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.

Exeunt

5.1 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