larzio, tu mi vedrai ancora una volta colpire il volto di Tullo. Come, sei rigido? Ti tiri indietro?
LARTIUS	No, Caio Marzio. M’appoggerò a una gruccia e combatterò con l’altra prima di restar fuori da questa impresa.
MENENIUS	Oh, di vera razza!
(didascalia)	PRIMO SENATORE
MENENIUS	La vostra compagnia al Campidoglio, dove so che i nostri più grandi amici ci attendono.
LARTIUS	(a Cominio) Guidateci voi. (A Marzio) Segui Cominio. Noi dobbiamo seguire te, ben degno della tua precedenza.
COMINIUS	Nobile Marzio.
(didascalia)	PRIMO SENATORE (ai Cittadini)
COMINIUS	Via alle vostre case, andatevene.
MARTIUS	No, lasciate che ci seguano. I Volsci hanno molto grano. Portateli là, questi topi, a rodere i loro granai. I Cittadini si allontanano furtivi Riveriti ammutinati, il vostro valore germoglia bene. (Ai Senatori) Prego, seguitemi.
(didascalia)	Escono tutti tranne Sicinius e Brutus
SICINIUS	Vi fu mai uomo tanto superbo quanto questo Marzio?
BRUTUS	Non ha uguali.
SICINIUS	Quando fummo scelti tribuni del popolo—
BRUTUS	Avete notato il suo labbro e i suoi occhi?
SICINIUS	No, ma i suoi scherni.
BRUTUS	Quando è mosso, non si perita di beffare gli dèi.
SICINIUS	Di schernire la pudica luna.
BRUTES	Lo divorino le guerre presenti! È divenuto troppo superbo per essere tanto valoroso.
SICINIUS	Una simile natura, solleticata dal buon successo, sdegna l’ombra che calpesta a mezzogiorno. Ma mi meraviglio che la sua insolenza sopporti d’essere comandata sotto Cominio.
BRUTUS	La fama, alla quale egli mira— e presso la quale è già ben favorito—non può meglio esser conservata né più raggiunta che con un posto secondo al primo; ché ciò che fallisce sarà colpa del generale, per quanto egli faccia quanto un uomo può, e la vertiginosa censura griderà allora di Marzio: «Oh, se lui avesse condotto l’impresa!»
SICINIUS	Inoltre, se le cose vanno bene, l’opinione, che tanto s’attacca a Marzio, deruberà Cominio dei meriti di lui.
BRUTUS	Andiamo, metà di tutti gli onori di Cominio toccano a Marzio, benché Marzio non li abbia guadagnati; e tutte le colpe di lui a Marzio si volgeranno in onori, benché in verità in nulla li meriti.
SICINIUS	Andiamo via e udiamo come si allestisce la spedizione, e in qual foggia, oltre la sua singolarità, egli muove a questa presente azione.
BRUTUS	Andiamo. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Aufidius, with Senators of Corioles
FIRST SENATOR	So, your opinion is, Aufidius, That they of Rome are entered in our counsels And know how we proceed.
AUFIDIUS	Is it not yours? What ever have been thought on in this state That could be brought to bodily act ere Rome Had circumvention? ’Tis not four days gone Since I heard thence. These are the words. I think I have the letter here—yes, here it is.
(didascalia)	He
AUFIDIUS	reads the
(didascalia)	letter
AUFIDIUS	‘They have pressed a power, but it is not known Whether for east or west. The dearth is great, The people mutinous, and it is rumoured Cominius, Martius your old enemy, Who is of Rome worse hated than of you, And Titus Lartius, a most valiant Roman, These three lead on this preparation Whither ’tis bent. Most likely ‘tis for you. Consider of it.’
FIRST SENATOR	Our army’s in the field. We never yet made doubt but Rome was ready To answer us.
AUFIDIUS	Nor did you think it folly To keep your great pretences veiled till when They needs must show themselves, which in the hatching, It seemed, appeared to Rome. By the discovery We shall be shortened in our aim, which was To take in many towns ere, almost, Rome Should know we were afoot.
SECOND SENATOR	Noble Aufidius, Take your commission, hie you to your bands. Let us alone to guard Corioles. If they set down before’s, for the remove Bring up your army, but I think you’ll find They’ve not prepared for us.
AUFIDIUS	O, doubt not that. I speak from certainties. Nay, more, Some parcels of their power are forth already, And only hitherward. I leave your honours. If we and Caius Martius chance to meet, ’Tis sworn between us we shall ever strike Till one can do no more.
ALL THE SENATORS	The gods assist you!
AUFIDIUS	And keep your honours safe.
FIRST SENATOR	Farewell.
SECOND SENATOR	Farewell.
ALL	Farewell.
(didascalia)	Exeunt, Aufidius at one door,
(didascalia)	Senators at another door

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra Aufidius, con Senatori di Corioli
PRIMO SENATORE	Dunque, la vostra opinione è, Aufidio, che quelli di Roma sono entrati nei nostri consigli e sanno come procediamo.
AUFIDIUS	Non è la vostra? Che cosa mai fu pensata in questo stato che potesse tradursi in atto corporeo prima che Roma ne avesse notizia? Non son passati quattro giorni da che ne ebbi avviso. Queste sono le parole. Credo d’aver qui la lettera—sì, eccola.
(didascalia)	Egli
AUFIDIUS	legge la
(didascalia)	lettera
AUFIDIUS	«Hanno arruolato una forza, ma non si sa se per l’oriente o per l’occidente. La carestia è grande, il popolo ammutinato, e corre voce che Cominio, Marzio vostro antico nemico, che è odiato in Roma peggio che da voi, e Tito Larzio, romano validissimo, questi tre guidino tale preparativo dovunque sia rivolto. Con ogni probabilità è per voi. Consideratelo.»
PRIMO SENATORE	Il nostro esercito è in campo. Non abbiamo mai dubitato che Roma fosse pronta a risponderci.
AUFIDIUS	Né avete pensato fosse follia tenere velate le vostre grandi mire fino a quando dovessero necessariamente mostrarsi; le quali, nell’ incubarsi, parve, apparvero a Roma. Per la scoperta saremo accorciati nel nostro intento, che era di prendere molte città prima che Roma, quasi, sapesse che eravamo in marcia.
SECONDO SENATORE	Nobile Aufidio, prendete il vostro comando, correte alle vostre schiere. Lasciate a noi soli la guardia di Corioli. Se ci pongono l’assedio, per farlo levare portate su il vostro esercito; ma credo troverete che non si sono preparati contro di noi.
AUFIDIUS	Oh, non ne dubitate. Parlo per certezze. Anzi, di più: alcune porzioni della loro forza sono già uscite, e soltanto verso qui. Lascio i vostri onori. Se io e Caio Marzio ci incontriamo per caso, è giurato fra noi che colpiremo sempre finché l’uno non possa più.
TUTTI I SENATORI	Gli dèi vi assistano!
AUFIDIUS	E serbino salvi i vostri onori.
PRIMO SENATORE	Addio.
SECONDO SENATORE	Addio.
TUTTI	Addio.
(didascalia)	Escono, Aufidius da una porta,
(didascalia)	i Senatori da un’altra porta

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Volumnia and Virgilia, mother and wife to Martius. They set them down on two low stools and sew
VOLUMNIA	I pray you, daughter, sing, or express yourself in a more comfortable sort. If my son were my husband, I should freelier rejoice in that absence wherein he won honour than in the embracements of his bed where he would show most love. When yet he was but tender-bodied and the only son of my womb, when youth with comeliness plucked all gaze his way, when for a day of kings’ entreaties a mother should not sell him an hour from her beholding, I, considering how honour would become such a person—that it was no better than, picture-like, to hang by th’ wall if renown made it not stir—was pleased to let him seek danger where he was like to find fame. To a cruel war I sent him, from whence he returned his brows bound with oak. I tell thee, daughter, I sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child than now in first seeing he had proved himself a man.
VIRGILIA	But had he died in the business, madam, how then?
VOLUMNIA	Then his good report should have been my son. I therein would have found issue. Hear me profess sincerely: had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike, and none less dear than thine and my good Martius’, I had rather had eleven die nobly for their country than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.
(didascalia)	Enter a Gentlewoman
GENTLEWOMAN	Madam, the Lady Valeria is come to visit you.
VIRGILIA	(to Volumnia) Beseech you give me leave to retire myself.
VOLUMNIA	Indeed you shall not. Methinks I hear hither your husband’s drum, See him pluck Aufidius down by th’ hair; As children from a bear, the Volsces shunning him. Methinks I see him stamp thus, and call thus: ‘Come on, you cowards, you were got in fear Though you were born in Rome!’ His bloody brow With his mailed hand then wiping, forth he goes, Like to a harvest-man that’s tasked to mow Or all or lose his hire.
VIRGILIA	His bloody brow? O Jupiter, no blood!
VOLUMNIA	Away, you fool! It more becomes a man Than gilt his trophy. The breasts of Hecuba When she did suckle Hector looked not lovelier Than Hector’s forehead when it spit forth blood At Grecian sword, contemning. (To the Gentlewoman) Tell Valeria We are fit to bid her welcome. Exit Gentlewoman
VIRGILIA	Heavens bless my lord from fell Aufidius!
VOLUMNIA	He’ll beat Aufidius’ head below his knee And tread upon his neck.
(didascalia)	Enter Valeria, with an usher and the Gentlewoman
VALERIA	My ladies both, good day to you.
VOLUMNIA	Sweet madam.
VIRGILIA	I am glad to see your ladyship.
VALERIA	How do you both? You are manifest housekeepers. What are you sewing here? A fine spot, in good faith. How does your little son?
VIRGILIA	I thank your ladyship; well, good madam.
VOLUMNIA	He had rather see the swords and hear a drum than look upon his schoolmaster.
VALERIA O’	my word, the father’s son! I’ll swear ‘tis a very pretty boy. O’ my troth, I looked upon him o’ Wednesday half an hour together. He’s such a confirmed countenance! I saw him run after a gilded butterfly, and when he caught it he let it go again, and after it again, and over and over he comes, and up again, catched it again. Or whether his fall enraged him, or how ’twas, he did so set his teeth and tear it! O, I warrant, how he mammocked it!
VOLUMNIA	One on’s father’s moods.
VALERIA	Indeed, la, ’tis a noble child.
VIRGILIA	A crack, madam.
VALERIA	Come, lay aside your stitchery. I must have you play the idle housewife with me this afternoon.
VIRGILIA	No, good madam, I will not out of doors.
VALERIA	Not out of doors?
VOLUMNIA	She shall, she shall.
VIRGILIA	Indeed, no, by your patience. I’ll not over the threshold till my lord return from the wars.
VALERIA	Fie, you confine yourself most unreasonably. Come, you must go visit the good lady that lies in.
VIRGILIA	I will wish her speedy strength, and visit her with my prayers, but I cannot go thither.
VOLUMNIA	Why, I pray you?
VIRGILIA	’Tis not to save labour, nor that I want love.
VALERIA	You would be another Penelope. Yet they say all the yarn she spun in Ulysses’ absence did but fill Ithaca full of moths. Come, I would your cambric were sensible as your finger, that you might leave pricking it for pity. Come, you shall go with us.
VIRGILIA	No, good madam, pardon me, indeed I will not forth.
VALERIA	In truth, la, go with me, and I’ll tell you excellent news of your husband.
VIRGILIA	O, good madam, there can be none yet.
VALERIA	Verily, I do not jest with you: there came news from him last night.
VIRGILIA	Indeed, madam?
VALERIA	In earnest, it’s true. I heard a senator speak it. Thus it is: the Volsces have an army forth, against whom Cominius the general is gone with one part of our Roman power. Your lord and Titus Lartius are set down before their city Corioles. They nothing doubt prevailing, and to make it brief wars. This is true, on mine honour; and so, I pray, go with us.
VIRGILIA	Give me excuse, good madam, I will obey you in everything hereafter.
VOLUMNIA	(to Valeria) Let her alone, lady. As she is now she will but disease our better mirth.
VALERIA	In truth, I think she would. Fare you well, then. Come, good sweet lady. Prithee, Virgilia, turn thy solemness out o’ door and go along with us.
VIRGILIA	No, at a word, madam. Indeed, I must not. I wish you much mirth.
VALERIA	Well then, farewell.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Valeri, Volumnia, and usher at one door, Virgilia and Gentlewoman at another door

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Volumnia e Virgilia, madre e moglie di Marzio. Si siedono su due bassi sgabelli e cuciono
VOLUMNIA	Ti prego, figlia, canta, o esprimiti in modo più consolante. Se mio figlio fosse mio marito, mi rallegrerei più liberamente di quell’assenza in cui egli conquistò onore che degli abbracci del suo letto dove mostrerebbe il maggiore amore. Quando egli era ancora di tenero corpo e unico figlio del mio grembo, quando la giovinezza con la sua avvenenza attirava su di lui ogni sguardo, quando per un giorno intero di preghiere di re una madre non gli venderebbe un’ora del proprio contemplarlo, io, considerando come l’onore si convenisse a una tale persona—e che non era meglio che pendere dal muro come un ritratto, se la rinomanza non lo faceva muovere—fui lieta di lasciarlo cercare il pericolo là dove era probabile trovasse la fama. A una guerra crudele lo mandai, donde tornò con le tempie cinte di quercia. Ti dico, figlia, che non sussultai di maggior gioia al primo udire che era un figlio maschio, di quanta ne provo ora al primo vederlo essersi dimostrato uomo.
VIRGILIA	Ma se fosse morto nell’impresa, signora, allora?
VOLUMNIA	Allora la sua buona fama sarebbe stata mio figlio. In essa avrei trovato discendenza. Ascoltami professare sinceramente: se avessi una dozzina di figli, ciascuno egualmente nel mio amore, e nessuno meno caro del tuo e mio buon Marzio, preferirei che undici morissero nobilmente per il loro paese, piuttosto che uno si rimpinzasse voluttuosamente lontano dall’azione.
(didascalia)	Entra una Gentildonna
GENTILDONNA	Signora, la nobile Valeria è venuta a farvi visita.
VIRGILIA	(a Volumnia) Vi supplico, concedetemi di ritirarmi.
VOLUMNIA	Davvero non lo farete. Mi par d’udire fin qui il tamburo di vostro marito, di vederlo abbattere Aufidio per i capelli; e i Volsci fuggirlo come bimbi da un orso. Mi par di vederlo pestare il piede così, e gridare così: «Avanti, vigliacchi, foste generati nella paura benché nasceste in Roma!» E, tergendosi poi la fronte insanguinata con la mano corazzata, avanza, come un mietitore incaricato di falciare tutto o di perdere il salario.
VIRGILIA	La fronte insanguinata? O Giove, non sangue!
VOLUMNIA	Via, sciocca! S’addice a un uomo più dell’oro al suo trofeo. Le mammelle di Ecuba quando allattava Ettore non parevano più belle della fronte di Ettore quando sputava sangue alla spada greca, sprezzante. (Alla Gentildonna) Di’ a Valeria che siamo pronte a darle il benvenuto. Esce la Gentildonna
VIRGILIA	I cieli guardino il mio signore dal crudele Aufidio!
VOLUMNIA	Egli abbatterà il capo di Aufidio sotto il proprio ginocchio e gli calpesterà il collo.
(didascalia)	Entra Valeria, con un usciere e la Gentildonna
VALERIA	Mie signore entrambe, buon giorno a voi.
VOLUMNIA	Dolce signora.
VIRGILIA	Son lieta di vedere vostra signoria.
VALERIA	Come state entrambe? Siete manifeste massaie. Che cosa cucite qui? Un bel ricamo, in buona fede. Come sta il vostro piccolo figlio?
VIRGILIA	Ringrazio vostra signoria; bene, buona signora.
VOLUMNIA	Preferisce vedere le spade e udire un tamburo che guardare il suo maestro di scuola.
VALERIA O’	parola mia, figlio del padre! Giurerei che è un bambino graziosissimo. In fede mia, mercoledì l’ho guardato per una mezz’ora di seguito. Ha un cipiglio così deciso! L’ho visto correre dietro a una farfalla dorata, e quando l’ebbe presa la lasciò andare di nuovo, e di nuovo dietro ad essa, e cade e ricade, e su di nuovo, e la riacchiappò. O che la caduta lo facesse infuriare, o come fosse, strinse così i denti e la lacerò! Oh, ve l’assicuro, come la fece a brandelli!
VOLUMNIA	Uno degli umori di suo padre.
VALERIA	Davvero, sì, è un nobile fanciullo.
VIRGILIA	Un monello, signora.
VALERIA	Su, mettete da parte il vostro cucito. Voglio che facciate con me l’ozïosa massaia questo pomeriggio.
VIRGILIA	No, buona signora, non uscirò di casa.
VALERIA	Non uscirete di casa?
VOLUMNIA	Uscirà, uscirà.
VIRGILIA	Davvero no, con vostra licenza. Non varcherò la soglia finché il mio signore non torni dalle guerre.
VALERIA	Suvvia, vi confinate assai irragionevolmente. Venite, dovete andare a visitare la buona dama che è in parto.
VIRGILIA	Le augurerò pronta forza, e la visiterò con le mie preghiere, ma non posso andarvi.
VOLUMNIA	E perché, di grazia?
VIRGILIA	Non è per risparmiare fatica, né perché mi manchi affetto.
VALERIA	Vorreste essere un’altra Penelope. Eppure dicono che tutto il filo che ella filò in assenza di Ulisse non fece che riempire Itaca di tarme. Venite, vorrei che la vostra batista fosse sensibile come il vostro dito, sì che smetteste di pungerla per pietà. Venite, verrete con noi.
VIRGILIA	No, buona signora, perdonatemi, davvero non uscirò.
VALERIA	In verità, sì, venite con me, e vi dirò eccellenti notizie di vostro marito.
VIRGILIA	Oh, buona signora, non ve ne possono essere ancora.
VALERIA	In verità, non scherzo con voi: ieri notte sono giunte notizie da lui.
VIRGILIA	Davvero, signora?
VALERIA	Sul serio, è vero. L’ho udito dire da un senatore. Ecco come sta: i Volsci hanno un esercito in campo, contro il quale è andato il generale Cominio con una parte della nostra forza romana. Il vostro signore e Tito Larzio si sono accampati davanti alla loro città di Corioli. Non dubitano affatto di prevalere, e di farne una guerra breve. Questo è vero, sul mio onore; e perciò, vi prego, venite con noi.
VIRGILIA	Scusatemi, buona signora, d’ora in poi vi obbedirò in ogni cosa.
VOLUMNIA	(a Valeria) Lasciatela sola, signora. Com’è ora non farebbe che guastare la nostra migliore allegria.
VALERIA	In verità, credo di sì. State bene, dunque. Venite, buona dolce signora. Ti prego, Virgilia, caccia fuori dalla porta la tua gravità e vieni con noi.
VIRGILIA	No, in una parola, signora. Davvero non devo. Vi auguro molta allegria.
VALERIA	Bene allora, addio.
(didascalia)	Escono Valeri, Volumnia e l’usciere da una porta, Virgilia e la Gentildonna da un’altra porta

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Martius, Lartius with a drummer, a trumpeter, and colours, with captains and Soldiers carrying scaling ladders, as before the city Corioles; to them a Messenger
MARTIUS	Yonder comes news. A wager they have met.
LARTIUS	My horse to yours, no.
MARTIUS	’Tis done.
LARTIUS	Agreed.
MARTIUS	(to the Messenger) Say, has our general met the enemy?
MESSENGER	They lie in view, but have not spoke as yet.
LARTIUS	So, the good horse is mine.
MARTIUS	I’ll buy him of you.
LARTIUS	No, I’ll nor sell nor give him. Lend you him I will, For half a hundred years. (To the trumpeter) Summon the town.
MARTIUS	(to the Messenger) How far off lie these armies?
MESSENGER	Within this mile and half.
MARTIUS	Then shall we hear their ’larum, and they ours. Now Mars, I prithee, make us quick in work, That we with smoking swords may march from hence To help our fielded friends. (To the trumpeter) Come, blow thy blast. They sound a parley. Enter two Senators, with others, on the walls of Corioles (To the Senators) Tullus Aufidius, is he within your walls?
FIRST SENATOR	No, nor a man that fears you less than he: That’s lesser than a little.
(didascalia)	Drum afar off
(didascalia)	To the Volscians Hark, our drums
FIRST SENATOR	Are bringing forth our youth. We’ll break our walls Rather than they shall pound us up. Our gates, Which yet seem shut, we have but pinned with rushes. They’ll open of themselves.
(didascalia)	Alarum far off
FIRST SENATOR	(To the Romans) Hark you, far off There is Aufidius. List what work he makes Amongst your cloven army.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Volscians from the walls
MARTIUS	O, they are at it!
LARTIUS	Their noise be our instruction. Ladders, ho!
(didascalia)	They prepare to assault the walls.
(didascalia)	Enter the army of the Volsces from the gates
MARTIUS	They fear us not, but issue forth their city. Now put your shields before your hearts, and fight With hearts more proof than shields. Advance, brave Titus. They do disdain us much beyond our thoughts, Which makes me sweat with wrath. Come on, my fellows. He that retires, I’ll take him for a Volsce, And he shall feel mine edge.
(didascalia)	Alarum. The Romans are beat back and exeunt to their trenches, the Volsces following

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Marzio, Lartius con un tamburino, un trombettiere e insegne, con capitani e Soldati che portano scale d’assalto, come davanti alla città di Corioli; a loro un Messaggero
MARTIUS	Laggiù vengono notizie. Scommetto che si sono scontrati.
LARTIUS	Il mio cavallo contro il vostro, no.
MARTIUS	Fatto.
LARTIUS	D’accordo.
MARTIUS	(al Messaggero) Dimmi, il nostro generale ha incontrato il nemico?
MESSAGGERO	Stanno in vista, ma non si sono ancora parlati.
LARTIUS	Così, il buon cavallo è mio.
MARTIUS	Ve lo comprerò.
LARTIUS	No, non lo venderò né lo darò. Prestarvelo, quello sì, per una mezza centuria d’anni. (Al trombettiere) Intima la resa alla città.
MARTIUS	(al Messaggero) Quanto distano questi eserciti?
MESSAGGERO	Entro un miglio e mezzo.
MARTIUS	Allora udremo il loro allarme, ed essi il nostro. Ora Marte, ti prego, rendici spediti nell’opera, sì che con le spade fumanti possiamo muovere di qui in aiuto degli amici schierati in campo. (Al trombettiere) Su, dà fiato alla tromba. Suonano a parlamento. Entrano due Senatori, con altri, sulle mura di Corioli (Ai Senatori) Tullo Aufidio, è dentro le vostre mura?
PRIMO SENATORE	No, né un uomo che vi tema meno di lui: ossia meno di un nulla.
(didascalia)	Tamburo in lontananza
(didascalia)	Ai Volsci Udite, i nostri tamburi
PRIMO SENATORE	stanno traendo fuori la nostra gioventù. Romperemo le nostre mura piuttosto che lasciarci rinchiudere da voi. Le nostre porte, che pure sembrano serrate, le abbiamo fermate con giunchi. Si apriranno da sé.
(didascalia)	Allarme in lontananza
PRIMO SENATORE	(Ai Romani) Udite, laggiù c’è Aufidio. Ascoltate che lavoro fa in mezzo al vostro esercito diviso.
(didascalia)	Escono i Volsci dalle mura
MARTIUS	Oh, ci son dentro!
LARTIUS	Il loro fragore ci sia d’insegnamento. Le scale, olà!
(didascalia)	Si preparano ad assalire le mura.
(didascalia)	Entra l’esercito dei Volsci dalle porte
MARTIUS	Non ci temono, ma escono dalla loro città. Ora ponete gli scudi davanti ai cuori, e combattete con cuori più saldi degli scudi. Avanza, prode Tito. Ci disdegnano assai oltre il nostro pensiero, il che mi fa sudare d’ira. Avanti, miei compagni. Chi si ritira, lo terrò per un Volsco, e sentirà il mio filo.
(didascalia)	Allarme. I Romani sono respinti ed escono verso le loro trincee, i Volsci inseguendoli

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Roman Soldiers, in retreat, followed by Martius, cursing
MARTIUS	All the contagion of the south light on you, You shames of Rome! You herd of—boils and plagues Plaster you o’er, that you may be abhorred Farther than seen, and one infect another Against the wind a mile! You souls of geese That bear the shapes of men, how have you run From slaves that apes would beat! Pluto and hell: All hurt behind! Backs red, and faces pale With flight and agued fear! Mend and charge home, Or by the fires of heaven I’ll leave the foe And make my wars on you. Look to’t. Come on. If you’ll stand fast, we’ll beat them to their wives, As they us to our trenches. Follow.
(didascalia)	The Romans come forward towards the walls. Another alarum, and enter the army of the Volsces. Martius beats them back through the gates
MARTIUS	So, now the gates are ope. Now prove good seconds. ’Tis for the followers fortune widens them, Not for the fliers. Mark me, and do the like. He enters the gates
FIRST SOLDIER	Foolhardiness! Not I.
SECOND SOLDIER	Nor I.
(didascalia)	Alarum continues. The gates close, and Martius is shut in
FIRST SOLDIER	See, they have shut him in.
(didascalia)	THIRD SOLDIER To th’ pot, I warrant him.
(didascalia)	Enter Lartius
LARTIUS	What is become of Martius?
(didascalia)	FOURTH SOLDIER
LARTIUS	Slain, sir, doubtless.
FIRST SOLDIER	Following the fliers at the very heels, With them he enters, who upon the sudden Clapped-to their gates. He is himself alone To answer all the city.
LARTIUS	O noble fellow, Who sensibly outdares his senseless sword And, when it bows, stand‘st up! Thou art lost, Martius. A carbuncle entire, as big as thou art, Were not so rich a jewel. Thou wast a soldier Even to Cato’s wish, not fierce and terrible Only in strokes, but with thy grim looks and The thunder-like percussion of thy sounds Thou mad’st thine enemies shake as if the world Were feverous and did tremble.
(didascalia)	Enter Martius, bleeding, assaulted by the enemy
FIRST SOLDIER	Look, sir.
LARTIUS	O, ’tis Martius! Let’s fetch him off, or make remain alike. They fight, and all exeunt into the city

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Soldati romani, in ritirata, seguiti da Marzio, che impreca
MARTIUS	Tutto il contagio del sud vi caschi addosso, vergogne di Roma! Branco di—bubboni e pestilenze v’intonachino tutti, sì che siate aborriti più lontano di quanto siate visti, e l’uno infetti l’altro contro vento per un miglio! Anime d’oche che portate forme d’uomini, come siete fuggiti davanti a schiavi che perfino le scimmie batterebbero! Plutone e inferno: tutti feriti alle spalle! Schiene rosse e volti pallidi di fuga e di febbrile paura! Ravvedetevi e caricate a fondo, o per i fuochi del cielo lascerò il nemico e farò le mie guerre contro di voi. Badateci. Avanti. Se terrete saldo, li ricacceremo dalle loro mogli, come essi noi nelle nostre trincee. Seguitemi.
(didascalia)	I Romani avanzano verso le mura. Un altro allarme, ed entra l’esercito dei Volsci. Marzio li respinge attraverso le porte
MARTIUS	Così, ora le porte sono aperte. Ora mostratevi buoni secondi. È per chi segue che la fortuna le spalanca, non per chi fugge. Guardatemi, e fate lo stesso. Entra dalle porte
PRIMO SOLDATO	Temerarietà! Io no.
SECONDO SOLDATO	Né io.
(didascalia)	L’allarme continua. Le porte si chiudono, e Marzio resta serrato dentro
PRIMO SOLDATO	Guardate, l’hanno chiuso dentro.
(didascalia)	TERZO SOLDATO In pentola, ve lo garantisco.
(didascalia)	Entra Lartius
LARTIUS	Che ne è stato di Marzio?
(didascalia)	QUARTO SOLDATO
LARTIUS	Ucciso, signore, senza dubbio.
PRIMO SOLDATO	Seguendo i fuggitivi proprio alle calcagna, con loro entra, ed essi d’improvviso sbatterono le porte. Egli è solo, da sé, a rispondere a tutta la città.
LARTIUS	O nobile compagno, che con senno osi più della tua spada insensata e, quando essa si piega, resti in piedi! Sei perduto, Marzio. Un carbonchio intero, grande quanto sei tu, non sarebbe gioiello così prezioso. Fosti soldato quale Catone lo desiderava, fiero e terribile non solo nei colpi, ma con i tuoi truci sguardi e la percussione simile a tuono dei tuoi accenti facesti tremare i tuoi nemici come se il mondo fosse febbricitante e vacillasse.
(didascalia)	Entra Marzio, sanguinante, assalito dal nemico
PRIMO SOLDATO	Guardate, signore.
LARTIUS	Oh, è Marzio! Andiamo a tirarlo fuori, o restiamo con lui alla pari. Combattono, e tutti escono nella città

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter certain Romans with spoils
FIRST ROMAN	This will I carry to Rome.
SECOND ROMAN	And I this.
THIRD ROMAN	A murrain on’t, I took this for silver.
(didascalia)	He throws it away.
(didascalia)	Alarum continues still afar off. Enter Martius,
THIRD ROMAN	bleeding, and Lartius with a trumpeter. Exeunt Romans with spoils
MARTIUS	See here these movers that do prize their honours At a cracked drachma! Cushions, leaden spoons, Irons of a doit, doublets that hangmen would Bury with those that wore them, these base slaves, Ere yet the fight be done, pack up. Down with them! And hark what noise the general makes. To him. There is the man of my soul’s hate, Aufidius, Piercing our Romans. Then, valiant Titus, take Convenient numbers to make good the city, Whilst I, with those that have the spirit, will haste To help Cominius.
LARTIUS	Worthy sir, thou bleed’st. Thy exercise hath been too violent For a second course of fight.
MARTIUS	Sir, praise me not. My work hath yet not warmed me. Fare you well. The blood I drop is rather physical Than dangerous to me. To Aufidius thus I will appear and fight.
LARTIUS	Now the fair goddess fortune Fall deep in love with thee, and her great charms Misguide thy opposers’ swords! Bold gentleman, Prosperity be thy page.
MARTIUS	Thy friend no less Than those she placeth highest. So farewell.
LARTIUS	Thou worthiest Martius!
(didascalia)	Exit Martius
LARTIUS	Go sound thy trumpet in the market-place. Call thither all the officers o’th’ town, Where they shall know our mind. Away.
(didascalia)	Exeunt severally

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano alcuni Romani con bottino
PRIMO ROMANO	Questo lo porterò a Roma.
SECONDO ROMANO	E io questo.
TERZO ROMANO	Peste lo colga, l’avevo preso per argento.
(didascalia)	Lo getta via.
(didascalia)	L’allarme continua ancora in lontananza. Entra Marzio,
TERZO ROMANO	sanguinante, e Lartius con un trombettiere. Escono i Romani col bottino
MARTIUS	Guardate qui questi facchini che stimano i loro onori quanto una dracma spezzata! Cuscini, cucchiai di piombo, ferraglie da un soldo, farsetti che i boia seppellirebbero con chi li portò: questi vili schiavi, prima ancora che il combattimento sia finito, fanno fagotto. Addosso a loro! E udite che fragore leva il generale. A lui. Là c’è l’uomo dell’odio della mia anima, Aufidio, che trafigge i nostri Romani. Dunque, valoroso Tito, prendi uomini a sufficienza per tener salda la città, mentre io, con quanti hanno cuore, m’affretterò in aiuto di Cominio.
LARTIUS	Degno signore, tu sanguini. Il tuo esercizio è stato troppo violento per una seconda ripresa di battaglia.
MARTIUS	Signore, non lodatemi. La mia opera non m’ha ancora riscaldato. State bene. Il sangue che perdo mi è piuttosto salutare che pericoloso. Così ad Aufidio apparirò e combatterò.
LARTIUS	Ora la bella dea fortuna s’innamori profondamente d’amore per te, e i suoi grandi incanti svïino le spade dei tuoi avversari! Ardito gentiluomo, la prosperità ti faccia da paggio.
MARTIUS	Tua amica non meno di quanto lo sia di coloro che ella pone più in alto. E così addio.
LARTIUS	Degnissimo Marzio!
(didascalia)	Esce Marzio
LARTIUS	Va’ a suonare la tua tromba nella piazza del mercato. Convocavi tutti gli ufficiali della città, dove conosceranno il nostro intendimento. Via.
(didascalia)	Escono separatamente

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Cominius, as it were in retire, with soldiers
COMINIUS	Breathe you, my friends. Well fought. We are come off Like Romans, neither foolish in our stands Nor cowardly in retire. Believe me, sirs, We shall be charged again. Whiles we have struck, By interims and conveying gusts we have heard The charges of our friends. The Roman gods Lead their successes as we wish our own, That both our powers, with smiling fronts encount’ring, May give you thankful sacrifice!
(didascalia)	Enter a Messenger
COMINIUS	Thy news?
MESSENGER	The citizens of Corioles have issued, And given to Lartius and to Martius battle. I saw our party to their trenches driven, And then I came away.
COMINIUS	Though thou speak‘st truth, Methinks thou speak’st not well. How long is’t since?
MESSENGER	Above an hour, my lord.
COMINIUS	’Tis not a mile; briefly we heard their drums. How couldst thou in a mile confound an hour, And bring thy news so late?
MESSENGER	Spies of the Volsces Held me in chase, that I was forced to wheel Three or four miles about; else had I, sir,
(didascalia)	Half an hour since brought my report. Exit
(didascalia)	Enter Martius, bloody
COMINIUS	Who’s yonder, That does appear as he were flayed? O gods! He has the stamp of Martius, and I have Before-time seen him thus.
MARTIUS	Come I too late?
COMINIUS	The shepherd knows not thunder from a tabor More than I know the sound of Martius’ tongue From every meaner man.
MARTIUS	Come I too late?
COMINIUS	Ay, if you come not in the blood of others, But mantled in your own.
MARTIUS	O, let me clip ye In arms as sound as when I wooed, in heart As merry as when our nuptial day was done, And tapers burnt to bedward!
(didascalia)	They embrace
COMINIUS	Flower of warriors! How is’t with Titus Lartius?
MARTIUS	As with a man busied about decrees, Condemning some to death and some to exile, Ransoming him or pitying, threat‘ning th’other; Holding Corioles in the name of Rome Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash, To let him slip at will.
COMINIUS	Where is that slave Which told me they had beat you to your trenches? Where is he? Call him hither.
MARTIUS	Let him alone. He did inform the truth. But for our gentlemen, The common file—a plague—tribunes for them?— The mouse ne’er shunned the cat as they did budge From rascals worse than they.
COMINIUS	But how prevailed you?
MARTIUS	Will the time serve to tell? I do not think. Where is the enemy? Are you lords o’th’ field? If not, why cease you till you are so?
COMINIUS	Martius, we have at disadvantage fought, And did retire to win our purpose.
MARTIUS	How lies their battle? Know you on which side They have placed their men of trust?
COMINIUS	As I guess, Martius, Their bands i‘th’ vanguard are the Antiates, Of their best trust; o’er them Aufidius, Their very heart of hope.
MARTIUS	I do beseech you By all the battles wherein we have fought, By th’ blood we have shed together, by th’ vows we have made To endure friends, that you directly set me Against Aufidius and his Antiates, And that you not delay the present, but, Filling the air with swords advanced and darts, We prove this very hour.
COMINIUS	Though I could wish You were conducted to a gentle bath And balms applied to you, yet dare I never Deny your asking. Take your choice of those That best can aid your action.
MARTIUS	Those are they That most are willing. If any such be here— As it were sin to doubt—that love this painting Wherein you see me smeared; if any fear Lesser his person than an ill report; If any think brave death outweighs bad life, And that his country’s dearer than himself, Let him alone, or so many so minded, He waves his sword Wave thus to express his disposition, And follow Martius.
(didascalia)	They all shout and wave their swords, then some take him up in their arms and they cast up their caps
MARTIUS	O’ me alone, make you a sword of me? If these shows be not outward, which of you But is four Volsces? None of you but is Able to bear against the great Aufidius A shield as hard as his. A certain number— Though thanks to all—must I select from all. The rest shall bear the business in some other fight As cause will be obeyed. Please you to march, And I shall quickly draw out my command, Which men are best inclined.
COMINIUS	March on, my fellows. Make good this ostentation, and you shall Divide in all with us. Exeunt marching

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra Cominius, come in ritirata, con soldati
COMINIUS	Riprendete fiato, amici miei. Ben combattuto. Ne siamo usciti da Romani, né stolti nel tener fermo né vili nel ritirarci. Credetemi, signori, saremo caricati di nuovo. Mentre battagliavamo, a intervalli e per raffiche portate dal vento abbiamo udito le cariche dei nostri amici. Gli dèi romani guidino i loro successi come noi auguriamo ai nostri, sì che le nostre due schiere, incontrandosi con fronti sorridenti, possano offrirvi grato sacrificio!
(didascalia)	Entra un Messaggero
COMINIUS	Le tue notizie?
MESSAGGERO	I cittadini di Corioli sono usciti, e hanno dato battaglia a Lartius e a Marzio. Ho visto i nostri respinti nelle loro trincee, e allora sono venuto via.
COMINIUS	Benché tu dica il vero, mi pare che tu non parli bene. Quanto tempo è passato?
MESSAGGERO	Più di un’ora, mio signore.
COMINIUS	Non è un miglio; poco fa udimmo i loro tamburi. Come hai potuto in un miglio consumare un’ora, e portare così tardi le tue notizie?
MESSAGGERO	Spie dei Volsci mi tennero in caccia, sì che fui costretto a girare tre o quattro miglia in tondo; altrimenti, signore,
(didascalia)	avrei portato il mio rapporto mezz’ora fa. Esce
(didascalia)	Entra Marzio, insanguinato
COMINIUS	Chi è colui laggiù, che pare come fosse scorticato? O dèi! Ha l’impronta di Marzio, e già altre volte l’ho visto così.
MARTIUS	Giungo troppo tardi?
COMINIUS	Il pastore non distingue il tuono da un tamburello meglio di quanto io distingua il suono della lingua di Marzio da quella d’ogni uomo da meno.
MARTIUS	Giungo troppo tardi?
COMINIUS	Sì, se non venite nel sangue altrui, ma ammantato del vostro.
MARTIUS	Oh, lasciate ch’io vi stringa con braccia salde come quando corteggiavo, con cuore lieto come quando il giorno delle nostre nozze finì, e le torce ardevano verso il letto!
(didascalia)	Si abbracciano
COMINIUS	Fiore dei guerrieri! Come sta Tito Larzio?
MARTIUS	Come uomo affaccendato intorno a decreti, che condanna alcuni a morte e altri all’esilio, che riscatta l’uno o gli usa pietà, minacciando l’altro; tenendo Corioli in nome di Roma proprio come un levriero carezzevole al guinzaglio, per scioglierlo a piacere.
COMINIUS	Dov’è quello schiavo che mi disse che v’avevano ricacciati nelle vostre trincee? Dov’è? Chiamatelo qui.
MARTIUS	Lasciatelo stare. Riferì il vero. Ma quanto ai nostri gentiluomini, la fila comune—peste!—tribuni per loro?— mai il topo fuggì il gatto come essi sgombrarono davanti a canaglie peggiori di loro.
COMINIUS	Ma come prevaleste?
MARTIUS	Basterà il tempo a raccontarlo? Non credo. Dov’è il nemico? Siete padroni del campo? Se no, perché cessate prima d’esserlo?
COMINIUS	Marzio, abbiamo combattuto in condizione svantaggiosa, e ci ritirammo per vincere il nostro intento.
MARTIUS	Com’è schierata la loro battaglia? Sapete da qual lato abbiano posto i loro uomini di fiducia?
COMINIUS	Per quanto arguisco, Marzio, le loro schiere in avanguardia sono gli Anziati, i più fidati; e sopra di essi Aufidio, il cuore stesso della loro speranza.
MARTIUS	Vi supplico per tutte le battaglie in cui abbiamo combattuto, per il sangue che abbiamo versato insieme, per i voti che abbiamo fatto di restare amici, che mi opponiate direttamente ad Aufidio e ai suoi Anziati, e che non differiate il momento, ma, riempiendo l’aria di spade levate e di dardi, ne facciamo prova in quest’ora stessa.
COMINIUS	Benché io desiderassi che foste condotto a un blando bagno e che vi si applicassero balsami, pure non oso mai negare la vostra richiesta. Scegliete fra quelli che meglio possono aiutare la vostra azione.
MARTIUS	Quelli sono coloro che più lo vogliono. Se qualcuno di tal fatta è qui— e sarebbe peccato dubitarne—che ami questa pittura di cui mi vedete imbrattato; se qualcuno teme meno per la sua persona che per una cattiva fama; se qualcuno pensa che una morte valorosa superi una vita vile, e che il suo paese gli sia più caro di sé stesso, egli solo, o quanti siano di tal animo, Agita la sua spada agiti così per esprimere la sua disposizione, e segua Marzio.
(didascalia)	Tutti gridano e agitano le spade, poi alcuni lo sollevano fra le braccia e lanciano in aria i berretti
MARTIUS	Di me solo fate una spada? Se queste mostre non sono esteriori, chi di voi non vale quattro Volsci? Nessuno di voi che non sia capace di reggere contro il grande Aufidio uno scudo duro quanto il suo. Un certo numero— pur grato a tutti—devo sceglierne fra tutti. Gli altri sosterranno l’impresa in qualche altro scontro secondo che l’occasione lo richieda. Piacciavi marciare, e presto trarrò fuori il mio drappello, quali uomini vi siano meglio disposti.
COMINIUS	Marciate, compagni miei. Fate buona questa ostentazione, e con noi dividerete ogni cosa. Escono marciando

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Lartius Through the gates of Corioles, with a drummer and a trumpeter, a Lieutenant, other soldiers, and a scout
LARTIUS	(to the Lieutenant) So, let the ports be guarded. Keep your duties As I have set them down. If I do send, dispatch Those centuries to our aid. The rest will serve For a short holding. If we lose the field We cannot keep the town.
LIEUTENANT	Fear not our care, sir.
LARTIUS	Hence, and shut your gates upon’s.
(didascalia)	Exit Lieutenant
LARTIUS	(To the scout) Our guider, come; to th’ Roman camp conduct us.
(didascalia)	Exeunt towards Cominius and Caius Martius

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra Lartius attraverso le porte di Corioli, con un tamburino e un trombettiere, un Luogotenente, altri soldati e un esploratore
LARTIUS	(al Luogotenente) Così, siano custodite le porte. Attenetevi ai vostri compiti come ve li ho fissati. Se mando a chiamare, spedite quelle centurie in nostro aiuto. Il resto basterà per una breve difesa. Se perdiamo il campo non possiamo tenere la città.
LUOGOTENENTE	Non temete per la nostra cura, signore.
LARTIUS	Via, e serrate le porte alle nostre spalle.
(didascalia)	Esce il Luogotenente
LARTIUS	(All’esploratore) Nostra guida, vieni; al campo romano conducici.
(didascalia)	Escono verso Cominius e Caio Marzio

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Alarum, as in battle. Enter Martius, bloody, and Aufidius, at several doors
MARTIUS	I’ll fight with none but thee, for I do hate thee Worse than a promise-breaker.
AUFIDIUS	We hate alike. Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor More than thy fame and envy. Fix thy foot.
MARTIUS	Let the first budger die the other’s slave, And the gods doom him after.
AUFIDIUS	If I fly, Martius, Holla me like a hare.
MARTIUS	Within these three hours, Tullus, Alone I fought in your Corioles’ walls, And made what work I pleased. ’Tis not my blood Wherein thou seest me masked. For thy revenge, Wrench up thy power to th’ highest.
AUFIDIUS	Wert thou the Hector That was the whip of your bragged progeny, Thou shouldst not scape me here.
(didascalia)	Here they fight, and certain Volsces come in the aid of Aufidius. Martius fights till the Volsces be driven in breathless, Martius following
AUFIDIUS	Officious and not valiant, you have shamed me In your condemned seconds.
(didascalia)	Exit

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Allarme, come in battaglia. Entrano Marzio, insanguinato, e Aufidius, da porte diverse
MARTIUS	Non combatterò con nessuno se non con te, ché ti odio peggio d’uno spergiuro.
AUFIDIUS	Ci odiamo del pari. L’Africa non possiede serpente ch’io aborra più della tua fama e della mia invidia. Ferma il piede.
MARTIUS	Chi per primo si muove muoia schiavo dell’altro, e gli dèi lo dannino poi.
AUFIDIUS	Se io fuggo, Marzio, dàmmi la caccia come a una lepre.
MARTIUS	Entro queste tre ore, Tullo, solo ho combattuto dentro le mura della vostra Corioli, e vi ho fatto l’opera che m’è piaciuta. Non è il mio sangue quello di cui mi vedi mascherato. Per la tua vendetta, tendi la tua forza al sommo.
AUFIDIUS	Fossi tu quell’Ettore che fu il flagello della vostra vantata progenie, non mi sfuggiresti qui.
(didascalia)	Qui combattono, e alcuni Volsci vengono in aiuto di Aufidius. Marzio combatte finché i Volsci non sono respinti dentro, senza fiato, seguiti da Marzio
AUFIDIUS	Officiosi e non valorosi, mi avete disonorato col vostro condannato soccorso.
(didascalia)	Esce

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Alarum. A retreat is sounded. Flourish.Enter at one door Cominius with the Romans, at another door Martius with his arm in a scarf
COMINIUS	(to Martius) If I should tell thee o‘er this thy day’s work Thou’lt not believe thy deeds. But I’ll report it Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles, Where great patricians shall attend and shrug, I‘th’ end admire; where ladies shall be frighted And, gladly quaked, hear more; where the dull tribunes, That with the fusty plebeians hate thine honours, Shall say against their hearts ‘We thank the gods Our Rome hath such a soldier.’ Yet cam’st thou to a morsel of this feast, Having fully dined before.
(didascalia)	Enter Lartius, with his power, from the pursuit
LARTIUS	O general, Here is the steed, we the caparison. Hadst thou beheld—
MARTIUS	Pray now, no more. My mother, Who has a charter to extol her blood, When she does praise me grieves me. I have done As you have done, that’s what I can; induced As you have been, that’s for my country. He that has but effected his good will Hath overta’en mine act.
COMINIUS	You shall not be The grave of your deserving. Rome must know The value of her own. ’Twere a concealment Worse than a theft, no less than a traducement, To hide your doings and to silence that Which, to the spire and top of praises vouched, Would seem but modest. Therefore, I beseech you— In sign of what you are, not to reward What you have done—before our army hear me.
MARTIUS	I have some wounds upon me, and they smart To hear themselves remembered.
COMINIUS	Should they not, Well might they fester ‘gainst ingratitude, And tent themselves with death. Of all the horses— Whereof we have ta’en good, and good store—of all The treasure in this field achieved and city, We render you the tenth, to be ta’en forth Before the common distribution At your only choice.
MARTIUS	I thank you, general, But cannot make my heart consent to take A bribe to pay my sword. I do refuse it, And stand upon my common part with those That have upheld the doing. A long flourish. They all cry ‘Martius, Martius!’, casting up their caps and lances. Cominius and Lartius stand bare May these same instruments which you profane Never sound more. When drums and trumpets shall I’th’ field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be Made all of false-faced soothing. When steel grows Soft as the parasite’s silk, let him be made An overture for th’ wars. No more, I say. For that I have not washed my nose that bled, Or foiled some debile wretch, which without note Here’s many else have done, you shout me forth In acclamations hyperbolical, As if I loved my little should be dieted In praises sauced with lies.
COMINIUS	Too modest are you, More cruel to your good report than grateful To us that give you truly. By your patience, If ‘gainst yourself you be incensed we’ll put you, Like one that means his proper harm, in manacles, Then reason safely with you. Therefore be it known, As to us, to all the world, that Caius Martius Wears this war’s garland, in token of the which My noble steed, known to the camp, I give him, With all his trim belonging; and from this time, For what he did before Corioles, call him, With all th’applause and clamour of the host, Martius Caius Coriolanus. Bear th’addition Nobly ever!
(didascalia)	Flourish. Trumpets sound, and drums
ALL	Martius Caius Coriolanus!
CORIOLANUS	(to Cominius) I will go wash, And when my face is fair you shall perceive Whether I blush or no. Howbeit, I thank you. I mean to stride your steed, and at all times To undercrest your good addition To th’ fairness of my power.
COMINIUS	So, to our tent, Where, ere we do repose us, we will write To Rome of our success. You, Titus Lartius, Must to Corioles back. Send us to Rome The best, with whom we may articulate For their own good and ours.
LARTIUS	I shall, my lord.
CORIOLANUS	The gods begin to mock me. I, that now Refused most princely gifts, am bound to beg Of my lord general.
COMINIUS	Take‘t, ’tis yours. What is’t?
CORIOLANUS	I sometime lay here in Corioles, And at a poor man’s house. He used me kindly. He cried to me; I saw him prisoner; But then Aufidius was within my view, And wrath o’erwhelmed my pity. I request you To give my poor host freedom.
COMINIUS	O, well begged! Were he the butcher of my son he should Be free as is the wind. Deliver him, Titus.
LARTIUS	Martius, his name?
CORIOLANUS	By Jupiter, forgot! I am weary, yea, my memory is tired. Have we no wine here?
COMINIUS	Go we to our tent. The blood upon your visage dries; ’tis time It should be looked to. Come.
(didascalia)	A flourish of cornetts. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Allarme. Si suona a raccolta. Squilli di trombe. Entra da una porta Cominius coi Romani, da un’altra porta Marzio col braccio a tracolla
COMINIUS	(a Marzio) Se dovessi ridirti l’opera di questa tua giornata non crederesti alle tue gesta. Ma la riferirò là dove i senatori mescoleranno lacrime a sorrisi, dove i grandi patrizi ascolteranno e alzeranno le spalle, e alla fine ammireranno; dove le dame saranno spaventate e, lietamente rabbrividendo, ne udranno ancora; dove gli ottusi tribuni, che coi rancidi plebei odiano i tuoi onori, diranno contro il loro cuore: «Ringraziamo gli dèi che la nostra Roma abbia tale soldato». Eppure sei giunto a un boccone di questo banchetto, avendo già pienamente pranzato.
(didascalia)	Entra Lartius, con la sua forza, di ritorno dall’inseguimento
LARTIUS	O generale, ecco il destriero, noi siamo la gualdrappa. Se tu avessi veduto—
MARTIUS	Vi prego, basta. Mia madre, che ha licenza di esaltare il proprio sangue, quando mi loda mi affligge. Ho fatto come voi avete fatto, cioè quel che posso; spinto come voi siete stato, cioè per il mio paese. Chi non ha fatto altro che compiere il suo buon volere ha superato l’opera mia.
COMINIUS	Non sarete la tomba del vostro merito. Roma deve conoscere il valore dei suoi. Sarebbe un occultamento peggiore d’un furto, non meno d’una calunnia, nascondere le vostre imprese e far tacere ciò che, elevato alla guglia e alla cima delle lodi, parrebbe ancora modesto. Perciò, vi supplico— in segno di ciò che siete, non a premio di ciò che avete fatto—ascoltatemi davanti al nostro esercito.
MARTIUS	Ho addosso alcune ferite, e bruciano a udirsi ricordare.
COMINIUS	Se non lo facessero, ben potrebbero incancrenirsi contro l’ingratitudine, e medicarsi con la morte. Di tutti i cavalli— e ne abbiamo presi di buoni, e in buon numero—di tutto il tesoro conquistato in questo campo e nella città, vi consegniamo il decimo, da prelevarsi prima della comune distribuzione a vostra sola scelta.
MARTIUS	Vi ringrazio, generale, ma non posso far consentire il mio cuore ad accettare una mancia per pagare la mia spada. La rifiuto, e mi attengo alla mia parte comune con quelli che hanno sostenuto l’impresa. Lungo squillo di trombe. Tutti gridano «Marzio, Marzio!», gettando in aria i berretti e le lance. Cominius e Lartius stanno a capo scoperto Non suonino mai più questi stessi strumenti che voi profanate. Quando tamburi e trombe si faranno adulatori in campo, siano corti e città tutte fatte di falsa lusinga. Quando l’acciaio si farà molle come la seta del parassita, se ne faccia un banditore per le guerre. Basta, dico. Perché non mi son lavato il naso che sanguinava, o ho abbattuto qualche debole meschino, il che senza rilievo molti altri qui hanno fatto, voi mi levate a grida in acclamazioni iperboliche, come se amassi che la mia piccolezza fosse nutrita di lodi condite di menzogne.
COMINIUS	Troppo modesto siete, più crudele verso la vostra buona fama che grato a noi che ve la rendiamo secondo verità. Con vostra licenza, se contro voi stesso siete acceso, vi metteremo, come chi medita il proprio danno, in ceppi, e poi ragioneremo con voi senza rischio. Sia dunque noto, a noi come a tutto il mondo, che Caio Marzio porta la ghirlanda di questa guerra, in segno della quale gli dono il mio nobile destriero, noto al campo, con tutti i suoi finimenti; e da questo momento, per ciò che fece davanti a Corioli, chiamatelo, con tutto il plauso e il clamore dell’esercito, Marzio Caio Coriolano. Porta quest’aggiunta nobilmente per sempre!
(didascalia)	Squilli. Suonano trombe e tamburi
TUTTI	Marzio Caio Coriolano!
CORIOLANUS	(a Cominio) Andrò a lavarmi, e quando il mio viso sarà terso vedrete se arrossisco o no. Comunque sia, vi ringrazio. Intendo cavalcare il vostro destriero, e in ogni tempo portare sull’elmo il vostro buon soprannome fino a quanto di bello può la mia forza.
COMINIUS	Dunque, alla nostra tenda, dove, prima di riposarci, scriveremo a Roma del nostro successo. Voi, Tito Larzio, dovete tornare a Corioli. Mandateci a Roma i migliori, coi quali possiamo trattare per il loro bene e per il nostro.
LARTIUS	Lo farò, mio signore.
CORIOLANUS	Gli dèi cominciano a beffarmi. Io, che ora ho rifiutato doni principeschi, sono costretto a mendicare dal mio signore generale.
COMINIUS	Prendetelo, è vostro. Che cos’è?
CORIOLANUS	Un tempo alloggiai qui in Corioli, in casa d’un pover’uomo. Mi trattò con bontà. Egli gridava verso di me; lo vidi prigioniero; ma allora Aufidius mi apparve alla vista, e l’ira sopraffece la mia pietà. Vi chiedo di dare al mio povero ospite la libertà.
COMINIUS	Oh, ben chiesto! Fosse egli il macellaio di mio figlio, sarebbe libero come il vento. Liberalo, Tito.
LARTIUS	Marzio, il suo nome?
CORIOLANUS	Per Giove, dimenticato! Sono stanco, sì, la mia memoria è affaticata. Non abbiamo vino qui?
COMINIUS	Andiamo alla nostra tenda. Il sangue sul vostro volto si secca; è tempo che vi si badi. Venite.
(didascalia)	Squillo di cornette. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Aufidius, bloody, with two or three Soldiers AUFIDIUS The town is ta’en.
(didascalia)	A SOLDIER ’Twill be delivered back on good condition.
AUFIDIUS	Condition? I would I were a Roman, for I cannot, Being a Volsce, be that I am. Condition? What good condition can a treaty find I‘th’ part that is at mercy? Five times, Martius, I have fought with thee; so often hast thou beat me, And wouldst do so, I think, should we encounter As often as we eat. By th’ elements, If e’er again I meet him beard to beard, He’s mine, or I am his! Mine emulation Hath not that honour in’t it had, for where I thought to crush him in an equal force, True sword to sword, I’ll potch at him some way Or wrath or craft may get him. A SOLDIER He’s the devil.
AUFIDIUS	Bolder, though not so subtle. My valour, poisoned With only suff‘ring stain by him, for him Shall fly out of itself. Nor sleep nor sanctuary, Being naked, sick, nor fane nor Capitol, The prayers of priests nor times of sacrifice— Embargements all of fury—shall lift up Their rotten privilege and custom ’gainst My hate to Martius. Where I find him, were it At home upon my brother’s guard, even there, Against the hospitable canon, would I Wash my fierce hand in’s heart. Go you to th’ city. Learn how ’tis held, and what they are that must Be hostages for Rome. A SOLDIER Will not you go?
AUFIDIUS	I am attended at the cypress grove. I pray you— ’Tis south the city mills—bring me word thither How the world goes, that to the pace of it I may spur on my journey. A SOLDIER I shall, sir.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Aufidius at one door, Soldiers at another door

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra Aufidius, insanguinato, con due o tre Soldati AUFIDIUS La città è presa.
(didascalia)	UN SOLDATO Sarà restituita a buone condizioni.
AUFIDIUS	Condizioni? Vorrei essere un Romano, ché non posso, essendo Volsco, essere ciò che sono. Condizioni? Quali buone condizioni può trovare un trattato per la parte che è alla mercé altrui? Cinque volte, Marzio, ho combattuto con te; altrettante mi hai battuto, e lo faresti ancora, credo, se ci incontrassimo tanto spesso quanto mangiamo. Per gli elementi, se mai di nuovo lo incontro barba a barba, o è mio, o io son suo! La mia emulazione non ha più l’onore che aveva, ché dove pensavo di schiacciarlo in forza pari, vera spada contro spada, ora lo colpirò in qualunque modo l’ira o l’astuzia possano darmelo. UN SOLDATO È il diavolo.
AUFIDIUS	Più ardito, benché non così sottile. Il mio valore, avvelenato dal solo patire macchia da lui, per lui uscirà fuori di sé. Né sonno né asilo, l’esser nudo o infermo, né tempio né Campidoglio, le preghiere dei sacerdoti né i tempi del sacrificio— tutti impedimenti al furore—leveranno il loro fradicio privilegio e uso contro il mio odio per Marzio. Dove lo trovi, fosse pure in casa sotto la protezione di mio fratello, perfino là, contro il canone dell’ospitalità, io laverei la mia mano feroce nel suo cuore. Voi andate alla città. Apprendete come è tenuta, e chi siano coloro che devono essere ostaggi per Roma. UN SOLDATO Non venite voi?
AUFIDIUS	Sono atteso al boschetto di cipressi. Vi prego— è a mezzogiorno dei mulini della città—portatemi colà notizia di come va il mondo, sì che al suo passo io possa spronare il mio cammino. UN SOLDATO Lo farò, signore.
(didascalia)	Escono Aufidius da una porta, i Soldati da un’altra porta

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Menenius with the two tribunes of the people, Sicinius and Brutus
MENENIUS	The augurer tells me we shall have news tonight.
BRUTUS	Good or bad?
MENENIUS	Not according to the prayer of the people, for they love not Martius.
SICINIUS	Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.
MENENIUS	Pray you, who does the wolf love?
SICINIUS	The lamb.
MENENIUS	Ay, to devour him, as the hungry plebeians would the noble Martius.
BRUTUS	He’s a lamb indeed that baas like a bear.
MENENIUS	He’s a bear indeed that lives like a lamb. You two are old men. Tell me one thing that I shall ask you.
SICINIUS	and BRUTUS Well, sir?
MENENIUS	In what enormity is Martius poor in that you two have not in abundance?
BRUTUS	He’s poor in no one fault, but stored with all. SICINIUS Especially in pride.
BRUTUS	And topping all others in boasting.
MENENIUS	This is strange now. Do you two know how you are censured here in the city—I mean of us o’th’ right-hand file. Do you?
SICINIUS	and BRUTUS Why, how are we censured?
MENENIUS	Because—you talk of pride now—will you not be angry?
SICINIUS	and BRUTUS Well, well, sir, well?
MENENIUS	Why, ’tis no great matter, for a very little thief of occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience. Give your dispositions the reins, and be angry at your pleasures—at the least, if you take it as a pleasure to you in being so. You blame Martius for being proud?
BRUTUS	We do it not alone, sir.
MENENIUS	I know you can do very little alone, for your helps are many, or else your actions would grow wondrous single. Your abilities are too infant-like for doing much alone. You talk of pride. O that you could turn your eyes toward the napes of your necks, and make but an interior survey of your good selves! O that you could!
SICINIUS	and BRUTUS What then, sir?
MENENIUS	Why, then you should discover a brace of unmeriting, proud, violent, testy magistrates, alias fools, as any in Rome.
SICINIUS	Menenius, you are known well enough too.
MENENIUS	I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in’t; said to be something imperfect in favouring the first complaint, hasty and tinder-like upon too trivial motion; one that converses more with the buttock of the night than with the forehead of the morning. What I think, I utter, and spend my malice in my breath. Meeting two such wealsmen as you are—I cannot call you Lycurguses—if the drink you give me touch my palate adversely, I make a crooked face at it. I cannot say your worships have delivered the matter well, when I find the ass in compound with the major part of your syllables. And though I must be content to bear with those that say you are reverend grave men, yet they lie deadly that tell you have good faces. If you see this in the map of my microcosm, follows it that I am known well enough too? What harm can your bisson conspectuities glean out of this character, if I be known well enough too?
BRUTUS	Come, sir, come, we know you well enough.
MENENIUS	You know neither me, yourselves, nor anything. You are ambitious for poor knaves’ caps and legs. You wear out a good wholesome forenoon in hearing a cause between an orange-wife and a faucet-seller, and then rejourn the controversy of threepence to a second day of audience. When you are hearing a matter between party and party, if you chance to be pinched with the colic, you make faces like mummers, set up the bloody flag against all patience, and in roaring for a chamber-pot, dismiss the controversy bleeding, the more entangled by your hearing. All the peace you make in their cause is calling both the parties knaves. You are a pair of strange ones.
BRUTUS	Come, come, you are well understood to be a perfecter giber for the table than a necessary bencher in the Capitol.
MENENIUS	Our very priests must become mockers if they shall encounter such ridiculous subjects as you are. When you speak best unto the purpose it is not worth the wagging of your beards, and your beards deserve not so honourable a grave as to stuff a botcher’s cushion or to be entombed in an ass’s pack-saddle. Yet you must be saying ‘Martius is proud’, who, in a cheap estimation, is worth all your predecessors since Deucalion, though peradventure some of the best of ‘em were hereditary hangmen. Good e’en to your worships. More of your conversation would infect my brain, being the herdsmen of the beastly plebeians. I will be bold to take my leave of you. He leaves Brutus and Sicinius, who stand aside.
(didascalia)	Enter in haste Volumnia, Virgilia, and Valeria
MENENIUS	How now, my as fair as noble ladies—and the moon, were she earthly, no nobler—whither do you follow your eyes so fast?
VOLUMNIA	Honourable Menenius, my boy Martius approaches. For the love of Juno, let’s go.
MENENIUS	Ha, Martius coming home? 100
VOLUMNIA	Ay, worthy Menenius, and with most prosperous approbation.
(didascalia)	MENENIUS throwing up his cap Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee! Hoo, Martius coming home?
VIRGILIA	and VALERIA Nay, ’tis true.
VOLUMNIA	Look, here’s a letter from him. The state hath another, his wife another, and I think there’s one at home for you.
MENENIUS	I will make my very house reel tonight. A letter for me?
VIRGILIA	Yes, certain, there’s a letter for you; I saw’t.
MENENIUS	A letter for me? It gives me an estate of seven years’ health, in which time I will make a lip at the physician. The most sovereign prescription in Galen is but empiricutic and, to this preservative, of no better report than a horse-drench. Is he not wounded? He was wont to come home wounded.
VIRGILIA	O, no, no, no!
VOLUMNIA	O, he is wounded, I thank the gods for’t!
MENENIUS	So do I, too, if it be not too much. Brings a victory in his pocket, the wounds become him.
VOLUMNIA	On’s brows, Menenius. He comes the third time home with the oaken garland.
MENENIUS	Has he disciplined Aufidius soundly? 124
VOLUMNIA	Titus Lartius writes they fought together, but Aufidius got off.
MENENIUS	And ’twas time for him too, I’ll warrant him that. An he had stayed by him, I would not have been so fidiussed for all the chests in Corioles and the gold that’s in them. Is the senate possessed of this?
VOLUMNIA	Good ladies, let’s go. Yes, yes, yes. The senate has letters from the general, wherein he gives my son the whole name of the war. He hath in this action outdone his former deeds doubly.
VALERIA	In truth, there’s wondrous things spoke of him.
MENENIUS	Wondrous, ay, I warrant you; and not without his true purchasing.
VIRGILIA	The gods grant them true.
VOLUMNIA	True? Pooh-whoo!
MENENIUS	True? I’ll be sworn they are true. Where is he wounded? (To the tribunes) God save your good worships. Martius is coming home. He has more cause to be proud. (To Volumnia) Where is he wounded?
VOLUMNIA	I‘th’ shoulder and i’th’ left arm. There will be large cicatrices to show the people when he shall stand for his place. He received in the repulse of Tarquin seven hurts i’th’ body.
MENENIUS	One i‘th’ neck and two i’th’ thigh—there’s nine that I know.
VOLUMNIA	He had before this last expedition twenty-five wounds upon him.
MENENIUS	Now it’s twenty-seven. Every gash was an enemy’s grave. A shout and flourish Hark, the trumpets.
VOLUMNIA	These are the ushers of Martius. Before him he carries noise, and behind him he leaves tears. Death, that dark spirit, in’s nervy arm doth lie, Which being advanced, declines; and then men die.
(didascalia)	Trumpets sound a sennet. Enter in state Cominius the general and Lartius, between them Coriolanus, crowned with an oaken garland, with captains and soldiers and a Herald
HERALD	Know, Rome, that all alone Martius did fight
(didascalia)	Within Corioles’ gates, where he hath won 160
HERALD	With fame a name to ‘Martius Caius’; these In honour follows ‘Coriolanus’. Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus!
(didascalia)	A flourish sounds
ALL	Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus!
CORIOLANUS	No more of this, it does offend my heart. Pray now, no more.
COMINIUS	Look, sir, your mother.
CORIOLANUS	(to Volumnia) O, You have, I know, petitioned all the gods For my prosperity! He kneels
VOLUMNIA	Nay, my good soldier, up, My gentle Martius, worthy Caius,
(didascalia)	He rises
VOLUMNIA	And, by deed-achieving honour newly named— What is it?—’Coriolanus’ must I call thee? But O, thy wife!
CORIOLANUS	(to Virgilia) My gracious silence, hail. Wouldst thou have laughed had I come coffined home, That weep’st to see me triumph? Ah, my dear, Such eyes the widows in Corioles wear, And mothers that lack sons.
MENENIUS	Now the gods crown thee!
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS to Valeria)
MENENIUS	And live you yet? O my sweet lady, pardon.
VOLUMNIA	I know not where to turn. O, welcome home! And welcome, general, and you’re welcome all!
MENENIUS	A hundred thousand welcomes! I could weep And I could laugh, I am light and heavy. Welcome! A curse begnaw at very root on’s heart That is not glad to see thee. You are three That Rome should dote on. Yet, by the faith of men, We have some old crab-trees here at home that will not Be grafted to your relish. Yet welcome, warriors! We call a nettle but a nettle, and The faults of fools but folly.
COMINIUS	Ever right.
CORIOLANUS	Menenius, ever, ever.
HERALD	Give way there, and go on.
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS to Volumnia and Virgilia
HERALD	Your hand, and yours. Ere in our own house I do shade my head The good patricians must be visited, From whom I have received not only greetings, But with them change of honours.
VOLUMNIA	I have lived To see inherited my very wishes, And the buildings of my fancy. Only There’s one thing wanting, which I doubt not but Our Rome will cast upon thee.
CORIOLANUS	Know, good mother, I had rather be their servant in my way Than sway with them in theirs.
COMINIUS	On, to the Capitol.
(didascalia)	A flourish of cornetts. Exeunt in state, as before, all but Brutus and Sicinius, who come forward
BRUTUS	All tongues speak of him, and the blearèd sights Are spectacled to see him. Your prattling nurse Into a rapture lets her baby cry While she chats him; the kitchen malkin pins Her richest lockram ‘bout her reechy neck, Clamb’ring the walls to eye him. Stalls, bulks, windows Are smothered up, leads filled and ridges horsed With variable complexions, all agreeing In earnestness to see him. Seld-shown flamens Do press among the popular throngs, and puff To win a vulgar station. Our veiled dames Commit the war of white and damask in Their nicely guarded cheeks to th’ wanton spoil Of Phoebus’ burning kisses. Such a pother As if that whatsoever god who leads him Were slily crept into his human powers And gave him graceful posture.
SICINIUS	On the sudden I warrant him consul.
BRUTUS	Then our office may During his power go sleep.
SICINIUS	He cannot temp’rately transport his honours From where he should begin and end, but will Lose those he hath won.
BRUTUS	In that there’s comfort.
SICINIUS	Doubt not The commoners, for whom we stand, but they Upon their ancient malice will forget With the least cause these his new honours, which That he will give them make I as little question As he is proud to do’t.
BRUTUS	I heard him swear, Were he to stand for consul, never would he Appear i’th’ market-place nor on him put The napless vesture of humility, Nor, showing, as the manner is, his wounds To th’ people, beg their stinking breaths.
SICINIUS	’Tis right.
BRUTUS	It was his word. O, he would miss it rather Than carry it, but by the suit of the gentry to him, And the desire of the nobles.
SICINIUS	I wish no better Than have him hold that purpose, and to put it In execution.
BRUTUS	’Tis most like he will.
SICINIUS	It shall be to him then, as our good wills, A sure destruction.
BRUTUS	So it must fall out To him, or our authority’s for an end. We must suggest the people in what hatred He still hath held them; that to’s power he would Have made them mules, silenced their pleaders, And dispropertied their freedoms, holding them In human action and capacity Of no more soul nor fitness for the world Than camels in their war, who have their provand Only for bearing burdens, and sore blows For sinking under them.
SICINIUS	This, as you say, suggested At some time when his soaring insolence Shall touch the people—which time shall not want If he be put upon’t, and that’s as easy As to set dogs on sheep—will be his fire To kindle their dry stubble, and their blaze Shall darken him for ever.
(didascalia)	Enter a Messenger
BRUTUS	What’s the matter?
MESSENGER	You are sent for to the Capitol. ’Tis thought That Martius shall be consul. I have seen The dumb men throng to see him, and the blind To hear him speak. Matrons flung gloves, Ladies and maids their scarves and handkerchiefs, Upon him as he passed. The nobles bended As to Jove’s statue, and the commons made A shower and thunder with their caps and shouts. I never saw the like.
BRUTUS	Let’s to the Capitol, And carry with us ears and eyes for th’ time, But hearts for the event.
SICINIUS	Have with you. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra Menenius coi due tribuni del popolo, Sicinius e Brutus
MENENIUS	L’augure mi dice che stanotte avremo notizie.
BRUTUS	Buone o cattive?
MENENIUS	Non secondo la preghiera del popolo, ché essi non amano Marzio.
SICINIUS	La natura insegna alle bestie a conoscere i loro amici.
MENENIUS	Di grazia, chi ama il lupo?
SICINIUS	L’agnello.
MENENIUS	Sì, per divorarlo, come gli affamati plebei farebbero col nobile Marzio.
BRUTUS	È davvero un agnello che bela come un orso.
MENENIUS	È davvero un orso che vive come un agnello. Voi due siete vecchi. Ditemi una cosa che vi domanderò.
SICINIUS	e BRUTUS Ebbene, signore?
MENENIUS	In quale enormità è povero Marzio, che voi due non abbiate in abbondanza?
BRUTUS	Non è povero d’alcuna colpa, ma ne è fornito di tutte. SICINIUS Specialmente d’orgoglio.
BRUTUS	E supera tutti gli altri nel vantarsi.
MENENIUS	Questa poi è strana. Sapete voi due come siete giudicati qui in città—intendo da noi della fila di destra. Lo sapete?
SICINIUS	e BRUTUS Come, e come siamo giudicati?
MENENIUS	Perché—voi parlate d’orgoglio, ora—non v’adirerete?
SICINIUS	e BRUTUS Ebbene, bene, signore, ebbene?
MENENIUS	Ma non è gran cosa, ché un ladruncolo d’occasione vi ruberà una gran quantità di pazienza. Date le briglie alle vostre indoli, e adiratevi a vostro piacere—almeno, se prendete a piacere l’esser tali. Voi rimproverate a Marzio d’essere superbo?
BRUTUS	Non lo facciamo da soli, signore.
MENENIUS	So che potete far ben poco da soli, ché i vostri aiuti sono molti, altrimenti le vostre azioni riuscirebbero meravigliosamente scarne. Le vostre capacità sono troppo infantili per far molto da soli. Voi parlate d’orgoglio. Oh, poteste voltare gli occhi verso la nuca, e fare una sola ispezione interiore delle vostre buone persone! Oh, se poteste!
SICINIUS	e BRUTUS E allora, signore?
MENENIUS	Ma allora scoprireste una coppia di magistrati immeritevoli, superbi, violenti, iracondi, altrimenti detti sciocchi, come nessun altro in Roma.
SICINIUS	Menenio, anche voi siete conosciuto abbastanza bene.
MENENIUS	Sono conosciuto per un patrizio umorale, e per uno che ama una coppa di vino caldo senza una goccia di Tevere ad annacquarlo; si dice ch’io sia alquanto imperfetto nel favorire chi si lagna per primo, precipitoso e come esca per un moto troppo lieve; uno che conversa più con la groppa della notte che con la fronte del mattino. Ciò che penso, lo dico, e spendo la mia malizia nel fiato. Incontrando due tali uomini di stato quali voi siete—non posso chiamarvi Licurghi—se la bevanda che mi date tocca male il mio palato, le faccio una smorfia. Non posso dire che le vostre signorie abbiano esposto la materia bene, quando trovo l’asino in composizione con la maggior parte delle vostre sillabe. E benché mi debba contentare di sopportare quanti dicono che siete uomini reverendi e gravi, pure mentono mortalmente coloro che dicono che avete buone facce. Se voi vedete questo nella mappa del mio microcosmo, ne segue che anch’io sia conosciuto abbastanza bene? Che danno possono le vostre cieche vedute spigolare da questo ritratto, se anch’io sono conosciuto abbastanza bene?
BRUTUS	Suvvia, signore, suvvia, vi conosciamo abbastanza bene.
MENENIUS	Non conoscete né me, né voi stessi, né alcuna cosa. Siete ambiziosi dei berretti e degli inchini di poveri furfanti. Consumate una buona e sana mattinata nell’udire una causa fra una venditrice d’arance e un venditore di zipoli, e poi rinviate la controversia di tre soldi a una seconda udienza. Quando ascoltate una faccenda tra parte e parte, se per caso vi punge la colica, fate smorfie da istrioni, alzate la bandiera insanguinata contro ogni pazienza, e, ruggendo per un pitale, congedate la controversia sanguinante, più imbrogliata dalla vostra udienza. Tutta la pace che fate nella loro causa è chiamare furfanti l’una e l’altra parte. Siete una strana coppia.
BRUTUS	Suvvia, suvvia, siete ben noto per essere più perfetto burlone da tavola che necessario sedente in Campidoglio.
MENENIUS	I nostri stessi sacerdoti dovrebbero farsi beffeggiatori se s’imbattessero in soggetti ridicoli quali voi siete. Quando parlate meglio a proposito, non vale il dimenare delle vostre barbe, e le vostre barbe non meritano una tomba così onorevole come l’imbottire il cuscino d’un rattoppatore o l’essere sepolte nel basto d’un asino. Eppure dovete andar dicendo «Marzio è superbo», il quale, a stima da poco, vale tutti i vostri predecessori dai tempi di Deucalione, benché forse alcuni dei migliori fra essi fossero boia per eredità. Buona sera alle vostre signorie. Altro della vostra conversazione m’infetterebbe il cervello, essendo voi i mandriani dei bestiali plebei. Mi prenderò l’ardire di accomiatarmi da voi. Lascia Brutus e Sicinius, che si tirano in disparte.
(didascalia)	Entrano in fretta Volumnia, Virgilia e Valeria
MENENIUS	Ebbene, mie dame tanto belle quanto nobili—e la luna, fosse terrena, non più nobile—dove seguite i vostri occhi con tanta fretta?
VOLUMNIA	Onorevole Menenio, il mio ragazzo Marzio s’avvicina. Per l’amore di Giunone, andiamo.
MENENIUS	Ah, Marzio torna a casa? 100
VOLUMNIA	Sì, degno Menenio, e con approvazione quanto mai prospera.
(didascalia)	MENENIUS gettando in aria il berretto Prendi il mio berretto, Giove, e ti ringrazio! Uhu, Marzio torna a casa?
VIRGILIA	e VALERIA Sì, è vero.
VOLUMNIA	Guardate, ecco una lettera di lui. Lo stato ne ha un’altra, sua moglie un’altra, e credo ce ne sia una a casa per voi.
MENENIUS	Farò traballare la mia stessa casa stanotte. Una lettera per me?
VIRGILIA	Sì, certo, c’è una lettera per voi; l’ho vista.
MENENIUS	Una lettera per me? Mi dà un patrimonio di sette anni di salute, durante il qual tempo farò una smorfia al medico. La più sovrana prescrizione di Galeno non è che empirica e, a paragone di questo preservativo, non di miglior fama d’una purga da cavallo. Non è ferito? Soleva tornare a casa ferito.
VIRGILIA	Oh, no, no, no!
VOLUMNIA	Oh, è ferito, ne ringrazio gli dèi!
MENENIUS	Anch’io, purché non sia troppo. Se porta una vittoria in tasca, le ferite gli stanno bene.
VOLUMNIA	Sulle tempie, Menenio. Torna a casa per la terza volta con la ghirlanda di quercia.
MENENIUS	Ha castigato Aufidio a dovere? 124
VOLUMNIA	Tito Larzio scrive che si sono battuti insieme, ma Aufidio è scampato.
MENENIUS	Ed era anche ora per lui, ve lo garantisco. Fosse rimasto con lui, non avrei voluto essere così aufidiato per tutti i forzieri di Corioli e l’oro che vi è dentro. Il senato è informato di ciò?
VOLUMNIA	Buone dame, andiamo. Sì, sì, sì. Il senato ha lettere dal generale, nelle quali egli dà a mio figlio tutto il nome della guerra. In quest’azione ha superato doppiamente le sue gesta precedenti.
VALERIA	In verità, si dicono di lui cose meravigliose.
MENENIUS	Meravigliose, sì, ve lo garantisco; e non senza che egli le abbia veramente acquistate.
VIRGILIA	Gli dèi le concedano vere.
VOLUMNIA	Vere? Puah!
MENENIUS	Vere? Giurerei che sono vere. Dov’è ferito? (Ai tribuni) Dio salvi le vostre buone signorie. Marzio torna a casa. Ha più motivo d’essere superbo. (A Volumnia) Dov’è ferito?
VOLUMNIA	Nella spalla e nel braccio sinistro. Vi saranno larghe cicatrici da mostrare al popolo quando si presenterà per la sua carica. Nel respingere Tarquinio ricevette sette ferite nel corpo.
MENENIUS	Una nel collo e due nella coscia—fanno nove ch’io sappia.
VOLUMNIA	Prima di quest’ultima spedizione aveva venticinque ferite addosso.
MENENIUS	Ora sono ventisette. Ogni squarcio fu la tomba d’un nemico. Grido e squillo di trombe Udite, le trombe.
VOLUMNIA	Questi sono gli araldi di Marzio. Davanti a sé porta il fragore, e dietro di sé lascia lacrime. La Morte, quel cupo spirito, giace nel suo nerboruto braccio, il quale, levandosi, cala; e allora gli uomini muoiono.
(didascalia)	Le trombe suonano una marcia. Entrano in pompa Cominius il generale e Lartius, tra loro Coriolanus, coronato di ghirlanda di quercia, con capitani e soldati e un Araldo
ARALDO	Sappi, Roma, che tutto solo Marzio combatté
(didascalia)	dentro le porte di Corioli, dove egli ha conquistato 160
ARALDO	con la fama un nome a «Marzio Caio»; e a questi in onore segue «Coriolano». Benvenuto a Roma, illustre Coriolano!
(didascalia)	Suona uno squillo
TUTTI	Benvenuto a Roma, illustre Coriolano!
CORIOLANUS	Basta di questo, mi offende il cuore. Vi prego, basta.
COMINIUS	Guardate, signore, vostra madre.
CORIOLANUS	(a Volumnia) Oh, voi avete, lo so, supplicato tutti gli dèi per la mia prosperità! S’inginocchia
VOLUMNIA	No, mio buon soldato, alzati, mio gentile Marzio, degno Caio,
(didascalia)	Si alza
VOLUMNIA	e da un onore conquistato coi fatti nuovamente nominato— com’è?—«Coriolano» devo chiamarti? Ma oh, la tua sposa!
CORIOLANUS	(a Virgilia) Mio grazioso silenzio, salve. Avresti riso se fossi tornato a casa nella bara, tu che piangi a vedermi trionfare? Ah, mia cara, tali occhi portano le vedove in Corioli, e le madri cui mancano i figli.
MENENIUS	Ora ti incoronino gli dèi!
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS a Valeria)
MENENIUS	E voi vivete ancora? O mia dolce signora, perdono.
VOLUMNIA	Non so dove volgermi. Oh, benvenuto a casa! E benvenuto, generale, e benvenuti tutti voi!
MENENIUS	Centomila benvenuti! Potrei piangere e potrei ridere, sono leggero e greve. Benvenuto! Una maledizione roda fin nella radice il cuore di chi non è lieto di vederti. Voi siete tre di cui Roma dovrebbe andar pazza. Pure, per la fede degli uomini, abbiamo qui a casa certi vecchi meli selvatici che non vogliono essere innestati al vostro gusto. Ma benvenuti, guerrieri! Chiamiamo l’ortica soltanto ortica, e le colpe degli sciocchi soltanto follia.
COMINIUS	Sempre nel giusto.
CORIOLANUS	Menenio, sempre, sempre.
ARALDO	Fate largo là, e avanti.
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS a Volumnia e Virgilia
ARALDO	La vostra mano, e la vostra. Prima di riparare il capo nella mia casa devo visitare i buoni patrizi, dai quali ho ricevuto non solo saluti, ma con essi mutamento d’onori.
VOLUMNIA	Ho vissuto tanto da veder ereditati i miei stessi desideri, e gli edifici della mia fantasia. Soltanto manca una cosa, che non dubito affatto la nostra Roma getterà su di te.
CORIOLANUS	Sappiate, buona madre, preferirei essere loro servo a modo mio che dominare su di loro al modo loro.
COMINIUS	Avanti, al Campidoglio.
(didascalia)	Squillo di cornette. Escono in pompa, come prima, tutti tranne Brutus e Sicinius, che si fanno avanti
BRUTUS	Tutte le lingue parlano di lui, e le viste appannate s’inforcano gli occhiali per vederlo. La vostra ciarliera nutrice lascia il suo bimbo gridare fino allo spasimo mentre chiacchiera di lui; la sguattera di cucina si appunta il suo lino più prezioso attorno al collo unto, arrampicandosi sui muri per adocchiarlo. Banchi, banchetti, finestre sono soffocati, i tetti di piombo colmi e i comignoli cavalcati da varie complessioni, tutte concordi nella brama di vederlo. Flàmini che di rado si mostrano si accalcano fra le folle popolari, e ansimano per guadagnare un posto plebeo. Le nostre dame velate abbandonano la guerra del bianco e del damasco nelle loro guance gelosamente custodite al lascivo saccheggio degli ardenti baci di Febo. Un tale scompiglio come se qualunque dio lo guidi gli fosse di soppiatto entrato nelle facoltà umane e gli avesse dato graziosa figura.
SICINIUS	D’un tratto ve lo garantisco console.
BRUTUS	Allora il nostro ufficio potrà durante il suo potere andare a dormire.
SICINIUS	Egli non sa temperatamente portare i suoi onori da dove dovrebbe cominciare e finire, ma perderà quelli che ha conquistato.
BRUTUS	In ciò c’è conforto.
SICINIUS	Non dubitate che i popolani, per cui noi stiamo, non dimentichino, alla loro antica malizia obbedendo, al minimo pretesto questi suoi nuovi onori; ch’egli gliene dia il pretesto, non lo metto in questione più di quanto sia superbo nel farlo.
BRUTUS	L’ho udito giurare che, dovendosi presentare per il consolato, mai sarebbe comparso nella piazza del mercato né avrebbe indossato la veste spelata dell’umiltà, né, mostrando, come è costume, le sue ferite al popolo, avrebbe mendicato i loro fiati puzzolenti.
SICINIUS	È giusto.
BRUTUS	Fu la sua parola. Oh, preferirebbe perderlo piuttosto che ottenerlo, se non per la richiesta del patriziato a lui, e per il desiderio dei nobili.
SICINIUS	Non desidero di meglio che vederlo tener fermo quel proposito, e metterlo in esecuzione.
BRUTUS	È molto probabile che lo farà.
SICINIUS	Sarà allora per lui, come noi ben vogliamo, una sicura rovina.
BRUTUS	Così deve riuscire per lui, o la nostra autorità è finita. Dobbiamo suggerire al popolo in quale odio egli li ha sempre tenuti; che, potendo, avrebbe fatto di loro dei muli, ammutolito i loro difensori, e spogliato le loro libertà, tenendoli, nell’azione e capacità umana, di non più anima né attitudine al mondo dei cammelli nelle loro guerre, che hanno il foraggio solo per portare pesi, e duri colpi per crollare sotto di essi.
SICINIUS	Questo, come dite, suggerito in qualche momento in cui la sua svettante insolenza tocchi il popolo—e quel momento non mancherà se lo si spinge a ciò, il che è tanto facile quanto aizzare i cani contro le pecore—sarà il suo fuoco ad accendere la loro secca stoppia, e la loro fiammata lo oscurerà per sempre.
(didascalia)	Entra un Messaggero
BRUTUS	Che c’è?
MESSAGGERO	Siete convocati al Campidoglio. Si pensa che Marzio sarà console. Ho visto i muti accalcarsi per vederlo, e i ciechi per udirlo parlare. Le matrone gli gettavano guanti, le dame e le fanciulle le loro sciarpe e i fazzoletti, addosso mentre passava. I nobili s’inchinavano come alla statua di Giove, e i popolani facevano pioggia e tuono coi loro berretti e le loro grida. Non vidi mai cosa simile.
BRUTUS	Andiamo al Campidoglio, e portiamo con noi orecchi e occhi per il momento, ma cuori per l’esito.
SICINIUS	Vengo con voi. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter two Officers, to lay cushions, as it were in the Capitol
FIRST OFFICER	Come, come, they are almost here. How many stand for consulships?
SECOND OFFICER	Three, they say, but ’tis thought of everyone Coriolanus will carry it.
FIRST OFFICER	That’s a brave fellow, but he’s vengeance proud and loves not the common people.
SECOND OFFICER	Faith, there hath been many great men that have flattered the people who ne’er loved them; and there be many that they have loved they know not wherefore, so that if they love they know not why, they hate upon no better a ground. Therefore for Coriolanus neither to care whether they love or hate him manifests the true knowledge he has in their disposition, and out of his noble carelessness lets them plainly see’t.
FIRST OFFICER	If he did not care whether he had their love or no he waved indifferently ’twixt doing them neither good nor harm; but he seeks their hate with greater devotion than they can render it him, and leaves nothing undone that may fully discover him their opposite. Now to seem to affect the malice and displeasure of the people is as bad as that which he dislikes, to flatter them for their love.
SECOND OFFICER	He hath deserved worthily of his country, and his ascent is not by such easy degrees as those who, having been supple and courteous to the people, bonneted, without any further deed to have them at all into their estimation and report. But he hath so planted his honours in their eyes and his actions in their hearts that for their tongues to be silent and not confess so much were a kind of ingrateful injury. To report otherwise were a malice that, giving itself the lie, would pluck reproof and rebuke from every ear that heard it.
FIRST OFFICER	No more of him. He’s a worthy man. Make way, they are coming.
(didascalia)	A sennet. Enter the Patricians, and Sicinius and Brutus, the tribunes of the people, lictors before them; Coriolanus, Menenius, Cominius the consul. The Patricians take their places and sit. Sicinius and Brutus take their places by themselves. Coriolanus stands
MENENIUS	Having determined of the Volsces, and To send for Titus Lartius, it remains As the main point of this our after-meeting To gratify his noble service that Hath thus stood for his country. Therefore please you, Most reverend and grave elders, to desire The present consul and last general In our well-found successes to report A little of that worthy work performed By Martius Caius Coriolanus, whom We met here both to thank and to remember With honours like himself.
(didascalia)	Coriolanus sits
FIRST SENATOR	Speak, good Cominius. Leave nothing out for length, and make us think Rather our state’s defective for requital Than we to stretch it out. (To the tribunes) Masters o’th’ people, We do request your kindest ears and, after, Your loving motion toward the common body To yield what passes here.
SICINIUS	We are convented Upon a pleasing treaty, and have hearts Inclinable to honour and advance The theme of our assembly.
BRUTUS	Which the rather We shall be blessed to do if he remember A kinder value of the people than He hath hereto prized them at.
MENENIUS	That’s off, that’s off. I would you rather had been silent. Please you To hear Cominius speak?
BRUTUS	Most willingly, But yet my caution was more pertinent Than the rebuke you give it.
MENENIUS	He loves your people, But tie him not to be their bedfellow. Worthy Cominius, speak. Coriolanus rises and offers to go away
(didascalia)	(To Coriolanus) Nay, keep your place. FIRST SENATOR Sit, Coriolanus. Never shame to hear
MENENIUS	What you have nobly done.
CORIOLANUS	Your honours’ pardon, I had rather have my wounds to heal again Than hear say how I got them.
BRUTUS	Sir, I hope My words disbenched you not?
CORIOLANUS	No, sir, yet oft When blows have made me stay I fled from words. You soothed not, therefore hurt not; but your people, I love them as they weigh—
MENENIUS	Pray now, sit down.
CORIOLANUS	I had rather have one scratch my head i’th’ sun When the alarum were struck than idly sit To hear my nothings monstered.
(didascalia)	Exit
MENENIUS	Masters of the people, Your multiplying spawn how can he flatter— That’s thousand to one good one—when you now see He had rather venture all his limbs for honour Than one on’s ears to hear it? Proceed, Cominius.
COMINIUS	I shall lack voice; the deeds of Coriolanus Should not be uttered feebly. It is held That valour is the chiefest virtue, and Most dignifies the haver. If it be, The man I speak of cannot in the world Be singly counterpoised. At sixteen years, When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he fought Beyond the mark of others. Our then dictator, Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight When with his Amazonian chin he drove The bristled lips before him. He bestrid An o‘erpressed Roman, and, i’th’ consul’s view, Slew three opposers. Tarquin’s self he met, And struck him on his knee. In that day’s feats, When he might act the woman in the scene, He proved best man i‘th’ field, and for his meed Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil age Man-entered thus, he waxed like a sea, And in the brunt of seventeen battles since He lurched all swords of the garland. For this last Before and in Corioles, let me say I cannot speak him home. He stopped the fliers, And by his rare example made the coward Turn terror into sport. As weeds before A vessel under sail, so men obeyed And fell below his stem. His sword, death’s stamp, Where it did mark, it took. From face to foot He was a thing of blood, whose every motion Was timed with dying cries. Alone he entered The mortal gate of th’ city, which he, painted With shunless destiny, aidless came off, And with a sudden reinforcement struck Corioles like a planet. Now all’s his. When by and by the din of war gan pierce His ready sense, then straight his doubled spirit Requickened what in flesh was fatigate, And to the battle came he, where he did Run reeking o’er the lives of men as if ’Twere a perpetual spoil; and till we called Both field and city ours he never stood To ease his breast with panting.
MENENIUS	Worthy man.
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR
MENENIUS	He cannot but with measure fit the honours Which we devise him.
COMINIUS	Our spoils he kicked at, And looked upon things precious as they were The common muck of the world. He covets less Than misery itself would give, rewards His deeds with doing them, and is content To spend the time to end it.
MENENIUS	He’s right noble. Let him be called for.
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR Call Coriolanus.
OFFICER	He doth appear.
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus
MENENIUS	The senate, Coriolanus, are well pleased To make thee consul.
CORIOLANUS	I do owe them still My life and services.
MENENIUS	It then remains That you do speak to the people.
CORIOLANUS	I do beseech you, Let me o’erleap that custom, for I cannot Put on the gown, stand naked, and entreat them For my wounds’ sake to give their suffrage. Please you that I may pass this doing.
SICINIUS	Sir, the people Must have their voices, neither will they bate One jot of ceremony.
MENENIUS	(to Coriolanus) Put them not to’t. Pray you, go fit you to the custom and Take to you, as your predecessors have, Your honour with your form.
CORIOLANUS	It is a part That I shall blush in acting, and might well Be taken from the people.
BRUTUS	(to Sicinius) Mark you that?
CORIOLANUS	To brag unto them ‘Thus I did, and thus’, Show them th’unaching scars, which I should hide, As if I had received them for the hire Of their breath only!
MENENIUS	Do not stand upon’t.— We recommend to you, tribunes of the people, Our purpose to them; and to our noble consul Wish we all joy and honour.
SENATORS	To Coriolanus come all joy and honour!
(didascalia)	A flourish of cornetts, then exeunt all but
SENATORS	Sicinius and Brutus
BRUTUS	You see how he intends to use the people.
SICINIUS	May they perceive’s intent! He will require them As if he did contemn what he requested Should be in them to give.
BRUTUS	Come, we’ll inform them Of our proceedings here. On th’ market-place I know they do attend us. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano due Ufficiali, a disporre cuscini, come fosse in Campidoglio
PRIMO UFFICIALE	Su, su, sono quasi qui. Quanti si presentano per il consolato?
SECONDO UFFICIALE	Tre, dicono, ma tutti pensano che Coriolano la spunterà.
PRIMO UFFICIALE	Quello è un uomo valoroso, ma è terribilmente superbo e non ama il popolo minuto.
SECONDO UFFICIALE	In fede, vi sono stati molti grandi uomini che hanno adulato il popolo senza mai amarlo; e ve ne sono molti che il popolo ha amato senza saperne il perché: sicché, se amano senza sapere perché, odiano su fondamento non migliore. Perciò, che Coriolano non si curi se lo amino od odino, manifesta la vera conoscenza che ha della loro indole, e con la sua nobile noncuranza glielo lascia vedere apertamente.
PRIMO UFFICIALE	Se non si curasse d’avere il loro amore o no, oscillerebbe indifferente fra il non far loro né bene né male; ma egli cerca il loro odio con maggior devozione di quanta essi possano rendergliene, e non lascia nulla d’intentato che possa scoprirlo pienamente loro avversario. Ora, il parer di ricercare la malevolenza e il dispiacere del popolo è male quanto ciò ch’egli aborre, cioè adularli per averne amore.
SECONDO UFFICIALE	Egli ha ben meritato del suo paese, e la sua ascesa non è per quei facili gradi di coloro che, essendo stati arrendevoli e cortesi col popolo, col berretto in mano, senz’altra impresa li hanno pienamente conquistati alla propria stima e fama. Ma egli ha così piantato i suoi onori nei loro occhi e le sue azioni nei loro cuori, che il tacere delle loro lingue e il non confessarlo sarebbe una specie d’ingrata offesa. Riferire altrimenti sarebbe una malizia che, dandosi da sé la mentita, strapperebbe rimprovero e biasimo da ogni orecchio che l’udisse.
PRIMO UFFICIALE	Basta di lui. È un uomo degno. Fate largo, stanno venendo.
(didascalia)	Marcia. Entrano i Patrizi, e Sicinius e Brutus, i tribuni del popolo, coi littori davanti a loro; Coriolanus, Menenius, Cominius il console. I Patrizi prendono i loro posti e siedono. Sicinius e Brutus prendono posto da soli. Coriolanus resta in piedi
MENENIUS	Avendo deliberato riguardo ai Volsci, e di mandare a chiamare Tito Larzio, resta come punto principale di questa nostra adunanza successiva di ricompensare il nobile servigio di colui che così si è battuto per il suo paese. Perciò piacciavi, a voi, reverendissimi e gravi anziani, di richiedere al presente console e ultimo generale di riferire, fra i nostri ben trovati successi, un poco di quella degna opera compiuta da Marzio Caio Coriolano, che qui ci siamo riuniti a ringraziare e a ricordare con onori simili a lui.
(didascalia)	Coriolanus si siede
PRIMO SENATORE	Parlate, buon Cominio. Nulla omettete per amor di brevità, e fateci pensare piuttosto che il nostro stato sia manchevole nel ricompensare che noi restii nell’allargarlo. (Ai tribuni) Signori del popolo, chiediamo i vostri orecchi più benigni e, dopo, il vostro amorevole moto verso il comune corpo perché conceda ciò che qui si delibera.
SICINIUS	Siamo convenuti per una gradita trattativa, e abbiamo cuori inclini a onorare e a promuovere il tema della nostra assemblea.
BRUTUS	Il che tanto più saremo benedetti di fare, se egli ricorderà una più benigna stima del popolo di quella in cui finora l’ha tenuto.
MENENIUS	Questo è fuori tema, fuori tema. Avrei preferito che taceste. Vi piace udire parlare Cominio?
BRUTUS	Volentierissimo, eppure il mio avvertimento era più pertinente del rimprovero che gli date.
MENENIUS	Egli ama il vostro popolo, ma non costringetelo a esserne compagno di letto. Degno Cominio, parlate. Coriolanus si alza e fa per andarsene
(didascalia)	(A Coriolanus) No, restate al vostro posto. PRIMO SENATORE Sedete, Coriolano. Non vergognatevi mai di udire
MENENIUS	ciò che nobilmente avete fatto.
CORIOLANUS	Col perdono delle vostre signorie, preferirei aver di nuovo le mie ferite da guarire che udir raccontare come le ottenni.
BRUTUS	Signore, spero che le mie parole non v’abbiano scacciato dal seggio?
CORIOLANUS	No, signore, eppure spesso, là dove i colpi m’han fatto restare, sono fuggito dalle parole. Voi non avete lusingato, dunque non avete ferito; ma il vostro popolo, io li amo quanto pesano—
MENENIUS	Vi prego, sedetevi.
CORIOLANUS	Preferirei farmi grattare il capo al sole mentre suona l’allarme, che sedere ozioso a udir mostruosamente ingigantire i miei nonnulla.
(didascalia)	Esce
MENENIUS	Signori del popolo, come può egli adulare la vostra prolifica figliata— che è mille a uno di buoni—quando ora vedete che preferisce rischiare tutte le sue membra per l’onore piuttosto che un solo orecchio per udirne parlare? Proseguite, Cominio.
COMINIUS	Mi mancherà la voce; le gesta di Coriolano non dovrebbero essere dette fiaccamente. Si ritiene che il valore sia la virtù principale, e più d’ogni altra nobiliti chi la possiede. Se è così, l’uomo di cui parlo non può al mondo essere da alcuno solo bilanciato. A sedici anni, quando Tarquinio mosse contro Roma, egli combatté oltre il segno degli altri. Il nostro dittatore d’allora, che con ogni lode indico, lo vide combattere quando col suo mento d’Amazzone respinse le labbra irsute davanti a sé. Stette a cavalcioni d’un Romano sopraffatto e, sotto gli occhi del console, uccise tre avversari. Incontrò Tarquinio in persona, e lo abbatté sul ginocchio. Nelle imprese di quel giorno, quando avrebbe potuto recitar la donna nella scena, si dimostrò il miglior uomo in campo, e a sua mercede ebbe la fronte cinta di quercia. Entrata così la sua età di pupillo nella virilità, crebbe come un mare, e nell’urto di diciassette battaglie da allora ha sottratto a tutte le spade la ghirlanda. Quanto a quest’ultima davanti e dentro Corioli, lasciate ch’io dica che non so renderlo appieno a parole. Fermò i fuggitivi, e col suo raro esempio fece sì che il vile mutasse il terrore in gioco. Come alghe davanti a un vascello sotto vela, così gli uomini obbedirono e caddero sotto la sua prua. La sua spada, suggello della morte, dove segnava, prendeva. Dal volto ai piedi era una cosa di sangue, il cui ogni moto era scandito da grida di morenti. Solo egli entrò nella mortale porta della città, che egli, dipinta d’inevitabile destino, senza aiuto ne uscì, e con un improvviso rinforzo colpì Corioli come un pianeta. Ora tutto è suo. Quando di lì a poco il fragore della guerra cominciò a trafiggere il suo pronto sentire, allora subito il suo raddoppiato spirito ravvivò ciò che nella carne era spossato, e alla battaglia egli venne, dove corse fumante sopra le vite degli uomini come se fosse un saccheggio perpetuo; e finché non chiamammo nostri il campo e la città, mai si fermò a dar sollievo al petto ansimando.
MENENIUS	Uomo degno.
(didascalia)	PRIMO SENATORE
MENENIUS	Non può non colmare a misura gli onori che gli destiniamo.
COMINIUS	Le nostre spoglie le respinse col piede, e guardò le cose preziose come fossero il comune sterco del mondo. Brama meno di quanto la miseria stessa gli darebbe, premia le sue gesta col compierle, ed è contento di spendere il tempo per finirlo.
MENENIUS	È veramente nobile. Sia chiamato.
(didascalia)	PRIMO SENATORE Chiamate Coriolano.
UFFICIALE	Eccolo che appare.
(didascalia)	Entra Coriolanus
MENENIUS	Il senato, Coriolano, è ben lieto di farti console.
CORIOLANUS	Gli devo sempre la mia vita e i miei servigi.
MENENIUS	Resta dunque che voi parliate al popolo.
CORIOLANUS	Vi supplico, lasciate ch’io salti quel costume, ché non posso indossare la toga, stare seminudo, e implorarli in nome delle mie ferite di dare il loro suffragio. Piacciavi ch’io ometta questo atto.
SICINIUS	Signore, il popolo deve avere le sue voci, né rimetterà un ette di cerimonia.
MENENIUS	(a Coriolanus) Non spingeteli a ciò. Vi prego, adattatevi al costume e prendete per voi, come hanno fatto i vostri predecessori, il vostro onore con la sua forma.
CORIOLANUS	È una parte che arrossirò a recitare, e potrebbe bene essere tolta al popolo.
BRUTUS	(a Sicinius) Notate questo?
CORIOLANUS	Vantarmi con loro: «Così feci, e così», mostrar loro le cicatrici che più non dolgono, e che dovrei nascondere, come se le avessi ricevute in mercede del loro solo fiato!
MENENIUS	Non insistete su ciò.— Raccomandiamo a voi, tribuni del popolo, il nostro proposito presso di loro; e al nostro nobile console auguriamo tutti gioia e onore.
SENATORI	A Coriolano vengano ogni gioia e ogni onore!
(didascalia)	Squillo di cornette, poi escono tutti tranne
SENATORI	Sicinius e Brutus
BRUTUS	Vedete come intende trattare il popolo.
SICINIUS	Possano essi avvedersi della sua intenzione! Li richiederà come se disprezzasse ciò che chiede debba essere in loro potere di dare.
BRUTUS	Venite, li informeremo di ciò che qui si è deliberato. Nella piazza del mercato so che ci attendono. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter seven or eight Citizens
FIRST CITIZEN	Once, if he do require our voices we ought not to deny him.
SECOND CITIZEN	We may, sir, if we will.
THIRD CITIZEN	We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do. For if he show us his wounds and tell us his deeds, we are to put our tongues into those wounds and speak for them; so if he tell us his noble deeds we must also tell him our noble acceptance of them. Ingratitude is monstrous, and for the multitude to be ingrateful were to make a monster of the multitude, of the which we, being members, should bring ourselves to be monstrous members.
FIRST CITIZEN	And to make us no better thought of, a little help will serve; for once we stood up about the corn, he himself stuck not to call us the many-headed multitude.
THIRD CITIZEN	We have been called so of many, not that our heads are some brown, some black, some abram, some bald, but that our wits are so diversely coloured; and truly I think if all our wits were to issue out of one skull, they would fly east, west, north, south, and their consent of one direct way should be at once to all the points o’th’ compass.
SECOND CITIZEN	Think you so? Which way do you judge my wit would fly?
THIRD CITIZEN	Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another man’s will, ‘tis strongly wedged up in a blockhead. But if it were at liberty, ’twould sure southward. SECOND CITIZEN Why that way?
THIRD CITIZEN	To lose itself in a fog where, being three parts melted away with rotten dews, the fourth would return for conscience’ sake, to help to get thee a wife.
SECOND CITIZEN	You are never without your tricks. You may, you may.
THIRD CITIZEN	Are you all resolved to give your voices? But that’s no matter, the greater part carries it. I say, if he would incline to the people there was never a worthier man.
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus in a gown of humility, with Menenius
THIRD CITIZEN	Here he comes, and in the gown of humility. Mark his behaviour. We are not to stay all together, but to come by him where he stands by ones, by twos, and by threes. He’s to make his requests by particulars, wherein every one of us has a single honour in giving him our own voices with our own tongues. Therefore follow me, and I’ll direct you how you shall go by him. ALL THE CITIZENS Content, content. Exeunt Citizens
MENENIUS	O sir, you are not right. Have you not known The worthiest men have done’t?
CORIOLANUS	What must I say? ‘I pray, sir’? Plague upon‘t, I cannot bring My tongue to such a pace. ‘Look, sir, my wounds. I got them in my country’s service, when Some certain of your brethren roared and ran From th’ noise of our own drums’?
MENENIUS	O me, the gods! 55 You must not speak of that, you must desire them To think upon you.
CORIOLANUS	Think upon me? Hang ’em. I would they would forget me like the virtues Which our divines lose by ’em.
MENENIUS	You’ll mar all. I’ll leave you. Pray you, speak to ’em, I pray you, 60 In wholesome manner.
CORIOLANUS	Bid them wash their faces And keep their teeth clean.
(didascalia)	Exit Menenius
(didascalia)	Enter three of the Citizens
CORIOLANUS	So, here comes a brace. You know the cause, sir, of my standing here.
THIRD CITIZEN	We do, sir. Tell us what hath brought you to’t.
CORIOLANUS	Mine own desert.
SECOND CITIZEN	Your own desert?
CORIOLANUS	Ay, but not mine own desire.
THIRD CITIZEN	How not your own desire?
CORIOLANUS	No, sir, ’twas never my desire yet to trouble the poor with begging.
THIRD CITIZEN	You must think if we give you anything we hope to gain by you.
CORIOLANUS	Well then, I pray, your price o’th’ consulship?
FIRST CITIZEN	The price is to ask it kindly.
CORIOLANUS	Kindly, sir, I pray let me ha’t. I have wounds to show you which shall be yours in private. (To Second Citizen) Your good voice, sir. What say you?
SECOND CITIZEN	You shall ha’t, worthy sir.
CORIOLANUS	A match, sir. There’s in all two worthy voices begged. I have your alms. Adieu.
THIRD CITIZEN	(to the other Citizens) But this is something odd.
SECOND CITIZEN	An ‘twere to give again—but ’tis no matter. Exeunt Citizens
(didascalia)	Enter two other Citizens
CORIOLANUS	Pray you now, if it may stand with the tune of your voices that I may be consul, I have here the customary gown.
(didascalia)	FOURTH CITIZEN You have deserved nobly of your country, and you have not deserved nobly.
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS Your enigma? FOURTH CITIZEN You have been a scourge to her enemies, you have been a rod to her friends. You have not, indeed, loved the common people.
CORIOLANUS	You should account me the more virtuous that I have not been common in my love. I will, sir, flatter my sworn brother the people to earn a dearer estimation of them. ’Tis a condition they account gentle. And since the wisdom of their choice is rather to have my hat than my heart, I will practise the insinuating nod and be off to them most counterfeitly; that is, sir, I will counterfeit the bewitchment of some popular man, and give it bountiful to the desirers. Therefore, beseech you I may be consul.
(didascalia)	FIFTH CITIZEN We hope to find you our friend, and therefore give you our voices heartily.
(didascalia)	FOURTH CITIZEN You have received many wounds for your country.
CORIOLANUS	I will not seal your knowledge with showing them. I will make much of your voices, and so trouble you no farther.
BOTH CITIZENS	The gods give you joy, sir, heartily. CORIOLANUS Most sweet voices.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Citizens
BOTH CITIZENS	Better it is to die, better to starve, Than crave the hire which first we do deserve. Why in this womanish toge should I stand here To beg of Hob and Dick that does appear Their needless vouches? Custom calls me to’t. What custom wills, in all things should we do‘t, The dust on antique time would lie unswept, And mountainous error be too highly heaped For truth to o’erpeer. Rather than fool it so, Let the high office and the honour go To one that would do thus. I am half through. The one part suffered, the other will I do.
(didascalia)	Enter three Citizens more
BOTH CITIZENS	Here come more voices. Your voices! For your voices I have fought, Watched for your voices, for your voices bear Of wounds two dozen odd; battles thrice six I have seen and heard of for your voices, have Done many things, some less, some more. Your voices! Indeed I would be consul.
(didascalia)	SIXTH CITIZEN He has done nobly, and cannot go without any honest man’s voice.
(didascalia)	SEVENTH CITIZEN Therefore let him be consul. The gods give him joy and make him good friend to the people!
ALL THE CITIZENS	Amen, amen. God save thee, noble consul!
CORIOLANUS	Worthy voices.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Citizens
(didascalia)	Enter Menenius with Brutus and Sicinius
MENENIUS	You have stood your limitation, and the tribunes Endue you with the people’s voice. Remains That in th’ official marks invested, you Anon do meet the senate.
CORIOLANUS	Is this done?
SICINIUS	The custom of request you have discharged. The people do admit you, and are summoned To meet anon upon your approbation.
CORIOLANUS	Where, at the senate-house?
SICINIUS	There, Coriolanus.
CORIOLANUS	May I change these garments?
SICINIUS	You may, sir.
CORIOLANUS	That I’ll straight do, and, knowing myself again, Repair to th’ senate-house.
MENENIUS	I’ll keep you company. (To the tribunes) Will you along?
BRUTUS	We stay here for the people.
SICINIUS	Fare you well.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Coriolanus and Menenius
SICINIUS	He has it now, and by his looks methinks ’Tis warm at’s heart.
BRUTUS	With a proud heart he wore His humble weeds. Will you dismiss the people?
(didascalia)	Enter the Plebeians
SICINIUS	How now, my masters, have you chose this man?
FIRST CITIZEN	He has our voices, sir.
BRUTUS	We pray the gods he may deserve your loves.
SECOND CITIZEN	Amen, sir. To my poor unworthy notice He mocked us when he begged our voices.
THIRD CITIZEN	Certainly. He flouted us downright.
FIRST CITIZEN	No, ’tis his kind of speech. He did not mock us.
SECOND CITIZEN	Not one amongst us save yourself but says He used us scornfully. He should have showed us His marks of merit, wounds received for’s country.
SICINIUS	Why, so he did, I am sure.
ALL THE CITIZENS	No, no; no man saw ’em.
THIRD CITIZEN	He said he had wounds which he could show in private, And with his hat, thus waving it in scorn, ‘I would be consul,’ says he. ‘Agèd custom But by your voices will not so permit me. Your voices therefore.’ When we granted that, Here was ‘I thank you for your voices, thank you. Your most sweet voices. Now you have left your voices I have no further with you.’ Was not this mockery?
SICINIUS	Why either were you ignorant to see’t, Or, seeing it, of such childish friendliness To yield your voices?
BRUTUS	(to the Citizens) Could you not have told him As you were lessoned: when he had no power But was a petty servant to the state, He was your enemy, ever spake against Your liberties and the charters that you bear I‘th’ body of the weal; and now arriving A place of potency and sway o’th’ state, If he should still malignantly remain Fast foe to th’ plebeii, your voices might Be curses to yourselves. You should have said That as his worthy deeds did claim no less Than what he stood for, so his gracious nature Would think upon you for your voices and Translate his malice towards you into love, Standing your friendly lord.
SICINIUS	(to the Citizens) Thus to have said As you were fore-advised had touched his spirit And tried his inclination, from him plucked Either his gracious promise which you might, As cause had called you up, have held him to, Or else it would have galled his surly nature, Which easily endures not article Tying him to aught. So putting him to rage, You should have ta‘en th’advantage of his choler And passed him unelected.
BRUTUS	(to the Citizens) Did you perceive He did solicit you in free contempt When he did need your loves, and do you think That his contempt shall not be bruising to you When he hath power to crush? Why, had your bodies No heart among you? Or had you tongues to cry Against the rectorship of judgement?
SICINIUS	(to the Citizens) Have you Ere now denied the asker, and now again, Of him that did not ask but mock, bestow Your sued-for tongues?
THIRD CITIZEN	He’s not confirmed, we may deny him yet.
SECOND CITIZEN	And will deny him. I’ll have five hundred voices of that sound.
FIRST CITIZEN	I twice five hundred, and their friends to piece ’em.
BRUTUS	Get you hence instantly, and tell those friends They have chose a consul that will from them take Their liberties, make them of no more voice Than dogs that are as often beat for barking, As therefor kept to do so.
SICINIUS	(to the Citizens) Let them assemble, And on a safer judgement all revoke Your ignorant election. Enforce his pride And his old hate unto you. Besides, forget not With what contempt he wore the humble weed, How in his suit he scorned you; but your loves, Thinking upon his services, took from you Th’apprehension of his present portance, Which most gibingly, ungravely he did fashion After the inveterate hate he bears you.
BRUTUS	(to the Citizens) Lay A fault on us your tribunes, that we laboured No impediment between, but that you must Cast your election on him.
SICINIUS	(to the Citizens) Say you chose him More after our commandment than as guided By your own true affections, and that your minds, Preoccupied with what you rather must do Than what you should, made you against the grain To voice him consul. Lay the fault on us.
BRUTUS	(to the Citizens) Ay, spare us not. Say we read lectures to you, How youngly he began to serve his country, How long continued, and what stock he springs of, The noble house o’th’ Martians, from whence came That Ancus Martius, Numa’s daughter’s son, Who after great Hostilius here was king; Of the same house Publius and Quintus were, That our best water brought by conduits hither; And Censorinus that was so surnamed, And nobly named so, twice being censor, Was his great ancestor.
SICINIUS	(to the Citizens) One thus descended, That hath beside well in his person wrought To be set high in place, we did commend To your remembrances, but you have found, Scaling his present bearing with his past, That he’s your fixed enemy, and revoke Your sudden approbation.
BRUTUS	(to the Citizens) Say you ne‘er had done’t— Harp on that still—but by our putting on; And presently when you have drawn your number, Repair to th’ Capitol.
(didascalia)	A CITIZEN We will so.
(didascalia)	ANOTHER CITIZEN Almost all
BRUTUS	Repent in their election.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Citizens
BRUTUS	Let them go on. This mutiny were better put in hazard Than stay, past doubt, for greater. If, as his nature is, he fall in rage With their refusal, both observe and answer The vantage of his anger.
SICINIUS	To th’ Capitol, come. We will be there before the stream o‘th’ people, And this shall seem, as partly ’tis, their own, Which we have goaded onward.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano sette o otto Cittadini
PRIMO CITTADINO	Insomma, se egli chiede le nostre voci, non dovremmo negargliele.
SECONDO CITTADINO	Possiamo, signore, se vogliamo.
TERZO CITTADINO	Ne abbiamo il potere in noi stessi, ma è un potere che non abbiamo il potere di esercitare. Ché, se egli ci mostra le sue ferite e ci racconta le sue gesta, dobbiamo mettere le nostre lingue in quelle ferite e parlare per esse; così, se ci narra le sue nobili gesta, dobbiamo anche narrargli la nostra nobile accettazione di esse. L’ingratitudine è mostruosa, e che la moltitudine fosse ingrata sarebbe fare della moltitudine un mostro, della quale noi, essendo membra, ci ridurremmo a essere membra mostruose.
PRIMO CITTADINO	E per farci stimare non meglio, basta un piccolo aiuto; ché una volta che ci levammo per il grano, egli stesso non si peritò di chiamarci moltitudine dalle molte teste.
TERZO CITTADINO	Siamo stati chiamati così da molti, non perché le nostre teste sian chi bruna, chi nera, chi rossiccia, chi calva, ma perché i nostri ingegni sono così diversamente colorati; e in verità credo che se tutti i nostri ingegni dovessero uscire da un solo cranio, volerebbero a levante, a ponente, a settentrione, a mezzogiorno, e il loro accordo su una sola direzione diritta sarebbe di andare insieme a tutti i punti della bussola.
SECONDO CITTADINO	Credete? E da che parte giudicate che volerebbe il mio ingegno?
TERZO CITTADINO	Ma via, il vostro ingegno non uscirà tanto presto quanto quello d’un altro, ché è saldamente incuneato in una testa di legno. Ma se fosse in libertà, andrebbe di certo a mezzogiorno. SECONDO CITTADINO E perché da quella parte?
TERZO CITTADINO	Per smarrirsi in una nebbia dove, essendosi per tre quarti liquefatto in rugiade marce, il quarto tornerebbe per scrupolo di coscienza, ad aiutarti a trovar moglie.
SECONDO CITTADINO	Non siete mai senza le vostre facezie. Fate pure, fate pure.
TERZO CITTADINO	Siete tutti risoluti a dare le vostre voci? Ma non importa, la maggioranza decide. Io dico che, se volesse inclinare verso il popolo, non ci fu mai uomo più degno.
(didascalia)	Entra Coriolanus nella toga dell’umiltà, con Menenius
TERZO CITTADINO	Eccolo che viene, e nella toga dell’umiltà. Osservate il suo contegno. Non dobbiamo restare tutti insieme, ma passargli davanti dove sta, a uno a uno, a due a due, a tre a tre. Egli deve fare le sue richieste a ciascuno in particolare, in che ognuno di noi ha un onore singolo nel dargli la propria voce con la propria lingua. Perciò seguitemi, e vi indicherò come dovrete sfilargli davanti. TUTTI I CITTADINI D’accordo, d’accordo. Escono i Cittadini
MENENIUS	O signore, non fate bene. Non sapete che gli uomini più degni l’hanno fatto?
CORIOLANUS	Che devo dire? «Vi prego, signore»? Peste lo colga, non posso portare la mia lingua a un tale passo. «Guardate, signore, le mie ferite. Le ho avute al servizio del mio paese, quando certuni dei vostri fratelli ruggivano e fuggivano al fragore dei nostri stessi tamburi»?
MENENIUS	Ohimè, o dèi! 55 Non dovete parlare di ciò, dovete chiedere loro di pensare a voi.
CORIOLANUS	Pensare a me? Impiccateli. Vorrei che mi dimenticassero come le virtù che i nostri sacerdoti sprecano per loro.
MENENIUS	Guasterete ogni cosa. Vi lascio. Vi prego, parlate loro, vi prego, 60 in modo sano.
CORIOLANUS	Dite loro di lavarsi la faccia e di tenersi i denti puliti.
(didascalia)	Esce Menenius
(didascalia)	Entrano tre dei Cittadini
CORIOLANUS	Ecco, arriva una coppia. Voi conoscete, signore, la causa del mio star qui.
TERZO CITTADINO	La conosciamo, signore. Diteci che cosa vi ci ha portato.
CORIOLANUS	Il mio proprio merito.
SECONDO CITTADINO	Il vostro proprio merito?
CORIOLANUS	Sì, ma non il mio proprio desiderio.
TERZO CITTADINO	Come, non il vostro proprio desiderio?
CORIOLANUS	No, signore, non fu mai finora mio desiderio importunare i poveri col mendicare.
TERZO CITTADINO	Dovete pensare che, se vi diamo qualcosa, speriamo di guadagnarci per mezzo vostro.
CORIOLANUS	Ebbene, vi prego, il vostro prezzo per il consolato?
PRIMO CITTADINO	Il prezzo è chiederlo con cortesia.
CORIOLANUS	Con cortesia, signore, vi prego, lasciate che l’abbia. Ho ferite da mostrarvi, che saranno vostre in privato. (Al Secondo Cittadino) La vostra buona voce, signore. Che dite?
SECONDO CITTADINO	L’avrete, degno signore.
CORIOLANUS	Affare fatto, signore. In tutto due degne voci mendicate. Ho la vostra elemosina. Addio.
TERZO CITTADINO	(agli altri Cittadini) Ma questo è alquanto strano.
SECONDO CITTADINO	Se fosse da rifare—ma non importa. Escono i Cittadini
(didascalia)	Entrano altri due Cittadini
CORIOLANUS	Vi prego dunque, se può accordarsi col tono delle vostre voci che io sia console, ho qui la toga consueta.
(didascalia)	QUARTO CITTADINO Voi avete nobilmente meritato dal vostro paese, e non avete nobilmente meritato.
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS Il vostro enigma? QUARTO CITTADINO Siete stato un flagello per i suoi nemici, siete stato una verga per i suoi amici. Non avete, in verità, amato il popolo minuto.
CORIOLANUS	Dovreste stimarmi tanto più virtuoso, in quanto non sono stato comune nel mio amore. Io, signore, adulerò il mio fratello giurato, il popolo, per guadagnarne più cara estimazione. È una condizione che essi giudicano gentile. E poiché la saggezza della loro scelta è d’avere piuttosto il mio cappello che il mio cuore, io eserciterò il cenno insinuante e sarò con loro quanto mai contraffatto; vale a dire, signore, contraffarò l’incantesimo di qualche uomo popolare, e lo darò con larghezza a chi lo desidera. Perciò, vi supplico, ch’io possa essere console.
(didascalia)	QUINTO CITTADINO Speriamo di trovarvi nostro amico, e perciò vi diamo di cuore le nostre voci.
(didascalia)	QUARTO CITTADINO Avete ricevuto molte ferite per il vostro paese.
CORIOLANUS	Non suggellerò il vostro sapere col mostrarle. Terrò gran conto delle vostre voci, e così non v’importunerò oltre.
ENTRAMBI I CITTADINI	Gli dèi vi diano gioia, signore, di cuore. CORIOLANUS Dolcissime voci.
(didascalia)	Escono i Cittadini
ENTRAMBI I CITTADINI	Meglio è morire, meglio è patir la fame, che implorare il salario che per primo meritiamo. Perché in questa toga femminea dovrei star qui a mendicare da Tizio e da Caio, che offrono le loro superflue garanzie? Il costume mi ci chiama. Se quel che il costume vuole in ogni cosa dovessimo farlo, la polvere sull’antico tempo resterebbe non spazzata, e l’errore montagnoso sarebbe ammucchiato troppo in alto perché la verità vi guardi oltre. Piuttosto che far così lo sciocco, vada l’alta carica e l’onore a uno che voglia far così. Sono a mezzo. L’una parte l’ho patita, l’altra la compirò.
(didascalia)	Entrano altri tre Cittadini
ENTRAMBI I CITTADINI	Ecco altre voci. Le vostre voci! Per le vostre voci ho combattuto, ho vegliato per le vostre voci, per le vostre voci porto due dozzine e più di ferite; battaglie tre volte sei ho veduto e udito per le vostre voci, ho fatto molte cose, alcune meno, alcune più. Le vostre voci! Davvero vorrei essere console.
(didascalia)	SESTO CITTADINO Ha agito nobilmente, e non può andarsene senza la voce d’ogni uomo onesto.
(didascalia)	SETTIMO CITTADINO Sia dunque console. Gli dèi gli diano gioia e lo rendano buon amico del popolo!
TUTTI I CITTADINI	Amen, amen. Dio ti salvi, nobile console!
CORIOLANUS	Degne voci.
(didascalia)	Escono i Cittadini
(didascalia)	Entra Menenius con Brutus e Sicinius
MENENIUS	Avete compiuto il vostro termine, e i tribuni vi investono della voce del popolo. Resta che, rivestito delle insegne ufficiali, voi vi rechiate fra poco al senato.
CORIOLANUS	È fatto questo?
SICINIUS	Il costume della richiesta l’avete adempiuto. Il popolo vi ammette, ed è convocato a riunirsi fra poco per la vostra approvazione.
CORIOLANUS	Dove, alla casa del senato?
SICINIUS	Là, Coriolano.
CORIOLANUS	Posso mutare queste vesti?
SICINIUS	Potete, signore.
CORIOLANUS	Lo farò subito e, riconoscendomi di nuovo, mi recherò alla casa del senato.
MENENIUS	Vi terrò compagnia. (Ai tribuni) Venite anche voi?
BRUTUS	Restiamo qui per il popolo.
SICINIUS	State bene.
(didascalia)	Escono Coriolanus e Menenius
SICINIUS	Ora l’ha ottenuto, e dai suoi sguardi mi pare che gli scaldi il cuore.
BRUTUS	Con cuore superbo indossò i suoi umili panni. Volete congedare il popolo?
(didascalia)	Entrano i Plebei
SICINIUS	Ebbene, padroni miei, avete scelto quest’uomo?
PRIMO CITTADINO	Ha le nostre voci, signore.
BRUTUS	Preghiamo gli dèi che possa meritare il vostro affetto.
SECONDO CITTADINO	Amen, signore. Al mio povero e indegno avviso egli ci ha beffati quando mendicava le nostre voci.
TERZO CITTADINO	Certamente. Ci ha derisi apertamente.
PRIMO CITTADINO	No, è il suo modo di parlare. Non ci ha beffati.
SECONDO CITTADINO	Non uno fra noi, salvo voi, che non dica che ci ha trattati con scherno. Avrebbe dovuto mostrarci i suoi segni di merito, le ferite ricevute per la patria.
SICINIUS	Ma sì che l’ha fatto, ne sono certo.
TUTTI I CITTADINI	No, no; nessuno le ha viste.
TERZO CITTADINO	Disse d’aver ferite che poteva mostrare in privato, e col cappello, agitandolo così per scherno: «Vorrei essere console», dice. «L’antico costume senza le vostre voci non me lo permette. Le vostre voci dunque.» Quando l’avemmo concesso, ecco: «Vi ringrazio per le vostre voci, vi ringrazio. Dolcissime voci vostre. Ora che avete ceduto le vostre voci non ho più nulla da fare con voi.» Non era questa una beffa?
SICINIUS	Ebbene, o foste tanto ignoranti da non vederlo, o, vedendolo, di così puerile cortesia da cedere le vostre voci?
BRUTUS	(ai Cittadini) Non potevate dirgli, come vi era stato insegnato: che quando non aveva potere ma era un meschino servitore dello stato, era vostro nemico, e sempre parlò contro le vostre libertà e i privilegi che voi portate nel corpo della cosa pubblica; e ora, giungendo a un posto di potenza e di dominio nello stato, se ancora malignamente restasse saldo nemico dei plebei, le vostre voci potrebbero essere maledizioni contro voi stessi. Avreste dovuto dire che, come le sue degne gesta non reclamavano meno di ciò per cui si presentava, così la sua benigna natura avrebbe pensato a voi per le vostre voci e tradotto in amore la sua malevolenza verso di voi, facendosi vostro amichevole signore.
SICINIUS	(ai Cittadini) Aver parlato così come eravate stati preavvisati, avrebbe toccato il suo spirito e messo alla prova la sua inclinazione, strappandogli o la sua benigna promessa, alla quale voi avreste potuto, quando l’occasione vi avesse chiamati, tenerlo legato, oppure avrebbe irritato la sua arcigna natura, che non sopporta agevolmente clausola che lo vincoli ad alcunché. Così spingendolo all’ira, avreste dovuto approfittare della sua collera e lasciarlo non eletto.
BRUTUS	(ai Cittadini) Vi siete accorti che vi sollecitava in aperto disprezzo quando aveva bisogno del vostro affetto, e pensate che il suo disprezzo non sarà per voi un livido quando avrà il potere di schiacciare? Come, i vostri corpi non avevano cuore fra voi? O avevate lingue per gridare contro il governo del giudizio?
SICINIUS	(ai Cittadini) Avete finora negato a chi chiedeva, e ora di nuovo, a colui che non chiese ma beffò, concedete le vostre lingue tanto implorate?
TERZO CITTADINO	Non è confermato, possiamo ancora negarglielo.
SECONDO CITTADINO	E glielo negheremo. Avrò cinquecento voci di quel suono.
PRIMO CITTADINO	Io due volte cinquecento, e i loro amici a rinforzarle.
BRUTUS	Andate via subito, e dite a quegli amici che hanno scelto un console che toglierà loro le loro libertà, li ridurrà a non aver più voce dei cani, che tanto spesso son battuti per aver latrato quanto son tenuti apposta per farlo.
SICINIUS	(ai Cittadini) Si radunino, e con più sicuro giudizio revochino tutti la vostra ignorante elezione. Rinfacciate il suo orgoglio e il suo vecchio odio per voi. Inoltre, non dimenticate con quale disprezzo indossò l’umile veste, come nella sua richiesta vi schernì; ma il vostro affetto, pensando ai suoi servigi, vi tolse la percezione del suo presente contegno, che egli, beffardo e senza gravità, foggiò secondo l’inveterato odio che vi porta.
BRUTUS	(ai Cittadini) Date la colpa a noi vostri tribuni, che non frapponemmo alcun impedimento, sì che voi doveste gettare su di lui la vostra elezione.
SICINIUS	(ai Cittadini) Dite che l’avete scelto più per nostro comando che guidati dai vostri veri affetti, e che le vostre menti, preoccupate di ciò che dovevate piuttosto fare che di ciò che avreste dovuto, vi fecero controvoglia acclamarlo console. Date la colpa a noi.
BRUTUS	(ai Cittadini) Sì, non risparmiateci. Dite che vi tenemmo lezioni su quanto giovane egli cominciò a servire il suo paese, quanto a lungo continuò, e da qual ceppo discende: la nobile casa dei Marzi, donde venne quell’Anco Marzio, figlio della figlia di Numa, che dopo il grande Ostilio fu qui re; della medesima casa furono Publio e Quinto, che qui portarono per condotti la nostra acqua migliore; e Censorino, che così fu soprannominato, e nobilmente così chiamato per essere stato due volte censore, fu suo grande antenato.
SICINIUS	(ai Cittadini) Uno così disceso, che oltre a ciò ha bene operato nella sua persona da essere posto in alto luogo, noi lo raccomandammo alla vostra memoria, ma voi avete trovato, misurando il suo presente contegno col passato, che è vostro fisso nemico, e revocate la vostra improvvisa approvazione.
BRUTUS	(ai Cittadini) Dite che non l’avreste mai fatto— insistete su questo—se non per nostra istigazione; e subito, quando avrete radunato il vostro numero, recatevi al Campidoglio.
(didascalia)	UN CITTADINO Così faremo.
(didascalia)	UN ALTRO CITTADINO Quasi tutti
BRUTUS	si pentono della loro elezione.
(didascalia)	Escono i Cittadini
BRUTUS	Lasciate che vadano. Meglio arrischiare questo tumulto che attendere, senza dubbio, uno maggiore. Se, com’è la sua natura, egli monta in furia per il loro rifiuto, osservate e cogliete il vantaggio della sua ira.
SICINIUS	Al Campidoglio, venite. Vi saremo prima della fiumana del popolo, e ciò sembrerà, come in parte è, opera loro, che noi abbiamo pungolato innanzi.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Cornetts. Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, all the gentry; Cominius, Lartius, and other Senators
CORIOLANUS	Tullus Aufidius then had made new head?
LARTIUS	He had, my lord, and that it was which caused Our swifter composition.
CORIOLANUS	So then the Volsces stand but as at first, Ready when time shall prompt them to make raid Upon’s again.
COMINIUS	They are worn, lord consul, so That we shall hardly in our ages see Their banners wave again.
CORIOLANUS	(to Lartius) Saw you Aufidius?
LARTIUS	On safeguard he came to me, and did curse Against the Volsces for they had so vilely Yielded the town. He is retired to Antium.
CORIOLANUS	Spoke he of me?
LARTIUS	He did, my lord.
CORIOLANUS	How? What?
LARTIUS	How often he had met you sword to sword; That of all things upon the earth he hated Your person most; that he would pawn his fortunes To hopeless restitution, so he might Be called your vanquisher.
CORIOLANUS	At Antium lives he?
LARTIUS	At Antium.
CORIOLANUS	I wish I had a cause to seek him there, To oppose his hatred fully. Welcome home.
(didascalia)	Enter Sicinius and Brutus
CORIOLANUS	Behold, these are the tribunes of the people, The tongues o’th’ common mouth. I do despise them, For they do prank them in authority Against all noble sufferance.
SICINIUS	Pass no further.
CORIOLANUS	Ha, what is that?
BRUTUS	It will be dangerous to go on. No further.
CORIOLANUS	What makes this change?
MENENIUS	The matter?
COMINIUS	Hath he not passed the noble and the common?
BRUTUS	Cominius, no.
CORIOLANUS	Have I had children’s voices?
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR
CORIOLANUS	Tribunes, give way. He shall to th’ market-place.
BRUTUS	The people are incensed against him.
SICINIUS	Stop, Or all will fall in broil.
CORIOLANUS	Are these your herd? Must these have voices, that can yield them now And straight disclaim their tongues? What are your offices? You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth? Have you not set them on?
MENENIUS	Be calm, be calm.
CORIOLANUS	It is a purposed thing, and grows by plot To curb the will of the nobility. Suffer’t, and live with such as cannot rule Nor ever will be ruled.
BRUTUS	Call’t not a plot. The people cry you mocked them, and of late When corn was given them gratis, you repined, Scandalled the suppliants for the people, called them Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness.
CORIOLANUS	Why, this was known before.
BRUTUS	Not to them all.
CORIOLANUS	Have you informed them sithence?
BRUTUS	How, I inform them?
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS
BRUTUS	You are like to do such business.
BRUTUS	Not unlike Each way to better yours.
CORIOLANUS	Why then should I be consul? By yon clouds, Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me Your fellow tribune.
SICINIUS	You show too much of that For which the people stir. If you will pass To where you are bound, you must enquire your way, Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit, Or never be so noble as a consul, Nor yoke with him for tribune.
MENENIUS	Let’s be calm.
COMINIUS	The people are abused, set on. This palt‘ring Becomes not Rome, nor has Coriolanus Deserved this so dishonoured rub, laid falsely I’th’ plain way of his merit.
CORIOLANUS	Tell me of corn? This was my speech, and I will speak’t again.
MENENIUS	Not now, not now.
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR Not in this heat, sir, now.
CORIOLANUS	Now as I live, I will. My nobler friends, I crave their pardons. For the mutable rank-scented meinie, Let them regard me, as I do not flatter, And therein behold themselves. I say again, In soothing them we nourish ’gainst our Senate The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition, Which we ourselves have ploughed for, sowed, and scattered By mingling them with us, the honoured number Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that Which they have given to beggars.
MENENIUS	Well, no more.
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR
MENENIUS	No more words, we beseech you.
CORIOLANUS	How, no more? As for my country I have shed my blood, Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs Coin words till their decay against those measles Which we disdain should tetter us, yet sought The very way to catch them.
BRUTUS	You speak o’th’ people as if you were a god To punish, not a man of their infirmity.
SICINIUS	’Twere well we let the people know’t.
MENENIUS	What, what, his choler?
CORIOLANUS	Choler? Were I as patient as the midnight sleep, By Jove, ’twould be my mind.
SICINIUS	It is a mind That shall remain a poison where it is, Not poison any further.
CORIOLANUS	‘Shall remain’? Hear you this Triton of the minnows? Mark you His absolute ‘shall’?
COMINIUS	’Twas from the canon.
CORIOLANUS	‘Shall’? O good but most unwise patricians, why, You grave but reckless senators, have you thus Given Hydra here to choose an officer That, with his peremptory ‘shall’, being but The horn and noise o‘th’ monster’s, wants not spirit To say he’ll turn your current in a ditch And make your channel his? If he have power, Then vail your impotence; if none, awake Your dangerous lenity. If you are learned, Be not as common fools; if you are not, Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians If they be senators, and they are no less When, both your voices blended, the great‘st taste Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate, And such a one as he, who puts his ‘shall’, His popular ‘shall’, against a graver bench Than ever frowned in Greece. By Jove himself, no It makes the consuls base, and my soul aches To know, when two authorities are up, Neither supreme, how soon confusion May enter ’twixt the gap of both and take The one by th’ other.
COMINIUS	Well, on to th’ market-place.
CORIOLANUS	Whoever gave that counsel to give forth The corn o‘th’ storehouse gratis, as ’twas used Sometime in Greece—
MENENIUS	Well, well, no more of that.
CORIOLANUS	Though there the people had more absolute power— I say they nourished disobedience, fed The ruin of the state.
BRUTUS	Why shall the people give One that speaks thus their voice?
CORIOLANUS	I’ll give my reasons, More worthier than their voices. They know the corn Was not our recompense, resting well assured They ne‘er did service for’t. Being pressed to th’ war, Even when the navel of the state was touched, They would not thread the gates. This kind of service Did not deserve corn gratis. Being i’th’ war, Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they showed Most valour, spoke not for them. Th‘accusation Which they have often made against the senate, All cause unborn, could never be the native Of our so frank donation. Well, what then? How shall this bosom multiplied digest The senate’s courtesy? Let deeds express What’s like to be their words: ‘We did request it, We are the greater poll, and in true fear They gave us our demands.’ Thus we debase The nature of our seats, and make the rabble Call our cares fears, which will in time Break ope the locks o’th’ senate and bring in The crows to peck the eagles.
MENENIUS	Come, enough.
BRUTUS	Enough with over-measure.
CORIOLANUS	No, take more. What may be sworn by, both divine and human, Seal what I end withal! This double worship, Where one part does disdain with cause, the other Insult without all reason, where gentry, title, wisdom Cannot conclude but by the yea and no Of general ignorance, it must omit Real necessities, and give way the while To unstable slightness. Purpose so barred, it follows Nothing is done to purpose. Therefore beseech you— You that will be less fearful than discreet, That love the fundamental part of state More than you doubt the change on‘t, that prefer A noble life before a long, and wish To jump a body with a dangerous physic That’s sure of death without it—at once pluck out The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick The sweet which is their poison. Your dishonour Mangles true judgement, and bereaves the state Of that integrity which should become’t, Not having the power to do the good it would For th’ill which doth control’t.
BRUTUS	He’s said enough.
SICINIUS	He’s spoken like a traitor, and shall answer As traitors do.
CORIOLANUS	Thou wretch, despite o’erwhelm thee! What should the people do with these bald tribunes, On whom depending, their obedience fails To th’ greater bench? In a rebellion, When what’s not meet but what must be was law, Then were they chosen. In a better hour Let what is meet be said it must be meet, And throw their power i’th’ dust.
BRUTUS	Manifest treason.
SICINIUS	This a consul? No.
BRUTUS	The aediles, hot
(didascalia)	Enter an Aedile
BRUTUS	Let him be apprehended.
SICINIUS	Go call the people,
(didascalia)	Exit Aedile
SICINIUS	(To Coriolanus) in whose name myself Attach thee as a traitorous innovator, A foe to th’ public weal. Obey, I charge thee, And follow to thine answer.
CORIOLANUS	Hence, old goat!
(didascalia)	ALL THE PATRICIANS
CORIOLANUS	We’ll surety him.
COMINIUS	(to Sicinius) Aged sir, hands off.
CORIOLANUS	(to Sicinius) Hence, rotten thing, or I shall shake thy bones Out of thy garments.
SICINIUS	Help, ye citizens!
(didascalia)	Enter a rabble of Plebeians, with the Aediles
MENENIUS	On both sides more respect.
SICINIUS	Here’s he That would take from you all your power.
BRUTUS	Seize him, aediles.
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS
BRUTUS	Down with him, down with him!
SECOND SENATOR	Weapons, weapons, weapons! They all bustle about Coriolanus
(didascalia)	CITIZENS and PATRICIANS in dispersed cries
SECOND SENATOR	Tribunes! Patricians! Citizens! What ho! Siciniusl Brutus! Coriolanusl Citizens!
(didascalia)	SOME CITIZENS and PATRICIANS
SECOND SENATOR	Peace, peace, peace! Stay! Hold! Peace!
MENENIUS	What is about to be? I am out of breath. Confusion’s near; I cannot speak. You tribunes To th’ people, Coriolanus, patience! Speak, good Sicinius.
SICINIUS	Hear me, people, peace.
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS
SICINIUS	Let’s hear our tribune! Peace! Speak, speak, speak!
SICINIUS	You are at point to lose your liberties. Martius would have all from you—Martius Whom late you have named for consul.
MENENIUS	Fie, fie, fie, This is the way to kindle, not to quench.
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR
MENENIUS	To unbuild the city, and to lay all flat.
SICINIUS	What is the city but the people?
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS
SICINIUS	True, The people are the city.
BRUTUS	By the consent of all We were established the people’s magistrates.
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS
BRUTUS	You so remain.
MENENIUS	And so are like to do.
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS
MENENIUS	That is the way to lay the city flat, To bring the roof to the foundation, And bury all which yet distinctly ranges In heaps and piles of ruin.
SICINIUS	This deserves death.
BRUTUS	Or let us stand to our authority, Or let us lose it. We do here pronounce, Upon the part o’th’ people in whose power We were elected theirs, Martius is worthy Of present death.
SICINIUS	Therefore lay hold of him, Bear him to th’ rock Tarpeian; and from thence Into destruction cast him.
BRUTUS	Aediles, seize him.
ALL THE CITIZENS	Yield, Martius, yield.
MENENIUS	Hear me one word. Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word.
AEDILES	Peace, peace!
MENENIUS	(to the tribunes) Be that you seem, truly your country’s friend, And temp’rately proceed to what you would Thus violently redress.
BRUTUS	Sir, those cold ways That seem like prudent helps are very poisons Where the disease is violent. Lay hands upon him, And bear him to the rock. Coriolanus draws his sword
CORIOLANUS	No, I’ll die here. There’s some among you have beheld me fighting. Come, try upon yourselves what you have seen me.
MENENIUS	Down with that sword. Tribunes, withdraw a while.
BRUTUS	Lay hands upon him.
MENENIUS	Help Martius, help! You that be noble, help him, young and old.
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS Down with him, down with him!
MENENIUS	In this mutiny the tribunes, the Aediles, and the people are beat in
MENENIUS	(to Coriolanus) Go get you to your house. Be gone, away! All will be naught else.
(didascalia)	SECOND SENATOR (to Coriolanus) Get you gone. CORIOLANUS
MENENIUS	Stand fast; we have as many friends as enemies.
MENENIUS	Shall it be put to that?
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR The gods forbid!
MENENIUS	(To Coriolanus) I prithee, noble friend, home to thy house. Leave us to cure this cause.
MENENIUS	For ’tis a sore upon us You cannot tent yourself. Be gone, beseech you.
(didascalia)	COMINIUS Come, sir, along with us.
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS
MENENIUS	I would they were barbarians, as they are, Though in Rome littered; not Romans, as they are not, Though calved i‘th’ porch o’th’ Capitol.
(didascalia)	MENENIUS Be gone.
MENENIUS	Put not your worthy rage into your tongue. One time will owe another.
CORIOLANUS	On fair ground I could beat forty of them.
MENENIUS	I could myself Take up a brace o’th’ best of them, yea, the two tribunes.
COMINIUS	But now ‘tis odds beyond arithmetic, And manhood is called foolery when it stands Against a falling fabric. (To Coriolanus) Will you hence Before the tag return, whose rage doth rend Like interrupted waters, and o’erbear What they are used to bear?
MENENIUS	(to Coriolanus) Pray you be gone. I’ll try whether my old wit be in request With those that have but little. This must be patched With cloth of any colour.
COMINIUS	Nay, come away.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Coriolanus and Cominius
COMINIUS	A PATRICIAN This man has marred his fortune.
MENENIUS	His nature is too noble for the world. He would not flatter Neptune for his trident Or Jove for’s power to thunder. His heart’s his mouth. What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent, And, being angry, does forget that ever He heard the name of death.
(didascalia)	A noise within
MENENIUS	Here’s goodly work. A PATRICIAN I would they were abed.
MENENIUS	I would they were in Tiber. What the vengeance, could he not speak ’em fair?
(didascalia)	Enter Brutus and Sicinius, with the rabble again
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 naught.
FIRST CITIZEN	He shall well know The noble tribunes are the people’s mouths, And we their hands.
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS
FIRST CITIZEN	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?
(didascalia)	ALL THE 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 our danger, and to keep him here Our certain death. Therefore it is decreed He dies tonight.
MENENIUS	Now the good gods forbid That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude Towards her deserved children is enrolled 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 dropped 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 th’ end o’th’ world.
SICINIUS	This is clean cam.
BRUTUS	Merely awry. When he did love his country It honoured him.
(didascalia)	SICINIUS S
BRUTUS	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 unscanned 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	(to Menenius) 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’th’ wars Since a could draw a sword, and is ill-schooled 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. (To the Citizens) Masters, lay down your weapons.
BRUTUS	Go not home.
SICINIUS	Meet on the market-place. (To Menenius) We’ll attend you there, Where if you bring not Martius, 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.
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR
MENENIUS	Pray you, let’s to him.
(didascalia)	Exeunt tribunes and Citizens at one door,
(didascalia)	Patricians at another door

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Cornette. Entrano Coriolanus, Menenius, tutto il patriziato; Cominius, Lartius e altri Senatori
CORIOLANUS	Tullo Aufidio aveva dunque raccolto nuove forze?
LARTIUS	Sì, mio signore, e fu questo che affrettò il nostro accordo.
CORIOLANUS	Così dunque i Volsci stanno come da principio, pronti, quando il tempo li sproni, a fare irruzione di nuovo contro di noi.
COMINIUS	Sono così logorati, signor console, che difficilmente in vita nostra vedremo sventolare ancora le loro insegne.
CORIOLANUS	(a Lartius) Avete visto Aufidio?
LARTIUS	Venne da me con salvacondotto, e imprecava contro i Volsci per aver così vilmente ceduto la città. Si è ritirato ad Anzio.
CORIOLANUS	Parlò di me?
LARTIUS	Sì, mio signore.
CORIOLANUS	Come? Che cosa?
LARTIUS	Quante volte v’aveva incontrato spada contro spada; che di tutte le cose sulla terra odiava la vostra persona sopra ogni altra; che avrebbe impegnato le sue fortune a irreparabile perdita, purché potesse essere chiamato il vostro vincitore.
CORIOLANUS	Ad Anzio vive?
LARTIUS	Ad Anzio.
CORIOLANUS	Vorrei aver motivo di cercarlo là, per opporre pienamente il mio odio al suo. Benvenuto a casa.
(didascalia)	Entrano Sicinius e Brutus
CORIOLANUS	Ecco, questi sono i tribuni del popolo, le lingue della bocca comune. Io li disprezzo, ché si pavoneggiano nell’autorità oltre ogni nobile sopportazione.
SICINIUS	Non passate oltre.
CORIOLANUS	Ah, che cos’è questo?
BRUTUS	Sarà pericoloso proseguire. Non oltre.
CORIOLANUS	Che cosa produce questo mutamento?
MENENIUS	Che c’è?
COMINIUS	Non ha egli superato la prova dei nobili e del popolo?
BRUTUS	Cominio, no.
CORIOLANUS	Ho avuto voci di fanciulli?
(didascalia)	PRIMO SENATORE
CORIOLANUS	Tribuni, fate largo. Egli andrà alla piazza del mercato.
BRUTUS	Il popolo è acceso d’ira contro di lui.
SICINIUS	Fermatevi, o tutto precipiterà nel tumulto.
CORIOLANUS	È questo il vostro gregge? Devono aver voce costoro, che possono darla ora e subito rinnegare le proprie lingue? Quali sono i vostri uffici? Essendo voi le loro bocche, perché non governate i loro denti? Non li avete aizzati voi?
MENENIUS	Calma, calma.
CORIOLANUS	È cosa premeditata, e cresce per congiura a frenare la volontà della nobiltà. Sopportatelo, e vivete con gente che non sa governare né mai vorrà essere governata.
BRUTUS	Non chiamatela congiura. Il popolo grida che voi l’avete beffato, e che di recente, quando gli fu dato il grano gratis, ve ne doleste, diffamaste i patrocinatori del popolo, chiamandoli servi del tempo, adulatori, nemici della nobiltà.
CORIOLANUS	Ma questo si sapeva già prima.
BRUTUS	Non da tutti loro.
CORIOLANUS	Glielo avete voi riferito da allora?
BRUTUS	Come, io riferirlo?
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS
BRUTUS	Siete uomo da fare simili faccende.
BRUTUS	Non inadatto in ogni modo a far meglio delle vostre.
CORIOLANUS	E allora perché dovrei essere console? Per quelle nubi, lasciate ch’io meriti male quanto voi, e fatemi vostro collega tribuno.
SICINIUS	Voi mostrate troppo di ciò per cui il popolo si agita. Se volete passare là dove siete diretto, dovete chiedere la vostra via, fuori della quale siete, con spirito più mite, o non essere mai nobile quanto un console, né aggiogarvi a lui come tribuno.
MENENIUS	Restiamo calmi.
COMINIUS	Il popolo è ingannato, aizzato. Questo tergiversare non si conviene a Roma, né Coriolano ha meritato questo così disonorevole intoppo, falsamente posto sulla piana via del suo merito.
CORIOLANUS	Mi parlate di grano? Questo fu il mio discorso, e lo ripeterò.
MENENIUS	Non ora, non ora.
(didascalia)	PRIMO SENATORE Non in questo calore, signore, non ora.
CORIOLANUS	Ora, com’è vero ch’io vivo, lo farò. Miei più nobili amici, ne chiedo loro perdono. Quanto alla mutevole plebaglia dal fiato rancido, mi guardino, ché io non adulo, e in ciò contemplino sé stessi. Lo dico di nuovo: col blandirli nutriamo contro il nostro Senato il loglio della ribellione, dell’insolenza, della sedizione, che noi stessi abbiamo arato, seminato e sparso mescolandoli a noi, il numero onorato cui non manca virtù, no, né potere, se non quello che essi hanno dato ai mendicanti.
MENENIUS	Bene, basta così.
(didascalia)	PRIMO SENATORE
MENENIUS	Non più parole, ve ne supplichiamo.
CORIOLANUS	Come, non più? Come per il mio paese ho versato il mio sangue, senza temere forza esterna, così i miei polmoni conieranno parole fino al loro sfacelo contro quel morbillo che sdegniamo ci copra di croste, eppure abbiamo cercato la via stessa per prenderlo.
BRUTUS	Voi parlate del popolo come foste un dio per punire, non un uomo della loro stessa infermità.
SICINIUS	Sarebbe bene che lo facessimo sapere al popolo.
MENENIUS	Che cosa, che cosa, la sua collera?
CORIOLANUS	Collera? Fossi paziente come il sonno di mezzanotte, per Giove, sarebbe ugualmente il mio pensiero.
SICINIUS	È un pensiero che resterà un veleno dov’è, e non avvelenerà oltre.
CORIOLANUS	«Resterà»? Udite questo Tritone dei pesciolini? Notate il suo assoluto «resterà»?
COMINIUS	Fu contro la regola.
CORIOLANUS	«Resterà»? O buoni ma quanto mai imprudenti patrizi, come, voi gravi ma sconsiderati senatori, avete così concesso a quest’Idra di scegliersi un magistrato che, col suo perentorio «resterà», essendo soltanto il corno e il muggito del mostro, non manca d’animo per dire che volgerà la vostra corrente in un fossato e farà suo il vostro canale? Se egli ha potere, allora piegate la vostra impotenza; se non ne ha, destate la vostra pericolosa mitezza. Se siete dotti, non siate come sciocchi volgari; se non lo siete, fateli sedere su cuscini accanto a voi. Voi siete plebei se essi son senatori, ed essi non sono da meno quando, mescolate le due voci, il gusto maggiore sente soprattutto il loro. Essi scelgono il proprio magistrato, e uno come costui, che pone il suo «resterà», il suo popolare «resterà», contro un consesso più grave di quanti mai aggrottarono le ciglia in Grecia. Per Giove stesso, no: ciò avvilisce i consoli, e la mia anima duole al pensare che, quando due autorità sono in piedi, nessuna suprema, quanto presto la confusione possa entrare nel varco fra le due e prendere l’una per mezzo dell’altra.
COMINIUS	Bene, andiamo alla piazza del mercato.
CORIOLANUS	Chiunque diede quel consiglio di distribuire gratis il grano del granaio pubblico, come si usava un tempo in Grecia—
MENENIUS	Bene, bene, basta di ciò.
CORIOLANUS	Benché là il popolo avesse potere più assoluto— io dico che essi nutrirono la disobbedienza, alimentarono la rovina dello stato.
BRUTUS	Perché mai il popolo dovrebbe dare la propria voce a uno che parla così?
CORIOLANUS	Darò le mie ragioni, più degne delle loro voci. Essi sanno che il grano non era una nostra ricompensa, ben sicuri d’essere ben certi che non ne resero servigio. Chiamati alla guerra, proprio quando l’ombelico dello stato era toccato, non vollero varcare le porte. Questa specie di servigio non meritava grano gratis. Trovandosi in guerra, i loro ammutinamenti e le loro rivolte, in cui mostrarono il maggior valore, non parlarono in loro favore. L’accusa che essi hanno spesso mosso contro il senato, priva d’ogni causa, non poté mai essere l’origine della nostra così franca donazione. Ebbene, e poi? Come digerirà questo petto moltiplicato la cortesia del senato? Lascino i fatti esprimere ciò che verosimilmente saranno le loro parole: «L’abbiamo chiesto, siamo il numero maggiore, e per vera paura ci hanno concesso le nostre richieste.» Così avviliamo la natura dei nostri seggi, e facciamo sì che la marmaglia chiami paure le nostre cure; il che col tempo spezzerà le serrature del senato e vi porterà i corvi a beccare le aquile.
MENENIUS	Suvvia, basta.
BRUTUS	Basta e oltre misura.
CORIOLANUS	No, prendetene ancora. Tutto ciò per cui si può giurare, divino e umano, suggelli ciò con cui io concludo! Questo doppio potere, dove una parte disdegna a ragione, e l’altra insulta senza ragione alcuna, dove nobiltà, titolo, saggezza non possono concludere se non col sì e col no dell’ignoranza generale, esso deve trascurare le necessità reali, e cedere intanto a instabile frivolezza. Sbarrato così ogni proposito, ne segue che nulla si compie a proposito. Perciò vi supplico— voi che volete essere meno timorosi che avveduti, che amate la parte fondamentale dello stato più di quanto temiate il mutarla, che preferite una vita nobile a una lunga, e desiderate scuotere un corpo con una medicina pericolosa che senza di essa è certo della morte—strappate d’un colpo la lingua moltitudinaria; non lascino leccare il dolce che è il loro veleno. Il vostro disonore strazia il giusto giudizio, e priva lo stato di quell’integrità che gli si converrebbe, non avendo il potere di fare il bene che vorrebbe per il male che lo domina.
BRUTUS	Ha detto abbastanza.
SICINIUS	Ha parlato da traditore, e risponderà come i traditori.
CORIOLANUS	Tu, miserabile, ti sommerga il disprezzo! Che dovrebbe farsene il popolo di questi calvi tribuni, dai quali dipendendo, viene meno la loro obbedienza al consesso maggiore? In una ribellione, quando non ciò che è giusto ma ciò che deve essere era legge, allora furono eletti. In un’ora migliore si dica che ciò che è giusto deve essere giusto, e si getti il loro potere nella polvere.
BRUTUS	Manifesto tradimento.
SICINIUS	Questo un console? No.
BRUTUS	Gli edili, presto
(didascalia)	Entra un Edile
BRUTUS	Sia arrestato.
SICINIUS	Va’ a chiamare il popolo,
(didascalia)	Esce l’Edile
SICINIUS	(A Coriolanus) in nome del quale io stesso ti arresto come traditore e sovvertitore, nemico del pubblico bene. Obbedisci, te lo intimo, e seguimi a rispondere.
CORIOLANUS	Via, vecchio caprone!
(didascalia)	TUTTI I PATRIZI
CORIOLANUS	Ci facciamo garanti per lui.
COMINIUS	(a Sicinius) Vecchio signore, giù le mani.
CORIOLANUS	(a Sicinius) Via, cosa marcia, o ti scuoterò le ossa fuori dalle vesti.
SICINIUS	Aiuto, cittadini!
(didascalia)	Entra una calca di Plebei, con gli Edili
MENENIUS	Più rispetto da entrambe le parti.
SICINIUS	Eccolo colui che vorrebbe togliervi tutto il vostro potere.
BRUTUS	Afferratelo, edili.
(didascalia)	TUTTI I CITTADINI
BRUTUS	Abbasso lui, abbasso lui!
SECONDO SENATORE	Armi, armi, armi! Tutti si accalcano intorno a Coriolanus
(didascalia)	CITTADINI e PATRIZI in grida sparse
SECONDO SENATORE	Tribuni! Patrizi! Cittadini! Olà! Sicinio! Bruto! Coriolano! Cittadini!
(didascalia)	ALCUNI CITTADINI e PATRIZI
SECONDO SENATORE	Pace, pace, pace! Fermi! Alto! Pace!
MENENIUS	Che sta per accadere? Sono senza fiato. La confusione è vicina; non posso parlare. Voi tribuni, al popolo; Coriolano, pazienza! Parla, buon Sicinio.
SICINIUS	Ascoltatemi, popolo, pace.
(didascalia)	TUTTI I CITTADINI
SICINIUS	Ascoltiamo il nostro tribuno! Pace! Parla, parla, parla!
SICINIUS	Siete sul punto di perdere le vostre libertà. Marzio vorrebbe togliervi tutto—Marzio, che poco fa avete nominato console.
MENENIUS	Vergogna, vergogna, vergogna, questo è il modo di accendere, non di spegnere.
(didascalia)	PRIMO SENATORE
MENENIUS	Di disfare la città, e di spianare ogni cosa.
SICINIUS	E che cos’è la città se non il popolo?
(didascalia)	TUTTI I CITTADINI
SICINIUS	Vero, il popolo è la città.
BRUTUS	Per consenso di tutti fummo istituiti magistrati del popolo.
(didascalia)	TUTTI I CITTADINI
BRUTUS	Tali restate.
MENENIUS	E tali è probabile resterete.
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS
MENENIUS	Questo è il modo di spianare la città, di portare il tetto alle fondamenta, e seppellire tutto ciò che ancora distintamente si ordina in mucchi e cumuli di rovina.
SICINIUS	Questo merita la morte.
BRUTUS	O teniamo ferma la nostra autorità, o la perdiamo. Noi qui pronunciamo, a nome del popolo, nel cui potere fummo eletti suoi, che Marzio è degno di morte immediata.
SICINIUS	Perciò afferratelo, portatelo alla rupe Tarpea; e di là scagliatelo nella distruzione.
BRUTUS	Edili, afferratelo.
TUTTI I CITTADINI	Arrenditi, Marzio, arrenditi.
MENENIUS	Ascoltatemi una parola. Vi supplico, tribuni, ascoltatemi una sola parola.
EDILI	Pace, pace!
MENENIUS	(ai tribuni) Siate quel che sembrate, veri amici del vostro paese, e procedete temperatamente a ciò che vorreste così violentemente correggere.
BRUTUS	Signore, quelle vie fredde che sembrano prudenti rimedi sono veri veleni dove il male è violento. Ponetegli le mani addosso, e portatelo alla rupe. Coriolanus sguaina la spada
CORIOLANUS	No, morirò qui. Vi son fra voi alcuni che m’hanno visto combattere. Su, provate su voi stessi ciò che m’avete visto essere.
MENENIUS	Giù quella spada. Tribuni, ritiratevi un poco.
BRUTUS	Ponetegli le mani addosso.
MENENIUS	Aiutate Marzio, aiuto! Voi che siete nobili, aiutatelo, giovani e vecchi.
(didascalia)	TUTTI I CITTADINI Abbasso lui, abbasso lui!
MENENIUS	In questo tumulto i tribuni, gli Edili e il popolo sono respinti
MENENIUS	(a Coriolanus) Andate alla vostra casa. Via, andatevene! Altrimenti tutto andrà in rovina.
(didascalia)	SECONDO SENATORE (a Coriolanus) Andatevene. CORIOLANUS
MENENIUS	Teniamo saldo; abbiamo tanti amici quanti nemici.
MENENIUS	Si deve venire a questo?
(didascalia)	PRIMO SENATORE Gli dèi non vogliano!
MENENIUS	(A Coriolanus) Ti prego, nobile amico, a casa, nella tua dimora. Lascia a noi curare questa piaga.
MENENIUS	Ché è una piaga su di noi che voi non potete medicare da solo. Andatevene, vi supplico.
(didascalia)	COMINIUS Venite, signore, con noi.
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS
MENENIUS	Vorrei che fossero barbari, come sono, benché figliati in Roma; e non Romani, come non sono, benché partoriti nel portico del Campidoglio.
(didascalia)	MENENIUS Andatevene.
MENENIUS	Non mettete la vostra degna ira nella lingua. Un tempo sarà debitore a un altro.
CORIOLANUS	In campo aperto ne batterei quaranta.
MENENIUS	Io stesso potrei prendermene un paio dei migliori, sì, i due tribuni.
COMINIUS	Ma ora la disparità è oltre ogni aritmetica, e la virilità si dice follia quando resiste contro un edificio che crolla. (A Coriolanus) Volete andarvene prima che torni la marmaglia, la cui furia lacera come acque trattenute, e travolge ciò che sono use a sostenere?
MENENIUS	(a Coriolanus) Vi prego, andatevene. Proverò se il mio vecchio ingegno abbia ancora corso con quelli che ne hanno poco. Bisogna rattoppare questo con panno di qualunque colore.
COMINIUS	Su, venite via.
(didascalia)	Escono Coriolanus e Cominius
COMINIUS	UN PATRIZIO Quest’uomo ha guastato la sua fortuna.
MENENIUS	La sua natura è troppo nobile per il mondo. Non adulerebbe Nettuno per il suo tridente né Giove per il suo potere di tuonare. Il suo cuore è la sua bocca. Ciò che il suo petto forgia, la sua lingua lo deve emettere, e, in collera, dimentica d’aver mai udito il nome della morte.
(didascalia)	Rumore all’interno
MENENIUS	Ecco una bella faccenda. UN PATRIZIO Vorrei che fossero a letto.
MENENIUS	Vorrei che fossero nel Tevere. Che diamine, non poteva parlar loro con garbo?
(didascalia)	Entrano Brutus e Sicinius, di nuovo con la calca
SICINIUS	Dov’è questa vipera che vorrebbe spopolare la città ed essere ciascun uomo egli solo?
MENENIUS	Degni tribuni—
SICINIUS	Sarà gettato giù dalla rupe Tarpea da mani rigorose. Ha resistito alla legge, e perciò la legge gli negherà ogni altro processo che la severità del pubblico potere, ch’egli tanto tiene per nulla.
PRIMO CITTADINO	Saprà bene che i nobili tribuni sono le bocche del popolo, e noi le loro mani.
(didascalia)	TUTTI I CITTADINI
PRIMO CITTADINO	Lo saprà, certamente.
MENENIUS	Signore, signore.
SICINIUS	Pace!
MENENIUS	Non gridate al massacro dove dovreste solo cacciare con misurato mandato.
SICINIUS	Signore, come avviene che voi abbiate aiutato a compiere questo salvataggio?
MENENIUS	Ascoltatemi parlare. Come conosco il merito del console, così so nominarne le colpe.
SICINIUS	Console? Quale console?
MENENIUS	Il console Coriolano.
BRUTUS	Lui console?
(didascalia)	TUTTI I CITTADINI No, no, no, no, no!
MENENIUS	Se, col permesso dei tribuni e vostro, buon popolo, posso essere udito, vorrei chiedere una parola o due, le quali non vi torneranno a danno maggiore che di altrettanto tempo perduto.
SICINIUS	Parlate brevemente, dunque, ché siamo risoluti a spacciare questo viperino traditore. Cacciarlo di qui sarebbe solo nostro pericolo, e tenerlo qui la nostra certa morte. Perciò è decretato ch’egli muoia stanotte.
MENENIUS	Ora i buoni dèi non permettano che la nostra illustre Roma, la cui gratitudine verso i figli che di lei ben meritarono è registrata nel libro stesso di Giove, come madre snaturata divori ora i propri!
SICINIUS	È un morbo che va reciso.
MENENIUS	Oh, è un membro che ha soltanto un morbo— mortale reciderlo, facile guarirlo. Che ha fatto a Roma che sia degno di morte? Uccidere i nostri nemici; il sangue che ha perduto— e oso garantire che è più di quello che gli resta di molte once—lo versò per il suo paese; e quel che gli resta, perderlo per opera del suo paese sarebbe per tutti noi che lo facciamo e lo sopportiamo un marchio fino alla fine del mondo.
SICINIUS	Questo è del tutto fuori squadra.
BRUTUS	Del tutto storto. Quando egli amava il suo paese, questo l’onorava.
(didascalia)	SICINIUS S
BRUTUS	Il servigio del piede, una volta incancrenito, non è più tenuto in conto per ciò che era prima.
BRUTUS	Non udremo altro. Inseguitelo fino alla sua casa e strappatelo di là, perché la sua infezione, essendo di natura contagiosa, non si diffonda oltre.
MENENIUS	Una parola ancora, una parola! Questa furia dal passo di tigre, quando scoprirà il danno della sconsiderata rapidità, troppo tardi si legherà pesi di piombo ai calcagni. Procedete per giudizio, perché non scoppino fazioni—ché è molto amato— e non saccheggino la grande Roma coi Romani.
BRUTUS	E se così fosse?
SICINIUS	(a Menenius) Che andate dicendo? Non abbiamo avuto un saggio della sua obbedienza: i nostri edili percossi, noi stessi affrontati? Andiamo.
MENENIUS	Considerate questo: è stato allevato nelle guerre da quando sa impugnare una spada, ed è male ammaestrato nel linguaggio stacciato. Farina e crusca insieme egli getta senza distinzione. Concedetemi licenza, andrò da lui e mi impegno a condurlo dove risponderà secondo forma legale, in pace, a suo estremo rischio.
PRIMO SENATORE	Nobili tribuni, questa è la via umana. L’altra strada si rivelerà troppo sanguinosa, e la sua fine ignota al principio.
SICINIUS	Nobile Menenio, siate dunque come ufficiale del popolo. (Ai Cittadini) Padroni, deponete le vostre armi.
BRUTUS	Non andate a casa.
SICINIUS	Radunatevi nella piazza del mercato. (A Menenius) Vi attenderemo là, dove, se non conducete Marzio, procederemo per la nostra prima via.
MENENIUS	Ve lo condurrò. (Ai Senatori) Lasciate ch’io chieda la vostra compagnia. Deve venire, o seguirà il peggio.
(didascalia)	PRIMO SENATORE
MENENIUS	Vi prego, andiamo da lui.
(didascalia)	Escono i tribuni e i Cittadini da una porta,
(didascalia)	i Patrizi da un’altra porta

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus, with Nobles
CORIOLANUS	Let them pull 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.
(didascalia)	Enter Volumnia
CORIOLANUS	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. (To 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.
CORIOLANUS	Let go.
VOLUMNIA	You might have been enough the man you are With striving less to be so. Lesser had been The taxings of your dispositions if You had not showed them how ye were disposed Ere they lacked power to cross you.
CORIOLANUS	Let them hang.
VOLUMNIA	Ay, and burn too.
(didascalia)	Enter Menenius, with the Senators
MENENIUS	(to Coriolanus) Come, come, you have been too rough, something too rough. You must return and mend it.
(didascalia)	FIRST SENATOR
MENENIUS	There’s no remedy Unless, by not so doing, our good city Cleave in the midst and perish.
VOLUMNIA	(to Coriolanus) Pray be counselled. I have a heart as little apt as yours, But yet a brain that leads my use of anger To better vantage.
MENENIUS	Well said, noble woman. Before he should thus stoop to th’ herd, but that The violent fit o’th’ time craves it as physic For the whole state, I would put mine armour on, Which I can scarcely bear.
CORIOLANUS	What must I do?
MENENIUS	Return to th’ tribunes.
CORIOLANUS	Well, what then, what then?
MENENIUS	Repent what you have spoke.
CORIOLANUS	For them? I cannot do it to the gods. Must I then do’t to them?
VOLUMNIA	You are too absolute, Though therein you can never be too noble, But when extremities speak. I have heard you say, Honour and policy, like unsevered friends, I’th’ war do grow together. Grant that, and tell me In peace what each of them by th’ other lose That they combine not there.
CORIOLANUS	Tush, tush!
MENENIUS	A good demand.
VOLUMNIA	If it be honour in your wars to seem The same you are not, which for your best ends You adopt your policy, how is it less or worse That it shall hold companionship in peace With honour, as in war, since that to both It stands in like request?
CORIOLANUS	Why force you this?
VOLUMNIA	Because that now it lies you on to speak to th’ people, Not by your own instruction, nor by th’ matter Which your heart prompts you, but with such words That are but roted in your tongue, though but Bastards and syllables of no allowance To your bosom’s truth. Now this no more Dishonours you at all than to take in A town with gentle words, which else would put you To your fortune and the hazard of much blood. I would dissemble with my nature where My fortunes and my friends at stake required I should do so in honour. I am in this Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles; And you will rather show our general louts How you can frown than spend a fawn upon ’em For the inheritance of their loves and safeguard Of what that want might ruin.
MENENIUS	Noble lady! (To Coriolanus) Come, go with us, speak fair. You may salve so, Not what is dangerous present, but the loss Of what is past.
VOLUMNIA	I prithee now, my son,
(didascalia)	She takes his bonnet
VOLUMNIA	Go to them with this bonnet in thy hand, And thus far having stretched it—here be with them— Thy knee bussing the stones—for in such business Action is eloquence, and the eyes of th’ ignorant More learnèd than the ears—waving thy head, With often, thus, correcting thy stout heart, Now humble as the ripest mulberry That will not hold the handling; or say to them Thou art their soldier and, being bred in broils, Hast not the soft way which, thou dost confess, Were fit for thee to use as they to claim, In asking their good loves; but thou wilt frame Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs so far As thou hast power and person.
MENENIUS	(to Coriolanus) This but done Even as she speaks, why, their hearts were yours; For they have pardons, being asked, as free As words to little purpose.
VOLUMNIA	(to Coriolanus) Prithee now, Go, and be ruled, although I know thou hadst rather Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf Than flatter him in a bower.
(didascalia)	Enter Cominius
VOLUMNIA	Here is Cominius.
COMINIUS	I have been i‘th’ market-place; and, sir, ’tis fit You make strong party, or defend yourself By calmness or by absence. All’s in anger.
MENENIUS	Only fair speech.
COMINIUS	I think ’twill serve, if he Can thereto frame his spirit.
VOLUMNIA	He must, and will. Prithee now, say you will, and go about it.
CORIOLANUS	Must I go show them my unbarbèd sconce? Must I with my base tongue give to my noble heart A lie that it must bear? Well, I will do’t. Yet were there but this single plot to lose, This mould of Martius they to dust should grind it And throw’t against the wind. To th’ market-place. You have put me now to such a part which never I shall discharge to th’ life.
COMINIUS	Come, come, we’ll prompt you.
VOLUMNIA	I prithee now, sweet son, as thou hast said My praises made thee first a soldier, so, To have my praise for this, perform a part Thou hast not done before.
CORIOLANUS	Well, I must do’t. Away, my disposition; and possess me Some harlot’s spirit! My throat of war be turned, Which choired with my drum, into a pipe Small as an eunuch or the virgin voice That babies lull asleep! The smiles of knaves Tent in my cheeks, and schoolboys’ tears take up The glasses of my sight! A beggar’s tongue Make motion through my lips, and my armed knees, Who bowed but in my stirrup, bend like his That hath received an alms! I will not do’t, Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth, And by my body’s action teach my mind A most inherent baseness.
VOLUMNIA	At thy choice, then. To beg of thee it is my more dishonour Than thou of them. Come all to ruin. Let Thy mother rather feel thy pride than fear Thy dangerous stoutness, for I mock at death With as big heart as thou. Do as thou list. Thy valiantness was mine, thou sucked’st it from me, But owe thy pride thyself.
CORIOLANUS	Pray be content. Mother, I am going to the market-place. Chide me no more. I’ll mountebank their loves, Cog their hearts from them, and come home beloved Of all the trades in Rome. Look, I am going. Commend me to my wife. I’ll return consul, Or never trust to what my tongue can do I’th’ way of flattery further.
VOLUMNIA	Do your will.
(didascalia)	Exit Volumnia
COMINIUS	Away! The tribunes do attend you. Arm yourself To answer mildly, for they are prepared With accusations, as I hear, more strong Than are upon you yet.
CORIOLANUS	The word is ‘mildly’. Pray you let us go. Let them accuse me by invention, I Will answer in mine honour.
MENENIUS	Ay, but mildly.
CORIOLANUS	Well, mildly be it, then—mitd)y.
(didascalia)	Exeunt
CORIOLANUS	3.3 Enter Sicinius and Brutus
BRUTUS	In this point charge him home: that he affects Tyrannical power. If he evade us there, Enforce him with his envy to the people, And that the spoil got on the Antiats Was ne’er distributed.
(didascalia)	Enter an Aedile
BRUTUS	What, will he come?
AEDILE	He’s coming.
BRUTUS	How accompanied?
AEDILE	With old Menenius, and those senators That always favoured him.
SICINIUS	Have you a catalogue Of all the voices that we have procured, Set down by th’ poll?
AEDILE	I have, ’tis ready.
SICINIUS	Have you collected them by tribes?
AEDILE	I have.
SICINIUS	Assemble presently the people hither, And when they hear me say ‘It shall be so I’th’ right and strength o‘th’ commons’, be it either For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them, If I say ‘Fine’, cry ‘Fine!’, if ‘Death’, cry ‘Death!’, Insisting on the old prerogative And power i‘th’ truth o’th’ cause.
AEDILE	I shall inform them.
BRUTUS	And when such time they have begun to cry, Let them not cease, but with a din confused Enforce the present execution Of what we chance to sentence.
AEDILE	Very well.
SICINIUS	Make them be strong, and ready for this hint When we shall hap to give’t them.
(didascalia)	BRUTUS to the Aedile Go about it.
(didascalia)	Exit Aedile
SICINIUS	Put him to choler straight. He hath been used Ever to conquer and to have his worth Of contradiction. Being once chafed, he cannot Be reined again to temperance. Then he speaks What’s in his heart, and that is there which looks With us to break his neck.
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, and Cominius, with other Senators and Patricians
SICINIUS	Well, here he comes.
MENENIUS	(to Coriolanus) Calmly, I do beseech you.
CORIOLANUS	Ay, as an hostler that for th’ poorest piece Will bear the knave by th’ volume.—Th‘honoured gods Keep Rome in safety and the chairs of justice Supplied with worthy men, plant love among’s, Throng our large temples with the shows of peace, And not our streets with war!
FIRST SENATOR	Amen, amen.
MENENIUS	A noble wish.
(didascalia)	Enter the Aedile with the Citizens
SICINIUS	Draw near, ye people.
AEDILE	List to your tribunes. Audience! Peace, I say.
CORIOLANUS	First, hear me speak.
SICINIUS	and BRUTUS Well, say.—Peace ho!
CORIOLANUS	Shall I be charged no further than this present? Must all determine here?
SICINIUS	I do demand If you submit you to the people’s voices, Allow their officers, and are content To suffer lawful censure for such faults As shall be proved upon you.
CORIOLANUS	I am content.
MENENIUS	Lo, citizens, he says he is content. The warlike service he has done, consider. Think Upon the wounds his body bears, which show Like graves i’th’ holy churchyard.
CORIOLANUS	Scratches with briers, Scars to move laughter only.
MENENIUS	Consider further That when he speaks not like a citizen, You find him like a soldier. Do not take His rougher accents for malicious sounds, But, as I say, such as become a soldier Rather than envy you.
COMINIUS	Well, well, no more.
CORIOLANUS	What is the matter That, being passed for consul with full voice, I am so dishonoured that the very hour You take it off again?
SICINUS	Answer to us.
CORIOLANUS	Say, then. ’Tis true I ought so.
SICINIUS	We charge you that you have contrived to take From Rome all seasoned office, and to wind Yourself into a power tyrannical, For which you are a traitor to the people.
CORIOLANUS	How, traitor?
MENENIUS	Nay, temperatety—your promise.
CORIOLANUS	The fires i‘th’ lowest hell fold in the people! Call me their traitor, thou injurious tribune?
(didascalia)	Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths,
CORIOLANUS	In thy hands clutched as many millions, in Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say ‘Thou liest’ unto thee with a voice as free As I do pray the gods.
SICINIUS	Mark you this, people?
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS To th’ rock, to th’ rock with him!
SICINIUS	Peace! We need not put new matter to his charge. What you have seen him do and heard him speak, Beating your officers, cursing yourselves, Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying Those whose great power must try him— Even this, so criminal and in such capital kind, Deserves th’extremest death.
BRUTUS	But since he hath Served well for Rome—
CORIOLANUS	What do you prate of service?
BRUTUS	I talk of that that know it.
CORIOLANUS	You?
MENENIUS	Is this the promise that you made your mother?
COMINIUS	Know, I pray you—
CORIOLANUS	I’ll know no further. Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death, Vagabond exile, flaying, pent to linger But with a grain a day, I would not buy Their mercy at the price of one fair word, Nor check my courage for what they can give To have’t with saying ‘Good morrow’.
SICINIUS	For that he has, As much as in him lies, from time to time Inveighed against the people, seeking means To pluck away their power, as now at last Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers That doth distribute it, in the name o‘th’ people, And in the power of us the tribunes, we E’en from this instant banish him our city In peril of precipitation From off the rock Tarpeian, never more To enter our Rome gates. I’th’ people’s name I say it shall be so.
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS It shall be so,
SICINIUS	It shall be so. Let him away. He’s banished, And it shall be so.
COMINIUS	Hear me, my masters and my common friends.
SICINIUS	He’s sentenced. No more hearing.
COMINIUS	Let me speak. I have been consul, and can show for Rome Her enemies’ marks upon me. I do love My country’s good with a respect more tender, More holy and profound, than mine own life, My dear wife’s estimate, her womb’s increase, And treasure of my loins. Then if I would Speak that—
SICINIUS	We know your drift. Speak what?
BRUTUS	There’s no more to be said, but he is banished, As enemy to the people and his country. It shall be so.
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS It shall be so, it shall be so.
CORIOLANUS	You common cry of curs, whose breath I hate As reek o’th’ rotten fens, whose loves I prize As the dead carcasses of unburied men That do corrupt my air: I banish you. And here remain with your uncertainty. Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts; Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes, Fan you into despair! Have the power still To banish your defenders, till at length Your ignorance—which finds not till it feels— Making but reservation of yourselves, Still your own foes, deliver you As most abated captives to some nation That won you without blows! Despising For you the city, thus I turn my back. There is a world elsewhere.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Coriolanus, Cominius, and Menenius, with the rest of the Patricians. The Citizens all shout, and throw up their caps
AEDILE	The people’s enemy is gone, is gone.
ALL THE CITIZENS	Our enemy is banished, he is gone. Hoo-oo!
SICINIUS	Go see him out at gates, and follow him As he hath followed you, with all despite. Give him deserved vexation. Let a guard Attend us through the city.
ALL THE CITIZENS	Come, come, let’s see him out at gates. Come. The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Coriolanus e alcuni Nobili
CORIOLANUS	Che mi facciano crollare tutto intorno alle orecchie, mi offrano la morte sulla ruota o ai calcagni di cavalli selvaggi, o ammucchino dieci colli sulla rupe Tarpea, sì che il precipizio si stenda giù oltre il raggio della vista: pur sempre io sarò così verso di loro.
(didascalia)	Entra Volumnia
CORIOLANUS	UN PATRIZIO Fate la cosa più nobile.
CORIOLANUS	Mi stupisco che mia madre non mi approvi di più, lei che soleva chiamarli vassalli di lana, cose create per comprare e vendere con spiccioli, per mostrare teste nude nelle adunanze, per sbadigliare, tacere e stupirsi, quando uno del mio rango si alzava a parlare di pace o di guerra. (A Volumnia) Parlo di voi. Perché mi voleste più mite? Volevate ch’io fossi falso alla mia natura? Dite piuttosto ch’io recito l’uomo che sono.
VOLUMNIA	Oh, figlio, figlio, figlio, avrei voluto che indossassi bene il tuo potere prima di consumarlo.
CORIOLANUS	Lasciate andare.
VOLUMNIA	Saresti potuto essere abbastanza l’uomo che sei sforzandoti meno di esserlo. Minori sarebbero state le censure alle tue disposizioni se non avessi mostrato loro come eri disposto prima che mancasse loro il potere di contrariarti.
CORIOLANUS	Che li impicchino.
VOLUMNIA	Sì, e anche li brucino.
(didascalia)	Entra Menenius coi Senatori
MENENIUS	(a Coriolanus) Suvvia, suvvia, siete stato troppo ruvido, un po’ troppo ruvido. Dovete tornare e rimediarvi.
(didascalia)	PRIMO SENATORE
MENENIUS	Non c’è rimedio, se non facendo così la nostra buona città si spaccherà nel mezzo e perirà.
VOLUMNIA	(a Coriolanus) Ti prego, lasciati consigliare. Ho un cuore poco docile quanto il tuo, ma pure un cervello che guida il mio uso dell’ira a miglior vantaggio.
MENENIUS	Ben detto, nobile donna. Prima che egli dovesse così piegarsi al gregge, se non fosse che il violento accesso del tempo lo esige come medicina per l’intero stato, io mi metterei l’armatura, che a stento posso portare.
CORIOLANUS	Che devo fare?
MENENIUS	Tornare dai tribuni.
CORIOLANUS	Bene, e poi, e poi?
MENENIUS	Pentirvi di quel che avete detto.
CORIOLANUS	Per loro? Non posso farlo verso gli dèi. Devo dunque farlo verso di loro?
VOLUMNIA	Tu sei troppo assoluto, benché in ciò tu non possa mai essere troppo nobile, se non quando parlano gli estremi. Ti ho udito dire che l’onore e l’accortezza, come amici inseparabili, in guerra crescono insieme. Ammetti questo, e dimmi che cosa in pace ciascuno dei due perda per l’altro se là non si uniscono.
CORIOLANUS	Sciocchezze, sciocchezze!
MENENIUS	Buona domanda.
VOLUMNIA	Se è onore nelle tue guerre sembrare ciò che non sei, il che per i tuoi fini migliori adotti come tua accortezza, come è meno o peggio ch’esso tenga compagnia in pace all’onore, come in guerra, poiché a entrambi è richiesto allo stesso modo?
CORIOLANUS	Perché insistete su questo?
VOLUMNIA	Perché ora ti tocca parlare al popolo, non secondo il tuo proprio insegnamento, né secondo la materia che il tuo cuore ti suggerisce, ma con parole che siano solo mandate a memoria sulla tua lingua, benché soltanto bastarde e sillabe di nessun valore per la verità del tuo petto. Ora questo non ti disonora affatto più che prendere una città con parole gentili, la quale altrimenti ti metterebbe alla mercé della fortuna e al rischio di molto sangue. Io dissimulerei con la mia natura là dove le mie fortune e i miei amici in gioco esigessero ch’io lo facessi in onore. Io sono in questo tua moglie, tuo figlio, questi senatori, i nobili; e tu preferisci mostrare ai nostri villani in genere come sai aggrottare le ciglia, anziché spendere una carezza per loro per l’eredità del loro amore e la salvaguardia di ciò che la sua mancanza potrebbe rovinare.
MENENIUS	Nobile signora! (A Coriolanus) Venite, andate con noi, parlate cortese. Così potete sanare, non ciò che è pericoloso al presente, ma la perdita di ciò che è passato.
VOLUMNIA	Ti prego ora, figlio mio,
(didascalia)	Ella gli prende il berretto
VOLUMNIA	va’ da loro con questo berretto in mano, e, spintoti fin là—qui sii con loro— col ginocchio a baciare le pietre—ché in tali faccende l’azione è eloquenza, e gli occhi degli ignoranti più dotti degli orecchi—scuotendo il capo, spesso, così, correggendo il tuo cuore altero, ora umile come la mora più matura che non regge d’esser toccata; oppure di’ loro che sei il loro soldato e che, cresciuto fra i tumulti, non hai il modo soave che, lo confessi, a te converrebbe usare come a loro pretendere, nel chiedere il loro buon amore; ma che tu ti conformerai, in verità, d’ora innanzi ai loro voleri fin dove hai potere e persona.
MENENIUS	(a Coriolanus) Fatto questo soltanto proprio come ella dice, ebbene, i loro cuori sarebbero vostri; ché essi hanno perdoni, quando richiesti, liberi come parole di poco conto.
VOLUMNIA	(a Coriolanus) Ti prego ora, va’, e lasciati guidare, benché io sappia che preferiresti seguire il tuo nemico in un abisso di fuoco che adularlo in un pergolato.
(didascalia)	Entra Cominius
VOLUMNIA	Ecco Cominius.
COMINIUS	Sono stato nella piazza del mercato; e, signore, conviene che vi facciate un forte partito, o vi difendiate con la calma o con l’assenza. Tutto è in collera.
MENENIUS	Solo un bel discorso.
COMINIUS	Credo che basterà, se egli saprà piegarvi il suo spirito.
VOLUMNIA	Deve, e vorrà. Ti prego ora, di’ che vorrai, e mettiti all’opera.
CORIOLANUS	Devo andare a mostrar loro la mia zucca senza elmo? Devo con la mia vile lingua dare al mio nobile cuore una menzogna ch’esso dovrà sopportare? Bene, lo farò. Eppure, se non ci fosse da perdere che questa sola zolla, questo stampo di Marzio, lo macinerebbero in polvere e lo getterebbero contro il vento. Alla piazza del mercato. Mi avete ora affidato una parte che mai saprò sostenere fino in fondo.
COMINIUS	Venite, venite, vi suggeriremo noi.
VOLUMNIA	Ti prego ora, dolce figlio, come tu hai detto che le mie lodi ti fecero dapprima soldato, così, per avere la mia lode di questo, recita una parte che non hai mai recitato prima.
CORIOLANUS	Bene, devo farlo. Via, mia indole; e mi possieda lo spirito di qualche meretrice! La mia gola di guerra si muti, quella che faceva coro col mio tamburo, in uno zufolo sottile come un eunuco o la voce verginale che culla i bambini nel sonno! I sorrisi dei furfanti s’accampino sulle mie guance, e le lacrime degli scolari occupino le lenti della mia vista! La lingua d’un mendicante si muova fra le mie labbra, e le mie ginocchia armate, che s’inchinarono solo nella staffa, si pieghino come quelle di chi ha ricevuto l’elemosina! Non lo farò, per non cessare di onorare la mia stessa verità, e insegnare, con l’azione del mio corpo, alla mia mente una viltà del tutto connaturata.
VOLUMNIA	A tua scelta, dunque. Mendicare da te è più disonore mio di quanto sia il tuo mendicare da loro. Venga pure la rovina. Che tua madre senta piuttosto il tuo orgoglio che temere la tua pericolosa fierezza, ché io mi burlo della morte con cuore grande quanto il tuo. Fa’ come ti piace. Il tuo valore era mio, l’hai succhiato da me, ma il tuo orgoglio lo devi a te stesso.
CORIOLANUS	Vi prego, quietatevi. Madre, vado alla piazza del mercato. Non mi rimproverate più. Ciurmerò il loro amore, truffando i loro cuori, e tornerò a casa amato da tutte le arti di Roma. Guardate, vado. Salutatemi mia moglie. Tornerò console, o non fidatevi mai più di ciò che la mia lingua sa fare per via d’adulazione.
VOLUMNIA	Fa’ come vuoi.
(didascalia)	Esce Volumnia
COMINIUS	Via! I tribuni vi attendono. Armatevi per rispondere con mitezza, ché essi sono pronti con accuse, a quanto sento, più forti di quelle che finora vi gravano.
CORIOLANUS	La parola d’ordine è «con mitezza». Vi prego, andiamo. Che m’accusino d’invenzioni: io risponderò nel mio onore.
MENENIUS	Sì, ma con mitezza.
CORIOLANUS	Bene, sia dunque con mitezza—mitd)y.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Sicinius and Brutus
BRUTUS	In this point charge him home: that he affects Tyrannical power. If he evade us there, Enforce him with his envy to the people, And that the spoil got on the Antiats Was ne’er distributed.
(didascalia)	Enter an Aedile
BRUTUS	What, will he come?
AEDILE	He’s coming.
BRUTUS	How accompanied?
AEDILE	With old Menenius, and those senators That always favoured him.
SICINIUS	Have you a catalogue Of all the voices that we have procured, Set down by th’ poll?
AEDILE	I have, ’tis ready.
SICINIUS	Have you collected them by tribes?
AEDILE	I have.
SICINIUS	Assemble presently the people hither, And when they hear me say ‘It shall be so I’th’ right and strength o‘th’ commons’, be it either For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them, If I say ‘Fine’, cry ‘Fine!’, if ‘Death’, cry ‘Death!’, Insisting on the old prerogative And power i‘th’ truth o’th’ cause.
AEDILE	I shall inform them.
BRUTUS	And when such time they have begun to cry, Let them not cease, but with a din confused Enforce the present execution Of what we chance to sentence.
AEDILE	Very well.
SICINIUS	Make them be strong, and ready for this hint When we shall hap to give’t them.
(didascalia)	BRUTUS to the Aedile Go about it.
(didascalia)	Exit Aedile
SICINIUS	Put him to choler straight. He hath been used Ever to conquer and to have his worth Of contradiction. Being once chafed, he cannot Be reined again to temperance. Then he speaks What’s in his heart, and that is there which looks With us to break his neck.
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, and Cominius, with other Senators and Patricians
SICINIUS	Well, here he comes.
MENENIUS	(to Coriolanus) Calmly, I do beseech you.
CORIOLANUS	Ay, as an hostler that for th’ poorest piece Will bear the knave by th’ volume.—Th‘honoured gods Keep Rome in safety and the chairs of justice Supplied with worthy men, plant love among’s, Throng our large temples with the shows of peace, And not our streets with war!
FIRST SENATOR	Amen, amen.
MENENIUS	A noble wish.
(didascalia)	Enter the Aedile with the Citizens
SICINIUS	Draw near, ye people.
AEDILE	List to your tribunes. Audience! Peace, I say.
CORIOLANUS	First, hear me speak.
SICINIUS	and BRUTUS Well, say.—Peace ho!
CORIOLANUS	Shall I be charged no further than this present? Must all determine here?
SICINIUS	I do demand If you submit you to the people’s voices, Allow their officers, and are content To suffer lawful censure for such faults As shall be proved upon you.
CORIOLANUS	I am content.
MENENIUS	Lo, citizens, he says he is content. The warlike service he has done, consider. Think Upon the wounds his body bears, which show Like graves i’th’ holy churchyard.
CORIOLANUS	Scratches with briers, Scars to move laughter only.
MENENIUS	Consider further That when he speaks not like a citizen, You find him like a soldier. Do not take His rougher accents for malicious sounds, But, as I say, such as become a soldier Rather than envy you.
COMINIUS	Well, well, no more.
CORIOLANUS	What is the matter That, being passed for consul with full voice, I am so dishonoured that the very hour You take it off again?
SICINUS	Answer to us.
CORIOLANUS	Say, then. ’Tis true I ought so.
SICINIUS	We charge you that you have contrived to take From Rome all seasoned office, and to wind Yourself into a power tyrannical, For which you are a traitor to the people.
CORIOLANUS	How, traitor?
MENENIUS	Nay, temperatety—your promise.
CORIOLANUS	The fires i‘th’ lowest hell fold in the people! Call me their traitor, thou injurious tribune?
(didascalia)	Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths,
CORIOLANUS	In thy hands clutched as many millions, in Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say ‘Thou liest’ unto thee with a voice as free As I do pray the gods.
SICINIUS	Mark you this, people?
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS To th’ rock, to th’ rock with him!
SICINIUS	Peace! We need not put new matter to his charge. What you have seen him do and heard him speak, Beating your officers, cursing yourselves, Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying Those whose great power must try him— Even this, so criminal and in such capital kind, Deserves th’extremest death.
BRUTUS	But since he hath Served well for Rome—
CORIOLANUS	What do you prate of service?
BRUTUS	I talk of that that know it.
CORIOLANUS	You?
MENENIUS	Is this the promise that you made your mother?
COMINIUS	Know, I pray you—
CORIOLANUS	I’ll know no further. Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death, Vagabond exile, flaying, pent to linger But with a grain a day, I would not buy Their mercy at the price of one fair word, Nor check my courage for what they can give To have’t with saying ‘Good morrow’.
SICINIUS	For that he has, As much as in him lies, from time to time Inveighed against the people, seeking means To pluck away their power, as now at last Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers That doth distribute it, in the name o‘th’ people, And in the power of us the tribunes, we E’en from this instant banish him our city In peril of precipitation From off the rock Tarpeian, never more To enter our Rome gates. I’th’ people’s name I say it shall be so.
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS It shall be so,
SICINIUS	It shall be so. Let him away. He’s banished, And it shall be so.
COMINIUS	Hear me, my masters and my common friends.
SICINIUS	He’s sentenced. No more hearing.
COMINIUS	Let me speak. I have been consul, and can show for Rome Her enemies’ marks upon me. I do love My country’s good with a respect more tender, More holy and profound, than mine own life, My dear wife’s estimate, her womb’s increase, And treasure of my loins. Then if I would Speak that—
SICINIUS	We know your drift. Speak what?
BRUTUS	There’s no more to be said, but he is banished, As enemy to the people and his country. It shall be so.
(didascalia)	ALL THE CITIZENS It shall be so, it shall be so.
CORIOLANUS	You common cry of curs, whose breath I hate As reek o’th’ rotten fens, whose loves I prize As the dead carcasses of unburied men That do corrupt my air: I banish you. And here remain with your uncertainty. Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts; Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes, Fan you into despair! Have the power still To banish your defenders, till at length Your ignorance—which finds not till it feels— Making but reservation of yourselves, Still your own foes, deliver you As most abated captives to some nation That won you without blows! Despising For you the city, thus I turn my back. There is a world elsewhere.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Coriolanus, Cominius, and Menenius, with the rest of the Patricians. The Citizens all shout, and throw up their caps
AEDILE	The people’s enemy is gone, is gone.
ALL THE CITIZENS	Our enemy is banished, he is gone. Hoo-oo!
SICINIUS	Go see him out at gates, and follow him As he hath followed you, with all despite. Give him deserved vexation. Let a guard Attend us through the city.
ALL THE CITIZENS	Come, come, let’s see him out at gates. Come. The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Sicinius e Brutus
BRUTUS	Su questo punto incalzatelo a fondo: che egli aspira al potere tirannico. Se ci sfugge là, incalzatelo con la sua invidia verso il popolo, e col fatto che il bottino preso agli Anziati non fu mai distribuito.
(didascalia)	Entra un Edile
BRUTUS	Ebbene, verrà?
EDILE	Sta venendo.
BRUTUS	Con che seguito?
EDILE	Col vecchio Menenius, e con quei senatori che sempre lo favorirono.
SICINIUS	Avete un catalogo di tutte le voci che abbiamo procurato, registrate a testa?
EDILE	Ce l’ho, è pronto.
SICINIUS	Le avete raccolte per tribù?
EDILE	Sì.
SICINIUS	Radunate subito qui il popolo, e quando mi sentiranno dire «Così sarà per diritto e forza del popolo», sia esso per la morte, per la multa o per il bando, allora essi, se io dico «Multa», gridino «Multa!», se «Morte», gridino «Morte!», insistendo sull’antica prerogativa e sul potere nella verità della causa.
EDILE	Li istruirò.
BRUTUS	E quando avranno cominciato a gridare in tal momento, non cessino, ma con un frastuono confuso impongano l’immediata esecuzione di ciò che ci accada di sentenziare.
EDILE	Molto bene.
SICINIUS	Fate che siano risoluti e pronti a questo cenno quando ci accada di darlo loro.
(didascalia)	BRUTUS all’Edile Mettiti all’opera.
(didascalia)	Esce l’Edile
SICINIUS	Mettetelo subito in collera. È stato avvezzo sempre a vincere e ad avere la meglio nella contraddizione. Una volta irritato, non può essere ricondotto alla temperanza. Allora dice ciò che ha in cuore, ed è là che sta ciò che con noi mira a spezzargli il collo.
(didascalia)	Entrano Coriolanus, Menenius e Cominius, con altri Senatori e Patrizi
SICINIUS	Bene, eccolo che viene.
MENENIUS	(a Coriolanus) Con calma, ve ne supplico.
CORIOLANUS	Sì, come uno stalliere che per la più misera moneta si lascia dar del furfante a volumi.—Gli onorati dèi tengano Roma al sicuro e i seggi della giustizia forniti d’uomini degni, piantino l’amore fra noi, affollino i nostri ampi templi con gli spettacoli della pace, e non le nostre strade con la guerra!
PRIMO SENATORE	Amen, amen.
MENENIUS	Nobile augurio.
(didascalia)	Entra l’Edile coi Cittadini
SICINIUS	Fatevi presso, o popolo.
EDILE	Ascoltate i vostri tribuni. Udienza! Silenzio, dico.
CORIOLANUS	Prima, ascoltatemi parlare.
SICINIUS	e BRUTUS Bene, parlate.—Silenzio, olà!
CORIOLANUS	Sarò accusato di nulla più di questo presente? Tutto si deve decidere qui?
SICINIUS	Io domando se vi sottomettete alle voci del popolo, se riconoscete i suoi ufficiali, e siete contento di subire legittima censura per quelle colpe che vi saranno provate.
CORIOLANUS	Sono contento.
MENENIUS	Ecco, cittadini, dice che è contento. Il servizio guerriero che ha reso, considerate. Pensate alle ferite che porta il suo corpo, le quali paiono tombe nel sacro camposanto.
CORIOLANUS	Graffi di rovi, cicatrici buone solo a far ridere.
MENENIUS	Considerate inoltre che quando egli non parla da cittadino, lo trovate simile a un soldato. Non prendete i suoi accenti più ruvidi per suoni maligni, ma, come dico, per quali si addicono a un soldato più che per malevolenza verso di voi.
COMINIUS	Bene, bene, basta così.
CORIOLANUS	Che cos’è questa faccenda, che, essendo stato approvato console a piena voce, io sia così disonorato che nell’ora stessa me lo togliete di nuovo?
SICINUS	Rispondeteci.
CORIOLANUS	Dite, dunque. È vero, così devo fare.
SICINIUS	Vi accusiamo d’aver macchinato di togliere a Roma ogni carica consolidata, e di avvolgervi in un potere tirannico, per il che siete un traditore del popolo.
CORIOLANUS	Come, traditore?
MENENIUS	No, con temperanza—la vostra promessa.
CORIOLANUS	I fuochi dell’inferno più basso avvolgano il popolo! Chiamare me loro traditore, tu, tribuno ingiurioso?
(didascalia)	Se nei tuoi occhi sedessero ventimila morti,
CORIOLANUS	e nelle tue mani ne fossero strette altrettanti milioni, e nella tua lingua bugiarda entrambe le cifre, io direi «Tu menti» in faccia a te con voce libera come quando prego gli dèi.
SICINIUS	Notate questo, o popolo?
(didascalia)	TUTTI I CITTADINI Alla rupe, alla rupe con lui!
SICINIUS	Silenzio! Non occorre aggiungere nuova materia alla sua accusa. Ciò che l’avete visto fare e udito dire, percuotere i vostri ufficiali, maledire voi stessi, opporsi alle leggi a colpi, e qui sfidare coloro il cui gran potere deve giudicarlo— proprio questo, così criminoso e di specie tanto capitale, merita l’estrema morte.
BRUTUS	Ma poiché ha ben servito Roma—
CORIOLANUS	Che cianci tu di servizio?
BRUTUS	Parlo di ciò che conosco.
CORIOLANUS	Tu?
MENENIUS	È questa la promessa che faceste a vostra madre?
COMINIUS	Sappiate, vi prego—
CORIOLANUS	Non voglio sapere altro. Che pronuncino la ripida morte Tarpea, l’esilio vagabondo, lo scorticamento, la reclusione a languire con un solo chicco al giorno: io non comprerei la loro misericordia al prezzo d’una sola buona parola, né freneri il mio coraggio per quanto essi possano dare pur di ottenerlo dicendo «Buon giorno».
SICINIUS	Poiché egli ha, per quanto sta in lui, di tempo in tempo inveito contro il popolo, cercando modo di strappargli il potere, e ora da ultimo ha dato colpi ostili, e questo non alla presenza della temuta giustizia, ma contro i ministri che la distribuiscono, in nome del popolo, e nel potere di noi tribuni, noi fin da questo istante lo bandiamo dalla nostra città, a pena di essere precipitato giù dalla rupe Tarpea, per non entrare mai più dalle porte della nostra Roma. In nome del popolo io dico che così sarà.
(didascalia)	TUTTI I CITTADINI Così sarà,
SICINIUS	Così sarà. Sia condotto via. È bandito, e così sarà.
COMINIUS	Ascoltatemi, miei padroni e miei comuni amici.
SICINIUS	È sentenziato. Basta con l’udienza.
COMINIUS	Lasciatemi parlare. Sono stato console, e posso mostrare per Roma i segni dei suoi nemici su di me. Io amo il bene del mio paese con un rispetto più tenero, più santo e profondo, che la mia stessa vita, che la stima della mia cara moglie, che il frutto del suo grembo, e il tesoro dei miei lombi. Se dunque volessi dire questo—
SICINIUS	Sappiamo dove mirate. Dire che cosa?
BRUTUS	Non c’è altro da dire, se non che è bandito, come nemico del popolo e del suo paese. Così sarà.
(didascalia)	TUTTI I CITTADINI Così sarà, così sarà.
CORIOLANUS	Voi, comune muta di cani, il cui fiato odio come il tanfo delle paludi marce, il cui amore stimo quanto le carcasse morte d’uomini insepolti che corrompono la mia aria: io bando voi. E restate qui con la vostra incertezza. Che ogni fiacca diceria vi scuota il cuore; i vostri nemici, con un cenno dei loro pennacchi, vi soffino nella disperazione! Abbiate pure il potere di bandire i vostri difensori, finché alla fine la vostra ignoranza—che non s’avvede se non quando sente— non serbando riserva se non di voi stessi, nemici sempre di voi medesimi, vi consegni come schiavi del tutto abbattuti a qualche nazione che v’avrà vinti senza colpi! Disprezzando per voi la città, così volgo le spalle. C’è un mondo altrove.
(didascalia)	Escono Coriolanus, Cominius e Menenius, col resto dei Patrizi. I Cittadini gridano tutti e gettano in aria i berretti
EDILE	Il nemico del popolo se n’è andato, se n’è andato.
TUTTI I CITTADINI	Il nostro nemico è bandito, se n’è andato. Uh-uh!
SICINIUS	Andate a vederlo uscire dalle porte, e seguitelo come egli ha seguito voi, con ogni dispetto. Dategli la meritata molestia. Una guardia ci accompagni per la città.
TUTTI I CITTADINI	Venite, venite, andiamo a vederlo uscire dalle porte. Venite. Gli dèi ci conservino i nostri nobili tribuni! Venite. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus, Volumnia, Virgilia, Menenius, and Cominius, with the young nobility of Rome
CORIOLANUS	Come, leave your tears. A brief farewell. The beast With many heads butts me away. Nay, mother, Where is your ancient courage? You were used To say extremities was the trier of spirits, That common chances common men could bear, That when the sea was calm all boats alike Showed mastership in floating; fortune’s blows When most struck home, being gentle wounded craves A noble cunning. You were used to load me With precepts that would make invincible The heart that conned them.
VIRGILIA	O heavens, O heavens!
CORIOLANUS	Nay, I prithee, woman—
VOLUMNIA	Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome, And occupations perish!
CORIOLANUS	What, what, what? I shall be loved when I am lacked. Nay, mother, Resume that spirit when you were wont to say, If you had been the wife of Hercules Six of his labours you’d have done, and saved Your husband so much sweat. Cominius, Droop not. Adieu. Farewell, my wife, my mother. I’ll do well yet. Thou old and true Menenius, Thy tears are salter than a younger man‘s, And venomous to thine eyes. My sometime general, I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld Heart-hard’ning spectacles. Tell these sad women ‘Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes As ’tis to laugh at ’em. My mother, you wot well My hazards still have been your solace, and— Believe’t not lightly—though I go alone, Like to a lonely dragon that his fen Makes feared and talked of more than seen, your son Will or exceed the common or be caught With cautelous baits and practice.
VOLUMNIA	My first son, Whither will thou go? Take good Cominius With thee a while. Determine on some course More than a wild exposure to each chance That starts i’th’ way before thee.
(didascalia)	VIRGILIA O the gods!
COMINIUS	I’ll follow thee a month, devise with thee Where thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of us And we of thee. So, if the time thrust forth A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send O‘er the vast world to seek a single man, And lose advantage, which doth ever cool I’th’ absence of the needer.
CORIOLANUS	Fare ye well. Thou hast years upon thee, and thou art too full Of the wars’ surfeits to go rove with one That’s yet unbruised. Bring me but out at gate. Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and My friends of noble touch. When I am forth, Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you come. While I remain above the ground you shall Hear from me still, and never of me aught But what is like me formerly.
MENENIUS	That’s worthily As any ear can hear. Come, let’s not weep. If I could shake off but one seven years From these old arms and legs, by the good gods, I’d with thee every foot.
CORIOLANUS	Give me thy hand. Come.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Coriolanus, Volumnia, Virgilia, Menenius e Cominius, con la giovane nobiltà di Roma
CORIOLANUS	Suvvia, lasciate le vostre lacrime. Un breve addio. La bestia dalle molte teste mi caccia a cornate. No, madre, dov’è il vostro antico coraggio? Solevate dire che gli estremi erano il paragone degli spiriti, che i casi comuni gli uomini comuni li possono reggere, che quando il mare era calmo tutte le barche ugualmente mostravano maestria nel galleggiare; che i colpi della fortuna, quando più colpiscono a fondo, se il ferito è gentile esigono una nobile accortezza. Solevate caricarmi di precetti che avrebbero reso invincibile il cuore che li imparasse.
VIRGILIA	O cieli, o cieli!
CORIOLANUS	No, ti prego, donna—
VOLUMNIA	Ora la rossa pestilenza colpisca tutte le arti di Roma, e periscano i mestieri!
CORIOLANUS	Che, che, che? Sarò amato quando mancherò. No, madre, riprendete quello spirito di quando solevate dire che, se foste stata la moglie d’Ercole, sei delle sue fatiche le avreste compiute voi, e risparmiato a vostro marito tanto sudore. Cominius, non abbatterti. Addio. Addio, moglie mia, madre mia. Me la caverò bene ancora. Tu, vecchio e fedele Menenius, le tue lacrime sono più salate di quelle d’un giovane, e velenose ai tuoi occhi. Mio generale d’un tempo, ti ho visto severo, e tu hai spesso contemplato spettacoli che induriscono il cuore. Di’ a queste tristi donne che è sciocco piangere i colpi inevitabili quanto lo è riderne. Madre mia, sapete bene che i miei rischi furono sempre il vostro conforto, e— non lo crediate alla leggera—benché io vada solo, simile a un drago solitario che rende la sua palude temuta e discussa più di quanto sia veduta, vostro figlio o supererà il comune, o sarà preso con esche insidiose e artifizi.
VOLUMNIA	Figlio mio primogenito, dove andrai? Prendi con te per un poco il buon Cominius. Stabilisci una qualche rotta, più che un selvaggio esporti a ogni caso che ti balzi innanzi per via.
(didascalia)	VIRGILIA O dèi!
COMINIUS	Ti seguirò per un mese, stabilirò con te dove riposerai, sì che tu possa aver nostre notizie e noi le tue. Così, se il tempo farà sorgere un motivo per il tuo richiamo, non manderemo per il vasto mondo a cercare un uomo solo, perdendo il vantaggio, che sempre si raffredda in assenza di chi ne ha bisogno.
CORIOLANUS	State bene. Hai gli anni addosso, e sei troppo pieno delle sazietà delle guerre per andare errando con uno che è ancora illeso. Accompagnatemi solo fuori dalla porta. Venite, mia dolce moglie, mia carissima madre, e voi, amici miei di nobile lega. Quando sarò fuori, datemi l’addio, e sorridete. Vi prego, venite. Finché resterò sopra la terra voi avrete sempre mie notizie, e mai di me alcunché se non ciò che mi somiglia come prima.
MENENIUS	Questo è degno quanto orecchio possa udire. Venite, non piangiamo. Se potessi scrollarmi via solo sette anni da queste vecchie braccia e gambe, per i buoni dèi, verrei con te passo per passo.
CORIOLANUS	Dammi la mano. Venite.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter the two tribunes, Sicinius and Brutus, with the Aedile
SICINIUS	(to the Aedile) Bid them all home. He’s gone, and we’ll no further. The nobility are vexed, whom we see have sided In his behalf.
BRUTUS	Now we have shown our power, Let us seem humbler after it is done Than when it was a-doing.
SICINIUS	(to the Aedile) Bid them home. Say their great enemy is gone, and they Stand in their ancient strength.
BRUTUS	Dismiss them home.
(didascalia)	Exit Aedile
(didascalia)	Enter Volumnia, Virgilia, weeping, and Menenius
BRUTUS	Here comes his mother.
SICINIUS	Let’s not meet her.
BRUTUS	Why?
SICINIUS	They say she’s mad.
BRUTUS	They have ta’en note of us. Keep on your way.
VOLUMNIA	O, you’re well met! Th‘hoarded plague o’th’ gods Requite your love!
MENENIUS	Peace, peace, be not so loud.
VOLUMNIA	(to the tribunes) If that I could for weeping, you should hear— Nay, and you shall hear some. Will you be gone?
VIRGILIA	(to the tribunes) You shall stay, too. I would I had the power To say so to my husband.
SICINIUS	(to Volumnia) Are you mankind?
VOLUMNIA	Ay, fool. Is that a shame? Note but this, fool: Was not a man my father? Hadst thou foxship To banish him that struck more blows for Rome Than thou hast spoken words?
SICINIUS	O blessed heavens!
VOLUMNIA	More noble blows than ever thou wise words, And for Rome’s good. I’ll tell thee what—yet go. Nay, but thou shalt stay too. I would my son Were in Arabia, and thy tribe before him, His good sword in his hand.
SICINIUS	What then?
VIRGILIA	What then? He’d make an end of thy posterity.
VOLUMNIA	Bastards and all. Good man, the wounds that he does bear for Romeǃ MENENIUS Come, come, peace.
SICINIUS	I would he had continued to his country As he began, and not unknit himself The noble knot he made.
BRUTUS	I would he had.
VOLUMNIA	‘I would he had’! ’Twas you incensed the rabble— Cats that can judge as fitly of his worth As I can of those mysteries which heaven Will not have earth to know.
BRUTUS	(to Sicinius) Pray, let’s go.
VOLUMNIA	Now pray, sir, get you gone. You have done a brave deed. Ere you go, hear this: As far as doth the Capitol exceed The meanest house in Rome, so far my son— This lady’s husband here, this, do you see?— Whom you have banished does exceed you all.
BRUTUS	Well, well, we’ll leave you.
SICINIUS	Why stay we to be baited With one that wants her wits?
(didascalia)	Exeunt tribunes
VOLUMNIA	Take my prayers with you. I would the gods had nothing else to do But to confirm my curses. Could I meet ’em But once a day, it would unclog my heart Of what lies heavy to’t.
MENENIUS	You have told them home And, by my troth, you have cause. You’ll sup with me?
VOLUMNIA	Anger’s my meat, I sup upon myself, And so shall starve with feeding. (To Virgilia) Come, let’s go. Leave this faint puling and lament as I do, In anger, Juno-like. Come, come, come.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Volumnia and Virgilia
MENENIUS	Fie, fie, fie.
(didascalia)	Exit

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano i due tribuni, Sicinius e Brutus, con l’Edile
SICINIUS	(all’Edile) Mandali tutti a casa. Se n’è andato, e non andremo oltre. La nobiltà è irritata, e l’abbiamo vista schierarsi in suo favore.
BRUTUS	Ora che abbiamo mostrato il nostro potere, mostriamoci più umili dopo che è fatto di quanto fossimo mentre si faceva.
SICINIUS	(all’Edile) Mandali a casa. Di’ che il loro grande nemico se n’è andato, e che essi stanno nella loro antica forza.
BRUTUS	Congedali a casa.
(didascalia)	Esce l’Edile
(didascalia)	Entrano Volumnia, Virgilia in lacrime, e Menenius
BRUTUS	Ecco che viene sua madre.
SICINIUS	Non incontriamola.
BRUTUS	Perché?
SICINIUS	Dicono che è pazza.
BRUTUS	Ci hanno notati. Proseguite per la vostra via.
VOLUMNIA	Oh, ben trovati! La peste accumulata degli dèi ricompensi il vostro amore!
MENENIUS	Calma, calma, non così forte.
VOLUMNIA	(ai tribuni) Se le lacrime me lo permettessero, ne udreste— anzi, e qualcosa udrete. Volete andarvene?
VIRGILIA	(ai tribuni) Anche voi resterete. Vorrei avere il potere di dirlo a mio marito.
SICINIUS	(a Volumnia) Siete forse un uomo?
VOLUMNIA	Sì, sciocco. È forse una vergogna? Nota solo questo, sciocco: non era un uomo mio padre? Hai avuto astuzia di volpe da bandire colui che vibrò più colpi per Roma di quante parole tu abbia pronunciato?
SICINIUS	O cieli benedetti!
VOLUMNIA	Colpi più nobili di quanto tu mai parole sagge, e per il bene di Roma. Ti dirò una cosa—va’ pure. No, anzi resterai anche tu. Vorrei che mio figlio fosse in Arabia, e la tua tribù davanti a lui, con la sua buona spada in mano.
SICINIUS	E allora?
VIRGILIA	E allora? Farebbe finita con la tua posterità.
VOLUMNIA	Bastardi compresi. Buon uomo, le ferite che egli porta per Romaǃ MENENIUS Suvvia, suvvia, calma.
SICINIUS	Vorrei che avesse continuato verso il suo paese come aveva cominciato, e non avesse sciolto da sé il nobile nodo che aveva stretto.
BRUTUS	Lo vorrei anch’io.
VOLUMNIA	«Lo vorrei anch’io»! Siete stati voi ad aizzare la marmaglia— gatti che sanno giudicare del suo valore quanto io di quei misteri che il cielo non vuole che la terra conosca.
BRUTUS	(a Sicinius) Ti prego, andiamo.
VOLUMNIA	Ora vi prego, signore, andatevene. Avete compiuto una bella impresa. Prima d’andare, udite questo: quanto il Campidoglio supera la più misera casa di Roma, tanto mio figlio— il marito di questa signora qui, questo, lo vedete?— che voi avete bandito, supera tutti voi.
BRUTUS	Bene, bene, vi lasciamo.
SICINIUS	Perché restiamo a farci aizzare da una che è fuori di senno?
(didascalia)	Escono i tribuni
VOLUMNIA	Portatevi dietro le mie preghiere. Vorrei che gli dèi non avessero altro da fare che confermare le mie maledizioni. Se potessi incontrarli anche una volta al giorno, mi sgombrerebbe il cuore di ciò che gli pesa.
MENENIUS	Gliene avete dette di sante ragioni e, in fede mia, ne avete motivo. Cenerete con me?
VOLUMNIA	La collera è il mio cibo, io ceno di me stessa, e così morirò di fame nutrendomi. (A Virgilia) Vieni, andiamo. Lascia questo fiacco piagnucolare e lamentati come me, in collera, alla maniera di Giunone. Vieni, vieni, vieni.
(didascalia)	Escono Volumnia e Virgilia
MENENIUS	Vergogna, vergogna, vergogna.
(didascalia)	Esce

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Nicanor, a Roman, and Adrian, a Volscian
NICANOR	I know you well, sir, and you know me. Your name, I think, is Adrian.
ADRIAN	It is so, sir. Truly, I have forgot you.
NICANOR	I am a Roman, and my services are, as you are, against ’em. Know you me yet?
ADRIAN	Nicanor, no?
NICANOR	The same, sir.
ADRIAN	You had more beard when I last saw you, but your favour is well approved by your tongue. What’s the news in Rome? I have a note from the Volscian state to find you out there. You have well saved me a day’s journey.
NICANOR	There hath been in Rome strange insurrections, the people against the senators, patricians, and nobles.
ADRIAN	Hath been?—is it ended then? Our state thinks not so. They are in a most warlike preparation, and hope to come upon them in the heat of their division.
NICANOR	The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing would make it flame again, for the nobles receive so to heart the banishment of that worthy Coriolanus that they are in a ripe aptness to take all power from the people, and to pluck from them their tribunes for ever. This lies glowing, I can tell you, and is almost mature for the violent breaking out.
ADRIAN	Coriolanus banished?
NICANOR	Banished, sir.
ADRIAN	You will be welcome with this intelligence, Nicanor.
NICANOR	The day serves well for them now. I have heard it said the fittest time to corrupt a man’s wife is when she’s fallen out with her husband. Your noble Tullus Aufidius will appear well in these wars, his great opposer Coriolanus being now in no request of his country.
ADRIAN	He cannot choose. I am most fortunate thus accidentally to encounter you. You have ended my business, and I will merrily accompany you home.
NICANOR	I shall between this and supper tell you most strange things from Rome, all tending to the good of their adversaries. Have you an army ready, say you?
ADRIAN	A most royal one—the centurions and their charges distinctly billeted already in th’entertainment, and to be on foot at an hour’s warning.
NICANOR	I am joyful to hear of their readiness, and am the man, I think, that shall set them in present action. So, sir, heartily well met, and most glad of your company.
ADRIAN	You take my part from me, sir. I have the most cause to be glad of yours.
NICANOR	Well, let us go together. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Nicanore, un Romano, e Adriano, un Volsco
NICANORE	Vi conosco bene, signore, e voi conoscete me. Il vostro nome, credo, è Adriano.
ADRIANO	È così, signore. In verità, vi ho dimenticato.
NICANORE	Sono un Romano, e i miei servigi sono, come i vostri, contro di loro. Mi riconoscete ora?
ADRIANO	Nicanore, non è vero?
NICANORE	Proprio lui, signore.
ADRIANO	Avevate più barba l’ultima volta che vi vidi, ma il vostro volto è ben confermato dalla vostra lingua. Che notizie ci sono a Roma? Ho un ordine dallo stato volsco di cercarvi laggiù. Mi avete bene risparmiato un giorno di cammino.
NICANORE	Ci sono state a Roma strane insurrezioni, il popolo contro i senatori, i patrizi e i nobili.
ADRIANO	Ci sono state?—è dunque finita? Il nostro stato non la pensa così. Sono in un preparativo assai guerresco, e sperano di piombare su di loro nel calore della loro discordia.
NICANORE	La vampa principale è passata, ma poca cosa basterebbe a farla divampare di nuovo, ché i nobili prendono tanto a cuore il bando di quel degno Coriolanus che sono in matura disposizione a togliere ogni potere al popolo, e a strappar loro i tribuni per sempre. Questo cova sotto la cenere, ve lo posso dire, ed è quasi maturo per lo scoppio violento.
ADRIANO	Coriolanus bandito?
NICANORE	Bandito, signore.
ADRIANO	Sarete il benvenuto con questa informazione, Nicanore.
NICANORE	Il giorno serve bene per loro adesso. Ho sentito dire che il momento più adatto per corrompere la moglie d’un uomo è quando ha litigato col marito. Il vostro nobile Tullo Aufidius farà bella figura in queste guerre, ora che il suo grande avversario Coriolanus non è più richiesto dal suo paese.
ADRIANO	Non può essere altrimenti. Sono fortunatissimo d’avervi incontrato così per caso. Avete concluso la mia faccenda, e vi accompagnerò allegramente a casa.
NICANORE	Di qui alla cena vi racconterò cose stranissime da Roma, tutte volgenti al bene dei loro avversari. Avete un esercito pronto, dite?
ADRIANO	Uno davvero regale—i centurioni e i loro reparti già distintamente alloggiati a soldo, e pronti a muovere con un’ora di preavviso.
NICANORE	Sono lieto di sentire della loro prontezza, e sono l’uomo, credo, che li metterà subito in azione. Così, signore, di cuore ben trovato, e assai contento della vostra compagnia.
ADRIANO	Mi togliete la mia parte, signore. Sono io ad avere più motivo d’essere contento della vostra.
NICANORE	Bene, andiamo insieme. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus in mean apparel, disguised and muffled
CORIOLANUS	A goodly city is this Antium. City, ’Tis I that made thy widows. Many an heir Of these fair edifices fore my wars Have I heard groan and drop. Then know me not, Lest that thy wives with spits and boys with stones In puny battle slay me.
(didascalia)	Enter a Citizen
CORIOLANUS	Save you, sir.
CITIZEN	And you.
CORIOLANUS	Direct me, if it be your will, Where great Aufidius lies. Is he in Antium?
CITIZEN	He is, and feasts the nobles of the state At his house this night.
CORIOLANUS	Which is his house, beseech you?
CITIZEN	This here before you.
CORIOLANUS	Thank you, sir. Farewell.
(didascalia)	Exit Citizen
CORIOLANUS	O world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn, Whose double bosoms seem to wear one heart, Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal and exercise Are still together, who twin as ’twere in love Unseparable, shall within this hour, On a dissension of a doit, break out To bitterest enmity. So fellest foes, Whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleep To take the one the other, by some chance, Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends And interjoin their issues. So with me. My birthplace hate I, and my love’s upon This enemy town. I’ll enter. If he slay me, He does fair justice; if he give me way, I’ll do his country service.
(didascalia)	Exit

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra Coriolanus in veste dimessa, travestito e imbacuccato
CORIOLANUS	Bella città è questa Anzio. Città, sono io che ho fatto le tue vedove. Più d’un erede di questi begli edifici, davanti alle mie guerre, l’ho udito gemere e cadere. Non riconoscermi, dunque, ché le tue donne con gli spiedi e i ragazzi con le pietre non mi uccidano in meschina battaglia.
(didascalia)	Entra un Cittadino
CORIOLANUS	Dio vi salvi, signore.
CITTADINO	E voi.
CORIOLANUS	Indicatemi, se vi piace, dove alloggia il grande Aufidius. È in Anzio?
CITTADINO	C’è, e banchetta coi nobili dello stato alla sua casa questa notte.
CORIOLANUS	Qual è la sua casa, vi prego?
CITTADINO	Questa qui davanti a voi.
CORIOLANUS	Grazie, signore. Addio.
(didascalia)	Esce il Cittadino
CORIOLANUS	O mondo, che sdrucciolevoli giravolte! Amici ora saldamente giurati, i cui doppi petti sembrano portare un solo cuore, le cui ore, il cui letto, il cui pasto ed esercizio stanno sempre insieme, che si gemellano come fosse per amore inseparabili, entro quest’ora, per un dissidio da un soldo, prorompono nella più amara inimicizia. Così i più feroci nemici, le cui passioni e le cui trame hanno spezzato il loro sonno per sopraffarsi l’un l’altro, per qualche caso, qualche inezia che non vale un uovo, diventano cari amici e uniscono le loro discendenze. Così è di me. Odio il mio luogo natale, e il mio amore è per questa città nemica. Entrerò. Se mi uccide, fa giusta giustizia; se mi dà via libera, renderò servigio al suo paese.
(didascalia)	Esce

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Music plays. Enter a Servingman
FIRST SERVINGMAN	Wine, wine, wine! What service is here? I think our fellows are asleep.
(didascalia)	Exit
(didascalia)	Enter a Second Servingman
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Where’s Cotus? My master calls for him. Cotus!
(didascalia)	Exit
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus, as before
CORIOLANUS	A goodly house. The feast Smells well, but I appear not like a guest.
(didascalia)	Enter the First Servingman
FIRST SERVINGMAN	What would you have, friend? Whence are you? Here’s no place for you. Pray go to the door.
(didascalia)	Exit
CORIOLANUS	I have deserved no better entertainment In being Coriolanus.
(didascalia)	Enter Second Servingman
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Whence are you, sir? Has the porter his eyes in his head, that he gives entrance to such companions? Pray get you out.
CORIOLANUS	Away!
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Away? Get you away.
CORIOLANUS	Now thou’rt troublesome.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Are you so brave? I’ll have you talked with anon.
(didascalia)	Enter Third Servingman. The First meets him
THIRD SERVINGMAN	What fellow’s this?
FIRST SERVINGMAN	A strange one as ever I looked on. I cannot get him out o’th’ house. Prithee, call my master to him.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	(to Coriolanus) What have you to do here, fellow? Pray you, avoid the house.
CORIOLANUS	Let me but stand. I will not hurt your hearth.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	What are you?
CORIOLANUS	A gentleman.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	A marvellous poor one.
CORIOLANUS	True, so I am.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other station. Here’s no place for you. Pray you, avoid. Come.
CORIOLANUS	Follow your function. Go and batten on cold bits. He pushes him away from him
THIRD SERVINGMAN	What, you will not?—Prithee tell my master what a strange guest he has here.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	And I shall.
(didascalia)	Exit Second Servingman
THIRD SERVINGMAN	Where dwell’st thou?
CORIOLANUS	Under the canopy.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	Under the canopy?
CORIOLANUS	Ay.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	Where’s that?
CORIOLANUS	I’th’ city of kites and crows.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	I‘th’ city of kites and crows? What an ass it is! Then thou dwell’st with daws, too?
CORIOLANUS	No, I serve not thy master.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	How, sir? Do you meddle with my master?
CORIOLANUS	Ay, ‘tis an honester service than to meddle with thy mistress. Thou prat’st and prat’st. Serve with thy trencher. Hence! He beats him away.
(didascalia)	Enter Aufidius, with the Second Servingman
AUFIDIUS	Where is this fellow?
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Here, sir. I’d have beaten him like a dog but for disturbing the lords within.
(didascalia)	The Servingmen stand aside
AUFIDIUS	Whence com‘st thou? What wouldst thou? Thy name? Why speak’st not? Speak, man. What’s thy name?
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS unmuffling his head
AUFIDIUS	If, Tullus, Not yet thou know’st me, and seeing me dost not Think me for the man I am, necessity Commands me name myself.
AUFIDIUS	What is thy name?
CORIOLANUS	A name unmusical to the Volscians’ ears And harsh in sound to thine.
AUFIDIUS	Say, what’s thy name? Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face Bears a command in’t. Though thy tackle’s torn, Thou show’st a noble vessel. What’s thy name?
CORIOLANUS	Prepare thy brow to frown. Know’st thou me yet?
AUFIDIUS	I know thee not. Thy name?
CORIOLANUS	My name is Caius Martius, who hath done To thee particularly, and to all the Volsces, Great hurt and mischief. Thereto witness may My surname Coriolanus. The painful service, The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood Shed for my thankless country, are requited But with that surname—a good memory And witness of the malice and displeasure Which thou shouldst bear me. Only that name remains. The cruelty and envy of the people, Permitted by our dastard nobles, who Have all forsook me, hath devoured the rest, And suffered me by th’ voice of slaves to be Whooped out of Rome. Now this extremity Hath brought me to thy hearth. Not out of hope— Mistake me not—to save my life, for if I had feared death, of all the men i‘th’ world I would have ’voided thee, but in mere spite To be full quit of those my banishers Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast A heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revenge Thine own particular wrongs and stop those maims Of shame seen through thy country, speed thee straight, And make my misery serve thy turn. So use it That my revengeful services may prove As benefits to thee; for I will fight Against my cankered country with the spleen Of all the under-fiends. But if so be Thou dar‘st not this, and that to prove more fortunes Thou’rt tired, then, in a word, I also am Longer to live most weary, and present My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice, Which not to cut would show thee but a fool, Since I have ever followed thee with hate, Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country’s breast, And cannot live but to thy shame unless It be to do thee service.
AUFIDIUS	O Martius, Martius! Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter Should from yon cloud speak divine things And say “Tis true’, I’d not believe them more Than thee, all-noble Martius. Let me twine Mine arms about that body whereagainst My grained ash an hundred times hath broke, And scarred the moon with splinters. (He embraces Coriolanus) Here I clip The anvil of my sword, and do contest As hotly and as nobly with thy love As ever in ambitious strength I did Contend against thy valour. Know thou first, I loved the maid I married; never man Sighed truer breath. But that I see thee here, Thou noble thing, more dances my rapt heart Than when I first my wedded mistress saw Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars, I tell thee We have a power on foot, and I had purpose Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn, Or lose mine arm for’t. Thou hast beat me out Twelve several times, and I have nightly since Dreamt of encounters ‘twixt thyself and me— We have been down together in my sleep, Unbuckling helms, fisting each other’s throat— And waked half dead with nothing. Worthy Martius, Had we no other quarrel else to Rome but that Thou art thence banished, we would muster all From twelve to seventy, and, pouring war Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome, Like a bold flood o’erbear’t. O, come, go in, And take our friendly senators by th’ hands Who now are here taking their leaves of me, Who am prepared against your territories, Though not for Rome itself.
CORIOLANUS	You bless me, gods.
AUFIDIUS	Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have The leading of thine own revenges, take Th‘one half of my commission and set down— As best thou art experienced, since thou know’st Thy country’s strength and weakness—thine own ways: Whether to knock against the gates of Rome, Or rudely visit them in parts remote To fright them ere destroy. But come in. Let me commend thee first to those that shall Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes! And more a friend than ere an enemy; Yet, Martius, that was much. Your hand. Most welcome!
(didascalia)	Exeunt
(didascalia)	The two Servingmen come forward
FIRST SERVINGMAN	Here’s a strange alteration!
SECOND SERVINGMAN	By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with a cudgel, and yet my mind gave me his clothes made a false report of him.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	What an arm he has! He turned me about with his finger and his thumb as one would set up a top.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him. He had, sir, a kind of face, methought—I cannot tell how to term it.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	He had so, looking, as it were—wou)d I were hanged but I thought there was more in him than I could think.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	So did I, I’ll be sworn. He is simply the rarest man i’th’ world.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	I think he is yet a greater soldier than he you wot on.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Who, my master?
FIRST SERVINGMAN	Nay, it’s no matter for that.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Worth six on him.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	Nay, not so, neither; but I take him to be the greater soldier.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that. For the defence of a town our general is excellent.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	Ay, and for an assault too.
(didascalia)	Enter the Third Servingman
THIRD SERVINGMAN	O, slaves, I can tell you news—news, you rascals!
FIRST	and SECOND SERVINGMEN What, what, what? Let’s partake.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	I would not be a Roman of all nations. I had as lief be a condemned man.
FIRST	and SECOND SERVINGMEN Wherefore? Wherefore?
THIRD SERVINGMAN	Why, here’s he that was wont to thwack our general, Caius Martius.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	Why do you say ‘thwack our general’?
THIRD SERVINGMAN	I do not say ‘thwack our general’; but he was always good enough for him.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Come, we are fellows and friends. He was ever too hard for him. I have heard him say so himself.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	He was too hard for him directly. To say the truth on’t, before Corioles he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	An he had been cannibally given, he might have broiled and eaten him too.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	But more of thy news!
THIRD SERVINGMAN	Why, he is so made on here within as if he were son and heir to Mars; set at upper end o‘th’ table, no question asked him by any of the senators but they stand bald before him. Our general’ himself makes a mistress of him, sanctifies himself with’s hand, and turns up the white o’th’ eye to his discourse. But the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i’th’ middle, and but one half of what he was yesterday, for the other has half by the entreaty and grant of the whole table. He’ll go, he says, and sowl the porter of Rome gates by th’ ears. He will mow all down before him, and leave his passage polled.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	And he’s as like to do’t as any man I can imagine.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	Do’t? He will do’t; for look you, sir, he has as many friends as enemies; which friends, sir, as it were durst not—look you, sir—show themselves, as we term it, his friends whilst he’s in dejectitude.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	Dejectitude? What’s that?
THIRD SERVINGMAN	But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again and the man in blood, they will out of their burrows like conies after rain, and revel all with him.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	But when goes this forward?
THIRD SERVINGMAN	Tomorrow, today, presently. You shall have the drum struck up this afternoon. ’Tis as it were a parcel of their feast, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	Let me have war, say I. It exceeds peace as far as day does night. It’s sprightly walking, audible and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war’s a destroyer of men.
SECOND SERVINGMAN	’Tis so, and as war in some sort may be said to be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.
FIRST SERVINGMAN	Ay, and it makes men hate one another.
THIRD SERVINGMAN	Reason; because they then less need one another. The wars for my money. I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volscians.
(didascalia)	A sound within
THIRD SERVINGMAN	They are rising, they are rising.
FIRST	and SECOND SERVINGMEN In, in, in, in.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Suona musica. Entra un Servo
PRIMO SERVO	Vino, vino, vino! Che servizio è questo? Credo che i nostri compagni dormano.
(didascalia)	Esce
(didascalia)	Entra un Secondo Servo
SECONDO SERVO	Dov’è Coto? Il mio padrone lo chiama. Coto!
(didascalia)	Esce
(didascalia)	Entra Coriolanus, come prima
CORIOLANUS	Bella casa. Il banchetto profuma bene, ma io non ho aspetto d’invitato.
(didascalia)	Entra il Primo Servo
PRIMO SERVO	Che volete, amico? Da dove venite? Qui non c’è posto per voi. Vi prego, andate alla porta.
(didascalia)	Esce
CORIOLANUS	Non ho meritato accoglienza migliore, essendo Coriolanus.
(didascalia)	Entra il Secondo Servo
SECONDO SERVO	Da dove venite, signore? Il portiere ha gli occhi in testa, che dà ingresso a simili compagni? Vi prego, uscite.
CORIOLANUS	Via!
SECONDO SERVO	Via? Andatevene voi.
CORIOLANUS	Ora sei molesto.
SECONDO SERVO	Siete così spavaldo? Vi farò parlare fra poco.
(didascalia)	Entra il Terzo Servo. Il Primo gli va incontro
TERZO SERVO	Chi è questo tale?
PRIMO SERVO	Uno strano come non ne vidi mai. Non riesco a cacciarlo fuori di casa. Ti prego, chiamagli il padrone.
TERZO SERVO	(a Coriolanus) Che avete da fare qui, voi? Vi prego, sgombrate la casa.
CORIOLANUS	Lasciatemi solo stare. Non farò male al vostro focolare.
TERZO SERVO	Chi siete?
CORIOLANUS	Un gentiluomo.
TERZO SERVO	Uno straordinariamente povero.
CORIOLANUS	Vero, tale sono.
TERZO SERVO	Vi prego, povero gentiluomo, prendete un altro posto. Qui non c’è posto per voi. Vi prego, sgombrate. Su.
CORIOLANUS	Bada al tuo ufficio. Va’ a ingrassarti d’avanzi freddi. Lo spinge via da sé
TERZO SERVO	Come, non volete?—Ti prego, di’ al mio padrone che strano ospite ha qui.
SECONDO SERVO	Lo farò.
(didascalia)	Esce il Secondo Servo
TERZO SERVO	Dove abiti?
CORIOLANUS	Sotto il baldacchino.
TERZO SERVO	Sotto il baldacchino?
CORIOLANUS	Sì.
TERZO SERVO	E dov’è?
CORIOLANUS	Nella città dei nibbi e dei corvi.
TERZO SERVO	Nella città dei nibbi e dei corvi? Che asino! Allora abiti anche con le cornacchie?
CORIOLANUS	No, io non servo il tuo padrone.
TERZO SERVO	Come, signore? Vi impicciate del mio padrone?
CORIOLANUS	Sì, è un servizio più onesto che impicciarsi della tua padrona. Tu ciarli e ciarli. Servi col tuo tagliere. Via di qui! Lo caccia a botte.
(didascalia)	Entra Aufidius col Secondo Servo
AUFIDIUS	Dov’è questo tale?
SECONDO SERVO	Qui, signore. L’avrei bastonato come un cane, se non fosse stato per non disturbare i signori là dentro.
(didascalia)	I Servi si mettono da parte
AUFIDIUS	Da dove vieni? Che vuoi? Il tuo nome? Perché non parli? Parla, uomo. Qual è il tuo nome?
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS si scopre il capo
AUFIDIUS	Se, Tullo, ancora non mi riconosci, e vedendomi non mi credi l’uomo che sono, la necessità mi comanda di nominarmi.
AUFIDIUS	Qual è il tuo nome?
CORIOLANUS	Un nome sgradito agli orecchi dei Volsci e aspro al suono per il tuo.
AUFIDIUS	Di’, qual è il tuo nome? Hai un aspetto arcigno, e il tuo volto porta in sé un comando. Benché il tuo sartiame sia lacero, mostri d’essere un nobile vascello. Qual è il tuo nome?
CORIOLANUS	Prepara la fronte ad aggrottarsi. Mi riconosci ora?
AUFIDIUS	Non ti conosco. Il tuo nome?
CORIOLANUS	Il mio nome è Caio Marzio, che ha fatto a te in particolare, e a tutti i Volsci, gran danno e male. Ne può far fede il mio soprannome Coriolanus. Il faticoso servigio, gli estremi pericoli e le gocce di sangue versate per il mio paese ingrato sono ricompensati solo con quel soprannome—buona memoria e testimonianza della malizia e del dispiacere che tu dovresti portarmi. Solo quel nome resta. La crudeltà e l’invidia del popolo, permesse dai nostri vili nobili, che tutti mi hanno abbandonato, hanno divorato il resto, e hanno sofferto che, per voce di schiavi, io fossi fischiato fuori da Roma. Ora questo estremo mi ha portato al tuo focolare. Non per speranza— non fraintendermi—di salvare la vita, ché se avessi temuto la morte, fra tutti gli uomini del mondo avrei evitato te; ma per puro dispetto, per esser pienamente pari con quei miei banditori, sto qui davanti a te. Se dunque hai un cuore di vendetta in te, che voglia vendicare i tuoi torti particolari e por fine a quelle mutilazioni vergognose viste per tutto il tuo paese, affrettati subito, e fa’ che la mia miseria serva al tuo scopo. Usala in modo che i miei servigi vendicativi si dimostrino benefici per te; ché io combatterò contro il mio paese incancrenito con la rabbia di tutti i demoni infernali. Ma se per caso non osi questo, e sei stanco di tentare altre fortune, allora, in una parola, anch’io sono stanchissimo di vivere più a lungo, e offro la mia gola a te e alla tua antica malizia, che, a non tagliarla, ti mostrerebbe soltanto uno sciocco, giacché io t’ho sempre inseguito con odio, tratto barili di sangue dal petto del tuo paese, e non posso vivere se non a tua vergogna, a meno che non sia per renderti servigio.
AUFIDIUS	O Marzio, Marzio! Ogni parola che hai detto ha divelto dal mio cuore una radice d’antica invidia. Se Giove parlasse da quella nube cose divine e dicesse «È vero», non gli crederei più che a te, tutto nobile Marzio. Lascia ch’io stringa le mie braccia intorno a quel corpo contro il quale il mio frassino venato cento volte s’è spezzato, sfregiando la luna con le schegge. (Abbraccia Coriolanus) Qui io cingo l’incudine della mia spada, e contendo con la tua amicizia tanto ardentemente e nobilmente quanto mai con ambiziosa forza contesi col tuo valore. Sappi anzitutto ch’io amai la fanciulla che sposai; mai uomo sospirò fiato più sincero. Ma vederti qui, nobile creatura, fa danzare il mio cuore rapito più di quando vidi per la prima volta la mia sposa varcare la mia soglia. Ebbene, tu Marte, ti dico che abbiamo un esercito in campo, e che avevo intenzione di staccarti ancora una volta lo scudo dal braccio, o di perdervi il mio. Tu m’hai battuto dodici volte diverse, e da allora ogni notte ho sognato scontri fra te e me— siamo stati a terra insieme nel mio sonno, slacciandoci gli elmi, afferrandoci la gola a pugni— e mi son destato mezzo morto per nulla. Degno Marzio, se non avessimo altra contesa con Roma che questa, che tu ne sei bandito, chiameremmo alle armi tutti dai dodici ai settant’anni, e, riversando la guerra nelle viscere dell’ingrata Roma, la travolgeremmo come ardita piena. Oh, vieni, entra, e prendi per mano i nostri amici senatori, che ora sono qui a prendere congedo da me, io che sono pronto contro i vostri territori, benché non contro Roma stessa.
CORIOLANUS	Voi mi benedite, o dèi.
AUFIDIUS	Perciò, signore assolutissimo, se vuoi avere la guida delle tue proprie vendette, prendi la metà del mio comando e stabilisci— essendone tu il più esperto, giacché conosci la forza e la debolezza del tuo paese—le tue vie: se battere alle porte di Roma, o visitarli rudemente in parti remote per atterrirli prima di distruggerli. Ma entra. Lascia ch’io ti raccomandi anzitutto a coloro che diranno sì ai tuoi desideri. Mille benvenuti! E più amico ora che mai nemico prima; eppure, Marzio, quello fu molto. La tua mano. Sii il benvenuto!
(didascalia)	Escono
(didascalia)	I due Servi si fanno avanti
PRIMO SERVO	Ecco uno strano cambiamento!
SECONDO SERVO	Per la mia mano, avevo pensato di picchiarlo con un randello, eppure l’istinto mi diceva che i suoi panni davano di lui un falso rapporto.
PRIMO SERVO	Che braccio ha! Mi ha fatto girare con l’indice e il pollice come si fa partire una trottola.
SECONDO SERVO	Sì, io capii dal suo viso che c’era qualcosa in lui. Aveva, signore, una specie di viso, mi parve—non so come definirlo.
PRIMO SERVO	Sì, l’aveva, un’aria come, per così dire—che mi impicchino se non pensai che ci fosse in lui più di quanto potessi pensare.
SECONDO SERVO	Anch’io, lo giuro. È semplicemente l’uomo più raro del mondo.
PRIMO SERVO	Credo che sia un soldato ancora più grande di quello che sapete voi.
SECONDO SERVO	Chi, il mio padrone?
PRIMO SERVO	Be’, non importa.
SECONDO SERVO	Ne vale sei come lui.
PRIMO SERVO	No, nemmeno tanto; ma lo ritengo il soldato maggiore.
SECONDO SERVO	In fede, vedete, non si saprebbe come dirlo. Per la difesa d’una città il nostro generale è eccellente.
PRIMO SERVO	Sì, e anche per un assalto.
(didascalia)	Entra il Terzo Servo
TERZO SERVO	Oh, schiavi, ho notizie da darvi—notizie, bricconi!
PRIMO	e SECONDO SERVO Che, che, che? Facciamone parte.
TERZO SERVO	Non vorrei essere Romano per nulla al mondo. Preferirei essere un condannato.
PRIMO	e SECONDO SERVO Perché? Perché?
TERZO SERVO	Ma perché ecco qui colui che soleva bastonare il nostro generale, Caio Marzio.
PRIMO SERVO	Perché dici «bastonare il nostro generale»?
TERZO SERVO	Non dico «bastonare il nostro generale»; ma gli fu sempre abbastanza superiore.
SECONDO SERVO	Suvvia, siamo compagni e amici. Fu sempre troppo forte per lui. Gliel’ho sentito dire da lui stesso.
PRIMO SERVO	Fu troppo forte per lui, addirittura. A dire la verità, davanti a Corioli lo intaccò e lo intagliò come una carbonata.
SECONDO SERVO	E se fosse stato di gusti cannibaleschi, avrebbe potuto anche arrostirlo e mangiarlo.
PRIMO SERVO	Ma dacci altre notizie!
TERZO SERVO	Ebbene, qui dentro è festeggiato come se fosse figlio ed erede di Marte; messo a capotavola, nessuna domanda gli è rivolta da alcuno dei senatori senza che stiano a capo scoperto davanti a lui. Il nostro generale’ stesso ne fa una sua dama, si santifica con la sua mano, e strabuzza il bianco dell’occhio al suo discorso. Ma il fondo della notizia è che il nostro generale è tagliato a metà, e non è che una metà di quel che era ieri, ché l’altra ha metà per preghiera e concessione di tutta la tavola. Andrà, dice, ad acciuffare per gli orecchi il portiere delle porte di Roma. Falcerà tutto davanti a sé, e lascerà il suo passaggio rasato.
SECONDO SERVO	Ed è capace di farlo come nessun altro uomo ch’io possa immaginare.
TERZO SERVO	Farlo? Lo farà; ché, vedete, signore, ha tanti amici quanti nemici; i quali amici, signore, per così dire non osavano—vedete, signore—mostrarsi, come diciamo noi, suoi amici mentre egli era in deiettitudine.
PRIMO SERVO	Deiettitudine? Che cos’è?
TERZO SERVO	Ma quando vedranno, signore, la sua cresta di nuovo ritta e l’uomo nel sangue, usciranno dalle loro tane come conigli dopo la pioggia, e faranno tutti baldoria con lui.
PRIMO SERVO	Ma quando si muove tutto questo?
TERZO SERVO	Domani, oggi, subito. Sentirete rullare il tamburo questo pomeriggio. È come se fosse una portata del loro banchetto, e da eseguirsi prima che si asciughino le labbra.
SECONDO SERVO	Ebbene, allora avremo di nuovo un mondo movimentato. Questa pace non serve che ad arrugginire il ferro, moltiplicare i sarti e far figliare i cantastorie.
PRIMO SERVO	Datemi la guerra, dico io. Supera la pace quanto il giorno supera la notte. È vivace nel camminare, sonora e piena di sfogo. La pace è una vera apoplessia, un letargo; intorpidita, sorda, sonnolenta, insensibile; genera più figli bastardi di quanti uomini la guerra ne distrugga.
SECONDO SERVO	È così, e come la guerra in un certo senso si può dire un rapitore, così non si può negare che la pace sia una gran fabbricatrice di cornuti.
PRIMO SERVO	Sì, e fa odiare gli uomini l’un l’altro.
TERZO SERVO	Ragionevole; perché allora hanno meno bisogno l’uno dell’altro. Io punto sulle guerre. Spero di veder Romani a buon mercato quanto Volsci.
(didascalia)	Un suono all’interno
TERZO SERVO	Si alzano, si alzano.
PRIMO	e SECONDO SERVO Dentro, dentro, dentro, dentro.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter the two tribunes, Sicinius and Brutus
SICINIUS	We hear not of him, neither need we fear him. His remedies are tame—the present peace And quietness of the people, which before Were in wild hurry. Here do we make his friends Blush that the world goes well, who rather had, Though they themselves did suffer by‘t, behold Dissentious numbers pest’ring streets than see Our tradesmen singing in their shops and going About their functions friendly.
(didascalia)	Enter Menenius
BRUTUS	We stood to’t in good time. Is this Menenius?
SICINIUS	‘Tis he, ’tis he. O, he is grown most kind of late. Hail, sir.
MENENIUS	Hail to you both.
SICINIUS	Your Coriolanus is not much missed But with his friends. The commonwealth doth stand, And so would do were he more angry at it.
MENENIUS	All’s well, and might have been much better if He could have temporized.
SICINIUS	Where is he, hear you?
MENENIUS	Nay, I hear nothing. His mother and his wife hear nothing from him.
(didascalia)	Enter three or four Citizens
ALL THE CITIZENS	(to the tribunes) The gods preserve you both.
SICINIUS	Good e’en, our neighbours.
BRUTUS	Good e‘en to you all, good e’en to you all.
FIRST CITIZEN	Ourselves, our wives and children, on our knees Are bound to pray for you both.
SICINIUS	Live and thrive.
BRUTUS	Farewell, kind neighbours. We wished Coriolanus had loved you as we did.
ALL THE CITIZENS	Now the gods keep you!
SICINIUS	and BRUTUS Farewell, farewell.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Citizens
SICINIUS	This is a happier and more comely time Than when these fellows ran about the streets Crying confusion.
BRUTUS	Caius Martius was A worthy officer i‘th’ war, but insolent, O’ercome with pride, ambitious past all thinking, Self-loving—
SICINIUS	And affecting one sole throne Without assistance.
MENENIUS	I think not so.
SICINIUS	We should by this, to all our lamentation, If he had gone forth consul found it so.
BRUTUS	The gods have well prevented it, and Rome Sits safe and still without him.
(didascalia)	Enter an Aedile
AEDILE	Worthy tribunes, There is a slave whom we have put in prison Reports the Volsces, with two several powers, Are entered in the Roman territories, And with the deepest malice of the war Destroy what lies before ’em.
MENENIUS	’Tis Aufidius, Who, hearing of our Martius’ banishment, Thrusts forth his horns again into the world, Which were inshelled when Martius stood for Rome, And durst not once peep out.
SICINIUS	Come, what talk you of Martius? BRUTUS (to the Aedile) Go see this rumourer whipped. It cannot be The Volsces dare break with us.
MENENIUS	Cannot be? We have record that very well it can, And three examples of the like hath been
(didascalia)	Within my age. But reason with the fellow,
MENENIUS	Before you punish him, where he heard this, Lest you shall chance to whip your information And beat the messenger who bids beware Of what is to be dreaded.
SICINIUS	Tell not me. I know this cannot be.
BRUTUS	Not possible.
(didascalia)	Enter a Messenger
MESSENGER	The nobles in great earnestness are going All to the senate-house. Some news is come That turns their countenances.
SICINIUS	’Tis this slave. (To the Aedile) Go whip him fore the people’s eyes.— His raising, Nothing but his report.
(didascalia)	Exit Aedile
MESSENGER	Yes, worthy sir, The slave’s report is seconded, and more, More fearful, is delivered.
SICINIUS	What more fearful?
MESSENGER	It is spoke freely out of many mouths— How probable I do not know—that Martius, Joined with Aufidius, leads a power ‘gainst Rome, And vows revenge as spacious as between The young’st and oldest thing.
SICINIUS	This is most likely!
BRUTUS	Raised only that the weaker sort may wish Good Martius home again.
SICINIUS	The very trick on’t.
MENENIUS	This is unlikely. He and Aufidius can no more atone Than violent’st contrariety.
(didascalia)	Enter another Messenger
SECOND MESSENGER	You are sent for to the senate. A fearful army, led by Caius Martius Associated with Aufidius, rages Upon our territories, and have already O’erborne their way, consumed with fire and took What lay before them.
(didascalia)	Enter Cominius
COMINIUS	O, you have made good work!
MENENIUS	What news? What news?
COMINIUS	You have holp to ravish your own daughters and To melt the city leads upon your pates, To see your wives dishonoured to your noses.
MENENIUS	What’s the news? What’s the news?
COMINIUS	Your temples burned in their cement, and Your franchises, whereon you stood, confined Into an auger’s bore.
MENENIUS	Pray now, your news? (To the tribunes) You have made fair work, I fear me. (To Cominius) Pray, your news. If Martius should be joined wi’th’ Volscians—
COMINIUS	If? He is their god. He leads them like a thing Made by some other deity than nature, That shapes man better, and they follow him Against us brats with no less confidence Than boys pursuing summer butterflies, Or butchers killing flies.
MENENIUS	(to the tribunes) You have made good work, You and your apron-men, you that stood so much Upon the voice of occupation and The breath of garlic-eaters!
COMINIUS	(to the tribunes) He’ll shake your Rome about your ears.
MENENIUS	As Hercules did shake down mellow fruit. (To the tribunes) You have made fair work.
BRUTUS	But is this true, sir?
COMINIUS	Ay, and you’ll look pale Before you find it other. All the regions Do smilingly revolt, and who resists Are mocked for valiant ignorance, And perish constant fools. Who is’t can blame him? Your enemies and his find something in him.
MENENIVS	We are all undone unless The noble man have mercy.
COMINIUS	Who shall ask it? The tribunes cannot do‘t, for shame; the people Deserve such pity of him as the wolf Does of the shepherds. For his best friends, if they Should say ‘Be good to Rome’, they charged him even As those should do that had deserved his hate, And therein showed like enemies.
MENENIUS	’Tis true. If he were putting to my house the brand That should consume it, I have not the face To say ‘Beseech you, cease.’ (To the tribunes) You have made fair hands, You and your crafts! You have crafted fair!
COMINIUS	(to the tribunes) You have brought A trembling upon Rome such as was never S’incapable of help.
SICINIUS	and BRUTUS Say not we brought it.
MENENIUS	How? Was’t we? We loved him, but like beasts and cowardly nobles Gave way unto your clusters, who did hoot Him out o’th’ city.
COMINIUS	But I fear They’ll roar him in again. Tullus Aufidius, The second name of men, obeys his points As if he were his officer. Desperation Is all the policy, strength, and defence That Rome can make against them.
(didascalia)	Enter a troop of Citizens
MENENIUS	Here come the clusters. (To the Citizens) And is Aufidius with him? You are they That made the air unwholesome when you cast Your stinking greasy caps in hooting at Coriolanus’ exile. Now he’s coming, And not a hair upon a soldier’s head Which will not prove a whip. As many coxcombs As you threw caps up will he tumble down, And pay you for your voices. ’Tis no matter. If he could burn us all into one coal, We have deserved it.
ALL THE CITIZENS	Faith, we hear fearful news.
FIRST CITIZEN	For mine own part, When I said ‘banish him’ I said ’twas pity.
SECOND CITIZEN	And so did I.
THIRD CITIZEN	And so did I, and to say the truth so did very many of us. That we did, we did for the best, and though we willingly consented to his banishment, yet it was against our will.
COMINIUS	You’re goodly things, you voices.
MENENIUS	You have made good work, You and your cry. Shall’s to the Capitol?
COMINIUS	O, ay, what else?
(didascalia)	Exeunt Menenius and Cominius
SICINIUS	Go, masters, get you home. Be not dismayed. These are a side that would be glad to have This true which they so seem to fear. Go home, And show no sign of fear.
FIRST CITIZEN	The gods be good to us! Come, masters, let’s home. I ever said we were i’th’ wrong when we banished him.
SECOND CITIZEN	So did we all. But come, let’s home.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Citizens
BRUTUS	I do not like this news.
SICINIUS	Nor I.
BRUTUS	Let’s to the Capitol. Would half my wealth Would buy this for a lie.
SICINIUS	Pray let’s go.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano i due tribuni, Sicinius e Brutus
SICINIUS	Non abbiamo sue notizie, né occorre temerlo. I suoi rimedi sono fiacchi—la presente pace e quiete del popolo, che prima era in selvaggio tumulto. Qui facciamo arrossire i suoi amici perché il mondo va bene; essi preferirebbero, benché essi stessi ne patissero, vedere frotte sediziose infestare le strade, anziché vedere i nostri artigiani cantare nelle botteghe e attendere amichevolmente ai loro mestieri.
(didascalia)	Entra Menenius
BRUTUS	Abbiamo tenuto duro a buon tempo. È questo Menenius?
SICINIUS	È lui, è lui. Oh, è diventato assai gentile di recente. Salve, signore.
MENENIUS	Salve a voi due.
SICINIUS	Il vostro Coriolanus non manca gran che se non ai suoi amici. Lo stato regge, e reggerebbe anche se egli ne fosse più adirato.
MENENIUS	Tutto va bene, e sarebbe potuto andare assai meglio se egli avesse saputo temporeggiare.
SICINIUS	Dov’è, ne sapete?
MENENIUS	No, non so nulla. Sua madre e sua moglie non hanno sue notizie.
(didascalia)	Entrano tre o quattro Cittadini
TUTTI I CITTADINI	(ai tribuni) Gli dèi vi conservino entrambi.
SICINIUS	Buona sera, vicini nostri.
BRUTUS	Buona sera a voi tutti, buona sera a voi tutti.
PRIMO CITTADINO	Noi stessi, le nostre mogli e i nostri figli, in ginocchio siamo tenuti a pregare per voi due.
SICINIUS	Vivete e prosperate.
BRUTUS	Addio, cari vicini. Avremmo voluto che Coriolanus vi avesse amati come noi.
TUTTI I CITTADINI	Ora gli dèi vi guardino!
SICINIUS	e BRUTUS Addio, addio.
(didascalia)	Escono i Cittadini
SICINIUS	Questo è un tempo più felice e più decoroso di quando costoro correvano per le strade gridando confusione.
BRUTUS	Caio Marzio era un ufficiale valente in guerra, ma insolente, vinto dall’orgoglio, ambizioso oltre ogni immaginare, amante di sé—
SICINIUS	E aspirante a un trono unico senza sostegni.
MENENIUS	Io non credo.
SICINIUS	L’avremmo a quest’ora, con nostro gran lamento, trovato tale, se fosse uscito console.
BRUTUS	Gli dèi l’hanno ben impedito, e Roma siede sicura e tranquilla senza di lui.
(didascalia)	Entra un Edile
EDILE	Degni tribuni, c’è uno schiavo che abbiamo messo in prigione il quale riferisce che i Volsci, con due eserciti distinti, sono entrati nei territori romani, e con la più profonda malizia della guerra distruggono ciò che sta loro davanti.
MENENIUS	È Aufidius, che, udito il bando del nostro Marzio, sporge di nuovo le corna nel mondo, le quali erano rincantucciate finché Marzio stava per Roma, e non osavano affacciarsi neppure una volta.
SICINIUS	Suvvia, che parlate di Marzio? BRUTUS (all’Edile) Va’ a far frustare questo diffusore di voci. Non può essere che i Volsci osino rompere con noi.
MENENIUS	Non può essere? Abbiamo prova che benissimo può essere, e tre esempi del simile ci sono stati
(didascalia)	nella mia età. Ma ragiona con quel tale,
MENENIUS	prima di punirlo, su dove abbia udito questo, perché non ti accada di frustare la tua informazione e di battere il messaggero che avverte di guardarsi da ciò che è da temere.
SICINIUS	Non dirmelo. So che questo non può essere.
BRUTUS	Non è possibile.
(didascalia)	Entra un Messaggero
MESSAGGERO	I nobili con gran fretta si recano tutti alla curia del senato. È giunta qualche notizia che muta loro il volto.
SICINIUS	È quello schiavo. (All’Edile) Va’ a frustarlo davanti agli occhi del popolo.— La sua sollevazione, nient’altro che il suo rapporto.
(didascalia)	Esce l’Edile
MESSAGGERO	Sì, degno signore, il rapporto dello schiavo è confermato, e di più, di più spaventoso, è riferito.
SICINIUS	Che c’è di più spaventoso?
MESSAGGERO	Si dice liberamente per molte bocche— quanto sia probabile non so—che Marzio, unito ad Aufidius, guida un esercito contro Roma, e giura una vendetta vasta quanto lo spazio fra la cosa più giovane e la più vecchia.
SICINIUS	Come è verosimile!
BRUTUS	Voce messa in giro solo perché i più deboli desiderino di nuovo a casa il buon Marzio.
SICINIUS	Proprio questo il trucco.
MENENIUS	Questo è inverosimile. Lui e Aufidius non possono riconciliarsi più di quanto possano i contrari più violenti.
(didascalia)	Entra un altro Messaggero
SECONDO MESSAGGERO	Siete chiamati al senato. Un esercito spaventoso, guidato da Caio Marzio associato ad Aufidius, infuria sui nostri territori, e ha già travolto il suo cammino, consumato col fuoco e preso quanto gli stava davanti.
(didascalia)	Entra Cominius
COMINIUS	Oh, avete fatto un bel lavoro!
MENENIUS	Che notizie? Che notizie?
COMINIUS	Avete contribuito a far violare le vostre stesse figlie e a far fondere i piombi della città sulle vostre teste, a veder disonorate le vostre mogli sotto il vostro naso.
MENENIUS	Quali sono le notizie? Quali sono le notizie?
COMINIUS	I vostri templi bruciati nelle loro malte, e le vostre franchigie, su cui vi reggevate, ridotte al foro d’un succhiello.
MENENIUS	Vi prego, le vostre notizie? (Ai tribuni) Avete fatto un bel lavoro, temo. (A Cominius) Vi prego, le vostre notizie. Se Marzio si fosse unito ai Volsci—
COMINIUS	Se? Egli è il loro dio. Li guida come una creatura fatta da qualche altra divinità che la natura, che plasma l’uomo meglio, ed essi lo seguono contro noi marmocchi con non minor fiducia di ragazzi che inseguono farfalle d’estate, o di beccai che ammazzano mosche.
MENENIUS	(ai tribuni) Avete fatto un bel lavoro, voi e i vostri uomini col grembiule, voi che tanto vi reggevate sulla voce del mestiere e sul fiato dei mangiatori d’aglio!
COMINIUS	(ai tribuni) Vi scrollerà la vostra Roma intorno agli orecchi.
MENENIUS	Come Ercole scrollava giù la frutta matura. (Ai tribuni) Avete fatto un bel lavoro.
BRUTUS	Ma è vero questo, signore?
COMINIUS	Sì, e impallidirete prima di trovarlo altrimenti. Tutte le regioni si ribellano sorridendo, e chi resiste è deriso per valorosa ignoranza, e perisce da sciocco costante. Chi può biasimarlo? I vostri nemici e i suoi trovano in lui qualcosa.
MENENIVS	Siamo tutti perduti a meno che il nobile uomo non abbia pietà.
COMINIUS	Chi gliela chiederà? I tribuni non possono farlo, per vergogna; il popolo merita da lui quella pietà che il lupo merita dai pastori. Quanto ai suoi migliori amici, se dicessero «Sii buono con Roma», l’assalirebbero proprio come farebbero coloro che avessero meritato il suo odio, e in ciò si mostrerebbero nemici.
MENENIUS	È vero. Se egli accostasse alla mia casa la torcia che dovesse consumarla, io non avrei la faccia di dire «Vi supplico, cessate.» (Ai tribuni) Belle mani avete fatto, voi e le vostre arti! Bella arte avete usato!
COMINIUS	(ai tribuni) Avete portato su Roma un tremore quale non fu mai tanto incapace d’aiuto.
SICINIUS	e BRUTUS Non dite che l’abbiamo portato noi.
MENENIUS	Come? Fummo noi? Noi lo amavamo, ma come bestie e nobili codardi cedemmo alle vostre frotte, che lo fischiarono fuori dalla città.
COMINIUS	Ma temo che lo rimuggiranno dentro. Tullo Aufidius, il secondo nome fra gli uomini, obbedisce ai suoi cenni come se ne fosse l’ufficiale. La disperazione è tutta la politica, la forza e la difesa che Roma può opporre loro.
(didascalia)	Entra una schiera di Cittadini
MENENIUS	Ecco che vengono le frotte. (Ai Cittadini) E Aufidius è con lui? Siete voi coloro che resero l’aria malsana quando gettaste in aria i vostri puzzolenti berretti unti, fischiando l’esilio di Coriolanus. Ora egli viene, e non c’è un capello sulla testa d’un soldato che non si rivelerà una frusta. Quante teste di sciocchi quanti berretti gettaste in alto, tante ne abbatterà, e vi pagherà per le vostre voci. Non importa. Se potesse bruciarci tutti in un solo carbone, l’avremmo meritato.
TUTTI I CITTADINI	In fede, sentiamo notizie spaventose.
PRIMO CITTADINO	Per parte mia, quando dissi «bandirlo» dissi che era un peccato.
SECONDO CITTADINO	E così feci io.
TERZO CITTADINO	E così feci io, e a dire la verità così fecero moltissimi di noi. Quel che facemmo, lo facemmo per il meglio, e benché avessimo volentieri acconsentito al suo bando, pure fu contro la nostra volontà.
COMINIUS	Siete belle cose, voi voci.
MENENIUS	Avete fatto un bel lavoro, voi e la vostra muta. Andiamo al Campidoglio?
COMINIUS	Oh, sì, e che altro?
(didascalia)	Escono Menenius e Cominius
SICINIUS	Andate, padroni, tornate a casa. Non sgomentatevi. Costoro sono una parte che sarebbe lieta d’avere vero ciò che tanto sembrano temere. Andate a casa, e non mostrate segno di paura.
PRIMO CITTADINO	Gli dèi ci siano propizi! Venite, padroni, andiamo a casa. Ho sempre detto che avevamo torto quando lo bandimmo.
SECONDO CITTADINO	Così dicemmo tutti. Ma venite, andiamo a casa.
(didascalia)	Escono i Cittadini
BRUTUS	Non mi piacciono queste notizie.
SICINIUS	Nemmeno a me.
BRUTUS	Andiamo al Campidoglio. Vorrei che metà delle mie sostanze bastasse a comprare che tutto ciò sia una menzogna.
SICINIUS	Vi prego, andiamo.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Aufidius with his Lieutenant
AUFIDIUS	Do they still fly to th’ Roman?
LIEUTENANT	I do not know what witchcraft’s in him, but Your soldiers use him as the grace fore meat, Their talk at table, and their thanks at end, And you are darkened in this action, sir, Even by your own.
AUFIDIUS	I cannot help it now, Unless by using means I lame the foot Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier, Even to my person, than I thought he would When first I did embrace him. Yet his nature In that’s no changeling, and I must excuse What cannot be amended.
LIEUTENANT	Yet I wish, sir I mean for your particular—you had not Joined in commission with him, but either Have borne the action of yourself or else To him had left it solely.
AUFIDIUS	I understand thee well, and be thou sure, When he shall come to his account, he knows not What I can urge against him. Although it seems— And so he thinks, and is no less apparent To th’ vulgar eye—that he bears all things fairly And shows good husbandry for the Volscian state, Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon As draw his sword, yet he hath left undone That which shall break his neck or hazard mine Whene’er we come to our account.
LIEUTENANT	Sir, I beseech you, think you he’ll carry Rome?
AUFIDIUS	All places yields to him ere he sits down, And the nobility of Rome are his. The senators and patricians love him too. The tribunes are no soldiers, and their people Will be as rash in the repeal as hasty To expel him thence. I think he’ll be to Rome As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it By sovereignty of nature. First he was A noble servant to them, but he could not Carry his honours even. Whether ‘twas pride, Which out of daily fortune ever taints The happy man; whether defect of judgement, To fail in the disposing of those chances Which he was lord of; or whether nature, Not to be other than one thing, not moving From th’ casque to th’ cushion, but commanding peace Even with the same austerity and garb As he controlled the war: but one of these— As he hath spices of them all—not all, For I dare so far free him—made him feared, So hated, and so banished. But he has a merit To choke it in the utt’rance. So our virtues Lie in th‘interpretation of the time, And power, unto itself most commendable, Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair T’extol what it hath done. One fire drives out one fire, one nail one nail; Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail. Come, let’s away. When, Caius, Rome is thine, Thou art poor’st of all; then shortly art thou mine.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra Aufidius col suo Luogotenente
AUFIDIUS	Corrono ancora al Romano?
LUOGOTENENTE	Non so che stregoneria sia in lui, ma i vostri soldati lo usano come la grazia prima del pasto, il loro discorso a tavola e il loro ringraziamento alla fine, e voi siete oscurato in questa impresa, signore, proprio dai vostri.
AUFIDIUS	Non posso rimediarvi ora, se non usando mezzi che azzoppino il piede del nostro disegno. Egli si porta più altezzosamente, perfino verso la mia persona, di quanto pensassi quando dapprima l’abbracciai. Pure la sua natura in questo non è mutata, e devo scusare ciò che non si può emendare.
LUOGOTENENTE	Pure vorrei, signore— intendo per il vostro particolare interesse—che non vi foste unito in comando con lui, ma che aveste sostenuto l’impresa da solo, oppure l’aveste lasciata a lui soltanto.
AUFIDIUS	Ti capisco bene, e sii certo, quando egli verrà a render conto, egli non sa che cosa io possa addurre contro di lui. Benché sembri— e così egli pensa, e non è meno evidente all’occhio volgare—che egli conduca ogni cosa lealmente e mostri buona amministrazione per lo stato volsco, combatta come un drago, e vinca appena sguainata la spada, pure ha lasciato non fatto ciò che gli spezzerà il collo o metterà a rischio il mio quando verremo a render conto.
LUOGOTENENTE	Signore, vi supplico, credete che espugnerà Roma?
AUFIDIUS	Ogni luogo gli si arrende prima ch’egli vi ponga assedio, e la nobiltà di Roma è sua. Anche i senatori e i patrizi lo amano. I tribuni non sono soldati, e il loro popolo sarà tanto avventato nel richiamarlo quanto fu frettoloso nel cacciarlo di là. Credo che sarà per Roma ciò che il falco pescatore è per il pesce, che lo prende per sovranità di natura. Dapprima egli fu un nobile servitore per loro, ma non seppe portare in equilibrio i suoi onori. Se fosse orgoglio, che dalla fortuna quotidiana sempre contamina l’uomo felice; se difetto di giudizio, nel fallire la disposizione di quelle occasioni di cui era signore; o se la sua natura, incapace d’essere altro che una cosa sola, di non passare dall’elmo al cuscino, ma di comandare in pace con la stessa austerità e portamento con cui reggeva la guerra: uno solo di questi— ché di tutti ha qualche traccia—non tutti, ché fin là oso assolverlo—lo fece temuto, così odiato, e così bandito. Ma egli ha un merito che soffoca tutto ciò nel pronunciarlo. Così le nostre virtù stanno nell’interpretazione del tempo, e il potere, a sé stesso quanto mai commendevole, non ha tomba più evidente d’un seggio eretto a esaltare ciò che ha compiuto. Un fuoco scaccia un fuoco, un chiodo un chiodo; diritti per diritti vacillano, forze per forze vengono meno. Andiamo, via. Quando, Caio, Roma sarà tua, sarai il più povero di tutti; e allora presto sarai mio.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Menenius, Cominius, Sicinius and Brutus, the two tribunes, with others
MENENIUS	No, I’ll not go. You hear what he hath said Which was sometime his general, who loved him In a most dear particular. He called me father, But what o’ that? (To the tribunes) Go, you that banished him. A mile before his tent fall down, and knee The way into his mercy. Nay, if he coyed To hear Cominius speak, I’ll keep at home.
COMINIUS	He would not seem to know me.
MENENIUS	(to the tribunes) Do you hear?
COMINIUS	Yet one time he did call me by my name. I urged our old acquaintance and the drops That we have bled together. ‘Coriolanus’ He would not answer to, forbade all names. He was a kind of nothing, titleless, Till he had forged himself a name o’th’ fire Of burning Rome.
MENENIUS	(to the tribunes) Why, so! You have made good work. A pair of tribunes that have wracked fair Rome To make coals cheap—a noble memory!
COMINIUS	I minded him how royal ’twas to pardon When it was less expected. He replied It was a bare petition of a state To one whom they had punished.
MENENIUS	Very well. Could he say less?
COMINIUS	I offered to awaken his regard For’s private friends. His answer to me was He could not stay to pick them in a pile Of noisome, musty chaff. He said ‘twas folly, For one poor grain or two, to leave unburnt And still to nose th’offence.
MENENIUS	For one poor grain or two? I am one of those. His mother, wife, his child, And this brave fellow too—we are the grains. (To the tribunes) You are the musty chaff, and you are smelt Above the moon. We must be burnt for you.
SICINIUS	Nay, pray be patient. If you refuse your aid In this so never-needed help, yet do not Upbraid’s with our distress. But sure, if you Would be your country’s pleader, your good tongue, More than the instant army we can make, Might stop our countryman.
MENENIUS	No, I’ll not meddle.
SICINIUS	Pray you go to him.
MENENIUS	What should I do?
BRUTUS	Only make trial what your love can do For Rome towards Martius.
MENENIUS	Well, and say that Martius return me, As Cominius is returned, unheard—what then? But as a discontented friend, grief-shot With his unkindness? Say’t be so?
SICINIUS	Yet your good will Must have that thanks from Rome after the measure As you intended well.
MENENIUS	I’ll undertake’t. I think he’ll hear me. Yet to bite his lip And ’hmh’ at good Cominius much unhearts me. He was not taken well, he had not dined. The veins unfilled, our blood is cold, and then We pout upon the morning, are unapt To give or to forgive; but when we have stuffed These pipes and these conveyances of our blood With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls Than in our priest-like fasts. Therefore I’ll watch him Till he be dieted to my request, And then I’ll set upon him.
BRUTUS	You know the very road into his kindness, And cannot lose your way.
MENENIUS	Good faith, I’ll prove him. Speed how it will, I shall ere long have knowledge Of my success.
(didascalia)	Exit
COMINIUS	He’ll never hear him.
SICINIUS	Not?
COMINIUS	I tell you, he does sit in gold, his eye Red as ‘twould burn Rome, and his injury The jailer to his pity. I kneeled before him; ’Twas very faintly he said ‘Rise’, dismissed me Thus with his speechless hand. What he would do He sent in writing after me, what he would not, Bound with an oath to hold to his conditions. So that all hope is vain unless his noble mother And his wife, who as I hear mean to solicit him For mercy to his country. Therefore let’s hence, And with our fair entreaties haste them on.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Menenius, Cominius, Sicinius e Brutus, i due tribuni, con altri
MENENIUS	No, non ci andrò. Avete udito che cosa gli ha detto colui che un tempo fu il suo generale, che lo amava d’un affetto quanto mai particolare. Mi chiamava padre, ma che importa? (Ai tribuni) Andate voi, che l’avete bandito. Un miglio prima della sua tenda buttatevi giù, e strisciate in ginocchio la via fino alla sua clemenza. No, se egli fu schivo d’ascoltare Cominius, io me ne starò a casa.
COMINIUS	Non volle mostrare di conoscermi.
MENENIUS	(ai tribuni) Sentite?
COMINIUS	Pure una volta mi chiamò per nome. Gli ricordai la nostra vecchia conoscenza e le gocce che abbiamo versato insieme. A «Coriolanus» non volle rispondere, vietò ogni nome. Era una specie di nulla, senza titolo, finché non si fosse forgiato un nome nel fuoco di Roma in fiamme.
MENENIUS	(ai tribuni) Ecco, dunque! Avete fatto un bel lavoro. Un paio di tribuni che hanno rovinato la bella Roma per far costare poco il carbone—nobile memoria!
COMINIUS	Gli rammentai quanto fosse regale perdonare quando meno lo si aspettava. Rispose ch’era la nuda supplica d’uno stato a uno che essi avevano punito.
MENENIUS	Molto bene. Poteva dire di meno?
COMINIUS	Mi offersi di ridestare la sua considerazione per i suoi amici privati. La sua risposta fu che non poteva fermarsi a sceglierli in un mucchio di pula fetida e ammuffita. Disse ch’era follia, per un povero chicco o due, lasciare non bruciato e continuare a fiutare il fastidio.
MENENIUS	Per un povero chicco o due? Io sono uno di quelli. Sua madre, sua moglie, il suo figlio, e anche questo bravo uomo—noi siamo i chicchi. (Ai tribuni) Voi siete la pula ammuffita, e il vostro odore si sente sopra la luna. Dobbiamo bruciare per voi.
SICINIUS	No, vi prego, siate paziente. Se rifiutate il vostro aiuto in questo soccorso mai tanto necessario, non però rinfacciateci la nostra angustia. Ma certo, se voleste essere l’avvocato del vostro paese, la vostra buona lingua, più dell’esercito che possiamo mettere insieme sul momento, potrebbe fermare il nostro concittadino.
MENENIUS	No, non m’immischierò.
SICINIUS	Vi prego, andate da lui.
MENENIUS	Che dovrei fare?
BRUTUS	Fate solo la prova di ciò che il vostro affetto può fare per Roma presso Marzio.
MENENIUS	Bene, e mettiamo che Marzio mi rimandi, come Cominius è tornato, senza ascoltarmi—e allora? Se non come un amico scontento, trafitto dal dolore per la sua scortesia? Mettiamo che sia così?
SICINIUS	Pure la vostra buona volontà dovrà avere da Roma quel ringraziamento nella misura in cui avrete bene inteso.
MENENIUS	Lo intraprenderò. Credo che m’ascolterà. Pure il fatto che si mordesse il labbro e facesse «hm» al buon Cominius mi toglie molto animo. Non fu preso bene, non aveva pranzato. Con le vene non piene, il nostro sangue è freddo, e allora facciamo il broncio al mattino, siamo inadatti a dare o a perdonare; ma quando abbiamo riempito questi condotti e questi canali del nostro sangue di vino e di cibo, abbiamo anime più duttili che nei nostri digiuni da preti. Perciò lo spierò finché non sia messo a dieta per la mia richiesta, e allora l’assalirò.
BRUTUS	Conoscete proprio la strada che porta alla sua benevolenza, e non potete smarrirvi.
MENENIUS	In buona fede, lo metterò alla prova. Comunque vada, avrò fra non molto contezza del mio esito.
(didascalia)	Esce
COMINIUS	Non lo ascolterà mai.
SICINIUS	No?
COMINIUS	Vi dico, siede nell’oro, l’occhio rosso come volesse bruciare Roma, e la sua offesa fa da carceriere alla sua pietà. Io m’inginocchiai davanti a lui; fu con voce fiochissima che disse «Alzati», e mi congedò così, con la mano muta. Ciò che avrebbe fatto me lo mandò per iscritto dietro, e ciò che non avrebbe fatto, vincolato da un giuramento di tener fede alle sue condizioni. Sicché ogni speranza è vana, se non nella sua nobile madre e nella moglie, che a quanto sento intendono supplicarlo di pietà per il suo paese. Perciò andiamo via di qui, e con le nostre buone preghiere affrettiamole.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Menenius to the Watch or guard
FIRST WATCHMAN	Stay. Whence are you?
SECOND WATCHMAN	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.
FIRST WATCHMAN	From whence?
MENENIUS	From Rome.
FIRST WATCHMAN	You may not pass, you must return. Our general will no more hear from thence.
SECOND WATCHMAN	You’ll see your Rome embraced with fire before 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 touched your ears. It is Menenius.
FIRST WATCHMAN	Be it so; go back. The virtue of your name Is not here passable.
MENENIUS	I tell thee, fellow, Thy general is my lover. I have been The book of his good acts, whence men have read His fame unparalleled happily 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, I have tumbled past the throw, and in his praise Have almost stamped the leasing. Therefore, fellow, I must have leave to pass.
FIRST WATCHMAN	Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in his behalf as you have uttered words in your own, you 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 WATCHMAN	Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say you 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 WATCHMAN	You are a Roman, are you?
MENENIUS	I am as thy general is.
FIRST WATCHMAN	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 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 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 use me with estimation.
FIRST WATCHMAN	Come, my captain knows you not.
MENENIUS	I mean thy general.
FIRST WATCHMAN	My general cares not for you. Back, I say, go, lest I let forth your half pint of blood. Back. That’s the utmost of your having. Back.
MENENIUS	Nay, but fellow, fellow—
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus with Aufidius
CORIOLANUS	What’s the matter?
MENENIUS	(to First Watchman) Now, you companion, I’ll say an errand for you. You shall know now that I am in estimation. You shall perceive that a jack guardant cannot office me from my son Coriolanus. Guess but by my entertainment with him if thou stand‘st not i’th’ state of hanging, or of some death more long in spectatorship and crueller in suffering. Behold now 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! (Weeping) O, my son, my son, thou art preparing fire for us. Look thee, here’s 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 our gates with sighs, and conjure thee to pardon Rome and thy petitionary countrymen. The good gods assuage thy 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?
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 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, He gives him a letter Take this along. I writ it for thy sake, And would have sent it. Another word, Menenius, I will not hear thee speak.—This man, Aufidius, Was my beloved in Rome; yet thou behold’st.
AUFIDIUS	You keep a constant temper.
(didascalia)	Exeunt Coriolanus and Aufidius
FIRST WATCHMAN	Now, sir, is your name Menenius?
SECOND WATCHMAN	’Tis a spell, you see, of much power. You know the way home again.
FIRST WATCHMAN	Do you hear how we are shent for keeping your greatness back?
SECOND WATCHMAN	What cause do you think I have to swoon?
MENENIUS	I neither care for th’ world nor your general. For such things as you, I can scarce think there’s any, you’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 as I was said to, ‘Away!’
(didascalia)	Exit
FIRST WATCHMAN	A noble fellow, I warrant him.
SECOND WATCHMAN	The worthy fellow is our general. He’s the rock, the oak, not to be wind-shaken. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra Menenius presso la Guardia o sentinella
PRIMA SENTINELLA	Fermo. Da dove venite?
SECONDA SENTINELLA	Alto là, e tornate indietro.
MENENIUS	Fate buona guardia; sta bene. Ma, con vostra licenza, io sono un ufficiale dello stato, e vengo a parlare con Coriolanus.
PRIMA SENTINELLA	Da dove?
MENENIUS	Da Roma.
PRIMA SENTINELLA	Non potete passare, dovete tornare indietro. Il nostro generale non vuole più udir nulla di là.
SECONDA SENTINELLA	Vedrete la vostra Roma abbracciata dal fuoco prima che parliate con Coriolanus.
MENENIUS	Buoni amici miei, se avete udito il vostro generale parlare di Roma e dei suoi amici colà, scommetto cento contro zero che il mio nome ha toccato i vostri orecchi. È Menenius.
PRIMA SENTINELLA	Sia pure; tornate indietro. La virtù del vostro nome non è qui moneta corrente.
MENENIUS	Ti dico, amico, che il tuo generale è il mio caro amico. Io sono stato il libro delle sue belle azioni, donde gli uomini hanno letto la sua fama senza pari felicemente amplificata; ché io ho sempre attestato i miei amici, di cui egli è il primo, con tutta l’ampiezza che la verità potesse sopportare senza venir meno. Anzi, talvolta, come una boccia su un terreno insidioso, ho rotolato oltre il tiro, e nella sua lode ho quasi impresso il conio della menzogna. Perciò, amico, devo avere licenza di passare.
PRIMA SENTINELLA	In fede, signore, se aveste detto tante menzogne in suo favore quante parole avete pronunciato in vostro, non passereste di qui, no, neppure se fosse virtuoso mentire quanto vivere castamente. Perciò tornate indietro.
MENENIUS	Ti prego, amico, ricorda che il mio nome è Menenius, sempre partigiano della fazione del tuo generale.
SECONDA SENTINELLA	Comunque siate stato il suo bugiardo, come dite d’essere stato, io sono uno che, dicendo il vero sotto di lui, deve dirvi che non potete passare. Perciò tornate indietro.
MENENIUS	Ha pranzato, sai dirmelo? Ché non vorrei parlargli se non dopo pranzo.
PRIMA SENTINELLA	Siete un Romano, vero?
MENENIUS	Lo sono quanto il tuo generale.
PRIMA SENTINELLA	Allora dovreste odiare Roma come lui. Potete voi, dopo aver cacciato fuori dalle vostre porte proprio il loro difensore, e in una violenta ignoranza popolare aver dato al vostro nemico il vostro scudo, pensare di affrontare le sue vendette coi facili gemiti di vecchie donne, con le palme verginali delle vostre figlie, o con la paralitica intercessione d’un rimbambito decrepito come voi sembrate essere? Potete pensare di spegnere il fuoco già destinato, in cui la vostra città sta per divampare, con un fiato debole come questo? No, v’ingannate, perciò tornate a Roma, e preparatevi all’esecuzione. Siete condannati, il nostro generale ha giurato di escludervi da ogni tregua e perdono.
MENENIUS	Messere, se il tuo capitano sapesse che sono qui, mi tratterebbe con stima.
PRIMA SENTINELLA	Suvvia, il mio capitano non vi conosce.
MENENIUS	Intendo il tuo generale.
PRIMA SENTINELLA	Il mio generale non si cura di voi. Indietro, dico, andate, o vi faccio uscire la vostra mezza pinta di sangue. Indietro. È il massimo che otterrete. Indietro.
MENENIUS	Ma no, amico, amico—
(didascalia)	Entra Coriolanus con Aufidius
CORIOLANUS	Che succede?
MENENIUS	(alla Prima Sentinella) Ora, compare, dirò una parolina per te. Saprai adesso che io sono tenuto in stima. Ti accorgerai che un guardiano da strapazzo non può con la sua carica separarmi da mio figlio Coriolanus. Indovina solo dall’accoglienza ch’egli mi fa se non ti trovi nella condizione d’essere impiccato, o d’una morte più lunga da guardare e più crudele nel patire. Guarda dunque subito, e sviene per ciò che ti sta per capitare. (A Coriolanus) I gloriosi dèi siedano in sinodo d’ora in ora intorno alla tua particolare prosperità, e ti amino non meno di quanto ti ami il tuo vecchio padre Menenius! (Piangendo) O figlio mio, figlio mio, tu stai preparando il fuoco per noi. Guarda, ecco l’acqua per spegnerlo. A stento mi son lasciato indurre a venire da te, ma essendomi assicurato che nessuno all’infuori di me poteva commuoverti, sono stato soffiato fuori dalle nostre porte dai sospiri, e ti scongiuro di perdonare Roma e i tuoi supplici concittadini. I buoni dèi plachino la tua ira e ne rovescino la feccia su questo furfante qui, questo, che come un ceppo mi ha negato l’accesso a te!
CORIOLANUS	Via!
MENENIUS	Come? Via?
CORIOLANUS	Moglie, madre, figlio, non li conosco. I miei affari sono asserviti ad altri. Benché la mia vendetta sia propriamente mia, il mio perdono sta nei petti volsci. Che noi siamo stati intimi, l’ingrata dimenticanza lo avveleni piuttosto che la pietà ne noti quanto. Perciò vattene. I miei orecchi contro le vostre suppliche sono più forti delle vostre porte contro la mia forza. Pure, poiché ti amai, Gli dà una lettera prendi questa con te. La scrissi per amor tuo, e volevo mandartela. Un’altra parola, Menenius, e non t’ascolterò parlare.—Quest’uomo, Aufidius, era il mio diletto a Roma; eppure tu vedi.
AUFIDIUS	Mantieni un temperamento costante.
(didascalia)	Escono Coriolanus e Aufidius
PRIMA SENTINELLA	Ebbene, signore, il vostro nome è Menenius?
SECONDA SENTINELLA	È un incantesimo, vedete, di gran potere. Sapete la via per tornare a casa.
PRIMA SENTINELLA	Sentite come siamo rimproverati per aver trattenuto la vostra grandezza?
SECONDA SENTINELLA	Che motivo credete ch’io abbia di svenire?
MENENIUS	Non m’importa né del mondo né del vostro generale. Quanto a esseri come voi, a stento posso credere che esistano, tanto siete da poco. Chi ha volontà di morire di propria mano non teme la morte da un altro. Faccia pure il vostro generale il peggio che può. Quanto a voi, restate a lungo quel che siete, e la vostra miseria cresca con la vostra età. Vi dico ciò che fu detto a me: «Via!»
(didascalia)	Esce
PRIMA SENTINELLA	Un nobile uomo, ve lo garantisco.
SECONDA SENTINELLA	Il degno uomo è il nostro generale. È la rupe, la quercia, che non si lascia scuotere dal vento. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus and Aufidius, with Volscian soldiers. Coriolanus and Aufidius sit
CORIOLANUS	We will before the walls of Rome tomorrow Set down our host. My partner in this action, You must report to th’ Volscian lords how plainly I have borne this business.
AUFIDIUS	Only their ends You have respected, stopped your ears against The general suit of Rome, never admitted A private whisper, no, not with such friends That thought them sure of you.
CORIOLANUS	This last old man, Whom with a cracked heart I have sent to Rome, Loved me above the measure of a father, Nay, godded me indeed. Their latest refuge Was to send him, for whose old love I have— Though I showed sourly to him—once more offered The first conditions, which they did refuse And cannot now accept, to grace him only That thought he could do more. A very little I have yielded to. Fresh embassies and suits, Nor from the state nor private friends, hereafter Will I lend ear to.
(didascalia)	Shout within
CORIOLANUS	Ha, what shout is this? Shall I be tempted to infringe my vow In the same time ’tis made? I will not.
(didascalia)	Enter Virgilia, Volumnia, Valeria, Young Martius, with attendants
CORIOLANUS	My wife comes foremost, then the honoured mould Wherein this trunk was framed, and in her hand The grandchild to her blood. But out, affection! All bond and privilege of nature break; Let it be virtuous to be obstinate.
(didascalia)	Virgilia curtsies
CORIOLANUS	What is that curtsy worth? Or those dove’s eyes Which can make gods forsworn? I melt, and am not Of stronger earth than others. Volumnia bows My mother bows, As if Olympus to a molehill should In supplication nod; and my young boy Hath an aspect of intercession which Great nature cries ‘Deny not’.—Let the Volsces Plough Rome and harrow Italy! I’ll never Be such a gosling to obey instinct, but stand As if a man were author of himself And knew no other kin.
VIRGILIA	My lord and husband.
CORIOLANUS	These eyes are not the same I wore in Rome.
VIRGILIA	The sorrow that delivers us thus changed Makes you think so.
CORIOLANUS	Like a dull actor now I have forgot my part, and I am out Even to a full disgrace. FRisingl Best of my flesh, Forgive my tyranny, but do not say For that ‘Forgive our Romans’.
(didascalia)	viraiha kisses him
CORIOLANUS	O, a kiss Long as my exile, sweet as my revenge! Now, by the jealous queen of heaven, that kiss I carried from thee, dear, and my true lip Hath virgined it e‘er since. You gods, I prate, And the most noble mother of the world Leave unsaluted! Sink, my knee, i’th’ earth. He kneels Of thy deep duty more impression show Than that of common sons.
VOLUMNIA	O, stand up blest,
(didascalia)	Coriolanus rises
VOLUMNIA	Whilst with no softer cushion than the flint I kneel before thee, and unproperly Show duty as mistaken all this while Between the child and parent. She kneels
CORIOLANUS	What’s this? Your knees to me? To your corrected son?
(didascalia)	He raises her
CORIOLANUS	Then let the pebbles on the hungry beach Fillip the stars; then let the mutinous winds Strike the proud cedars ‘gainst the fiery sun, Murd’ring impossibility to make What cannot be slight work.
VOLUMNIA	Thou art my warrior. I holp to frame thee. Do you know this lady?
CORIOLANUS	The noble sister of Publicola, The moon of Rome, chaste as the icicle That’s candied by the frost from purest snow And hangs on Dian’s temple—dear Valeria!
VOLUMNIA	(showing Coriolanus his son) This is a poor epitome of yours, Which by th’ interpretation of full time May show like all yourself.
CORIOLANUS	(to Young Martius) The god of soldiers, With the consent of supreme Jove, inform Thy thoughts with nobleness, that thou mayst prove To shame unvulnerable, and stick i’th’ wars Like a great sea-mark standing every flaw And saving those that eye thee!
VOLUMNIA	(to Young Martius) Your knee, sirrah.
(didascalia)	Young Martius kneels
CORIOLANUS	That’s my brave boy.
VOLUMNIA	Even he, your wife, this lady, and myself Are suitors to you.
CORIOLANUS	I beseech you, peace. Or if you’d ask, remember this before: The things I have forsworn to grant may never Be held by you denials. Do not bid me Dismiss my soldiers, or capitulate Again with Rome’s mechanics. Tell me not Wherein I seem unnatural. Desire not t’allay My rages and revenges with your colder reasons.
VOLUMNIA	O, no more, no more! You have said you will not grant us anything— For we have nothing else to ask but that Which you deny already. Yet we will ask, That, if you fail in our request, the blame May hang upon your hardness. Therefore hear us.
CORIOLANUS	Aufidius and you Volsces, mark, for we’ll Hear naught from Rome in private.
(didascalia)	He sits
CORIOLANUS	Your request?
VOLUMNIA	Should we be silent and not speak, our raiment And state of bodies would bewray what life We have led since thy exile. Think with thyself How more unfortunate than all living women Are we come hither, since that thy sight, which should Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with comforts, Constrains them weep and shake with fear and sorrow, Making the mother, wife, and child to see The son, the husband, and the father tearing His country’s bowels out; and to poor we Thine enmity’s most capital. Thou barr‘st us Our prayers to the gods, which is a comfort That all but we enjoy. For how can we, Alas, how can we for our country pray, Whereto we are bound, together with thy victory, Whereto we are bound? Alack, or we must lose neo The country, our dear nurse, or else thy person, Our comfort in the country. We must find An evident calamity, though we had Our wish which side should win. For either thou Must as a foreign recreant be led With manacles thorough our streets, or else Triumphantly tread on thy country’s ruin, And bear the palm for having bravely shed Thy wife and children’s blood. For myself, son, I purpose not to wait on fortune till These wars determine. If I cannot persuade thee Rather to show a noble grace to both parts Than seek the end of one, thou shalt no sooner March to assault thy country than to tread— Trust to’t, thou shalt not—on thy mother’s womb That brought thee to this world.
VIRGILIA	Ay, and mine, That brought you forth this boy to keep your name Living to time.
YOUNG MARTIUS	A shall not tread on me. I’ll run away till I am bigger, but then I’ll fight.
CORIOLANUS	Not of a woman’s tenderness to be Requires nor child nor woman’s face to see. I have sat too long.
(didascalia)	He
(didascalia)	rises and turns away
VOLUMNIA	Nay, go not from us thus. If it were so that our request did tend To save the Romans, thereby to destroy The Volsces whom you serve, you might condemn us As poisonous of your honour. No, our suit Is that you reconcile them: while the Volsces May say ‘This mercy we have showed’, the Romans ‘This we received’, and each in either side Give the all-hail to thee and cry ‘Be blest For making up this peace!’ Thou know‘st, great son, The end of war’s uncertain; but this certain, That if thou conquer Rome, the benefit Which thou shalt thereby reap is such a name Whose repetition will be dogged with curses, Whose chronicle thus writ: ‘The man was noble, But with his last attempt he wiped it out, Destroyed his country, and his name remains To th’ ensuing age abhorred.’ Speak to me, son. Thou hast affected the fine strains of honour, To imitate the graces of the gods, To tear with thunder the wide cheeks o’th’ air, And yet to charge thy sulphur with a bolt That should but rive an oak. Why dost not speak? Think‘st thou it honourable for a noble man Still to remember wrongs? Daughter, speak you, He cares not for your weeping. Speak thou, boy. Perhaps thy childishness will move him more Than can our reasons. There’s no man in the world More bound to’s mother, yet here he lets me prate Like one i’th’ stocks. Thou hast never in thy life Showed thy dear mother any courtesy, When she, poor hen, fond of no second brood, Has clucked thee to the wars and safely home, Loaden with honour. Say my request’s unjust, And spurn me back. But if it be not so, Thou art not honest, and the gods will plague thee That thou restrain‘st from me the duty which To a mother’s part belongs.—He turns away. Down, ladies. Let us shame him with our knees. To his surname ‘Coriolanus’ ’longs more pride Than pity to our prayers. Down! An end. This is the last. The ladies and Young Martius kneel So we will home to Rome, And die among our neighbours.—Nay, behold’s. This boy, that cannot tell what he would have, But kneels and holds up hands for fellowship, Does reason our petition with more strength Than thou hast to deny’t.—Come, let us go. This fellow had a Volscian to his mother. His wife is in Codoles, and this child Like him by chance.—Yet give us our dispatch. I am hushed until our city be afire, And then I’ll speak a little. He holds her by the hand, silent
CORIOLANUS	O mother, mother! What have you done? Behold, the heavens do ope, The gods look down, and this unnatural scene They laugh at. O my mother, mother, O! You have won a happy victory to Rome; But for your son, believe it, O believe it, Most dangerously you have with him prevailed, If not most mortal to him. But let it come.
(didascalia)	The ladies and Young Martius rise
CORIOLANUS	Aufidius, though I cannot make true wars, I’ll frame convenient peace. Now, good Aufidius, Were you in my stead would you have heard A mother less, or granted less, Aufidius?
AUFIDIUS	I was moved withal.
CORIOLANUS	I dare be sworn you were. And, sir, it is no little thing to make Mine eyes to sweat compassion. But, good sir, What peace you’ll make, advise me. For my part, I’ll not to Rome; I’ll back with you, and pray you Stand to me in this cause.—O mother! Wife!
AUFIDIUS	(aside) I am glad thou hast set thy mercy and thy honour At difference in thee. Out of that I’ll work Myself a former fortune.
CORIOLANUS	(to Volumnia and Virgilia) Ay, by and by. But we will drink together, and you shall bear A better witness back than words, which we On like conditions will have counter-sealed. Come, enter with us. Ladies, you deserve To have a temple built you. All the swords In Italy, and her confederate arms, Could not have made this peace.
(didascalia)	Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Coriolanus e Aufidius, con soldati volsci. Coriolanus e Aufidius si siedono
CORIOLANUS	Domani, davanti alle mura di Roma, accamperemo il nostro esercito. Compagno mio in quest’impresa, dovrete riferire ai signori volsci con quanta lealtà io abbia condotto questa faccenda.
AUFIDIUS	Solo i loro fini avete riguardato, avete chiuso gli orecchi alla supplica generale di Roma, non avete mai ammesso un sussurro privato, no, nemmeno con quegli amici che si credevano sicuri di voi.
CORIOLANUS	Quest’ultimo vecchio, che con cuore spezzato ho rimandato a Roma, mi amava oltre la misura d’un padre, anzi, mi faceva addirittura un dio. Il loro estremo rifugio era mandare lui, e per il suo vecchio affetto ho— benché mi sia mostrato aspro con lui—offerto ancora una volta le prime condizioni, che essi rifiutarono e che ora non possono accettare, solo per far grazia a lui che pensava di poter fare di più. Ben poco ho concesso. A nuove ambascerie e suppliche, né dallo stato né da amici privati, d’ora innanzi presterò orecchio.
(didascalia)	Grida all’interno
CORIOLANUS	Ah, che grida son queste? Sarò tentato d’infrangere il mio voto nel momento stesso in cui è fatto? Non lo farò.
(didascalia)	Entrano Virgilia, Volumnia, Valeria, il giovane Marzio, con seguito
CORIOLANUS	Mia moglie viene per prima, poi lo stampo onorato in cui questo tronco fu formato, e per mano il nipote del suo sangue. Ma via, affetto! Si spezzi ogni vincolo e privilegio di natura; sia virtù essere ostinato.
(didascalia)	Virgilia fa una riverenza
CORIOLANUS	Quanto vale quella riverenza? O quegli occhi di colomba che possono far spergiurare gli dèi? Io mi struggo, e non sono di terra più forte degli altri. Volumnia s’inchina Mia madre s’inchina, come se l’Olimpo a un formicaio facesse cenno di supplica; e il mio piccolo ha un’aria d’intercessione a cui la grande natura grida «Non negare».—Che i Volsci arino Roma ed erpichino l’Italia! Non sarò mai tale papero da obbedire all’istinto, ma starò come se un uomo fosse autore di sé stesso e non conoscesse altra parentela.
VIRGILIA	Mio signore e marito.
CORIOLANUS	Questi occhi non sono gli stessi che portavo a Roma.
VIRGILIA	È il dolore che ci consegna così mutate a farvelo credere.
CORIOLANUS	Come un attore inetto ora ho dimenticato la mia parte, e sono fuori fino alla piena vergogna. FRisingl Migliore della mia carne, perdona la mia tirannia, ma non dire per questo «Perdona i nostri Romani».
(didascalia)	viraiha lo bacia
CORIOLANUS	Oh, un bacio lungo come il mio esilio, dolce come la mia vendetta! Ora, per la gelosa regina del cielo, quel bacio lo portai via da te, cara, e il mio labbro fedele l’ha custodito vergine da allora. O dèi, io ciarlo, e la più nobile madre del mondo lascio non salutata! Affondati, ginocchio mio, nella terra. S’inginocchia Del tuo profondo dovere mostra impronta più forte di quella dei figli comuni.
VOLUMNIA	Oh, alzati benedetto,
(didascalia)	Coriolanus si alza
VOLUMNIA	mentre io, con cuscino non più molle della selce, m’inginocchio davanti a te, e impropriamente mostro un dovere scambiato per tutto questo tempo fra il figlio e il genitore. S’inginocchia
CORIOLANUS	Che cos’è questo? Voi in ginocchio davanti a me? Al vostro figlio corretto?
(didascalia)	La rialza
CORIOLANUS	Allora i ciottoli della spiaggia affamata diano una schicchera alle stelle; allora i venti ammutinati scaglino i superbi cedri contro il sole di fuoco, uccidendo l’impossibilità per rendere facile impresa ciò che non può essere.
VOLUMNIA	Tu sei il mio guerriero. Io ho contribuito a plasmarti. Conosci questa signora?
CORIOLANUS	La nobile sorella di Publicola, la luna di Roma, casta come il ghiacciolo che il gelo candisce dalla più pura neve e pende dal tempio di Diana—cara Valeria!
VOLUMNIA	(mostrando a Coriolanus suo figlio) Questo è un povero compendio di te, che per l’interpretazione del pieno tempo potrà apparire tutto simile a te.
CORIOLANUS	(al giovane Marzio) Il dio dei soldati, col consenso del sommo Giove, informi i tuoi pensieri di nobiltà, sì che tu possa mostrarti invulnerabile alla vergogna, e stare nelle guerre come un grande faro che regge ogni raffica e salva coloro che ti guardano!
VOLUMNIA	(al giovane Marzio) Il ginocchio, ragazzo.
(didascalia)	Il giovane Marzio s’inginocchia
CORIOLANUS	Ecco il mio bravo ragazzo.
VOLUMNIA	Lui stesso, tua moglie, questa signora e io siamo supplici davanti a te.
CORIOLANUS	Vi supplico, silenzio. O, se volete chiedere, ricordate prima questo: le cose che ho giurato di non concedere non potranno mai essere da voi tenute per rifiuti. Non chiedetemi di congedare i miei soldati, o di capitolare di nuovo con gli artigiani di Roma. Non ditemi in che cosa io sembri snaturato. Non cercate di placare le mie ire e vendette con le vostre ragioni più fredde.
VOLUMNIA	Oh, basta, basta! Hai detto che non ci concederai nulla— ché non abbiamo altro da chiedere se non ciò che tu già neghi. Pure chiederemo, affinché, se ci manchi nella richiesta, la colpa possa pendere sulla tua durezza. Perciò ascoltaci.
CORIOLANUS	Aufidius e voi Volsci, udite, ché non vogliamo udir nulla da Roma in privato.
(didascalia)	Si siede
CORIOLANUS	La vostra richiesta?
VOLUMNIA	Se anche tacessimo e non parlassimo, le nostre vesti e lo stato dei nostri corpi tradirebbero quale vita abbiamo condotto dal tuo esilio. Pensa fra te quanto più sventurate di tutte le donne viventi siamo venute qui, giacché la tua vista, che dovrebbe far scorrere di gioia i nostri occhi, far danzare i cuori di conforti, li costringe a piangere e a tremare di paura e dolore, facendo che la madre, la moglie e il figlio vedano il figlio, il marito e il padre strappare le viscere del suo paese; e per noi misere la tua inimicizia è quanto mai capitale. Tu ci sbarri le preghiere agli dèi, che è un conforto di cui tutti godono fuorché noi. Ché come possiamo, ahimè, come possiamo pregare per il nostro paese, a cui siamo legate, e insieme per la tua vittoria, a cui siamo legate? Ahimè, o dobbiamo perdere neo il paese, nostra cara nutrice, oppure la tua persona, nostro conforto nel paese. Dobbiamo trovare un’evidente calamità, anche se avessimo il nostro desiderio su quale parte debba vincere. Ché o tu dovrai, come rinnegato straniero, essere condotto in manette per le nostre strade, oppure calpestare trionfante la rovina del tuo paese, e portare la palma per aver bravamente versato il sangue di tua moglie e dei tuoi figli. Quanto a me, figlio, non intendo attendere la fortuna finché queste guerre si decidano. Se non riesco a persuaderti a mostrare piuttosto una nobile grazia a entrambe le parti che a cercare la fine dell’una, non muoverai ad assalire il tuo paese senza prima calpestare— credilo pure, non lo farai—il grembo di tua madre che ti portò in questo mondo.
VIRGILIA	Sì, e il mio, che vi partorì questo bambino per mantenere il vostro nome vivo nel tempo.
GIOVANE MARZIO	Non calpesterà me. Scapperò via finché non sarò più grande, ma poi combatterò.
CORIOLANUS	Per non essere di tenerezza femminile non bisogna guardare volto di bimbo né di donna. Sono rimasto seduto troppo a lungo.
(didascalia)	Egli
(didascalia)	si alza e si volta via
VOLUMNIA	No, non allontanarti così da noi. Se fosse che la nostra richiesta mirasse a salvare i Romani, e con ciò a distruggere i Volsci che tu servi, potresti condannarci come velenose per il tuo onore. No, la nostra supplica è che tu li riconcili: sì che i Volsci possano dire «Questa clemenza abbiamo mostrato», e i Romani «Questa abbiamo ricevuta», e ciascuno da entrambe le parti ti dia il saluto e gridi «Sii benedetto per aver concluso questa pace!» Tu sai, gran figlio, che la fine della guerra è incerta; ma questo è certo, che se conquisti Roma, il beneficio che ne ricaverai è un nome la cui ripetizione sarà inseguita da maledizioni, la cui cronaca sarà scritta così: «L’uomo era nobile, ma con l’ultima impresa cancellò tutto, distrusse il suo paese, e il suo nome resta all’età seguente aborrito.» Parlami, figlio. Tu hai aspirato alle fini corde dell’onore, a imitare le grazie degli dèi, a squarciare col tuono le larghe guance dell’aria, e pure a caricare il tuo zolfo d’un fulmine che non facesse che spaccare una quercia. Perché non parli? Credi tu onorevole per un uomo nobile ricordare sempre le offese? Figlia, parla tu, egli non si cura del tuo pianto. Parla tu, ragazzo. Forse la tua fanciullezza lo commuoverà più di quanto possano le nostre ragioni. Non c’è uomo al mondo più obbligato a sua madre, eppure qui mi lascia ciarlare come una messa alla berlina. Tu non hai mai in vita tua mostrato alla tua cara madre alcuna cortesia, mentre lei, povera chioccia, non desiderosa d’altra covata, ti ha chiocciato alle guerre e a casa salvo, carico d’onore. Di’ che la mia richiesta è ingiusta, e ricacciami indietro con un calcio. Ma se non è così, tu non sei onesto, e gli dèi ti flagelleranno perché mi neghi il dovere che alla parte d’una madre appartiene.—Egli si volta via. A terra, signore. Facciamogli vergogna con le nostre ginocchia. Al suo soprannome «Coriolanus» appartiene più orgoglio che pietà per le nostre preghiere. A terra! Finiamola. Questa è l’ultima volta. Le signore e il giovane Marzio s’inginocchiano Così ce ne torneremo a casa a Roma, e moriremo fra i nostri vicini.—No, guardaci. Questo bambino, che non sa dire ciò che vorrebbe, ma s’inginocchia e alza le mani per solidarietà, argomenta la nostra supplica con più forza di quanta tu ne abbia per negarla.—Su, andiamocene. Costui ebbe una Volsca per madre. Sua moglie è a Codoles, e questo figlio gli somiglia per caso.—Eppure congedaci. Io taccio finché la nostra città non sia in fiamme, e allora parlerò un poco. Egli la tiene per mano, in silenzio
CORIOLANUS	O madre, madre! Che avete fatto? Guardate, i cieli si aprono, gli dèi guardano giù, e di questa scena snaturata ridono. O madre mia, madre, oh! Avete vinto una felice vittoria per Roma; ma quanto a vostro figlio, credetelo, oh credetelo, l’avete vinto in modo quanto mai pericoloso per lui, se non addirittura mortale. Ma venga pure.
(didascalia)	Le signore e il giovane Marzio si alzano
CORIOLANUS	Aufidius, benché io non possa fare vere guerre, farò una pace conveniente. Ora, buon Aufidius, foste voi al mio posto, avreste ascoltato meno una madre, o concesso meno, Aufidius?
AUFIDIUS	Anch’io ne fui commosso.
CORIOLANUS	Oso giurare che lo foste. E, signore, non è cosa da poco far sì che i miei occhi sudino compassione. Ma, buon signore, quale pace farete, consigliatemi. Per parte mia, non andrò a Roma; tornerò con voi, e vi prego di sostenermi in questa causa.—O madre! Moglie!
AUFIDIUS	(a parte) Son lieto che tu abbia messo la tua clemenza e il tuo onore in contrasto dentro di te. Da ciò mi lavorerò una fortuna come quella d’un tempo.
CORIOLANUS	(a Volumnia e Virgilia) Sì, fra poco. Ma berremo insieme, e voi riporterete indietro una testimonianza migliore delle parole, che noi a pari condizioni faremo controsigillare. Venite, entrate con noi. Signore, voi meritate che vi si edifichi un tempio. Tutte le spade d’Italia, e le sue armi confederate, non avrebbero potuto fare questa pace.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Menenius and Sicinius
MENENIUS	See you yon coign o’th’ Capitol, yon corner-stone?
SICINIUS	Why, what of that?
MENENIUS	If it be possible for you to displace it with your little finger, there is some hope the ladies of Rome, especially his mother, may prevail with him. But I say there is no hope in’t, our throats are sentenced and stay upon execution.
SICINIUS	Is’t possible that so short a time can alter the condition of a man?
MENENIUS	There is differency between a grub and a butterfly, yet your butterfly was a grub. This Martius is grown from man to dragon. He has wings, he’s more than a creeping thing.
SICINIUS	He loved his mother dearly.
MENENIUS	So did he me, and he no more remembers his mother now than an eight-year old horse. The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes. When he walks, he moves like an engine, and the ground shrinks before his treading. He is able to pierce a corslet with his eye, talks like a knell, and his ‘hmh!’ is a battery. He sits in his state as a thing made for Alexander. What he bids be done is finished with his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but eternity and a heaven to throne in.
SICINIUS	Yes: mercy, if you report him truly.
MENENIUS	I paint him in the character. Mark what mercy his mother shall bring from him. There is no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male tiger. That shall our poor city find; and all this is ’long of you. SICINIUS The gods be good unto us!
VIENENIUS	No, in such a case the gods will not be good unto us. When we banished him we respected not them, and, he returning to break our necks, they respect not us.
(didascalia)	Enter a Messenger
MESSENGER	(to Sicinius) Sir, if you’d save your life, fly to your house. The plebeians have got your fellow tribune And hale him up and down, all swearing if The Roman ladies bring not comfort home They’ll give him death by inches.
(didascalia)	Enter another Messenger
SICINIUS	What’s the news?
SECOND MESSENGER	Good news, good news. The ladies have prevailed, The Volscians are dislodged, and Martius gone. A merrier day did never yet greet Rome, No, not th’expulsion of the Tarquins.
SICINIUS	Friend, Art thou certain this is true? Is’t most certain?
SECOND MESSENGER	As certain as I know the sun is fire. Where have you lurked that you make doubt of it? Ne’er through an arch so hurried the blown tide As the recomforted through th’ gates.
(didascalia)	Trumpets, hautboys, drums, beat all together
SECOND MESSENGER	Why, hark you, The trumpets, sackbuts, psalteries, and fifes, Tabors and cymbals and the shouting Romans Make the sun dance. A shout within Hark you!
MENENIUS	This is good news. I will go meet the ladies. This Volumnia Is worth of consuls, senators, patricians, A city full; of tribunes such as you, A sea and land full. You have prayed well today. This morning for ten thousand of your throats I’d not have given a doit.
(didascalia)	Music sounds still with the shouts
MENENIUS	Hark how they joy!
SICINIUS	(to the Messenger) First, the gods bless you for your tidings. Next,
(didascalia)	Giving money Accept my thankfulness.
SECOND MESSENGER	Sir, we have all great cause to give great thanks.
SICINIUS	They are near the city.
SECOND MESSENGER	Almost at point to enter.
SICINIUS	We’ll meet them, and help the joy.
(didascalia)	Exeunt
(didascalia)	5.5 Enter at one door Lords and Citizens, at another door two Senators with the ladies Volumnia, Virgilia, and Valeria, passing over the stage
SICINIUS	A SENATOR Behold our patroness, the life of Rome! Call all your tribes together, praise the gods, And make triumphant fires. Strew flowers before them. Unshout the noise that banished Martius, Repeal him with the welcome of his mother. Cry ‘Welcome, ladies, welcome!’
ALL	Welcome, ladies, welcome!
(didascalia)	A flourish with drums and trumpets. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano Menenius e Sicinius
MENENIUS	Vedete quello spigolo del Campidoglio, quella pietra angolare?
SICINIUS	Ebbene, che c’entra?
MENENIUS	Se vi è possibile smuoverla col vostro mignolo, c’è qualche speranza che le donne di Roma, e specialmente sua madre, possano ottenere qualcosa da lui. Ma io dico che non c’è speranza alcuna: le nostre gole sono condannate e attendono l’esecuzione.
SICINIUS	È possibile che così poco tempo possa mutare la condizione d’un uomo?
MENENIUS	C’è differenza fra un bruco e una farfalla, eppure la vostra farfalla fu un bruco. Questo Marzio è cresciuto da uomo a drago. Ha le ali, è più di una cosa strisciante.
SICINIUS	Amava teneramente sua madre.
MENENIUS	E così amava me, e ora non si ricorda di sua madre più di quanto se ne ricordi un cavallo di otto anni. L’asprezza del suo volto inacidisce l’uva matura. Quando cammina, si muove come una macchina, e il suolo s’incurva sotto il suo passo. È capace di trapassare una corazza con lo sguardo, parla come una campana a morto, e il suo «hm!» è una cannonata. Siede in trono come una cosa fatta per Alessandro. Ciò che ordina di fare è compiuto col suo ordine stesso. Non gli manca nulla d’un dio se non l’eternità e un cielo dove regnare.
SICINIUS	Sì: la clemenza, se lo ritraete fedelmente.
MENENIUS	Lo dipingo secondo il suo carattere. Notate che clemenza sua madre otterrà da lui. Non c’è più clemenza in lui di quanto ci sia latte in una tigre maschio. Questo lo scoprirà la nostra povera città; e tutto ciò è per colpa vostra. SICINIUS Gli dèi ci siano propizi!
VIENENIUS	No, in un caso simile gli dèi non ci saranno propizi. Quando lo bandimmo non li rispettammo, e ora che egli torna a spezzarci il collo, essi non rispettano noi.
(didascalia)	Entra un Messaggero
MESSAGGERO	(a Sicinius) Signore, se volete salvare la vita, fuggite alla vostra casa. I plebei hanno preso il vostro collega tribuno e lo trascinano su e giù, giurando tutti che se le dame romane non riportano conforto a casa gli daranno la morte a pollice a pollice.
(didascalia)	Entra un altro Messaggero
SICINIUS	Che notizie?
SECONDO MESSAGGERO	Buone notizie, buone notizie. Le dame hanno vinto, i Volsci hanno tolto il campo, e Marzio se n’è andato. Giorno più lieto non salutò mai Roma, no, nemmeno la cacciata dei Tarquini.
SICINIUS	Amico, sei certo che questo sia vero? È certissimo?
SECONDO MESSAGGERO	Certo come so che il sole è fuoco. Dove vi siete rintanato, per dubitarne? Mai marea gonfia si precipitò sotto un arco come i riconfortati attraverso le porte.
(didascalia)	Trombe, oboi, tamburi, tutti insieme
SECONDO MESSAGGERO	Ma udite, le trombe, i tromboni, i salteri e i pifferi, i tamburelli e i cembali e i Romani che gridano fanno danzare il sole. Grida all’interno Udite!
MENENIUS	Questa è buona notizia. Andrò incontro alle dame. Questa Volumnia vale consoli, senatori, patrizi, una città intera; di tribuni come voi, un mare e una terra intera. Avete pregato bene oggi. Stamattina per diecimila delle vostre gole non avrei dato un soldo.
(didascalia)	La musica continua a suonare insieme alle grida
MENENIUS	Udite come gioiscono!
SICINIUS	(al Messaggero) Anzitutto, gli dèi ti benedicano per le tue notizie. Poi,
(didascalia)	Dandogli del denaro Accetta la mia gratitudine.
SECONDO MESSAGGERO	Signore, abbiamo tutti gran motivo di rendere gran grazie.
SICINIUS	Sono vicine alla città.
SECONDO MESSAGGERO	Quasi sul punto d’entrare.
SICINIUS	Andremo loro incontro, e accresceremo la gioia.
(didascalia)	Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter at one door Lords and Citizens, at another door two Senators with the ladies Volumnia, Virgilia, and Valeria, passing over the stage
SICINIUS	A SENATOR Behold our patroness, the life of Rome! Call all your tribes together, praise the gods, And make triumphant fires. Strew flowers before them. Unshout the noise that banished Martius, Repeal him with the welcome of his mother. Cry ‘Welcome, ladies, welcome!’
ALL	Welcome, ladies, welcome!
(didascalia)	A flourish with drums and trumpets. Exeunt

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entrano da una porta Signori e Cittadini, da un’altra porta due Senatori con le dame Volumnia, Virgilia e Valeria, attraversando la scena
SICINIUS	UN SENATORE Ecco la nostra patrona, la vita di Roma! Chiamate a raccolta tutte le vostre tribù, lodate gli dèi, e accendete fuochi trionfali. Spargete fiori davanti a loro. Disdite col grido il clamore che bandì Marzio, richiamatelo col benvenuto di sua madre. Gridate «Benvenute, signore, benvenute!»
TUTTI	Benvenute, signore, benvenute!
(didascalia)	Squillo di tamburi e trombe. Escono

Speaker	Line
(didascalia)	Enter Tullus Aufidius with attendants
AUFIDIUS	Go tell the lords o‘th’ city I am here. Deliver them this paper. Having read it, Bid them repair to th’ market-place, where I, Even in theirs and in the commons’ ears, Will vouch the truth of it. Him I accuse The city ports by this hath entered, and Intends t’appear before the people, hoping To purge himself with words. Dispatch.
(didascalia)	Exeunt attendants
(didascalia)	Enter three or four Conspirators of Aufidius’ faction
AUFIDIUS	Most welcome.
FIRST CONSPIRATOR	How is it with our general?
AUFIDIUS	Even so As with a man by his own alms impoisoned, And with his charity slain.
SECOND CONSPIRATOR	Most noble sir, If you do hold the same intent wherein You wished us parties, we’ll deliver you Of your great danger.
AUFIDIUS	Sir, I cannot tell. We must proceed as we do find the people.
THIRD CONSPIRATOR	The people will remain uncertain whilst ’Twixt you there’s difference, but the fall of either Makes the survivor heir of all.
AUFIDIUS	I know it, And my pretext to strike at him admits A good construction. I raised him, and I pawned Mine honour for his truth; who being so heightened, He watered his new plants with dews of flattery, Seducing so my friends; and to this end He bowed his nature, never known before But to be rough, unswayable, and free.
THIRD CONSPIRATOR	Sir, his stoutness When he did stand for consul, which he lost By lack of stooping—
AUFIDIUS	That I would have spoke of. Being banished for’t, he came unto my hearth, Presented to my knife his throat. I took him, Made him joint-servant with me, gave him way In all his own desires; nay, let him choose Out of my files, his projects to accomplish, My best and freshest men; served his designments In mine own person, holp to reap the fame Which he did end all his, and took some pride To do myself this wrong, till at the last I seemed his follower, not partner, and He waged me with his countenance as if I had been mercenary.
FIRST CONSPIRATOR	So he did, my lord. The army marvelled at it, and in the last, When he had carried Rome and that we looked For no less spoil than glory—
AUFIDIUS	There was it, For which my sinews shall be stretched upon him. At a few drops of women’s rheum, which are As cheap as lies, he sold the blood and labour Of our great action; therefore shall he die, And I’ll renew me in his fall.
(didascalia)	Drums and trumpets sound, with great shouts of the people
AUFIDIUS	But hark.
FIRST CONSPIRATOR	Your native town you entered like a post, And had no welcomes home; but he returns Splitting the air with noise.
SECOND CONSPIRATOR	And patient fools, Whose children he hath slain, their base throats tear With giving him glory.
THIRD CONSPIRATOR	Therefore, at your vantage, Ere he express himself or move the people With what he would say, let him feel your sword, Which we will second. When he lies along, After your way his tale pronounced shall bury His reasons with his body.
(didascalia)	Enter the Lords of the city
AUFIDIUS	Say no more. Here come the lords.
ALL THE LORDS	You are most welcome home.
AUFIDIUS	I have not deserved it. But, worthy lords, have you with heed perused What I have written to you?
ALL THE LORDS	We have.
FIRST LORD	And grieve to hear’t. What faults he made before the last, I think Might have found easy fines. But there to end Where he was to begin, and give away The benefit of our levies, answering us With our own charge, making a treaty where There was a yielding—this admits no excuse.
AUFIDIUS	He approaches. You shall hear him.
(didascalia)	Enter Coriolanus marching with drum and colours, the Commoners being with him
CORIOLANUS	Hail, lords! I am returned your soldier, No more infected with my country’s love Than when I parted hence, but still subsisting Under your great command. You are to know That prosperously I have attempted, and With bloody passage led your wars even to The gates of Rome. Our spoils we have brought home Doth more than counterpoise a full third part The charges of the action. We have made peace With no less honour to the Antiates Than shame to th’ Romans. And we here deliver, Subscribed by th’ consuls and patricians, Together with the seal o’th’ senate, what We have compounded on. He gives the Lords a paper
AUFIDIUS	Read it not, noble lords, But tell the traitor in the highest degree He hath abused your powers.
CORIOLANUS	Traitor? How now?
AUFIDIUS	Ay, traitor, Martius.
CORIOLANUS	Martius?
AUFIDIUS	Ay, Martius, Caius Martius. Dost thou think I’ll grace thee with that robbery, thy stol’n name, ‘Coriolanus’, in Corioles? You lords and heads o‘th’ state, perfidiously He has betrayed your business, and given up, For certain drops of salt, your city, Rome— I say your city—to his wife and mother, Breaking his oath and resolution like A twist of rotten silk, never admitting Counsel o’th’ war. But at his nurse’s tears He whined and roared away your victory, That pages blushed at him, and men of heart Looked wond’ring each at others.
CORIOLANUS	Hear’st thou, Mars?
AUFIDIUS	Name not the god, thou boy of tears.
CORIOLANUS	Ha?
AUFIDIUS	No more.
CORIOLANUS	Measureless liar, thou hast made my heart Too great for what contains it. ‘Boy’? O slave!— Pardon me, lords, ’tis the first time that ever I was forced to scold. Your judgements, my grave lords, Must give this cur the lie, and his own notion— Who wears my stripes impressed upon him, that Must bear my beating to his grave—shall join To thrust the lie unto him.
FIRST LORD	Peace both, and hear me speak.
CORIOLANUS	Cut me to pieces, Volsces. Men and lads, Stain all your edges on me. ‘Boy’! False hound, If you have writ your annals true, ‘tis there That, like an eagle in a dove-cote, I Fluttered your Volscians in Corioles. Alone I did it. ‘Boy’!
AUFIDIUS	Why, noble lords, Will you be put in mind of his blind fortune, Which was your shame, by this unholy braggart, Fore your own eyes and ears?
ALL THE CONSPIRATORS	Let him die for’t.
(didascalia)	ALL THE PEOPLE shouting dispersedly
ALL THE CONSPIRATORS	Tear him to pieces! Do it presently! He killed my son! My daughter! He killed my cousin Marcus! He killed my father!
SECOND LORD	Peace, ho! No outrage, peace. The man is noble, and his fame folds in This orb o’th’ earth. His last offences to us Shall have judicious hearing. Stand, Aufidius, And trouble not the peace.
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS drawing his sword
SECOND LORD	O that I had him with six Aufidiuses, Or more, his tribe, to use my lawful sword!
(didascalia)	AUFIDIUS drawing his sword
SECOND LORD	Insolent villain!
ALL THE CONSPIRATORS	Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill him!
(didascalia)	Two Conspirators draw and kill Martius, who falls. Aufidius and Conspirators stand on him
LORDS	Hold, hold, hold, hold!
AUFIDIUS	My noble masters, hear me speak.
FIRST LORD	O Tullus!
SECOND LORD	(to Aufidius) Thou hast done a deed whereat Valour will weep.
(didascalia)	THIRD LORD to Aufidius and the Conspirators
SECOND LORD	Tread not upon him, masters. All be quiet. Put up your swords.
AUFIDIUS	My lords, When you shall know—as in this rage Provoked by him you cannot—the great danger Which this man’s life did owe you, you’ll rejoice That he is thus cut off. Please it your honours To call me to your senate, I’ll deliver Myself your loyal servant, or endure Your heaviest censure.
FIRST LORD	Bear from hence his body, And mourn you for him. Let him be regarded As the most noble corpse that ever herald Did follow to his urn.
SECOND LORD	His own impatience Takes from Aufidius a great part of blame. Let’s make the best of it.
AUFIDIUS	My rage is gone, And I am struck with sorrow. Take him up. Help three o’th’ chiefest soldiers; I’ll be one. Beat thou the drum, that it speak mournfully. Trail your steel pikes. Though in this city he Hath widowed and unchilded many a one, Which to this hour bewail the injury, Yet he shall have a noble memory. Assist. A dead march sounded. Exeunt bearing the body of Martius
THE	astrologer Simon Forman saw The Winter’s Tale at the Globe on 15 May 1611. Just how much earlier the play was written is not certainly known. During the sheep-shearing feast in Act 4, twelve countrymen perform a satyrs’ dance that three of them are said to have already ‘danced before the King’. This is not necessarily a topical reference, but satyrs danced in Ben Jonson’s Masque of Oberon, performed before King James on 1 January 1611. It seems likely that this dance was incorporated in The Winter’s Tale (just as, later, another masque dance seems to have been transferred to The Two Noble Kinsmen). But it occurs in a self-contained passage that may well have been added after Shakespeare wrote the play itself. The Winter’s Tale, first printed in the 1623 Folio, is usually thought to have been written after Cymbeline, but stylistic evidence places it before that play, perhaps in 1609-10. A mid sixteenth-century book classes ‘winter tales’ along with ‘old wives’ tales‘; Shakespeare’s title prepared his audiences for a tale of romantic improbability, one to be wondered at rather than believed; and within the play itself characters compare its events to ‘an old tale’ (5.2.61; 5.3.118). The comparison is just: Shakespeare is dramatizing a story by his old rival Robert Greene, published as Pandosto: The Triumph of Time in or before 1588. This gave Shakespeare his plot outline, of a king (Leontes) who believes his wife (Hermione) to have committed adultery with another king (Polixenes), his boyhood friend, and who casts off his new-born daughter (Perdita—the lost one) in the belief that she is his friend’s bastard. In both versions the baby is brought up as a shepherdess, falls in love with her supposed father’s son (Florizel in the play), and returns to her real father’s court where she is at last recognized as his daughter. In both versions, too, the wife’s innocence is demonstrated by the pronouncement of the Delphic oracle, and her husband passes the period of his daughter’s absence in penitence; but Shakespeare alters the ending of his source story, bringing it into line with the conventions of romance. He adopts Greene’s tripartite structure, but greatly develops it, adding for instance Leontes’ steward Antigonus and his redoubtable wife Paulina, along with the comic rogue Autolycus, ‘snapper-up of unconsidered trifles’. The intensity of poetic suffering with which Leontes expresses his irrational jealousy is matched by the lyrical rapture of the love episodes between Florizel and Perdita. In both verse and prose The Winter’s Tale shows Shakespeare’s verbal powers at their greatest, and his theatrical mastery is apparent in, for example, Hermione’s trial (3.1) and the daring final scene in which time brings about its triumph.
THE PERSONS OF THE	PLAY LEONTES, King of Sicily HERMIONE, his wife MAMILLIUS, his son PERDITA, his daughter PAULINA, Antigonus’s wife EMILIA, a lady attending on Hermione A JAILER A MARINER Other Lords and Gentlemen, Ladies, Officers, and Servants at Leontes’s court POLIXENES, King of Bohemia FLORIZEL, his son, in love with Perdita; known as Doricles ARCHIDAMUS, a Bohemian lord AUTOLYCUS, a rogue, once in the service of Florizel
OLD SHEPHERD	CLOWN, his son
SERVANT	of the Old Shepherd Other Shepherds and Shepherdesses Twelve countrymen disguised as satyrs TIME, as chorus

Chi parla	Battuta
(didascalia)	Entra Tullo Aufidius con il seguito
AUFIDIUS	Andate a dire ai signori della città che sono qui. Consegnate loro questo foglio. Dopo averlo letto, invitateli a recarsi alla piazza del mercato, dove io, proprio ai loro orecchi e a quelli del popolo, ne attesterò la verità. Colui che accuso ha ormai varcato le porte della città, e intende presentarsi davanti al popolo, sperando di discolparsi con le parole. Sbrigatevi.
(didascalia)	Esce il seguito
(didascalia)	Entrano tre o quattro Congiurati della fazione di Aufidius
AUFIDIUS	Siate i benvenuti.
PRIMO CONGIURATO	Come sta il nostro generale?
AUFIDIUS	Proprio come un uomo avvelenato dalle sue stesse elemosine, e ucciso dalla propria carità.
SECONDO CONGIURATO	Nobilissimo signore, se conservate lo stesso proposito in cui ci volevate partecipi, vi libereremo dal vostro grande pericolo.
AUFIDIUS	Signore, non saprei dire. Dobbiamo procedere secondo come troveremo il popolo.
TERZO CONGIURATO	Il popolo resterà incerto finché fra voi ci sarà divergenza; ma la caduta dell’uno fa del superstite l’erede di tutto.
AUFIDIUS	Lo so, e il mio pretesto per colpirlo ammette una buona interpretazione. Io lo innalzai, e impegnai il mio onore per la sua lealtà; ed egli, così elevato, innaffiò le sue nuove piante con la rugiada dell’adulazione, seducendo così i miei amici; e a questo fine piegò la sua natura, mai conosciuta prima se non come ruvida, indomabile e schietta.
TERZO CONGIURATO	Signore, la sua fierezza quando si candidò a console, cosa che perdette per non aver saputo piegarsi—
AUFIDIUS	Di questo volevo parlare. Bandito per ciò, venne al mio focolare, offrì al mio coltello la sua gola. Io lo accolsi, lo feci mio pari nel comando, gli concessi tutti i suoi desideri; anzi, gli lasciai scegliere fra le mie file, per compiere i suoi progetti, i miei uomini migliori e più freschi; servii i suoi disegni di persona, contribuii a mietere la fama che egli fece tutta sua, e provai perfino orgoglio a farmi questo torto, finché alla fine parvi un suo seguace, non un socio, ed egli mi pagava con la sua benevolenza come se io fossi stato un mercenario.
PRIMO CONGIURATO	Così fece, mio signore. L’esercito se ne meravigliò, e alla fine, quando ebbe conquistato Roma e ci attendevamo bottino non minore della gloria—
AUFIDIUS	Fu proprio lì, e per questo i miei nervi si tenderanno contro di lui. Per poche gocce di rugiada femminile, che valgono quanto le menzogne, egli vendette il sangue e la fatica della nostra grande impresa; perciò morirà, e io mi rinnoverò nella sua caduta.
(didascalia)	Suonano tamburi e trombe, con grandi grida del popolo
AUFIDIUS	Ma udite.
PRIMO CONGIURATO	Nella vostra città natale siete entrato come un corriere, e non aveste alcun benvenuto a casa; ma egli torna squarciando l’aria di clamore.
SECONDO CONGIURATO	E sciocchi pazienti, di cui egli ha ucciso i figli, si lacerano le vili gole per dargli gloria.
TERZO CONGIURATO	Perciò, al vostro momento propizio, prima che egli si spieghi o commuova il popolo con ciò che vorrà dire, gli faccia sentire la vostra spada, che noi seconderemo. Quando giacerà lungo disteso, il suo racconto pronunciato a modo vostro seppellirà le sue ragioni col suo corpo.
(didascalia)	Entrano i Signori della città
AUFIDIUS	Non dite altro. Ecco i signori.
TUTTI I SIGNORI	Siate il benvenuto a casa.
AUFIDIUS	Non l’ho meritato. Ma, degni signori, avete letto con attenzione ciò che vi ho scritto?
TUTTI I SIGNORI	L’abbiamo letto.
PRIMO SIGNORE	E ci duole udirlo. Quali colpe egli abbia commesso prima dell’ultima, credo avrebbero potuto trovare lievi ammende. Ma finire là dove doveva cominciare, e gettar via il frutto delle nostre leve, ripagandoci con le nostre stesse spese, facendo un trattato dove c’era una resa—questo non ammette scusa.
AUFIDIUS	Si avvicina. Lo ascolterete.
(didascalia)	Entra Coriolanus marciando con tamburo e insegne, con lui i Popolani
CORIOLANUS	Salve, signori! Sono tornato vostro soldato, non più infetto d’amore per il mio paese di quando partii di qui, ma sempre sussistente sotto il vostro grande comando. Dovete sapere che ho tentato con successo, e con sanguinoso cammino ho condotto le vostre guerre fino alle porte di Roma. Il bottino che abbiamo portato a casa controbilancia più d’un pieno terzo le spese dell’impresa. Abbiamo fatto la pace con non minore onore per gli Anziati che vergogna per i Romani. E qui consegniamo, sottoscritto dai consoli e dai patrizi, insieme al sigillo del senato, ciò che abbiamo pattuito. Dà ai Signori un foglio
AUFIDIUS	Non leggetelo, nobili signori, ma dite al traditore che al più alto grado egli ha abusato dei vostri poteri.
CORIOLANUS	Traditore? Che c’è ora?
AUFIDIUS	Sì, traditore, Marzio.
CORIOLANUS	Marzio?
AUFIDIUS	Sì, Marzio, Caio Marzio. Credi tu ch’io ti onorerò con quella rapina, col tuo nome rubato, «Coriolanus», qui in Corioli? Voi signori e capi dello stato, perfidamente egli ha tradito la vostra impresa, e ha ceduto, per certe gocce salate, la vostra città, Roma— dico la vostra città—a sua moglie e a sua madre, spezzando il giuramento e la risoluzione come un filo di seta marcia, senza mai ammettere consiglio di guerra. Ma alle lacrime della sua balia egli guaì e ruggì via la vostra vittoria, tanto che i paggi arrossirono di lui, e gli uomini di cuore si guardarono l’un l’altro stupiti.
CORIOLANUS	Odi tu, Marte?
AUFIDIUS	Non nominare il dio, tu ragazzo di lacrime.
CORIOLANUS	Ah?
AUFIDIUS	Non altro.
CORIOLANUS	Bugiardo smisurato, tu hai reso il mio cuore troppo grande per ciò che lo contiene. «Ragazzo»? O schiavo!— Perdonatemi, signori, è la prima volta che mai sono stato costretto a inveire. I vostri giudizi, gravi signori miei, devono dare a questo cane del bugiardo, e la sua stessa coscienza— lui che porta impresse su di sé le mie staffilate, e che dovrà portare le mie botte fino alla tomba—si unirà a cacciargli in gola la menzogna.
PRIMO SIGNORE	Pace entrambi, e ascoltatemi parlare.
CORIOLANUS	Fatemi a pezzi, Volsci. Uomini e ragazzi, macchiate su di me tutte le vostre lame. «Ragazzo»! Falso segugio, se avete scritto veritieri i vostri annali, sta là scritto che, come un’aquila in una colombaia, io feci svolazzare i vostri Volsci in Corioli. Solo io lo feci. «Ragazzo»!
AUFIDIUS	Ebbene, nobili signori, vi lascerete rammentare la sua cieca fortuna, che fu la vostra vergogna, da questo empio millantatore, davanti ai vostri stessi occhi e orecchi?
TUTTI I CONGIURATI	Che muoia per questo.
(didascalia)	TUTTO IL POPOLO gridando in modo sparso
TUTTI I CONGIURATI	Fatelo a pezzi! Fatelo subito! Ha ucciso mio figlio! Mia figlia! Ha ucciso mio cugino Marco! Ha ucciso mio padre!
SECONDO SIGNORE	Pace, olà! Nessuna violenza, pace. Quest’uomo è nobile, e la sua fama avvolge questo globo terrestre. Le sue ultime offese verso di noi avranno giudiziosa udienza. Fermo, Aufidius, e non turbare la pace.
(didascalia)	CORIOLANUS sguainando la spada
SECONDO SIGNORE	Oh, l’avessi qui con sei Aufidii, o più, tutta la sua tribù, per usare la mia legittima spada!
(didascalia)	AUFIDIUS sguainando la spada
SECONDO SIGNORE	Insolente scellerato!
TUTTI I CONGIURATI	Uccidi, uccidi, uccidi, uccidi, uccidilo!
(didascalia)	Due Congiurati sguainano e uccidono Marzio, che cade. Aufidius e i Congiurati gli stanno sopra
SIGNORI	Fermi, fermi, fermi, fermi!
AUFIDIUS	Miei nobili padroni, ascoltatemi parlare.
PRIMO SIGNORE	O Tullo!
SECONDO SIGNORE	(a Aufidius) Hai compiuto un’azione per cui il Valore piangerà.
(didascalia)	TERZO SIGNORE a Aufidius e ai Congiurati
SECONDO SIGNORE	Non calpestatelo, padroni. State tutti quieti. Rinfoderate le spade.
AUFIDIUS	Miei signori, quando saprete—cosa che in questa rabbia da lui provocata non potete—il grande pericolo che la vita di quest’uomo vi faceva correre, vi rallegrerete ch’egli sia stato così stroncato. Se piaccia alle vostre signorie chiamarmi al vostro senato, mi dichiarerò vostro leale servitore, o sopporterò la vostra più grave censura.
PRIMO SIGNORE	Portate via di qui il suo corpo, e piangetelo. Sia egli riguardato come la più nobile salma che mai araldo abbia seguito alla sua urna.
SECONDO SIGNORE	La sua stessa impazienza toglie ad Aufidius gran parte della colpa. Facciamone il meglio.
AUFIDIUS	La mia rabbia è passata, e sono colpito dal dolore. Sollevatelo. Aiutino tre dei soldati più ragguardevoli; io sarò uno di essi. Batti tu il tamburo, che parli lugubremente. Trascinate a terra le picche d’acciaio. Benché in questa città egli abbia reso vedove e senza figli molte persone, che fino a quest’ora ne lamentano l’offesa, pure avrà una nobile memoria. Aiutatemi. Suona una marcia funebre. Escono portando il corpo di Marzio