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

Enter an Aedile

Let him be apprehended.

SICINIUS

Go call the people,

⌈Exit Aedile

(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!

ALL ⌈THE PATRICIANS⌉

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.